Training Manual In Topography Map Reading And Reconnaissance

Author : George R. Spaulding
Publisher : CreateSpace
ISBN 13 : 9781493748433
Total Pages : 152 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (484 download)

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Download or read book Training Manual in Topography, Map Reading, and Reconnaissance written by George R. Spaulding and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2013-11 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An excerpt from the introductory: 1. So important is the influence of "the lay of the land" upon military operations that every officer must thoroughly acquaint himself at the earliest practicable moment with the topography of the area within which his responsibilities lie. 2. A mere knowledge of the main roads, of the direction and distances to near-by towns is by no means sufficient. He must know where the plains are, where the hills rise, how the streams run. He must have a mental picture, a bird's-eye view, impressed on his brain of the main physical and military features of his territory. 3. The faculty for grasping the topography of an area as a whole is rarely a natural one. "To the beginner" in the study of topography "every hill is an isolated feature - the elevations and depressions of ground present to him nothing but irregularity and confusion." 4. As a matter of fact, there is a considerable degree of regularity and system in our present-day ground forms. Whatever may have been the irregularity and confusion of the original surface of the earth, practically all of the ground forms which we know to-day are the result of erosion. 5. It has been estimated that the average elevation of the land surface has been reduced 7,000 feet by erosion. Winds and waves, glaciers, chemical action, frost, and plant growth have all had their part in the breaking up and wearing down of the original rocks, but by far the larger portion of the ground farms which exist to-day have been carved out of the older formations by the action of running water. 6. Not all the water in heavy rains can seep into the soil; much of it runs off. At one point a little stream begins; as it flows downward another joins it; soon several unite into a fair-sized creek, which rushes along carrying its burden of soil into the main valley, whence the river may carry it on toward the sea. This simple process continued for ages has sufficed to carve out our deepest valleys. It is continuing to deepen them year by year, and more and more to wear down the ridges between the valleys. 7. If our remaining ground forms are the result of such a process, it is manifest that the drainage lines of an area, together with the ridge lines, form a system of master lines which, once traced out and studied, will give a grasp of the main features of the topography that can be had in no other way....