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 IMAGE EVALUATION 
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CIHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions Institut Canadian da microraproductions historiquas 
 
 1980 
 
Technical Notes / Notes techniques 
 
 The Institute has attempted to obtain the best 
 original copy available for filming. Physical 
 features of this copy which may alter any of the 
 images in the reproduction are checked below. 
 
 L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a 6t4 possible de se procurer. Certains 
 d6fauts susceptibles de nuire d la quality de la 
 reproduction sont not6s ci-dessous. 
 
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 Coloured covers/ 
 Couvertures de couleur 
 
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 Coloured pages/ 
 Pages de couleur 
 
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 Coloured maps/ 
 
 Cartes gdographiques en couleur 
 
 D 
 
 Coloured plates/ 
 Planches en couleur 
 
 D 
 
 Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ 
 Pages ddcolories, tachetdes ou piqudes 
 
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 Show through/ 
 Transparence 
 
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 Tight binding (may cause shadows or 
 distortion along interior margin)/ 
 Reliure serr6 (peut causer de I'ombre ou 
 de la distortion le long de la marge 
 intdrieure) 
 
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 Pages damaged/ 
 Pages endommagdes 
 
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 Additional comments/ 
 Commentaires suppl^mentaires 
 
 Bibliographic Notes / Notes bibliographiques 
 
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 Only edition available/ 
 Seule Edition disponible 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 Reli6 avec d'autres documents 
 
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 Pagination incorrect/ 
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 Pages missing/ 
 Des pages manquent 
 
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 Cover title missing/ 
 
 Le titre de couverture manque 
 
 Plates missing/ 
 
 Des planches manquent 
 
 Additional comments/ 
 Commentaires suppl6mentaires 
 
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 Maps missing/ 
 
 Des cartes g6ographiques manquent 
 
The images appearing here are the best quality 
 possible considering the condition and legibility 
 of the original copy and in keeping with the 
 filming contrect specifications. 
 
 Las images suivantes ont 6tA reproduites avec le 
 plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition at 
 de la nettetA de rexemplaira film6, et en 
 conformity avec les conditions du contrat de 
 fllmage. 
 
 The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall 
 contain the symbol -h»> (meaning CONTINUED"), 
 or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever 
 applies. 
 
 Un des symboles suivants apparaftra sur la der- 
 niire image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: 
 le symbole — ► signifle "A SUIVRE", le symbols 
 V signifle "FIN". 
 
 The original copy was bor^'owed from, and 
 filmed with, the kind consent of the following 
 institution: 
 
 National Library of Canada 
 
 L'exemplaire fiimi f ut reproduit grAce A la 
 gAn6rosit6 de i'Atablissement prAteur 
 suivant : 
 
 BibliothAque nationale du Canada 
 
 Maps or plates too large to be entirely included 
 in one exposure are filmed beginning in the 
 upper lAft hand corner, left to right and top to 
 bottom, as many frames as required. The 
 following diagrams illustrate the method: 
 
 Les cartes ou les planches trop grandes pour Atre 
 reproduites en un seul cliche sont fiim^es A 
 partir de Tangle sup6rieure gauche, de gauche d 
 droite et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre 
 d'images nicessaire. Le diagramme suivant 
 illustre ia m6thode : 
 
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""' /y ^r Vr^ / ^ ^ 
 
 A PLEA FOR PIONEERS. 
 
 i5> i?(;/^«f;7 Bell, B.A.Sc, M.D., LL.D., 
 Assistant Dirkctor of the Geological Survky. 
 
 I wish to say a few words in dcfencx' of pioneer exjilorers and 
 surveyors. We may excuse or puss over the ignorant remarks of 
 those who are not supposed to know anything of the surveyor's work, 
 or of the difficulties he has to overcome; but when criticisms come 
 from those of our own calHng, they deserve a word of notice. It is, 
 perhaps, too common a faihng to jjoint out, and jjcrhajjs ridicule, 
 the imperfcv-tions of the first attempts to map a new country. Does 
 it ever occur to those who indulge in such presumptions of their 
 own superiority, to ask themselves the question, could they do any 
 better or indeed half so well if placed under similar cin:umstances? 
 
 It is no doubt true that the preliminary maps of a hitherto un- 
 known district do sometimes contain singular and unaccountable 
 errors, even when these have been the work of the most careful and 
 conscientious men. When we remember that important points in 
 regard to the construction of such maps depend on single observa- 
 tions, with no means of checking them, it is easy to conceive how 
 such errors may arise, and how easy it bec(imes to rectify them after- 
 wards when they have been discovered, and the means of correcting 
 them have been pointed out. Where there is no check, errors may 
 arise, similarly, in plotting work Wnich is itself good. These arc 
 imperfections which should be leniently dealt with. Let us take 
 the case of the first attempt to construct a top()gruphical plan <jf a 
 district which had before been a complete blank on the maps. The 
 explorer, let us suppose, has met with sheets of water which may 
 be parts of one large lake, or they may be all separate lakes ; but he 
 has received what he believes to be reliable sketches or descriptions 
 of their positions with regard to one another. These representa- 
 tions may agree with his own opinion from the lie of the ground, and 
 he so represents them on his sheet, doing the best he can with the 
 limited time and means at his disposal. Subsecpient surveys show 
 him to be wrong, perhaps only in small matters of detail, and, forth- 
 with, some wiseacre, who thinks all maps must be judged by the 
 standard of those — say of the Ordinance Survey of Great Britain, — 
 pronounces him as incapable, or a fraud. The same kind of errors 
 
2 A Plia for Pioneers. 
 
 may he in;i(lc in the first efforts to indicate the liranches of rivets in a 
 new country ; hut surely the l)est possihle, under the circumstances, 
 is heller than nothing. Kven in the surveys of townships with good 
 instruments, mistakes of the kind here indicated may occur, and they 
 were certainly fre(iuent enough — the surveys of our predecessors, 
 liul in those days, good instruments were not so easily ohtaincd, 
 and the ])ay of surveyors was no heller than tiieirwork. Referring 
 to misconceptions ahout the connections of rivers, many of us will 
 rememher the case of the upper waters of ihe Maitland River in 
 Ontario, which for a long lime were helieved to helong to the Sau- 
 geen, as their names to this day testify. .Similar errors as to rivers 
 have occurred in all new countries. What heller could have 
 heen done until more light was ohlained? Il is easy to jjoint 
 these things out after they have heen discovered, and il is seldom 
 that those who are the most uncharitahle could have- done as 
 well themselves. The work of early explorers is often a lahor of 
 love, and it is not to he supposed ihal those gentlemen, while 
 Ihey were working hard, and doing ihe hest ihey could to maj) the 
 country correctly, would i)ul down errors on purpose. How much 
 easier they have made the work for their successors. The latter 
 are glad to lake the fullest advantage of their lahors, and hy means 
 of their maps, even with their imiJerfcctions, the way has heen made 
 clear for ihem, and ihey can see at a glance just whal more is wanted. 
 Even the mere indication of a route for travelling hy, or getting in 
 provisions, is often of great assistance. For these advantages the 
 surveyors should he grateful, who are thereby enahled to get along 
 in more comfort and lay out more accurate work. 
 
 Allowances must also he made for ihe compiler of other men's 
 work. He makes the hesl use he can of imi)erfect or preliminary 
 materials, relying most on what he considers the best ; but after all, 
 mistakes are pretty sure to creep in. The first man to compile a 
 sheet, showing the connections of townships with all their lakes, 
 stream;-, roads, diic, which were before only to he found in a disjoint- 
 ed form, on many sheets or many scales, does a good work, which for 
 the first lime enables us to see our way, as il were, through the coun- 
 try. Such a map is of constant use for reference, even in liie process 
 of comi)iling an improved one, and it would ill-become those who 
 benefit by the use of such maps to sneer at them or ridicule their 
 unavoidable short-comings. The very person who does so is pro- 
 bably the one who has found it most useful, and has perhai)s based 
 his own work upon it. Il is always so much easier for the average 
 man to find fault than to do the work belter himself. Besides, he 
 
A Plea for Pioneers. 3 
 
 imagines he has an opportunity of caUing attention to his own 
 accuracy by crying down the supposed errors of others. 
 
 The best of our majjs are impeifect, and the superiority of the 
 more modern over the older ones is only a matter of degree. We 
 trust the best maps of to-day will be superseded by better ones by- 
 and-by, and if we take into consideration our present facilities and 
 the improved methods at our command, we deserve no more credit 
 for our comparatively accurate or fine work than do the pioneers for 
 their equally honest attempts to do the best they could in their 
 generation. Map making is always a process of development or 
 evolution, and even yet we may not fully realize the future possibili- 
 ties of the art of representing topography on paper.