LECTURES. 136 



There are, again, the road map«, the ohject of which is to show the 

 condition of a country as regards its turnpikes, railroads, canals, 

 bridges, &c. Sometimes the land offices compose special ma])s, to 

 indicate which parts of the country are taken up and which are still to 

 be sold. The post officios have maps for their special purposes. Maps, 

 again, are issued to show the number and distribution of telegraphic 

 stations, of magnetical observatories, of light-houses, and for num- 

 berless other purposes, important for the administratipn of the gov- 

 ei-nment. These we might term official or administrative maps. 



It would no doubt be of the highest interest to have all these maps 

 collected and brought into a regular arrangement, according to class 

 and time. But in these respects, chartography has only made its 

 first steps — at least in most of the countries of this continent. It 

 would, therefore, for the present, perhaps, be advisable to throw all 

 the maps which we cannot place und&r the topographical or pliysical 

 heads into one and the same great division by the name of " miscel- 

 laneous mops," which might then be subdivided into the three follow- 

 ing orders : first, ethnographical, linguistical, and moral maps ; 

 second, statistical maps ; third, administrative maps. 



In course of time, when chartography should become more devel- 

 oped and the number of maps increased, we might form for each class 

 and order a separate collection. 



XIV. — LITERARY AID TO BE PROCURED. 



What Ave propose seems to be, in some respects, a quite new and 

 unusual thing. Maps generally have been either constructed as second- 

 ary works to serve other purposes, to illustrate the books of travellers, 

 geographers, &c., or they have been collected in great chartographical 

 works called atlases, which show all the countries of the world as 

 they were known and depicted at a certain time. We propose to 

 separate them from those books, to cut up those atlases, and, extracting 

 those maps which we want for the illustration of our subject, America, 

 arrange them according to the plan of our collection, where they will 

 thus find themselves otherwise surrounded and placed in other con- 

 nexions. 



The question may arise, if in this way we shall not endanger the 

 intelligibility of the maps, and likewise their usefulness ; or whether 

 vre can suggest remedies to obviate, or at least counterbalance, these 

 contingent disadvantages. 



To diminish at the outset these and similar apprehensions, we may 

 first observe, that many maps, both ancient and modern, have been 

 issued in loose sheets, without other explanation, or needing any, but 

 tliat contained in the maps themselves. 



Again, geographical maps, it is obvious, have a double nature. 

 They possess the advantage over mere pictures of being literary as 

 well as artistic productions. They therefore can and generally do 

 bring with them much of the materials necessary for their own inter- 

 pretation. Even when connected with books, they admit, for the most 

 part, of being detached without detriment ; and this, perhaps, in a 

 higher degree than many statues, pictures, &c., which nevertheless 



