The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1885-06-20
A QUEER OLD MAP.
Peculiar Notions Of the Geography Of
North America.


North America.
| Among the most recent acquisitions
| to the collection of ancient and curious
works in the Legislative library at the
Ontario parliament building is an atlas
| printed in London somewhere Just be-
fore the beginning of the last century.
The title page calls it IA new sett Of
MAPS both of Ancient and Present
GEOGRAPHY, wherein not only the
LATITUDE and LONGITUDE of many
places are Corrected according to the
latest Observations, but also the most
| remarkable Differences of ANTIENT and
PRESENT GEOGRAPHY may be quickly
| discerned by bare inspection or COM
pairing of correspondent MAPS; which
seems to be the most natural and easy
method to lead young students (for
whose use the work is principally in
tended) unto competent knowledge of
the geographical SCIENCE" by Edward
| Wells, ID. d., sometime student of Christ
| church, Oxon., and late rector of Cotes-
bach in Leicestershire. Each of the
forty-one maps bears dedication to
''His Highness William Duke of Glou-
cester. the young son of Princess Anne
of Denmark. afterward Queen Anne"
who died in the year 100, and as he was
only seventeen years of age at that time
the work could only have been prepared
very few years previously. All the
maps in the collection are curious, to
say the least, but the most peculiar are
those relating to America. The map of
| North America has been laid out accord
ing to Mercator's projection, as far as
latitude is concerned, but Longitude
nally this is changed to the regular
method, giving the map an even more
distorted appearance than it naturally
would have with the errors which have
| been made.
Among the blunders are placing of
| The eastern extremity. Newfoundland,
| in the 45th degree of latitude, instead of
| the SD degree, and Cape Charles, the
eastern point of Labrador, is placed in
the same 45th degree, instead of the
| Both degree. Iceland is represented as
| long. narrow island extending from
from the 9Th degree to the 21st degree
west longitude. instead of from the 18th
| degree to the 18th degree, but these are
comparatively small matters. The ex-
treme eastern point of the continent is
at the 45th degree: the western is I'M
| known, but must have extended almost
back 10 Europe, as Cape San Eugenio
in Lower California, is given at the 145th
degree, or 80 degrees west of its proper
| location. The source of the Meschasipi
or Mississippi Rivers given in longitude
west from Greenwich 125 degrees, so as
to throw the western boundary of On
tario from Cape Beale, in Vancouver
Island, north, thus taking in nearly
half the island. Illinois Lake, or Lake
Michigan, is apparently by far the
| largest of the great lakes, with an ex-
| treme breadth of over five hundred
miles. TRACT or Upper Lake. as Lake
| Superior is called. is shown as being the
same size as Lakes Huron and Erie,
and Lake Ontario is given as about one
fourth the size of the latter. Lake
Timagaming is shown as the source of
the Saguenay and the Rupert Rivers.
The Ottawa River ON the map receives
the waters of Hudson Bay and of Lake
Huron to carry to the st. Lawrence,
and there was apparently no knowledge
of Niagara Falls.
Five towns only appear to have been
| settled in what is now Canada-Port
Royal and Touquemet, the latter now
| called Yarmouth, in Nova Scotia, then
called New Scotland; Brest, at the ex-
! IRENE eastern point of Labrador;
Tadousac and Quebec. The errors
which are observable in the northern
are reproduced in the southern part of
the map. Baltimore town is given as
being some distance north of Philadel-
phia, and Plymouth is much nearer to
| Boston than is Charlestown. The APP
] palachian mountains run nearly due
east and west on the map. through
what are now the States of Ohio, Ken
lucky, Indiana, Illinois, thence across
the Mississippi, and trending southwark
into New Mexico. Lower California is
an island, and the upper part of the
island is called New Albion. New
Orleans would appear to have just been
| founded, as there is an island shown at
the mouth of the Mississippi called New
French Settlement, but the mouth of
the river is no nearer being in its right
! position than the source, it being shown
at the extreme northwestern corner of
| the "Gulf of Mexico" One more
reference to the North may be allowed.
'Frobisher's" Straits are given as being
south of Greenland" and James Bay
is divided into two parts, one of which
is called James and the other Hudson
Bay. Carolina is credited with possess
ing lake as large as Ontario, and the
Susquehanna river is represented as
running due north and in an exactly
straight line. Many of the towns in
! Mexico are located tolerably accurately,
but the lay of the land is terribly out OF
proportion. Other maps in the atlas
are equally interesting to lovers OF the
curious, and will well repay compare
son by those who have time and oppor-
tunity.-Toronto Globe.
Il asked physician if there really
| were any structural difference between
the tongue of woman and of man.
| Certainly" he replied; 1.-THE organ is