2 
HAYFORD. 
between existing theories and results. One expects to find 
a considerable portion of the accumulated facts published in 
convenient form for the use of the hydrographer, topog¬ 
rapher, the physicist, and the engineer. But this expecta¬ 
tion is not realized. Of the great store of accumulated facts 
only a small part are as yet published in any complete or 
systematic way. The remaining ones are published, if at 
all, in such a fragmentary and disconnected form as to lose 
much of the value which they would otherwise have. Again, 
one looks in vain for any comprehensive study in recent years 
of the earth’s figure and size. Since the publication by Colonel 
Clarke, some twenty years ago, of his values for the polar and 
equatorial radii, no corresponding comprehensive investiga¬ 
tion has appeared in print. 
It is not easy to understand why publication and discus¬ 
sion should lag so far behind the measures in the field. One 
consideration presents itself, however, as a partial, though 
insufficient, explanation. To adjust a network of triangu¬ 
lation requires an amount of expert computing which, 
as to time and cost, seems disproportionate to the field¬ 
work. Consequently, there is a decided tendency for the 
computations to be several years behind the corresponding 
field operations. By the time computations are finished for 
a given area new results of observations are available in that 
area or in adjacent connecting areas. Thus it always seems 
that the time for publication has not come, since whatever 
might be published would of necessity be incomplete. 
It may be admitted that in many cases the computations 
made have been more complex and laborious than was war¬ 
ranted by the observations. The problem is one which lends 
itself to many theoretic refinements leading to long compu¬ 
tations. 
In what is above written as to delays in publication and 
computations needlessly prolix the writer must not be un¬ 
derstood as referring chiefly to work in the United States. 
Publication is apparently no further behind in this country 
than in other countries, with the possible exception of Great 
