Science in Public Affairs 



other publications, one must learn the interpreta- 

 tion of the symbolism and notation of the maps, 

 and one must acquire familiarity with the few tech- 

 nical formulae which occasionally break through 

 the ordinary and simple language of its letterpress. 

 There are simple, easy, and pleasant ways of 

 achieving both these ends in fact, short-cuts by 

 which one may penetrate right into the heart of 

 geographical science. To master the symbolism 

 and notation of cartography, all one has to do is 

 to compare the best contour maps (that is to say, 

 those of the Ordnance Survey) with what one 

 sees with naked eye, with field-glass, or with 

 telescope, when one ascends the high points of 

 vantage in one's own region. These high points 

 of vantage are, of course, for the towns and cities, 

 their towers, such as they may be ; and for the 

 surrounding country, whatever mound, hill-top, or 

 mountain summit one's excursions and explora- 

 tions may discover. The primary problem of the 

 cartographer is to show by symbolic notation on 

 a flat surface all the varying heights and shapes 

 assumed by, or imposed upon, the earth's surface, 

 above or below sea-level. What the ideal geo- 

 grapher, as cartographer, first of all tries to do 

 is to devise a notation by which he and his fellow- 

 geographers, by the inspection of a map of a 

 given region, may get a simultaneous vision of the 

 terrestrial phenomena which all the explorers and 

 observers of that region have collectively seen. 

 Now it must always be that however minutely 

 observed and explored a region even the most 



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