In Europe, unlike the desert, jungle, tundra or prairie plains, there
are normally adequate reference objects to enable you to locate your position
quite accurately. The simplest and quickest way of orientating a map is
by inspection of the map and the ground.
Inspection means to look about you picking out prominent points, then, look at the map in the rough area in which you should be. By relating the objects on the ground to their symbols on the map it should be possible to place yourself at a point on the map with enough accuracy to decide where to go next.
If you are on a straight road the map can be set by lining up the road
on the map with the road on the ground; note that if the road curves you
must know exactly where you are on it or the orientation may be badly
out. At a cross roads, you know your position exactly and you have four
directions to set your map by. Be sure, though, that the right roads point
in the right directionn; in country lanes it can be easy to get confused.
If you are not sure, note the direction of some other object, a farm or a church, and check that its direction on the map is correct. Alternatively, you may remember a bridge over a stream a little way back on the road you came along, or the name of a village; find it on the map and that identifies one road for you, which is all that is necessary. In just the same way a map can be orientated at a road junction, a railway bridge, or by a straight line of railway.
The basis of the method is that there should be something clearly marked,
such as a road or a railway, whose direction on the map can he made to
coincide with the direction on the ground.
If there is no convenient road or railway, the map can be orientated by
lining up on distant objects. Provided that you will still know your position.
Note two or three prominent objects that you can identify on the map.
Lay a ruler, or any reasonably straight edge, so that its edge passes
through your position on the map and through that of one of the objects.
Then sight along the ruler to the object on the ground. The map should
be orientated but check on one or two other objects to make sure - the
first object may have been wrongly identified.
If you can only identify one prominent object in the first place, check
by comparing the features of the ground with the map. For example, according
to the map the ground might fall away on the right to a small wood at
the bottom of the slope; there might be some farm buildings half a mile
away to your left. Do these things tally with what is on the ground? If
so, your orientation is correct.
When you use this method, choose prominent objects that are as far away
as possible and that are well defined. woods and villages are bad; they
are too large to line up on with any accuracy. Church towers, factory
chimneys, single buildings and isolated clump of trees are good objects.
Often you will not know your own position exactly; if you are on the top
of an open rounded hill your position is not well defined. If in addition
you orientate your map on objects that are large and straggling and not
far off, your map is likely to be very badly orientated.
With these methods the map will not he orientated meticulously to the nearest degree, but for ordinary map reading it to not necessary that it should be. It is enough if objects line up reasonably well by eye. Experience shows just how much accuracy is necessary. Make it a habit always to orientate your map as soon as you look at it - it should become first nature.