A CENTURY OF GEOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES. 239 
fringe of sea and lake coast; but these constituted only a bare 
beginning. Accordingly, in 1882 authority was given and 
the beginning of the mighty task of making a topographic 
map of the United States was begun. That work has for 
sixteen years progressed without interruption, and today 
we have contour topographical maps covering more than 
600,000 square miles. In almost every state and territory 
in the Union work has been done, while Massachusetts, Con¬ 
necticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and the District of Co¬ 
lumbia are completely mapped. 
That the prosecution of this work and the distribution of 
the maps has profoundly influenced interest in and knowl¬ 
edge of geography of the United States goes without saying. 
These maps are in the hands of engineers, of projectors of 
improvements, of teachers, of text-book makers, and of geo¬ 
graphic students everywhere. The standards of school geog¬ 
raphies have risen, methods of geographic teaching have 
been changed, and a better understanding of the relations to 
environment produced. 
And thus the first century of progress in geography ends 
with a rate of progress both in research and in teaching never 
surpassed. That which has been already accomplished is 
great, yet it is but a small part of that which remains to be 
done. 
34—Bull. Phil. Soe., Wash., Vol. 13 
