The Survey has published numerous maps of parts of Alaska, as well as other maps, which are available for use or reuse in its reports. Copies of all base maps for which copper plates have been engraved by the Survey can be obtained on requisition, and their use in a new report will save time as well as the cost of engraving. Other maps will be found in the Survey library, where the latest editions only should be consulted.
BASIC FEATURES OF MAPS.
It must be remembered that "every map, whatever its scale, is a reduction from nature and consequently must be more or less generalized."[3] The degree of generalization in the geologic and other detail to be shown on a map usually involves a corresponding degree of generalization in its base. Absolutely true generalization means the same degree of omission of detail for each kind of feature. If a base map on a scale of 1 mile to 1 inch, prepared with the usual detail, were placed before a camera and reduced to a scale of 16 miles to 1 inch, the lines representing the smaller tributaries of streams and the smaller water bodies, as well as many other features, would probably be so greatly reduced in length as to be illegible. If from this reduced photograph a new map were prepared, from which all features not plainly discernible were omitted, the new map should represent what might be called true generalization. This degree of generalization is, however, not practicable, but unessential detail should be systematically omitted. The amount of detail which a base map should show is limited by its scale, by the character of the country it represents, and by the kind of data to be shown. Coordinate features of a topographic map should be shown with equal detail. Detail in culture may call for detail in drainage, though relief may be greatly generalized or entirely omitted; detail in relief may like-wise call for detail in drainage, though culture may be more generalized.
[3] Gannett, Henry, A manual of topographic methods: U. S. Geol. Survey Mon. 22, p. 107, 1893.
If the three fundamental features of a topographic map—the culture, the drainage, and the relief—are to be engraved or photo-lithographed separately and printed in colors, the best results can be obtained by drawing each feature in a separate color on one sheet unless the work is coarse and great precision in register is not needed. The culture should be drawn in black waterproof ink, the drainage in Prussian blue, and the relief in burnt sienna; but care should be taken that the colors used will photograph well. To insure a good photograph it is usually necessary to add a little black to the blue and brown. (See "[Inks]," [p. 25].) The photographer will then make three negatives and will opaque or paint out all but one of the three features on each negative. The cost is somewhat greater than that of reproducing three separate drawings, but the result gives more accurate register than if the drawings were made on separate sheets, which are likely to change in size before they are reproduced.
STANDARD SCALES.
The standard scales of the maps used in the publications of the Geological Survey are fractions or multiples of 1:1,000,000 (see p. 14), except for a map that is reduced expressly to fit one or two pages of a report or that is reduced horizontally or vertically to fit the text as a small diagrammatic or index map. It should be remembered that a map which may be serviceable for use in compiling a new map, except as to scale, can be reduced or enlarged to the scale of the new drawing by photography, by a pantograph, or by other means. (See [p. 47].)
Maps compiled by an author should be prepared on a scale of at least 11/2 times and preferably twice the size of the scale used on the published map. Maps traced on linen should be no less than twice the size of publication. Not only is the quality of the reproduction improved by considerable reduction, but the larger scale of the drawing facilitates the plotting of details. It should be remembered, however, that a linear reduction of one-half produces a map only one-fourth the area of the original, and reduction so great may prevent the addition of data, such as an extended note in small letters applying to a small area on the face of a map, which would not be legible when reduced.
ORIENTATION OF MAPS.
A map that bears no arrow indicating north is supposed to be oriented north and south, and its title should read from west to east. If, however, the area mapped has a general trend in one direction, as northwest to southeast, and its squaring up by a north-south line would leave too much blank paper, this general rule is not followed. The border lines on such a map should conform to the general trend of the area mapped, an arrow should show north, and the title and scale should be placed horizontally, but the projection numbers and town names should follow the direction of the parallels of latitude. (See Pls. X and XII, Bull. 628; and Pls. VI, XV, and XVI, Mon. 52.)