The geography and geology of south-eastern EgyptBall, John
Science
The geography and geology of south-eastern Egypt
Ball, John
Geology -- Egypt; Physical geography -- Egypt
At St. John’s Island, owing to the smallness of the scale of
the available charts, it is a little more difficult to scale off
accurately the Admiralty position for the peak and the reduction
to the peak of Lieut. Koss’s point. As nearly as I can scale,
the Admiralty latitude for the peak is 23° 36′ 40″, while the
point where Lieut. Koss observed his latitude of 23° 35′ 47″,
near the south-west shore of the island, is approximately 40″ south
of the peak, giving the latitude of the peak as 23° 36′ 27″. I
found the latitude of the peak to be 23° 36′ 16″, thus again
showing as good an agreement as could be expected, having regard to
the fact that it is not easy to scale the latitude of the point much
within 10″ from the existing charts.
At Halaib Fort, the Admiralty latitude is 22° 14′ 10″, while the
“Pola” expedition found it 22° 13′ 26″, and my triangulation
gave the value 22° 13′ 25″. The close agreement between my
triangulation value and that observed by Lieut. Koss seems to prove
the Admiralty latitude of this point to be some 45″ too high.
Summarizing the latitudes of the three points for comparison we
have:—
---------------------+-----------+-----------+-------------
| Berenice |St. John’s |Halaib Fort.
| Temple. | Peak. |
+-----------+-----------+-------------
Admiralty Chart |23° 54′ 50″|23° 36′ 40″|22° 14′ 10″
| | |
“Pola” Expedition |23° 54′ 40″|23° 36′ 27″|22° 13′ 26″
| | |
Ball (Triangulation)|23° 54′ 39″|23° 36′ 16″|22° 13′ 25″
---------------------+-----------+-----------+-------------
If we make corresponding comparisons of the longitudes of these
three points, Berenice Temple, St. John’s Peak, and Halaib Fort,
we obtain much more wide divergences, as is only to be expected
from the fact that the Admiralty and “Pola” determinations were
made by transport of chronometers from Suez, which is over 500 miles
distant from Halaib.
For Berenice Temple the Admiralty longitude (obtained by applying the
scaled reduction of − 40″ to the observed longitude 35° 29′
11″ at the observation point) is 35° 28′ 31″. Lieut. Koss’s
transport of chronometers from Suez _via_ Jidda leads to a longitude
of 33° 30′ 20″ for his observation point, which lies 54″ east
of the temple; thus the “Pola” longitude for the temple is 35°
29′ 26″. My triangulation gives 35° 28′ 26″, thus agreeing
very nearly with the Admiralty value and differing by exactly 1′
from the value found by Lieut. Koss.
For St. John’s Peak, the longitude scaled from the Admiralty
Chart is 36° 10′ 20″. The observations of Lieut. Koss lead to
a longitude of 36° 12′ 38″ for his observation point, which is
about 35″ west of the peak; thus the “Pola” longitude for the
peak is 36° 13′ 13″. My triangulation gives 36° 11′ 42″,
being thus between the Admiralty and “Pola” values.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account