LECTURES. 129 



tries falsely, with the view of sustaining a geographical hypothe- 

 sis. Explorers, too, have often committed this sin, in order to add a 

 little to their glory, by magnifying the extent of their discoveries, 

 and especially by carrying them to a higher latitude than had been 

 done by others. Maps have also been falsified officially by govern- 

 ments, either for the purpose of concealing from foreigners the assail- 

 able points of their territories, or for giving to their boundaries a 

 greater extent. 



Even such false representations should often be comprised in our 

 collections, especially when they may still become the object of some 

 important scientific or political discussion. 



Falsifications of maps at the instigation of trading associations, 

 railroad companies, and other speculators, are also not rare. On one 

 occasion a map was published of the State of Maine, liberally fur- 

 nished with an assortment of fabulous rivers, which were represented 

 as navigable to certain points ; and all for the purpose of enticing 

 land buyers, wood-cutters^ and settlers to those localities. With 

 such fabrications we, of course, have nothing to do. 



Xin. — ON THE ARRANGEMENT OP THE COLLECTION. 



It is evident that a mere accumulation of some thousands of maps 

 without order would be of little or no use, because in every case in 

 which we wanted to refer to them the trouble would be enormous. 



What principles, then, are to be adopted for bringing order out of 

 this chaos ? 



If we had here to treat only of a narrow spot, of a limited country, 

 then a simply chronological arrangement would be sufficient. But 

 having before us a large continent, more or less connected with all the 

 rest of the world, composed of many extensive regions, and contain- 

 ing numerous important rivers, harbors, and cities, an adherence to 

 the chronological order alone would be far from satisfactory. If the 

 maps of Canada were mixed up with those of Patagonia, and the 

 special surveys of the harbor of New York with the general maps of 

 America, according to their time of publication or composition, the 

 trouble of search would still be immense whenever we wanted to con- 

 sult the maps with respect to a certain point. 



Hence it is evident that, while a chronological arrangement should. 

 pervade the whole, geographical distribution should be resorted to for 

 reducing the collection to manageable subdivisions. 



In accordance with these views, we would propose to put in ami 

 introductory class all those old maps of the world, by whatever natix)ni 

 produced, in which some indications or conjectures may be found s^ to> 

 the existence of islands and countries beyond the limits of the krM>wni 

 old world. 



When the new world was discovered, the mind of the Europeam 

 public was at first principally occupied with the general questions as. 

 to what this country might be, how far it might extend, and lh: what, 

 relative position it might stand to the rest of the world. Far-rgaching: 

 voyages were undertaken, in order to ascertain the great onilines of* 

 the whole, before attention was directed to the study of the pajctirularc 

 9s 



