Presidential address. f5i 



Two yeats ago this task would have been a difficult and laborious one. Now 

 it is greatly facilitated by the issue from the Colonial Office of those excellent 

 little volumes, the reports of the Colonial Survey Committee. 



This body has been in existence since August 1905, and has published three 

 annual reports. The Committee is therein defined as an advisory one formed at 

 the instance of the Secretary of State for the Colonies to advise him in matters 

 affecting the survey and exploration of British colonies and protectorates, more 

 especially those in tropical Africa. It is not at present an executive body, that is 

 to say it has at its own disposal no grant of public money or other funds ; whether 

 it will ultimately develop into such is a question that the future alone can answer. 

 Even thus limited in scope and powers it has, however, already worked a notable 

 improvement — firstly, by laying down authoritatively some of the more salient 

 conditions that ensure the efficient and economical expenditure of whatever funds 

 may be available, and by pointing out the disastrous extravagance of unsys- 

 tematic and unmethodical work ; secondly, by insisting upon uniformity where 

 uniformity is essential, such as in matters relating to the style, projection, scales, 

 and sheet-lines of the maps produced, while leaving the utmost latitude as to 

 methods, these being selected in each case to suit the very divergent nature of the 

 country met with. It results from this that any two small portions of the map of 

 Africa, say, for instance, one sheet of the dense forest region of the Gold Coast 

 and another of highland country of East Africa, though 3,000 miles apart and 

 executed at different times by a different staff, will match each other in 

 general character, and will ultimately be found to tit exactly into their places as 

 constituent parts of a great map of the country. Thirdly, we may reckon the mere 

 fact of publicity in these matters as of no mean advantage. Though, as in the 

 caseof many other Government publications, this report is not as widely read as 

 its merits deserve, yet it is all to the good that the information is there ready and 

 available for anybody who has the curiosity to consult it. I therefore welcome 

 the opportunity of drawing your attention to this volume. 



In entering upon the discussion on the survey of British Africa, the first point 

 that meets us is the geodetic basis of the whole work ; upon what do the actual 

 positions depend ? In other words, to put the matter more familiarly, how are 

 we to provide that every isolated piece of the map will exactly fit into its proper 

 place ? The only method for ensuring this is by basing all our surveys, ultimate]}', 

 upon a skeleton or framework of geodetic or primary triangulation executed with 

 the utmost attainable precision. Such a skeleton, or rather backbone, will 

 eventually exist in Africa in the shape of the meridional arc, or chain of triangles, 

 along the thirtieth meridian, running right through the country from north to 

 south, and ultimately joining on to the great arc observed by the famous 

 astronomer Struve. This originally extended from the mouth of the Danube 

 to Hammerfest, in Norway, an amplitude of 25i° of latitude. To prolong it 

 southward, passing up the Nile Valley, through the heart of tropical Africa, 

 across the Zambezi River, and terminate it at the southernmost point of the 

 continent, is a magnificent conception due to Sir David Gill, to whose energy 

 and enterprise the actual execution of considerable sections of the undertaking 

 must also be ascribed. 



At the present time the chain has been completed from the south to within 

 seventy miles of the southern end of Lake Tanganyika, a distance of about 

 1,700 mUes. At Lake Tanganyika it will enter into German territory. The 

 German Government, fully recognising that the project is not only of great 

 theoretical interest, but also of immediate practical value, are already taking step', 

 to start work on their own section, from the south of Tanganyika up to the paralle' 

 of 1° south latitude. From 1° south, northward to about 1^° north, the aic 

 lies near the boundary between the Congo Free State and the British Pro- 

 tectorate of Uganda. An International Commission is at present engaged in the 

 survey of the boundary region, and Sir D. Gill, ever ready to seize an opportunity 

 of forwarding the work he has at heart, succeeded in raising sufficient funds, 

 partly from the Treasury and partly by grants from a few leading scientific 

 societies, to enable an observer to be sent out with this Commission to carry the 



