THE SCIENCE OF FRONTIER DELIMITATION. 
217 
of a sugar-loaf with a large base are best. The commissioners of both 
nations must agree on the positions of beacons, and they should there¬ 
fore work together in fixing them, but where there can be no 
doubt about their position, it is sometimes convenient for one com¬ 
missioner to select the site and build the beacon, leaving the other 
commissioner to approve it as it reaches the spot. 
It is sometimes necessary to put up auxiliary beacons to call attention 
to the position of others which are in a hidden position. These 
auxiliary beacons are not on the frontier, but in the territory of one or 
other of the nations. For example, a boundary changes from a water¬ 
shed to a parallel at a point which cannot be seen from the surrounding 
country. In such a case an auxiliary beacon serves to show where the- 
hidden beacon is to be found. 
Every beacon, as it is constructed, receives a number, and a careful 
description of its position must be made. If the country is open the 
bearing from one beacon to another should be noted. 
As the boundary is beaconed off, the local chiefs should be made to 
accompany the commission, and the frontier should be explained to 
them. A Union Jack should be presented to each chief of a town 
falling within the British sphere. The chiefs should be made to 
understand their obligations, and should be warned against crossing 
the line. They will probably have much to say on the subject, and 
will point out how much better they could have drawn the line them¬ 
selves, so as to have secured their neighbour’s territories, and the 
commissioner will have some difficulty in convincing them that the 
arrangement is irrevocable ; others will point out that they don’t want 
to be delimited at all, if they can’t do it in their own way, and many 
suggestions will be made for a every description of alteration or 
modification of the line, and for all sorts of commercial and other 
facilities which chiefs desire to obtain and which have already been 
settled by treaty. The commissioner in such cases has a difficult task 
to perform in letting the natives know that no alteration can be made 
in the boundary conditions as fixed, and at the same time in leaving 
them contented. 
On all occasions guides should accompany the commission, taken 
from the towns nearest to the place where work is being done. As a 
rule two guides should be taken, and they should each be made to 
repeat several times the name of each place. Interpreters will, of 
course, also be required, but it is not sufficient to take an interpreter’s 
rendering of the pronunciation of the name of a village or feature. 
TheVillager should always give this and should repeat it several times. 
I will add a few remarks on delimiting the different forms of 
boundary. 
(1) A watershed .-— 
To one unaccustomed to tracing it, a watershed is very puzzling to 
follow. In a mountainous country, when it strikes clearly defined 
ridges, which one naturally expects it will run along, it frequently 
leaves them most unexpectedly, doubles back, crosses the highest 
ranges at their lowest points, and avoids the principal mountains. It 
