372 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS,— E. 



Friday, August 6. 



5. Dr. D. G. Hogarth, C.M.G. — Our Near Eastern Borders. 



Since Great Britain has no territorial possessions in the Near East except the 

 island of Cyprus, she, strictly speaking, has not ' borders ' there that are worth 

 considering. But through the southern half of this region passes a marine corridor 

 which, as providing an essential passage between the Home Country and her Eastern 

 Empire, must be more or less imperially controlled by her. Moreover, with a view to 

 such control of its narrowest and most vulnerable pass, she has seen fit to impose 

 military control on two regions, one on the Asiatic side, the other on the \frican side 

 of it, which form one continuous geographical block of similar superficial character 

 throughout. The corridor, therefore, may fairly be regai-ded as implying borders on 

 this side of it and on that which are in great measure ' ours,' and these, being enlarged 

 at one point of it, give us inland frontiers set well back into the body of the Southern 

 Near East, and inevitably affected by its general effects of geographical conditions 

 upon the society of the whole region. 



Accordingly, these conditions are broadly considered at the outset, the most 

 dynamic being those of superficial formation and of climate which, causing general 

 aridity, render population over the larger part of the area nomadic and sparse, and 

 even in the remaining part much subject to nomadic influences, and, further, by 

 limiting agriculture and restricting free water, produce a general pastoral habit and 

 its least favourable consequences. Also there fall to be considered the conditions of 

 orographical structure, which largely forbid nowadays the existence of natural 

 ports adapted to overseas shipping ; though in antiquity there were several harbours 

 adequate to the needs of the time. This defect has artificially been remedied in 

 Northern Egypt with marked social results, which are contrasted with those [produced 

 in Asia Minor, Syria, and Arabia by a less favourable coastal history. 



The particular conditions of the corridor borders are thus considered, and it is 

 argued that the African shores of it call for more attention and control than the 

 Asiatic, and that, in particular, the Arabian coast of the Bed Sea is negligible. As 

 for the two territorial enlargements of our border, the Palestinian and the Egyptian, 

 it is shown that, while Palestine itself has very weak frontiers, the whole of it, regarded 

 with Sinai as a border-belt to tlie corridor, constitutes a very strong flanking defence. 

 So too, on the other side, for different geographical reasons, does Egypt, which is so 

 barred from the rest of Africa as to be really an outlier of Asia. The conditions of 

 access to it from the north and the influence which the Sudan can exert on it from 

 the south are stated, and the necessity of any foreign controller of Egypt controlling 

 also the Sudan is emphasised. 



Finally, the geographical conditions affecting the Bed Sea section of the corridor 

 are considered, whether the coasts are under our control or that of others. Perim 

 and Bab-el-Mandeb are taken to form the Gate of the Middle East; even as the 

 pass between Crete and Bas- el-Tin is that of the Near East ; between these points 

 only lies the scope of this paper. 



6. Dr. R. T. GuNTHER. — Elizabethan Astrolabes and Theodolites. 



When the Lewis Evans Collection of historic scientific instruments was accepted 

 by the University of Oxford it was foreseen that it would act as a loadstone and 

 attract cognate objects. This expectation has now been realised in a most striking 

 manner in the case of the series of astrolabes and theodolites. Valuable examples 

 which were in danger of being destroyed have been saved, to the extension of our 

 knowledge of the use of both of these important geographical instruments, and at 

 the same time tardy justice can now be done to the consummate craftsmanship of 

 their almost forgotten maker, Humphrey Cole, c. 1520-1591. 



Cole's great 2-foot astrolabe of 1575, now exhibited to the British Association by 

 the courtesy of the University of St. Andrews, shows us clearly for the first time that 

 there was in London a scientific-instrument maker skilful enough to make and graduate 

 large instruments of the class used by Tycho Brahe, and it was probably under con- 

 struction when Cole was equipping Frobisher's first N.W. Passage expedition with 

 navigational instruments. The finest known example of a seaman's astrolabe of 

 rather later date by Elias Allen belongs to the same collection. 



Another instrument by Cole, found in St. John's College, proves to be the earliest 

 theodolite known. It was made within fifteen years of the date of the first published 



