[GAKONG] CARTOGKAPHY OF NEW BRDNSWICK 315 



these features of importunée from the historical standpoint, though under 

 some eircurastances they may well be so,' and on the (jther their discus- 

 sion seems to belong rather to the more general subject, upon which 

 th(n'e are learned essays and books later to be referred to. 



In the preceding memoir of this series, 1 have tried to treat the place- 

 noraenelature of New Brunswick in a scientiiic fashion. Logically, that 

 subject were better treated along with this, of which it is properly a 

 division ; and, indeed, it were yet better if both together, along with a 

 consideration of the historic and physiographic factors intiuencing the 

 geographical distribution of settlements, a study of the evolution of 

 boundary lines, and the determination of the exact sites of leading his- 

 torical places and events, were to form a single work — the geographical 

 history of the province. But the most logical plan is not always prac- 

 tically possible, and these various divisions of one subject I must be con- 

 tent to treat in separated papers. 



I'AET 1. 

 Essay upon the Study op Local Cartography. 



In this essay it is not my intention, even were it within the compass 

 of my knowledge or abilities, to attempt to present an analysis of the 

 principles of Cartography in the abstract, worthy the attention of those 

 learned in that subject. But in the course of my studies on the Carto- 

 graphy of the province of New Brunswick, into which lield I have gone 

 farther than any one else up to the present time, I have noted some facts 

 and principles about maps and their interpretation which may be of use- 

 to others who contemplate a like venture into the same or similar fields -^ 

 and to present these is the limit of my ambition in the present essay. 



In the general field of American Cartography, he must indeed possess 

 assurance, who, without half a lifetime of preparation, can expect to glean 

 much that is new, where Kohl, Winsor and llarrisse have harvested. 

 Here and there the diligent amateur, especially if he be personally 

 ftimiliar with the localities he studies, may find a wisp or even a sheaf 

 which has esca])ed those scholars, but", in general, in their field any new 

 knowledge is to be gained only at great cost of labour and time. This is,. 

 however, true only for the general field of East American Cartography,, 

 but not at all true for the exhaustive monographic study of limited areas, 

 which can hardly be said to have been yet begun. The leaders I have- 

 mentioned are like topographers who have gone over the entire country 

 and correctly laid down its leading features, its seas, great rivers and 

 mountain chains, upon a scale which, though correct, is small ; there still" 

 remain for others, the tracing and mapping of details, even to every hill, 



1 Compare Dawson, Voyages of the Cabots, 66 et seq. 



