[MCLEOD] A TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY FOR CANADA 6 



would, if properly directed, prove in a very few years to be an actual 

 economy. 



There is now an immediate and pressing need for a triangulation 

 survey of the highest order of accuracy, in conjunction with astronomi- 

 cally determined positions, and a system of precision levels, in the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence and the Maritime provinces. This is required, not 

 only as a proper framework upon which to base the operations of our 

 tidal survey, but also to unite with that survey, the various portions of 

 the hydrographical surveys in progress from time to time under the 

 direction of the officers of Her Majest/s surveying ships. 



It is a fact, though not one that has been dwelt upon, notwith- 

 standing the many unexplained shipwrecks which have occurred there, 

 that there is no point in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, or indeed anywhere 

 upon our Atlantic sea-board, of which the longitude is known with even 

 approximate accuracy. In any survey of a coast line, it is certainly of 

 prime importance to fix the precise geographical position of that line ; 

 and until this is done, knowledge of detail, however extensive and accu- 

 rate, cannot be fully utilized. 



The commercial advantages of such a work as this will be at once 

 recognized, even by those who do not see eye' to eye with us in scientific 

 affairs. It will also afford an illustration of how readily the purely 

 practical may be made to serve the highest scientific ends. The main 

 chain of this triangulation would naturally form an extension of the 

 oblique arc near the Atlantic sea-board of the United States, which 

 could thus be advantageously continued in Canadian territory for a dis- 

 tance of over 500 miles. It is this arc to which Professor Pritchett 

 made reference as being of special importance in connection with the 

 determination of the spheroid best adapted to the North American con- 

 tinent. 



What has been said with regard to the Atlantic coast applies with 

 the same force to our Pacific coast, and there also connection would 

 naturally be made with the United States system. The triangulation 

 along the proposed central meridian arc would well serve to fix points 

 of departure for the land surveys of Manitoba and westwards ; and the 

 admirable topographical work now in progress in our mountain ranges 

 would be readily connected with the Pacific Coast range series. In 

 fact, situated as we are in relation to the United States, our systems 

 of triangulation should be connected with theirs all along our southern 

 boundary, and the work of the two countries would, from a scientific 

 point, be one. 



With the arc along the 39th degree of latitude now completed from 

 coast to coast, may we in the North not hope that in the not far distant 



