----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Given the earlier tirade against retaining the pre-1900 bathymetric charts, I feel someone should respond with some alternative views. While the technology of the era was not the best, these charts need to be viewed as potential resources for research. Here at the University of Wyoming, we have had geography students study river channel changes based on some early surveys, including the Hayden surveys of the 1870's. If there are coastal features on these bathymetric charts, they may be valuable sources of information for people studying coastline changes (accretion or erosion). If they are river maps, they could be used to study river channel changes. My advice is that they need to be evaluated as potential sources of information for research. DON'T DISMISS THEM JUST BECAUSE OF THEIR AGE. Talk to faculty in departments that may be doing landform change studies. List them here on maps-l (by general location if possible). Some libraries might be interested in the maps of their particular area. So that's my 2-cents worth. Linda Zellmer