122 REPORTS OP INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS. 



A Guide to the Canadian archives composed from onr point of view would, 

 SO far as Ottawa is concerned, have a general resemblance to Van Tyne and 

 Iceland's "Guide to the Archives of the United States Government," the sec- 

 ond edition of which was published by us in 1908, but with such differences 

 as would arise from the partial concentration of records in a general archive, 

 which we do not yet have in Washington. But it should also embrace the 

 archives of the component provinces of the Dominion. The archives of the 

 Maritime Provinces, at Halifax, Fredericton, and Charlottetown, especially 

 the first, are rich in material for the history of New England, both because 

 of nearness and close political relations and because of the Loyalist migra- 

 tion. Similar causes give importance to those of Ontario, at Toronto, while 

 the civil and ecclesiastical archives of Quebec, so far as preserved and avail- 

 able, are well known to abound in instruction for earlier periods. So many 

 questions of method arise in connection with a composite task like this, ques- 

 tions which can only be answered by careful inquiries and preliminary inves- 

 tigations, that only an appropriation sufficient for tentative beginnings has 

 been asked for. 



The third request has been shaped in the same spirit. No doubt is felt that 

 a scientific atlas of the historical geography of the United States is greatly 

 needed, and little doubt that the task is especially incumbent upon our Depart- 

 ment. To make a good historical atlas involves expense beyond the power 

 of individuals. Governments, on the other hand, usually find themselves re- 

 strained by political considerations, or by the positions they have taken in 

 international and other discussions, from publishing maps and letterpress 

 which treat questions of historical geography with perfect scientific detach- 

 ment, and display the facts as they might appear to a Martian rather than 

 as they ought to appear to an American. An endowed historical department 

 in Washington, enjoying the good-will and the frequent assistance of Gov- 

 ernmental bureaus, is in an ideal position for producing such an atlas of 

 American historical geography as is desiderated. 



But the construction of such an atlas is not a task to be entered upon 

 without deliberation, many calculations, and the best advice, nor to be pro- 

 posed to Trustees before the project has attained the most definite and con- 

 crete shape, with abundant details as to contents and cost. This is especially 

 true if the plan when fully developed will, as is hoped, be marked by an unu- 

 sual development on certain sides. The stock varieties of maps in historical 

 atlases are : maps which illustrate boundaries and divisions existent in dif- 

 ferent periods, and those which illustrate particular historical events, such 

 as campaigns and battles. There should be no disposition to neglect such 

 categories as these. Maps illustrating the territorial claims of European 

 powers, the grants made by them, the boundaries of colonies and states, the 

 acquisitions and boundary disputes of the United States, and the like mat- 



