Ok, Inkscape gurus ~ I’d like to isolate the lake portion of the map so that I can engrave it at a different setting than the rest of the lines (i.e. I want to engrave the roads at a darker setting, and the lake at a lighter setting).
TIA!
Give them different colours.
Yes! But how do I isolate the lake to do that? As it is now, everything (the roads and lake) are all the same path so when I change the color of one it changes the color of everything. (Hope I’m making sense)
I tried to select the nodes one by one, and then clicked “break path at selected nodes” but it deleted the portion I selected.
We have no idea what your map file looks like, visually or in terms of composition. Did the map start out as a picture of some sort that you traced? If it was in multiple colors to start with, you can typically get the water in its own path/layer by tracing by color.
Thank you ~ forgot to attach the photo (doh!). 
I imported a screen shot of a map (jpg) and then I did “trace bitmap” which is what this image is of.
You can choose “path” “break apart” then colour each area whatever you want.
Thank you ~ but how do I select the lake without having to click on each and every node individually?
For squares and other shapes I can usually click on a few nodes, draw a box around the item I want to isolate, & that’s how I select all the nodes of the entire shape.
But this is so close to the other nodes of the roads, I can’t use that technique.
Separate it from the streets (looks like only one point, at the top) then use “break apart”. You’ll be able to select the lake by itself.
To be clear - break this line at the top of the lake:
and then select your full design and click Path > Break Apart
and the lake will no longer be attached. If there is anything else that’s not touching anything else it will also be broken apart - but you can now easily select the lake and drag it off to the side, and then select everything else and click Path > Combine and they’ll all join back up again.
(or leave the lake in place, use ctrl/cmd-A to select all, then shift-click on the lake to deselect it.)
Once you’ve broken the paths so the lake isn’t connected to everything else, you can select one node on it, and click ctrl-a to select all the nodes on that path.
Ooh, I didn’t know that! I use the click and roll the mouse wheel but that’ll select nearby paths too 
How did you resolve this? I would make a rectangle and use the Object>Cut function to slice out a rectangle of what I want to remain. I may not understand what your final intention is though.
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