^, IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) in .V4 ^. I.I l^|2B |2.5 ■so ■^™ M^H Ui 1^ 12.2 -ii lit lU 11.25 11.4 1.6 / '/} /2 /^ V M 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. D Coloured covers/ Couvertures de couleur D Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur D Coloured maps/ Cartes gdographiques en couleur D Coloured plates/ Planches en couleur D Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages ddcolories, tachetdes ou piqudes n Show through/ Transparence D 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) D Pages damaged/ Pages endommagdes D Additional comments/ Commentaires suppl^mentaires Bibliographic Notes / Notes bibliographiques D D Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponible Bound with other material/ Reli6 avec d'autres documents D D Pagination incorrect/ Erreurs de pagination Pages missing/ Des pages manquent D D □ Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque Plates missing/ Des planches manquent Additional comments/ Commentaires suppl6mentaires D 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 : 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ""' /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.