Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1889 — The Great Map of the United States. [ARTICLE]

The Great Map of the United States.

When the map of the United States now in preparation by the Geological Survey is completed it will be a most creditable specimen of topographic art. Congress last winter for the first time distinctly recognized the survey, which fdr some years has been in progress, as the basis of this map, by making a separate appropriation of $200,000 to carry it on. These surveys, according to theu Washington correspondence of the American Geographical Society, have now been completed InMassachusetts, Rhode Island,and New Jersey, and they • are partly made in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Maine and New Hampshire. The maps now in progress or completed are on a scale of one mile to the inch, and are engraved on copper. The expense of the completed surveys has been shared by the several states and the United States. It was recently announced that the topographic survey of Illinois and the surrounding states was about to ’'begin. The maps of the central and southern portions of th,e country and also the Pacific slope will be on a scale of two miles to the inch, while in the thinly settled regions of the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, and the high Sierras the scale is four miles to the inch. When this great atlas can be gathered into volumes it will comprise 2,600 sheets, and for the first time civil engineers, students, and the general public will be able to derive from these fine specimens of the map maker’s art fairly correct and minute information concerning the hydrography of the country, the relief of its surface, and the exact position of its towns.—New York Sun. - ■ ■