The Project Gutenberg EBook of The National Geographic Magazine, Vol. II., No. 4, August, 1890, by Various This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. Title: The National Geographic Magazine, Vol. II., No. 4, August, 1890 Author: Various Release Date: August 2, 2020 [EBook #62827] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, AUGUST 1890 *** Produced by Ron Swanson CONTENTS. Korea and the Koreans: Ensign J. B. Bernadou, U. S. N. (Illustrated with three maps.) The Ordnance Survey of Great Britain—its history and object: Josiah Pierce, Jr. Geographic Nomenclature: Herbert G. Ogden, Gustave Herrle, Marcus Baker and A. H. Thompson APPENDIX: Rules for the Orthography of Geographic Names: Contributed by G. Herrle. British System French System German System Alphabets: Russian-English English-Russian Published, AUGUST, 1890. PRESS OF TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR, NEW HAVEN, CONN. THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE. Vol. II. 1890. No. 4. KOREA AND THE KOREANS. BY J. B. BERNADOU. (Abstract of lecture, with the addition of some new material.) The Koreans are to be noted among nations for the possession of two very different vehicles for the expression of thought, which they put to nearly parallel uses for general needs of communication: a simple and very perfect alphabet, and a complex system of hieroglyphics. The alphabet they owe to the Buddhist priests, missionaries, who took the idea of letters from their sacred books, and developed the Korean symbols for the writing of tracts and prayers; the hieroglyphics came from the mother country and civilizer, China. The needs of a simpler mode of writing for the intelligent, non-literary classes of Japan, had led in that country to a similar development; but there progress stopped at a syllabary, and the alphabetic stage was not reached. Until within the past few years the development of accurate maps and charts of Korea has been retarded, partly from a lack of reliable information concerning Korean proper names, and partly from the absence of systematic surveys of the coast. Very recently, however, the difficulties of map making have been considerably lessened through the efforts of students of the Korean language, who have developed exact systems of transliteration, by the application of which the sounds of Korean proper names may be correctly expressed in our own letters. At the present day it would seem possible, therefore, to fix, by common consent, upon a general, systematic orthography for Korean proper names, to be used upon the charts prepared by all those nations employing Roman letters; and this without serious danger of clashing with previously developed national systems, or having to undo much work done by others. The system of transliteration developed by Mr. E. M. Satow, of the British Diplomatic Service, which has been put to practical use by that gentleman in his work entitled "List of Korean Geographical Names," would seem well adapted to meet future needs. It gives a simple series of equivalents for Korean sounds, and is remarkably free from diacritical marks. Mr. Satow's system has recently been employed by English and German authors, while efforts to extend its application would seem to have met thus far with no opposition. The French system of transliteration, which antedates the one above referred to, was developed by the French Roman Catholic Missionaries in Korea, and has been employed by them in their admirable works the "Grammaire Coréenne" and the "Dictionnaire Coréen," by far the most important yet prepared upon the language, and the first given to the outer world. The missionaries aimed at reproducing native speech, and to this end faithfully copied symbols representing shades of sound that are not to be appreciated by the foreign ear, and which in fact are often neglected in conversation by the Koreans of the present day—for the Ön-mun, or native alphabet, has long since lost its purely phonetic character. The simplicity of the French system is marred, therefore, by the use of a multiplicity of letters, which, appearing in the form of aggregations of consonants or of vowels, are more apt to mislead than to guide. Inasmuch as the proper names upon native maps, which are invariably written in the Chinese, may be correctly rendered into English, whereas attempts at the systematic transliteration of Chinese characters have generally failed, it may be well to allude to the points of difference in the two cases. The possibility of the transliteration of Korean depends upon the following: (1) that the Korean pronunciation of Chinese characters is independent of the pitch of the voice or tone; (2) that the native alphabet is especially constructed with a view to the easy reproduction of the Korean pronunciation of the same; (3) that the Korean pronunciation of these characters is quite uniform throughout the whole extent of the country; (4) that the Korean equivalents may be readily transliterated into English. All that is necessary, therefore, in fixing a geographic name is to have it written correctly in Chinese and in the Ön-mun. From the latter the English equivalent may be readily obtained. The need of the Chinese form arises from the fact that but few of the natives spell correctly, while many of them write Chinese well; so that it becomes necessary to refer both writings to some authority, by whom the native spelling may be verified. Wide spread as is the use of the Chinese nomenclature, it is none the less evident that the system is an artificial one, and that its employment must end somewhere. In those parts of the country that are the least explored, and where educational facilities are wanting, in the mountain fastnesses of the north, and among the many islands of the Yellow Sea, important geographic names occur that possess no Chinese equivalents: native words capable of being written only in the Ön-mun and which derive their origin from local peculiarities. To ascertain these correctly the services of an educated Korean are required; and it may be added here that no surveying party on the Korean coast should be without the services of a native guide, capable of speaking a few words of English. Such a man may be picked up at an open port. He would be useful in many ways: in preventing the destruction of signals from superstitious motives by the natives; in ascertaining from fishermen the existence of dangers in the intricate coast waters; in marking the position of towns and villages not to be seen from their sea approaches; and in securing supplies of fresh provisions. The preliminary study of the geography of an eastern country necessitates the comparative examination of data gathered from widely different sources: the early partial surveys of the coasts by mariners, and the rough maps made by the natives themselves. Inasmuch as large sections of the Korean coasts are as yet hardly examined, and since it is only within the last few years that foreigners have been allowed to penetrate into the interior, it follows that no accurate map of the land exists. In selecting bases for future developments it becomes necessary, therefore, to examine the various approximate representations, and to determine which of them is best adapted to aid the work in hand. Many writers upon Korea seem prone to attribute the mapping of the country to the result of explorations and observations made by foreigners. I believe this assumption to be erroneous and think it can be readily proven that, although the Koreans may have known practically nothing of the outside world up to the time of the treaties, some twenty years ago, they had, nevertheless, long before this formed an excellent idea of the configuration of their own country. The first important work accomplished by outsiders was the survey of the common boundary of Korea and China by the Jesuits, acting under the orders of the Chinese Emperor Kang-hsi, in the year 1709. Severity of climate and roughness of country prevented the party from making more than a preliminary examination of the districts that they passed through, but a few fair determinations of latitude and approximations to longitude were obtained, and the general direction of the boundary determined. With the aid of these data, supplemented by information from native sources, a map was constructed, in which the Korean peninsula was connected with the general system of the world's coördinates and proper names were given in our own alphabetic characters. This map, which forms the basis of most of the representations of Korea in use at the present day, shows its origin in the transliteration of proper names in accordance with the Mandarin Chinese and not the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese characters employed to represent them. The information from Korean sources which the missionaries must have utilized in completing their work was doubtless attained by them in the form of native maps. Of these there are several good ones in use at the present day, two of which would seem especially worthy of notice: (1) the large map of twenty sheets dividing the peninsula into sections by parallel lines drawn from east to west, and (2) a map giving the country in eight sheets, by provinces. The key to the latter, showing the entire kingdom, as well as one of the expanded sheets showing the Kyöngsang province in the southeast, and the Nakdong river, the most important stream of the land, are appended to this paper, and will serve to indicate the progress independently attained by the Koreans in the art of map making. These plates have been reproduced from a copy of an original now in the possession of Mgr. J. G. Blanc, the French Missionary Bishop of Korea, to whom it served as an accurate guide at the time of his perilous entry into the country, fifteen years ago, during a period of severe persecutions. The preface of the Korean geographer, which is written in Chinese upon one of the sheets, is of interest, as it illustrates the object of the work, enumerates the classes of data utilized and alludes to difficulties contended with. I therefore quote it here. "The geographies of my country are quite numerous, but all maps are influenced to a certain extent by the limit of the paper employed in their construction, and so distances are very incorrectly given. Thus ten or more ri (Korean unit of distance—about 2/5-mile) are sometimes represented as two or three hundred ri; while sometimes two or three hundred ri are represented as two or three. The bearings given are also incorrect. Such a map offers great disadvantages to people who attempt to learn about their country. Therefore I have taken all care in constructing this one, both as to direction and distances of places, as well as to the situations of mountains and rivers. For distances I have made a scale in which one hundred ri are taken as one ja (Korean foot), and ten ri as one poun (Korean inch, ten to the foot). I have laid off distances in all directions from the capital, so that the general shape and position of the eight provinces are correctly represented. The islands, however, are only placed in direction with reference to the provinces to which they belong, without regard to actual distances. Where mountain ranges and rivers are represented as boundaries, they are necessarily repeated upon the sheets of adjoining provinces. In the measurement of distances one ja represents one hundred ri in level places, and from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty ri where the mountains are high." The assumption that the unit of scale represents an increased distance in mountainous regions is a peculiarity of Chinese as well as of Korean maps. Travelers who employ either are obliged in estimating days' journeys to consider the character of the country ahead before applying the unit of measurement. An examination of the various conventional features of Plate I and II will afford much information concerning the official subdivision of the country for governmental purposes, and will serve to indicate the facilities of communication that exist in a country where there are no railroads, and where almost every important route extends in a direction normal to that of the flow of the greater number of rivers. The eight provinces of the kingdom are exhibited upon Plate I as groups of towns, each group being displayed upon the original in a different color, all of which, as shades of various intensities, are fairly well reproduced upon the photo-lithographs. Each town is denoted by a circle of very exaggerated dimensions, large enough to allow its name to be written in Chinese characters in the enclosed area. The apparent multiplicity of characters upon the present map is due to the fact that all names are given in the native Ön-mun, as well as in the Chinese. The employment of the former is unusual and in the present case was resorted to at my own instance, in order to render the map more generally useful to foreigners. Each town is the seat of government of an officer who is subordinate to a provincial governor. The strength of any portion of Korea may therefore be reckoned in the native way as so many "cities," by the word "city," being understood both the seat of government and the adjacent lands over which the governor holds sway. The walled towns, which are quite uniform in type throughout the whole extent of the country, deserve especial mention. They are represented on the map as circles with serrated edges, and a glance at the provincial sheets will show that they are quite numerous, each province possessing from six to twenty of them. The number is greatest along the coast of the Yellow Sea and to the southward, facing Japan. As secondary fortifications may be mentioned the San-söng, or mountain walls, as they are called, built at the least accessible points of the interior ranges, generally in proximity to some thickly settled district. The more ancient are relics of the feudal period, when Korea was governed by petty princes each with his castle upon a rock; the more modern, witnesses of the Japanese invasion of two hundred years ago, when they were either pillaged by the enemy or else held by the people as places of refuge. A number of the San-söng are marked upon the present map; those of lesser importance are omitted. Not the least curious among Korean institutions is the system of communication maintained at the present time. At the yok, or post stations, represented on the map by diminutive circles, are kept numbers of the small active native horses, well fed and in good condition, attended by staffs of native couriers who are ready to receive orders from the station- master and spring into saddle upon a moment's notice. The service is well patronized and the couriers frequently employed, partly at the instance of the government, who desire to promote the efficiency of the system, and partly owing to the general accumulation of private needs of various kinds. A letter or parcel is thus rapidly transmitted from relay to relay, moving onward by day and night—except in certain mountainous districts of the north, where the fear of the tiger prevents night travel. Supplies of fruit and game for the royal table are forwarded in this manner to the capital from the most distant parts of the kingdom. The pong-wa, or signal-fire stations, are indicated upon the map by small squares placed at the summit of the mountains. They are especially numerous in the coast districts, where their sites are chosen with great care, in such manner that the fires that are lighted at each station at night-fall may be observed at some advanced point of the interior, whence a single fire may be again flashed on, to form a member of a more extended group. And so the lights proceed, re-collected and re-forwarded until the final combinations are gathered into a final group at the capital, to show that all is well throughout the kingdom. The faint network of lines extending over the whole country, as shown in the map of the southeastern province, represents the chief public highways, upon the determination of whose length and relative bearing the development of the map is based. In general, roads in Korea are well maintained, and during the greater part of the year are in fair condition. It would be found impossible to take a wheeled vehicle of any kind over them, however; for such use they are not intended, travel in Korea being performed afoot, or with the aid of horse or sedan. During the summer rains the streams rise rapidly; the waters pour down from the mountains, each rivulet becomes a torrent and the bridges are swept away. When the floods subside the local authorities compel the peasants to turn out in force and make the necessary repairs; delays of travel are thus reduced to a minimum. Korea is preëminently a mountainous country. With the exception of the alluvial plains at the mouths of the rivers, low ranges of mountains with narrow intervening valleys are found everywhere, and are characteristic. The main chain, forming the back-bone of the peninsula, is not clearly defined, as it is formed principally by the overlappings and intersections of minor chains, so that it is quite irregular as to direction, but a glance at the sources of the rivers, considered with reference to the intervening line of water-sheds, shows that it springs from the mountains of Siberia at the north, follows for some distance the line of the eastern coast and then strikes inland, trending to the southward and westward until it reaches the shores of the Yellow Sea. The loftiest ranges, therefore, are in the northern and eastern provinces. At the centre of the northern boundary is Paik-du-san, the "white-headed mountain," in whose slopes rise the Yalu, Tuman, and Songari rivers, the two former defining the western and eastern sections of the frontier, the latter a tributary of the Amur, an important stream of southern Siberia. According to Messrs. James, Younghusband, and Fulford, of the British Indian and Consular services, who visited it in May, 1886, Paik-du-san is "a recently extinct volcano with a lovely pellucid lake filling the bottom of the crater, surmounted by a serrated edge of peaks rising about 650 feet above the surface of the water. The height of the loftiest of these was found to be about 7,525 feet above the level of the sea." Besides the rivers of the frontier are others of the interior that deserve a passing mention. The mountainous nature of the country, as well as its proximity to the sea, implies the existence of numerous secondary water courses, but these as a rule are insignificant in size and so shallow as to permit of navigation only throughout limited portions of their extent. Among the larger streams that lie wholly within the country is the Taidong, flowing through Phyöng-an-do, the northwestern province, rising in the central ranges of the peninsula and flowing into the Yellow Sea. During the greater part of the year it is navigable as far as the city of Phyöngyang for native craft of the largest size. In midsummer its waters rise rapidly during a short rainy season; then quickly subside, the river resuming its former limits. To this sudden shoaling may be attributed the loss of the schooner Sherman, captured by the Koreans in 1871, the vessel going aground without warning at a place where a few hours before abundant water had been found. The Han, the river of the capital, lies about one hundred miles to the southward of the Taidong, and flows westwardly in a nearly parallel direction thereto, from the central ranges of the peninsula into the Yellow Sea. Its many branches join in a common estuary near the centre of the Yellow Sea coast, and their collective drainage area comprises a large portion of central Korea. Still farther to the southward is the Keum, traversing a fertile rice-growing country, while at the extreme south is the Nakdong. The latter is one of the most important streams of Korea, and the facilities that it affords for communication and interchange have done much towards rendering the district through which it flows one of the most fertile and prosperous of the land. The coasts of Korea are forbidding to the mariner and seem well adapted for the preservation of the seclusion that it has been so long the national policy to maintain. On the east, facing Japan, unbroken lines of steep hills, void of harbors, bend abruptly into the deep waters of the Japan Sea. To the westward countless outlying islands extend seaward many miles, liberally interspersed with rocks and shoals, between which eddy swift streams of tide-water. The terrors of the Maelstrom would find their counterpart in many a Korean whirlpool, which, forming in the vicinity of some submerged ledge, will cause a large vessel to heel suddenly well over, and will swing her many points off her course in a way to make the stoutest hearted captain tremble for the safety of his charge. The climate of Korea exhibits wide ranges of temperatures and hygroscopic conditions. In the northeast province, Ham-kiung-do, the winter is as rigorous as that of Nova Scotia; at the extreme south, on the island of Quelpaert, it somewhat resembles that of Louisiana. The warmth of Quelpaert is due to the proximity of the Kura-siwo, or Black Stream of Japan, the Gulf Stream of the Pacific, part of which is here turned into a cul-de-sac, from which it escapes with difficulty. One result of this is the creation of a stormy region near the island, where the mariner may at all times look for a hard blow. A characteristic feature of Yellow Sea coasts are the Chang-ma, or mid-summer rains, which set in with fair regularity in July and during their month's duration resemble in phenomena and general effects the periodic rains of the tropics. The winters, in all but the southern parts of the country, are long and severe and set in with great suddenness. As an illustration of the rapidity of this change I remember that on one occasion I was ferried across the Han river near the capital at a time when the only indication of cold weather was a film of ice along the river banks, and that within forty-eight hours afterwards I rode back across the river ice on horseback, over the line of the former ferry. Careful meteorologic records have now been kept at the open ports for more than five years; at Che-mul-po, on the Yellow Sea (the seaport of the capital, Söul); at Fusan, to the south; and at Gensan, to the northeast. Stations are needed on the Yellow Sea coast farther to the northward, at the extreme northeast, at points in the interior, and especially on the island of Cheju, or Quelpaert, whose weather reports may some day prove as valuable to the Japanese as those from Bermuda would now be to the navigator of the western waters of the Atlantic. All the above mentioned places are easily accessible and doubtless soon will receive attention. In fact, to the navigator of these regions this island of Quelpaert is almost of the importance that Hatteras is to the navigator of our own coast. As an important factor of Korea's future prosperity, and one that will enter largely into the determination of her future position among the nations of the east, may be mentioned her mineral resources. These yet remain in an almost undeveloped condition. The most easily accessible deposits and out-croppings, which are worked by the natives in primitive ways, afford evidence of an abundant and varied supply of the useful ores and minerals widely distributed throughout the whole extent of the land. Many localities, moreover, are well known to the people for their especial products. Thus the Phyöngyang province, in the northwest, facing China, possesses abundant deposits of coal, iron, and lime. Samples of this coal, which is but little used by the people, were collected several years ago from twelve different localities, and I remember that some of the Phyöngyang gatherings were tested on board the U. S. S. Alert, but were found to have suffered so greatly from exposure to the weather as to be comparatively valueless, even for experimental purposes. Limestone is common in this district, and in the town of Phyöngyang I have noticed the use of caustic lime in the streets as a disinfectant. The iron produced at Yöngpyön, fifty miles to the northward of this city, which is reduced in the native way with charcoal, is remarkable for its malleability and purity. Inasmuch as all these deposits are of very great extent and lie near the sea coast, and in proximity to waters easily navigable by larger craft, it may be assumed as probable that the time will soon arrive when the iron of Korea will largely supply the ship-yards and machine shops of northern China. Silver is found in at least four localities; copper is worked in paying quantities in two; galena is widely distributed; and zincblende has been found near the capital. Sulphur is said to occur in Kyöng-sang-do; no ore of mercury is known to the Koreans, who import their supplies of the metal and its preparations from China. At the time of the opening of Korea by treaty, 1870–80, an impression seems to have prevailed quite generally that the country was extremely rich in gold, that great quantities of the precious metals were soon to be exported, or that mines of great richness would be found and worked. The years that have elapsed since this date have partly served to prove the fallacy of these assumptions, yet the doubt is not yet fully removed. Gold is now known to occur in many places in moderate quantities: in alluvial deposits, from which it may be washed by simple mechanical process, and in quartz veins, from which it is extracted in small quantities by crude and laborious methods of rock-pulverizing and washing. A small constant demand for the metal has always existed, for jewelry and gilding—the latter quite a common decorative process, which up to the present seems to have required the use of pure gold even for the crudest applications. The mines remain for the greater part unworked, however, for three reasons: (1) the native dislike for altering the geomantic conditions of any locality by digging holes in the ground; (2) the laws forbidding the search for the metal, for gold mining in Korea is a government monopoly; (3) the inability of the peasants to find a market for the gold that they surreptitiously work. There has always existed a chance of disposing of it by crossing the border into China, and there has probably long been a small steady export in this way; and a port has been opened near the capital where reside Chinese and Japanese merchants who must find a way of converting the Korean copper cash into some medium of exchange easily negotiable abroad, and who for this purpose have been known to purchase gold from the Koreans at a considerable premium. I have examined a number of specimens of Korean gold which had been brought to Che-mul-po and had passed into the hands of foreign merchants there. In several cases I found small pieces of quartz clinging to flat laminated grains of the metal of considerable size. In answer to inquiries that I made from time to time during a residence of more than a year in Korea I was told by the Koreans of a number of localities where gold was supposed to be abundant. I have endeavored to show these collectively upon a small map (Fig. III) giving the Korean names of the towns and districts with their English equivalents and the names of the provinces of the kingdom in which the places are situated. I was told repeatedly that the metal was most plentiful at Tan-chhön, in the Ham-kiung province. Concerning this locality our Korean geographer says, "at Ma- un, west of Tan-chhön, much gold is found. The mountains there are lofty and precipitous." THE ORDNANCE SURVEY OF GREAT BRITAIN—ITS HISTORY AND OBJECT. BY JOSIAH PIERCE, JR. I. THE INSTITUTION OF NATIONAL SURVEYS. The earliest surveys were not laid down as maps but consisted of catalogues of property which are called "terriers;" of these the Domesday Book is the earliest extant. Had the art of surveying been properly understood at the time of the Norman conquest there would probably have been a Saxon cadastre along with the Domesday Book, which was ordered by William the Conquerer in the year 1085. "After this had the king a very large meeting, and a very deep consultation with his council about this land, how it was occupied, and by what sort of men. Then sent he his men all over England, into each shire, commissioning them to find out 'how many hundreds of hides were in the shire; what land the king himself had, and what stock upon the land, or what dues he ought to have by the year from the shire.' Also he commissioned them to record in writing, 'How much land his archbishops had, and his diocesan bishops, and his abbots, and his earls; and though I may be prolix and tedious, what and how much each man had, who was the occupier of land in England, either in money or in stock, and how much money it was worth.' So very narrowly indeed did he commission them to trace it out, that there was not a single hide nor a yard of land (the fourth part of an acre), nay, moreover, (it is shameful to tell, though he thought it no shame to do it) not even an ox, a cow, or a swine was there left, that was not set down in his writ, and all the recorded particulars were afterwards brought to him."—Saxon Chronicle, by Ingram. The publication of the Domesday Book was ordered first by George III. in 1767, and completed in 1783. After the discovery of the art of photozincography it was reproduced "in facsimile" in 1864–5, under the direction of Lieut.-Gen'l. Sir Henry James, then director of the Ordnance Survey. Little change (in the art of mensuration or surveying) seems to have been made until the early part of the 17th century when simple boundary line maps accompanied the terriers of the surveys made in Ireland in 1634, by order of Lord Stafford, then viceroy. Great improvements were introduced about that time in Sweden by Gustavus Adolphus, which must have become known to Cromwell, for in 1654, the "Down Survey," as it was called, comprised maps of the townlands, and baronies over two-thirds of the surface of Ireland, that is, comprehending about 20,000,000 of English acres. It may not be uninteresting or irrelevant to bestow a few remarks upon the development and methods of surveying in the seventeenth century, many of which have descended with little modification to the present day. When man first conceived the idea of owning real property the art of geometry or surveying became a necessity. Interest in other worlds than our own, and the measurement of time, led to the development of the science of astronomy, and of graduated instruments for measuring angles. Many of the most refined modern instruments are but slight modifications of original Arabian models, and the practice of linear surveying, or the subdivision of land into triangles, and geometrical figures, whose area could be computed, has been carried on without modification for centuries. The greatest development took place after the introduction of artillery in the methods and instruments used for trigonometrical surveying or range-finding. Every principle which is to-day known and applied in the construction and use of modern trigonometrical surveying instruments can be traced in a modified form to the construction and application of the instruments of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the practice of artillery, the first important question is the distance or range of the enemy. As in war it was clearly impossible to obtain the same by direct linear measurement, instruments were devised for measuring the range trigonometrically, all based on the calculation of a single triangle, the base and two angles of which could be measured. These instruments were simply modified to the extent of furnishing in the instrument itself a constant base or angle so that only one or at most two measurements were necessary. The one instrument that has received the greatest development in the modern type is the quadrant, a simple graduated arc from whose center was suspended a plumb-line, or which carried a movable arm with raised sights for measuring horizontal or inclined angles. This arm has retained the name alhidada derived from the Arabic. Such was the trigonometrical instrument used by the earliest navigators and astronomers for determining latitudes, and by surveyors and artillerists for finding ranges. In the latter part of the 16th century Thomas Digges, surveyor and author, conceived the idea of combining two such graduated arcs in one instrument, the one placed horizontally and the other in a vertical plane, the whole supported on a rigid stand or tripod, and he called the same his Theodolitus, which is said by DeMorgan to have been the origin of the name of the modern instrument. In the earliest books in the practice of artillery and of surveying, the crescent of the dreaded Moor appears in the woodcuts illustrating range finding or trigonometrical surveying generally floating over the tower of some captured castle or town, which it is desired to bombard. This clearly demonstrated that the chief use of trigonometrical instruments was for military purposes. Among the instruments of surveying of this period which became practically obsolete in England in the present century, but which is most widely used elsewhere, is the plane-table, unquestionably one of the earliest instruments invented for measuring or recording angles. At the period 1570, when the Germans claim that it was invented by Pretorius, a professor of the University of Nuremburg, it was unquestionably in use in England, and it is mentioned by Thomas Digges, in his Pantometria, published in 1590, as a platting instrument for such as are ignorant of arithmetical calculations. On the relative merits of the theodolite and plane table authorities still differ. Throughout Europe great activity in the development of the practical applications of geometry soon followed the exchange of ideas brought about by the introduction of printing. Side by side with the important geographical discoveries of the age came the minor improvements in scientific instruments which rendered national surveys and geodetic operations possible at a later period. With trifling modifications the instruments devised by Durer, Newton, and Gallileo are in common use to-day. Gradual improvements can be traced in the application of surveying to military and civil purposes, to mapping the campaigns of Louis XIV. and Marlborough, and laying down the forfeited estates in Ireland by William III., until in 1729 the first national survey on a large scale, for public and private purposes, was commenced in Savoy and Piedmont by Victor Amadie II., whereon nine years were occupied. The method of large surveys obtained the name of Cadastre (Terrier map). It was suggested for France in 1763, but was only commenced in that country in 1793. The exact derivation and meaning of the French term "cadastre" are not free from dispute. Some authorities refer it to the verb "cadrer" to square or correspond with, all objects on a large scale, plan, or cadastre being shown in their true position and proportions, whereas in a mere topographical map similar accuracy is impossible, and certain features must need be exaggerated for the sake of distinctness. The Dictionaire des Dictionaires on the other hand derives cadastre (formerly capdastre) from the mediæval-Latin word capitastrum (from caput "head," because formerly people were taxed, and afterwards property) and defines it as "a public register, containing the quantity and value of landed property, names of owners, etc., and which serves for the assessment of the tax on property in proportion to its revenue." In the Recueil des Lois et Instructions sur les contributions directes, the cadastre is defined as "a plan from which the area of land may be computed, and from which its revenue may be valued." This, there is no doubt, is the sense in which the word is used on the Continent, while in England it is taken as denoting generally a survey on a large scale. It was not until long after the organization of the Ordnance Survey that it became a cadastral survey. Its organization at first was distinctly for military purposes, and the extension of its operations to cover all national needs only attained after years of discussion, and struggle for existence. The credit of originating and carrying into execution the first tangible project for a systematic topographical survey of part of the kingdom is divided between two engineer officers, both at the time holding distinguished positions on the staff of the British army. The idea would seem to have followed close upon the sanguinary termination at Culloden of the "forty-five" rebellion, by which the fate of the house of Stuart was decided, in the reign of George the Second. It was doubtless the outcome of that unhappy rising for it contemplated a general map of the Scottish highlands, precisely those parts of the country in which the heart and soul of the insurrectionary movement had all along centered. The difficulties of moving troops through these wild mountain districts, and without any clear knowledge of the passes connecting the glens and fastnesses, or of the correct distances intervening, would have been enormously lessened by the possession of good maps. The survey of this wild and inaccessible region was undertaken in 1747 by Lieutenant-General Watson, an engineer, ably assisted by William Roy, who afterwards played a distinguished part in the earlier geodetic work of the Ordnance Survey. The map, at first intended to be confined to the Highlands only, was at last extended to the Lowlands and thus made general in what related to the mainland of Scotland, the islands (except some lesser ones near the coast), not having been surveyed. It is spoken of by Lieutenant-Colonel White, in his excellent book on the Ordnance Survey, as a "piece of work which appears to have been excellently carried out as far as it went, qualified by the remark of Roy that owing to the comparative inferiority of the instruments used and the inadequacy of the annual grants provided for the survey it is rather to be considered as a magnificent military sketch than a very accurate map of the country." The survey of Scotland was interrupted by the breaking out in 1755 of another of England's intermittent wars with France, that which gained her Canada, and the work was never completed. "On the conclusion of the peace of 1763," writes General Roy, "it came for the first time under the consideration of government to make a general survey of the whole island at the public cost." But, for reasons not assigned, the twelve years' interval of peace before the outbreak in 1775 of the American War of Independence was allowed to pass away without anything being done. There the matter remained in abeyance until, after renewed hostilities with France and Spain, peace was negotiated in 1783. The trigonometrical survey of Great Britain may be said to have been begun one hundred and six years ago. Astronomers of that day were desirous that the difference of longitude between the Greenwich and Paris observatories should be ascertained by trigonometrical measurement; and under the auspices of the king and of the Royal Society, General Roy, R. E., in April, 1784, began the task by the measurement of a base line on Hounslow Heath which was to serve as the starting point of a series of triangles to be extended to Dover and across the channel. This work was carried out, a connection with the French triangulation being established in 1786. Soon after this the government decided on having a general survey made of the entire kingdom, on the scale of one inch to one mile for military purposes, and General Roy's triangulation in the southeastern counties became the basis of the Great Triangulation, which was gradually extended over the whole of the British Isles and finished in 1853. The one-inch survey was carried northward through England and Wales under the successive superintendence of artillery and engineer officers, and by 1824 had reached the southern borders of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. At this time it became necessary that a survey of Ireland should be made on a large scale as a basis for general land valuation. On the recommendation of Colonel Colby, then director, the scale of six inches to one mile was agreed upon; the work in England was suspended and the force transferred to Ireland. It appears from a report of Colonel Colby, in 1840, that the purposes for which the English and Irish surveys were designed were gradually developed and not all originally known. The principal triangulation, on which the survey of South Britain had been based, was partly designed for astronomical purposes, and partly for a map on small scale. The detail plans were commenced by officers of the Royal Engineers, partly for the purpose of practicing them in military drawing, and partly for the purpose of making plans for the use of the Ordnance. The publication of some parts of this map on the scale of one inch to one mile created a desire among the public to possess better maps than had formerly existed. This led to the employment of civilian surveyors to advance the progress of the map, and it was found necessary at great additional expense, to revise and correct these contract plans. The work did not possess the accuracy demanded by the admiralty in forming the basis of their coast surveys for the Geological Survey or the civil engineers. As a military map its publication during war was suspended, and its continuance became a matter of doubt in time of peace. At one time the gentlemen of Lincolnshire and Rutlandshire proposed to the government to proceed with the map of their district out of its regular turn, upon condition of their becoming subscribers for a certain number of copies. These gentlemen partly wished for the map for their use in hunting, and partly for the improvement of the country in marking out the drainage of the fens. Prejudices existed, which could be traced back to the Norman conquest and Domesday Survey—against the right of a surveyor to enter a private estate, and in the early contract plans for the English maps the surveyors neglected the survey of the lesser streams, to obviate the inconvenience of trespassing and to save themselves trouble. These were some of the causes of delay, expense and insufficiency which had operated against the earlier surveys. The survey of Ireland began in 1825 under far more favorable circumstances than the Ordnance map of England and Wales. The triangulation commenced from a more accurate baseline than any preceding triangulation, and was designed to serve as a basis for any future survey in any scale, however large. The House of Commons passed an act defining its principal object, prescribing a legal mode for ascertaining the boundaries which were to be surveyed, granting the surveyors power to enter lands for the purposes of the survey, and preventing the removal of the objects used. The earlier methods of military surveying were abandoned, and new instruments and a system were devised for its execution. It is important to note that the organization of the Irish survey marked an important epoch in the history of the Ordnance Survey, viz: its change from a topographic to a cadastral survey. In Ireland, subordinate to the parishes, there is an internal division of smaller denomination called townlands, which are very frequently, but not uniformly, conterminous with property. The townland was the lowest unit of taxation for country purposes, of an average size of 200 or 300 acres, and originally the map was to be simply a topographic map, containing the boundaries of the townlands, the roads, the streams and the houses, with a view to the valuation of Ireland for the county assessment. The six inch was considered to be the smallest scale that could be available for that purpose. There was no intention in the original Irish survey to insert the fields, but when the valuation began, it was found by the valuators that additional minuteness was necessary to enable them to subdivide the townlands into the qualities of lands of which they consisted, and more especially that the boundary between the cultivated and uncultivated portions ought to be inserted on the maps with great accuracy. This rendered necessary a very extensive revision which was undertaken in 1830, and it became a survey by fields instead of townlands. This was clearly a wide and most important departure from the original intention of the six inch survey in Ireland, and it is not to be doubted that General Colby, who would not trust to paper measurements for the areas of entire townlands, would have adopted at the very outset, for his manuscript plans of these minute subdivisions, a scale much larger than that of six inches to one mile. The engraving of the six inch survey appears to have resulted from a demand for six copies of one sheet for valuation purposes when it was found that it would be as cheap to engrave it as to make that number of copies. So valuable did the six inch map of Ireland prove for many purposes over and above that for which it had been originally designed, that, in 1840, when the Irish survey was completed, and that of England resumed, the Government gave their consent to the adoption of the same scale for the unsurveyed parts of Great Britain. By 1851, Yorkshire, Lancashire, the Isle of Lewis, and several counties in the south of Scotland were finished on the six inch scale. Then began that long controversy which has been well termed the "battle of the scales" and which for eleven or twelve years retarded the progress of the survey and led to a large waste of public money. During the time that the Ordnance Surveyors were engaged in making their six inch map of Lancashire and Yorkshire they were called upon and employed to make, at the expense of the land owners, twenty-three plans of parishes and townships on the scale of twenty-six and 2/3 inches to one mile for tithe commutation. It was even found that the plan of London, made for the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers, on the scale of sixty inches or five feet to one mile was inapplicable to house drainage within the area. Between 1851 and 1852 no fewer than three select committees and one royal commission deliberated on the scale for the survey, and fourteen blue books were presented to Parliament. The main point of the controversy was whether the six inch or some larger scale was best fitted for the national map. A host of persons eminent in science were consulted on the subject, and a great diversity of opinion was found to exist, the weight of evidence, however, inclining by a majority of four to one, to a scale of from 20 to 262/3 inches to a mile. In 1853 a statistical conference held at Brussels and attended by twenty-six delegates from the chief States of Europe considered the question of national maps or cadastres, and pronounced unanimously in favor of a scale of 1/2500th of nature equivalent to about 251/3 inches to a mile, recommending at the same time that the cadastre on this scale should be accompanied by a more general map on the scale of 1/10,000 equivalent to about six 1/3 inches to a mile, and thus very nearly corresponding to the six inch scale of the Ordnance Survey. The scale finally adopted of 1/2500, on which the whole of England has at last been surveyed, is one which corresponds with that adopted for the national maps and plans of the chief countries for Europe. Lastly it possessed the incidental advantage that a square acre is to all practical intents represented on the plans by a square inch. Among the many public purposes which the national map was expected to subserve are the following: the valuation of property for the equitable adjustment of taxation and assessment; the sale and transfer of land and the registration of title; railway and other civil engineering work, such as the construction of roads and canals, large sanitary and drainage schemes, military engineering works, hydrographical, geological and mineral surveys; the reclamation and improvement of waste lands, and of land from the sea; transactions affecting land as between landlord and tenant; statistical surveys, the setting out and adjustment of parochial and other public boundaries and so forth. It has been amply proved on the best evidence that a map, with levels, on a scale of something like twenty-five inches to one mile is the smallest which can properly fulfill all these requirements. In the organization and equipment of the Ordnance Survey, as it exists to-day, no pains are spared to secure the utmost precision and economy in its methods of field work and publication. After more than a century of development and the completion of the cadastral map, let it not be supposed that its mission is at an end, for it is proposed to make a complete revision of all the cadastral work at least once every twenty years. This is rendered necessary by the constant changes in property boundaries, and the growth of population—which may be...