Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1886 — No Map of the United States. [ARTICLE]

No Map of the United States.

It will be surprising, perhaps, to the public to know that, after spending $8,000,000 in surveys, there is still no actual map in existence of the Unifed States. The Coast Survey and the Hydrographic Office have prepared a reasonably accurate map of our coast line, but the internal surveys have been so inaccurate and imperfect that rivers, mountains, and towns have in many cases been located on previous maps as much as five miles out of their true position. This is, of course, especially true of those points remote from railroads, which have, of course, been less accurate. The new map, now in preparation by Colonel Powell, would occupy the floor space of a room in an ordinary dwelling-house, and will be absolutely accurate within the limit of the scale of feet upon which it has been prepared. It will take about a year to complete this, and when done it will be the only accurate map of the United States in existence. The astronomers have long claimed to have prepared a more accurate map of the moon at a distance of 250,00 V miles than has yet been made of the State of New York from surveys made upon the ground. These maps, however, have been made by means of photography, and hence are more accurate in their outline than could have been obtained by hasty triangulations. Major Powell’s map, however, will be as accurate a representation of the geographical location of the mountains, rivers, and towns of our own country as the astronomers have yet prepared of the queen of the night He has also in preparation a dictionary of altitude, by which he will set at rest the long-mooted question as to the relative sea-level of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. According to railroad levels heretofore made, the Pacific is supposed to stand about four feet above the level of the Atlantic. Within a year Powell will have settled this question. — Washington cor. Indianapolis News.