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College or Hawaii, 

 Honolulu, H. I. 



Vaughan MacCaucshey 



" EXPEDITE THE MAP " 

 A committee to "Expedite the Completion 

 of the Topographic Map of the United States " 

 has been formed on the invitation of the 

 undersigned, and its circulars have lately been 

 sent out to engineers and others in all parts 

 of the country, asking their support of the 

 movement. Although appropriations made by 

 congress have been liberal, although a number 

 of states have cooperated generously, and al- 

 though topographic mapping has been indus- 

 triously prosecuted by the U. S. Geological 



Survey for the last thirty-five years, only about 

 40 per cent, of our national domain is at pres- 

 ent represented on standard topographic maps. 

 The area annually covered was greater at first, 

 when the work was less accurate, than now, 

 since the demand for better maps has arisen: 

 at the present rate, about a century will be re- 

 quired to complete the maps, and long before 

 that time elapses the demand for maps of 

 larger scale and still greater accuracy will 

 retard the rate of progress, unless large funds 

 are forthcoming. For ten years past, some- 

 thing over half a million dollars has been spent 

 annually on field work alone. This large sum 

 should be steadily increased until it is at least 

 doubled, in order that too great a delay before- 

 maps of the whole country are available shalE 

 be avoided. A rapid increase in appropria- 

 tions is not desirable, because only a relatively 

 small number of trained topographers are 

 available for the work; but the increase should 

 be continued annually for some ten or fifteen 

 years to come. 



Every industry, art and science which de- 

 mands a knowledge of the lay of the land is 

 benefited by good maps of the area in which 

 it is carried on. The general location of 

 railways and highways, the planning of water- 

 supply, irrigation and drainage projects, the 

 prosecution of geological, soil and forest sur- 

 veys, the development of water powers and 

 the installation of electric transmission lines, 

 the promotion of large-scale realty transac- 

 tions such as are common in the less settled 

 parts of the country, are all aided immensely 

 if good topographic maps of their areas are 

 available, and are correspondingly embarrassed 

 if such maps are wanting. Practical men, who 

 have had experience in mapped and in un- 

 mapped areas, can testify to the ease and the 

 difficulty of work in the two eases. 



It is the wish of the committee to secure 

 letters from such men in all parts of the coun- 

 try as to the value of the maps in the surveyed 

 areas and as to the need of maps in the un- 

 surveyed areas. The testimony thus gathered 

 will be submitted to the director of the TJ. S. 

 Geological Survey, as the basis of an urgent 

 request that he should ask for larger appro- 



