E.— GEOGRAPHY 109 



territory to administer and improve we cannot find it possible to finish 

 even the first and most vital preliminary. 



Let us return for a moment to what one may describe as imperial 

 surveying, under the immediate leadership of the Geographical Section. 

 Early in the century a ' Colonial Survey Section ' was formed. Its object 

 was topographical mapping with the theodolite and plane-table, and its 

 subject the Colonies. Starting with Mauritius and St. Helena, hitherto 

 charted but unmapped, we find it at work in the then Orange River Colony 

 from 1905 to 191 1. The result of that survey is a reliable |-in. map. A 

 large part of Northern Cape Colony was mapped on the J-in. scale, as 

 was Basutoland, by officers individually selected by the Geographical 

 Section. The Colony (or peninsula) of Sierra Leone, Pemba Island, 

 and many parls of the Transvaal were also mapped before 1912. A 

 reconnaissance survey of Northern Nigeria was finished in the same 

 imperial fashion, whilst substantial portions of Asia were tackled in the 

 same way. 



More significant still, however, were the geographical results of boundary 

 Commissions. It is the British practice, or was until quite recently, 

 not only to see that the boundary is correctly placed on the earth's surface, 

 but to map a strip of territory on each side, in order to facilitate a decision, 

 if there is disagreement, to examine thoroughly the resources and lie of 

 the land through which the dividing line is to run, and to make it easy to 

 find and to restore the boundary marks. From 1900 to 1913 no less 

 than 10,000 miles of African boundary line were placed on the ground, 

 by astronomical observation and by triangulation, permanently marked, 

 and mapped to some considerable depth on either side. Some of these 

 surveys were connected to Gill's arc, which by 1913 had reached the 

 southern end of Lake Tanganyika (a distance of 1900 miles). Most, 

 however, were based on independent datum points, and remain to be 

 incorporated, one day, in a general triangulation. 



We may say, at this moment, that most of the mapping of Africa under 

 the British flag is hung upon and controlled by Gill's arc, or the boundary 

 commission triangulations. 



Now turning again to the Colonial Survey Departments we come to 

 the birth of the ' Colonial Survey Committee.' Its formation was inspired 

 by Colonel Sir Charles Close, who was, at that time, the chief of the 

 Geographical Section. Its object was to strengthen that vital element in 

 the terms of reference of the section ' to assist in the systematic prosecu- 

 tion . . . of topographical operations of the British Colonies . . . with 

 the concurrence of the Secretary of State for the Colonies.' 



The Committee began its labours with Ceylon. It insisted upon and 

 secured a topographical survey long overdue. In Africa it began to realise 

 that fusion between property and topographical surveying is essential if 

 these departments are to follow the British model of making but the one 

 general survey of the country and of avoiding overlap of responsibility. 



The first stage in this matter is to provide a triangulation upon which all 

 survey may rest. An indefeasible title to land and title requires it just 

 as much as a general map. The idiotic waste of money implied in per- 



