Title: A comparative view of the lengths of the principal rivers of Scotland (with comparative view of the height of the falls of Foyers and Corra Linn), John Thomoson's Atlas of Scotland (1831)
BibliOdyssey blog has a really neat post about ye olden books that are all about comparative heights of mountains and lengths of rivers. The pictures are worth a thousand words, so thankfully, large pics are just a click away:
In what must have been something of a eureka moment of innovation, the originator of the comparative map (rivers, mountains, lakes, islands, continents &c.) presentation style perfectly captured the common ground between science, graphic design and education. It's equally possible to imagine a geographer, artist or teacher having conjured up the idea for such a novel means of data visualisation.
All I could think about when I perused the large pics is this: "Ain't no mountain high enough... Ain't no valley low enough... Ain't no river wide enough..."