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 Figure 6-2. The Geography of the First U.S. Census reports. One volume, a compendium, is of particular interest because it was the first pocket-size Census Bureau publication; it contained an extensive explanatory text together with a series of summary tables. The volume introduced several kinds of large-area geographic regions, for which it presented an extensive array of socioeconomic information.

The compendium also featured the first map to appear in a Census Bureau publication. This map showed the area of the conterminous United States subdivided into major slopes, or drainage basins. The interest in drainage basins appears to have had an economic basis. Navigable rivers, canals, and Statistical Groupings6-5