82 Notice of a Geological Model. 



be the hand and the eye of the artist. The interesting and ac- 

 curate effect incidental to a picture, thus formed in rehef, is appa- 

 rent enough when the observer brings his eye to the level of any 

 point whatever on the model ; — the summit of a mountain, the 

 point of a bluff, or the curve of a river, for instance, — from 

 whence all that he needs in obtaining at ease and convenience a 

 view of the surrounding scenery, is accomplished. 



For topographical observations, for rapid reconnoissances, for 

 tracing routes for railroads, for canals, or for ordinary roads and 

 communications, the model system presents facilities for number- 

 less practical purposes, and may be the means of saving a great 

 deal of preliminary labor and expense, on such occasions, in a 

 mountainous or forest district. 



In all such regions, it is common to adopt as the best, because 

 they are the most natural and the most permanent, lines of de- 

 marcation, the elevated chains, the elongated ridges, the ranges 

 of highlands or platforms which divide the sources of rivers and 

 influence the descent of drainage ; or to constitute the rivers 

 themselves, as they flow between these ranges, the boundaries 

 of local and territorial jurisdictions. All of these are particularly 

 and necessarily prominent features in a model; and these, the 

 most sublime and most imperishable monuments in all countries, 

 have with propriety been selected as the most fitting for such 

 conventional purposes. Had a model, however roughly con- 

 structed, been in existence to illustrate the physical geography of 

 what is termed " the disputed territory" in the northeast, half a 

 century of embarrassment and conflicting opinions, and local dif- 

 ficulties, might have been saved to the interested parties. It is 

 not too late, even at this hour, to exhibit in this way, all the 

 topographical characters of that region ; to represent those great 

 natural features, suggested for lines of international boundary. 

 All the details applicable for this purpose are but now in progress 

 of collection. From their arrangement we may expect to result 

 the clearing up of existing obscurities ; a more accurate construc- 

 tion of terms, and the adjustment of important points, now at 

 issue. 



Models are peculiarly adapted to the exhibition of geological 

 phenomena. For ordinary convenience of transportation and 

 portability, no doubt maps are best adapted, for the library, or for 

 the use of the traveller. But for public and more enlarged ob- 



