Subject: Ellis Island and Baarle<br/>
Date: May 20, 2003 @ 23:43<br/>
Author: Brendan Whyte (Brendan Whyte &lt;bwhyte@...&gt;)<br/>
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<div id="ygrps-yiv-1384842897">Ellis Island:<br/>
<br/>
thousandths of a foot? Is this the US going metric without going metric? I <br/>
don&#39;t think I&#39;ve ever seen ruler with 10ths of an inch (only 8ths and <br/>
16ths), let alone 1000ths.<br/>
<br/>
Do you have coords for these points Michael? Where did they come from?<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
Baarle:<br/>
<br/>
<blockquote><span title="ireply"> &gt;happily it appears to be another tossup between 2 candidates<br/>
&gt;both looking in this case like about 220 meters<br/>
&gt;<br/>
&gt;these can be seen in<br/>
&gt;<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith//baarle/baarlemap.html">http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith//baarle/baarlemap.html</a><br/>
&gt;as the irregular pink polygon at upper left near the name loveren<br/>
&gt;& the white quadrilateral 2 scrolls down between k12 & k13<br/>
<br/>
 </span></blockquote>At one time I posted a map of Baarle labelling the enclaves N1 ot N8 and H1 <br/>
to H22. The Louvren enclave of Belgium is H7. It is the smallest in area <br/>
(2469sq metres, or 0.2469ha). The next smallest in area is H22, the enclave <br/>
formed in 1995 in the far west of the commune of Baarle-Nassau, from <br/>
one-third of a field (not shown on the map you linked to). H22 is 0.2632ha.<br/>
Perimetrically, the order swaps. H7 has a perimeter of 214m, but H22 has a <br/>
smaller perimeter (because it&#39;s almost square, not irregular) of 209m.<br/>
These figures are taken direct from the 1995 minute which delimited the <br/>
enclaves to the nearest cm, and their areas and perimeters to the nearest <br/>
(sq) metre.<br/>
<br/>
The military map of Baarle, on Barry Smith&#39;s site that you linked to is a <br/>
standard topo map of Baarle, drawn by the Belgian IGM=Institut Geographique <br/>
Militaire. This has since been renamed the IGN=Inst. Geog. National. This <br/>
particular IGM map dates from the 1960s I believe, when the exact number <br/>
and boundaries of the enclaves were unknown. It is only since 1995 that we <br/>
have a formal delimitation and can say how many enclaves there are, how <br/>
large, and what their perimeters are. Because of this, the small enclave SW <br/>
of the word &#39;mast&#39; between K12 and K13 is fictitious. I spoke with someone <br/>
at Baarle (I forget who: probably a chap at the Cadastre in Breda), who <br/>
agreed it was an error on the map (just as the current Dutch topo maps of <br/>
Baarle are incorrect too, misplacing H22 for example).<br/>
<br/>
So, the smallest enclave at Baarle has a 209m perimeter, and is H22, the <br/>
new one in the far west.<br/>
<br/>
As for Cooch  Behar, there are enclaves there as small as 0.27acres. As <br/>
there are 2.47 acres per ha, this gives it an area of 0.1093ha, or 1093sq <br/>
metres. I have no idea of its true shape, but if square, it would have <br/>
sides of 33m, and a perimeters of 4x33m=132m. It is probably not square, <br/>
but will not be highly irregular either, as the edges of the enclaves <br/>
mostly follow rice paddy bunds (known locally as &#39;ails&#39;: see my thesis), <br/>
which are generally rectangular in shape.<br/>
<br/>
If the Zim/Zam/Bot/Nam boundary turns out to be a point, it will be the <br/>
shortest in the world, and if the lines don&#39;t meet at a point, it will <br/>
still be a strong contender.<br/>
<br/>
but for the moment, despite the lack of precision, Cooch Behar beats Baarle <br/>
for boundary brevity by about 8:5<br/>
<br/>
B</div>