Survey of Northeast Greenland. 395 
does not require the use of stadia and rodmen. It further deserves 
to be mentioned that with stereo-telemeters one may measure di- 
stances at inaccessible points, in which manner one becomes to a 
certain extent independent of the accessibility of the terrain, To 
conclude it must be stated that with the stereo-telemeter the distance 
is measured extremely quickly and without any auxiliary tables, 
that the instrument is very easy to transport, and that in all circum- 
stances it serves the same purposes as a very good binocular. 
It is a slight drawback that no scale has been provided for 
distances under 200 metres. When undertaking topographic surveys, 
such as those of the Danmark-Ekspedition, on a scale of 1 : 25000, 
1:50000 and 1: 100000 this, however, does not play such a great 
part that for this reason it is necessary to make special preparations 
for the measuring of short distances. If one sees fit to determine 
the position of a point within 200 metres, one may, for instance, 
measure the distance by pacing or, if it be near 200 metres, estimate 
it by means of the stereo-telemeter. 
The points plotted were levelled in the usual manner; the alti- 
tudes were computed and written on the map with Indian ink, after 
which the linear signatures (watercourses, small lakes, coast con- 
tours &c.) were delineated. The measuring from each station was 
concluded by a sketching of the relief by means of horizontal curves, 
the equidistance of which in scale 1 : 25000 was 5 metres, whereas 
in scale 1 : 50000 and 1: 100000 it was ten metres. This sketching 
of the relief thus takes place in sight of the terrain; but the topo- 
grapher does not leave the station, and his only reliable support is 
provided by the plotted points. 
Compared with the circumstantiality and extreme accuracy with 
which the horizontal curves are delineated, for instance in the 
original minute survey map of the Danish General Staff, a sketching 
such as the one mentioned above is superficial and highly inaccurate, 
and it may be doubtful whether one is entitled to publish a map 
with curves of this kind, because in that way one lays oneself open 
to giving quite an erroneous idea of the accuracy with which the 
measuring is performed. The sketching of the terrain by means of 
equidistant curves is, however, the only way which leads to a fairly 
reliable result; the method, as it were, forces the topographer to let 
the pencil follow the terrain along all of its inequalities; it gives 
the topographer himself a direct and strong impression of the places 
where the uncertainty becomes too great, and enables him in the 
place itself to remedy this defect by determining the position and 
altitude of one or more new points of support for the drawing of 
the curves. 
