DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15172#0225
190
NOTICE REGARDING
of the undertaking may be imagined, when I state that
my field books exhibit, on an average, twenty bearings
each day from sunrise to sunset. I was early enabled
to rate the progress of the boats through the water, by
timing them on a measured line along the bank, and
apportioned the distance to the hours and minutes
accordingly. We could advance, I found, by tracking,
or being pulled by men, at one mile and a half an hour ;
by gentle and favourable breezes at two miles, and by
violent winds at three miles an hour; while any great
excess or deficiency was pointed out by the latitude of
the halting place.
The base on which the work rests, is the towns of
Mandivee and Curachee : the one a seaport in Cutch,
and the point from which the mission started ; the other
a harbour in sight of the western mouth of the Indus,
which we saw before entering the river. Mandivee
stands in the latitude of 22° 50'; and Curachee, in
24° 56' north ; while their longitudes are respectively
in 69° 34', and 67° 19' east, as fixed, in 1809, from
the chronometers of the Sinde mission by Captain Max-
field.
Assuming these points as correct, the line of coast
intermediate to them has been laid down from my own
surveys in Cutch ; while that of Sinde rests on observ-
ations of the sun's altitude at noon and the boat's daily
progress, determined by heaving the log hourly. We
sailed only during the day, and at all times along shore,
often in a small boat, and were attended by six or eight
pilots, who had passed their lives in the navigation of
these parts.
The great difference in the topography of the mouths
of the Indus, from what is shown in all other maps,
will no doubt arrest attention ; but it is to be remarked,
that I call in question no former survey, since the river
has been hitherto laid down in this part of its course
from native information; and I can bear testimony to
NOTICE REGARDING
of the undertaking may be imagined, when I state that
my field books exhibit, on an average, twenty bearings
each day from sunrise to sunset. I was early enabled
to rate the progress of the boats through the water, by
timing them on a measured line along the bank, and
apportioned the distance to the hours and minutes
accordingly. We could advance, I found, by tracking,
or being pulled by men, at one mile and a half an hour ;
by gentle and favourable breezes at two miles, and by
violent winds at three miles an hour; while any great
excess or deficiency was pointed out by the latitude of
the halting place.
The base on which the work rests, is the towns of
Mandivee and Curachee : the one a seaport in Cutch,
and the point from which the mission started ; the other
a harbour in sight of the western mouth of the Indus,
which we saw before entering the river. Mandivee
stands in the latitude of 22° 50'; and Curachee, in
24° 56' north ; while their longitudes are respectively
in 69° 34', and 67° 19' east, as fixed, in 1809, from
the chronometers of the Sinde mission by Captain Max-
field.
Assuming these points as correct, the line of coast
intermediate to them has been laid down from my own
surveys in Cutch ; while that of Sinde rests on observ-
ations of the sun's altitude at noon and the boat's daily
progress, determined by heaving the log hourly. We
sailed only during the day, and at all times along shore,
often in a small boat, and were attended by six or eight
pilots, who had passed their lives in the navigation of
these parts.
The great difference in the topography of the mouths
of the Indus, from what is shown in all other maps,
will no doubt arrest attention ; but it is to be remarked,
that I call in question no former survey, since the river
has been hitherto laid down in this part of its course
from native information; and I can bear testimony to