mooie. Nae. 
FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 1884. 
COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 
A coMMITTEE of the Massachusetts legis- 
lature is considering the introduction of an act 
authorizing the preparation of a topographical 
map of the state. The U.S. geological survey 
commenced its work in the state last year by 
placing a surveying-party in one of the western 
counties, with the intention of constructing a 
map of the state, to be printed on the scale of 
about half an inch to the mile. The director 
of the survey has now proposed to the com- 
mittee to double the printed scale, as well as 
the original plot, making the latter about two 
inches to the mile, provided the state treasury 
will bear one-half of the expense, or a sum 
estimated at five dollars per square mile, —a 
final total expense to the state (800 square 
miles along the coast being already, charted 
by the coast-survey) of less than $40,000. 
This recalls the movement in the state ten 
years ago, when the American academy memo- 
rialized the legislature for a general survey of 
the commonwealth, — a project which received 
the cordial support of scientific, industrial, and 
educational bodies throughout the state, and 
which was lost by the casting vote of the 
speaker of the house. That plan contem- 
plated, on the topographical side, an original 
map, on the scale of 1: 25,000, or about two 
inches and a half to the mile, to be finally 
printed on some lesser scale. The cost of the 
field-work was estimated at $25 per square 
mile, or $175,000. - But the plan proposed so 
much more than the topographical map, that 
the estimated expense of the entire survey was 
brought to $385,000; and it was doubtless 
the magnitude of the total cost which finally 
defeated the measure. 
Half a century ago, a trigonometrical survey 
No. 62. —1884. 
was ordered and executed, and a small map 
prepared. The triangulation was admirably 
performed by Borden; but the map was a mere 
patchwork of town-surveyor’s work, and, at 
best, showed only the superficial area, and no 
topography whatever. Yet it has been a boon 
to the state, and no one has ever complained 
of the expense. This survey cost $70,000 
when the total valuation of the state was 
$200,000,000. The present valuation exceeds 
$2,000,000,000 ; and a present expenditure of 
$700,000 would therefore be the equivalent 
of what was granted to the first survey. An 
appropriation of $40,000 to obtain what, under 
any other circumstances, would cost at least 
$80,000, would be a mere pittance beside this ; 
and it would seem that the reception of the 
last movement, involving so large an outlay, 
should encourage the committee of education 
to believe that the legislature would respond 
freely to the offer of the director of the govern- 
ment survey. 
aren is AE fe 
The difference between a scale of 1 : 25,000, 
asked for ten years ago, and that of about 
1: 31,680, now proposed, is not great enough 
to materially affect the delineation of the 
general topography, and of the distribution of 
such natural features as are most needed for 
industrial and scientific purposes. It is not 
all that could be desired ; and provision should 
be made in any matured plan to enable the 
commissioners to enlarge the scale in any dis- 
trict which would be ready to pay the additional 
cost required, as well as to secure for the state 
a transcript of all original plots. What. the 
state will eventually need will be a far more 
detailed map. But it is questionable under 
what auspices such a work should be done, and 
it is morally certain that it will not be done for 
a long time tocome. And in any case, failure 
to co-operate now with the U.S. geological 
survey would be to lose the services of a re- 
liable and experienced corps in a plan offering 
