230 REPORT—1905. 
passed through Cape Town on his way to resume his governorship of Natal. 
In October 1880 I visited Natal as the guest of Commodore (now Admiral 
of the Fleet) Sir Frederick Richards, on his flagship, H.M.S. ‘ Boadicea,’ in 
order to make preliminary experiments connected with the telegraphic 
connection of the longitudes of Aden and the Cape of Good Hope, and 
to further discuss with Sir George Colley the steps which should be taken 
in connection with the proposed survey. The result was that Sir George 
Colley took immediate steps to forward the project by addressing a 
message to the Legislative Council proposing to place a sum of 2,000/. on 
the estimates of 1881 for the initial expenses of the proposed operations, 
‘the expenditure to be contingent on the Cape Government undertaking 
to join in the proposed survey and bear its share of the genera] expenses 
connected with it.’ One of the last documents addressed by Sir George 
Colley to the Legislative Council was a message of thanks for their reply 
to the above proposal ; this message was dated December 21, 1880. A 
few days afterwards Sir George Colley left his seat of Government, never, 
alas ! to return. 
But it was not until I again visited Natal in August 1881, in connec- 
tion with the Cape-Aden longitude operations, then in progress, that 
further advance was made. I took advantage of the opportunity to re- 
open the survey question, with the result that Colonel Mitchell (after- 
wards Sir Charles Mitchell, G.C.M.G.), who was then administering the 
Government of the Colony of Natal, decided to write to the Secretary of 
State, asking that the War Office might be applied to for the services of a 
captain and subaltern of Royal Engineers, with a party of non-commissioned 
officers and men, to begin the survey, and I was requested to prepare the 
specifications for the necessary instruments. Finally, in January 1883 I 
succeeded in arranging an agreement between the Governments of the 
Cape Colony and Natal to undertake the principal triangulation of both 
colonies as a joint work. 
A detachment of Royal Engineers, consisting of Captain Morris, R.E. 
(now Colonel Morris, C.B.), Lieutenant (now Lieutenant-Colonel) Laffan, 
R.E., and fourteen non-commissioned officers and men, finally reached 
Durban in June 1883, and work was at once commenced by selecting, 
laying out, and measuring the base line in Natal. The field-work of the 
geodetic survey of the Cape Colony and Natal was completed in October 
1892, and the results, including a rediscussion of Maclear’s triangulation, 
were published and presented to the Cape Parliament in 1896. The com- 
pletion of this work enabled me to carry out a complete re-reduction of 
Bailey’s survey, as a complete chain of Bailey’s best triangles was included 
in the work of the geodetic survey. Many errors in Bailey’s published 
work were detected, and the whole was reduced to systematic agreement 
with the geodetic survey. The results form vol. ii. of the ‘Geodetic 
Survey,’ which was published in 1901. 
The details of both works will be referred to later on. The main 
object to be kept in view was how to extend these operations in such a 
way as best to increase their geodetic value. In vol. i. of the ‘Geodetic 
Survey’ just mentioned (p. 157) I wrote on this point as follows :— 
‘ Looking forward to the practical and possible progress of geodesy, the 
question may be asked, Should not the progress made in geodetic survey 
in South Africa be regarded as the first step in a chain of triangulation 
which, approximately traversing the thirtieth meridian of east longitude, 
shall extend continuously ta the mouth of the Nile?’ 
