JOHN WESLIvY POWELL DAVIS 



prime importance that the survey should be conductecl with 

 utmost regard to economy." Relief had usually been repre- 

 sented by shading or by hachures ; shading is too vague, hach- 

 ures are too expensive, contours are definite and not over 

 costly ; hence contour maps were determined upon. Co-opera- 

 tive work with States, first undertaken in 1884 with Massachu- 

 setts, has since then been greatly extended. Singularly enough, 

 no provision was made at first for the sale of the topographic 

 sheets to the public; but when this was allowed the price did 

 not include any part of the cost of production apart from paper 

 and printing; a wide distribution was thus secured. The same 

 wise method was early applied in determining the price asked 

 for Survey reports and later for geologic folios. 



The plans as outlined at the beginning of this great topo- 

 graphic work were admirable ; the difficulty of executing them 

 was great. Liberal sums were, available for topographic sur- 

 veying, but for a time it was impossible to find trained topog- 

 raphers in the desired number; hence many insufficiently 

 trained men had to be employed and their training came in the 

 field. The pressure for the rapid production of maps at mod- 

 erate cost over large areas led to hasty work insufficiently in- 

 spected ; hence the published maps were not always correct to 

 scale of publication. In some cases the dangerous practice was 

 permitted of redrawing in new form the maps produced by 

 previous surveys, and as a result certain, sheets of deplorable 

 inaccuracy were issued ; some of these exhibit features that 

 are hardly recognizable on the excellent maps of later date for 

 the same districts. Nevertheless, progress toward greater ac- 

 curacy was rapid afterward, when better methods were intro- 

 duced and greater cost was allowed per square mile; and it 

 may now be seriously questioned whether the large number of 

 excellent maps annually issued at present could have been so 

 soon reached in any way but by plunging in boldly and rapidly 

 instead of slowly and accurately at the beginning. Certain it 

 is that the revelation of geographical matters of fact regarding 

 large areas of our country, as portrayed on the sheets issued 

 during the last ten or fifteen years, is of immense service to 

 us all today ; and this service must be counted as a consequence 

 of Powell's marvelous initiative. 



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