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CONTOUR

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 33 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CONTOUR , CONTOUR-See also:

LINE (a See also:French word meaning generally " outline," from the Med. See also:Lat. contornare, to See also:round off), in See also:physical See also:geography a line See also:drawn upon a See also:map through all the points upon the See also:surface represented that are of equal height above See also:sea-level. These points See also:lie, therefore, upon a See also:horizontal See also:plane at a given See also:elevation passing through the See also:land shown on the map, and the contour-line is the intersection of that horizontal plane with the surface of the ground. The contour-line of o, or datum level, is the coastal boundary of any land See also:form. If the sea be imagined as rising Too ft., a new See also:coast-line, with bays and estuaries indented in the valleys, would appear at the new sea-level. If the sea sank once more to its former level, the Too-ft. contour-line with all its irregularities would be represented by the See also:beach See also:mark made by the sea when zoo ft. higher. If instead of receding the sea See also:rose continuously at the See also:rate of zoo ft. per See also:day, a See also:series of levels Too ft. above one another would be marked daily upon the land until at last the highest See also:mountain peaks appeared as islands less than zoo ft. high. A See also:record of this series of advances marked upon a See also:flat map of the See also:original See also:country would give a series of concentric contour-lines narrowing towards the mountain-tops, which they would at last completely surround. Contour-lines of this See also:character are marked upon most See also:modern maps of small areas and upon all See also:government survey and military maps at varying intervals according to the See also:scale of the map.

End of Article: CONTOUR

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