56 REVIEWS—NELSON’S ATLAS, AND WALL AND FAMILY MAPS. 
of hundred or thousand square miles, are accompanied by the mea- 
sured intervals of latitude and longitude. 
We have thus specified some of the more obvious improvements in- 
troduced by Mr. Nelson into the system of Geographical instruction 
‘by maps. To indicate the difference of time at each point on the 
-earth’s surface, as determined by the number of degrees through 
‘which the sun travels westward every hour, the Mercator’s projection 
is marked off in parallels of longitude at intervals of 15 degrees, each 
marked with the hour westward or eastward of London. On turning 
to an Atlas chiefly used in our Canadian Schools to ascertain how the 
same information was there conveyed, we were amused to find the 
clumsy and almost ludicrous device of a page covered with rows of 
clock-dials, with the hands of each pointing to a different time, and 
printed underneath each the name of some city: London, Rome, 
Washington, Toronto, Nankin, Jerusalem, &c. The contrast between 
the science of the one and the unpractical empiricism of the other, 
could scarcely be surpassed. 
The Wall Maps are coloured so as to exhibit the details in bold con- 
trast; and the execution of the whole is admirable. The great ad- 
ditional labour and cost involved in the construction and engraving 
of Maps in which ellipses have to be used instead of circles, have 
unquestionably tempted Geographers to adhere to the common pro- 
jection, notwithstanding some notorious defects. The prcjection 
generally adopted is not, indeed, the true globular one, but a modifi- 
cation of that projection, in which economy of construction is secur- 
ed at the expense of accuracy. In the new system of projection and 
the other novel features of the maps we now refer to, they appeal to all 
who are interested in education, by improvements suggested by sound 
practical common sense, and a successful application of intelligent 
experience to surmount difficulties felt by every young student 
in mastering that useful part of education, which is indicated in 
most higher school prospectuses, under the name of “The use of 
the Globes.’ At the end of such a course of training, it would be 
an instructive test to ascertain how many are able to translate the 
ordinary Geographical definitions of latitude and longitude, into a 
distinct idea of the relative distances and positions of any two places 
on the Earth’s surface. 
That we have not over-estimated the value of the Atlas and Maps, 
here referred to, is proved by the fact that they have been specially 
selected for commendation by Sir Roderick Murchison in his Address 
before the Royal Geographical Society, in which he remarked :— 
