Excerpt from THE MAPPIST:
The first map was of ephemeral streams in the northeast quadrant of the state.
ÒThese streams,Ó he pointed out, Òrun only during wet periods, some but once in twenty years. Some don't have any names.Ó
The information was strikingly presented and beautifully drawn. The instruction you needed to get oriented-where the Red River was, where the county lines were-was just enough, so it barely impinged on the actual subject matter of the map. The balance was perfect. . . .
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As I took in the shape and colors, the subdivided shades of purple and green and blue, Mr. Benefideo slid a large hand-colored transparency across the sheet, a soil map of the same area. You could imagine looking down through a variety of soil types to the bedrock below. . . .
When he placed the next map in front of me, the summer distribution of Swainson's hawks, and then slid in next to it a map showing the overlapping summer distribution of its main prey species, the Richardson ground squirrel, the precision and revelation were too much for me.
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