26 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



India and South Africa (see below) . On the other hand, there are 

 instances where the lack of adequate topographical data has led 

 to unnecessary expenditure. In the Gold Coast, for example, the 

 railway from Sekondi to Kumasi, which was constructed at the 

 end of the last century without full topographical knowledge, had 

 to be realigned in 1922 and subsequent years at a cost of some 

 ^2,000,000. In Kenya, Uganda, and the Rhodesias, some railways 

 have had to be realigned, while in others the cost of operation is 

 unduly high. Numerous instances could be selected where roads 

 have had to be realigned at heavy expense for the same reasons. 



The case for the comparatively small expenditure on funda- 

 mental surveys was well put in 1933 by Brigadier Winterbotham, 

 until lately Director General of the Ordnance Survey: 'The geo- 

 detic triangulation of a country is not only the guarantee of the 

 accuracy of surveys — it is an undertaking which cheapens as well 

 as co-ordinates, all other surveys. It is the first step in reHeving 

 the property surveyor from a reiteration of patchwork triangula- 

 tion and traverse. It sets a term to perpetual revision and recompu- 

 tation. It is at once a real practical economy and a contribution 

 to general knowledge conceded everywhere as a duty to scientific 

 development.' 



In his Presidential Address to the Geographical Section of the 

 British Association in 1936 Brigadier Winterbotham pointed out 

 that passages could be quoted from eminent administrators, 

 engineers and scientists of all kinds stressing the necessity of good 

 maps for development, and yet in many parts of Africa the maps 

 available do not even show main roads correctly. 



In this connection it is instructive to contrast the history of 

 survey work in India and in Africa. In India a framework of 

 major triangulation was completed early as a basis for all subse- 

 quent work. Systematic topographical and finally cadastral sur- 

 veys followed. In Africa north of Southern Rhodesia, we have so 

 far only one chain of primary triangulation, the 30th meridian, 

 of which several stages are still incomplete. The difference is 

 clearly attributable in part to the greater difficulties of the work 

 in Africa with its sparse population and great areas of undeveloped 

 country. 



The topographical data which would be desirable include detail 



