204 



NATURE 



\7nly 1 1, 1872 



to insignificance. The map of which I now write, when 

 complete, will be in 546 sheets. The portion comprising 

 the plains and the Jura will be on the large scale of Tjsicioi 

 but the Alpine portion will be upon a scale of j.iiJuq. As 

 yet only 26 sheets are published. The large scale of this 

 map admits of the introduction of details which would 

 have overcrowded the Carte Dufour, and there is, indeed, 

 scarcely anything omitted from it which could be inserted. 

 Kvcn the erratic blocks of the Jura are laid down. The 

 rivers and torrents are printed in blue ink, the lettering 

 and outline of the map is in black, and there is a third 

 printing, in red, for contour lines. Originally it was 

 intended to have had a fourth printing, in green, for the 

 sake of the forests ; but the idea was abandoned from 

 considerations of expense. The engraving of the lowland 

 portion of this map is of the most exquisite character, 

 and the Alpine portions (which are lithographic) are ex- 

 traordinary examples of drawing on stone. The published 

 sheets have not, however, the relief which is such a pic- 

 turesque feature of the Carte Dufour, and which makes 

 that map so popular and so valuable for educational pur- 

 poses. Notwithstanding this, the larger map will be 

 found to be incomparably the more useful of the two. 

 The contour lines are laid down on the Alpine portion at 

 a height of 30 metres (= 100 Swiss feet), and on the low- 

 lands at a height of 10 metres above one another. One 

 can therefore determine at a glance the height of any 

 point upon mountains, glaciers, or snow-fields, within a 

 few feet ; whilst the largeness of the scale renders it in- 

 valuable for purposes for which the Carte Dufour could 

 not be employed. 



There is also at the present time a third map of Swit- 

 zerland being produced at Berne, which is a reduction of 

 the Carte Dufour. This is upon the scale of ..-o^noo. '"^'id 

 will be in four sheets. Two sheets are already published, 

 a third is complete so far as .Switzerland is concerned, but 

 is awaiting details of the Italian Alps, and the fourth sheet 

 is scarcely commenced. The engraving of this map is 

 not less admirable than of those which have been already 

 enumerated; and as it will be sold at 10 fr. for the four 

 sheets, it will be one of the cheapest, if not the very 

 cheapest, copperplate map ever produced.* 



There are, therefore, existing or in progress three maps 

 of the Swiss Alps, each of which may be adopted with 

 confidence as a basis for other maps ; but if we pass to 

 the French, Austrian, or Italian Alps we shall find a great 

 inferiority in the materials at our command. The French 

 Alps have been, perhaps, better surveyed than the Aus- 

 trian, and the Austrian than the Italian; but all these 

 countries are destitute of maps possessing anything like 

 the perfection of the Swiss ones. 



The survey of the Etat Major, for the great map of 

 France in 25S sheets (subsequently extended to 263 sheets, 

 in consequence of the annexation of Savoy), was com- 

 menced very many years ago, but there arc about 20 

 sheets still remaining unpublished, and almost all of these 

 belong to the Alpine part of the country. Sheet 189, pub- 

 lished in 1S66, is indeed the only one yet issued which 

 embraces any very lofty peaks ; and this one contains the 

 whole of the so-called Pelvoux massif, which includes 

 numerous splendid mountains ranging in height from 

 3,700 to 4,100 metres. The principal triangulation may 

 have been performed, for aught I can say to the contrary, 

 with the utmost precision ; but there is in the engraved 

 sheets of the Alpine portions of the map a general want 

 of the intelligent rendering that is found in the Carte 

 Uufour, and such inexactness in tlie topographical details 

 that one's confidence is shaken in the whole work. I cite 

 by way of example the massif oixhit Meije (3,987 metres), 



' All of the Swiss maps are remarkably cheap. The sheets of the great 

 map in 546 sheets will be sold at an uniform price of one franc each. The 

 price of the Carte Dufour (which me.isures 3"50 metres wide by 2"40 metres 

 high) was reduced about three years ago, by order of the Fcder-il Council, 

 from 100 to 40 francs, in order that it might be available for persons of small 

 means. The whole of these maps can be procured from the boolvseller Dalp, 

 of Bcnie, who is the agent appointed for their s;ile. 



the highest mountain in the Alps which remains unas- 

 cended. The glaciers and its ridges, both on the north 

 and on the south sides, are very inaccurately represented, 

 and upon the spot are scarcely recognisable ; and in other 

 places, even where attention has manifestly been paid to 

 details, the work is very devoid of character, and has been 

 freely generalised. One can only conclude, in regard to 

 these matters, that the engineers either considered that 

 details of the upper regions were of no importance, 

 or else that they were ignorant of the meaning of 

 the things which they regarded. No sheets have been 

 published to the south of No. 189, and thus the 

 greater part of the department of Hautes Alpes, and the 

 whole of the departments of the Basses Alpes and of the 

 Var (to say nothing of Nice) remain unmipped. It is, 

 I believe, chiefly on account of the want of good maps 

 that so few persons travel for pleasure in this beautiful 

 corner of France. The means of communication are 

 good, and living is cheap, but it is rare indeed to meet 

 witli a tourist anywhere ; and the solitary pedestrian is 

 likely to be mistaken by the natives (as I have been 

 several times) either for a pedlar selling images of the 

 Holy Virgin, or for a dealer in looking-glasses.* 



The range of Mont Blanc, which partially reverted to 

 France in i860, was until quite recently one of the worst 

 mapped portions of the entire chain. t Upon the annexa- 

 tion of Savoy, Captain Mieulet, of the Etat Major, was 

 set to work to connect this part of the new territory with 

 the great map of France. But before Mieulet's work was 

 reduced, and indeed almost before his survey was com- 

 pleted, the range was mapped by an amateur, and the 

 honour of first presenting to the world an accurate plan 

 of the most important part of the greatest chain of 

 mountains in Europe was secured by an Englishman. 

 Mr. A. Reilly (the English amateur to whom 1 refer) in 

 1 S63 determined trigonometrically no less than 200 points, 

 and in the winter of 1S63-4 reduced his work to shape, 

 and presented his map to the English Alpine Club. Its 

 publication was immediately resolved upon, and in 1864 

 Mr. Reilly went over the ground again to correct his 

 work. In June 1865 his map was published at the cost of 

 the Alpine Club, in chromo-lithography, upon a scale of 

 Houoo under the title of "Tire Chain of .Mont Blanc." 

 in the mean time it had been represented in Paris that it 

 would be a great advantage for Captain ?\Iieulet to extend 

 his work beyond the frontiers, and he accordingly carried 

 h'S survey as far as Courmayeur. A speci.al sheet on the 

 scale of J 0000 '^^'^ promptly engraved from the materials 

 he accumulated, and was puljlished in 1S65 by order of 

 the late Minister of War, Marshal Randon.i This map, 

 however, included the central portion of the chain only, 

 and Mr. Reilly's map remains, I believe, the only trust- 

 worthy complete map of the whole of the chain that is in 

 existence. 



In accuracy there is probably little difference between 

 these two maps. The French one is superior to the other 

 in giving numerous altitudes, but the English one has the 

 merits of greater clearness and picturesqueness. Mieulet, 

 on his survey, discovered that the highest peak of the 

 Aiguille de Trelatcte was only 3,932 metres, whereas an 

 altitude 1,000 ft. greater had been previously assigned to it. 

 Reilly, on his part, demolished the Pointe des Plines, a 

 fictitious summit, which he showed was identical with the 

 Aiguille d'Argenticre, although it had in former maps 

 been laid down as a mountain separate and distinct. Both 

 maps have especial merits, but the Englishman's, from 

 being the work of an amateur, is the more remarkable of 



* Another proof of the rarity of travellers is found in the ignorance of the 

 natives of all kinds of money except their own, and the traveller should well 

 supply himself with napoleons and francs, to avoid loss by exchange. 



■t I do not of course in this remark include the Swiss portion of the 

 range, nor the basin of the Mer de Glace. That renowned glacier and its 

 tributaries were well surveyed by the lute Prof J. D. Forbes in the years 

 1842-50, and the resvUting map, which was published in 1S55, was, I believe, 

 drawn on stone by Dr. Augustus Petermann himself. 



I Under the title of *' Massif du Mont lilanc, extrait des niinittcfi de la 

 carte de France, li;v«5 par M. Mieulet. Capitaine d'Etat Major." 



