I feel your pain Grim-Eyes! I *wish* I had maps that told how the air should smell. Sometimes, I can guess from a topographical map and knowledge of local flora, but it isn’t always good enough.
It would be like a topographical map, but the series of lines would indicate smells instead of elevation. Scentagraphical, maybe? Extremely labor intensive, since you’d need a different one depending on the season, and they would have to be updated every several years, as herds and flora shifted about.
Practically, you could only keep a small area updated. But you could do it practically, if you had, say, a hyena with each hunt party who was also a cartographer. Then, when the scent of an area doesn’t match their memory, they return to the tribe and update the scent-maps.
Crap. I think I need to use that in a story of some sort now. Damn you Ursula for being so inspirational!
This discussion of scent-maps, though short as discussions go hereabouts, has stayed with me still these years. Not sure why, exactly; the vivid imagery, I suppose …
“Stupid map doesn’t even tell you how the air is supposed to smell…” I’d give serious money to see a map that does! 😛
Scratch-n-sniff cartography, truly an unfilled niche.
Why do they have a problem with Digger getting out her climbing equipment?
I feel your pain Grim-Eyes! I *wish* I had maps that told how the air should smell. Sometimes, I can guess from a topographical map and knowledge of local flora, but it isn’t always good enough.
“The armored and bristly rump, … is uncomfortable for [Grim-Eyes’s shoulders]”
(http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=340)
.. there was a sewer area on my mud that could be navigated in the dark by smell. I had a sketch of it at one point with each room labeled by aroma…
It would be like a topographical map, but the series of lines would indicate smells instead of elevation. Scentagraphical, maybe? Extremely labor intensive, since you’d need a different one depending on the season, and they would have to be updated every several years, as herds and flora shifted about.
Practically, you could only keep a small area updated. But you could do it practically, if you had, say, a hyena with each hunt party who was also a cartographer. Then, when the scent of an area doesn’t match their memory, they return to the tribe and update the scent-maps.
Crap. I think I need to use that in a story of some sort now. Damn you Ursula for being so inspirational!
Whatever one might call such a map, it be useless to one such as I; years of allergies have reduced my sense of smell to pretty much zero.
This discussion of scent-maps, though short as discussions go hereabouts, has stayed with me still these years. Not sure why, exactly; the vivid imagery, I suppose …
(Sigh)
*all* these years.
(Sigh)
😌