The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-02-03
HARD WORK TO MAKE MAPS.
Years of Labor Sometimes Given to On,
photographic Product.

Years of Labor Sometimes Given to One
photographic Product.
From the New York Sun.
Few people have any idea of the i'm
mense labor expended upon the produce
ton OF the best maps. Professor Wag-
ner, who occupies the chair of geogra-
phy at the University of Gottingen,
Germany, was talking about it the oth-
er day. This famous geographer had
just completed the latest revision Of
mis- Atlas of School Geography"
Il revise the atlas about every two
years. said the professor. TT requires
several months Of my time; and in ad-
dltlon to this / have to be on the look
out every day for news Of fresh discov-
cries, corrections of errors that crept
into the maps, new political boundaries,
new temperature observations in the
Amazon basin, for instance, where few
meteorological records have been kept,
which may affect the position of the is
othermal lines on my maps, and great
variety of other information which he
cessitates many changes on my map
plates of more or less Importance. /
have to keep on file all the maps from
explorers which are published by the
geographical societies of all lands. 1t IS
from these maps that most of our IN
formation about new discoveries and
1
there are the map sheets of detailed
topographic survey issued by the gov
ernments of nearly all civilized lands.
They now number thousands and they
must be in the libraries of all ffrst-class
map publishing house which aspire to
keep their maps fully abreast of geo.
graphic progress
There is also a great deal of author
itative literature giving many geo.
- ,.xrIx
Of agricultural products in a country,
which may be clearly indicated on the
maps we make. All this information
has to be classified and pigeonholed
ready for use when the time comes for
the next map revision.
Many persons might think that the
most barren and scantily peopled parts
of the world would not often require
correction on the maps; but this is not
so. In the Arctic regions, for instance,
within a short time Peary visits an I'M
known part of the northeast coast CT
Greenland and finds channel leading
far west and separating the mainland
as far as Is determined from the islands
further north Nansen discovers new
facts about the depth of the Arctic
ocean, the movements of Arctic cur
rents. mean temperatures, etc, and
pushes his work within $50 miles Of the
north pole; then Jackson appears with
an entirely new map of Franz josef
Land which completely changes our
ideas of the geography of that region;
and Tyrrell traverses a part of North
America west of Hudson's bay never be-
fore visited and finds new facts for the
maps; and other Canadian explorers
trace to Hudsons bay the rivers that
drain the country to the south of that
inland sea. Every year on an average
about 200 hitherto unknown reefs and
rocks and other dangers to navigation
are discovered and must be noted on
many maps.
1T is the business of the geographer
to take all this immense volume of new
information and use 1t with critical
care. He can tell within narrow limits
what des""e OF creieiice is to be givel
to the Wo.k CT each explorer and he
rejects great deal of Information
which does not appear to him to be
based upon sufficiently careful or COM
petent res aarcli. @n@
When the Frenchman Bissy made
the large map of Africa, to which he de-
voted a great deal of his time for eight
years he used as his sources of informal
uon nearly 1890 route maps and other
maps Of the continent. 1t took a great
deal of time to sift from this enormous
mass of material the facts he selected
to present on the largest map of Africa
yet produced.
One of the handsomest photographic
works of recent years Is the atlas Of the
German colonies which Paul Langhans
of Gotha, Germany, has recently COM
pleted after about three years of assid-
uous labor. He neglected no source of
valuable information in carrying out
this undertaking, and the sixty map
pages give the results Of the latest and
best geographical researches among
Germany's colonies all over the world
AS Is the habit of the best German
he gives the sources of all
the information he has placed on mis-
MAPS