464 '  -REPORT—1905. 
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 
The following Papers were read :— 
1. The Game Preserves of the Transvaal, 
By Major Stevenson Hamitton, D.S,O. 
2. Boundaries and Areas in Africa. By J, Bowron. 
This paper was confined mainly to a general reference to the boundaries of 
British colonies, protectorates, &c., with special reference to those boundary 
treaties and agreements that have resulted in boundary surveys, these surveys 
being almost the only pieces of scientific map-making in the whole continent of 
Africa. 
The colonies and protectorates in the Northern Torrid Zone were treated very 
briefly, as here there is little or no room for white colonisation, and there is no 
white resident population. In this group comes, first in order, The Colony of the 
Gambia, with a boundary described only, and not surveyed, leaving room for-dis- 
pute or arbitration, both equally to be avoided. Next comes The Colony and Pro- 
tectorate of Sierra Leone, with boundaries surveyed and mapped, the northern 
part by Colonel Trotter (the Anglo-French Boundary Commission, 1895-96) and 
the eastern part by Captain Pearson (the Anglo-Liberian Boundary Commission, 
1903). These boundaries, which were at one time pregnant with trouble, are now 
admirably fixed, and are not likely to breed international mischief. Then follows 
The Gold Coast Colony, a very ancient British possession, the boundaries of which 
have been surveyed by an Anglo-French Boundary Commission in 1901-03 on 
the Ivory Coast frontier, and by an Anglo-German Boundary Commission, in 1905 
on the Togoland frontier. The boundary between the northern territories and the 
French Sudan was surveyed by an Anglo-French Boundary Commission in 
1900, reducing the possibility of disputes to a minimum. 
The Colony of Lagos has only its western boundary common to another 
nation, and this boundary was surveyed in 1896-97 by an Anglo-French Boundary 
Commission. 
The Niger Territories, occupied by British merchants in the coastal region for 
upwards of two hundred years, have been created a British possession by the 
energy and persistence of one man, Sir George Taubman Goldie. The boundaries of 
the portion now known as Northern Nigeria have been surveyed between the Niger 
and Lake Chad by Lieut.-Col. Elliot, R.E., with the Anglo-French Boundary 
Commission of 1902-03, and from the Benue River to Lake Chad by Col. Jackson, 
R.E., with the Anglo-German Boundary Commission of 1903-04. Unfortunately 
the Anglo-French Agreement of 1904 was negotiated before Lieut.-Col. Elliot, or 
his surveys, could reach home, and the alterations conceded by the Agreement 
may necessitate another Boundary Survey Commission. On the extreme east lies 
The Somali Coast Protectorate: here several boundary agreements have been made 
with the bordering Powers, but the boundaries have only been described on paper, 
have not been surveyed, and are consequently open to dispute. 
Uganda and British East Africa have but indefinite boundaries on the north 
and east. On the east a survey of the Juba River from the coast to latitude 
20° 30' N. was made by Commander Dundas in 1892; but this cannot be con- 
sidered a boundary survey, and, moreover, modifications—concessions to Italy— 
have been made recently that will necessitate a survey here. 
On the south boundary surveys have been made from the coast to Mount 
Kilimanjaro by Mr. Smith in 1892; from Mount Kilimanjaro to Lake Victoria 
by Lieut.-Col. Smith, R.E., in 1904-05, and from the eastern shore of Lake Victoria 
to the Congo Free State boundary by Col. Delmé-Radcliffe in 1904. This com- 
pletes the description of the boundaries of British possessions that lie entirely 
within the equatorial belt. 
1 Published in the Geographical Journal, 1906. 
