The Making of Maps
13y PROFESSOR FRANK DEBENHAM
E all need an atlas, many of us love an atlas, but the trouble is that we each want a different atlas. Worse still, the same man wants a different atlas for different 'moods and different times of day. Just let us examine that statement. First and foremost we demand of an atlas where in the world a place is. The Times says there's trouble breWing in Guatemala, that Kaesong is in the wrong place for truce talks, that the Colonial Secretary has reached Lilongwe, and so on and so forth. Young Smith says he's been offered a post in the university at Ibadan ; surely that's where the oil fuss is going on. (Actually it's not.) The Navy has just flown back four stout-hearted officers from Seal Lake in Greenland ; what on earth is the Navy doing there ? All these at breakfast-time, but down comes the atlas, that encyclopaedia of place, and tsually it gives an answer of a kind.
But at the office there are quite different kinds of questions. !That consignment of goods for export—what route will be the quicker or the cheaper ? There is advice that a raw material is in short supply in Africa—where else does the stuff come from ? There's a hold-up of transport somewhere else until the rainy season is over—when is the rainy season ? We must send a priority cable to X to order immediate action ; but the know-all says, " No, you juggins, it's midnight there and nine hours before his office opens." The atlas may be asked such questions, but more often they are answered by expensive long,. distance calls to the man on the spot, whose reply might well end with, " Have a look at your atlas, old man, next time."
Back from the office, in the pleasant half-hour of relaxation with slippers on and supper in the offing, down comes the latest atlas for games with the children. Where's the highest mountain ; where's the deepest sea ? Argument over awkward names like ;Tlaxcala, or blessed names like Mesopotamia, Or tongue-twisters like Szczebrzeszyn, or slip-easies like Lehututu or iWoolloomooloo. Finally, when all is quiet except the clock iticking advice to go to bed, the same atlas can be opened and become a magic casement through which to gaze on faery lands ;forlorn—or not so forlorn. Those lotus isles in the tropics, that beckoning peak in the Alps, that longed-for Mediterranean cruise ',.—or, in more historic vein, those torrid sands round Charles Doughty, that fetid swamp which killed Livingstone, that peak in Darien, that lonely grave in the Antarctic snows. . . . ' No, it's quite impossible to produce an atlas for every man and every mood, and the most we can expect is a cartographic compromise, a selection which shall offer the greatest value to the greatest number. No one will be quite satisfied, but there will be a spoonful for all. Even then the compiler of an atlas has only just begun his decisions ; he has many gauntlets yet to run. He must respect accuracy of shape or area or even direction in his maps, yet if he allows his projection experts too much rope be will raise howls from his public, who will complain that he has Gven a new and unknown shape to Australia, an absurd size for reenland, or a very odd direction for starting on a London- Tokyo flight. He must not be too academic, yet he must cater or the fellow-cartographer and the student. He must know s scale errors but he must not obtrude them on the less telligent section of his public.
Perhaps his greatest headache is over the use of colour, which at first sight seems to be a godsend for showing distributions and avoiding a clutter of words over the face of his maps. Red for be good old British Empire was the standby of last century's gtlases, always combined with the flattering Mercator to show it off to full advantage. But what is to be done with a British Commonwealth that comprises every sort and kind of Dominion, Territory, Colony, Protectorate, Mandate, Trusteeship, Condo- minium and even Sphere of Influence that the heart of diplomat could desire or the wit of international lawyer devise for the confusion of everyone else ? Besides, red has now another and much more baleful significance. Even so, the use of colour has vast merits and constitutes the chief advance made in the last century in atlas technique, particularly for the representation of relief, which is the greatest of all the problems before a carto- grapher and the one to which there has been no final solution as yet.
In the past our map-makers have had to educate us to under- stand the relief of a country by means of all kinds of conventions.
The days of the caterpillar mountain ranges wandering over a map are long past, and these were replaced first by shading— according to the personal ideas of the draughtsman—and then by contours, which not only are rather puzzling to the beginner but create the illusion of being more accurate than they really are. More recently colour has come to our aid and has produced the layered system which is so common nowaday§. We have even learned not to regard the world surface as made up of a series of flat shelves, though that is what the layered colours invite us to believe. The only way in which it is possible to give a true impression of relief is by an actual three-dimerisional model, especially if it is always viewed by a low oblique lighting from the north-west. From that it is an easy step to use the half-tone photographic process to produce a shadow-relief printed over a flat map. This illusion of relief has recently been used on the jackets of the " About Britain " Festival guide-books. A truly accurate model is very expensive, however, though experiments are under way for their quicker and cheaper production.
All these and other difficulties have beset the path of Sir Clinton Lewis in producing the grand new Oxford Atlas*. After five years' work this atlas now appears, to earn the thanks of the public and at the same time to face its criticisms. The maps therein are all new, in the sense that they have been specially drawn and lettered, and in addition they introduce other novel features, most of which are to be highly commended. There is very skilful choice of projections and great clarity of lettering. The gazetteer is a model of scrupulous care and geographical scholarship, giving the maximum amount of information, includ- ing even hints on pronunciation. There is due emphasis on those parts of the world, such as the Middle East, which loom large in future strategy whether of peace or war, and yet the more remote parts, such as the oceanic islands and the polar regions, are given adequate space. The editors have never lost sight of the student of geography as such, and in certain respects have made special provision for him.
The method of showing relief follows the layered system referred to above, but makes certain departures from normal practice. It will take some time to get accustomed to the colours selected, which at first sight seem to include too many muddy greys and greens, and there is a confusing change-over in most of the maps from yellow to greys on either side. This point need not be pressed until the atlas has had a fair trial, and it will be easy for the printers to vary the colours in future editions should they prove too ambiguous. The point-is made in the introduction that there is merit in omitting the actual contour-lines between the different colours. Not all users will agree that very fine contour-lines interfere seriously " with the smooth gradation and with the legibility of the lettering." Without some such indication of where the actual contour runs there can be great-confusion, especially in broken country where the two .grey colours with the yellow between are Much interwoven. The diehards among atlas experts will perhaps prefer the sequence of colours they have been accustomed to, and wish for more gradations in one colour rather than two or three awkward 'changes.
* The Oxford Atlas. (Oxford University.Press. 30s.) These things are matters of opinion, however, and every new atlas has to educate its public to appreciate its novelties. The end-papers of the Atlas recall the great days of Oxford carto- graphy in a pleasing way with facsimiles of two of a " sett " of maps published there 250 years ago " for the Use of Young Students in the Universities." They show a fine catholicity of outlook, since they are complete with philosophers, cherubs, geometers and astrolabes, ships and savages, lion and unicorn, and a Medusa's head, all with a background of Oxford buildings.
The British nation, sprawled as it is all over the face of the globe, should produce the most competent geographers. Whether that be so or not, this atlas will help to sustain the claim that it does.
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