396 REPORT— 1901. 



TJie Survey of British rrotedorates. — Report of the Committee, co-w- 

 sisting of Sir T. H. HoLDlCH (Chairman), Col. G. E. Church, 

 Mr. E. G. Ravenstein, and Mr. H. N. Dickson (Secretary), 

 appointed to draw tip a Scheme fur the Survey of British 

 Protectorates. 



Your Committee are of opinion that a representation should be suljmitted 

 to His Majesty's Government in support of an organised scheme for sur- 

 veying British Protectorates in Africa, and that it would be advantageous 

 to secure the co-operation of the Royal Geographical Society, and of other 

 bodies unconnected with Government who may be specially interested in 

 the matter, in bringing forward their proposals. At present, various sur- 

 veys have been commenced in different parts of Africa under local 

 administrations, which are unconnected with each other and have appa- 

 rently no common basis of technical system or scale, from which it will be 

 difficult eventually to compile a satisfactory and homogeneous first map 

 of our African possessions. A large amount of geographical work, 

 ■carried on more or less under the auspices of the Royal Geographical 

 Society, is gradually accumulating, all of which might be usefully turned 

 to account in a general survey scheme, if uniformity of method and scale 

 were adopted. A comprehensive scheme of geographical survey (apart 

 from special surveys for local requirements), to be carried out jointly with 

 other nationalities in the continent of Africa, will undoubtedly prove a 

 necessity in the near future for purposes of boundary demarcation and 

 administration ; but such a scheme must emanate from those responsible 

 advisers of Government who are best acquainted with the opportunities 

 for combined action and the means for carrying it out. 



But, pending the adoption of such a scheme, and with due apprecia- 

 tion of the value of the disjointed efforts which are now being made to 

 secure partial surveys for administrative purposes in various parts of the 

 country, your Committee are of opinion that the following considerations, 

 none of which involve immediate financial outlay, should be especially 

 brought to the notice of His Majesty's Government ; inasmuch as 

 'Immediate attention to them would undoubtedly tend to hasten the 

 attainment of the end primarily in view — viz., the construction of a 

 homogeneous and consistent geographical map of that part of Africa 

 which affects Imperial interests. 



(1) The advantage of a common scale should be impressed on local 

 administrations who have already commenced surveys within the pro- 

 tectorates under their administration, and every effort should be made in 

 the first instance to secure a general map on the smallest geographical 

 .■scale which can be made practically useful for purposes of either adminis- 

 tration or strategy. This scale should not be less than one in 

 five hundred thousand. 



(2) Inasmuch as all future surveys, on whatsoever scale, must ulti- 

 mately depend on the accuracy of the initial base measurements if they 

 are to fit together into one homogeneous map, it is most desirable to draw 

 the attention of local administrators to this point ; and, wherever local 

 surveys have already been commenced, to test the accuracy of their linear 

 measurements by the adoption of a geodetic base. Such a base need not 

 be measured by the cumbersome processes which have made the measure- 

 ment of geodetic bases so laborious and expensive in the past. New 



