----------------------------Original message---------------------------- On the discussion as what the term 'topographic map' covers: The Dictionary of Geography explains Topography thus: "A term that has given rise to much confusion such that geographers tend to avoid it (!). Those who do use it apply it in general to the description of a map of all the surface features of an area, natural and artificial". Some restrict it to relief features, but this is not generally accepted. and on "topographic map": ... describes surface features resulting from natural and human activities... the term should not be applied to a map showing only relief features! (presumably this is a relief map?) If we go back to the root of the word 'describing form or shape' (of the land implied)... just as 'geography' is 'describing the earth', then topography in days BC would have been relief plus vegetation cover (if someone had been there to describe it!)... the form/shape of the land after civilisation has left its various blotts on the landscape would now automatically include those blotts as part of its integral character. Note: this discussion is quite academic when applied to large parts of Saskatchewan and the Dakotas! Roger Wheate UNBC