THE INTERNATIONAL ^IILEIONTH MAP 



127 



to accept the metric system and the in- 

 sistence of the French geographers upon 

 the meridian of Paris as the initial me- 

 ridian of the international map. 



IMPORTANT PROGRESS AT THli WASHING- 

 TON MEETING 



At the Eighth Congress, held in 

 Washington in 1 904, Professor Penck 

 took advantage of the fact that France, 

 Germany, and Great Britain had sepa- 

 rately prepared maps, on a scale of one 

 to one million, of countries as far apart 

 as China, India, Persia, Africa, and the 

 Antilles, to congratulate the assembly 

 upon the progress made toward the 

 world map. Setting aside as relatively 

 inconsiderable the differences in arrange- 

 ment and execution of the several maps, 

 he dwelt upon their uniformity of scale 

 and took a hopeful view of the outlook 

 for future agreement. He said : 



"It is thus for the first time that dif- 

 ferent parts of the earth's surface are 

 represented so that they can be directly 

 compared with one another. One who 

 is familiar with Cuba needs only to lay 

 the French map of this island at the side 

 of the German or French map of China 

 to see at one glance that space which has 

 been overwhelmed in the Russo-Japanese 

 war. A student of the coast line can 

 now compare the bays of Shantung with 

 those of Cuba, and another can compare 

 the behavior of the rivers in south Abys- 

 sinia with those in south China, and a 

 third will be able, by the chosen projec- 

 tion, to determine the exact areas of 

 lands, rivers, basins, lakes, and so on. 

 All this indicates considerable progress 

 in the practical and theoretical study of 

 different parts of the world — a progress 

 which is not essentially affected by the 

 fact that the maps are not so uniform as 

 was desirable." 



After discussing the differences exist- 

 ing among the maps undertaken by the 

 European powers, Professor Penck 

 pointed out that there was no general 

 map of North or South America, or even 

 of the United States, such as any stu- 

 dent or traveler requires, and he urged 

 that the Geographical Congress should 



endeavor to induce the United States to- 

 do for America what Great Britain is 

 doing for Africa; that is, to prepare a 

 uniform map of both the American con- 

 tinents on a scale of one to one million.* 



The action of the Eighth Congress led 

 to no official result, but the arguments 

 presented by Professor Penck for a gen- 

 eral map of the United States bore fruit 

 in the work of the Geological Survey. 

 By authority of the director, Mr Wal- 

 cott, Mr Henry Gannett prepared a num- 

 ber of maps designed to become part of 

 the one-millionth map of the United 

 States. They were, however, not ad- 

 justed to any general plan of the maj) of 

 the world, as no international scheme had 

 then been agreed to. The units chosen 

 were states, and the drawings were made 

 in accordance with the methods of car- 

 tography which have become familiar 

 through the atlas sheets of the Geological 

 Survey. The representation of altitudes 

 by brown contour lines was worked out 

 in great detail for the scale, and pecu- 

 liarly distinguished the maps in contrast 

 to the effects of shading employed by the 

 French and German cartographers. 



Mr Gannett's interest in the project for 

 a world map became an important factor 

 in its further development. At the Ninth 

 International Geographical Congress, 

 held at Geneva in July, 1908. he pre- 

 sented through the American delegate, 

 Dr David T. Day, resolutions urging that 

 the Congress take effective measures to- 

 ward an agreement upon the essentia? 

 details of the plan, and that these meas- 

 ures be commended to the several map- 

 making powers with a request for an 

 international conference having authority 

 to act upon them. The resolutions were 

 passed, a committee was appointed, and 

 the details of a plan were worked out and 

 adopted. The British representative, 

 Col. C. F. Close, on request of the Con- 



* Penck. Albreclit. Plan of a IMap of the 

 World. Report of the Eighth International 

 Geographical Congress, pp. 553-557- Washing- 

 ton, 1904. 



In the same report is a notice by General 

 Berthaut, of France, and one by Major Hills, 

 of England, on the one to one-millionth maps 

 in preparation by their respective governments. 



