Page:The National geographic magazine, volume 1.djvu/320

 a contour is frequently carried across a ravine, instead of following it up, as it wonld do if the map were on a larger scale. Such generalizing is of course perfectly proper in a map, but, with the same scale, we expect more detail in a model. The modeler must have judgment enough and skill enough to read between the lines, and to undo the generalizing of the topographer and draughtsman, thus supplying the material omitted from the map.

This can be done without materially affecting the accuracy of the model, considered even as a copy of the contoured map. The contours of card board or other material are, let me repeat, only a means of control. The perfect modeler—a variety, by the way, yet to be evolved—would be able to make an accurate relief map without them, in the same way that other subjects are made; as, for example, a flower panel, an architectural ornament, or any other subject in low relief, where the object sought is artistic effect and great accuracy is not a desideratum. It is the converse of this idea that has produced the numerous models that one sees; accurate enough, perhaps, but wholly expressionless and absolutely without feeling. This is the great fault of nearly all models made by building up the contours in wood and then carving down the shoulders. It is then necessary to sand-paper them, and what little character they might otherwise have had is completely obliterated by the sand-paper. Such models almost invariably look wooden. Let the modeler, then, have a clear conception of his subject and not depend wholly on the contours, and let him work out that conception in his model, "controlled" and helped by the contours, but not bound by them; the resulting model will thus be far more satisfactory and a far better representation of his subject, in other words, it will be more life-like―more nearly true to nature.

The model, provided it be not of clay, is sometimes used in the state in which it is left when finished. It is much more common, however, to make a plaster mould, and from this a plaster cast. For this purpose a moulder is usually called in ; but moulders as a rule are ignorant men, accustomed to one line of work only, and the result is not always satisfactory. It is much better for the modeler himself to do this work, though to obtain good results from plaster it is necessary to know the material thoroughly, and this knowledge comes only from experience. The mould is generally made quite heavy, in order to stand the subsequent hard treatment that it may receive, and should be retouched and thor-