io6 



NATaRE 



[September 23, 191 5 



Descriptions there are from time to time, but these 

 are for' the most part weak and insufficient. Not only 

 is a technical description required, which treats fuJly 

 of both the optical and mechanical details, but we 

 need an extended series of observations with the in- 

 strument which have been made under the ordinary 

 conditions of practical work, and these must be 

 mathematically analysed, and the degree of the trust- 

 worthiness of the results clearly demonstrated. The 

 description should be equally thorough and complete, 

 including- scale drawings showing the construction of 

 the instrument as well as photographs of it. Nothing 

 less than this is of any use to the scientific carto- 

 grapher. 



In this country the early advances of British instru- 

 ment-makers of surveying instruments are far from 

 being adequately represented in our national 

 museum in a manner commensurate with their 

 importance. The keen and enlightened zeal of geo- 

 graphers who are interested in this branch of the 

 subject would doubtless quickly bring to light much 

 still remaining that is of great interest, but which is 

 yet unrecognised, while a closer attention to instru- 

 mental equipment would lead to improvements and 

 advances in the types that are now employed. There 

 is no modern work in this country on the development 

 of such instruments, and references to their history 

 are conspicuously rare in our journals, so that there is 

 here an opportunity for those whose duties prevent 

 them from undertaking travel or exploration of a 

 more ambitious kind. In the same way, those whose 

 opportunities of field work are few can find a promis- 

 ing- field of study in the early methods and practice 

 of surveying which have been discussed by many 

 authors from classical times onwards, and for which 

 a considerable amount of material exists. 



In geodesy and surveying of high precision there 

 is ample scope for all who are attracted by the mathe- 

 matical aspect of the subject ; the critical discussion 

 of the instruments and methods employed and results 

 obtained, both in this countrv and in other lands, 

 provides opportunity for much work of real value, 

 while its bearing" upon geology, seismology, etc., has 

 not yet been adequately treated here. The detailed 

 history of this part of our subject is to be found in 

 papers which have been published in the technical and 

 scientific journals of other countries for the most 

 part ; here too little attention has been given to the 

 subject, in spite of the large amount of geodetic work 

 which has been executed in the British Empire, and 

 which remains to be done in our Colonies and over- 

 seas Dominions. 



The final expression of the surveyor's detailed 

 measurements is found in the map, and the adequate 

 representation of any land surface on a map-sheet is 

 both a science and an art. Here we require addi- 

 tional work on all sides, for there is scarcely any 

 branch of geography which offers so remunerative a 

 field for activity as cartography. We need the co- 

 operation of trained geographers to study require- 

 ments, and to make acquaintance with the limits of 

 technical methods of reproduction, so that they may 

 be in a position to deal with many questions which 

 arise in the preparation of a map regarding the most 

 suitable mode of presentation of data, a matter which 

 is purely geographical, but which at the present time 

 is too often left to the skilled draugfhtsman. Neither 

 the compilation nor the reduction of maps is a rnerely 

 mechanical process. The first requires great skill 

 and care as well as technical knowledge and a sound 

 method of treatment if the various pieces of work, 

 which are brought together to make up the map of 

 any considerable area, are to be utilised according to 

 their true worth. This demands a competent know- 



NO. 2395, VOL. 96] 



ledge of the work which has been previously done on. 

 the region, a first-hand acquaintance with the data 

 collected by the earlier workers, and the critical ex- 

 amination of them in order that due weight may .be 

 given to the better material in the final result. This 

 is not a task to be handed over to the draughtsman, 

 who will mechanically incorporate the material as 

 though it were all of equal accuracy, or will adjust 

 discrepancies arbitrarily and not on any definite plan. 

 Such preliminary preparation of cartographical 

 material is a scientific operation which should be 

 carried out by scientific methods and should be com- 

 pleted before the work reaches the draughtsman, who 

 will then have but to introduce detail into. a network 

 of controls which has been prepared for him and of 

 which the accuracy at all points has been definitely 

 ascertained. Similarly in the second case the elimina- 

 tion of detail which must of necessity be omitted is 

 an operation needing- the greatest skill, a full under- 

 standing of the material available, and an adequate 

 appreciation of the result which is being aimed at, 

 such as is only to be found in a competent geographer 

 who has made himself intimately acquainted with all 

 the material which is available and has his critical 

 faculty fully developed. 



.'Ml these problems are well within the reach of the 

 geographer to whom the opportunity of travel in 

 other regions does not come, and in them he will find 

 ready to his hand a field of research which is well 

 worth working- and which will amply repay any 

 labour that is spent upon it. The same precise 

 methods of investigation which are employed in the 

 discussion of observations should be applied to all 

 cartographic material in order to ascertain the exact 

 standard of its trustworthiness, in which is included 

 not only the correctness of distance and direction, but 

 also the accuracy of the information which has been 

 incorporated in it ; and these may be brought to bear 

 also on those early maps of which so many are pre- 

 served in our libraries in this country. In this field 

 of study several investigators have already achieved 

 results of great interest and value, but I think 

 they will be ready to admit that there is here a wide 

 and profitable field of activity for many more workers 

 who will study closely these early maps and, not 

 being contented with verbal descriptions, will use 

 quantitative methods wherever these are possible. 



In the study of map projections some activity has 

 been visible in recent years, and we may hope that 

 those who have worked in this branch of the subject 

 will see that British geography is provided with a 

 comprehensive manual of this subject which will be 

 worthy of the vast importance of cartography to the 

 Empire. The selection of suitable projections is 

 receiving much more attention than was formerly 

 accorded to it, but the numbers of communications on 

 this subject which reach geographical journals are 

 few and far between. The subject is not one which 

 can appeal strongly to the amateur geographer, but 

 its importance renders it imperative that the scientific 

 geographer who realises its intimate bearing upon 

 all his work should so arrange that the matter does 

 not fall into the background on this account. 



But it may be suggested that the lack of activity in 

 mathematical geography is due to the somewhat 

 specialised nature of the subject, and to the fact that 

 the number of those who have received an adequate 

 mathematical training and are prepared to devote 

 themselves to geography is few. When we turn to 

 physical geog^raphy in its treatment of the land we 

 do find a field which has been more actively worked, 

 for this is just the one to which the traveller's and 

 explorer's observations should contribute most largely, 

 and where therefore their material should be utilised 



