Abstract
II. MY only remaining subject is the representation of terranes on maps by means of colours. At present no two organizations and scarcely two individuals use colours in the same way; and it is probably true that every organization and individual publishing many geologic maps has at different times employed the same colour for different terranes, and different colours for the same terrane. It results that the map user can gain no information from the distribution of colours until he has studied the legend; before he can read a new atlas he must learn a new alphabet. The advantage to be gained by substituting a universal language for this confusion of tongues is manifest and great, and has justified the application of much time and attention by the Congress and its Committees. By a series of resolutions a partial scheme has been selected, one colour at a time, and the completion of the plan has been left to the Committee on the Map of Europe. That Committee has prepared a colour legend which is accessible to American geologists in the volume of information published by the American Committee. It is understood in a general way that the Congress reserves final action, and the published legend not only belongs specifically to the map of Europe, but is provisional; still, as this map, if generally approved, will unquestionably be declared by the Congress an authoritative pattern for the guidance of map makers, the plan should be freely criticized at its present stage. The selection of uniform colours is a far more delicate and important matter than the arrangement of taxonomic terms; for while ill-chosen words may quickly fit themselves to new uses, the adoption of an ill-arranged colour scheme must entail continual loss.
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The Work of the International Congress of Geologists 1 . Nature 37, 40–43 (1887). https://doi.org/10.1038/037040a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/037040a0