134 
COMPARING GEOGRAPHICAL DISTANCES. 
number of important distances to which this unit corresponds. I have 
found similar results unattainable with any other standard of measure¬ 
ment. It appears to represent the natural extent of most of the hom¬ 
ogeneous countries, and of a great many geographical features, as well 
as the distances at which rival centres of government or important 
towns have sprung into existence. My lecture being a reiteration of 
examples of this unit, it will not, I fear, be possible to introduce any 
great variety into it, and it may thus prove somewhat a tax on your 
patience which I must ask you to excuse. 
EUROPE. 
Geographical Features. 
My standard, as I said, is the distance from the Land’s End to the 
Shetlands, 750 miles. The maximum length of the Caspian Sea is 750 
miles. It will be observed that the shape of the Caspian Sea is very 
much that of a foot-print and that its breadth is about a quarter of 
its length, and may be taken roughly as 200 miles. The length of the 
Caucasus is 750 miles. It will be observed that about 350 miles of its 
length lies along the coast of the Black Sea, and consequently that the 
distance between the Black Sea and the Caspian is about 400 miles ; this 
also represents roughly the length of the Russian railway from Batoum 
to Baku. The length of the Black Sea is 750 miles; the breadth of 
the Black Sea is, approximately, half its length, and it will be noticed 
that the distance from Constantinople to the Crimea is about 350 miles. 
As you know, our sick and wounded were sent back from the Crimea 
to Scutari, and the length of the voyage may thus be remembered. 
The distance from Varna to the Crimea is about 300 miles ; that is the 
distance through which we shifted our base in 1854. 
The next five distances may be considered as the base on which the 
map of Europe is built up, as in a triangulation for a military survey. 
From the Black Sea to the Baltic is 750 miles ; from the Baltic to 
the Adriatic is the same. It will be observed here that about half of 
this unit is in German territory and the other half in Austrian, and 
that the point at which the line crosses the frontier is the south of Silesia 
where it was expected that the Prussian armies would break through 
in 1866. From the north of the Adriatic to Cape Matapan in the south 
of Greece is rather over 750 miles. It will be observed here that rather 
less than half of this distance represents Austrian coast frontier and 
that the remainder, 400 miles, is practically equally divided between 
Greece and Turkey, the west coast frontier of each of which is about 
200 miles. From Cape Matapan to the mouth of the Danube, is 750 
miles. About half of this unit lies in the .ZEgean Sea, and the re¬ 
mainder represents the distance from the mouth of the Danube in 
Turkey to the EEgean. The cross measurement is also 750 miles. 
Here it will be observed that the Iron Gate, where the Danube enters its 
fourth basin, is about 350 miles from the sen, and that consequently 
the southern frontier of Roumania and the northern frontier of Bulgaria 
are that length. From the shape of Bulgaria you will be able to estimate 
