asscciation for mexican cave studies box 7672 ut station austin ...

25be represented by rigidly p,eometric patterns. Natural features should always bedrawn free-hand, .for the sake of plasticity (after all, nature rarely is preciselygeometrical)." This need for "plasticity" would seem to be purely an aesthetic conventionof Hedges'. The symbol that best portrays a feature should be used whetherplastic or not. And in any case. the use of parallel lines to represent the surfaceof a cave pool, which is much more "precisely geometrical" than most man-made surfaces,would not appear to violate Hedges' convention. The erlBe of the pool isdrawn freehand in'both systems. It does not seem desirable to show both water andthe deposits under the water. If both are to be shown, either the bed deposits shouldbe shown on an inset, or the water should be printed in blue. And I cannot resistone last comment on style -- To me freehand lettering detracts greatly from thefinished maps. callinR attention to the calligraphy rather than the cartography andas commercial lettering guides and adhesive transfers are available in all usefulsizes. a resourceful mapper should not be forced to use hand letterin~.A number of letters on map symbols have been received from cavers who arenot members of the map symbols committee. All suggestions are welcome andnow is the time to let members of the committee ,know how you feal as once astanderd list has been adopted it will be more difficult to change a symbol.I will try to comment on the letters received in the next AMCS Activies Letter,but I can answer one question posed by the carefull map reader Bob Thrun.ySpeaking of symbols, what is the funny symbol on the Vent-anaJaball map?These are large tripods used to support a guano mining cableway.* * * *The following letter from Tom Cravens indicates his feeling that the work of.the CQmmittee is to reconsiie-differences between existing lists rather thanto develop the best possible list. Unfortunately the very number of-iists andsymbols makes even this task difficult . ,Dr. William B. W.o.ite210 Materials Research Bldg.Pennsylva~ia. State lTniversityl~iversity Park, FA 16802De~ Will,Tom CravensDept. of SociologyMeramec Community College11333 Big Bend Blyd.Kirkwood, Missouri 63122September 26, 1975I a~ ~itin5 to you regarding tte Ad Hoc Committee on Cave M~~ Symbols.~t me be~~ by sa~~ng t~at I Leel seriously limited with regards to my~nput to t~~.s CO!Il1ll:ttee due to a lack of background material. As you. maybe. aware; i ~as Q~aDl~ to at~end the convention and thus missed the reportedlyst~m~llat~ng oebate wh~ch l~~d to t~e cre2tion of this Committee. I didrece~v7 som~ ~a~er:als ~ro~ :im Hedg~s~ p~~s an accompanying letter (August 22,197~) ~n wh~c..... J. WaS aSKed to respop..o 1;0 t,hree Q.uestions. Due to the shortper~od ~f time involved, = have been unable to seek as many opinions ands~gest~ons f~vm knowledgeable ca-..e ma:ppers in the Midwest as I would have~shed.. I have, however, had an opportunity to obtain considerable input fromJerry V~neyard and much of the specific recommendations regardin5 choice ofcave symbols were provided by Jerry.