CHAP. I.] MOUNTING PAPER 43 



To stretch, and firmly paste or glue the paper, on a drawing- 

 board or table, where it must remain until the chart is complete ; 

 or to plot on a piece of drawing-paper mounted on hoUand or 

 calico, and simply flattened out before use. 



The advantage of the former is that the paper remains flat, Loose 

 and free from wrinkles or movement, the whole time work is t,es\®,^itii 

 being done on it ; but for many reasons, the latter is most Large 

 convenient for ship work. If many sheets are under weigh 

 at one time, which frequently occurs in an extended survey 

 and large staff, they take up less room, and interfere less 

 with one another, when several persons are working at one 

 table, than when sheets mounted on boards are used, and 

 they are easier put out of the way. If the plotting sheet 

 is very large, and formed of many pieces of paper, which it 

 must often of necessity be, it is very difficult to stretch such 

 a paper, and it would take up the whole of the table, where it 

 would have to be placed, as a board of sufficient size would be 

 very inconvenient in a ship. 



The drawback is the constant stretching and taking up of 

 the sheet, with the variation in temperature and dampness of 

 the air, which is undoubtedly a source of annoyance in plotting 

 long lines, as the radii measured the day before, or even a few 

 hours before, will frequently be found so much altered in length 

 as to necessitate remeasurement. 



This variation of the sheet may also produce distortion ; but Distor- 

 with good paper, well mounted, it will be nearly the same for 

 all parts of the chart, and the distortion is so shght as to be 

 of no practical inconvenience, and it is a question whether 

 more distortion is not produced when, in using the other 

 method, the stretched sheet is finally cut off the board when 

 finished. 



The fact is, that a material on which to draw charts free 

 from the possibility of stretching and distortion has yet to be 

 discovered, and we must put up with these inconveniences as 

 long as we use the paper of the present day. 



Taking one thing with the other, then, the author recom- 

 mends the use of loose mounted sheets for general ship work. 



Paper, whether mounted or not, in damp chmates rapidly Care of 

 gets into a useless condition, and this even in hermetically ^^^^' 

 sealed tins. 



