THE SCIENCE OF FRONTIER DELIMITATION. 
223 
parallel of latitude, for it was delimited as being on one side of the 
parallel; the bouudary was accepted as delimited, and therefore no sub¬ 
sequent correction of latitude could remove the place from one side of 
the boundary to the other. 
I have not time to do more than allude to all the many duties which 
boundary commissioners have to fulfil outside of their delimitation 
work. In addition to the daily interviewing of native chiefs, and the 
dealing with local politics, there are other things which require their 
constant attention. If carrier transport is used, their force must be a 
large one, and the care and supply of the native establishment will 
give them much occupation. Their charge is one corresponding to 
the command of a force in the field, with this difference that, the units 
not being well disciplined, the Provost-Marshal has an unusually active 
time. If the country passed through is deserted, much care must be 
given to establishing depots in suitable places. It is impossible to 
carry many days supply owing to the addition that would be made to 
the mouths to be fed by doing so. It takes at least five men to carry 
one day's supply for 300. 
The work of delimitation, such as I have described, can be under¬ 
taken by any officer with a little training and practice. Astronomical 
observation should be specially suited to artillery officers who have so 
much training in using instruments of precision, range-finders, position- 
finders, fire observation instruments, etc., and the computations and 
theory are easily mastered by any one with an elementary knowledge 
of mathematics. With regard to topography, I cannot avoid taking this 
opportunity of impressing on you the importance of learning to sketch 
on small scales, on scales, that is, of or less, or, translated into miles, 
of from two to four miles to the inch. I am strongly of opinion that for 
English officers, whose service is mostly in unsurveyed and unexplored 
countries, all important work, on active service, as well as on boundary 
commissions, explorations and other expeditions, will be done on these 
small scales. To sketch on a small scale, an officer's training in the 
6" to a mile line will be of but little benefit to him. In small scale 
work the main thing to be learned is to exercise self-denial. The 
officer brought up on the 6" to a mile line, when let loose in an 
unknown country, cannot control his feelings and reproduces on 
paper every little familiar col and watercourse, till he has filled in two 
or three acres of ground on paper, representing the same number of 
square miles and has omitted the one mountain or river which should 
be there. A little practice in working with fixed points will show to the 
learner how little it is possible to reproduce on paper. The one thing 
he must look to is to fill in the drainage, and the other main features 
will then fall into their place. Decimal paper is very useful in this 
work, as it constantly impresses on the topographer a sense of the 
relative distances. 
I should like to add before closing what I believe is not generally 
known, that the subjects of practical astronomy and surveying are 
taught at the Eoyal Geographical Society in a thoroughly simple and 
business-like way. Any officer, whether a fellow or not, can obtain in- 
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