jmc wrote:
. But it is also an object lesson in how much easier navigation became once aerial photography began producing accurate topographic maps, and explorers no longer had to grope blindly through a maze of islands and peninsulas, indistinguishable from the mainland at water level.
-jmc
I'd say partially true. Even with accurate topos the "maze of islands and peninsulas, (are) indistinguishable from the mainland at water level, as Davidson & Rugge so clearly illustrate in their "Wilderness Canoeing" book. But one can grope with confidence if it's known that there's a passage thru the islands & pens.
I would also argue that if you have a map in your hand based on arial photography, that you are still a navigator but no longer qualify as an 'explorer". And that's the problem I have with Wallace or others possibly blaming Low's map for their misfortune. The stated object of the Hubbard trip was to explore the 'unknown' (to 'boldy go', one might say, where no paleface has gone before). So they could hardly complain(and apparently, in fact, they did not) that inaccurate maps led them astray.
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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.