A RAISED MAP OF ENGLAND.
[To THE EDITOR Or TER " SPECTATOR." J Szn,—In the notice of a " Contour Relief Model-of Salisbury Plain" (December 23rd, p. 1128), your reviewer suggests a large-scale relief map of England " with hard paths in the big valleys in which to walk," and but for his remark as to the difficulty of housing he might have had in mind the interesting relief map of Tyrol and Vorarlberg in the garden of the Piidagogium in Innsbruck. I cannot vouch for the exact figures, as I have no direct references at hand, but I believe the linear horizontal scale is 1: 7500, and the vertical about three times as great (1 : 2500). It does not seem to suffer much from the weather, though that effective agent of erosion, soot, is not the menace it would be in London. A feature of the map is the fact that rocks from the actual areas represented were used in its construction, but probably some resistant homogeneous substance would be better adapted for a model of this country. The difficulty of housing would indeed be practically insuperable on the scale suggested. On the 25 in. scale England (not to say the British Isles) would need a length of nearly 300 yards. With a vertical scale three times as great (1.845), Ben Nevis would be 621t in. high, an interesting result, as the Ottler in the Innsbruck map is nearly the same (1.60m.). A smaller horizontal scale might necessitate a further exaggeration of the vertical, though on other grounds much exaggeration is to be deprecated. It may be doubted whether steps to the summits would not spoil the effect. In the Innsbruck model good general views can be obtained from several mounds rising outside the boundaries of the map.
I must apologize for the length of this letter, but your reviewer's suggestion is one which merits the attention of all who are interested in the furtherance of our national educa-
tion.—I am, Sir, &c., A. JAMES POTTER, F.R.G.S.
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