Map--Making

The most fascinating maps for tried traveller are the wonderful
Cartes d'Etat Major and of Ministre de l'Interieur in France. The
Ordnance Survey maps in England are somewhat of an approach thereto,
but they are in no way as interesting to study.

One must have a good eye for distances and the lay of the land, and a
familiarity with the conventional signs of map-makers, in order to
get full value from these excellent French maps, but the close
contemplation of them will show many features which might well be
incorporated into the ordinary maps of commerce.

The great national roads are distinctly marked with little dots
beside the road, representing the tree-bordered "Routes Nationales,"
but often there is a cut-off of equally good road between two points
on one's itinerary which of course is not indicated in any special
manner. For this reason alone these excellent maps are not wholly to
be recommended to the automobilist who is covering new ground. For
him it is much better that he should stick to the maps issued by the
Touring Club de France or the cheaper, more legible, and even more
useful Cartes Taride.

In England, as an alternative to the Ordnance Survey maps, there are
Bartholemew's coloured maps, two miles to the inch, and the Half Inch
Map of England and Wales.

Belgium is well covered by the excellent "Carte de Belgique" of the
Automobile Club de Belgique, Italy by the maps of the Italian Touring
Club, and Germany by the ingenious profile map known as
"Strassenprofilkarten," rather difficult to read by the uninitiated.

One of the great works of the omnific Touring Club de France is the
preparation of what might be called pictorial inventories of the
historical monuments and natural curiosities of France made on the
large-scale maps of the Etat Major. Primarily these are intended to
be filed away in their wonderful "Bibliotheque," that all and sundry
who come may read, but it is also further planned that they shall be
displayed locally in hotels, automobile clubs, and the like. The mode
of procedure is astonishingly simple. These detailed maps of the War
Department are simply cut into strips and mounted consecutively, and
the "sights" marked on the margin (with appropriate notes) after the
manner of the example here given.

There seems no reason why one could not make up his own maps
beforehand in a similar fashion, of any particular region or
itinerary that he proposed to "do" thorough