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400 The Leader and Saturday AnaMfst. [Ap...
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THE GEOLOGICAL SUBVEY OP INDIA.* IT is a...
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* Memoirs of tho Qoolaqiaal 8\irvoy of I...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Shall To-*!/Sayj5rs Have A Statue?. Rjni...
words of Theocbittts in preference to those of the editor of Bell ' s Life , or even Mr . Woo © , " a great struggle ^ rose to them . For two hoursand a quarter this struggle lasted * Sayebs being felled : to the earth six times during that period , Heenan receiving in return a succession of blows in the face which , at the last round , Jeft him all but blind . Six times , then , has our Tom been struck down by blows such as a butcher inflicts upon a bullock m the slaughter-house . Before many rounds are over he has lost the use of his right hand ; and at length , when he escapes from the grasp of his giant antagonist trying to strangle him against the ropes , he skips to his feet , smiles to his friends , and walks off briskly to meet the train as if nothing had happened . ' _ Next day , the world resounds with the fame of the valiant lost Sayebs . Next day , the guardian of England ' s pugilistic honour walks down to the office of Bell ' s Life , exhibiting scarcely any traces of " punishment , " his progress through the streets being like that of a victor of antiquity entering- the Capitol laden with the spoils of conquered nations . And now the Hosier ot the Times , having done his three columns of prose epic , the great oracle himself speaks as an oracle should speak , m doubloleaded bourgeois , and says , relative to warlike contention m general , that at the Battle of Farnbofough Sayebs and Heenan exhibited " qualities which make nations and individuals great . Then follows a supplementary epic from Homeb , correcting former Inaccuracies and giving the latest particulars . Letters , which , on ordinary occasions , would have been addressed to Bell ' s Life ,. find their way to Printing-house Square , and are decreed a prominent place in the leading journal . Distant Liverpool begins to throb with sympathetic enthusiasm , and sends Tom a , present of eighty guineas . The City of London follows suit , and Toar is invited to receive the freedom of the Stock Exchange and a purse of a hundred sovereigns . Tpai rolls into the City in a brougham , is cheered all slung- his course , and no sooner does he appear on 'Change than business in stocks , bonds , shares , and per cents ., immediately comes to a standstill . / The' brokers * with Sir Robert Garden the virtuous at their head , leave their desks ancV counters and throng round Toil ; , who , standing on . a table in their , midst , is so overcome by his feelings , that he can only nod his thanks . Meantime , some tons of newspapers . have been despatched to carry the news of Tom's exploits to the end of the earth . The Home Secbetaby has beeii asked in the Imperial House of Parliament to give official information of the hero ' s doings , putting to the blush the Statesman and poe t * who is busying himself with his papers and pretending not to hear . Classical idlers in the Council Office and elsewhere are hunting through Theockitus for parallels , while the public in general are rushing to buy the . SA"srJEKs ' handkerchief , issued by Tom himself . at a guinea apiece . The latest intelligence is that Tom ' s friends and admirers are building him a house and raising the funds to buy him an annuity . Shall we stop short here ? Wellington made his triumphal entry , was presented with the freedom of the city , with the house , and with an annuity . But he was also set up in effigy at the Royal Exchange ( near where Tom Sayebs was set upon the table ) , and on the top of the arch at Hyde P . uric Corner . We have no wish to see our champion taking equestrian exercise on the top of an arch , or sitting in the rain with his hat off ; but still we must ask , shall lie not have a statue ? We do not . see how this honour can be refused to him . He has fought a battle which , for the fierceness of the contention , and the odds against which he had to contend , is universally acknowledged to be without parallel in history ; lie has exhibited , " qualities which make notions and individuals great ; " he has received the commendations of Sir Robert Garden and the Stook Exchange ; he has been talked about in Parliament , patronised by the np . bili . ty , the press , and the pulpit , and applauded by tho voice of the nation . Again we must ask , shall Tom Sayebs have a statue P There is but one reply . Decidedly : that settled , it only remains to decide in what form ho shall bo represented . Stripped in a fighting attitude , or arrayed in that elegant surtolit with the velvet collar P The material , granite , of course . Tho site ? On that empty pedestal in Waterloopluce . Or shall he bo one of tho lions which have been so Ion . ? promised for the base of Nelson ' s column in Trafalgar-square ? Wo mutter — and without any wish to disparage the courage and prowess of the Bbnioia Boy—Tom Sayebs must have a statue .
the mineral wealth which has made our own country what it is , and elevated it to the very pinnacle of commercialprosperity , has anyCounterpart in India . The gems of that country glow in song and flash ia fable , the diamonds that return the . burning beams of the sun , the rubies that redden with a deeper hue and a ruddier fire , — all these things seem rather to belong to the regions of fancy than to those of fact * and hence we cherish dreamy notion * of India ' s gems , never conceiving that their localities and geological ffltes are fit subjects for scientific research . More than all gems to that far country are coal and iron , the useful minerals and metals , and yet of these little or nothing has hitherto been learnt except from the contributions of a few superior minds to such publications as the Asiatic JResearches and the Geographical \ Journal , and one or two Indian periodicals . Some excuse for this backwardness may be found , in the peculiar difficulties of the work itself . Geological surveying , in a temperate climate like pur own , is by no means an unpleasant : occupation . Mountain air , hill-side tents , magnificent scenery , pleasant days , country inns , a reputation among the natives for extraordinary wisdom , an occasional invitation to a squire ' s house , delightful rambles along ridge and valley , and recreative excursions . to hunt for fossils and minerals , are all agreeable enough eyeii at one ' s own expense , but doubly agreeable when the nation pays all one ' s expenses , ; arid a salary to boot . We ourselves have surveyed geologically for weeks , ; and thought ourselves happy even when emptied of all coin sooner than we had expected ; but upon the Govern men t geological surveyors we have ever looked with humble admiration and pardonable envy , as men whom fortune had placed upon , a pinnacle of prosperity , as men who were highly paid for imbibing fresh air , finding fresh fossils , looking daily on fresh faces , and gazing serenely eyerjr week on . fresh scenes .. and pastures hew . A very different picture must be painted of Indian geological surveying . . Burning beams are ready to greet the surveyor when he takes the field . Fatigue and extreme lassitude are his constant attendants in the hot season . Deluges of iain may pour down upon him in other seasons , and . floods and inundations ^ such as we never witness iii our quieter lands , may roll over his district and destroy landmarks and surveyor ' s marks under a . waste of . waters . Mr . Oldham , the superintendent of the survey , speaks feelingly of the difficulties . and serious losses which he has had to contend with from natural and climatal causes . In his brief Annual Report he announces the sad defections made by death in his small staff during the preceding trying season . In twelve months three assistants , one of long-tried experience arid skill , and another of high pro rinse , and partially trained , have been lost , One " attached to the party working in Madras was struck down by sun-stroke just at the close of last year ; Mr . Child was carried off by cholera in Calcutta in June ; and Mr . W . Iv . Loftus left for England ; in November , as the last chance of recovery from a very serious attack of abscess in the liver , but only survived for little more than a week . " A melancholy report this to render , and equally so is the reporter ' s retrospect and prospect , according to his own wiew ; " For , " says he , "I need scarcely insist upon what must be obvious , that the loss of nearly one-third of the whole staff of geological surveyors must have most seriously impeded pur progress . It is seldom possible to meet with persons qualified to supply such vacancies immediately . After all the preliminary delay in ' selectipiv , & c ., there is still a considerable amount of training before any newly-appoiijted assistant can become really useful . In reality , in every such case , the total loss of the services of an assistant for a wholeyear may be calculated on , besides the delay to others from having to go over the same tedious process ofinstruction with new hands . The real delay , therefore , during the past year to our progress , caused by . the deeply regretted loss of these my colleagues , has been equivalent to the , , loss ofthe entire work of nearly one-third of the whole survey establishment for a year . " „' . _ ' . .. .. ¦ , "
To such discouragements as these , arising Put or a small ana . suddenly reduced staff , we must add the natural and necessary difficulties met with in the operations of this survey . Few or no mines have been opened from which tho surveyors may judge with safety as respects the prospect Pf opening others in the same country . Few or no quarries are worked , when it wpuld bq very desirable to ascertain by such excavations the nature and tho contents of tho rpeks j nov do even roads exist , by the sides and banks of which the strata might be known . In all such districts , and they are tho greater number , all geological reasoning must preceed upon h brpaa scab , and niceties pf , description and distincticn ,. either in ppsitipn or structure , must not be expected . Fpr a very larige portion of the country np maps whatever exist , and such maps aij are available fer other parts are but rude upprpximatipns even in the ppsitipn ot important points , while they are altogether wanting in detail . Only lately , too , have efficient libraries of reference , and collections of specimens for comparison , been instituted . Surveyprs , therefore ,, set dpwn in such a country , might fairly bo , excused for desponding undor their respensibility , and doubting 1 whether they were not sent forth into a wilderness to feed on locusts and wild honey , rather than to survey a chief colony pf our empire , It is essential tP bear all these circumstances in mind when wo oast our eyes upon the Index Map to the Government vdtlastf Jn $ ia , wherein are seen five er six email cplpured patches , which represent the areas already mapped , repeited on , and published . A few spmewhat larger patches represent areas the maps and reports Qt which nro npw in tho press ; but , tho entire cclpurod portiqus seem so comparatively small that tho necessary inforencp jb- ^ uw geological survey of India has yet to be accomplished j arid it might bo fairly and veypectfuUy proposed tp dofor all ohimerical schemes , for the ecclesiastical improvement of India Until wo have ari'ivea ft . ¦ ¦ ¦ * ' |
400 The Leader And Saturday Anamfst. [Ap...
400 The Leader and Saturday AnaMfst . [ April 28 , I 860 .
The Geological Subvey Op India.* It Is A...
THE GEOLOGICAL SUBVEY OP INDIA . * IT is a remarkable and melancholy prcpf of pur national insensibility to the importance and value of our Indian JEmpire , that a geological survey of that vast cpuntry ia only now in its enrly stages , and that wo have only this day tho first volume of its Memoirs in pur hands , Still further , the existence and procedure of such a survey are scarcely known , and even old Indians avo , in most instances , unacquainted with them , and in some quite ignorant pf them . We are presented with narratives and incidents of tho mutiny xtsove ad nauseam , as well as with pamphlets and projects for restoring and reanimating our sovereignty , fov founding bishoprics and building 1 memorial churches , and establishing schools and endowing- tho clergy . Yet one of the most obvious scientific operations hap long been practically ignored , and wo are only now beginning 1 to ascertain whether
* Memoirs Of Tho Qoolaqiaal 8\Irvoy Of I...
* Memoirs of tho Qoolaqiaal 8 \ irvoy of India . Vol . I . Published \> y Order of the flight Ijfonourublo the Governor-General of India , In Council . Calcutta ; Printed for tho Government of India . London : Williams mvX Norgute . 1800 , Antfual Jfonort qftho Superintendent c ( f tho Gfcalo / ilcal Survey qf X »( li < i , and Dirootor vf tho Geoloytval Museum , Calcutta , 1858-00 . . m
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 28, 1860, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28041860/page/12/
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