170 MAPS AND THEIR MAKERS 



Atlas of the World' is a combination of a general and a national 

 atlas. Volume I (1937) deals with the world and the Soviet 

 Union in general; the second volume (1939) deals in greater 

 detail with the political and administrative units, topography, 

 and economic geography of the Union, some of the 'oblasti' 

 being mapped on a scale of 1 : 1.5 M. In it, population densities 

 are shown by proportionate circles for the large centres and 

 colour bands elsewhere. The difficult problem of showing 

 the distribution of population effectively has still to be solved 

 satisfactorily. In the 'dot' method, except on large scales, the 

 placing of the dots (representing given units of population) 

 must be to a considerable extent arbitrary. The differential 

 colouring of areas, resembling the layer colouring of topo- 

 graphical maps, is generally preferable, but it is not easy to 

 show sudden and considerable increases in density. 



There is no National Atlas of Great Britain to be recorded, 

 despite the strong case made out recently by a committee of 

 the British Association, and supported by the Royal Geographi- 

 cal Society. Material for this exists, however, in the series of 

 maps of Great Britian on the scale of 1:625,000 (about ten 

 miles to one inch) compiled by the Ministry of Town and 

 Country Planning, and published by the Ordnance Survey. 

 These, employing a common base, include such topics as land 

 utilization, types of farming, population density, coal and iron, 

 iron and steel, and economic minerals. The Ordnance Survey 

 have announced the intention of issuing these as 'atlas' maps 

 on half the scale, 1 : 1.25 M., but so far only the base map has 

 been issued. It is to be hoped that these constituents of a 

 national atlas illustrating "the life, work, wealth, and physical 

 conditions of Great Britain" will not be long delayed. 



During the war, attempts were made to induce the public to 

 abandon the 'flat', non-continuous world map of the Mercator 

 type, with the north 'at the top', for others emphasizing the 

 'round world', and the new relationships inherent in the 

 development of the aeroplane. A striking example was R. E. 

 Harrison's Fortune Atlas, 'Look at the world', in which the 

 orthographic projection was used, with unusual orientations. 

 'Near globes', i.e. geometrical constructions resembling globes 

 which could also be laid out flat, were also devised, an instruc- 



