TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 669 



Nebraska, geodetic triangulation still forms one of the most prominent schemes of 

 modern work undertaken by the Coast and Geodetic Survey; and in South Africa 

 there 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 geodeay is not a science of 

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

 and exact precision in observation and in calculation, it should 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 geograpbical. 



But this accurate framework, this rigorously exact line of precise values which 

 ultimately becomes the backbone of an otherwise invertebrate 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. 



Geographical Surveys. 



And thus it happens that long before the tedious and expensive processes which 

 are involved in the term geodetic triangulation can possibly be carried to an effective 

 end the cry goes up for a geographical survey. It is svanted by the administrator 

 to whom it is all important that he should know the roads and river communica- 

 tions, and the productive areas of the land he has to administer, and be able to 

 locate the various tribal sections or peoples with whom he has to deal. In the 

 political department a geographical map may be said to be absolutely necessary for 

 the political purpose of defining limits and boundaries. It has been, I am aware, 

 occasionally dispensed with, but never with satisfactory results. To the officer on 

 whom rests the responsibility of preserving peace and good order it is most 

 desirable that the military features should be fairly represented in such a manner 

 that at least a general plan of action can be arranged at short notice. For the 

 economic development of the country it cannot be too strongly urged that a general 

 geographical outline of its surface is indispensable to the selection of lines for 

 special technical examination, whether for roads, railways, canals, or telegraphs. 

 How often lately in the history of our colonial or frontier progress have vast 

 sums been expended on special lines of railway in ignorance of the fact that 

 better alignments of infinitely less physical difficulty would have been at once 

 revealed by a general geographical map even on the smallest scale ? In short, 

 the cheapest, the quickest, the surest, indeed the only satisfactory method of 

 regulating the progression of public works, the development of commerce, the 

 proper recognition of the frontier boundaries, the administration of justice, and the 

 military control of a large and growing colony, or of a long stretch of military 

 frontier, is to be armed with a perfect summary of what that country contains in 

 the shape of a geographical map ; and yet it is only quite lately that this fact 

 has been recognised by English administrators and English generals in their 

 dealings with new colonies and new frontiers. Russia learnt the lesson a genera- 

 tion ago at least. When she reached out a hand for Constantinople her army 

 was accompanied across the Balkans by whole companies of surveyors, who worked 

 on no sketchy system of indicating lines of route here and there. Tbey pushed at 

 least seven series of triangulation across the mountains, and on that as a basis they 

 mapped the whole country in detail on a good military scale (about an inch per 

 mile) right up to the very gates of rhe Turkish capital. For years her brigade 

 of topographers has been busy along her Afghan and Siberian frontiers. In 

 Persia, Baluchistan, the Pamirs, and China, wherever in fact there may be in the 

 future some prospective view of a closer political, commercial, or military interest 

 than exists at present, there they are to be found. France has always been 

 strong in the geographical field, and the late achievements of Frenchmen in the 

 world of exploration and of exploratory map-making are only equalled by the 



