202 Notes. 



tours, is a move toward giving a graphic presentation of the 

 appearance of the country. The shading is not altogether satis- 

 factory, owing, perhaps, to lack of practice on the part of the 

 draughtsman, as this is something which requires years of study 

 to produce with good effect. The maps are printed in five 

 colors, though probably one of these, red (used to represent trails 

 and roads) might well have been replaced by black. The brown 

 for the contours, green to represent forests, and blue for drainage, 

 with black for culture, gives one of the most satisfactory and 

 effective combinations possible. 



There are, however, some serious defects in these maps. The 

 representation of the tojjographic features is hardly natural. 

 There is a want of detail and little suggestion of the ruggedness 

 of the country. An experienced topographer immediately notes 

 many features which are plainly clue to misinterj)retation of the 

 photographs. From the appearance of the country as mapped 

 one would expect to be able to take a jjack-train anywhere, 

 whereas in reality the ruggedness of the country forbids travel 

 even on foot in the greater portion of this region. These are re- 

 sults of the extreme generalization due to the making of maps 

 from photographs. The scale employed might well be reduced, 

 say, to 2 miles to an inch. This scale would be amply large to 

 show every detail represented, and would be more in consonance 

 with the vertical scale of 100-foot contour intervals which is em- 

 ployed. 



Apparently but a small number of stations were occupied in 

 mapping the country. On one of these sheets in particular, 

 the Anthracite sheet, but one station appears to have been occu- 

 pied in a total area of 65 square miles. The expense of this 

 work, eight dollars per square mile, is double that of work on a 

 scale of 2 miles to the inch on this side of the boundary, with 



which it maj^ be compared. 



H. M. w. 



Lieutenant Peary^s Crossing of Northern Greenland. — The follow- 

 ing account of this remarkable journey is condensed from the 

 only official sources available, which are the accounts over 

 Lieutenant Peary's signature in the New York Sim of October 

 25 and 31, J892. Lieutenant Peary's party of seven wintered 

 at Red cliff, on the shore of McCormick bay, in about 77° 7' N. 

 71° W. On April 30, 1892, the advance travelling party left 

 Red cliff, followed May 2 by Lieutenant Peary. Besides the 



