Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/236

224 our land are represented to us as they never have been before. The scale employed varies from one to four miles to an inch on the maps thus far issued, but in future only the larger scale of a mile to an inch will be used. Relief is indicated by brown contour lines at intervals varying from five to fifty or more feet, according to the scale of the map and the character of the surface. Water is printed in blue; names, roads, boundaries, etc., in black. The accuracy of the work is not so great as many geographers and geologists would like to see. The expense of more accurate work would perhaps prevent its execution; but it may be justly said that a great increase of knowledge is made by the publication of these maps. Some of the sheets are better than others, and some of the poorer ones have been severely criticised by those who know the ground; but, as far as I have been able to observe, the character of the work is rising, and the interest in it is increasing. A sympathetic popular support and an intelligent criticism of this great undertaking will go far toward securing its improvement and extension. The study of geography will be greatly advanced when these maps are properly distributed to schools, as they soon should be, so that every high school at least would have not only its own district represented, but would possess also a collection of typical maps of other districts. At the same time the demand for more and better maps will be increased. In my own teaching, I find these maps simply invaluable. It is not only the younger students who learn lessons from them. Many a problem is effectively introduced and illustrated by the maps that would otherwise remain out of reach to teachers as well as scholars. The case which I am about to describe illustrates this point very clearly.

On noticing, a year or more ago, that the topographic sheets thus far issued for Illinois included a good part of the old Michigan outlet, I resolved to have a look over the ground at the first opportunity. A visit to the World's Fair was therefore arranged to include a trip down the Illinois valley, maps in hand, and in the good company of several friends from the Chicago University. The assistance given by the maps in gaining an appreciation of the form of the country raised the high estimate that I had previously formed of their educational value. They are simply indispensable in geographical study.