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0077 Memoir on Maps of Chinese Turkistan and Kansu : vol.1
Memoir on Maps of Chinese Turkistan and Kansu : vol.1 / Page 77 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000215
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CHAPTER III

THE MAPS

Section I.—COMPILATION OF MAPS

The preparation of the present maps was commenced in 1916, after a brief visit paid
by me to the Trigonometrical Survey Office, Dehra Dūn, on my return from the third
expedition in March of that year, had allowed the main lines of the work to be settled with the
approval of the Surveyor General. My deputation to England immediately thereafter for
work on the archæological results of my journeys prevented me from being consulted with
regard to details, while the work of compilation was being pushed on in 1916-17 with
commendable rapidity under the direction of Colonels G. A. Beazeley, H. H. Turner and
R. A. Wauhope, R.E., successively in charge of No. 2 Drawing Office. Notwithstanding
the serious difficulties arising from war conditions it had by the close of 1916, progressed
sufficiently far to permit the fair drawing of certain sheets to be begun. My return to India
in the autumn of 1917 fortunately rendered it possible for me to revise each sheet in the
original drawing and subsequently to pass it in proofs through the successive stages of
reproduction.

The magnitude of the work involved is indicated by the fact that the section of No. 2
Drawing Office engaged on these maps during the years 1917-19
Drawing of maps. comprised on the average fifteen draftsmen under the supervision of one
officer of the Provincial Service and of two of the Upper Subordinate
Service. The assistance of R.B. Lāl Singh was assured from the start until his retirement
in August, 1919, and his personal knowledge of much of the ground proved of great value.
Similarly very helpful was the continued supervision of the drawing work by M. Karim
Bakhsh, Head Draftsman, who since 1901 had taken a share in the cartographical work
resulting from our surveys. The drawing and reproduction work was not completed until
1922, having been carried on since the spring of 1919 under the direction of Major F. J. M.
King, R.E., in joint charge of No. 2 Drawing and Photo-Zineo Offices, Dehra Dūn, to whose
constant care the technical execution of the maps owes much.

The main basis for the compilation of the maps was provided by the series of triang-
ulations and of astronomically observed latitudes brought back from
Triangulation results. the three journeys and worked up by the Computing Office, Dehra Dūn.
In Appendix A, Major K. Mason, M.C., R.E., has been kind enough
to record a summary of needful information concerning the character and extent of the several
triangulation series and the methods of computation employed, together with a list of
latitudes, longitudes, and heights for all triangulation stations and points. There, too, an
explanation has been furnished of the circumstances which at the time of compilation caused
some stations and points derived from R. B. Lal Singh's triangulation on the third journey
to be inserted in the maps with values different from those which were finally adopted in 1921
after careful re-consideration of the computation work. The whole of the triangulation of
the three journeys has been shown in a series of charts accompanying Major Mason's
Appendix.

A complete list of astronomically determined latitudes will be found in the Notes of
Chapter iv dealing separately with each sheet. There, too, I have
Extraneous materials furnished a summary of the information which the Drawing Office has
used.
recorded as to the methods and materials used in the compilation of
each sheet. Special mention has been made there of all instances where it had been consi-
dered advisable in the compilation to utilize latitudes and longitudes of particular places
derived from the observations of other travellers or in some cases taken from previously
published maps. Among such extraneous materials the following deserve special mention;
the series of chronometrically determined longitudes which Mr. C. Clementi obtained on his