Geographical Surveying Its Uses Methods And Results

The plan of survey which I shall advocate is a mean between that system which takes cognizance of every house in a village and every little undulation in the landscape, and that want of system in which are represented whole mountain-chains that do not exist, or actual topographical features are delineated with gross inattention to accuracy. It is a judicious mean between the slow and laborious processes used, for instance, in the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain, and the sketchy and unreliable information gained by the early explorers of the New World, from whose results our first maps were compiled. chapter{Section 4These last are scarcely more graphic and complete than our present maps of the moon, and in fact, speaking broadly, they are not so accurate as the latter, 'which are, in great part, photographs of the surface which they represent. With these mere hints of the geography of its country a people should not feel obliged to rest satisfied until it can sustain a minutely topographical survey. AN EVOLUTION IN CARTOGRAPHY. The demand for maps depends upon the population and civilization of a country. In the beginning a rough sketch will answer the purposes of the pioneer. As the region becomes inhabited better maps are wanted, and finally the people require the nearest possible approach to absolute accuracy in the delineation of topographical features. Map- making in every country must follow a regular evolution from the incomplete to the complete. ...