188 
COMPARING GEOGRAPHICAL DISTANCES. 
own principle sea-port and that of the French in their possessions, is 
750 miles. 
With reference to those measurements the following'points appear to 
me to be of interest. From the outlying portions of Russia in Finland and 
Poland to bring troops toMoscow represents’one unit; to place them and 
the Muscovite in Asiatic Russia, at Orenburg, represents another unit ; 
to place them at the head-quarters of the army of the Khanates re- 
presents^another unit. From there to our'own frontier place d^armes 
(Rawal Pindi) is another unit. For the movement of troops in the 
south of Russia, knowing the length of the Caucasus to be 750 miles, 
we observe that one unit places them on the Caspian, 200 miles by sea 
places them at Krasnovodsk; another uniCplaces them at Samarkand, 
or as the crow flies, at Kandahar. With reference to our own posses¬ 
ions, one unit moves troops from Karachi to Rawal Pindi, another unit 
fromfAllahabad to Rawal Pindi; a third unit, as I think I explained 
before, would bring them in from Manipur and outlying parts to 
Allahabad. From Bombay to Allahabad is practically another unit. 
The breadth of India at Bombay is almost oneMnit. As regards the 
sea journey you will remember that from the Straits of Dover to Cape 
Finisterre is one unit; the Mediterranean represents two complete 
units to the south of Cape Matapan, and the remaining portions, viz., 
from that point to Port Said, and from Capej Finisterre to the 
Straits of Gibraltar, and from London to the Straits of Dover 
may be taken as, roughly, a unit and a half. Hence from Lon¬ 
don to Port Said is about four and a half units. The remain¬ 
der of the journey by the Red Sea is, two units in the Red Sea 
and about two and a half units in the Indian Ocean—that is to say also 
four and a half units—the total distance nine units. Taking the route 
by Brindisi; from London to Venice 'is one unit; the length of the 
Adriatic Sea a little off the south coast of Greece is another unit; and 
the distance to Port Said is rather less than a third unit. Hence the 
total distance is slightly less than three units; that is to say there 
is a saving of about one and a half units, and the further advantage 
that rather more than half of it is a land journey. Assuming a railway to 
be made in the Euphrates Valley; if such railway came from Beyrout, 
this portion of the distance to India would be one unit to the Persian 
Gulf, one unit approximately to the south east of Persia, and half a 
unit to Karachi; that is to say, two and half units instead of four and 
a half units—there would thus be a saving of two units and the total 
via Brindisi would be five and a half units. If this railway were 
made to fit in with the Constantinople and European railway system, 
the distance would be approximately, Constantinople to the Persian 
Gulf, two units; hence Constantinople to Karachi would be three and 
a half units ; now London to Constantinople is two units, hence the 
total distance would be five and a half units. I should previously 
have mentioned that the western frontier of Afghanistan and Beluchistan, 
that is to say the distance from Herat to the sea, is approximately one 
unit, and that the breadth of Persia is also one unit. 
Further, going back to ancient history, you may observe that when 
