488 SAMGIDIGIS, ROI SINGLOVIIN TES, 
on anything that we before possessed for the greater part of the 
country that they cover, but they are by no means of final 
accuracy. Indeed, one of the results that I hope to see from 
their publication is the education of the public to the need of 
still better maps and their preparation a few decades in the 
future. For the present it is perhaps too much to expect that 
so vast a domain as ours can be surveyed in a manner appro- 
priate to more densely settled European countries, and at a 
cost that might in many regions approach the market value of 
the land itself. Information as to this question of relative cost 
may be found in Wheeler’s report, above mentioned, and in the 
testimony of Major Powell, then director of the United States 
Geological Survey, before the Joint Commission of Congress on 
_ the Governmental Scientific Bureaus in 1884-5 (XLIX Con- 
gress, Ist session, Mis. Doc. 82, Washington, 1886). 
It is not intended to imply for a moment that better exam- 
ples of geographical forms are to be found abroad than at 
home; but that, for the present, better representations of many 
typical forms can be obtained from foreign than from home 
surveys. Care should of course be taken to introduce home 
examples as fully as possible; and for this purpose, a good 
number of our own maps, grouped and mounted for laboratory 
study, are in frequent use, and their number is increasing year 
by year; but there are two lessons that are well taught by the 
foreign maps. The first is the essential community of individ- 
ual geographical forms over the world; when well learned in 
one place, they may be easily recognized in another. The simi- 
larity of members of the same family is very striking, and gives 
good emphasis to the principles of systematic geography. The 
second lesson concerns the educational value of fine maps; from 
this I hope in time to see a growth of public sentiment in favor 
of better maps for our own country, and where should this sen- 
timent be planted better than among college students ? 
The intelligent appreciation and use of good home maps will 
be furthered by a knowledge of the kind of information that 
good foreign maps impart. At present it is seldom that one 
