Ill HOW BEST TO MODEL THE EARTH 65 



any high degree of accuracy. Larger areas, such as 

 the British Isles, France, or Germany, would be quite 

 beyond the reach of any accui-ate reduction by means of 

 photography. As affording exceptional facilities for 

 accurate map-making the globe would be of very limited 

 service. 



The second advantage to be derived from the proposed 

 globe is stated to be the correction of erroneous ideas as to 

 the comparative sizes of various countries and islands, owing 

 to the fact of their representation in atlases on very different 

 scales, while each country gives its own territories the 

 greatest prominence. But a large part of this advantage 

 would be lost owing to the fact that distant countries 

 could never be seen together. That Texas is much larger 

 than France would not be impressed upon the spectator 

 when, after losing sight of the one country several hours 

 might pass before he came in sight of the other, while 

 even the various States of Europe, such as Great Britain 

 and Italy, or Portugal and Turkey, would never be in 

 view at the same time. For this special purpose, there- 

 fore, the globe would not be so instructive as the large wall 

 maps of continents at present used in every schoolroom. 



The third advantage, that the globe would admit of the 

 varied contours of the surface being shown in their true 

 proportions, does undoubtedly exist, and is very important ; 

 but even as regards this feature, its instructiveness Would 

 be very largely diminished by the impossibility of seeing 

 the contours of any considerable area in its entirety, or of 

 comparing the various mountain ranges with each other, 

 or even the different parts of the same mountain range. It 

 may be doubted whether the relief-maps now made do not 

 give as useful information as would be derived from a 

 globe of which only so limited a portion could be seen 

 at one view. 



Alternative Plan. 



It thus appears that the gigantic earth-model proposed 

 by M. Reclus would very imperfectly fulfil the purposes 

 for which he advocates its construction. But this defect 

 is not at all inherent in a globe of the dimensions he 



VOL. II, F 



