33 



lor the time, may, however, be regarded simply as literary curiosi- 

 ties, interesting chiefly to the antiquary. 



About the year 1688, Adair made a survey, and gave descrip- 

 tions of the coasts of Scotland, which he published in a small atlas ; 

 but his sketches, as well as those of Sanson, Elphinstone, and Grier- 

 son, who succeeded him, are very inaccurate. The Rev. Alexander 

 Bryce surveyed the northern coasts of Scotland about the year 1740; 

 his map, published in 1744, made considerable advances in accuracy. 

 In 1750, John Dorret, land-surveyor, published a map of Scotland, 

 in five sheets, at the expense of the Duke of Argyll. This map had 

 more pretension than any that preceded it, being on a much 

 larger scale, but in construction it is still very inaccurate. Between 

 1751 and 1771, Mr Murdoch Mackenzie, who was employed by the 

 Admiralty, surveyed the western coasts of Britain, from the English 

 Channel to Cape Wrath, including the Hebrides from Lewis to 

 Islay, and extending to the Orkney Islands. His charts were pub- 

 lished on a scale of one inch to a mile, and were accompanied by 

 nautical descriptions. These were considered, at the time, entitled 

 to credit, but the recent Admiralty Surveys have proved them to be 

 exceedingly erroneous. 



In 1789, John Ainslie, an eminent land-surveyor in Edinburgh, 

 constructed, engraved, and published a map of Scotland and its 

 islands in nine sheets. This was the first good map of the country. 

 The author had made an actual survey of several counties, when he 

 was employed by the Board of Customs to survey the east coasts of 

 North Britain ; he also made many rapid surveys and sketches in 

 remote districts. Still, though superior to any that preceded it, his 

 map is very faulty in construction. In Ainslie's time the delinea- 

 tion of the physical features of a country was little understood ; his 

 mountains and hills are represented as rising insulated from their 

 bases ; no indications are given of the water-sheds dividing the river 

 basins, and little attention is paid to the subject of light and shade. 

 In 1792 Murdo Downie published a chart of the east coast of 

 Scotland, in which the sea-board is very inaccurate. 



The Government felt so greatly the want of a tolerable map of 

 Scotland, during the rebellion of 1745-6, that, on its suppression, it 

 was resolved, at the suggestion of the Duke of Cumberland, to com- 

 mence an actual survey of the whole country. This undertaking 



VOL. III. C 



