THE PROGRESS OF GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE. 861 



still further relinements to l)e introduced into those factors which we 

 dail}' use for the reduction of our terrestial observations ere we obtain 

 perfect mathematical exactness (if we ever attain it) in our results; 

 and we still must look to the processes of geodesy to gi\'e us that back- 

 bone, that main axis of indi,sputal)le values from which our network of 

 trianoulations may spread durino- the tirst steps in ocog-raphical map 

 making-. To a certain extent geodes>' is the support of technical 

 geography, and a short inquiry into its present conditions of existence 

 ma}" not be out of place. 



It is to North America that we must now turn for instruction in the 

 latest development of the science, and to South Africa that we nmst 

 look for its future application. Russia has not lost sight of the 

 necessity imposed on her for an extension of her magniticent Europeon 

 geodetic system through the vast l)readth of her Asiatic possessions, 

 but we ourselves in India are concerned nowadays rather with scientific 

 observations on collateral lines, and with the collating and perfecting 

 of the results attained by the great achievements of past 3'ears, than 

 with any developments in fresh fields of geodetic triangulation. 

 Germany and France, ever alert where colonial interests are concerned, 

 are busy in Africa, but I am not prepared to say how far their geo- 

 graphical efforts are based on the strict principles of geodesy. 



In North America, along the meridian of 1)8 through Texas, 

 Kansas, and Nebraska, geodetic triangulation still forms one of the 

 most prominent schemes of modern work undertaken ])y the Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey, and in South Africa thei'e is growing northward 

 into the Transvaal slowly, but we hope surely, the framework of a 

 gigantic arc which one day will be extended by Sir David Gill from 

 the Cape to Cairo. 



I am anxious to impress on you that the science of geodesy is not a 

 science of the past. It is still active, and with all its refinements of 

 minute accuracy and exact precision in ol)servation and in calculation 

 it shoidd be the initial mainstay, and it must be the final court of 

 appeal, as it were, for all those less rigorously conducted surveys of 

 the reconnaissance and exploration class which we term geographical. 



But this accurate framework, this rigorously exact line of i)recise 

 values which ultimately becomes the l)ackbone of an otherwise inverte- 

 brate survey anatomy, is painfully slow in its progress, and it is 

 usually haunted by the bogey of finance. It does not appeal to the 

 imagination like an Antarctic expedition, although it may lead to far 

 more solid results, and it generally has to sue in forma pauperis to 

 government for its support. 



