ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF GEODETIC SURVEY IN SOUTH AFRICA. 947 
From these meridian ares the results which appear to come out are :— 
1. In the are along the meridian of 19° east longitude the apparent 
curvature of the meridian between latitudes 22° and 35° corresponds very 
closely with that given by Clarke’s ‘Elements of the Figure of the 
Earth.’ 
2. Along the meridian of 26° east longitude, between latitudes 255° to 
34°, there appears to be a tendency for the astronomical amplitude to 
exceed the geodetic by perhaps 0’’1 per degree, but the great deviations 
of the plumb-line when one passes from the neighbourhood of the coast 
to the great mountain range immediately to the north obscures the 
conclusion. 
3. This tendency seems still more strongly marked on the 30th 
meridian, both in the arcs to south and north of the Limpopo. But that 
point will be better determined for the arcs on the 26th and 30th meridian 
south of the Limpopo when the recently made latitude observations have 
been reduced, and when the arc north of the Limpopo has been carried 
to Tanganyika ; and still better when the gap between the Limpopo and 
the Rhodesian triangles has been filled and the Rhodesian are can be 
reduced to the same origin as the rest of the geodetic survey. 
It was my earnest hope to be able to announce to this meeting that 
the actual work of this connection had been begun. Captain Gordon, 
R.E., with a well-trained party, was in readiness to start under the orders 
of Colonel Morris, but no persuasions of mine could induce the Chartered 
Company to grant the necessary funds. 
Only 1,600/. was required, which must be considered a very small 
sum, having regard to the scientific importance and practical value of the 
work. 
I must admit that the British South Africa Company is loyally carry- 
ing out Mr. Rhodes’s promise to me—viz., ‘I will see that you get the 
money to carry this survey to Lake Tanganyika, and when you have got 
there, if the Transvaal has by that time carried its triangulation to the 
Limpopo, we will meet them there.’ 
But now that the principal triangulation of the Transvaal and Orange 
River Colony is nearly complete, and trained men were ready, almost on 
the spot, to make the connection, a like opportunity to do it so econo- 
mically and so well is never likely to recur. I say this in justification of 
my urging the Company, at a time when money is scarce in South Africa, 
Ip undertake this work sooner than Mr. Rhodes had promised it would be 
one. 
I do not propose to discuss a comparison between the astronomical 
and geodetic longitudes, because the data are as yet somewhat meagre, 
and it has been as yet impossible to organise a longitude campaign with 
elimination of personal equation and the final control which can only be 
attained by comparison of results derived through different lines of inter- 
communication. It is sufficient to say at present that, so far as they go, 
the longitudes agree better with Bessel’s and the latitudes with Clarke’s 
elements. 
‘. remains to mention the services of those who have carried out the 
work. 
First and foremost comes the name of Colonel Morris. To him, and 
almost entirely to the work of his own hands and eyes, we owe the obser- 
vations in Cape Colony and Natal—ten years of strenuous service in the 
