RELIEF MARS. 
357 
Out of 114 models listed in the general table (p. 362-7) data 
respecting vertical exaggeration are complete for 68. This ex¬ 
cludes models which differ in color only. Of these 68 models, 
22, or 32 per cent., have no vertical exaggeration—they are 
modeled without distortion ; 34, or 50 per cent., have mod¬ 
erate vertical exaggeration, ranging from two to eight fold ; 
10, or 15 per cent., have large vertical exaggeration, ranging 
from ten to forty-four fold, while 2, or 3 per cent., have a 
variable vertical exaggeration. 
Most of our views of surface inequality have been obtained 
from points on the surface, points relatively low down. In 
this way the great mountain masses have been seen from 
their flanks rather than from their summits; they have 
been seen in profile. Few of us have been favored with 
balloon views, and not many have enjoyed views from the 
highest mountain summits. Those who have enjoyed such 
views, as well as many others, have noticed the flattening 
effect produced by viewing a landscape from above. So 
viewed, all minor inequalities fade away and the countiy 
looks flat. 
Now, the object of a relief map is to bring a considerable 
tract under view at once. This can only be done, either in 
nature or in a model, by viewing from above rather than 
from the side ; but to view from above is to lose the effect of 
ruggedness, of bold escarpment or yawning chasm. Hence 
modelers, whose work is perforce to be viewed from above, 
as from a balloon, which flattens the view, strive to give the 
effect produced from a much lower point of view by vertical 
exaggeration. It is a hopeless struggle. To present a view 
from one point which shall give the impression derived from 
a fundamentally different one has not been accomplished. 
I do not see how it ever can be. In nature it is the edge of 
the landscape, as it were, which is turned toward us as we 
view a wide expanse. The artist makes a model which is 
not to be so viewed, but from above,.and then tries to pre¬ 
serve the effect of such side viewing. How near he will 
ultimately come to attaining this it seems idle to predict. 
46-Bull. Phil. Soe., Wash., Vol. 12. 
