WHAT IS A MAP? We have before us a picture of a rocky coast. The picture shows what we would see if we visited the place. Can you mention the different forms of land and water in the picture? In the front of the picture there is a high, rocky point with trees upon it. Behind the point and partly hidden you can see a deep bay. The ocean waves have torn away the land behind the point and are still making the bay larger.
Upon the farther side of the entrance to the bay is another rocky point. Between the two points there are two low rocky islands over which the waves dash, In the back part of the picture there are hills. .There seems to be an opening between the hills ,where there must be a valley with a river flowing through it to the ocean.
Our picture is taken from the top of a hill.
You could not see so much if you were down near the level of the water. If we were still higher in air we could see more of the bay and get a glimpse of the river. Such a view we might call a ,bird's eye view, because it is what we could see if we were up where the birds go.
If we could go up very high in a balloon and look directly down upon the country shown in the picture it would look quite different still. Then if we took a pencil and tried to make a picture of what we saw we should draw the coast line with its bend ings in and out, the bays and rocky points, islands, and the river flowing to the ocean. Our picture shows that the different portions of the land vary in height, but far up in a balloon we could not distin guish the height of things. All that we could make
out clearly would be their outlines.
Now the drawing which we make of the differ ent forms of the land and water which we can see looking directly down upon them is called a map. Our drawing or map represents the earth as though it were flat. We cannot tell how high the hills or the cliffs along the ocean are. We can tell, however, that in one place the land is smooth and in another rough. We can put upon our map then some shad ing to indicate where the rough, hilly places are.
We could not make a map exactly correct while in a balloon. To make a correct map we would need to take a measuring line and Compass, and walk all over the country of which we wanted to make a map. We would measure the position and direction from each other of the points, the islands, the bay and the river.
You cannot make a map as large as the country over which you would walk. What is to be done? You might take one inch upon your ruler and let it represent one hundred feet of distance upon the land. Then if the two points at the entrance of the bay are five hundred feet apart you will lay off five inches upon your paper.
Maps are of much use to us. They represent different portions of the earth's surface. We can look upon a map and tell what there is in a certain place without having to go to that place.