PKESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 749 



BUiTOundliig country. With the possible exception of the case of an oceanic 

 island such an assumption would be an erroneous one. Our British empire is so 

 •widespread and our possessions are so often in close and intricate juxtaposition 

 with those of other nations that there is in this work large scope, and indeed 

 necessity, for international co-operation. Examples of this will occur to us in the 

 coarse of our review. We shall thus see that in addition to the obvious connection 

 which the geography of our empire has with that of other countries there is an 

 even closer connection in the methods of manufacture of that geography, which 

 methods we summarise under the general term of survey. One of the root 

 ambitions of the scientific surveyor is to determine the exact figure of the earth, 

 an operation for which observations spreading over a large area of the earth's 

 surface are demanded. In fact we may truly say that the problem of the earth's 

 shape will not be completely solved until the whole surface is known to the 

 surveyor. This is, therefore, pre-eminently a problem for international solution. 



Before proceeding to the consideration of our special subject, the survey of the 

 British empire, it will be interesting to interpose a few remarks on the queotions of 

 the utility and origin of national surveys in general. We may first note the some- 

 what curious fact that the production of a map of a country, useful as such a work 

 is for many purposes, has almost always been embarked upon because the impera- 

 tive necessity of maps of tlie theatre of operations in war has been brought home 

 to the people and Government of a nation. Thus the ordnance survey of Eng- 

 land had its first beginning in a military map of the highlands of Scotland, com- 

 menced in 1747, intended to facilitate the operations of the troops under the com- 

 mand of the Duke of Cumberland. It was not till many years later that the 

 systematic triangulation of the country was undertaken, a work which was initiated 

 partly for map making and partly for astronomical purposes. There was a con- 

 sensus of opinion among astronomers that it would be greatly to the advantage of 

 that science if the observatories of Greenwich and Paris could be connected by 

 triangulation and the famous French astronomer Cassini, in October 1783, drew 

 up a memoir to this eflect. The arguments brought forward convinced King 

 George III., and he granted a sum of money sufficient to enable the work 

 to be started. This act of royal generosity was recorded by the surveyors in 

 the following grateful terms : ' A generous and beneficent monarch, whose know- 

 ledge and love of the sciences are sufficiently evidenced by the protection whicli 

 he constantly affords them and under whose auspices they are daily seen to flourisli, 

 soon supplied the funds that were judged necessary. What his majesty has been 

 pleased to give so liberally it is our duty to manage with frugality consistent 

 with the best possible execution of the business to be done.' 



It is worthy of remark that the junction of the triangulation systems of Great 

 Britain and France was not made until 1861 and that the trigonometrical con- 

 nection of Greenwich and Paris observatories has not yet been completed to the 

 final satisfaction of men of science, a point which we shall have occasion to recur 

 to later. 



In France, we may note in passing, the stavtiug of the triangulation had a 

 quite different and quite definite object, the determination of the length of 

 the metre. This unscientific unit of length was fixed as a fraction (1/10,000,000) 

 of the quadrant of the earth's surface between the Pole and the Equator, and to 

 find this quantity it was necessary to measure on the earth's surface as lono- an 

 arc of the meridian as could be obtained. 



In the case of our other great national survey, that of India, its origin is to be 

 found in circumstances somewhat analogous. The Madras Government, owing to 

 the success of the British arms in the Mysore campaign, found itself with a 

 great accession of totally unsurveyed country in the middle of the Peninsula, 

 while at the same time there were only in existence the roughest sketch-maps 

 of the older possessions. It was apparent that if any map, of even approximate 

 accuracy, was to be made covering a country of such vast area, it was impe- 

 rative that the work should be prosecuted upon the most rigorous and strictly 

 scientific basis. The general lines upon which it should be undertaken were laid 

 down in February 1800 by Brigade-Major Lambton, who addressed a letter to 



