224 
THE SCIENCE OF FRONTIER DELIMITATION. 
struction at a very small cost, anl at times to suit his convenience. 
After passing through a course of instruction in any branch, he can 
obtain a diploma signed by the President of the Society, and I am sure 
that if he then reported his qualifications to the War Office, it would 
greatly increase his chances of employment when occasion arises. 
DISCUSSION. 
Captain A. H. McMahon, C.I.E.—General Maurice has kindly asked me to 
say a few words. While carefully following Colonel Trotter’s very .able lecture I 
have made a rough note of one or two things which struck me. In the first place he 
mentioned that there were those present who had seen boundary work under condi¬ 
tions widely differing from those of boundary work like his own. Colonel Trotter’s 
boundary work was, I know, from hearing his interesting lecture at the Royal Geo¬ 
graphical Society the other evening, carried out in a country very thickly wooded and 
with a very moist atmosphere ; a country in which, both from atmospheric reasons 
and from the thick forests, one cannot see to any distance; a country in which there 
are no very prominent peaks or anything of the kind which facilitate survey work. 
He also said that in his part of the world they had to do all their work in the dry 
season and avoid the wet season. On the other hand I had to deal with a country 
where we longed for a wet season and we never got it, and where our chief difficulty 
was on account of drought. It was a country where the atmosphere was generally 
perfectly clearfexcept when it was bleared by mirages. At times, of course, mirages 
are as great a disadvantage to the work of boundary demarcation as any difficulties 
due to moisture. We had, however, clearly defined peaks and clearly defined 
physical features, which facilitate survey work; and our survey work was thus 
comparatively easy. I am talking of boundary work along the •southern frontier 
of Afghanistan, where it was my fate to have to delimit and demarcate our 
boundary line. But, before saying anything more about delimitation work there or 
anywhere else, I will come back to the title of Colonel Trotter’s lecture, i.e ., “The 
Science of Frontier Delimitation.” I think when one is talking of a science it is not 
out of place to consider the name of that science. In my opinion, I offer this as a 
suggestion for what.it may be worth, delimitation (which, as we know, is a new 
word, not to be found in any dictionary, at least not in Webster or Johnson or 
any classical dictionary) means the laying down—not the laying down on the 
ground, but the definition on paper, either in words or on a map—of the limits 
of a country, therefore the boundary, therefore the boundary line of a country. 
Delimitation covers all the processes and procedure of ascertaining and defining 
the limits of a country; the negotiations between the governments concerned, 
and the consideration of tribal possessions, occupation, rights, and everything 
relating to a country’s limits; in fact all the preliminary processes and procedure 
involved before a boundary is actually laid down on the ground. This, in my 
opinion, should be properly called delimitation, for the term delimitation covers 
all this. When all this is done—and it implies a great deal—it implies the 
settlement of abstract matters such as rights, water rights, grazing rights and 
many other things that are connected directly or indirectly, with the settlement 
of an actual frontier line. Having done all that, you then come to work on the 
ground, and then the process ceases to be delimitation and becomes demarcation. 
Demarcation, I think, should be held to mean the actual laying out on the ground 
of the boundary which has been delimited; demarcation is therefore the sequel of 
delimitation. 
