674 REPORT — 1902. 



the employment of natives in Africa for African work, just as Indian natives are 

 employed in India, is thoroughly sound. We want schools in Africa as well as 

 in Eugland. Only in this way will the vast areas still unmapped in our African 

 protectorates be dealt with at reasonable cost and in a reasonable space of time. 



Pho to -top ography. 



Certain developments in the practical field of geography have lately been 

 brought to the test of continued experimental application, and the progress of these 

 experiments deserves a passing record. Notably the application of photography to 

 purposes of geographical illustration has received immense impetus from the 

 apparent facility with which the experimental media can be handled. In favour 

 of the haphazard landscape illustrations with which we are usually deluged by 

 travellers there is little to be said. Tliey are far more frequently illustrations of 

 the personal progress of tlie author than of the general character of the country 

 he progressed through. Neither is there much more to commend in photographs 

 designed to reproduce geological or tectonic features, glacial configuration, special 

 orographical conditions, or the like unless the position of them and the direction 

 of the line of sight from the point of view are very clearly indicated on a corre- 

 sponding map. At the best they are apt to be deceptive, for the reason that they 

 can but deal with one side of a subject and with only a partial view of the parti- 

 cular feature they represent. Everyone knows that an apparent range, or even a 

 system of ranges, of mountains may be nothing but the revctement of a high plateau 

 or tableland ; but the photograph of such a mountain system will give no indication 

 of the plateau beyond the range which can indeed only be determined by a survey, 

 and properly illustrated by a map. I need hardly say that a topographical 

 delineation of ground derived from observations made by the aid of photography 

 demands as much technical skill on the part of the topographer and as much 

 systematic application of the use of instruments as any other survey. It must be 

 a combination of careful triangulation and skilful plane-tabling precisely as is the 

 product of a topographical survey. It demands, if anything, more special train- 

 ing and a more elaborate method of procedure than does ordinary survey. So far 

 as the results of experiments made over suitable fields in Canada can teach us, the 

 verdict is in favour of the process only under certain conditions of light and 

 climate when it is desirable to obtain a record of observations in as short a space 

 of time as possible, either in high altitudes, when passing clouds afibrd but a 

 fleeting view of the landscape, or in low-lying districts, where active tribal hostility 

 in the field or some similar condition renders it desirable to curtail operations as 

 much as possible. Under all other ordinary conditions it is maintained by 

 Canadian surveyors that although both time and labour may be saved on the field 

 operations, the resulting map can never attain the same standard of accuracy in 

 detail that distinguishes good topographical illustration of the usual variety of 

 natural features. I am, of course, now speaking of geographical surveying as an 

 art, not of mere geographical exploitation. In the latter case doubtless every 

 traveller who can ' pull the string ' in these days can add immensely to the per- 

 sonal interest of liis journeys by his illustrations of them. But I would earnestly 

 impress upon all travellers that if they desire those illustrations to be of any use 

 for geographical compilation it is absolutely necessary to know the point from 

 which they were taken and the direction of the view. 



Barometric Records. 



Once again too would I warn travellers of the utter uncertainty of all classes 

 of barometric determinations for altitude. Very little has been done in recent 

 years towards improving instruments of the barometric class, and meteorological 

 science has not yet taught us how to deal with the constant variations in air 

 pressure produced over local areas by changeable weather. There are some 

 countries where barometric records can hardly be regarded as ofl'ering a clue even 

 to differential heights. It cannot be too often insisted on that the determination 



