The Journals of the First Surveyor-General of India ¹

Abstract

IN 1906 Sir Rennell Rodd, G.C.V.O., now British Ambassador at Rome, presented to the Victoria Memorial Collection at Calcutta a small quarto volume containing the journal of his great-grandfather, Major James Rennell, F.R.S., which covered a portion of the period which he spent in India. The present editor, Mr. T. H. D. La Touche, was desired by the Director of the Geological Survey of India to see whether it contained anything of geological interest, but though such information is wanting except in so far as striking and important changes have taken place in the courses of rivers in Bengal since Rennell's surveys, the journal is of the highest interest for its careful and precise account of the physical aspects of the country, its climate, crops, communications, &c.