Page:Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 1.djvu/373

1832.] -Surveyor General to the Supreme Government. The reputation of this officer stands already too high to be affected by any commenda- tions we might bestow upon the works he has produced. We look upon the charts as complete models in their kind, knowing them to be constructed with a care and a regard to scientific accuracy, cre- ditable alike to himself, and to the Government, which approving his cautious methods, leaves him to prosecute his surveys as his own good sense may suggest, unembarrassed by minute instructions, and with merely the locality and direction of his investigations indicated before- hand. The result is, that charts are annually produced, which con- vert tracts of complete terra incognita, or coasts roughly laid down from the loose bearings and observations of casual voyages, into lines of accurately defined and well delineated shore, with the mountains and highlands, the bays and harbours, the rivers and watering places, and all the towns or villages, within observation from the sea, correctly set down. Each of these charts is a new acquisition to geography, quite independent of the service done to navigation by laying down the real position and bearings of dangers, visible or hidden ; and by enabling every nautical man, on approaching the coast surveyed, to know for certain where he is, and what course he should steer in pro- secution of the voyage he has in hand.

A coast once laid down by the accurate methods pursued by Captain Ross, needs never to be surveyed a second time. Future investigators may complete what from circumstances may have been left by him imperfect. They may add a few new lines of soundings, but they will find nothing to find fault with or to require correction. Indeed, the confidence with which practical navigators, when once they come upon the ground included in his surveys, follow boldly his directions, and shape their course at pleasure, in the most intricate passages, is both a compliment to his industry and professional skill, and a proof of his well-earned reputation in the department.

Captain Ross was, we believe, first employed in surveying various portions of the China Seas, under the orders of the Court of Directors, issued as far back as in the year 1806. These surveys occupied him 14 years, and embraced all the most prominent dangers of the frequented passages of navigation to and from China, and all the most important coasts of that empire. The charts were separately published, as they were completed, but the whole were afterwards incorporated in the General Chart published by the hydrographer of the Company; and which bears Mr. Horsburgh's name.