People frequently ask, "What should I see when I read a map?" and the answer is given, "The ground as it is." This is not true any more than it is true that the words "The valley of the Meuse," bring to your mind vine-clad hills, a noble river, and green fields where cattle graze. Nor can any picture ever put into your thought what the Grand Canyon really is. What printed word or painted picture can not do, a map will not. A map says to you, "Here stands a hill," "Here is a valley," "This stream runs so," and gives you a good many facts in regard to them. But you do not have to "see" anything, any more than you have to visualize Liege in order to learn the facts of its geography. A map sets forth cold facts in an alphabet all its own, but an easy alphabet, and one that tells with a few curving lines more than many thousand words could tell. =Section 2. Sketching.= Noncommissioned officers and selected privates should be able to make simple route sketches. This is particularly useful in patrolling, as thereby a patrol leader is able to give his commander a good idea of the country his patrol has traversed. Sketches should be made on a certain scale, which should be indicated on the sketch, such as 3 inches on the sketch equals 1 mile on the ground. The north should be indicated on the sketch by means of an arrow pointing in that direction. Any piece of paper may be used to make the sketch on. The back of the field-message blank is ruled and prepared for this purpose. The abbreviations and conventional signs shown on the following pages should be used in making such simple sketches. Field Maps and Sketches. The following abbreviations and signs are authorized for use on field maps and sketches. For more elaborate map work the authorized conventional signs as given in the manual of "Conventional Signs, United States Army Maps,"; are used. Abbreviations other than those given should not be used. ABBREVIATIONS.