Early Mediterranean Views on the Northlands

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EA-History

(George H. T. Kimble)

EARLY MEDITERRANEAN VIEWS ON THE NORTHLANDS

        Curiosity concerning the unknown is as old as men and as universal. In–

deed, it seems that three of the commonest words in any language are "where?"

"how," and "why?" The earliest dwellers in the valleys of Mesopotamia, follow–

ing a settled habit of life, could hardly refrain from asking where the floods

came from and what lay beyond the flanking hills. Thos of Minos would be no

less concerned to discover where the sea began and why it was always in motion.

Those of Troy would want to know where the Boreas acquired its force, and the

south wind its moisture. The fact that correct answers to such questions could

not be given matters little. Many of their answers were indeed highly improb–

able, for who had ever heard in Greece or Rome of four feet tall pigmies? Of

frozen seas and six month-long nights? Of single-breasted women who fought

better than men? And how could there possibly be men with dogs' heads and others

with heads in their chests? What is more important is that the world, both in

Antiquity and later times, has never lacked men who were prepared to seek out

answers, even though the search involved grievous hazards. It is to these men,

most of whom have left no memorial, that the beginnings of geographical thought

belong. —

        And not only geographical thought, either. For some of those who carried

their quest into distant lands returned with new metals and precious stones, with

animal furs and cunningly wrought tools and weapons, the like of which no Medi–

terranean-dweller had ever seen. On this wise was the first earth knowledge

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acquired.

        It was, of course, a long time before such knowledge and theories were

rationalized and made common to the whole community, and longer still before

they were communicated to other communities. "Com

        page 2 of MS missing

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ancient as any, can only be inferred with difficulty. We do know, however,

that in the third millennium B. C. there were Babylonian trading colonies in

the Taurus Mountains working copper and silver, and that Sargon (c. 2,500 B.C.)

is supposed to have raided the islands of the "upper sea" or "sunset sea," pre–

sumably Cyprus and Crete, since the Persian Gulf is described as the "lower sea."

Metal vessels executed in the early Sumerian manner have been found as far north

as the Caspian Sea, but it is dou tb bt ful whether we should, on that account,

assume that the Caspian was known to the Sumerians of the third millennium.

Much later (6th century B.C.) a clay tablet map, said to be a copy of a more

ancient one, portrays a circumambient river, called the Bitter River, surround–

ing the Tigris-Euphrates valley. Some writers have read into this circle a

knowledge of the Persian Gulf, Caspian, Black and Mediterranean seas, but it

would seem more logical to regard it simply as the expression of the known Baby–

lonian belief in a water-girt earth. After all, what could have been more nat–

ural in a valley where the earth was annually inundated and where the dry land

appeared as islands, slowly emerging from the spring floods? As the scholars

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of mediaeval Christendom later found, it is not impossible to reconcile the

Biblical story of the Creation (which has striking affinities to the Babylon–

ian version) with belief in an ocean-girt earth.

        It is now widely held that one of the most ancient summaries of world know–

ledge is, in fact, contained in the early chapters of Genesis . Chapter X is

particularly illuminating in this respect. From the list of genealogies given

here, it would appear that the world in, say, Abraham's time, was bounded on

the northwest by the Aegean (Dodanim being a corruption of Rodanim, i.e. Rhodes),

on the north by the Armenian Mountains (so A. H. Sayce interprets Ashkenaz) and

the Anatolian plateau including possibly the southern shores of the Black Sea

(Gomer being identified with the land that appears in later Assyrian literature

as Gimmira and in Herodotus as the land of the Cimmerians), and on the north–

east by the mountains of Elam and Media.

        The records of the early dynastic period of Egyptian civilization are

completely silent even about land bordering the north shore of the Mediterranean,

and although the argument from silence is sometimes risky, it cannot be dismissed

when the silence lasts for a millennium or more. By the XVIII dynasty (c. 1,400

B.C.), however, Asia Minor and Crete had been added to the Egyptian area of know–

ledge, thanks, in part no doubt, to the Hyksos who are believed to have origin–

ated in that part of the world. Before the second millennium B.C., Egyptian

ships were regularly doing the round trip to the "Isles of the Very Green," to

"Keftui and the Isles," these presumably being the islands (including Crete) of

the Aegean which had been influenced by Minoan culture. Notwithstanding the

notable expansion of inter-regional commerce which took place about this time,

the geographical ideas of the Egyptians continued to be of the vaguest, as, for

instance, when they made the Euphrates rise in "the marshes." Nor does it appear

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likely that the ancient tradition associating Sesostris with the discovery of

the eastern end of the Black Sea has any basis in fact. Equally without founda–

tion are other statements about eastern conquests by him or a Rameses as far as

India. As for lands to the west of the Aegean, there is no written evidence

that the Egyptians sailed there or even that they had an inkling that their great

sea was connected with an outer ocean. In their records the whole mass of main–

land Europe is a blank, unless we suppose that some of the sea-raiders who harried

the coast of the Delta from time to time, came from there. Admittedly, we hear

of such "northern" wares as amber, tin and furs reaching Egypt at an early date,

but this does not prove that there was direct trade between the source regions

and the markets, or that the geographical horizons of the Egyptians were widen–

ing. It has ever been a habit of middlemen to conceal the source of their profits!

       

The Homeric Age

        With the gradual northward migration of land-based and sea-based cultures

in the latter half of the second millennium, it is to be supposed that the Hitt–

ites, the Minoans and their more ambitious contemporaries in the Aegean proper

began to obtain an inkling of what lay to northward of them. But such of their

records as have [ ?] so far been deciphered tell us remarkably little about any

ideas they may have had on this subject. If the Hittites did know of the exist–

ence of the Black Sea lands (and this is generally taken to be a reasonable assump–

tion in view of the extent of their trading operations), they were thoughtless

enough not to record the fact. The Myceneans and Achaeans waged military cam–

paigns around the shores of the Bosphorus with tribes who were almost certainly

of eastern European origin; however,by the time of Homer they were but a ghostly

memory.

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        The Iliad and the Odyssey are scarcely more revealing. The poet has heard

of the mountains of Thrace whence blows the northern blast (= rhipeé ); beyond

them he locates, without indicating distance or direction, the Mysians and mare–

milking nomads, who are "noble" and "just." Here, it seems, we have the very

first hints of the Rhipean Mountains and the happy Hyperboreans whose Utopian

existence ("beyond the north wind") was later to become one of the most popular of

all ancient and mediaeval themes. Where they lived is not clear, but it would

be gratuitous, on the textual evidence, to suppose that Homer thought of them

as living any further north than the steppelands of the lower Denube or wouth–

western Ukraine. As knowledge expanded, both the mountains and the people were

gradually pushed further and further northwards: notwithstanding, belief in their

existence continued for fully 2,500 years after the Homeric age. The Amazons of

the Iliad pose rather more of a problem. For one thing, Homer was not completely

convinced of their existence, though, on one occasion, he does represent them as

attacking the Phrygians and their Trojan allies; and, for another, it is diffi–

cult to tell where they were supposed to dwell. Sometimes they are brought from

Thrace to help Troy: at others they are domiciled about half-way along the southern

shores of the Black Sea. (When, five hundred years or more afterwards, Greek col–

onists failed to find them hereabouts, it was thought that they had withdrawn

northwards beyond the Don to become a people ruled by women.) The origin of the

whole notion of warrior women is still obscure. Possibly it represents a fusion

of two cultural traits found in the Black Sea region about this time, namely the

matriarchal code of the Azov tribes and the predilection of the Hittites for women–

lile garb. Others believe that the story of the Golden Fleece is capable of a

similar rationalization. Thus Strabo explains that, at a river near Colchis near

the southeastern end of the Black Sea, it was the practice of the natives to trap

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the alluvial gold in sheep fleeces.

        The Odyssey tells us even less, for only here and there would it appear

that Homer was describing actual places, winds and currents. Westward beyond

Sicily and northward beyond the Bosphorus the task of identifying landfalls,

never easy, becomes virtually impossible. Having tried it, we feel strongly

inclined to endorse Eratosthenes' dictum (quoted by Strabo, Geography , I, ii,

15) that, to learn where Ulysses went, "one must find the cobbler who sewed up

the bag of the winds!" For what could be more frustrating than to find the

following description of the Cimmerians applied to a region that, on the evidence

supplied, could not be more than a day or so's sail from Sicily?

        "Thus she (Circe) brought us to the deep-flowing

River of Ocean and the frontiers of the world,

where the fog-bound Cimmerians live in the City

of Perpetual Mist. When the bright Sun climbs the

sky and puts the stars to flight, no ray from him

can penetrate to them, nor can he see them as he

drops from heaven and sinks once more to earth.

For dreadful Night has spread her mantle over the

heads of that unhappy folk." ( Odyssey , Book XI,

Rieu's translation).

        Whether those Cimmerians are the Kymry of Britain, as Hennig and others

have argued rather unconvincingly, or the Cimbri of Jutland, or even the Gimmira

of the Crimea (it was not until c. 700 B.C. that they sought refuge from the

Scythians by settling along the southern shores of the Black Sea), matters

very little for our immediate purpose. What is important is the implication

of the story. Long winter and short summer nights speak of much higher lati–

tudes than those of the Mediterranean, while the mention of fog-bound coasts on

the "River of Ocean" suggests that ships were already sailing out into the waters

of the western Atlantic. With the Phoenicians established in Cadiz by 1,100 B.C.,

and doing business with well-nigh every inhabited part of the Mediterranean, there

was no good reason why Homer should not have heard of these things. Some have

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even supposed that his references to a floating island and clashing rocks imply

that ships had penetrated northward into the Atlantic far enough to see icebergs,

but in view of the general air of fiction which permeates the epic, such an assump–

tion rests on a frail foundation. Also implying awareness of lands well to the

north of the Mediterranean is the statement Homer makes in the Odyssey concern–

ing Telepylus, the city of the Laestrygones. It is described as a place "where

shepherds bringing in their flocks at night hail and are answered by their fel–

lows driving out at dawn. For in this land nightfall and morning tread so close–

ly on each other's heels that a man who could do without sleep might earn a

double set of wages, one as a neatherd and the other for shepherding white flocks

of sheep." ( Odyssey , Book X, Rieu's translation.) The meaning of the last

clause becomes clear if, for "night and day" we substitute "darkness and dawn"

or "sunset and sunrise:" indeed, as Tozer pointed out long ago, it then begins

to sound uncommonly like Tacitus' description of the short summer nights in the

north of Britain - "finem atque initium lucis exiguo discrimine inter noscas."

No sooner does night threatan, than day reappears; consequently there is not the

same need for work to cease, as when darkness falls.

       

From Homer to Herodotus

        Though Homer almost certainly did not invent the notion of an all-embracing

river or ocean, he succeeded in giving it immortality. From the Odyssey onward

it became part of the geographical stock-in-trade of poets and prose writers alike.

In Homer it was merely represented as a deep-flowing river, with little or nothing

said about its further boundary. Hesiod, however, had it studded with islands –

the Hesperides, Erythea and the Isles of the Blessed. Hecataeus believed it to

encompass a circular-shaped earth. Herodotus was more skeptical about its extent

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and continuity: while maintaining that there was an ocean to the west of the

Mediterranean (to which he first applied the name Atlantic) and also probably

to the south, he claimed that its existence to north and northeast had not been

proved. In support of this view he asserted (what was stoutly denied by the

Miletus school of geographers) that the Caspian Sea was not an arm of the ocean,

but an inland sea. How far north the oikoumene extended he had no means of

telling: "whether sea girds Europe round on the north none can say." While ad–

mitting that tin and amber came from the north, he discounted the stories of

the Tin Islands and had no use for the amber-bearing, north-flowing river Erid–

anus, spoken of by some of his contemporaries. He was equally skeptical about

a good many other northern matters, as for instance, the Hyperboreans and the

Sleepers.

        The Hyperboreans are first mentioned in cwrtain poems doubtfully attributed

to Hesiod, but which can scarcely be later than the 7th century B.C. By Herod–

otus' time it seems almost everybody supposed that, in the far north of Europe,

"under the shining way" (the clear northern sky?) lived a people who passed their

days in perpetual peace and merriment. War, injustice, sickness and infirmity

were unknown to them, and only those who tired of life ever died. Because they

dwelt beyond Boreas, the north wind, the climate was perpetually temperate, a

condition which did away with the need of houses. But Herodotus could not bring

himself to believe in them, for three reasons. Firstly, if they existed, their

neighbors to the south, the Issedonians and the Scythians, would have heard about

them, which, he avers, was not the case. Secondly, if there were Hyperboreans,

there must be Hypernotians - dwellers beyond the south wind, an argument which

really proved nothing except that he shared his contemporaries' feeling for sym–

metry. Thirdly, such evidence as there was pointed to a deterioration of the

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environment with distance northward. The "northern regions," he affirms, "are

uninhabitable, by reason of the severity of the winter." The idea of the Sleep–

ers, who were said to sleep for six months at a time, was likewise rejected,

though as we can readily see, it was much the less fanciful of the two; in all

likelihood it represents a fusion of the tales about the long northern night –

the length of which was generally reckoned, in Herodotus' day, to be six months,

and about the inhabitants of these regions who were wont to pass much of the

winter in a state of semi-hibernation. (Until quite recently this was still a

common practice among many of the more primitive Russian tribes.) Equally "un–

worthy of credit" so Herodotus claimed, are the stories of the goat-footed men

dwelling in "lofty and precipitous mountains" north of the Scythians: of the gold–

guarding griffins, and of their enemies, the one-eyed Arimaspians. On the other

hand, he believed in the Amazons, though he declined to say whether or no they

dwelt in the north. Herodctus' unbelieving turn of mind was also employed to

good advantage when he argued that the "feathers" with which the Scythians were said

to fill the air for the purpose of preventing persons from having any view of

their regions, were in reality only snow flakes. For, as he pointed out in the

same book, the Scythian winter was eight months long and received "scarcely no

rain worth mentioning."

        Concerning his views on the northwestern limits of the oikoumene , Herodotus

has left us in very little doubt. "I do not allow," he declared, "that there is

any river, to which the barbarians give the name Eridanus, emptying itself into

the northern sea, whence, as the tale goes, amber is procured: nor do I know of

any islands called the Cassiterides whence the tin comes which we use. For in

the first place "the name Eridanus is manifestly not a barbarian word at all, but

a Greek name, invented by some poet or other: and, secondly, though I have taken

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vast pains, I have never been able to get an assurance from an eye-witness

that there is any sea on the further side of Europe. Nevertheless, tin and

amber do certainly come to us from the ends of the earth." If Herodotus was

reluctant to hazard what lay beyond the limits of certain knowledge, the above

quotation makes it clear that there must have been many around him who were

troubled by no such inhabitions, but were ready to accept the existence both of

the Cassiterides and the northern ocean. Elsewhere he tells us that these men

even drew maps of their fancies, "making, as they do, the ocean-stream to run all

round the earth, and the earth itself to be an exact circle, as if described by

a pair of compasses, with Europe and Asia just of the same size." (Book IV,

Chapter 36.)

        The absence of such a map is much to be deplored. However, by piecing to–

gether the fragmentary references to the western Europe of the era, we can gather

a rough idea of what such a map would have contained. Unfortunately, our best

informant, Avienus, lived several hundred years (c. 4th century A.D.) after the

period in question; even so, the European section of his Ora Martima is widely

held to be based on echoes of the Carthaginian voyage of Himilco carried out short–

ly before Herodotus' time. Avienus himself claimed to have used Himilco's origin–

al account - a claim which few scholars are willing to endorse. More likely he

obtained his information from an earlier compound of Greek tales now lost. Obscure

as parts of the text are (an obscurity not alleviated by the poetic form in which

it is cast), the passage relating to western Europe is reasonably easy to follow.

After describing the coasts for some distance north of the Pillars of Hercules,

he comes to ahhigh headland, of old called Ostrymnis, "and all the high mass of

rocky ridge turns mostly towards the warm south wind" (south coast of Brittany?).

In the midst of the bay which flanks this south-facing shore "rise the islands

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which are called Oestrymnides, scattered widely about, and rich in metals, in

tin and in lead." (Nansen, In Northern Mists , p. 29, claims that "everything

points to the islands being situated on the south coast of Brittany, and there

is much in favour of...(the) assumption that they are islands of Morbihan.....

This agrees very well with the description of Himilco's voyage to the Oestrym–

nides. The free alluvial deposits along the shore ...still contain a good deal

of tin....") Here live "a multitude of men with enterprise and active industry,

all having continually commercial interests - they plough in skilful fashion far

and wide the foaming sea ( fretum , literally 'strait') and the currents of monster–

bearing Ocean in their small boats.....Two days' voyage from thence lay the great

island which the ancients called 'the Holy Island' and it is inhabited by the

people of Hierne (Ireland?) far and wide, and near to it again extends the island

of Albion. And it was the custom of the men of Tartessus to trade to the borders

of the Oestrymnides: also colonists from Carthage and the many who voyage between

the Pillars of Hercules visited these seas. The Carthaginian Himilco assures

us that these seas can scarcely sailed through in four months" (presumably

there and back, and including time for trading?). Avienus goes on to describe

these seas as sluggish, windless, foggy, sometimes very shoaly and clogged with

weed, and infested by monsters.

        "Sic nulla late flabra propellunt ratem,

sic segnis humor aequoris pigri stupet.

.......................................

Obire semper huc et hunc ponti feras,

navigia lenta et languide repentia

internatare beluas.") lines 120–129)

        As J. O. Thomson remarks, this vaguely alarming stuff can hardly do justice to

Himilco, if he handed in anything like Hannos' detailed report of the west African

coast ( History of Ancient Geography , p. 54). Perhaps only garbled varsions were

allowed to become current, with the dangers exaggerated to scare off competitors.

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Already Plato had heard of the alleged shoals and accounted for them by the

sinking of his Atlantis.

        What seems to be beyond reasonable doubt is that, by Herodotus' time, the

horizons of northwestern Europe were slowly being rolled back, and that the

Carthaginians were aware of the existence of the Breton coast and the adjacent

coasts of Ireland and England. The identity of the Tin Islands is less certain.

Against those who contend that the early tin was obtained from Spain, or perhaps

from some off-lying islets, must be placed not only the ancient doubts of Herod–

otus, but the modern assertion, based upon the work of prospectors, that no im–

portant deposits of tin have ever been exploited on any Atlantic islands. Pos–

sibly the name should be regarded as a nomen appelatiyum rather than a nomen

proprium , accommodating all the western sources of tin, later variously identified

with real things heard about Spain, Brittany and Cornwall. But if this is so,

it is unlikely that the rich deposits of Cornwall were the first to be exploited,

since the early descriptions always speak of the Tin Islands as being separate

from Britain and further south.

        As for amber, the other main object of northern barter, by about Herodotus'

time, as we have seen, there had come (perhaps overland) hearsay of Eridanus,

a north-flowing river (the Oder? Vistula?) near the mouth of which this valuable

commodity was washed up by the tide. It was only at a much lat [ ?] er date, after the

head of the Adriatic had become one of the great entrepôts for the amber trade,

that the name Eridanus was transferred to the principal stream of those parts,

namely the Padus, or Po.

        Otherwise, nothing much was known of the north of Europe. Not that it wor–

ried the Greeks unduly: on the whole they were quite incurious about lands which

yielded up their wealth so reluctantly, and which taxed their powers of acclimat-

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ization so sorely. Indeed, about such lands they were not only incurious, but

frequently incredulous. Nowhere is this incredulity more shockingly revealed

than in the fate which befell the discoveries of Pytheas of Massilia.

       

The Implications of the Pytheas Story

        The travels of the Massiliot scientist and explorer, Pytheas, are described

elsewhere in the Encyclopedia . Here we are only concerned with the conception

of the northlands which these travels engendered in Pytheas, and the influence

which they exerted upon the geographical thinking of his contemporaries and suc–

cessors. Although it is impossible to be dogmatic on the matter (seeing that we

have only very fragmentary and much-edited information to go upon), it would seem

that Pytheas' excursion into northern waters led him to the following conclusions:

        Firstly, that the oikoumene extended well to the north of the British Isles.

Even if Pytheas did not visit Thule himself (and nowhere does he claim to have

done so), he had been in touch with people who had, and who averred that, six

days' sail north of Britain, there were still inhabited lands possessing a climate

suitable for the growing of vegetables, grain and wild fruits, and the raising

of honey.

        Secondly, that in these northerly latitudes, "the nights in summer are

light, because ..... then the sun shows not only its radiance, but also the

greater part of itself" (Mela's account). "For it happened in these places that

the night was very short, in some places of two hours' duration, in others three

hours, so that the sun, going to rest, rose again after a short interval." (Ger–

minus of Rhodes' account.)

        Thirdly, that "beyond Thule" at a distance of "one day's sail" (Pliny) the

sea became "sluggish and congealed" ("pigrum et concretum" in Solinus' account).

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Furthermore, the description given of the state of the sea in this vicinity

is sufficiently circumstantial to warrant the belief that it refers to the

edge of the Arctic ice pack, which in the 4th century B.C. was unlikely to

have occupied a very different mean position from that of today, when, at its

late winter maximum, it extends roughly northeastwards from Cape Farewell through

the Denmark Strait (in some years extending almost to the northwestern coast of

Iceland) to east of Jan Mayen and on, in a north-sweeping arc, to Bear Island.

Strabo, who could not bring himself to accept any of the story, reports it as

follows: "There was no longer any distinction of land or sea or air, but a mix–

ture of the three like sea-lung (jelly-fish?) in which he (Pytheas) says that

land and sea and everything floats, and this (i.e. the mixture) binds all to–

gether, and can neither be traversed on foot nor in boat."

        Fourthly, that there was a sea to the east of the Jutland peninsula, the

shores of which were notable for their amber. Whether Pytheas himself sailed

into the Baltic, let alone as far east as the Vistula, as some authorities have

contended, cannot readily be established. The mention of the word 'Balcia" or

"Baltia.' with which some of his copyists and reporters credit him, is sugges–

tive, but proves little. The absence of any reference to a northern shore is

probably significant, as is the statement, quoted by Pliny, that the amber, cast

up by the waves, was washed out of the "congealed sea," for this implies that the

Arctic ice pack was thought of as occupying the region to the north of Jutland

and the Baltic Sea. On the evidence it is even open to doubt whether Pytheas

knew more of Jutland than that it was a peninsula jutting out into northern waters.

        Even so, few travelers in Antiquity accomplished as much as Pytheas. It

might almost be said that he accomplished too much, for the picture he drew of

the new lands was so pronouncedly out of line with existing ideas that, with a

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few shining exceptions, notably those of Eratosthenes and Hipparchus, it failed

to win acceptance. His younger contemporary, Dicaearchus, doubted him, and,

later, Polybius and Strabo dubbed him an imposter. Possibly this 'smear cam–

paign' was due, in part at least, to a species of professional jealousy. Poly–

bius, it will be recalled, was active in many Roman campaigns and claimed to be

more widely traveled than any other geographer: but as his farthest north was

only the south of Gaul, he may well have resented the thought that a man, living

some two hundred years before him, had accomplished much more, and in face of

much greater difficulties withal. As Nansen reminds us, "men are not always

above such littleness."

        With Strabo it is more likely that the opposition was based on purely im–

personal grounds. Indeed, we might almost say, on "scientific" grounds. Strabo,

it appears, was a firm believer in the zonal theory of terrestrial distributions,

first propounded by Parmenides and subsequently embraced by almost all men of

learning. According to the usual form of this theory, the earth was divided in–

to five zones, one uninhabitable because of the nearness of the sun, two habitable

because they were at a moderate distance, and two uninhabitable because they were

too far away from the sun. It was one thing to fix the number of terrestrial

zones: it was quite another thing to fix their position. Even as late as Aris–

totle there was still very little data for placing the northern tropic on a map,

much less the Arctic Circle. While he rightly understood that the tropic was the

northernmost line to which the vertical sun advances at the summer solstice, he

erroneously supposed that the southernmost edge of the uninhabitable cold zone

was coincident with the circle of the northern heavens which marked the limit,

in that direction, of the stars which never set. On this reckoning, every lati–

tude has a different "arctic circle". To an observer in Athens (such as Aristotle)

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this would put the Arctic Circle no farther north than the estuary of the Elbe:

It has often been doubted whether Aristotle could have been quite so native: but

the fact is that he was by no means the only one who nursed this delusion.

        In the circumstances, therefore, it is not very difficult to see why many

should have come to suppose that Soythia deterirated into a desert only a little

way north of the Black Sea, or why Strabo should have contended that the ocean

ceased to be liquid a little to the north of Scotland. Within such a frame of

reference, the voyages of Pytheas could obviously find no place. (Dicaearchus,

a pupil of Aristotle, cannot altogether have distrusted Pytheas, since he allows

that the known world extended almost to the Arctic Circle which he placed at 24°

from the Pole.)

       

The Roman Era

        Pytheas, unfortunately, seems to have had no emulators. Why this should

be so is not clear, for his reports were encouraging enough to arouse the bus–

iness instinots of even the most timid trader. Nor is it a sufficient explana–

tion to say that the pundits later denounced Pytheas as a liar and a fraud on

the grounds that his findings did not tally with their theories. Seamen have

seldom shown over-much regard for the doctrinaire views of land-lubbers. More

likely the Greek colonists found that they could secure their commercial ends

with less trouble by way of the overland route to the Cassiterides and the Baltic.

Be this as it may, the tally of northern knowledge was not increased during the

course of the next five hundred years: indeed, a good deal was lost, or, more

strictly, rejected. Eratosthenes (fl. c. 230 B.C.), to give him his due, did

retain Thule (far out in the ocean to the north of "Brettanice") as his utter–

most land and northern limit of the oikoumene , but on the other hand, he falsely

assumed that the Pytheas story warranted belief in the eastward continuance of

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the ocean to the 'Gulf' of the Caspian. He was equally in error in supposing that

the presence of a circumambient ocean could be inferred from the occurrence of

tidal phenomena around all the the -known outer sea coasts. Hipparchus (fl. c.

150 B.C.) likewise continued to accept Thule as the northernmost part of the

oikoumene , while differing from Eratosthenes in his view of the tides. How Hip–

parchus located his high latitudes is not very clear. The line of the 19-hour

day (summer solstice) is said to pass through the south of Britain, and not the

north as one would expect. These, he declared to be far from uniform in their

manifestations, but it is not known whether, on this account, he was opposed to

the concept of the ocean-girt oikoumene . Polybius (fl. c. 150 B.C.), though a

contemporary of Hipparchus', was far removed from him in outlook and intellectual

calibre. He was, in fact, an obscurantist, perhaps the first of the many whose

names clutter up the pages of geographical history. Because, so we judge, of an

over-zealous attachment to the zonal theory, he was willing to discard the entire

Pytheas story, declaring that all the country north of Narbo, the Alps and the

Aaurus, was unknown. He was, truth to tell, open-minded enough to leave unanswer–

ed the question of whether there was a continuous ocean to the north of Europe,

and quite rightly denied the idea of a Caspian "Gulf."

        But it would be a mistake to suppose that there was any such thing as uni–

formity of ideas among the men of this era. If the Pytheas story was rejected,

rather than simply discarded or lost sight of, it was not simply because of its

incompatibility with the zonal theory, for not everybody accepted this: and of

those who did, there were some who ignored its implications. Thus Grates (fl. c.

165 B.C.) the librarian at Pergamum, divided the earth into four parts by an

equatorial east-west flowing ocean and a meridional ocean stretching from pole

to pole. He had the Ethiopians living right in the Torrid Zone on either side

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of the equatorial ocean, a race of nightless giants about the latitude of the

Arctic Circle and the dayless Cer b erians at the pole: The fact that the Cratesian

conception was, if anything, even less rational than the zonal view did not pre–

vent it from enjoying a wide and long-lasting popularity. Through Macrobius

it passed down to the Middle Ages.

        The leading historians of the time show equally little appreciation of the

implications of the Pytheas story. Thus, all that Caesar (c. 50 B.C.) knew or

was willing to admit was that, to the north of Britain, there were some off-lying

islands where the winter night was a month long. If this is an echo from Pytheas,

we could scarcely wish for a better measure of the decline of knowledge during

the intervening 300 years. Even on Britain, Caesar's showing is far from im–

pressive, for he has the west coast facing Spain as well as Ireland, and the

eastern side facing the empty northern ocean:

        Strabo (fl. c. 20 B.C. - c. 20 A.D.) was no better. In his desire to avoid

exaggeration, or perhaps to discredit the giants of the past, he refused to give

serious consideration, either to Pytheas' claims, or to the information which,

as we can see from Pliny, had filtered into Greece from other sources. He does

not even make use of the geographical knowledge gained in his own time as a re–

sult of Augustus' campaign in northern Germania. To him the Ister (Danube), the

mountains of the Hercynian Forest (Central Germany) and Ierne (Ireland) consti–

tuted, very roughly, the limit of the known world in this direction. Ierne,

located in approximately latitude 54° N., is taken to be the most northern land.

"Living writers," he asserts, "tell us of nothing beyond Ierne which lies near

to Britain on the north ( sic ) and is inhabited by savages who live miserably on

account of the cold." The Tin Islands are described as a group of ten lying well

to the north of Spain in the latitude of Britain. As for the lands lying to the

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east of Britain, he declares that "those parts of the country beyond the Albis

(i.e. Elbe) that are near the ocean are wholly unknown to us. For of the men

of earlier times I know of no one who made this voyage along the coast to the

eastern parts that extend as far as the mouth ( sic ) of the Caspian Sea; and the

Romans have not yet advanced into the parts that are beyond Albis; and likewise

no one has made the journey by land either." ( Geography , 7,2,4., H. L. Jones'

translation). Even in regard to a country as well known as Scythia, Strabo is

pitifully ignorant. True, he has a reasonably accurate notion of the comparative

dimensions of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, but everything north of the

nearby Roxolani, "the most remote of the known Scythians," is terra incognita

and uninhabitable at that. As for the stories of the Rhipean Mountains and the

Hyperboreans, these he characterized as myths born of popular ignorance of the

regions in question, and of a baseless regard for Pytheas' "false statements....

regarding the country along the ocean, wherein he uses as a screen his scientific

knowledge of astronomy and mathematics." ( Geography, 7, 3, 1., H. L. Jones'

translation). In Strabo's view, both Pytheas and Eratosthenes had placed the

boundary of known land 8,000 stadia, or 11° 20′ too far north.

        Many later writers knew even less. Some of the poets wrote as if the

Scythians were near neighbours of the Eskimos.

        "Not a blade of grass appears on the plain, not a leaf on the trees:

But as far as eye can reach earth lies, her features lost

Beneath snowdrifts and ice to a depth of seven fathoms.

It's always winter, always the cold nor-wester blowing.

And worse, the sun can never break through the wan gloom there –

Not when his horses draw him up to the height of heaven,

Not when his chariot brings him to bathe in the blood-red sea.

.........

(The men) dig out deep igloos underground

.........

Here they while away the darkness in games, and gladly

Make do with beer and a rough cider for draughts of wine."

       

( Georgics , III, lines 353 et seq.)

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In such words does Virgil portray "the tameless tribes" of the Sea of Azov:

Other writers talk as if the northern ocean were a mere two hundred miles north

of the Black Sea and full of hideous monsters which were likely to tear to pieces

any seamen who might be so foolhardy as to sail its waters. One woebegone navi–

gator who did so is made, by Albinovanus Pedo (c. 40 A.D.), to express his feel–

ings in the following words: "Whither are we being carried? The day itself flees

from us, and uttermost nature closes in the deserted world with continual dark–

ness. Or are we sailing towards people on the other side who dwell under an–

other heaven, and towards another unknown world? The Gods call us back and for–

bid the eyes of mortals to see the boundary of things. Why do we violate strange

seas and sacred waters with our oars, disturbing the peaceful habitations of the

Gods?" Seneca, to whom we owe the survival of Pedo's poetic fragment, has no

use for the idea of land beyond the northern ocean, simply stating that "beyond

all things is the ocean, (and) beyond the ocean, nothing" ("post omnia oceanus,

post oceanum nihil").

        Pomponius Mela (fl. c. 40 A.D.) is likewise unable to shed much new light

upon the subject. Apart from a wild story about Indians being blown past the

Caspian "Gulf" to Germany (which he cites in support of the "oceanic" theory

of the Arctic), his account is based upon the usual stock-in-trade of the time.

His Hyperboreans live beyond the north wind and the Rhipean Mountains "under the

very pivot of the stars" (i.e. the Pole). In their country the sun rises at the

vernal equinox and sets at the autumnal equinox, so that they have six months'

day and six months' night. How he was able to reconcile the existence of the

sunny and fertile land with belief in the zonal theory of Parmenides is not clear;

the fact that he calls it a "narrow land" may signify that he was not altogether

happy about the logic of the contention. As we noted earlier, he has heard of

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Thule, "famous in Greek poems and in our own;" he knows of the Orkneys and the

Shetlands to the extent of indicating the existence of two distinct groups of

islands north of Britain, and he is credibly informed that in Ireland the pas–

tures are so lush that "if the cattle are allowed to graze for more than a small

part of the day, they burst in pieces!" East of the British Isles he quickly

gets into difficulties. True, he describes a vast bay (Codanus by name) which

some have supposed to be the Skagerrak, and a region which "seems sometimes to

be islands and sometimes the sea," and, on that account, might conceivably re–

fer to the intricate system of islands and straits south of the Kattegat; but

by peopling these localities with Hippopods (horse-footed men) and Sanalians

(whose ears were big enough to be employed as a covering for the body), he makes

it very difficult for us to attribute to him anything but a most shadowy know–

ledge of the embayed and insular character of the continental seaboard.

        Pliny (fl. c. 70 A. D.) who might have been expected to know more about

the north coast of Europe, since he reports the voyage of Augustus' fleet round

Germania to the Cimbrian Cape (Jutland), is likewise content with such platitudes

as "the Northern Ocean has also been in great part traversed," it is "immeasur–

able," it extends to "the Scythian region and to places that are stiff from too

much moisture," and contains "many nameless islands" some of which he proceeds

forthwith to name. For the rest, his Natural History account is very largely

a rechauffe of earlier writings, mainly Greek. His description of the far north

of Scythia is characteristic: "This part of the world is accursed by nature and

shrouded in thick darkness: it produces nothing else but frost and is the chilly

hiding place of the north wind." ( Natural History , IV, xii, 88). Beyond lay

the happy Hyperboreans, blessed with a magnificent climate: like Mela, he man–

ages to sandwich them in between Scythia and the equally inclement northern ocean.

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It is because of blatant anomalies of this sort that we are constrained to

doubt whether Pliny, or Mela for that matter, ever seriously tried to construct

a congruent cosmographical system out of the body of knowledge available to him.

Time and again we have evidence that he did not even bother to harmonize con–

flicting statements culled from his authorities. In Chapter Thirteen of Book

Four he has the Cronium Sea stretching north from the Baltic coast in the vicin–

ity of the Cimbri: in Chapter Sixteen of the same book he displaces the same

sea a day's sail beyond thule, which, in his view, lay to the north of Britain

in the vicinity of the Arctic Circle. The acceptance of "Scandia" and "Scatin–

avia" as separate islands situated not far from the coast of Britain may perhaps

be taken as a further indication of his uncritical handling of source material.

        Tacitus, writing shortly before the end of the first Christian century,

was unable to improve on Pliny's knowledge of the extreme north. Beyond the

Orkneys toward an island which he "saw at a distance" (and presumably one of the

Shetlands), the sea became thick and sluggish, while to the north of the Suiones

(Swedes), who lived on an island "ipso in oceano," it became almost immobile

("mare pigrum ac prope immotum"). Near the Suiones, on the mainland, live the

Fenni (Finns?), very poor and primitive. For his romantically-minded readers,

he adds the Utopian fancy that "the forms of the Gods are seen" when the sun

emerges from the ocean.

        And worse was still to come. In his De Facie in Orbis Lunae , Plutarch

places the Homeric island, Ogygia, five days' sail west of Britain, with three

others spread out northwestwards, each an equal distance from its neighbour.

"In one of these the barbarians feign that Saturn is detained prisoner by Jupiter,

who, as his son, having the guard or keeping of these islands and the adjacent

sea, named the Saturnian (or Cronian), has his seat a little below; and that the

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continent, by which the great sea is circularly environed, is distant from Ogygia

about 5,000 stadia, but from others not so far, men using to row thither in

galleys, the sea being there low and ebb, and difficult to be passed by great

vessels because of the mud brought thither by a multitude of rivers, which,

coming from the mainland, discharge themselves into it, and raise there great

bars and shelves that choke up the river and render it hardly navigable: whence

anciently there arose an opinion of its being frozen." An equally extravagant

story by Antonius Diogenes, dating from about the same epoch, brough its char–

acters to see the "wonders beyond Thule," to places of six months' and even

perpetual night. But by then Thule had ceased to be a place with a fixed loca–

tion: some poets even talked loosely of Britain as Thule.

        With such facts before us, it is hard to avoud the conclusion cherished

by many modern historians, that the Romans had little talent or even liking

for scientific enquiry. They traveled widely within their borders, but seldom

curiously. Their frontier officers did not spend their vacations climbing

mountains or big game hunting in the wilds, nor did they write books about their

adventures. Few enough wrote about the more civilized parts. Apparently there

were others besides Cicero who found geography a "rather obscure science."

Horace expresses what was obviously a widely felt distaste when he inveighs

against the impious men who first dared to cross the sea, "with northern gales

fierce war to wage" and "on strange weltering beasts" to gaze. ( Odes , Book I,

3, 9–24. However, elsewhere, Odas Book III, 24, 36–40, and Epistles , Book I, 1,

he talks of greedy merchants - not Roman? - venturing to the frozen north and

the tropics and India). Or maybe it was conceit that suffocated their spirit

of enquiry - the conceit that made them sometimes talk as if Rome was mistress

of all lands not inaccessible or uninhabitable, and of all seas, not only within

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the Pillars, but beyond to the ends of the ocean. This conceit permeates

the writings even of some of the Romanophile Greeks, eg. the Periegetes of

Dionysius.

        However, not all the geography of the Roman era is of such an indifferent

quality. Here and there in the Empire were scholars, Greeks rather than Romans,

who were trying to put the subject onto a scientific footing. Preeminent among

these were Marinus of Tyre (fl. c. 110 A.D.) and Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy)

of Alexandria. Unfortunately, Marinus' writings are known only through Ptolemy

(fl. c. 150 A.D.), who called him the most careful geographer of his time. He

appears to have drawn up a list of all the important places in the known world,

giving to each its approximate latitude and longitude, and then locating them

on a gridded map of the world. What Marinus' world looked like can be roughly

inferred from the various maps which accompany the early manuscripts of Ptolemy's

eight-volumed Geographia , since Ptolemy made it clear that his primary task was

to bring up to date the work of his predecessor. Whether or not the maps found

in the early manuscripts of Ptolemy's Geographia were the work of the Alexan–

drine scholar himself is not of great consequence, since anyone with enough

patience can reconstruct the maps for himself. In these maps the northwestern

coasts of Europe, as far east as the Cimbrian peninsula (Jutland), are recog–

nizably portrayed. The same is true of Britain and Ireland, concerning which

it would seem that Ptolemy was better informed than Pytheas, though admittedly

the northern part of Scotland (Caledonia) is given an east-west orientation,

presumably in an effort to keep the island well to the south of Thule. To the

north of Scotland in latitude 61° 41′ N. lie the Orkneys, thirty in number, and

to the west, the Hebrides. "And far to the north of them" lies Thule in approx–

imately latitude 63° N. and longitude 30° 21′ E. (i.e. east of the Fortunate

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Isles). It is thought that his displacing of Thule from the Arctic Circle

was due to the men of Agricola's fleet believing that they had sighted the

island north of the Orkneys: in which case it is possible that the island should

be identified with one of the Shetlands, which are not specifically named by

Ptolemy.

        To the north of the known coasts and islands of Europe, there stretched,

in the view of both Ptolemy and Marinus, a continuation of the Atlantic Ocean.

In the extreme northwest this went by the name of the Hyperborean Ocean, "also

called the congealed, or Cronius, or the Dead Sea." North of Britain, it be–

came the Deucaledonian Ocean, and from Britain to the vicinity of the Cimbrian

peninsula, the Germanic Ocean. Here it merged into the Sarmatian Ocean, which

is Ptolemy's name for the Baltic Sea, the northern shores of which were as yet

unsuspected. What happened to the ocean still further eastward is not disclos–

ed: east of the 60th meridian the coast of Europe swings northward to the 63rd

parallel, i. e., of Thule, at which latitude the map ends. In his Astronomy ,

Ptolemy carries his oikoumene northwards to 64–1/2° N., where he places, in the

longitude of northern Asia, the Scythians. But the general import is clear

enough: Ptolemy, as Marinus before him, had little use for the "oceanic" hypoth–

esis of the planetary distribution of land and sea. In his view the grounds

for holding that the oikoumene was entirely surrounded by water were inadequate:

the Caspian Sea was closed and, as no Asiatic traveler had as yet penetrated

beyond the Hyperborean Mountains, located somewhat north of the sixtieth paral–

lal, Ptolemy is content to let Scythia fade away polewards into terra incognita.

(Similarly, in the opinion of both Ptolemy and Marinus, there was no evidence

that the southern reaches of Africa were vounded by sea. In the absence of such

evidence, they affirmed that the Indian Ocean was enclosed by an eastward exten–

sion of Africa and southern extension of Asia.)

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        Unfortunately for posterity, Ptolemy's Geographia was destined to gather

dust in the library of Alexandria. Had he lived two hundred years earlier,

his work might have borne fruit, or at least it might have been put into cir–

culation and provoked thoughtful comment, if nothing else. But coming, as it

did, at a time when the Roman world was yearly acquiring more and more internal

preoccupations, few men appear to have had any stomach for its stodgy data and

postulates. More than a thousand years were to elapse before the work was to

win wide acclaim. From the third century to the end of the fourteenth, only

rarely does the Geographia attract notice: from time to time Ptolemy's name is

mentioned, but none of the writers concerned apprehended the profound signifi–

cance of his work.

       

The Dark Ages

        The decline of northern knowledge, already reflected in the works of

Strabo and Pliny, was accelerated by the happenings of the succeeding contur–

ies. Prominent among these was the loss of Rome's commercial supremacy. By

the end of the third century, the forces of disruption had so gripped the Empire

that it was no longer the sole guardian of the great trade routes. Contacts

with the barbarian world became less frequent and friendly: such business as

there was fell increasingly into the hands of intermediaries. But the trouble

did not stop there: because of the parallel collapse of the Roman administrative

system, the Germanic invasions also led to the breakdown of political and econ–

omic life within the Empire. Henceforth ideas and information spread only slowly,

and against great resistance, from one district to another: culture became re–

gional and stagnant. The reorganization of the Empire into two parts under

Theodosius served, paradoxically enough, to further these tendencies, for the

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two empires became, in effect, separate entities, the contacts of the Latin

world with the Greek civilization becoming more and more tenuous as time went

by. No less important was the development of a new intellectual climate in

the Mediterranean consequent upon the introduction of Christianity. The new

faith gave men new values, whereby many of the old ones fell into disrepute.

The great theological doctrines made scientific investigation seem, in the eyes

of some, a reprehensible misapplication of human powers. To men of this per–

suasion, it was natural that the Scriptures should become the yardstick by

which to measure the orthodoxy of any given work. Such a man was the sixth

century traveler Cosmas Indicopleustes: for him the Scriptures were "profitable

not only for doctrine, reproof and instruction in righteousness," but for in–

struction in earth-knowledge as well. Basing his argument on the assumed symbol–

ism of the Mosaic tabernacle (which even by some modern theologians is regard–

ed as a pattern of the world), he claimed that the oikoumene was oblong, twice

as long as it is broad, and surrounded by an ocean uniting the Mediterranean,

the Caspian, the Persian and Red Seas. In the far north stood a mighty conical

mountain behind which the sun set at night, passing round the top in the summer

and the base in the winter; this he held to explain the difference in the length

of summer and winter days.

        But it would be a mistake to suppose that Cosmas was truly representative

of his time. As early as the 4th century, Lactantius was encouraging his breth–

ern not to ignore pagan learning, for, said he, "it is extremely full of erudi–

tion and philosophy." He went further and argued that the Bible sanctioned the

spoiling of the Egyptians, provided there was no pollution from the spoils!

        Generally speaking, the attitude of the Church toward profane studies was

one of tolerance rather than opposition, and there are many instances when

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"interest" would describe it more accurately than tolerance. Orosius, a

Spanish priest of the 5th century, was, we believe, much more typical of the

age than Cosmas. His description of the northwestern limits of the known earth

is as objective as anything written by Ptolemy: "Britain, an island in the ocean,

extends a long distance to the north: to its south are the Gauls..... (It) is

800 miles long and 200 miles wide. In the limitless ocean which stretches be–

hind Britain are the Orcades Islands (Orkneys) of which twenty are deserted and

thirteen inhabited..... Ireland is quite close to Britain and smaller in area.

It is, however, richer, on account of the favourable character of its climate

and soil." ( Historiarum Adversus Paganos, Libri VII , I, 2.)

        An even fuller account was given in the same century by Jordanes, appar–

ently copying from the writings of the contemporary Roman priest and statesman

Cassiodorus. The attempted fusion of pagan and Christian thought is well brought

out in his account of the circumambient ocean. "Not only has no one undertaken

to describe the impenetrable uttermost bounds of the ocean, but it has not even

been vouchsafed to any one to explore them, since it has been experienced that,

on account of the re s istence of the seaweed and because the winds cease to blow

there, the ocean is impenetrable and is known to none but Him who created it."

But it has a number of islands in it, including the Balearic Isles ( sic ) and

"the Orcades, thirty-three in number..... It has also in its most western part

another island, called Thyle, of which the Mantuan (i.e. Virgil) says: 'May the

uttermost Thule be subject to thee.' This immense ocean has also in its arctic,

that is to say, northern part, a great island called Scandza, concerning which

our narrative, with God's help, shall begin, for the nation (the Goths).....

burst forth like a swarm of bees from the lap of this island, and came to the

land of Europe......" ( De Origine Actibusque Getarum. )

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        Of course, there is nothing very original in all this: most of it had

been said before and said better. However, Jordanus goes on to supply infor–

mation about the inhabitants of the northern part of the island, the Screre–

fennae ("they do not seek a subsistence in corn, but live on the flesh of wild

beasts and the eggs of birds") and the Adogit ("they have continuous light in

the middle of the summer for forty days") which cannot be found in any of his

authorities and which leads us to suppose that even in the 6th century the chan–

nels of communication between north and south Europe were not completely clogged.

Our suspicion that Jordanus may be repeating a second-hand story about the Lapps

or the Finns is strengthened when we come to look into the contemporary work of

the Byzantine historian, Procopius. The Skrid-finns, as he calls them, live in

the island of Thule (which the context establishes as Scandinavia). "The extra–

ordinarily great forests and mountains which rise in their country give them

vast quantities of game and other beasts. They always eat the flesh of the

animals they hunt and wear their skins, fastening them together with the sinews

of beasts. Their children do not take woman's milk, but are nourished solely

with the marrow of slain beasts." None of the Ancients knew so much about the

Finns: Tacitus and Ptolemy were acquainted with the name, and little more.

        With the distinguishing features of the Finnish economy, including the

fact that some of the tribes were ski-runners (this being the force of the

corrupt Norse prefix "skrid"), already know in the 6th century, we may well

ask ourselves why there were, subsequently, so few written references to the

Finns and their neighbours. One reason is that Isidore was unaware of the work

of Procopius and Jordanus, or, if aware, that he did not choose to use it. This

may appear to be a reason of little moment until we recall that Isidore was the

most influential name in the literature of Christendom from the 7th to the 14th

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centuries, and that his twenty-volumed Etymologiae was prescribed reading

for almost every lettered man throughout that time. Even in the 15th century,

Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly (to whom Columbus owed much) regarded it with something

akin to reverential awe, notwithstanding the fact that the entire work is cast

in an antiquarian mould and contains nothing that cannot be traced back, either

directly or indirectly, to readily accessible Latin sources. Probably the best

that can be said for it is that it might have been worse, for Isidore, good

Christian that he was, adopted a surprisingly hospitable attitude toward pagan

lore and, in so doing, helpted to keep alive information which otherwise would

have almost certainly perished. Its importance for the student of history lies

in the fact that it provides him with a cross-section of the mind of the Dark

Ages: that it came to be the norm by which cosmographical orthodoxy was measured.

Seen in this light, Isidor e 's account of the northlands takes on more than usual

significance. In the extreme north, he has Scythia stretching from the Seric

(i.e. Eastern) ocean in the east to the Caspian Sea in the west. "Several of

the districts are rich, but some are uninhabited, for while they are rich in

gold and precious stones, they are rarely approached by man owing to the feroc–

ity of the griffens" ( Etymologiae , Book XIV, Chapter 3, paragraph xxxii.), a

species of winged quadrupeds found in the Hyperborean Mountains and first publi–

cized by Hesiod. The land of Hyrcania, bordering Scythia to the west "has many

tribes wandering far afield on account of the unfruitfulness of their lands."

( op. cit. , XIVm 3, xxxi.) Coming still further west into Europe he places the

limit of the oikoumene in the land of Barbaria, so called on account of the wild

tribes inhabiting it. Enumerated among these are the Alani, the Dacians, the

Goths and the Suevi, which is the nearest Isidore comes to dealing with the con–

temporary scene. Thule is described, traditionally, as "the farthest island in

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the ocean on the northern and western waters beyond Britain," and is said to

take its name "from the sun, because there the sun makes its summer solstice,

and beyond the summer day is of great length:" the surrounding sea is "calm and

frozen." ( op. cit . XII, 6, iv.) How a work filled with such unoriginal de–

scriptions came to be the most-read book of the Middle Ages is a little hard to

understand, but then so is the popularity of many an indifferent work in our

own day. Perhaps the very banality, its respect for the written word of others,

and its absence of disturbing novelty were the things that most endeared it to

its readers. In face of the many calamities which threatened to engulf the

countries of southern Europe, what more compelling task was there than the main–

tenance of the intellectual status quo? What better rallying cry than "strengthen

the things that remain?" In such a mental atmosphere it is hardly to be won–

dered at that past opinions should come to assume greater importance than pres–

ent realities. "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing may be lost"

seems to epitomize the spirit of the times. Among the gatherers none was more

faithful or zealous than Isidore.

        Other Mediterranean scholars of the same attitude of mind were Moses of

Khorene (5th century) who drew on pagan and Christian authorities with seeming

impartiality; the anonymous Ravennese geographer of the mid-7th century whose

Cosmographia leans slightly more on patristic authority as far as the north is

concerned, but who elsewhere shows himself to have been a competent Greek scholar–

a rare accomplishment in his age; and Aethicus of Istria who, although a much

traveled man of the 7th century, describes the Babylon, not of his own day, but

as it might have appeared in the time of Darius, and Thebes as Pausanias would

have known it in the 2nd century A.D.

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Moslem Theories

        At the moment when a revival of geographical speculation and interest

in the contemporary world seemed impossible, two new forces began to play

upon the inert mass of Mediterranean culture. The Moslems in the south and

the Vikings in the north, notwithstanding their sinister role as enemies of

Christendom, proved in the long run to be the agents of its intellectual re–

birth. Of these two forces, the Arabic was the earlier and more influential.

        Controlling, as they did from the 8th century onwards, most of the centers

of ancient learning in western Asia and Africa - above all Ptolemy's Alexandria,

the Arabs were in a singularly good position to take advantage of older know–

ledge, if they wished to do so. And this they did, once the doctors of the

Koran had weaned themselves from their early opposition to secular literature.

By the beginning of the 9th century the obscurantism of the first believers was

already passing away and Mohammed's words "seek knowledge, even in China" were

acquiring mandatory force. It must be confessed, however, that not many got as

far as China. Their travels were, for the most part, conducted within the bor–

ders of Islam, with Mecca as the supreme focus of attraction. Thither came

men from Casablanca and Toledo, from the Sudan and Sofala, from Samarkand and

Kashgar. Their geographies reflect the breadth of their travels, and are full

of insights into the life and times of the countries through which the travelers

passed. But the lands of the "infidel" Christian receive much scantier consid–

eration, while those domains lying as yet beyond the orbit of both Cross and

Crescent, are frequently left unnoticed. Doubtless the reason for this neglect

of the northlands was partly climatic. Islam was cradled in a desert - and a

warm desert at that. Even today it is quite remarkable how close is the corre–

lation between the territorial distribution of Islamic culture and the distribu-

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tion of semi-arid lands in low and middle latitudes. The Arabs were quickly

discomfited by rain, and even more so by cold. It is not without significance

that the voyages of Sindbad the (Moslem) Sailor were all set in tropical or

subtropical waters.

        But this can hardly be the whole story, for there were, at one time or

another, many thriving Moslem communities around the well-watered coasts of

the Indian Ocean and on the bleak plateaus of Central Asia. The Arabs were

inhibited by the strictures of their own religion, and of Greek philosophy.

Thus, it can be shown that their reluctance to explore the coasts of the At–

lantic stemmed partly from the widespread conviction of Moslem theologians

that a man foolhardy enough to embark upon the "Sea of Darkness", or encircling

ocean, should be deprived of civil rights, as being manifestly irresponsible

for his actions! It was even rumored that the necessity for imposing such a

punishment might be rendered superfluous by the destruction of the audacious

mariner in the lurking whirlpools. That many Moslem scientists were equally

deferential to Greek opinions is also apparent. There are frequent reitera–

tions of the zonal theory and of the view that the earth's surface was divided

into three parts water and one part land, the length of the oikoumene being

twice its width. Yet there was no little merit in even repeating what the

Greeks has said, for in so doing they helped to keep alive knowledge which was

later, through their transmission, to help furnish the intellectual milieu of

the Renaissance.

        And they did a good deal more than this; for by piecing together the new

scraps of knowledge which were periodically being unearthed, men like Al-Mas' u ū d i ī ,

Al-B i ī r u ū n i ī and Al-Idr i ī s i ī succeeded in getting nearer to the truth about the

northern limits of the habitable earth than any Christian before the 13th century.

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Through their commercial contacts, from the 8th century onwards, with the

Moslemized Bulgars whose capital city lay on the Volga near the present town of

Kazan the Arabs heard of a mysterious people, Wisu by name, living far to the

north of the Russian steppes. (These were probably the same people as the Wizzi

mentioned in Adam of Bremen's Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum. ) Accord–

ing to the writer Ibu Y a ā q u ū t, who quotes a certain Ibn Fadhl a ā n (fl. c. 920 A.D.),

the Wisu lived so far north - "a distance of three months' journey" - from the

Bulgars that "during the summer the nights were not even one hour long." Else–

where Y a ā q u ū t says that the night is "so short that one is not aware of any dark–

ness," while at another time of the year it is so long that one sees no daylight.

This would place the territory at least as far north as the latitude of the White

Sea. Ibn Batt u ū ta (fl. c. 1350) tried to get there himself, but later gave up

the attempt, because it stood to profit him but little. However, his descrip–

tion of the region contained in his Rihla (or Journey ) has the ring of authen–

ticity about it. "That land lies 40 days' journey from Bulgar, and the journey

is only made in small cars (sledges?) drawn by dogs. For this desert has a

frozen surface, upon which neither men nor horses can get foothold, but dogs

can, as they have claws. This journey is only undertaken by "rich merchants,

each taking with him about a hundred carriages provided with sufficient food,

drink and wood, for in that country there is found neither trees,nor stones,

nor soil. As a guide through this land they use a dog which has already made

the hourney several times, and it is so highly prized that they pay as much as

a thousand dinars for one. This dog is harnessed with three others by the neck

to a car so that it goes as the leader and the others follow it." Al-M a ā zin i ī

(fl. c. 1130) has an equally plausible-sounding story which suggests not only

that the Arabs knew of the existence of the Arctic Sea, but that the natives

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living on its north European shores may even have obtained the steel for their

harpoons from Persia. For reasons already given, it is unlikely that the Arabs

themselves reached northern Russia, but the finding of 10th and 11th century

Arab coins and trinkets in the Pechora region may mean that Arab-paid inter–

mediaries were in touch with these northern regions at that time.

        Unfortunately Arab knowledge of land conditions in the far north was not

matched by a comparable knowledge of sea conditions. Ab u ū Zaid (c. 920 A.D.),

for instance, knew no more about the northern ocean than Pliny, for he has a

vessel carried by wind and tide round eastern and northern Asia into the Cas–

pian, and on round north Europe into the Mediterranean! The views of Ibn

Khurd a ā dhbih (fl. c. 880 A.D.), equally archaic, are summed up in a couple of

sentences: "The sea that is behind (i.e. to the north of) the Slavs, and where–

on the town ( sic ) of Tulia (i.e.Thule) lies, is not frequented by any ship or

boat, nor does anything come from thence. In like manner none travels upon

the sea wherein lie the Fortunate Isles, and from thence nothing comes." ( Book

of Roads and Provinces ). Ibn Hawqal (fl. c. 950 A.D.) insists on a closed

Caspian Sea, but on little else. Al Mas' u ū d i ī (fl. c. 950 A.D.), for all his

erudition (and few men had traveled more widely), can do no better than argue,

on grounds of symmetry, that there is a channel connecting the Sea of Azov with

the Arctic Sea similar to the one dividing Africa from the unknown, but hypoth–

ecated, southern continent. Thule, "which belongs to Britain ( sic ), and where

the longest day has twenty hours," continues to serve as the northern extremity

of the habitable earth, notwithstanding a statement made elsewhere in his Meadows

of Gold to the effect that the western ocean is "without cultivation or inhabi–

tant, and its end, like its depth, is unknown." His confusion of thought on

this subject is further attested by such conflicting claims as the following:

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firstly, that all the seas (the Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Black Sea, Sea

of Azov, Caspian and the Atlantic are specified) "are connected and uninter–

rupted;" secondly, that the seas "are in no connection whatever with the Cas–

pian Sea;" and thirdly, that in the extreme north of Europe, there is a vast

lake extending almost to the Pole!

        Later Arab writers attempted to tidy up some of Mas' u ū d i ī 's ideas. Al–

B i ī r u ū n i ī (fl. c. 1,000–1,040 A.D.) offered the view that "the western sea..... runs

past successively the shores.....of Andalusia, Galicia and the Slavs. Then, in

turning north, it goes round the inhabited world and countries behind unknown

mountains north, it goes round the inhabited world and countries behind unsus–

pected route as far as the Oriental Sea....." With the help of additional scraps

of information, it appears that B i ī r u ū n i ī supposed the margins of the earth to be

indented by five bays, of which the most northerly is described in these words:

"a great bay to the north of the Slavs (i.e. the Baltic) extends to the vicinity

of the land of the Mohammedan Bulgars (i.e. on the Volga). It is known by the

name of Varangians' Sea, and they (i.e. the Varangians or Scandinavians) are a

people on its coast. Then it bends to the east in the rear of them, and be–

tween its shores and the uttermost lands of the Turks (i.e. in East Asia) there

are countries and mountains unknown, deserts untrodden."

        Even the description given by the famous 12th century geographer, Al-Idrisi,

is disappointing, especially when we recall it was written at the court of the

Norman King of Sicily, Roger II, to which come scholars and travelers from al–

most every part of Christendom and Islam. His geographical treatise, entitled

rather fulsomely Amusement for him who desires to travel round the world , follows

the Greek "climatic" pattern. The northernmost of the seven climata extends to

64° N., beyond which the cold and snow render life impossible. In this northern-

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most zone of the habitable earth he locates "Islanda," "Denamarkha," and

"Norwaga." The description of "Norwaga" begins well, but rapidly deteriorates

into fancy. Its products are few and scarce "on account of the frequent rain

and continual wet." The natives "sow (corn), but reap it green, whereupon

they dry it in houses that are warmed, because the sun so seldom shines with

them. On this island ( sic ) there are trees so great of girth as are not often

found in other parts. It is said that there are some wild people living in

the desert regions (of the "island') who have their heads set immediately upon

their shoulders and no neck at all. They resort to trees, and makes their

houses in their interiors and dwell in them....." Further out in the "Dark

Sea" lies the "Isle of Illusion," inhabited by men of brown colour, small

stature, and with long beards reaching to their knees: they have broad faces

and long ears and live on plants that the earth produces of itself. On the

island of "Kalhan" the people have the body of man, but animal heads. Another

island was inhabited by female devils.

        All this is in striking contrast to the high intrinsic worth of Idr i ī s i ī 's

description of the southern limits of the oikoumene and suggests that he was

either not enough of a scholar to resist the temptation to tickle the fancy

of his readers, or that news of the Viking explorations had hardly begun in

the 12th century to trickle through to the Mediterranean. Later writers were

nearly all equally confused and ignorant of the real state of affairs. Ibn

Sa' i ī d (fl. c. 1260 A.D.) has the polar bear frequenting the seas round Denmark,

and Al-Khazw i ī n i ī (fl. c. 1270 A.D.) believes that in "Warank" (i.e. Scandinavia)

"the cold is excessive, the air thick, and the snow continuous," and is con–

sequently "not suited either for plants or animals." Ibn Hab i ī b (better known

as Al-Dimashq i ī (fl. c. 1350 A.D.) has Scandinavia surrounded by "the frozen sea,"

so named because "in winter it freezes entirely, and because it is surrounded

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by mountains of ice." It is unfortunate that the Arab scholar best fitted

by training and exploration to resolve the problem of terra arctica incognita ,

namely Ibn Bat u ū ta, should have been so loath to comit to writing his views

on the subject.

        As the record stands, the Arabs cannot be said to have made any great

contribution to the knowledge of the northlands. Their alarmist attitude

toward the outer ocean, their devotion to the borrowed doctrines of the Greeks,

and their apparent inability to represent geographical concepts in precise

cartographical form were not calculated to encourage exploration for its own

sake, or even to beget an atmosphere of scepticism toward the prevailing postu–

lates.

        Meanwhile in Christendom thanks to the renaissance, more healthy-minded

attitudes toward profane learning were slowly developing, but even there the

emergence of a true understanding of the Arctic was distressingly slow.

       

The Renaissance Era

        Into the origins of the geographical renaissance we cannot now go. Suffice

it to say that the Crusades were more an expression, than a cause of it, for

there were signs of a stirring among the dry bones already in the 9th and 10th

centuries. The writings of men like Alfred the Great, Alcuin of York, Scot

E [ ?] rigena, Dicuil and Constantine Porphyrogennetos make this quite apparent. Along

with other indications of its prior existence, we may note the growing habit,

from the 8th century onwards, of pilgrim travel, the kindling of a new mission–

ary spirit resulting, inter alia , in the conversion of the Norsemen and a grow–

ing inquisitiveness about physical phenomena, whether it be the colours of the

rainbow, the motions of the heavenly bodies, or the cause of earthquakes. Just

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how much of the credit for this intellectual awakening should be given to the

Norsemen is a matter of debate, but that they did succeed in broadening the

horizons, both mental and geographical, of Christendom, none will deny. Some

would even endorse the opinion of Beazley given in his Dawn of Modern Geography ,

that "the gradual association, incorporation or alliance of the Scandinavians

with the nations they came to plunder or to destroy, is perhaps the most de–

cisive fact in the story of the Christian Middle Ages, and affords a basis and

starting-point for every subsequent development. The Crusades, the commercial

and territorial expansion that followed the crusading movement, and the exten–

sion of European spirit and influence toward ultimate predominance in the out–

side world, are related to the formative, provocative and invigorative influ–

ence of the northern invasions." (Vol. II, p. 3)

        It has to be confessed, however, that before the 13th century, not many

evidences of this awakening are forthcoming from the Mediterranean world. Thus

we shall look in vain in the cosmographical literature of 11th and 12th century

Italy, France or Spain for radical changes in the standard view of the north–

lands. The Liber Floridus of Lambert St. Omer (c. 1100 A.D.) and the anonymous

De Imagine Mundi (c. 1100 A.D.) are both in the orthodox patristic tradition.

Even Vincent of Beauvais (c. 1250 A.D.) [ ?] is very reluctant to draw upon

contemporary sources of information, and frequently he does nothing more than

excerpt large passages from his authorities, without comment and sometimes even

without acknowledgement. Thus, his description of the ocean is purely a recital

of the views of Aristotle, Isidore, De Imagine Mundi and Adelard. The one shin–

ing exception, dating from this era, is the Byzantine geographer, Constantine VII,

surnamed Porphyrogennetos (fl. c. 950 A.D.). His treatise De Administrando Im–

perio abounds in details of contemporary, if not always first hand, information

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concerning the barbarian world lying to the north and northeast of Constan–

tinople. For us, his account of the Russians is particularly interesting.

Indeed, he may be said to have introduced the Russians to the peoples of Chris–

tendom. He knows the names and locations of their chief towns, the distances

between them and the route to be taken in going from Novgorod to the Bosphorus.

He is equally acquainted with the names of the Slavic, Finnish and other tribes

which currently paid tribute to the V i king Prince of Kiev. On the other hand,

there is scarcely a hint of the lands from which this conqueror had come. (It

is conceivable, however, that Constantine had heard from his Russian neighbors

a story that was then current among them. According to this, the half-mythical

people of Gog and Magog were at last on the point of breaking forth from the

mountains of the Pechora region where, so the story ran, they had been living

ever since the days of Alexander. Although their speech was unintelligible,

their intentions sinister, and "the road to their mountains impassable through

abysses, snow and forests," the Russians nevertheless contrived to do trade

with them in metals and furs.)

        The maritime explorations of the V i kings, meantime, were passing unnoticed

by the main stream of Europeansthought, with the solitary exception of Adam of

Bremen whose Gesta Hammaburgensis eoclesiae pontificum (c. 1070 A.D.) did not,

alas, enjoy a circulation in southern Europe.

        Even so well-traveled and scholarly a man as the Franciscan Roger Bacon

(fl. c. 1250 A.D.) is more concerned with probing into the past than the pres–

ent, although at least he has the wit to realize that knowledge does not always

improve with keeping. Of Aristotle he says, for instance, that "he did not

reach the limit of wisdom," And elsewhere in his Opus Majus he is willing to

argue that on some matters the inspired writers of the Scriptures were subject

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to the limitations of their age, for which reason it is unnecessary to "give

adherence to all that we have heard and read." And he is frequently as good as

his word. Thus he espouses the specious "continental" theory of the distribu–

tion of land and water in preference to the much more orthodox "oceanic" theory.

According to the "continentalists," six parts of the earth were habitable, and

the seventh covered by water - a view which had been first propounded by the

uncanonical Esdras. More unorthodox still is Bacon's supposition that most of

this water must be located "towards the poles of the world" because those parts

are cold, and cold multiplies moisture, "from which it follows that the polar

waters connect with each other by a comperatively narrow sea, called the Ocean,

extending between the end of Spain and the beginning of India." (Vol. I, p. 312,

R.B. Burke's translation.) But in taking this line of thought, Bacon clearly

shows himself to have been unaware of the Viking voyages of the 10th and 11th

centuries: for the two things they demonstrated beyond question were that there

was plenty of land "towards the the poles" and plenty of sea westwards from the end

of Europe. Additional proof of ignorance of their achievements is contained in

the statement that the northwestern limit of the habitable earth was to be found

in "the ends of the islands of Scotland and the Kingdom of Norway."

        Indeed, with the exception of a single reference to the Rubruck expedition,

Bacon's regional description of the world could almost have been written by a

man living in the 1st century A.D. Here and there Bacon appears to have known

rather less than some of his classical forebears and to have had no less diffi–

culty in resolving conflicts of testimony. Thus, concerning the Arctic, we are

told in one place that " habitation continues up to that locality where the poles

are located : and where the day lasts six months and the night for the same length

of time. Martianus, moreover, in his description of the world, agrees with this

statement (of Pliny's): whence they maintain that in those regions dwells a very

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happy race which dies only from satiety of life, attaining which it casts

itself from a lofty rock into the sea. These people are called Hyperboreans on the

European side and Arumphei in Asia." ( op. cit ., Vol. I, p. 327). Elsewhere

in the same work we are told there is "( not) any habitation beyond (the Rhipean

mountains) to the north ." ( op. cit ., Vol. I, p. 377). Even Herodotus was not

guilty of such inconsistencies, and he was considerably better informed.

        As with his great contemporary, Albertus Magnus, Bacon reflected the chang–

ing tempo of the age more by his methods than by his material. The thing, above

all others, which distinguishes him from most of his forebears is his discrim–

inating use of sources of information, his critical attitude toward authority

of whatever sanction, and his insistence on the importance of the experimental

approach to science. These may not have yielded immediate fruit, but their in–

fluence on later-day geographers, eg. Richard Eden and John Dee, was very real.

        It will doubtless be asked why so little new northern material found its

way into the standard reference works of these crusading and post-crusading

centuries, especially when it was available in such works as Adam of Bremen's

Gesta and the anonymous Konungskuggsja (or King's Mirror). No simple answer

is possible, but there seem to have been at least two contributory factors, one

linguistic, and the other ideological. In regard to the first, it must never

be forgotten that throughout these centuries the language of the Mediterranean

scholar continued to be that of his liturgies. While this may have aided him

in his examination of the lore of the past, it was a distinct handicap in other

respects, for it meant that he was seldom able to communicate with the laity,

or they with him. In the circumstances, it would be foolish to look for any

rapid dissemination of current geographical talk. True, the mendicant and

preaching orders were not so hampered, but unfortunately for posterity, few of

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them had a notion to commit their ideas to parchment.

        The ideological factor operated less directly, but none the less potently.

Paradoxically enough, one of the most striking evidences of the re-birth of

learning during these centuries was not a love of novelty, whether in liter–

ature, science or art, but a return to a love of the real classics. The fresh–

ly recovered lore of ancient Greece and Rome was welcomed not only as supply–

ing new and superior standards of expression, but as disclosing a new concep–

tion of life, one which gave ampler scope to the play of the emotions, to the

sense of beauty, and to the entire round of intellectual activity. And so, for

the second time in a millennium, men's thoughts and endeavors were directed

more to the contemplation of the past than the exploration of the present. In

the huge 14th century encyclopedia, Fons Memorabilium Universi , of Dominicus

Bandinus of Arezzo, men like Archimedes, Aristotle and Agathocles are given

more than a page apiece, while Marco Polo is dismissed in three lines, and

Peter Abelard and Albertus Magnus are not so much as mentioned.

        The works of Dante, which, to the thinking of many, represent the quintes–

sence of renaissance thought, show a similar preoccupation. His geographical

system is essentially a hotch-potch of ideas, few of them being less than a

thousand years old! On the extent of the oikoumene ("gran secca") all that he

can tell us is that its length is such that "at the equinox the sun is setting

for those who are at one of these boundaries, when it is rising for those who

are at the other," i.e. 180°, and that it extends northward as far as those

whose zenith is a circle described through the pole of the zodiac round the

pole of the earth as a center, that is, the Arctic Circle, and from this he

concludes, rather gratuitously, as it would seem, that "the emergent earth or

dry land must have the appearance of a half moon or thereabouts." On the de-

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scriptive side, he likewise knows no more than the writers of Antiquity. At

the northern extremity of his habitable earth, in the vicinity of the Rhipean

Mountains, he places the venerable Scythians who "suffer extreme inequality of

days and night and are oppressed with intolerable cold." ( De Monarchia , I,

xiv.) Eastwards, the River Ganges and westwards the "isles of Gades" comprise

the longitudinal limits of the oikoumene , exactly as they had done for Orosius

and his authorities.

        Fourteenth and early fifteenth century writers of more strictly geograph–

ical texts, such as Pierre d'Ailly of Cambrai, make equally short shrift of the

northlands and their inhabitants. "Beyond Thule, the last island of the Ocean,

after one day's sail, the sea is frozen and stiff. At the poles there live

great ghosts and ferocious beasts, the enemies of man. Water abounds there,

because those places are cold, and "cold multiplies humours (i.e. vapours)."

( Tractatus de Imagine Mundi , Chapter VII.) It was not until the middle of the

15th century that we find any reference in southern European literature (in a

letter written to Pope Nicholas V) to Eskimos, and even then they are badly

misrepresented - as pygmies, a cubit or so high who "when they see human beings

collect and hide themselves in the caves (igloos?) of the country like a swarm

of ants."

        While it is undeniably true that most of the scholars and the artists of

the Renaissance were too busy exhuming ancient knowledge to develop a distinc–

tive cosmography of their own, the situation was rather different with the merch–

ants and mariners of the time. Tales, some likely and others much less so, were

coming out of the North from time to time, as from every other quarter of the

compass, and although few of them were written down, the gist of many was trans–

lated into cartographical form. Fortunately, a man does not need to have a

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classical education to be able to draw a map.

       

The North in Mediaeval Maps

        It is in the maps of the period, therefore, that we must look for the

fullest expression of Mediterranean opinion concerning the Northlands. Indeed,

it is probable that in any given century we can get a closer approximation to

the views of the ordinary educated man by glancing at the mappa mundi of that

century than by ploughing through the pages of a hundred encyclopedias. True

some of these mappa mundi were in the nature of illustrations for the encyclo–

pedias, but this does not seriously invalidate our contention since the affin–

ity between text and map is frequently so slight as to be questionable. In

point of fact most of the maps dating from the renaissance period originated

differently. Some were drawn to order for a merchant prince: others were com–

posed by sea-going men for their own practical use: others to illustrate instruc–

tion in the elements of world geography. But whatever their origin, they had

this much in common, namely, that once they were in circulation, the ideas ex–

pressed in them stood to gain currency at a faster rate than those set forth

in the ponderous tomes of the day, for pictures (and most mediaeval maps are

little more) make a readier and more abiding impression on the mind than the

written word. Then, again, it required much less courage (and effort) to change

a map than a manuscript. To "doctor" a coastline of northern Europe based osten–

sibly on Ptolemy or Strabo was one thing: to go on record as saying that Ptolemy

or Strabo were palpably in error when they described the said coastline was quite

another. That mediaeval maps were frequently touched up, or modified when copied

to conform to the ideas of the artist or his patron, is well known. Thus there

is a notable discrepancy in the treatment of Scandinavia as between the Paris

manuscript and the other versions of the world map accompanying Marino Suando's

047      |      Vol_XI-0154                                                                                                                  
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediteranean Views on Northlands

Liber Secretorium fidelium crucis : in the former, Scandinavia is portrayed

as an archipelago, while in all the others it is represented correctly as a

mountainous peninsula connected with the mainland of northern Europe by a

narrow isthmus and divided into the lands of "Gotilandia," "Dacia," "Suetia,"

and "Norvega." The equally famous Laurentian world map of c. 1350 shows signs

of having been edited at least twice. Another point that needs to be borne

in mind is the ease with which the lineaments of a map can be recalled and

reproduced by any ordinarily observant person adept in the use of the quill.

(One of the two outlines of southern Africa on the Laurentian map seems to have

been drawn from a recollection of the 1413 A.D. world map of Albertin Da Virga.)

        For reasons of this kind, we believe that the geographical ideas of later

mediaeval students were more influenced by maps than books, and that the pop–

ular renaissance view of any given region was most likely to find contemporary

expression in the same medium. To a lesser extent, no doubt, the argument

might be said to hold good for the earlier centuries, but the further back we

go, the greater was the thralldom of clerical orthodoxy, and the greater the

impediments to travel and the ready exchange of ideas.

        Broadly, the maps of the Middle Ages fall into two major categories: those

which pay special attention to the dicta of the past, and those which seek to

portray things as they are, or were thought to be on currently acceptable grounds.

        In the former category we can include the Beatus maps, the numerous T-in-O

type maps and those more elaborate ecclesiastic maps such as the Hereford, the

Ebstorf and the Psalter. In none of these is any real attempt made to present

the then-known northern limits of knowledge. In the Osma copy, the last of the

ten survivors, of the Beatus map (c. 1203) the only concession to the times is

the insertion of Scandinavia - as an island albeit. The Ebstorf map of 1284 is

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no better. On the Hereford map of about the same date Scandinavia is correct–

ly shown as a peninsula, but more, it would appear, by luck than judgment,

since Scotland, about which an English cleric might be expected to be reason–

ably well informed, is portrayed as an island! By and large, the authors of

these maps were more interested in mythical than in real lands. Neither Green–

land nor Wineland is mentioned, but considerable prominence is given to the

lands of the Cynocephalae, the Hyperboreans and the Arumphei. Ranulf Higden's

map of the world dating from the first half of the 14th century is fettered by

the wheel-form in whch it is cast. In the very narrow ocean which girdles the

disc of the earth we find rather less than the usual complement of real and

mythical islands. "Norwegia," "Islandia," and "Witland" with "gens ydolatra"

are located off the coast of northern Europe: "Tile (Thule) and "Dacia" (Den–

mark) with "gens bellicosa" somewhere near the North Pole. In the various

editions of Higden's map "Witland" is also called "Wintlandia" and "Wineland."

It is possibly connected with the Norse Wineland story, but as it is mentioned

together with Dacia, Nansen thinks it may be a corruption of "Windland" (i.e.

Finland), the inhabitants of which sold winds to the sailors who came to them!

Already in Adam of Bremen the Finns (Lapps) had been described as particularly

skilled in magic.

        If this is the best that the cartographers of northwest Europe can offer

prior to the 15th century, it is hardly to be expected that those of the Medi–

terranean region should have been any better informed. Yet is is in the Medi–

terranean that the finest cartographic product of the renaissance, the compass

chart, first made its appearance, and with it the nort h lands first began to take

recognizable shape.

        The need for a practical map which would enable a sailor to find his way

from port to port had been long-standing. When coasting was to some extent

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EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands

replaced by sailing in open sea after the compass came in use during the 13th

century, sea charts became a necessary adjunct to the written sailing direc–

tions or portolani . How early, or exactly where, they began to be employed

is unknown: we only know that such charts were coming into use on Italian ships

by the second half of the 13th century, and that by 1300 A.D. they had reached

a remarkable level of technical excellence. At first these portolan charts

did not normally extend beyond the maritime sphere of the peoples concerned,

or, if they did, the delineation of the unfrequented coastlines was of a very

different caliber from the rest of the map. Thus on the early portolan charts

the detailed portrayal of the west coast of Europe stops abruptly in the lati–

tude of the Low Countries. Further north than this the Italian shipmasters

were un- wont to sail, for fear, it seems, of coming into conflict with the commer–

cial fleets of the Hanseatic League. It is not surprising, then, that in north–

ern England, Scotland, Ireland, north coast of Denmark, Scandinavia and the

Baltic countries place-names are very few by comparison with those along the

more southerly stretches of coast, or that coastlines are drawn in schematically

and not from actual compass courses and reckonings. Even at that, they were

much better than those of the T-in-O or Beatus types, and represented a de–

cisive forward step in the direction of reality. We know little of the sources

from which these Italian and later the Catalan, draughtsmen derived their mater–

ial, but it is unlikely that they were numerous, for one portolan chart looks

very much like another, even to its errors.

        The Carignano chart of c. 1300 A.D., although one of the oldest extant

examples of the compass chart, is very little different in general appearance,

from those of fifty or even a hundred years later. In it, the west coast of

Germany and Jutland runs due north from Flanders, thus reducing the North Sea

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EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands

to the dimensions of the English Channel. The shape of Jutland is commendable,

as is that of the British Isles. However, the portrayal of the northern re–

gions is palpably inferior to that of most later charts. The Baltic extends

far to the east, and is devoid of anything that could conceivably be character–

ized as the Gulf of Bothnia. Whether his Scandinavia is a peninsula, as usual–

ly asserted, or a rather long island is uncertain, since the map is in a poor

state of preservation, and is indistinct in the inner part of the Baltic. How–

ever, the deeply indented western coast of the peninsula suggests at least a

nodding acquaintance with the fjords of Norway.

        Although almost contemporary, the portolan chart of c. 1325 A.D. by the

Italian draughtsman, Angel [ ?] Dalorto, contains some names and information

presumably unknown to Carignano. Norway is represented as a broad and distinct–

ly mountainous country, and its northernmost inhabitants are described as liv–

ing by fishing and hunting, "on account of the price of corn which is very dear."

In addition to the regular islands, e.g. the Orkney-Shetland group, the map also

carries, for the first time, the island of "Brazil" about which Irish folk-lore

had had much to say for nearly a millennium, and the quest for which was to lure

many a seafarer during the next two to three hundred years. Most of the legends

with which the chart is provided appear to be derived from literary sources,

such as the anonymous Geographia Universalis dating from the 13th century and

the Topographia Hiberniae of Giraldus Cambrensis.

        From this time on, at least until the middle of the 15th century, most of

the compass charts and even some of the mappa mundi are cast in the Carignano–

Dalorto mould. A comparison of the Este World Map of c. 1450 A.D. (preserved

in Modena), the Viladestes' Chart of c. 1413 A.D., the Catalan Atlas of c. 1375

A.D., and the Laurentian World Map of c. 1350 A.D. makes this aboundantly clear.

051      |      Vol_XI-0158                                                                                                                  
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Here and there additional material is incorporated, as for instance, the legend

(on the Este Map) describing the ocean to the north of Norway as "mare putritum

congelatum" and the whale-flensing story (on the Viladestes chart), but none

of this was really original. On the contrary, it was nearly all culled from

the outmoded textbooks of the period. Notwithstanding the growing orbit of

their maritime trade and their occasional contact with the merchants of the

Hanseatic League, Catalan and Italian seamen were scarcely better informed on

northern matters than the cloistered schoolmen of the time.

        On one point, namely the existence of Greenland, it could be argued that

the schoolmen of the Mediterranean were in possession of information sooner

than the sailors. The primary reason for this was that Claudius Clavus, the

Danish cartographer, was in Italy when he drew his two famous maps of the north

(c. 1424). These are the first maps known to have depicted Greenland and, in–

cidentally, the first to have been furnished, after the Ptolemaic fashion, with

lines of latitude and longitude. However, the earlier of these two, the Nancy

map, escaped notice, both at the time and afterwards, if we are to judge from

the absence of any recognizable likeness between it and all the maps of south–

ern European provenance produced during the next hundred years or so. The second

map, drawn subsequently, but also in Italy, did exercise quite a considerable

influence, especially on the work of N ico laus Germanus. Adaptations of this

map were incorporated into the manuscript editions of Ptolemy's Geography pro–

duced in Nicolaus' Florentine workshop. Nicolaus also drew to some extent up–

on Clavus' Greenland when revising the Ptolemaic world map, but, in conformity

with the widespread mediaeval dislike of the idea of a landmass between the

western extremity of Europe and the eastern extremity of Asia, he depicted the

country as a long and narrow tongue of land projecting from northern Russia.

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(Later revisions of the map, contained in the 1482 and the 1486 Ulm editions

of Ptolemy, are less suggestive of Clavian influence, for Greenland, called

"Engronelant," is reduced to the dimensions of a rounded promontory: and Ice–

land is placed well out in the ocean to the northwest.)

        It was not long before other cartographers were following the lead given

by Nicolaus. Thus, on the Genoese mappa mundi of c. 1457, a peninsula is located

north of Scandinavia just at the place where Clavus' Greenland might be expected

to appear. According to some authorities, e.g., Lelewel, this peninsula is ac–

tually named "Grinland," but the lettering on the original is now too indistinct

to permit of certain interpretation.On Fra Mauro's mappa mundi (c. 1459) several

peninsulas are shown thrusting out from Russia to the north of Scandinavia,

though in this instance it is not clear which one was intended to be Greenland.

Henricus Martellus' map of c. 1489 is equally reminiscent of Clavus in its north–

ern borders. To a smaller extent, the same influence may be traced on Martin

Behaim's Globe (1492) which, in spite of being the work of a central European,

undoubtedly reflects views current in Iberia and Italy at that time. However,

Behaim's Globe testifies to the presence of other influences - including those

of Marco Polo's Travels and the lost work of Nicholas of Lynn, Inventio fortunata .

The influence of Polo can be traced in the Asiatic section, and that of Nicholas

of Lynn in the portrayal of lands and islands around the North Pole. Projecting

from the Greenland-Lapland peninsula, located to the north of Scandinavia, is a

narrow neck of land extending to the Asiatic side of the Arctic and separating

the open waters of the North Atlantic from the enclosed waters of a polar sea –

"das gefror e é mer sptentrionel." On the North Atlantic side of the Pole are two

large unnamed islands and a number of small ones. Behaim does not tell us why

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he favored this view of the distribution of land and water, but it is not

difficult to see why he should have done so when we recall that in Portugal

he would frequently have been exposed to one form or other of the "continental"

hypothesis (which Pacheco later developed at some length in his Esmeraldo ), and

that it was in keeping with the general tenor of the Norse discoveries. But not

everybody was of the same persuasion as Behaim.

        Perhaps nothing better illustrates the prevailing confusion of arctic

thought at this epoch than the facts that, in the almost contemporary Laon

Globe (c. 1493) firstly, the entire northern ocean (north of the Arctic Circle

approximately) is devoid of land; secondly, no land is located in high lati–

tudes west of the longitude of the British Isles, and thirdly, Greenland appears

as an island due east of "Tile" (Thule) and "Islandia" (Iceland?)!

        Such were the geographical ideas entertained by the peoples of the Medi–

terranean concerning the northlands on the eve of the great age of discovery.

They were still disappointingly vague and archaic. But there had been one gain

at all events since the days of the ancient Greeks. No longer was there any

philosophical opposition to the investigation of the frigid zone, or to the

suggestion that it was traversable. When they set out in search of the North–

east Passage, Willoughby and Chancellor may not have known much more than Pytheas,

but at least nobody questioned their sanity!

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EA-History. Kimble: Ear [ ?] y Mediterranean Views on Northlands

---

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Texts :

Ab u û 'lfid a â G e é ographie d'Aboulf e é da . French text & commentary

by J.T. Reinaud. 2 Vols. Paris, 1848.

Ailly, Pierre D' Tractatus de Imagine Mundi . French translation by

E. Buron. Paris, 1930.

Albertus Magnus Opera omnia . Ed. by A. Borgnet. Paris, 1890–9.

Aristotle De Caelo . Eng. trans. by J.T. Stocks. Oxford, 1922.

----. Meteorologica . Eng. trans. by E.W. Webster. Oxford, 1923.

Avienus, Rufus Ora Maritima - Periplus Massiliensis saec. VI, a.C. Ed.

by A. Schulten. Berlin, 1922.

Bacon, Roger Opus Majus . Ed. by J.H. Bridges. Oxford, 1897–1900. Eng. trans. by

R.B. Burke. Philadelphia, 1928.

Bat u ū ta, Ibn Travels in Asia and Africa . Eng. trans. by H.A.R. Gibbs.

London, 1929.

B i ī r u ū n i ī , Al- See: G e é ographie d'Aboulf e é da . Ed. by J.T. Reinaud. French

trans. of his works. Paris, 1848.

Constantine VII "De Administrando Imperil." In Patrologiae Cursus Completus ...

(Porphyrogennetos) Series graeca, Vol. CXIII. By J.P. Migne. Paris, 1857–

1886.

Cosmas Indicopleustes Christian Topography . Eng. trans. by J.W. McCrindle.

London, 1897.

Herodotus The History of Herodotus . Eng. trans. by G. Rawlinson.

London, 1893.

Higden, Ranulph Polychronicon . Eng. trans. by William Caxton. London,

1480.

Homer The Iliad . Eng. trans. by A. Lang, W. Leaf & E. Myres.

London, 1923.

----. The Odyssey . Eng. trans. by E.V. Rieu. London, 1945.

Horace Odes . Eng. trans. by E. Marsh. London, 1941.

Idr i ī s i ī , Al- La G e é ographie d'Edrisi . French trans. by P.A. Jaubert.

Paris, 1836–40.

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EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands - Bibliography,Cont'd

Isidore of Seville Etymologiae sive originum libri xx. Ed. by W.M. Lindsay.

Exford, 1911.

Jordanes Getica: de rebus geticis ...... Ed. by T. Mommsen in

Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Berlin, 1882.

Khurd a ā dhbih, Ibn Livre des Routes et des Provinces . French trans. by

M.J. de Goeje in Bibl. geogr. arab. Leiden, 1889.

Lactantius, Firmianus Divinae Institutions . Ed. by S. Brandt in Corp. Script.

Eccl. lat., Vol. XIX. Vienna, 1890.

Mas' u ū ud i ī , Al- Les Prairies d'or . French trans. by C. [ ?] . de Meynard and

P. de Courteille. Paris, [ ?] 1861–77.

Mela, Pomponius De Situ Orbis . French trans. by J.M.N.D. Nisard. Paris,

1883.

Orosius, Paulus Historiarum adversus paganos libri VII. Eng. trans. by

I.W. Raymond. London, 1883.

Pliny, C. Secundus Naturalis Historia . Eng. trans. by J. Bostock and H.T.

Riley. London, 1855–7.

Polybius History of Greece and Rome . Eng. trans. [ ?] by

W.R. Paton. London, 1922.

Plutarchus De Facie in orbe lunae . Eng. translation & commentary by

A.O. Prickard. Oxford (?), 1911.

Ptolemy, Claudius Geographia . Eng. trans. by E.L. Stevenson. New York, 1932.

Solinus, C. Julius Collectanea rerum memorabilium . Ed. by T. Mommsen.

Berlin, 1895.

Strabo, Marcus Geographia. Eng. trans. by H.L. Jones. London, 1917–32.

Tacitus, Cornelius De vita et moribus Julii Agricolae . Eng. trans. by

M. Hutton. London, 1914.

----. Germania . Eng. trans. by M. Hutton, London, 1914.

Yaqut, Ibn Geographical Dictionary . Ed. by C.B. de Maynard. Paris,

1871.

II. Secondary Material:

Babcock, W.H. Legendary Islands of the Atlantic : A Study in Mediaeval

Geography. New York, 1922.

056      |      Vol_XI-0163                                                                                                                  
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands - Bibliography, Cont'd.

Beazley, Sir Chas. R. The Dawn of Modern Geography . 3 Vols. London, 1897–1906.

Bunbury, Sir Edward A. A History of Ancient Geography . 2 Vols. London, 1879.

Cary, M. &

Warmington, E.H. The Ancient Explorers . London, 1929.

Duhem, P. Le Syst e è me du mond . 5 Vols. Paris, 1913–17.

Hennig, R. Terrae Incognitae . 3 Vols. Berlin, 1938.

Hyde, W.W. Ancient Greek Mariners . Oxford, 1947.

Kimble, G.H.T. Geography in the Middle Ages . London, 1938.

Miller, K. Mappaemundi. die altesten weltkarten . 6 Vols. Stuttgart,

1895–8.

Nansen, F. In Northern Mists . 2 Vols. New York, 1911.

Nordenskiold, A.E. Facsimile Atlas to the Early History of Cartography .

Stockholm, 1889.

----. Periplus. An Essay on the Early History of Charts and

Sailing Directions . Stockholm, 1897.

Ravenstein, E.G. Martin Behaim: His Life and His Globe . London, 1908.

Sarton, G. Introduction to the History of Science . 3 Vols. Balti–

more, 1927.

Stefansson, V. Ultima Thule . New York, 1944.

----. Greenland . New York, 1944.

Thomson, J.O. History of Ancient Geography . Cambridge, 1948.

Thorndike, L. History of Magic and Experimental Science . 6 Vols.

New York, 1923–41.

Tozer, H.F. History of Ancient Geography . With notes by M. Cary.

Cambridge, 1935.

Wright, J.K. Geographical Lore of the Time of the Crusades . New York,

1925.

Yule, Sir Henry &

Cordier, H. Cathay and the Way Thither . 4 Vols. London, 1913–16.

       

George H. T. Kimble

Arctic Cartography. Part I. From Earliest Times to 1900

Unpaginated      |      Vol_XI-0164                                                                                                                  
EA-History

(Herman R. Friis)

ARCTIC CARTOGRAPHY

       

Contents

	Page
Introduction ....................................................................................................................	1
Comments on Sources of Information .............................................................................	3
The Period Prior to about 1900 .......................................................................................	4
Cartography of the Arctic by Indigenous Peoples ...........................................................	4
Babylonian Period ............................................................................................................	7
Greek Period ....................................................................................................................	7
Roman Period ..................................................................................................................	12
Cartography of Arctic during Period about A.D. 100 to A.D.1500 ...................................	13
The Renaissande of Maps about 1500 to 1700 ................................................................	33
Selected Bibliography ......................................................................................................	55

001      |      Vol_XI-0165                                                                                                                  
EA-History

(Herman R. Friis)

       

ARCTIC CARTOGRAPHY

       

Introduction

        For centuries, indeed since Pytheas of Greece, in the fourth century B.C.,

led what probably was the first serious arctic expedition northward as far as

the Orkneys and there learned of the land called Thule six days nearer the

frozen seas, the Arctic has been recorded in text and not infrequently on

maps. But a record is only as good as its origin and the accuracy and clarity

with which it is compiled. Most maps of the Arctic compiled or produced prior

to the present century are open to serious question and many have been proven

wholly unreliable. Not that this necessarily condemns the veracity and good

intention of the cartographer. On the contrary, it is not he alone but more

the methods employed, the instruments used, and the required subservience of

the surveyor and cartographer to the over-all purpose of the expedition or

enterprise, as well as the unpredictable whims of the environment, that gave

rise to the continuous inequalities and now obvious inaccuracies in the maps.

If there is any excuse, it rightfully stems from the lack of experience in

and comprehension of the special requirements of surveying and mapping of

the Arctic.

        Until recently, man's ventures into the Arctic meant complete isolation,

an uncertainty as to the route followed, and a nearly complete dependence upon

002      |      Vol_XI-0166                                                                                                                  
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the resources of his immediate environment, which, because of his lack of

understanding, often led to near or actual disaster. Mapping in such circum–

stances as these could not be planned in advance as a sustained program of

systematic coverage locale by locale, and region by region. More often than

not surveys were made from a ship's deck or on a rapid sledge journey the

main objective of which was a daring traver [ ?] e or a search for new lands.

Consequently erroneous conclusions were [ ?] rawn, visibility being deceptive,

instruments unreliable and unsuitable, and fatigue of the observer not in–

frequently obscuring the real situation. Yet it is remarkable that so much

generally correct information has been exacted.

        Maps of the Arctic, in its entirety as well as its minute segments,

being a product of a multiplicity of elements and corresponding sources of

information, are only as accurate as the degree of reliability of their origin.

Compiled as they are from numerous sources of varying degrees of reliability,

the cartographer must, if accuracy is to be achieved, have a complete fund of

sources, experience and sound judgment. Unfortunately for maps of the Arctic

this has not until recently been possible; hence our view of the Arctichas has

not been without its penumbras, and, in fact, until nearly the nineteenth

century much of the Arctic was a product of fancy and, on the part of map

compilers, reflected a reliance on descriptive texts rather than factual

field observations. Yet it is surprising how many fanciful concepts proved

out, as, for example, the continuous search for the Northeast and Northwest

Passages, these being indicated on maps long before they actually had been

identified and mapped.

        The following discussion is restricted almost entirely to (1) topographic

(including planimetric and hypsometric) maps, (2) hydrographic (planimetric and

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bathymetric) maps, and (3) general large-area or whole-Arctic maps.

       

Comments on Sources of Information

        A considerable mass of widely scattered, often detailed and highly

descriptive, sources on surveying in and mapping of the Arctic awaits the

student interested in the subject. Unfortunately, however, a great many of

these sources are open to serious question. This is particularly true as

regards the period prior to about 1900. This of course is understandable

and is relatively common to the whole field of scholarship.

        Cartographic sources on the North appear as individual maps embracing

all or part of the Arctic, or, extending beyond the intended important

middle-latitude portion of the map, the Arctic is included with other areas —

as, shown on maps in atlases, as maps in texts and similar publications, and

as reconstructions of lost maps. Modern large-scale maps such as hydrographic,

topographic, and aeronautical maps usually have a high degree of reliability

and appear as a series or set compiled on the basis of well-defined standards

[ ?] quite in contrast to nearly all maps of the period prior to the twentieth

century.

        During the period from about the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries

information on new discoveries was not immediately made available, such infor–

mation being withheld in order to prevent its falling into the hands of

another country's or company's interest. Consequently maps compiled and

published at essentially the same time but by different individuals and in

different countries were frequently in contradiction as to what they delineated.

Then, too, maps were sometimes compiled to prove a theory, or parts of maps

were fancied in order to appear more complete. Why so-called reliable primary

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map compilers such as Mercator, Ortelius, Hondius, Van Kenlen, and others

of the "Age of Great Discoveries" committed themselves to occasional wild

miscarriages of known facts is at once apparent when one considers the needs

and the often contradictory results of ventures into the same Arctic.

        The following discussion does not attempt to examine the relative

reliability of each map nor to disregard those wholly lacking in accuracy,

which of course would mean deletion of most of the maps. Rather, it is an

attempt to describe the status of knowledge of the Arctic as expressed in

maps throughout recorded history. The selective bibliography at the end of

this discussion will give the reader the clue to many of the sources.

       

PART I. THE PERIOD PRIOR TO ABOUT 1900

       

Cartography of the Arctic by Indigenous Peoples

        Explorers in the Arctic seeking directional information have long been

impressed by the almost uncanny ability of many of the natives, such as the

Eskimos, the North American Indians, and peoples of northeastern Asia, in

the graphic representation of the terrain of a region. How long this ability

of cartographic expression has been common to them it would of course be im–

possible to say. However, since it is a characteristic of natives who had

not mastered reading and writing, we can conclude that it was a medium of

expression common to many peoples and must therefore date far back into

prehistory.

        Adler, in his comprehensive study Karty piervobytnyh narordov (Maps of

primitive peoples), treats the subject in considerable detail.

        Jochelson, in his description of the natives of northeastern Asia,

005      |      Vol_XI-0169                                                                                                                  
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remarks on their ability to determine their bearings by the relative position

of the sun and by the stars at night. Several specimens of maps prepared

by the Chukchi of the Anadyr District include slabs of wood (driftwood) upon

which in reindeer blood has been drawn the delta of the Anadyr. Included

as elements of the terrain are the meandering course of the river and its

complex delta structure, vegetation adjoining the river, fords, hunting

grounds, and inhabited sites. Significantly, the river is shown between

two parallel lines. Other native peoples of the area, such as the Yakuts

and Samoyeds, used but a single line. Adler's reproduction of maps prepared

by the Tungus indicate their skill in the sketching of maps on birch bark,

showing with particular accuracy the area known at first hand by the maker,

this area usually being the central portion of the map, the degree of accuracy

of the map generally being increasingly less toward the margins. Orientation

is in relation to the prevailing line of flow of the main river on the map.

The use of the compass to these people, even at the beginning of this century,

was not generally known, but when it was shown to them they readily recognized

its merits and became relatively proficient in its use.

        Perhaps no natives of the Arctic are as prolific and accurate in the

preparation of maps as are the Eskimos. Numerous accounts of explorers and

travelers, including Parry, Beechey, Boaz, Nelson, Rink, Flaherty, and Hall,

praise the remarkable abilities of the Eskimos in this respect. Flaherty in

1910 found that the Eskimo Wetalltok's map of the Belcher Islands, covering

several thousand square miles drawn on the back of an old missionary litho–

graph, was surprisingly like that of the modern surveyed map of the same region.

        The Eskimos of the east coast of Greenland used driftwood upon which to

carve relief models of a particular area, often of the coast, showing the

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precise relationship of the fjords, the valleys and hills, and especially

the routes to and from hunting grounds and settlements.

        Andree in his Ethnographische Parallelen describes and r [ ?] produces a

map drawn with a pencil in 1850 by the Eskimo Kalliherna, showing the shore

line from Cape York northward to Pikierlu with surprising accuracy. Boas,

during his stay on Baffin Island, had frequent occasion to invite the

Eskimos to draw maps for him, many of which he commended as notably accurate

and skillfully showing the delineation of the coast line, especially the

fjords and many islands within them, elevated portions of land often being

ø i ndicated by hatchings.

        The Eskimo's natural response to a geographical question is to draw a

map in the sand or snow, using a stick. So, to Beechey's location request,

the Eskimo sketched a coast line dividing it into equal lengths, each repre–

senting a day's march. Hills were indicated by heaps of sand and stones,



an island was shown by a mound of pebbles, the finished product being a relief model.

        Vilhjalmur Stefansson summarized these characteristics well when he said:

        "...These Eskimo maps are likely to be good if you interpret them

rightly. Here are some of the points:

        "They are more likely to have the right number of curves in a

river and the right shape of the curves than the proper distance

scale. They are most likely to emphasize the things that are of

importance to themselves; for instance, portages they have to

cross are of more significance to them than mountains that stand

to one side...

        "Primitive men are likely to confuse the time scale with the

mileage scale - after a ten-day journey of say six hours each

day, they are likely to dot these camps at equal intervals,

although, because of bett [ ?] r going, they may have made twice the

average distance one day and half the average another." (E. Raisz:

General Cartography , p.9.)

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Babylonian Period

        Perhaps the earliest extant map of the world including or implying

the existence of an Arctic is that of the clay tablet which dates from about

the fifth century B.C. and is of Babylonian origin. On this table the world,

or cosmos, is inscribed, bearing these primary characteristics: a disc–

shaped earth encircled by the Earthly Ocean or Bitter River, Seven Islands

each described in detail and placed equidistantly in the Earthly Ocean, and

the north indicated at the top. Significantly, the fifth island, due north

at the top of the tablet map, is submerged in total darkness and described as

a land where one sees nothing and the sun is not visible, information probably

acquired from peoples in the Far North by way of the trade route connections.

The concept of the earth as a disc with an encircling ocean and included

islands (one of which often was named Thule or Tule) extended well into the

Christian era.

        The Babylonians appear to have been responsible for the division of the

circle into degrees, for making some of the first large-scale maps, and,

significantly, for the use of north at the top of maps as a means of orien–

tation.

       

Greek Period

        The Greeks set the stage and wrote the script for the first scene in

recorded history which not only describes an Arctic and plots it on maps

but, by virtue of scientific calculations in astronomy, proved its existence

and to a degree corroborated the evidence which had been gaining in volume

along the trade routes connecting the Mediterranean with the Baltic, especially

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Russia, Scandinavia, and Germany. The Greek astronomers, observing the

relationship of the constellations in the heavens and noting their paths,

concluded (about 300 B.C.) that the earth must be a sphere and that the

limit of the stars that were visible could be determined by a circle drawn

through the constellation of the Great Bear, which they called Arktos, the

limit being called the Bear's or Arctic Circle.

        The basis of our present-day system of cartography is largely a pro–

duct of the Greek period, the achievements of which were of such magnitude

that they were not surpassed until about the sixteenth century. Among these

accomplishments are the recognition of the earth as a sphere, with its tropics,

equator, and poles (or frigid zones); a projection as the framework upon which

to construct the map; a remarkably close approximation of the size of the

earth; and the grid system of determining place by longitude and latitude.

        Unfortunately the maps prepared by the early Greeks are lost, but suffi–

ciently detailed descriptions were left to posterity for fairly accurate

reconstruction to be possible.

        Herodotus, who lived in the fifth century B.C., was widely traveled and

an avid searcher for fact. It was he who first recognized, named, and des–

cribed the three continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa, as enclosing the

Mediterranean basin, and expressly remarked that knowledge was not advanced

sufficiently to state whether the northern part of Europe an Asia was sur–

rounded by water or not.

        In the second half of the fourth century B.C. Pytheas of Marseille,

using a simple sundial, calculated the latitude of his native town with an

error of only 14 ′ . In addition he noted the relationship of tides to lunar

influence, and demonstrated that the true celestial pole could not be the

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Pole Star. These achievements were a prelude to his remarkable scientific

voyage of exploration to Britain, where he learned of Thule, "a land six days

north where the three fundamental elements, Water, Earth and Air, lose their

identity and merge into each other..." (E. Raisz: General Cartography , p. 17).

Pytheas' Thule thereafter appears on Greek and Roman maps as an island in the

seas beyond the continental masses, usually in the North or Arctic; it con–

tinued to be so designated but never positively identified or consistently

repeated in the same location on maps for more than 1800 years. Whether

Thule referred to Scandinavia, Iceland, or the Arctic generally, is still

conjectural. Pytheas' original account, which has been lost, apparently was

in the nature of a series of successive astronomic observations with critical

remarks.

        Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276–196 B.C.), head of the Library of Alexandria

and a leading geographer, not only measured the circumference of the earth with

surprising accuracy but prepared a map of the habitable world, based on seven

parallels and seven meridians, which he concluded occupied less than a quarter

of the terraqueous surface. He recognized his indebtedness to Pytheas for

his knowledge of the North by naming his northernmost line of latitude the

parallel of Thule. The island of Thule was placed just to the northeast of

Britain, just under the Arctic Circle, which he calculated to be 66°9 ′ North

latitude. The northern coast of Europe and Asia, though not indicated with

certainty, is noted as being below the parallel of Thule.

        Hipparchus, during the second century B.C., developed and introduced a

division of the earth into 360° of longitude and latitude, prepared a con–

tinuous table of latitudes for various known localities north to Thule,

developed the conic projection, and devised the astrolabe.

        It appears likely that the grammarian Crates of Mallus (ca. 150 B.C.)

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constructed the first terrestrial globe, which he [ ?] ivided into quadrants,

placing the oikoumene or habitable part in one and a balancing continent

in each of the others, as if anticipating the Americas and Antarctica, thus

giving rise to the legendary Antipodes or Terra Australis. The Atlantic

Ocean is shown extending as a wide watery belt around the earth through

the poles.

        The elder Pliny (23–79 A.D.) in his classic work Historia naturales

includes detailed descriptions of the North, particularly the Orkneys,

Hebrides, north coast of Asia, Scandinavia, and the British Isles. He

speaks of two promontories, which he calls Scyticum and Tabin, projecting

northward from Asia. Pliny was in agreement with Strabo (first century

B.C.-A.D.) that records showed that wherever men had penetrated to the outer

limits of the earth they had met with the ocean.

        Marinus of Tyre (ca. 90–130 A.D.), an older contemporary of Claudius

Ptolemy, prepared a map of the world in which he included or indicated the

longitude and latitude of each place shown. He locates the northern limit

of the oikoumene at the island of Thule, latitude 63° North and, as he

computes it, 31,500 stadia from the equator. This map was compiled from

a vast fund of sources including itineraries and journal accounts of all

sorts. Though the map is lost, it achieved significance because it served

as a basis for Ptolemy's remarkable contributions.

        Greek cartography reached its fruition in the works of Claudius Ptolemy

(90–168 A.D.) but almost immediately was neglected by the Romans who were

preoccupied with nonscientific interests and the philosophical requirements

of the early Christian era. In fact, it lapsed into oblivion until the

fourteenth century when its rediscovery contributed mightily to the opening

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of the era of great discoveries. Ptolemy's position of distinction in

Alexandria with its many resources of learning, made possible the compila–

tion of his two great works, the Almagest and the Geographia , which includes

references to the Arctic. The maps he compiled to accompany these texts,

particularly the latter, are in reality the prototypes of nearly all geo–

graphical atlases published since the invention of printing. His "atlas"

of 27 maps and their related extensive text include several maps with

information about the Arctic. His map of the world was constructed on a

conic projection with equidistant parallels, the conical surface having

been developed around the earth's axis and passing through the parallels

of Rhodes and Thule.

        On his map of the world the northern coast of Europe takes on a more

definite shape than heretofore. The British Isles are laid down with

identifiable configuration and, as he notes, with much new information.

As for Thule, he gives it rather small extent, removing it south from the

Arctic Circle to about 63° and northeast of the British Isles, perhaps

because he accepted the reports of Agricola's fleet having a sighted Thule

north of the Orkneys. In his eighth book of the Geographia he notes that

"Thule has the largest day of twenty hours, and is distant west from

Alexandria two hours." Beyond the north coast and islands of Europe extends

a vast continuous ocean, an extension of the Atlantic. The northern boundary

of the continent of Asia ext [ ?] nds to the edge of the map in the latitude of

Thule, Ptolemy contending that the lack of accurate information about these

areas precludes noting the shore line beyond.

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Roman Period

        Maps of the Roman period, such as they were, reflected the general

apathy of the Romans to the whole field of science. Characteristically they

were content to accept the Greek map pretty much as it was. Being practical

people, certainly much less imaginative, they expressed little interest in

abstract theories. Their energies were largely expended in administrative

and military conquest and consequently they were interested in a practical

map for use in administration. Often in complete disregard of the elaborate

projection maps of the Greeks the Romans reverted to the disc-shaped map of

the Ionian geographers. Within this circular frame the Romans shaped their

maps. The three great continents, Asia, Europe, and Africa, and their

related islands and embayments were arranged rather symmetrically around

the center of the circle which was the Mediterranean Sea. Asia usually was

at the top or east, this giving rise to the term "orientation." Most of the

land area delineated the extent of the Roman Empire and, disproportionately

smaller, the remainder of the land surface of the orbis terrarum .

        No contemporary maps appear to have survived, though fairly accurate

reconstructions have been made. Generally these maps show the north (arctic–

facing) coast [ ?] of Asia and Europe as a slightly irregular arc of the outer

circle of the continental land masses, beyond which extends the unmarked

and unknown sea. It is important to note, however, that on some there is a

semblance of a peninsula indicative of Scandinavia, east of which is an island

named Thule and west of the peninsula the British Isles.

        Records indicate that maps of the world were prepared in Imperial Rome

and pasted in appropriate places for the benefit of the public. One of these,

constructed on orders of Agrippa and Agustus Caesar, was posted in Portious

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Octaviae. Caesar's invasion of Britain in 55–45 B.C. made available much

fresh information about the North but relatively little about the Arctic,

except his reference to the islands north of Britain where there was a

month of unbroken night at the winter solstice.

        One of the best examples of Roman cartography, though in reality it is

a cartogram, is the so-called Tabula Peutingeriana , which shows the main

routes and provinces of the Roman Empire but without reference to the Arctic.

        Cartography of Arctic during Period about A.D. 100 to A.D. 1500.

        Moslem (Arabic) cartography and the Arctic : The spread of Moselm con–

quest to the Indies and west through the Mediterranean and into Spain in the

seventh century was reflected to a great extent in their advances in geography

and cartography. They accepted and kept alive the traditions and intellectual

accomplishments of the Greeks, particularly in the science of geography.

Their extensive trading forays ultimately brought them to the east coast of

China where they established and maintained colonies as far north as Shanghai.

In the west they extended their contacts to the west coast of Africa and the

north and west coast of Europe, and to some extent into northern Russia; then,

too, the potential fund of information was greater than in previous periods.

A copious literature developed, particularly from the ninth century through

the whole of the Middle Ages.

        Their perhaps rather hazy ideas about the North were derived originally

from the Greeks and augmented by information gleaned in their widespread

commercial and seagoing activities, particularly in Europe and Russia. The

Moslems bridged the gap and maintained the advance of cartographic and geo–

graphic knowledge between the decline of the Greek civilization and the rise

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of the Italian and Portuguese in the fourteenth century.

        In 982–3 there was compiled in Afghanistan a unique manuscript called

Hudad al- Alam or the Regions of the World . It is remarkable that the author

in this remote part of the Moslem world should be aware of the Arctic. He

affirms that

        "The Earth is round as a sphere and the firmament enfolds it

turning on two poles ... of which one is the North Pole and

the other the South Pole ... North of the Equator the inhabited

lands stretch for 63 degrees; farther on the animals cannot live

in view of the intensity of the cold that prevails there up to

the North Pole."

        Perhaps the most important contribution of Moslem cartography is expressed

in that of Edrisi, who in 1154 in the court of Roger II, the Norman king of

Sicily, completed a world map based largely on Ptolemy but with significant

changes particularly in the northern countries. His information was derived

from numerous Moslem and Christian sources. In addition to this world map he

prepared seventy maps and a detailed description of the world. Edrisi's map

of the world shows the inhabited part as lying in the northern hemisphere,

this being divided into seven climata extending from the equator to 64° North

latitude, beyond which all is uninhabited because of the cold and snow.

Beyond the continents is the Dark Sea Oceanus, the so-called uttermost

encircling waters which form the outer limits of the world. Edrisi notes

that in this sea west of Africa and north and west of Europe probably are as

many as 27,000 islands. In his representation of the north and west of Europe

he closely approximates the Anglo-Saxon map of the world.

        The Moslems, particularly the Arabs, were largely responsible for the

preparation of pilot charts and [ ?] manuals, nautical charts skin to the

portolano. To them also is due, perhaps, the introduction of the magnetic

compass into Europe. These and other skills in the science of navigation

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had been transferred to the Italians and the Portuguese probably by the

fourteenth century.

        Chinese Cartography and the Arctic: As in many elements of culture

so in cartography the Chinese developed quite independently of the Western

World. It is significant to note, however, that there were degrees of

resemblance. There can be little doubt that the Chinese were aware of

the North, perhaps even the Arctic proper, as early as the beginning of

the Christian era for at an early date maps of the world were constructed,

more stereographic and disproportionate than later on, showing China occu–

pying the center and most extensive area of the map, the so-called "Foreign

Lands" being scattered about the periphery with little regard to their proper

areal relationship.

        The Chinese concept of the earth as a disc or flat surface with China

in the center was well developed by Pei Haiu, the father of Chinese cartography

who lived during the period A.D. 224 to 273. During the period of this car–

tographer's activity maps were made covering the area from Persia to Japan

and into present-day Asiatic Russia. Multiple copies of maps were made

after the invention of paper in about A.D. 100. Perhaps the most significant

map of this early period is Chia Tau's Map of China and Foreign Countries

within the Seas , prepared about 801, measuring some 33 x 30 feet in size.

Unfortunately, this map has not survived.

        By the sixteenth century, when the Jesuit missionaries arrived in China,

the mass of cartographic sources was sufficient to make possible the pro–

duction of an atlas of China and a map of the world. Apparently, the

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        Southern European cartography and the Arctic to about 1400 : Claudius

Ptolemy ended an era of remarkable progress in the delineation of the

broad outlines of th [ ?] lands of the earth. He had no Roman or Greek successors,

other than the copyists and commentators, history and geography as arts and

science being rapidly replaced by Judaeo-Christian cosmography. With the

collapse of the Roman Empire by the fifth century, the culture that was

Greece and Roma gave way to elements that dipped far back into antiquity.

The Babylonian concept of the earth as a vast insular mass surrounded by an

extensive watery waste was revived and served as a basis for most of the maps

maps. How these developed and what they portrayed may conveniently be dis–

cussed as the products of Mediterranean or southern Europe of the products of

northern Europe; in many ways they are similar, but in others remarkably

different.

        This period for southern European cartography may be divided into two

parts: (1) from about A.D. 100 to A.D. 1200 during which diagrammatic or

wheel-type maps were dominant, and (2) from about 1200 to 1400 during which

the portolanos and compass charts and other more accurate maps were developed.

        Although practically all manuscripts dealing with geographical subjects

during the period about A.D. 100 to 1200 are lost, it would seem that maps

either were referred to in or were made to accompany the text; in fact, it

appears that some of the cosmographies and encyclopedias were compiled from

maps that are still extant. One group of maps, referred to as the "T-O,"

reflects an ideal pattern with emphasis on artistic and symbolical presen–

tation. The map is usually a circle with an included "T" dividing the

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circle into three segments, Asia usually in the upper portion and Europe

and Africa in the two lower compartments. East is at the top of the map.

In some instances islands are included in the margin beyond the continent

of Asia and Europe, perhaps indicating an awareness of an Arctic. Many

of these maps are found in codices illustrating the writings of Isidore,

Bede, Raban Maur, and others in the early part of the eighth century.

        The Saltust group of maps probably originated with the eighth century

priest Beatus in northern Spain who, in writing a commentary on the

Apocalypse , prepared a map of the world dividing it among the twelve

apostles, each in the locality where tradition fixed his diocese. Funda–

mentally these maps were probably based on the Orbis Terrarum of the Romans

though with modifications to fit special needs. On the Beatus series, as

well as on Lambert's mappemonde, the British Isles and isles beyond and in

the circumferential ocean are inscribed as more or less regularly spaced,

small, oval, round, or even rectangular block figures with little regard to

precise relationships, the Arctic comprising that unknown island-dotted

circumambient ocean. Some maps, such as those by Henry of Mayence, indented

the outline of the continents and inserted the islands in the appropriate

recesses in the shores to give a smooth curving shape to the continent. On

the St. Sever Beatus map the island of Ireland lies off the coast of Spain.

        A third group of maps, though they are in reality pseudo-maps, are

patterned after Macrobius' division of the earth's surface into climata or

zones. These date from about the ninth century. Copies of these appear in

Lambert's Liber floridus , William of Conche's De philosophia mundi , and John

of Hollywood's De sphaera. Actually this type of map, because it divided

the earth into zones and alluded to the Poles, served to keep alive the theory

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of sphericity. Generally it was believed and usually so indicated that

the polar caps were frigid, as is noted in Bernard Sylvester's De mundi

universitate , and therefore uninhabited. The author of De imago mundi

notes that the polar zone is called septentrionalis. In the geographical

treatises of this period very elaborate and often logical discussions are

found as to the celestial poles, and the placing of the Arctic and the

Antarctic Circles. It is significant that a map of the world prepared

by one Henry, canon of the Church of St. Mary in Mayence, in the year 1110,

includes the island of Thule.

        It is interesting to note that during this period the many geographical

descriptions of the earth often include mention of the Arctic, sometimes

in detail as did, for instance, an anonymous Ravennese geographer of the

middle of the seventh century. He says that "beyond the northern ocean are

mighty mountains placed by command of God. These make day and night by

forming a screen behind which the sun and moon disappear." He notes that

in "the northern ocean itself after the land of the Roxolani, in an island

called Scanya, which is also called Scythia."

        During this period, to about 1200, there were intermittent forays or

mercantile ventures into northern Europe, and vice versa, so that occasional

contact was maintained by which knowledge of the Arctic did trickle into

southern Europe.

        When the compass, simply fashioned as it was, came into general use in

the Mediterranean in the thirteenth century, particularly on Italian ships,

a new and remarkable type of map was brought into existence, the so-called sea

or compass chart. In a parallel fashion the ancient periplus was developed

into a highly detailed and useful portolano. Usually the sea charts gave a

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surprisingly accurate delineation particularly of the shores. During the

thirteenth and fourteenth centuries an increasing number of these charts

were prepared showing in surprising detail and with remarkable accuracy

the coast and islands of northern Europe. These maps represent a sharp

departure from the wheel or disc maps so common to this period and partake

more of reality. Gradually the image of the Arctic is shown. Thule, often

as "Tille," a round island, is located off the northeast coast of Scotland.

The place names appear to be fundamentally the same in origin. One of the

first compass charts of the north, by a Genoese priest, Giovanni da Carignana

(ca. 1344), gives a careful delineation of the British Isles, the Orkneys,

Scandinavia, and the Baltic, though the area of the Arctic proper is beyond

the compass lines. The North delineated in portolanos probably was derived

from information and sketches obtained by Mediterranean skippers and their

trade with the Hanseatic ports of northern Europe, especially after about 1275.

        One of the first evidences, perhaps the beginning, of the mapping of the

Atlantic is found in Marino Sanuto's map of about 1306. During the period 1318

to 1321 Sanuto prepared his Liber secretorum fidelium crucis to stimulate

enthusiasm for a new crusade. Several maps are attached to this work apparently

drawn by Pietro Vesconte in 1320. One of these is a map of the world which

shows the coast as derived from compass charts, Scandinavia being a peninsula.

Nordenskiöld observes that he has been unable to find Iceland delineated and

marked in a single portolano for the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,

though of course various islands are placed north of Scotland on Dulcert's

map of 1339.

        A map compiled in Modena in about 1350 blends a Catalan compass chart

with a "wheel map" to form a map of the world with several new features included

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for the Arctic. Iceland is said to appear in a unit of eight islands in

the northwest near the margin of the map, the southernmost island being

named "Islanda." North of Norway extends the mare putritum congelatum

(the putrid frozen sea).

        The famous Catalan atlas published in 1375 includes a map of Asia

which likely was drawn after information of Marco Polo, giving some des–

cription of present-day Siberia, though nowhere definitely corroborating

the general thesis that Asia fronts to the sea on the north. His accounts

of hunters of white bears may indicate that hunters had reached the Polar

Sea. On the world map in the atlas, islands are delineated north of Scotland.

        In 1203 a Beatus type of world map was issued in Osma, Spain, and includes

"Scada insula," (Scandinavia) as an island, by the North Pole. The "Orcades"

and the "Gorgades" are placed in the Arctic near the northeast coast of Asia.

Further confusion of the Arctic is found in Ranulph Hygden's map of the world in

the early part of the fourteenth century, for on this map Scandinavia is placed

in Asia, islands in the ocean above northern Europe are named "Norwegia,"

"Islandia," "Witland," "Tile" (Thule), and "Dacia" (Denmark), "gens bellicosa"

lying near the North Pole. Several statements about the Arctic are written

on the map.

        In the last decade of the fourteenth century (1380 or 1390), if we are

to believe the journal and map published in 1558, the brothers Nicolo and

Antonio Zeno were exploring in the Arctic. The map of Greenland and the

Arctic which they are purported to have drawn is surprising in its accuracy

and detail, and if it was, indeed, drawn in 1380 or 1390, it marked a startling

change in the concept of the Arctic. The authenticity of these documents

having been doubted, we will discuss them later on, for the date of their

publication, 1558.

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        Northern European cartography and the Arctic to about 1400: Knowledge

of the Arctic accumulated by the peoples in northern Europe was of course

acquired from numerous different sources, some first hand, much of it by

word of mouth, as through sagas. In some instances it was accomulated,

sifted, and recorded in text particularly in the monasteries and other

centers of learning. To know just when the first map of the Arctic was

compiled in northern Europe is perhaps less important than to disouss how

and by what channels the information flowed and ultimately reached the

culture centers of southern Europe to be added to their maps of the world.

There appears little reason to doubt that even before Pytheas' remarkable

voyage into the North the Vikings had carried on forays along the coasts

of northern Europe, ventures into the North Sea and possibly to northern

Norway, and into the Baltic and Russia. They had therefore first-hand

information. By A.D. 1000 they had pushed far across to the west by way

of the Orkneys, Shetlands, Iceland to Greenland, and ultimately North America.

As early probably as about 455 these roving Eruli, perhaps in company with

Saxon pirates, penetrated the Mediterranean to Lucca in Italy. The sweep

of the earth's surface that thereby was made available to the map compilers

and geographers of the Mediterranean was considerable. Details of the many

expeditions and the areas of discoveries are given elsewhere.

        As Christianity spread into northern Europe and monasteries were estab–

lished and priests of the Church were stationed and traveled in such remote

places as Greenland, Iceland, and Norway, a wonderful trove of valuable,

descriptive information about these lands was recorded and sent on through

channels to the Vatican; had these reports been properly appraised and

effectively appreciated by cartographers in Italy, the maps produced up to

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the sixteenth century had far greater accuracy and more completeness.

        One of the first maps produced in northern Europe probably was the

Cotton or Anglo-Saxon map. It is perhaps well to examine briefly several

of the sources on the Arctic or North available in northern Europe prior

to this production.

        Beda Venerabilis (673–735) an Anglo-Saxon monk and scholar, influenced

by the writings of Isidore of Seville, produced Liber de natura rerum in

which he not only recognized the sphericity of the earth but describes the

then known lands, though there is little about the Arctic. In about 825

the Irish monk Dicuil in his work De mensura orbis Terrae , a description of

the earth, includes an account of the voyages of the Irish monks northward

into the Arctic to Iceland, which he calls Thule, and says that they lived

there. He comments that "consequently I believe that they [Pliny, Solinus,

Isidore, and Prisoianus] lie and are in error who wrote that there was a

stiffened [ concretum ] sea around it [Thule]..." His remarks as to the

Irish discovery of Iceland appear to be confined in the Icelandic Saga

Are Fr o ø de (about 1130) for it says in part "There were Christians here whom

the Norwegians called 'papar' [priests]". In about 875 Ingolf, a jarl of

Norway, arrived in Iceland with Norse settlers.

        So it was that a great of information was available about the North,

which perhaps prompted the visionary King Alfred the Great (about 879–901)

to prepare not only for the edification of his people but for future geographers

a translation of Paulus Orosius' (a fifth century Spanish priest) Historiarum

adversus paganos libri VII in Anglo-Saxon. However, discovering that Orosius'

description of the North was wholly inadequate, he added what his own sources

made available. Perhaps his most important contribution in this respect was

his description and narrative account of the remarkable expedition of Ottar

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(or Ohthere) along the coast of Norway and north and east into the White Sea,

thereby determining the nature and delineation of Scandinavia on the north,

the location of North Cape, the Polar or Barents Sea, and the White Sea.

So exact is this account that his course can be plotted.

        The so-called Cotton or Anglo-Saxon map of the world may have been pre–

pared as early as the tenth century. This is one of the most interesting,

certainly one of the most accurate world maps of the Medieval period. It

delineates with comparative fullness the regions not often included on maps

of the period. The Arctic is represented by the island of "islands" (Iceland?)

the first instance of such specific reference rather than Thule - though of

course the map may be post Adam of Bremen.

        By the year A.D. 1000 exceedingly remarkable achievements had taken place

in the Arctic, yet apparently few of these had been recorded in maps. Iceland

and then Greenland had been explored and settled by the Norse, and it is thought

Bjarni Herjulfson, swept off his course to Greenland, probably touched North

America before turning back. Again, in about 1000, North America was reached

by Leif Erikssen. Accompanying the Norse to Iceland and to Greenland was a

Christian (Catholic) priest, thereby establishing a direct link in information

about the Arctic with the Vatican and several northern European bishoprics.

At this point it is well to recall several close ties between the Vatican

and the Arctic at about this time. Isl [ ?] iv, the first native Bishop of Iceland,

educated in Saxony, who had first-hand information about Greenland, ultimately

(1056?) visited Pope Leo in Rome. Cardinal Nicolas of Albano, later Pope

Hadrian IV, lived in Norway from 1154 to 1159. The Danes, during the period

1189 to 1193, were on a crusade to the Holy Land and thereby spread informa–

tion about the Arctic. In about 1204, Ion, Biship of Greenland, journeyed

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to Rome, and about the middle of that century, Olaf, Bishop of Greenland,

and the Papal Legate, William of Sabina, met in the Court of the King of

Norway. The Icelandic Abbot Nicholas of Thingeyre (1159), perhaps the

first geographical authority on the Norse discoveries in America, is the

author of an itinerary of information about the North as well as other

regions. There is some evidence to indicate that the early portolanos and

compass charts of the North probably owe much of their origin to sources

such as these.

        Perhaps the earliest mention of Greenland and Wineland in literature is

by Adam of Bremen in his great work Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum

in four books, the last of which recites the geography of the North, much of

the information appearing to stem from contemporary sources. Axel A. Bj o ø rnbo,

in his Cartographic Groenlandica , has constructed a cartogram illustrative of

Adam of Bremen's descriptive information. This shows "Island" (Iceland),

"Gronland" (Greenland), and "Winland" (America ?) along the northern edge of

the "oceanus septentrionalis" which is the sea intervening between those

islands and the northern coast of Scandinavia and Russia. To the right

beyond "Winland" is the "ultimus axis septentrionalis" (North Pole ?) sur–

rounded by the "oceanus calligans."

        According to Icelandic sources, Norse voyagers and hunters explored the

east and west coasts of Greenland; an account in the Landnamabok notes a

voyage recorded by Halldor, a priest in Greenland, probably as far north

as Baffin Bay in 1267.

        On the Beatus-type map of Henry of Mayence (or Mainz), about 1110,

Iceland, Norway, and the northern or poleward coast of Asia are shown. Maps

of this period of the Beatus-type include fabulous countries "Iperbria" in

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the north as peninsulas or islands, though neither Greenland nor Iceland

appears.

        Among the Icelandic manuscripts of this period have been found a zone

map of the thirteenth century, one of the fourteenth century, and a wheel-map

of the twelfth century. These have place names but not well-defined coast

Lines.

        Toward the latter part of the twelfth century there was compiled by Saxe

Grammaticus a strangely heterogeneous work, a combination of mythology and

accurate observations, Book One of which includes a description of northern

Europe and the Arctic as well as islands beyond the Atlantic. Saxo did not

doubt the peninsular character of Scandinavia and was convinced that the sea

extended east around the north of Norway to a curved shore of Gandvic, or the

White Sea.

        The Medician Marine Atlas was completed in about 1351. The North on the

Medici map depicts the northernmost part of Norway as a long slender peninsula

curving in a southwest direction. Some authorities, notably Nansen, have

reasoned that it is from this source that Clavus, in 1427 and later, derived

his Greenland. On the Medici map Iceland is not identified as such though a

large island northwest of Scotland is named "Sillant."

        A franciscan, Franciscus a Sancta Clara, notes (in his book printed in

about 1500) that one Nicholas of Lynn in his Inventio fortunata described a

North with whirlpools from latitude 53° to the North Pole. It is related

that Nicholas of Lynn, navigator and mathematician, probably in 1355 or 1360,

made a voyage into the arctic region and that as a product he prepared a

descriptive, certainly fantastic, statement which, significantly, was utilized

by Ruysch on his map of 1508 and later by Mercator. Navigating by compass

but apparently without knowledge of declination, Nicholas of Lynn, locates

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large islands in the vicinity of the Pole separated by narrow straits, one

of the first descriptive remarks about the high latitudes.

        Ptolemy, Claudius Clavus, and the period of transition in cartographic

techniques (about 1400–1500) : The fifteenth century was a period of remarkable

transition in the history of cartography of the Arctic and may be characterized

by the following developments in their approximate chronological sequence:

1. The rediscovery of Claudius Ptolemy's Geographia and accompanying maps,

and its translation from the Greek into the Latin text, broke as a bombshell

upon and rapidly reoriented the concept of the earth in Western scholarship.

2. The invention of engraving on wood and copper and of printing made mul–

tiple copies, hence wide distribution, of maps possible. 3. The completion

of the map of the northern (Arctic) regions by Claudius Clavus, probably in

1424, placed emphasis on more than a fancied region. 4. The creation of the

Portuguese school of cartography and navigation and its sponsorship [ ?] by

Prince Hnery the Navigator revitalized scientific geography and stimulated

overseas voyages of discoveries. 5. The phenomenally rapid acceptance of

the concept of the earth's sphericity, largely because of Ptolemy, led to

the era of great voyages and map production. 6. The compilation of maps of

the world, many of them including the "new North" was based more on reasoned

and factual information than on fancy.

        Emanuel Chrysoloras, a Byzantine scholar with a passion for promoting

the diffusion of Greek literature in the Western World, was largely respon–

sible for encouraging one of his pupils, Jacobus Angelus, to complete a

Latin translation of Ptolemy's Geographia about 1415. This translation,

and the reproduction of the maps particularly, stimulated a revolution in

map making and may be said to have laid the foundation for modern cartography.

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        To Claudius Clausson Swart (a Danish cleric more commonly called Claudius

Clavus) apparently falls the significant honor of having produced the first

generally accurate map of the northern regions, based to a large extent on

what for the period were considered factual sources of information. His

map probably was the first to include Greenland by name and was completed

during the period 1413–1427. It appears not to have been widely known. In

about 1428 the French Cardinal Filastre, while in Rome, prepared a reduced

version of this map and the related text and included these in his Latin

translation of Ptolemy's Geographia . Clavus's second map of the northern regions,

compiled somewhat later, had profound and far-reaching influence on the car–

tographical representation of the Arctic throughout a period of several

centuries. In the map, Clavus presents a new and revolutionary view, a

distinct departure from the cosmogony of the entire Middle Ages. In this

map Greenland is shown with a distinct west coast, and as a land mass extend–

ing crescent-wise in a broad sweep across the waters north of Europe between

Scandinavia and the North Atlantic Ocean. Clavus's Scandinavian origin, his

travels and duties as a dignitary of the Church with access to the records

of the Greenland and other northern bishoprics as well as of the Vatican,

gave him an unusual opportunity. Clavus shows Iceland with a fair degree of

accuracy as to location and delineation. His remarkably correct location of

the southern point and eastern coast of Greenland in relation to Iceland and

Norway probably stems from his knowledge of the sailing directions of the old

Norse seafarers. His representation of the northern part of Greenland as

extending eastward to Russia is probably based on persistent and fabulous

reports. On this map Clavus includes two scales of latitude, the one on the

west of Greenland is Ptolemy's, his own on the east of Greenland, is sur–

prisingly accurate especially for the south part of Greenland. In the text

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of the second map the coordinate positions of some 133 places in Iceland,

Greenland, and Scandinavia are given.

        On an early fifteenth century Catalonian portolano of the North an

"illa verde" (green island) shaped as a parallelogram extending north-south

with the southern end forming an arc toward Europe, has been identified as

Greenland. Iceland is delineated on a map in Marino Sanudo's Secreta fidelium

crucis about 1420 and on La Salle's map in La Salade about 1440 as lying

northeast or north of Norway. In about 1447 a Genoese manuscript mappemonde

of the north was prepared and includes a peninsula with the name "Grinlandia"

north of the Scandinavian peninsula where Clavus's Greenland originates.

        By the middle of the fifteenth century the Portuguese school of cartography

and navigation had achieved remarkable success and had [ ?] eveloped or improved

on many new devices and methods in cartography and navigation. Among the

most important were the preparation of ocean charts, improvement in the design

of ships for long overseas voyages, coastal compass maps of surprising accuracy,

box compasses, tables of solar declination and polar-star altitude corrections

for use in determining latitude, and a growing awareness of the North. By the

end of the century many of these highly secret products had passed into the

hands of the English, Dutch, and others and aided in a major way in the initial

exploratory penetration of the Arctic.

        During the latter half of the century some of the compass charts of Medi–

terranean origin included an island "Insula viridis" situated to the southwest

of Iceland, presumably a continuation of the idea nurtured by Nicholas of Lynn;

this occurs as the "green isle" on some maps as late as the 18th century.

        The Camaldolese chart, a mappemonde, of Fra Mauro, completed in the

Convent of Murano near Venice in 1459, has been called the crowning achievement

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of medieval draftsmanship, at once the last of the older type and the first

of the new. It measures six feet four inches across and is very detailed.

Europe is perhaps most accurately drawn, Russia and northeast Asia are exagger–

ated, the Arctic as such being represented by several peninsulas extending

north from Scandinavia and Russia.

        Nicolaus Germanus, a Florentine craftsman of considerable ability, pro–

duced several remarkable maps of the Arctic regions in his editions of Ptolemy

in the 1460's. He appears to have redrawn Claudius Clavus's map on a trape–

zoidal projection of his own invention which gives Greenland a more oblique

position than on the Clavus or Medici maps. In his world map of 1466 he

surrounds Greenland by sea an the north, it thereby extending as a long and

narrow tongue of land from northern Russia. In subsequent editions of Ptolemy

he shortens this peninsula, making it a rounded mass to the north of Norway,

with the name "Engronelant," Iceland being moved out into the ocean to the

northwest.

        Nordenskiöld's discovery of a map of the northern regions in the Zamoisky

Library in Warsaw in the late nineteenth century brings to light a remarkable

early (probably 1467) map of the Arctic, a prototype of subsequent maps

appearing in editions of Ptolemy. In broad delineation it is much like

earlier maps in Ptolemy, but with the exception that it includes a narrow

strait or channel, "Mare Gotticum," connecting the North Sea with the Baltic

in the vicinity of the Arctic Circle, thereby making Scandinavia an island.

On the northwest coast of Greenland are two frames of text, one reaching

reading "Mare quod frequenter congelatum; Ultimus terminus terrae habitabilie."

This is a remarkable statement because not only was it true but there are

no records of voyages into the region prior to this date, though Solnus the

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Pole is said to have sailed this far in 1476. The place names on this

map for Greenland and Iceland are strikingly identical to those on the

Zeno map and the Ulm editions of Ptolemy for 1482 and 1486. Greenland,

as the peninsula Gronlandis," is placed quite accurately and, interest–

ingly, glaciers are shown. A second Greenland "Engronelant" appears in

close proximity to Norway and under it the island of "Thile."

        The World map of Nicolaus Germanus in 1474 represents an important

link in the chain supporting early Norse contacts in the Western Hemis–

phere. Six maps by this cartographer are extant, each delineating the North

Atlantic region prior to Columbus. This German humanist was not always

consistent, for on some of his maps he shows Greenland as a peninsula of

Europe west and north of Europe, and on others he locates Greenland east

of Iceland. The inclusion of many local place names on Greenland indicates

an intimate knowledge of the region.

        Columbus, in his account in the Historis del S. D. Fernando Colombo,

1571, mentions having sailed a hundred leagues beyond the island of "Thyle"

and notes the heavy traffic carried on by the English of Bristol in this

region. At the time he was there, in February 1477, the sea was not frozen

and he corrects the Ptolemy map of the north by placing "Thyle" in [ ?] 73°

and not in 63°. It is quite probable that Columbus was acquainted with the

1486 edition of the Ptolemy map of the North showing Greenland as an exten–

sion of Europe and with two Icelands.

        In 1489–90 there was completed the Insularium illustratum Henrici Marteli

Germani which, in addition to portraying the Arctic generally as a "terrae

incognitae," includes Greenland as a long slender peninsula extending south–

west from the northeastern edge of Europe.

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The completion of the oldest extant terrestrial globe by the German

cartographer, Martin Behaim in 1492, coincident with but not showing the

discovery of the New World, was epochal so far as the Arctic is concerned.

This twenty-inch globe is beautifully delineated, includes descriptive

notes, and, significantly, shows an extensive area of water between Europe

and Asia which is filled with islands in the area actually occupied by

North America. Asia appears to have been derived from Marco Polo of the

thirteenth century. Northwest of Scotland is a large island called "Ijsland"

upon which is inscribed a yellow standard with three [ ?] Danish leopards.

Apparently Behaim's representation of the North is for the most part after

Germanus's mappemonde in the Ptolemy (Ulm) editions of 1482 and 1486.

Greenland is located north of Norway. The land if Finmark is shown and

noted as "Tlant Vermarck." It is possible that Behaim had access to Nicholas

of Lynn's work of 1360 ( Inventio fortunata ) for the land areas placed around

the North Pole resemble Ruysch's map of 1508 which includes them and refers

to Nicholas of Lynn as a source. This mass or circle of land around the Pole

is continuous from his Greenland and Lapland north of Scandinavia and eastward

almost to the opposite side of the Pole to meet the frozen Arctic Sea ( das

gefrozen mer septentrionale ). The Arctic Sea is an enclosed sea and on the

other side of the Pole there are two large and several small islands. The

place names, though in the German form, generally are consistent and correct.

This globe is significant because it gives the first though meager knowledge

of the whole or circumpolar Arctic.

        In 1493 the Laon terrestrial globe was completed. This is in general

agreement with the Germanus mappemonde, the sea extending full around the

Pole above or north of the Eurasian land mass which terminates at about the

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Arctic Circle. To the north of Scandinavia lies the island of "Gronlandia"

and an island called "Livonia" lies off the north coast. Two islands

"Yslandia" and "Tile" are on the west.

        In 1494 Diego Ribero compiled the Carte Universalium ... (General map

containing the whole world...). On this map Greenland is labeled "Tierra

de Labrador" and on its coast is recorded that "The English discovered this

country. It prcduces nothing of value." The name Labrador was subsequently

transferred to the west of Davis Strait.

        The cartographer Henricus Mantellus, successor of Germanus, compiled

maps during the 1490's generally adopting Claudis Clavus's form of Greenland.

        By the end of the fifteenth century there were essentially two basic

types of maps of the Arctic, one including Greenland in a relatively correct

position west of Greenland though too close to Europe and connected therewith.

The other type was most frequently used and continued to be popular for a long

time. It shows Greenland as "Engronelant" and situated to the north of Europe.

Some maps actually included both elements in one map.

        The end of the fifteenth century was auspicious because it witnessed the

rise of two great maritime powers, the English and the Dutch, each of which,

thwarted in their search for the fabulous Indies by the southern route,

initiated and for a long time carried out explorations for the Northwest

or Northeast Passage. This for a long time served to stimulate more intensive

mapping of the region until ultimately, by the end of the nineteenth century,

the broad general delineation was achieved. The Cabots, for the English, were

the spearheads in this remarkable achievement.

        Abbe Raimondo, envoy of the Duke of Milan to the court of Henry VII in

London, well characterizes these beginnings when, in 1498, he writes "This

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Master John [Cabot] has the description of the world in a chart and also a

solid globe, which he has made, and he shows where he has landed."

       

The Renaissance of Maps about 1500 to 1700

        The Age of Great Discoveries came with a sudden burst fast upon the

heels of f t he finding of the New World in the 1490's. So, correspondingly,

there evolved a striking change in map-making and in the contents of maps.

No longer could the Ptolem a ic map of the world, significant contribution as

it was in itself, be adjusted or modified to fit the dimensional requirements

of a New World, an earth best portrayed for the period by Behaim's globe of

1492. A sphere now must be reconciled on a plane surface and the graticules

thereon be correctly filled in with appropriate and corresponding units of

land and water. The only way to achieve this satisfactorily was to boyage

thither, explore and map what was discovered. The Behaim globe, Columbus's

other voyages of the late fifteenth century, and the first few maps of the

world plotting this new information conjured up the way to India almost as

if by magic. The idea was advanced that if a way could not be found equater–

ward, efforts must be made to find a route either over the Pole or through

the circumpolar area. Information about the Arctic during the periods to

follow and the resulting maps were largely derivatives from the search

for those arctic passageways to India.

        The Netherlands, situated amidst the expanding nations of Europe and

subject to Spain, by 1500 had become an international market place. So,

correspondingly, did the Dutch become active colonizers and voyagers. The

demand for maps reached significant proportions. The Dutch, favorably

situated to receive and collate information as well as being naturally

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skillful and artistic, responded to the demand and by the middle of the

sixteenth century became the leading cartographers in Europe, remaining

so for well over a hundred years.

        Simultaneously the English, particularly during the sixteenth century

in the person of that tireless recorder of geographical knowledge, Richard

Hakluyt, and of Samuel Purchas after him, became the fountainhead of geo–

graphical intelligence. This period fathered the rise of "Companies" for

the exploration of f t he several passages. New projections, as for example

the famous Mercator cylindrical and polar stereographic, vastely improved

compass charts and related portolanos, improvements in terrain description

and land surveying methods, f t he development of a new approach to science

generally, and the growing awareness of the measurable qualities of the

declination of the magnetic compass, which for the Arctic was of signal

importance, these and many more together made for a far better view of the

Arctic than had been accomplished heretofore.

        An examination of significant maps produced during this period (1500–

1700) will reveal how considerable were the discoveries and how well or how

poorly they and the terrain information resulting therefrom were delineated

on maps and globes.

        The sixteenth century opens auspiciously with the compilation of a map

of the world by Juan de la Cosa, who was well qualified by reason of his having

accompanies Columbus to the New World in 1493–1496. This map delineates all

he knew of the Portuguese and Spanish voyages in the New World and as well no

doubt the results of the English voyages, for he probably used the maps of the

Cabots. Because of his remarkable ability as a map-maker, the map was commissioned

by the Spanish crown, and thus he was doubtless provided with the best and all

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available sources in the Iberian peninsula. The de la Cosa map is really an

equidistant compass-chart, ignoring magnetic declination; hence the east

coast of North America is out of its true alignment. It is supposed that

Cosa assumed his northeast coast of America to be in reality Asia. Unfor–

tunately there is little information about the Arctic between America and

Norway except an indiscriminate patchwork of some dozen or more angular

islands.

        It is surprising to note the distinctly more accurate delineation and

proportions of the map prepared in Lisbon for Alberto Cantino and sent by him

to the Duke of Ferrara some time during the period 1502–1505. P [ ?] rhaps this

map or copy of it was reproduced as the first printed map of the New World.

It shows that portion of the northeast coast of America discovered by Cabot

and the insular offshore detail is identified as "Terra del Rey de Portuguall."

A strikingly accurate delineation of southern Greenland is shown, this being

identified as "A ponta d asia" (a point of Asia ?). The legend on the east

coast of Greenland appears to indicate that the Portuguese had penetrated

to about Cape Farewell. Rugged terrain is shown along the southern part of

the east coast and colorations in the waters sweeping in an arc from that

coast to northern Norway may indicate the impenetrable ice.

        "The World and all its seas on a flat map... the poles and zones and

sites of places, the parallels for the climes of the mighty globe," is the

translation of a hopeful title on a map by Giovanni Matteo Contarini in 1506.

This map, possibly of Italian origin, is on a coniform projection and, though

largely based on Ptolemy sources, shows a pronounced extension of Asia to the

northeast acros [ ?] the region occupied by Arctic Canada to about ten degrees

west longitude, the northern coasts of Asia and Europe being in about latitude

80° N., beyond which is continuous water. The eastern tip of Asia includes a

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note suggesting exploration by the Cortereals. "Engonelant" (Greenland)

is a westward-arcing peninsula based on northern Scandinavia. Some sources

refer to the Frenchman Jean Denis of Honfleur as having mapped the present

Gulf of St. Lawrence on the spot in 1506.

        In 1507 Martin Waldseemüller, Alsatian professor of cosmography, one of

the most celebrated map-makers and geographers of his day, completed his

thirty-six square foot twelve-sheet map Universalis Cosmosgraphia which

"represents the earth with a grandeur never before attempted," and which

by its heart-shaped projection was designed both as a globe and as a plane

surface map. This includes significant information as to sources and

especially the Arctic, and is perhaps the first printed map to bear the name

America. The Eurasian continent fronts onto the Arctic Sea in which are

clusters of islands, the northeastern part of the continent turning south

to China. Iceland is shown, as is also an irregular shaped island to the

west (Greenland ?). The water area of the northern part of the map is termed

"Mare Glaciale." Arctic North America is an angular-shaped polward extension

of the Americas terminating in about latitude 58° N.

        In the 1508 Ptolemy published in Rome is a map Universalier cogniti orbis

tabula... by John Ruysch, engraved on copper and one of the first printed maps

showing the discoveries in the New World. Ruysch is believed by some to have

been with Cabot on his voyage of discovery. Ruysch's map is significant

because not only does it include a revolutionare concept of the Arctic but

it is developed with the North Pole as the center of the map, much as an

interrupted stereographic projection. Asia is delineated after the reports

of Marco Polo but Greenland is depicted not as an extension of Europe, but

rather as the easternmost exten [ ?] ion of Asia to a point some twelve degrees

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west of Scotland. Near the coast of Greenland is a frame of information

in Latin to the effect that at this point "the ship's compass losses its

property, and no vessel with iron aboard is able to get away," doubtless

an awareness of f t he magnetic variation of f t he compass. Near the North

Pole is an inscription noting the magnetic pole, as located by Nicholas

of Lynn in 1355 and placed by Ruysch on an island north of Greenland.

"Terra nova" (Newfoundland) is delineated as a large peninsula extending

away from the mainland of Asia, the southern coast of Newfoundland con–

tinuing directly and latitudinally west to the land of Gog and Magog and

further to Cathay. It is of interest to note the druidic arrangement of

islands around the pole with peninsulas from Europe and Asia extending north

to penetrate thes [ ?] islands.

        The oldest printed Dutch map of the world, made some time in the early

decades of the sixteenth century, probably by Cornelius Aurelius, includes

rather absurd ideas about the Arctic, and is much after Ptolemy, "Yslandia"

being to the northeast of the Orkneys and Thule below it. East of Yslandia

is "Pilapeland."

        The Portuguese Pilestrina in his map of the world in 1511, really a

compass chart, includes two Greenlands in the Arctic extending east-west

toward each other. On Bernardus Sylvanus's map of f t he world, published in

the Ptolemy of 1511, Greenland is identified with eastern Asia which con–

tinues westward, while an irregular Arctic-facing shore of Scandinavia on

its norther protuberance is noted as "Engronelat". During the same year a

beautifully drawn world map compiled on a circumpolar projection was included

in the portolano atlas of Vesconte Maggiolo. This map, as also the ones by

Ruysch and Contarini, includes Greenland as part of the Asiatic continent and

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notes Cabot's discoveries "Terra de los ingles" on the northeasternmost

promontory extending into the North Polar area. The Lenox world globe of

the same year, which initiated a period of special interest in the produc–

tion of globes, shows an open area circumjacent to the North Pole.

Glareanus's map of the northern or "polar" hemisphere in this year is

evidence of originality and constructive imagination, a hypothetical Pacific

Ocean extending between the Waldseemüller-like America and Asia, in the

middle of which ocean lies Japan, the full sweep of f t he wide islandless

Pacific extending to the North Pole. An island (Greenland ?) is depicted

at about latitudes 55° to 65° N., with its longitudinal axis about longitude

60° W. The northern Polar Sea-facing coast of Asia extends along about the

Arctic Circle, a long peninsula protruding from Norway into the otherwise

landless Arctic Sea to about latitude 85° N. The northeastern corner of

Asia extends to about longitude 160° W.

        Johannes Stolnicza of Cracow prepared in 1512 a map of the world

included as a woodcut in the Introductio in Ptholomei Cosmographiam....

showing North and South America as two large continents with a narrow

isthmus between, North America being separated from Asia and Europe by

extensive bodies of water. Johann Schöner's first globe in 1515 is of

interest because the sea extending west from Europe through some 180° to

the east coast of Asia is a continuous watery waste, except for near the

Pole and several insular masses, including "Islandia" on the Arctic Circle

north of the British Isles, the "Viridis insula" (Greenland ?) southwest of

Ireland, and a terra incognita. Extending north from Norway to and envelop–

ing the Pole is a land area, the southern part of which is called Engronet

[lant].

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        The arrival of Seville in September 1522 of a weather-beaten ship with

eighteen men, the sole survivors of the once proud fleet of the late Admiral

Magellan, created a mighty stir, not alone in the centers of learning but

particularly among map-makers, for this first recorded voyage of the circum–

navigation of the world proved beyond doubt that the earth was a sphere and,

significantly, that there were extensive bodies of water and intervening

masses of land between western Europe and eastern Asia. Ptolemaic geography

and the associated maps soon feel into discard as the proof was checked and

found certain, though, of course, the revolutionary changes were not immediately

accepted by all.

        In 1527 Robert Thorne, an English merchant residing in Seville and well

acquainted with Spanish sources of geographical information, prepared a book

or series of letters which, through a Dr. Ley, English Ambassador, constituted

an appeal to Henry VIII to "set forth" further voyages of exploration. This

quarto volume, not published until 1582, has the intriguing title The Booke

Made by the Worshipful Master Robert Thorne in the year 1527, in Siuill, to

Doctour Ley...and also the way to the Moluccaes by the north... " This volume

is so significant that parts of it are worth quoting as illustrative of the

needs the English had for maps. Thorne notes that

        "...Seeing in these quarters are skippers and mariners of that

countrey, and cardes [maps] by which they sayle, though much unlike

ours; that they should procure to have the said Cards, and learne

howe they understande them, and expecially to know what Navigation

they have for those Ilandes Northwardes and Northeastwards.

        "...(for that by writying without some demonstration it were harde

to give any declaration of it). I have caused that your Lordshippe

shall receyve herewith a little Mappe or Carde of the worlde: the

whiche I feare mee shall put your Lordshippe to more labour to

understande than mee to make it,... for y [ ?] I am in this science

little expert:..." (Richard Hakluyt: Divers voyages...London,

1582 , p.36)

040      |      Vol_XI-0204                                                                                                                  
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        Thorne was convinced and tried to convince the King and his readers that

if it could be proven by successive explorations (which actually got under way

immediately after the preparation of these manuscripts) that the sea poleward

from "newe founde lande" was navigable, the English would be in a commanding

position to trade with India by a shorter route than the Spaniards and Portu–

guese. Thorne was convinced that "there is no lande unhabitable nor Sea in–

navigable." Thorne apologizes for the small map and says a much larger and

better one could be made and that "I knowe to set the forme Sphericall of the

worlde in Plano, after the true rule of Cosmographie, it would have been made

otherwise than this is...." Thorne's map, crude as it is, apparently stimul–

ated the King to seek a better one, as is related, in a Verrazano Map of the

World. Thorne's works were not without success for it is believed that they

influenced John Rut's expedition in search of the Northwest Passage in 1527

and that his arguments convinced Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor

in their search for the Northeast Passage in 1553.

        Hieronimo da Verrazano's World map of 1529, a product, in part at least,

of his brother the navigator's voyage along the cast coast of North America

under French auspices, shows a wide open sea around the North Pole counter–

balanced by the beginnings of a continental land mass in the Antarctic. The

eastern coast of North America tre o nds much too northeast, probably due to the

lack of knowledge of magnetic variation. The northeastern coast of Asia is

almost a right angle, the east coast extending due south to about the latitude

of northern India.

        Orontius Fine, a French mathematician, completed in 1531 a c d ouble heart–

shaped map of the world showing some of the influences of Nicholas of Lynn of

1360, retaining the four large inner islands around the Pole, the outer circle

041      |      Vol_XI-0205                                                                                                                  
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of smaller islands being somewhat broken. Iceland and the Orcades appear

in approximately their correct location, the "Baccalar," including Newfound–

land and Iabrador, being part of northeastern Asia. Most significant of all

is that Greenland, probably for the first time in the history of car t ography,

is delineated as a large island of fairly accurate shape and in the approx–

imately correct position, with Clavus's "Gronelant" as its name. The penin–

sula "Engroneland" extends to the north from Norway.

        The Bavarian theologian, Jacobus Ziegler, in an opus bearing the stately

title Quae intus continentur... Argentorati apud Petrum Opilionem, 1532 , and

the imprint of Schondia in Strassburg, a book dealing primarily with the geo–

graphy of the North, published a map of those regions. The map is the work of

authorities not well skilled as draftsmen but rather well-equipped as to sources

of information; at least four northern prelates residing in Rome during Zieg–

ler's stay there were responsible for much of the detail. This map, resembling

Clavus's of 1427, includes places, which, according to Ziegler, he calculate d

as to coordinates. In the map Greenland is the eastern shore of an extensive

"Ulteriora Incognita," the southern part of which is labeled "Terra Bacallaos,"

the northern portion of the land mass extending eastward to connect with "Iaponia"

or Lapland. The old Norse place name "Hvetsargh," on the east coast of Green–

land, prebably stems from Didrik Pining's voyage thither.

        Scientific geography, [ ?] obviously lacking in the official and academic

circles in England to 1531, was given a forward motion when the Spanish Doctor

Vives arrived for the instruction of Oxford and the Princess Mary. A modernist,

he gave emphasis to the use and need of maps. This is the period during which

globes came to be recognized as an indispensable item in the teaching of geography.

        Johann Schoner was one of the ablest and most prolific globemakers. His

042      |      Vol_XI-0206                                                                                                                  
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globe of 1532 and the related publication on the description of the world

were issued shortly after Ziegler's map came out. On this globe Schöner

modified his earlier view of the Arctic and created the so-called bridge–

type, that is, Greenland forming a bridge between Lapland and Newfoundland,

with a marked contraction due west of Lapland. The large bulbous appendage

west of the land mass of which Greenland is a part is called "Bachalaos." In

the waters north of this land and scattered around the North Pole, are several

large unidentified islands.

        Gerhard Mercator, learning much from his teacher Gemma Frisius in the

science of cartography, in 1538 prepared a map on a double cordiform project–

tion, probably borrowed from Orontius Fine (of 1531), showing the Arctic in

a somewhat improved light. With Robert Thorne, Mercator refused to believe

that North America and Asia were connected, believing rather that an ocean

intervened. In similar vein he believed in the existence of a passage to

Asia around the north of America, and this view generally remained with him

throughout his life. This was very significant, because it was so indelibly

stamped upon his many maps and served as a mighty influence on thought and

exploration, especially in the days of Queen Elizabeth. On Mercator's map a

land mass connected with Scythia or western Russia, occupies much of the area

north of the Arctic Circle. Greenland is a southward extension of this land

mass toward Iceland, Iceland lying to the east of it. Northeastern North

America is called "Baccalearo Regio." The continent of North America lies im–

mediately south of the arctic land mass, a long east-west strait of water be–

tween them called "Frecti Articum" widening considerably as it extends south–

westward to form the west coast. Northwestern America is called "Littora in–

cognita." A very wide water separation exists between Asia and America.

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        Julius Solinus's map, published in Basle in 1538, includes a continent

of Asia and North America. The portion of the coast extending northwest in–

cludes the words "Terra Incognita," and depicts two trees and a river near a

small bay. The statement in the text, on page 160 opposite the map, "In our

days it has been explored by men," has led to many speculations. North of Asia

is the "Mare congelatum."

        Olaus Magnus, a Swedish bishop, completed and published in 1539 (in Venice)

the large nine-sheet Carta marina et descriptio septentrionalium terrarum....

a work without a peer among similar maps during this period, not alone for its

geographical and ethnographical data but also for its size. A short statement,

"Opera Breve..." was published to accompany the map. This map is said to embody

the view of northern geographers in separating Greenland from Europe proper,

in contrast to the general agreement among geographers of southern Europe that

Greenland was tied to Scandinavia. On the southern tip of Greenland, "Grutlandie

Pars" is shown. Iceland is drawn in very considerable detail. This map includes

only the lower part of the Arctic in the North Sea, Scandinavia, Greenland, and

Iceland region.

        In 1542, Jean Roze, a Norman mariner in the employ of the English Navy,

completed a manuscript Book of Hydrography . This included an atlas of beauti–

fully embellished maps, among them two of America which are probably the first

of their kind to be drawn in England. These record Cartier's discoveries in

the St. Lawrence and contiguous areas.

        Gastaldi's 1546 map of the world delineates North America with a northern

or arctic coast line irregular in shape and with a large river "Tontonteanch"

rising near the Arctic Circle. North America and Asia are connected by a nar–

row land bridge in about latitude 40° N. and much farther west than on most

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maps of the period. The "Oceano Arthico" extends east-west above the irreg–

ular arctic coast of Asia in about latitude 70° N. The northeastern corner

of North America continues toward the North Pole, about which there are numer–

ous islands.

        The publication of Sigismund von Heberstein's Rerum Muscoviticarum Com–

mentarii in 1549 included two significant items of information: one, the

observations made by a sailor Istoma in circumnavigating North Cape, the other

a map of Asia which, crude as it was, fanned the fires of interest in the

Northeast Passage because it indicated that Cathay could be reached by going

poleward from Europe and around the Siberian coast.

        The mid-century was a kind of transition, for not only did it mark the

end of the incunabula period, but the Arctic, though still largely a "terra

incongnita," nevertheless had captured the imagination of explorers and carto–

graphers. Certain cartographic elements such as a distinct Greenland, North

America, Asia, and high-latitude islands in the Polar Sea were shown with

greater frequency and thus became increasingly more accepted. For the English

this was the beginning of the period of the famous Hakluyt records of voyages

and discourses on the geographic regions of the world, including particularly

the Arctic and, as well, the reproduction of maps for inclusion with these

publications. Maps including the Arctic and others emphasizing the Arctic

were compiled and issued in increasing numbers and frequency. Only a few of

the more outstanding contributions will be discussed as representative of the

period 1550 to 1600. Collections of maps were beginning to be made, the pre–

cursors of our bound atlases. This was the beginning of the organization of

"Companies" for the prosecution of the arctic route to India.

        On December 18, 1551, the Muscovy Company of Merchant Adventurers to dis-

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cover the Northeast Passage was founded and in 1553 sent out Sir Hugh Wil–

loughby in command of thress ships in an attempt to find a passage northward

of the Old World. Kola Peninsula was as far as two of Willoughby's ships

achieved, but the third, the Edward Bonaventure , commanded by Richard Chan–

cellor, wintered at the mouth of the Dvina River and initiated trade with the

Russians. In 1556, Stephen Burrough, in the Searchthrift , discovered the archi–

pelago of Novaya Zemlya and the Vaigach. The first significant field observa–

tions of these regions were thus made available to cartographers. The region,

perhaps even as far as the Kara Sea, was well mapped as to outline by the end

of the century. These sources and that of Heberstein may have been utilized

in Anthonius Wied's map of Russia as far east as the White Sea in 1555.

        In the year 1558 Marcolino published in Venice a journal and map (the

Zeno map and journal) of the northern regions. The genesis, status before

publication, and contents of the hournal had profound effects upon the mapping

of the Arctic for a century or more. To this date authorities on the Arctic

debate the value of or authenticity of the documents. Authoritative statements

have been made pro and con by such men as Nansen, Nordenskiöld, Zurla, Major,

Christy, Winsor, Lelewel, Krarup, Steenstrup, and Lucas.

        The journal, published in book form with accompanying map, recounts a

voyage purported to have been made by the brothers Nicol o ò and Antonio Zeno,

members of a highly respected family in Venice, to the arctic seas at the close

of the fourteenth century. The book and map are reproductions, but with modi–

fications because parts of the manuscript items were not extant, by Nicol o ò Zeno,

a descendant who found them in the family palace. The Zeno brothers, according

to the account in their letters and as delineated by some careful students of

the subject, carried out a series of voyages that took Nicol ô from Iceland to

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Spitsbergen and back and Antonic from Iceland to the east and west coasts

of Greenland and back and then probably from Iceland to Nova Scotia and re–

turn. As the reader will conclude, these were remarkable voyages but by no

means unique, as has been indicated in the preceding pages.

        The Zeno map, on the other hand, is admitted by the descendant of the

Zeni and its publisher to have been derived from what remained of the manu–

script sources including the original map which was in a "rotten" condition,

and even, more significantly, that the original map was without the coordinate

grid superimposed upon the published map. Then too, certain changes were

arbitrarily made in the map in order to adapt the map to the text. The map

is in many ways similar to and in some structural details identical with the

Olaus Magnus and the Claudius Clavus maps of the northern regions. The Zeno

chart delineates Greenland surprisingly well, though the whole area is placed

too far north by some five degrees. The chart shows a very large and quite

imaginary island "Frislanda" in the middle of the Atlantic in about latitude

60° 50′ N., Greenland is called "Engronelant," as on many earlier maps and

is shown as being connected to "Gronlandia" the polar extension of northwestern

Russia. Iceland is placed off the east coast of Greenland. This map is of

interest in that it shows Greenland as mountainous.

        The Zeno map was seized upon by the most eminent cartographers, including

Mercator and Ortelius, many incorporating in their maps the elements of the

chart almost in its entirety. Consequently much confusion developed, some

traces of which survived in the nineteenth century.

        Gastaldi, in 1562, had become sufficiently convinced that Asia and America

were not united but were separated by a strait or body of water, to publish a

pamphlet, Ia Universals Descrittione del Mundo . This reversed his previous

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point of view as expressed on his many widely recognized world maps. There

is no conclusive evidence that the strait between Asia and America had been

seen and mapped, it was simply a good guess, perhaps originally derived from

a reading of Marco Polo's journeys. At first the Strait of Anian shown on

maps, such as the one by Ortelius in 1564, was long and very wide, perhaps as

much as four hundred miles. As time went on it became narrower and more ir–

regular.

        Orteliu's map of 1564, revived English interest in the Northwest Passage

as the easiest way to India, the map showing a wide open sea to the north of

America and relatively short straits at both ends. This heart-shaped map com–

piled by Ortelius in Antwerp is one of the most interesting maps of the period,

but it was not up-to-date. An imaginary "Gronlandia" extends for more than

twenty degrees of longitude. Apparently there is no land, others than "Gron–

landia," in the vicinity of the Pole. Between about latitude 60° and 62° N.

along the east coast of America is a strait leading into the "hyperborean

ocean." On the west between about latitudes 40° and 60° N. the Polar Sea is

joined to the North Pacific Ocean by a strait nearly 10° wide.

        Zalterius's [ ?] disegno del discoperto della Nova Franza (a map of the

discovery of New France), compiled in Bologna in 1566, is included as a plate

in the famous Laferi Atlas, containing maps produced from copper engravings.

Zalterius's map is one of the first to include the Strait of Anian, which was

accepted by Mercator, Ortelius, and many others. The name "la Nova Franza" is

applied to all of North America, the Atlantic Ocean being called "Mare del

Nort." This map unhappily bears no indication of latitude and longitude. The

Arctic Sea is called "Mare congelato." North America has a nearly northeast–

southwest slightly irregular arctic shore line extending from a strait along

048      |      Vol_XI-0212                                                                                                                  
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the southwest coast of "Grutlandia" (Greenland) to "Streto de Anian." A

slight peninsular protuberance on the northwest corner of North America is

suggestive of Alaska.

        In 1569 Gerhard Mercator completed his famous "Mercator isogonic cylin–

drical projection" and developed upon it his map Nova et aucta orbis terrae

descriptio. .., Duisburg, 1569 (A Nautical Chart of the World). Because of

the nature of the projection, the North Pole extending to infinity, Mercator

explained the need for a separate map for each polar region, a map of the

north polar region being developed on a stereographic projection inserted in–

to Mercator's Nautical Chart. This map exercised a powerful influence on the

progress and accuracy of navigation. It has a remarkable wealth of detail

about the Arctic, only some of which can be indicated here. Many of Mercator's

sources are discussed in appropriate frames in his map. For example, he notes

for the insert map of the polar regions: "as for the mapping, we have taken

it from 'Itinerium...' of Jacobus Cnoyen of the Hague..." It appears that

Nicholas of Lynn's Inventio fortunata greatly influenced Mercator in his de–

lineation of the polar area. He generally accepts and delineates the Northwest

and Northeast Passages, portions of the just published Zeno map, certain myth–

ical islands in the North Atlantic, and the Strait of Anian.

        Abraham Ortelius's map Typus Orbis Terrarum of 1570 delineates North

America and Asia as having arctic-facing coast lines in about latitude 75° N.

Greenland is shown as an island, but with indistinct north and west coasts,

the island lying north of the mythical "Estotiland." The area north of the

continents consists first of an east-west girdle of water north of which to

the Pole is land, conveniently divided into four quadrant sialnds. A strait

separates North America and Asia. The northwest coast of North America is

called "Anean regnum."

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        In the early 1570's Bishop Gudbrandur Thorl a á ksson of Iceland, a math–

ematician, prepared a celestial globe accomodated to the latitude of Iceland.

He was the first to determine scientifically the latitude of sites in Iceland,

and is said to have begun a terrestrial globe upon which he was to delineate

and accurately locate Iceland.

        One of the particular treasures in the British Museum is a large manu–

script map of the world on a polar type projection bearing the inscription of

"Joannes Dee, anno 1580." There is no indication that Dee had a hand in its

creation. The map includes the world north of the equator between a meridian

ten degrees east of Toledo and west to longitude 180°. This map is striking

in that it shows the northern coast of America in about latitude 44° beyond

which to the Pole there is water, save for some islands near the Pole. This

map seemed to prove the ease and comfort of a Northwest Passage.

        Sir Humphrey Gilbert, protagonist of the Northwest Passage, in 1576 issued

A Discourse of a Discoverie for a New Passage to Cataia..., London, 1576, and

included A General Map made A General Map made Onelye for the Particular Declaration of This

Discovery..." Gilbert's pamphlet and map, of course, were really only promo–

tion literature and an attempt to prove a Northwest Passage, which he did to

his own satisfaction. Gilbert's map appears to be a copy of Ortelius's map of

1564 as to outline, and contains few place names. In his attempt to prove the

existence of the passage, Gilbert seeks to lend weight to his words by saying

that even the early geographers, Pliny, Plato, and Strabo, were of the same

mind. He cavalierly tosses aside the possibilities of a Northeast Passage.

On Gilbert's map Greenland is a long island with the northern end at the Pole,

the whole island flanking Labrador on the northeast.

        Frobisher's first voyage into the Arctic in the spring of 1576 apparently

050      |      Vol_XI-0214                                                                                                                  
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was made on the basis of the Zeno map, which he considered to be genuine and

reliable, a copy or redrawing of which he had with him. Consequently, when

in latitude 60° N. and encountering land (southern tip of present-day Green–

land), he concluded he had reached the fictitious Zeno "Frisland." From here

he sailed northwest and discovered Frobisher Bay, the adjacent land being

called "Meta incongnita." He made two subsequent voyages (1577–1578) and

entered so-called "Mistatie Strait (actually present-day Hudson Strait)and

became convinced that this was the passage into the Pacific. Frobisher and

Captain George Best, in his discourse published in 1578, were convinced that

they had discovered portions of the coast of America, and correctly so. They

accordingly delineated it as such on the two charts accompanying Best's publi–

cation. On one of these maps Frobisher shows how his strait could be combined

with Anian. North of "America" he shows a large "Terra Septentrionalis,"

"Frobishers Straightes" being between the two. These correct assumptions are

also indicated on Lok's map in Hakluyt's Divers Voyages... , London, 1582,

though the map must have been drawn sometime earlier than 1582. They are also

shown on the so-called Silver Map of the World - A Contemporary Medallion

Commemorative of Drake's Great Voyage (1577–1580) . The same can be said of

Frobisher Strait on Peter Martyr's map De Orbe Novo , 1587. These appear to

be the only maps of the period on which the strait is correctly shown. The

error in identification was committed by Davis in 1585.

        Joannes Martines, a Sicilian map-maker, in 1578 published a map including

a strait of Anian in a different manner than most. The north coast of America

is essentially a straight line along about latitude 70° N. which is parallel to

the strait entering from the northeast.

        Perhaps the earliest extant Icelandic map of the Arctic north of the

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Atlantic Ocean is one by Sigurd Stephanius, probably dating from 1580, in

which he attempts to show the view of the north through eyes of his intrepid

Norse ancestors.

        In Hakluyt's Divers Voyages ..., London, 1582, is a map asserted to have

been compiled by a Michael Lok, and which is like the Verrazano map at that

time in Lok's possession. Perhaps the chief merits of this map are its clear

delineation of Frobisher's discoveries, since Lok enthusiastically believed

that Frobisher had pointed the way through "that shorte and easie passage by

the Northwest, which we have hitherto so long desired, and whereof wee have

many good and more then probable coniectures." "Frisland," so very like the

southern tip of Greenland, is named from the Zeno map, as is "Greenland" north

of it. To the west of Groenland and north of Frobisher's Strait and stretch–

ing out toward the Pole is "Groetland (Jac: Scolbus)," so named in honor of a

Polish explorer who is reported as having skirted the Labrador coast in 1476.

        North Cape (Norway) is shown, perhaps for the first time, on a map in

Lucas Waghenaer's Spieghel der Zeewart , Leyden, 1584, and appears on Cornelius

de Judaeis's map of Europe in his Speculum orbis terrae Antwerpiae , 1593.

        Perhaps next in importance to the voyages of Frobisher are the three

voyages of Captain John Davis into the strait of his name, which was discovered

by him on his first voyage, 1585. He sailed as far north along the west coast

of Greenland as latitude 66° 40′ N. and thence westward. "finding no hindrance,"

concluding that he had found the Northwest Passage. Davis's charts are lost.

This area on the Molyneaux Globe of 1592 appears to have been compiled from

Davis's chart, which is discussed in his The World's Hydrographical Objections

date? against Al Northerly Discoveries... , London, 16. It is of interest to note

that Davis also had the Zeno map with him and so had to harmonize his discoveries

052      |      Vol_XI-0216                                                                                                                  
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with the results of Frobisher. When Davis reached the Greenland coast in

latitude 61° N. it was apparent Frobisher's assumption that it was "Frisland"

was wrong and that it was too far south to match the Zeno "Engroenland." Fro–

bisher not having given longitude for these discoveries it was logical that

Davis should place his Frobisher Strait as a passage through southern Greenland,

thus evolving an island to the south. This was perpetuated on maps for a con–

siderable time.

        On some of Zalterius's maps of North America of the late sixteenth century,

in the general vicinity of the present Bering Strait, appears the name "Streto

de Anian," which name played a major role in the long and often involved evolu–

tion of the delineation and location of the strait. Apparently this delineation

and location on the Zalterius and subsequent maps is derived in part from a

purported memorandum which a Spanish navigator called Captain Lorenzo Ferrer

de Maldonado presented to the Council of the Indies in 1609. Maldonado relates

that in 1588 he sailed from Spain to the Philippines by way of the "Mor Glaciale"

and that the passage in the glacial seas was relatively easy, the water there

not freezing. The reliability of this source is immediately cancelled out for

he mentioned basing his expedition on the fictitious Frisland of the Zeno map.

Maldonado's map appears to be an enlarged copy of a Zaltorius map.

        Hakluyt, in his Principal Navigations... , London, 1589, gave the reader

a foretaste of the famous Molyneaux Globe that was ultimately completed in

1592, but upon which over the next several decades additions apparently were

made. Particularly notable are the results of the voyages of Frobisher and

Davis and subsequent additions of the results of voyages of Barents. Davis

and Edward Wright appear to have assisted in the correct delineations.

        Shortly after Gerhard Mercator's death in 1595, his son Rumold published

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his great Atlas sive Cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica Mundi... Appar–

ently this is the first time that the name Atlas was given to an assemblage

of maps, a statement in the preface indicating that it was Mercator's idea.

This atlas of beautifully engraved and colored plates includes several which

summarize the knowledge of the Arctic, a detailed map of Iceland for example

is well delineated.

        Willem Barents, intrepid and careful arctic voyager, died on June 20,

1597, near the northern end of Novaya Zemlya after having wintered near the

island's northeastern extremity. The boyages and observations of this Dutch–

man during 1594–1597 were of incalculable significance to the knowledge and

mapping of the North Sea, Spitsbergen, and Novaya Zemlya areas particularly.

Barents commanded a fleet of four ships in 1594, two of which succeeded in

reaching the north end of Novaya Zemlya, the other two passing south of the

island; all of the ships later met in the Kara Sea. This proved so successful

that the next year another attempt was made. In 1596, Barents and Jan Cornelisz

Rijp discovered Bear Island and Spitsbergen and kept a detailed account of their

observations. A map by Barents, the first and accurate map of this area, was

published in 1598. In the same year a map of Greenland was published. In

preparing this map Barents used the Zeno map as a base but made changes accord–

ing to results of recent discoveries.

        William Shakespeare in scene 2 of Act 3 of his Twelfth Night , first pro–

duced in 1601, speaks of "the New Map, with the Augmentation of the Indies,"

an important English map of the world published in 1599 and generally agreed

to have been prepared by Hakluyt's friend Edward Wright, author of Certaine

Errors in Navigation, Detected and Corrected , London, 1599. This map is on a

Mercator projection and certainly is one of the best maps of its time, includ-

054      |      Vol_XI-0218                                                                                                                  
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography

ing those parts of the Arctic so recently discovered by the English and Dutch.

The northern part of the map, which of course does not extend to the Pole, in–

cludes Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemlya, and the Lapland coast. The Strait of Anian

as heretofore plotted is omitted, a note on the map stating that the distance

between the two continents in latitude 38° N. is not less than 1,200 leagues.

Only that portion of the west coast of North America which had been discovered

to the north by Drake is included as New Albion. "Meta incongnita" and "Fro–

bishers Straightes" are removed from the American mainland and placed in south–

ern Greenland. The northern discoveries of Davis and Frobisher are included

but a reconcilation with the Zeno map is made - though Davis's own discoveries

are shown rather accurately. "Frisland" and "Estotiland" of the Zeno chart

remain.

        Note : Two sections are still to come from the author — "The Reformation

of Cartography," about 1700 to 1800, and "The Beginnings of Modern Cartography,"

about 1800 to 1900.

Arctic Cartography. Part II. The Period From About 1900 to 1947

001      |      Vol_XI-0219                                                                                                                  
EA-History

(Herman R. Friis)

ARCTIC CARTOGRAPHY

PART II. THE PERIOD FROM ABOUT 1900 TO 1947

       

Introduction

        Systematic detailed topographic map and hydrographic chart coverage

of the Arctic is a product of the twentieth century - indeed, in point of

view of the amount of area and the accuracy with which it has been covered,

it is a product of World War II. What has been accomplished and the ingen–

ious methods devised to expedite that accomplishment invite admiration and

restore confidence. The face of the Arctic rapidly is being exposed as a

more "friendly Arctic," an area not set apart from, but closely related to,

and a functional part of, the middle-latitude conceived "air age."

        World War II generally, and its attendant numerous problems of logistics

particularly, emphasized a "One World Concept." The swiftness and extensive–

ness of modern warfare and the overall strategy early forced an awareness of

the potential use of the Arctic as an avenue for the movement of supplies

and personnel and as well the inescapable need for intelligence information

concerning the composition of the physical and cultural landscapes. From the

outset, a concerted effort was made to bring together and then evaluate known

cartographic sources, both textual and graphic. But the Arctic, so long on

the periphery of middle-latitude east-west consciousness, failed to yield re–

liable topographic information except sparingly and for unrelated segments

002      |      Vol_XI-0220                                                                                                                  
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II

of regions. True, numerous fragments of information were extracted from

published and available unpublished journal accounts of expeditions, per–

sonnel of former Arctic expeditions were interrogated, some large-scale

topographic maps and hydrographic charts that had been prepared by several

governments were available, but the totality of information assembled re–

vealed a heterogeneous mass of unrelated, mostly specialized, small-area

data. From sources such as these and the results of mapping expeditions

sent out during the first two or three years of World War II, the initial

group of government-sponsored systematic series of topographic maps and

hydrographic charts were made. Since then, with the widespread use of aerial

photography and from the results of numerous ground control survey parties

as well as expanded trained photogrammetric units and map compilation, draft–

ing and production agencies, large-scale mapping of the Arctic has been

achieved in the miraculously short period of some six years. More of the

Arctic has been mapped systematically and on selected scales in the past

decade than in all of the preceding periods of history. It is orderly

mapping under government control, by the nations whose lands front on the

Arctic.

       

Old Versus New Methods of Surveying in and Mapping of the Arctic

        Mapping of the Arctic up through most of the nineteenth century was

comparatively primitive and was achieved by means of a few simple middle–

latitude devised instruments. For much of the time it was a "catch as catch

can" procedure. The seaman with his sextant, a compass (which often became

unrelentingly erratic), a charting board and a rule of thumb modus operandi ,

charted the coasts, the headlands, fjords and estuaries; eminences were

003      |      Vol_XI-0221                                                                                                                  
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography. Part II.

sighted for hearings and recorded, but from a distance; coastal waters and

particularly the track of the ship were laboriously sounded with a lead;

and shoals and reefs were noted and a rough sketch chart was drawn, or cor–

rections were made on a chart if it was available. The results generally

were brought to the home or hydrographic office and deposited, later to be

evaluated by a cartographer frequently without the benefit of the compiler

of the notes, in the preparation of a new chart.

        The sledging party working overland, or the local-area, detailed, survey

party were little better equipped. With a theodolite, a chronometer, meas–

uring paraphanalia, perhaps a planetable, a sledge wheel, a compass whose

usefulness in high latitudes was questionable except to the error- wi se user,

a knowledge of the stars and an indefatigable will fortified with patience

and yet more patience, small parties often of but several men, traversed

scores, sometimes hundreds of miles of coast line or an alternately land and

ice exposed terrain, as time and circumstances would permit. Time and cir–

cumstance seldom permitted the preliminary establishment of operative geo–

detic controls and a triangulation net and generally precluded the erection

of permanent useful cairns or bench marks as triangulation points. The re–

cords of these surveys were brought back to the comforts of civilization in

the raw note and sketch map form and together were used in the preparation

of new maps or as corrections made on existing maps.

        Unfortunately for posterity, certainly for cartography, many of the

field records of expeditions were deposited in a private institution or with

a society, the recorder himself going to other duties. So the records often

remained unrefined and with few interpretations by the recorder, later to

baffle and discourage the cartographer who was called upon to compile new

004      |      Vol_XI-0222                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

maps from the raw notes.

        Plotting the area covered by the maps and charts produced by these and

similar methods up to 1900 on a base map of the Arctic reveals a patchwork,

almost a crazyquilt pattern of coverage with very little relationship be–

tween areas except that they have been mapped. The maps are of coastal

strips, fjord heads, river channels and islands, are on a considerable num–

ber of different scales, interpretation of symbols is not always possible

because of the lack of standardized terms, sources and dates of information

recorded are obscure, and generally the lack of geodetic and stronomic con–

trols preclude the use of many of those maps in the compilation of present

day official large-scale maps. Obviously, only a very small percentage of

the maps can be said to cover areas so well that re-surveys are not at once

necessary.

        Present day mapping of the Arctic is in response to an urgent need and

is being achieved almost entirely because of the very active interest of

mapping and military agencies of the governments whose lands or territorial

possessions front on or extend into the Arctic. Without this sponsorship

and financial backing, mapping of the Arctic would indeed be only slightly

improved in quality and certainly little more inclusive in coverage than

during the first two decades of this century. Many different elements of

recent (post 1900) origin have combined to make such remarkable success in

mapping possible. Most important of these elements is aerial photography

and the related field of photogrammetry which is responsible for the correct

and detailed evaluation and interpretation of the aerial photographs. In–

deed, the airplane has revolutionized man's ability to penetrate at will

and to view even the most remote recesses of the Arctic. It is perhaps im–

possible to calendar precisely when aerial photography was first applied to

005      |      Vol_XI-0223                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

surveying in the Arctic th r ough several elementary attempts were made in

the early 1920's, and by the late 1920's and early '30's it was in the ad–

vanced experimental stage.

        A present-day government-sponsored and activated mapping program in

the Arctic is exceedingly complex, intricately and carefully planned, and

well equipped. It has available and utilizes an ever increasing fund of

recorded and interpreted information about the area surveyed or to be re–

surveyed. Likewise there appears to be an endless flow of improvements in

precision instruments and in the comfort of personnel operating as the map–

ping teams.

        Basic to a sound aerial mapping program is of course the establishment

of precise ground controls. During the past ten years a very considerable

number of geodetic and other positions as well as triangulation nets have

been established for the Arctic to serve as the fabric upon which the serial

flights are woven and the resulting photography adjusted in order to achieve

a precise geometrical relationship of the resultant maps and charts.

        The photo-reconnaissance plane with its intricate, almost mechanically

self-operating aerial camera, and an assortment of instruments for use in

the maintenance of flight and a continuous contact with the base headquarters,

in the heart of the mapping program. Aerial photography may be accomplished

by one of several types of cameras such as those employing a single-lens

vertical, a two-lens each oblique from the vertical, trimetrogen or two oblique

and one vertical, and variations and combinations thereof including the elabor–

ate supersensitive nine-lens camera of the United States Coast and Geodetic

Survey. Trimstrogon is perhaps most frequently used and affords a rapid, ex–

tensive-coverage medium of aerial photography. A typical camera is electric-

006      |      Vol_XI-0224                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II

ally operated, automatically exposes each successive photograph, and has on

exceedingly powerful lens or set of lenses. Included in the camera is an

automatic exposure counter, showing on the film the number and to the second

of time of the exposure, the altitude and the route number, or a continuous

strip film may be used. The exposed film either may be developed at the field

headquarters or flown back to base headquarters; in any even t speed and care

in development are important.

        But a photo-reconnaissance unit is more than a plane, a crew and a good

camera. It is a comparatively elaborate undertaking of a numerous scientific–

ally trained personnel, including meteorologists, a maintenance crew, radio

operators, an air-sea rescue team, and others whose combined, though not nec–

essarily always sole, duties are concerned with a particular flight. Planes

may be equipped with skis, pontoons or wheels depending upon the nature of the

task and the terrain flown. The best season, if there is such, for operations

is indeed short, generally of two to three months duration during the summer.

        From the developed film prints are made and they individually and collec–

tively become the source from which maps and charts are derived. Here again

science has stepped in to render valuable service through the invention of a

multiplex aerial duplicator and variants thereof. This machine faithfully

brings out three-dimensional detail which on the photograph appears to the

naked eye as a flat, often confused or fuzzy surface. By computing known v alues

of elevations in the region covered by the photograph with the information

divulged by this microscope-like machine, a cartographer can rapidly draft a

map that will be accurate in every detail and three-dimensional.

        An excellent example of the speed and accuracy with which maps can be made

is perhaps best illustrated by the recent completion of a small-scale (1:2,500,000)

007      |      Vol_XI-0225                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

map of Alaska by the United States Geological Survey and by the large-scale

(1:506,880) Air Navigation Charts of Arctic Canada prepared by the Hydro–

graphic and Map Service of Canada. Coast lines, drainage and terrain features

not only look different than on all predecessor maps, but are the most accur–

ate (within the limitations of scale) to date. (For additional examples see

discussion of the status of mapping.)

        Modern charting of the waters is almost as complex and certainly as

revolutionary as modern mapping of the land. If the survey of an area is

required within a period of a few days, a hydrographic survey ship can be

dispatched and accomplish a detailed rapid survey, not only moving into the

area and setting up beacons and establishing controls, obtaining with mech–

anical precision a continuous and surprisingly dense net of soundings using

the fathometer and simultaneously preparing a chart of the area, but within

a few hours of the completion of the drafted map, can reproduce it aboard

ship as printed copy in the required quntities. Of course, most hydrographic

charts of an area are a composite of soundings and other information from

many different reliable ships' logs and charts, whose information recently

has been acquired through the use of precision instruments.

        An important element of modern government mapping is that methods and

procedures are standardized; the records usually are so well organized and

coordina ted and the photogammetrist and cartographer so well trained, that

interpretation and use of the records in the compilation of a map is achieved

with a minimum of effort and error.

        One cannot assign the sole responsibility for mapping to, nor acclaim

only the products of government-sponsored mapping groups. A measure of recog–

nition of valuable results must be given to the usually small, capable,

008      |      Vol_XI-0226                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

privately-sponsored, inspiration-led parties which, during the past twenty

or thirty years, have mapped and charted small areas on a large scale. Many

of these parties have included well trained surveyors and topographers who,

equipped with an accurate eye-piece reading photo-theodolite, a time signal

wireless through which position can be determined accurately, a thermometer

and barometer, an aerial compass, much improved, comfortable and yet not

bulky clothes, and balanced rations, have contributed numerous geodetic con–

trol points and astronomic fixes and topograpgic information as well. ( For

details, see The History of Scientific Exploration in the Arctic Since the

Introduction of Flying .)

       

A Brief History of Surveying in and Mapping of the Arctic to

World War II

        The Whole Arctic . Up to within the past ten years most maps of the whole

Arctic were exceedingly small-scale (1:20,000,000 and smaller) and the con–

figuration of land masses was fuzzy and inaccurate. Rarely was the Arctic

viewed from the North Pole; frequently it was fantastically distorted on a

Morcator projection. Some notable exceptions are the maps prepared by the

American Geographical Society, 1929, John Bartholomew for the Royal Geograph–

ical Society of London, 1934, the National Geographic Society, 1925, and maps

by several Soviet cartographical units (see bibliography). It was left to

the present period of extensive mapping and the "air age" to rectify these

misconceptions.

        Space does not permit more than general commentaries on mapping of the

individual sectors. For more detailed descriptions of the accomplishments

see the mentioned article on The History of Scientific Exploration in the

Arctic Since the Introduction of Flying .

009      |      Vol_XI-0227                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

        The United States (Alaskan) Sector . Mapping of selected areas and coastal

waters of Alaska by United States Government agencies until recently was car–

ried out on limited resources and with only local completeness. Although it

is true that the General Land Office, the Hydrographic Office, the Coast and

Geodotic Survey and the Geological Survey have had survey parties in the field

for decades, comparatively little large-scale mapping had been accomplished

until aerial photography was introduced. Probably the first government-spon–

sored large mapping organization s in Alaska were the Alaska Exploring Expedi–

tions of the War Department particularly during 1883 and 1898 and the United

States Navy Department in 1885 and 1886. Up to 1940, about half of Alaska

had been mapped topographically, but of the some 587,000 square miles com–

prising the territory on that date, less than one percent had been mapped

with sufficient precision and in the detail now considered useful for most

needs. Most of the topogra hic geologic and mineral resources maps of Alaska

compiled by the United States Geological Survey as a result of field surveys

accompany the publications of that agency. An index map published by the Geo–

logical Survey serves as a handy reference to coverage and the specific publi–

cations to which the maps are related. Most of the topographic mapping of

Alaska has been accomplished by the Geological Survey and the hydrographic

charting of the nearly 27,000 miles of coast line and adjacent waters has been

by the Coast and Geodetic Survey.

        Mention should be made of the pioneering efforts of the Alaskan Aerial

Survey Expedition initiated by the Geological Survey and actually carried out

by the Navy Department in 1928. An area in southeastern Alaska was selected,

a planned, well organized pattern of flights by three Loening amphibian planes

was followed, some 5,000 exposures were made on a scale of 1:20,000 using tri-

010      |      Vol_XI-0228                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

lens cameras, and subsequently three large-scale topographic maps were com–

piled. The primary purpose of this expedition, with which R. H. Sargent of

the Geological Survey served in an advisory capacity, was to test methods of

aerial photography and to supply information that might expedite and give

greater accuracy to large-scale maps prepared particularly by the Geological

Survey. The results pointed the way, yet operations were slow in being de–

veloped.

        In addition to the preparation of coastal charts of Alaska [ ?] the Coast

and Geodetic ha s been responsible for the establishment of geodetic positions

and a triangulation net. Since 1940 this agency has been compiling and publish–

ing a series of aeronautical (topographic) charts of Alaska on a scale of

1:1,000,000 that probably rank as the best available. Use of the nine-lens

aerial camera and improved survey methods have established a high degree of

accuracy for the hydrographic charts published by the Coast and Geodetic Survey.

        Some of the best large-scale local-area topographic maps of Alaska pre–

pared during this period were a result of field surveys by privately subsid–

ized and sponsored parties. Notable among these are the maps and aerial photo–

graphs of the St. Elias and adjacent regions by the Yukon Exploring Expeditions

led by Walter A. Wood of the American Ge ogr aphical Society, 1935 through 1941;

the southern regions of Alaska and borderland Canada by Bradford Weshburn, 1930

through 1940; and the expeditions of William B. Osgood and others to s outh eastern

Alaska for aerial surveys and particularly a study of the glaciers in 1935

and earlier expeditions in 1926 and 1931. Sir Hubert Wilkins, during his flights

from Alaska and Canada cut over the Arctic Sea in search of the lost Soviet

flier Levanevsky in 1937 and 1938, viewed, recorded and photographed large

areas of northern Alaska that had been unmapped and assisted in a more accurate

011      |      Vol_XI-0229                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

delineation of the major contours. Mention should be made of the large–

scale (1:500,000) thirteen-sheet topographic map of Alaska compiled from

many sources by William Briesomeister of the American Geographical Society

for the Alaska Road Commission (1943).

The Canadian Sector . Although there had been numerous expeditions and mapping

surveys in the Canadian Arctic prior to the Canadian Arctic Expedition led

by the able exponent of, and authority on the Arctic, Vilhjalmur Stefansson,

in 1913–1918, systematic, controlled and useful topographic maps of this sec–

tor probably originate with this expedition. With exceptions mentioned, the

Canadian Government until about 1939 expended its mapping resources almost

exclusively on populated southern Canada. During the period from 1918 to

1929, government geodetic and survey parties were sent into the Arctic and

carried on very limited ground surveys, particularly around or at sites oc–

cupied by trading posts and police stations. Often geodesists accompanied

the Canadian Government vessel Nascopie on her annual summer voyage into the

Canadian Arctic and a succession of valuable control points were established.

        The Department of Mines and Resources, including the Topographic Branch

and the Hydrographic and Map Service, and their predecessor agencies have

been responsible for most of the government mapping in arctic Canada assisted

by the aerial photographic units of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Most of

the topographic, geologic and mineral resources maps of Canada compiled by

agencies of the Canadian Government as a result of field surveys accompany

publications of the Department of Mines and Resources.

        In passing, note should be made of a unique early survey by Major Robert

A. Logan of the Canadian Air Force, who was authorized to accompany the Can–

adian Government Arctic Expedition of 1922 to the southern coast of Ellesmere

012      |      Vol_XI-0230                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

Land. Here he surveyed and staked out, within 830 miles of the Pole, a site

for an airfield in anticipation of transarctic flying.

        One of the first official aerial surveys in Canada was organized and be–

gan operations in 1927 under Major N. B. McLean, officer-in-charge of the ex–

pedition for the Canadian Department of Marine and Fisheries. The need for

these surveys became at once apparent when the Hudson Bay Railway was extend–

ed to Churchill and the opening of the Hudson Bay and Strait route to the

Atlantic appeared to be achieved. The need for accurate charts, particularly

through the straits, was immediate. From bases established on Wakehavn and

Nottingham islands and on the southern coast about midway between the islands,

Fokker planes (two from each of the bases) carried out aerial photographic

surveys in a fanwise manner, and between October 1927 and August 1928 had

completed over 200 routine air patrols, one of over 590 miles, and many spec–

ial and non-patrol flights. Numerous oblique air photographs and accurately

determined positions made possible the compilation and publication of some

of the most useful maps and charts of Arctic Canada. Since 1929 the Canadian

Hydrographic Office has carried on detailed surveys of the Hudson Bay Route.

The extent of the task before the Hydrographic Service is indicated by the

fact that of the approximately 50,000 miles of coast line that is Canada's,

some 27,000 miles include the Arctic Islands, very few miles of which have

been accurately surveyed.

        The Dominion Government was among the first to realize the importance

of maintaining a central file of air photographs when in the late 1920's it

organized the National Air Photographic Library of Canada in Ottawa. This

central depository is the most valuable source of accurate landscape informa–

tion on the Canadian Arctic from which maps can be made.

013      |      Vol_XI-0231                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

        The Hudson Strait flights of 1928–1929 were followed by an equally

revealing use of aerial photography when Jamor L. T. Burwash of the North–

west Territories and Yukon Branch of the Dominion Government left Fort Hearne

at the mouth of the Coppermine River on August 23, 1930, flew a route that

carried him over Dolphin and Union Strait, skirted the south coast of Victoria

Island, then to and circling King William Island, on to Boothia Peninsula and

the magnetic pole, and returning by way of Victoria Island, Cambridge Bay,

the south shore of Dease Strait, Coronation Gulf, and finally Fort Hearne which

he achieved on September 8. Complete photographic coverage of the coast line

flown over was obtained.

        Members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police patrols have contributed

substantial funds of terrain information and frequently reconnaissance maps,

covering remote segments of the Arctic. Notable contributions include Con–

stable G. T. Mackintosh's survey of Makinson Inlet in southeastern Ellesmere

Island in April 1928, and Inspector A. H. Joy's 1700 mile trek through the

far northern Arctic Islands and across Ellesmere Island in 1929.

        Numerous privately sponsored small expeditions have made valuable carto–

graphic and textual contributions. Many of those are noted in the article on

A History of Exploration Since the Introduction of Flying . The following are

some of the expeditions into the Canadian Arctic that contributed basic data

for use in mapping or surveyed and mapped areas until then otherwise unmapped

or poorly mapped.

        Vilhjalmur Stefansson in 1910–1912 surveyed portions of the Victoria

Island-Great Bear Lake-Franklin Bay area. One of the valuable products of

his Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913–1918 was accurate position observations,

ground surveys and terrain descriptions. In 1914, R. J. Flaherty's expedition

014      |      Vol_XI-0232                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

through the Hudson Bay area and across Ungava Peninsula resulted in important

corrections of the maps of the region. The Crocker Land expedition under

D. B. MacMillan assisted by Elmer Ekblaw in 1914–1917 made substantial and

detailed corrections in the maps of Ellesmere Island, notably the coast from

Cape Sabine to Clarence Head. J. D. Soper in 1925 and 1926, and the Putnam

Baffin Island Expedition with L. M. Gould as physiographer and glaciologist,

in 1927 contributed valuable information that brought about severe changes

in maps of the island, the latter expedition revealing for the first time the

correct configuration of the northern coast of Foxe Peninsula and the south–

eastern corner of Foxe Basin.

        Use of the airplane as a medium for rapid surveying of terrain and the

discovery of mineral resources was carried out by the Northern Aerial Mineral

Explorations, Ltd., and the Dominion Explorers, Ltd., when, in 1928 and 1929

they sent planes out over a considerable area west of Hudson Bay, north into

the Bar [ ?] en Grounds and onto the arctic mainland coast. Although the planes

of both companies ultimately were forced down or wrecked, the results and

the thousands of miles flown by rescue missions were productive as to topo–

graphic information, and in pointing the way to the profitable use of air–

planes in surveying in Canada's Arctic. Some of the first scientific aerial

surveys in the maps of an arctic area resulted from the several Forbes ex–

peditions to Labrador and were largely the work of O. M. Miller of the Amer–

ican Geographical Society. Three aerial expeditions (1931, 1932 and 1935)

resulted in a sufficient number of coordinated oblique photographs covering

some 4,000 square iiles in about twenty hours of flying time, which, with

ground controls, made possible the compilation of a four-sheet map of northern–

most Labrador on a scale of 1:100,000 and a hypsometric map of the same area

015      |      Vol_XI-0233                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

on a scale of 1 [ ?] 300,000. During 1936–1938, Robert Bentham surveyed parts of

the southern and southeastern Elleamere Land and by combining photographs

and angles, later it was possible to prepare a correct map of the coast and

mountains south of Makinson Inlet. The fjord region of eastern Baffin Island,

particularly north of Cape Hewett, was surveyed in 1934 and again in 1937 by

Cambridge University expeditions. The T. H. Manning expedition spent most

of the period from 1938 to 1940 in the survey of Southampton Island and the

western areas of Baffin Island and prepared accurate detailed maps of the area.

        The Danish (Greenland) Sector. Greenland, perhaps more than any other

arctic area, has been explored and surveyed during its recent past by numerous

different scientific parties and by a score or more nationalities. The Danish

Government itself through the Commission for the Scientific Investigation of

Greenland and the Danish Geodetic Institute, has sponsored and financed one

of the first overall programs of large-scale mapping in the Arctic. The re–

sults of these expeditions and surveys as well as those of other scientific

parties, find expression in one of the finest series of scientific publications

Meddelelser om Gr o ø nland (published since 1879 in 145 volumes to 1946). An

examination of these volumes reveals a treasure trove of information on map–

ping and mapping methods and techniques, and includes numerous maps of Green–

land. Indeed, one of the most valuable descriptions on cartography of the

Arctic is Lauge Koch's "Survey of North Greenland," Meddelelsor om Gr o ø nland ,

vol. 130 (1), pp. 1–364, and Atlas , K o ø benhavn, 1940.

        One of the first, and certainly one of the best, examples of topographic

maps of the Arctic is the series of sheets on a scale of 1:250,000 of the east

and west coasts of Greenland, published by the Danish Geodetic Institute under

the Ministry of War. This work was begun in 1927 and continued uninterrupted

016      |      Vol_XI-0234                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

to 1939; field work was not carried on during the War 1939–1945, and since

1946 has been prosecuted on a more elaborate and detailed basis. During the

War, compilation and drafting of new sheets was continued in Denmark on the

basis of numerous air photographs taken during preceding years. Up to 1939,

thrity-four sheets had been published, and by means of an aerocartograph some

200,000 square kilometers on a scale of 1:200,000 were plotted and photographs

covering about 140,000 square kilometers were available for additional plotting.

The plotted areas included the east coast between latitudes 72° and 76° and

the west coast between latitudes 63° 30′ and 69° 20′. Coordinated aerial

photographic surveys were carried out from Heinkel hydroplanes of the Danish

Navy during the period 1932–1939. This was accomplished at about 4,000 meters,

along flight lines about 35 kilometers apart using a single-lens camera.

        Up to 1939 the Danish Geodetic Institute had established a first-order

triangulation not along the west coast from latitudes 60° to 75° including

76 first order and 482 second order stations. During the period 1931–1937, the

west coast beyween latitudes 67° 30′ and 73° was mapped by planetable methods.

Surveys carried out each spring and summer up to 1939 were well organized not

only as to personnel but equipment. Motorboats were em ployed in the fjords

as a rapid and light means of transport and Greenlanders served as valued

assistants. The individual surveying parties maintained a high degree of

mobility and alertness in order to take advantage of the frequent changes in

weather.

        Another significant series of topographic maps published by the Danish

Goodetic Institute, but for which the remarkable surveys of Lauge Koch during

the period 1917 to 1923 were the basic source, is the Atlas. This series, the

eastern sheets of which Lauge Koch has recently modified, are remarkable because

017      |      Vol_XI-0235                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

they, along with his more recent published maps derived from his aerial

surveys during 1933–1938, represent probably the most accurate extensive

large-scale survey covering such a high latitude area to 1939. This set

in nineteen sheets is on a scale of 1:300,000 and was published in 1932.

        Significant among the numerous recent private scientific and government–

sponsored expeditions to the Greenland area up to 1939 accomplishing large–

scale mapping and charting, are those of Louise Boyd to the east coast and

the Greenland Sea from 1930 to 1938; the British Air Route Expedition to the

northeast coast of Greenland in 1906–1908; the First through the Seventh Thule

Expeditions extending at irregular intervals from 1912 to 1933; the Bicenten–

ary Jubilee Expedition around the north of Greenland, 1920 to 1923; the Alfred

Wegoner German Greenland Expeditions, 1929 to 1931; the Cambridge University

East Greenland Expeditions of J. M. Wordie, in 1923, 1926 and 1929; J. B.

Charcot's surveys in the Greenland seas, 1925 through 1936; the University of

Michigan Expedition under W. H. Hobbs and Ralph Belknap, 1926 to 1934; the

Danish Three-Year Expedition, 1931 to 1934; Norwegian expeditions under K.

Orvin and A. Hoel in 1929 to 1932; the Anglo-Danish expedition of 1935 to 1936

under L. R. Wager; the Oxford University West Greenland Expedition headed by

P. C. Mott in 1936 that made large-scale topographic surveys of the S o ø ndre

Str[?]mfjord and Sukkertoppen areas; and the British Northwest Greenland Expedi–

tion in 1937–1939. Also, the transactions of the Greenland icecap by de Quer–

vain in 1912, J. P. Koch and Alfred Wegoner in 1912–1913, Martin Lindsay in

1934 and others, obtained vital information on the topographic nature of the

interior. The cartographic and related results of those and other expeditions

have been published, often with excellent large-scale topographic maps and

hydrographic charts in scientific periodicals and special publications of

018      |      Vol_XI-0236                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

scientific societies. (See bibliography following article on the History

of Scientific Exploration in the Arctic Since the Introduction of Flying .)

        Charting of the Greenland Sea and the waters west of Greenland has been

carried out by numerous different expeditions generally, and the Danish,

Norwegian, British and American governments particularly. The International

Hydrographic Office has served as a central repository for some of the data.

Hydrographic surveys have been carried out in the Greenland Sea over a period

of several decades by the Norges Svalbard-og-Ishavs-Unders o ø kelser, the North

Atlantic, Davis Strait and Baffin Bay by the United States Coast Guard Ice

Patrol 1914 to date, and the coastal waters of Greenland by the Danish Navy.

Data from these and other expeditions have been incorporated into hydrographic

charts published by the United States Hydrographic Office.

        The Norwegian (Svalbard-Jan Mayen) Sector . Since the establishment of

the Norges Svalbard-og Ishavs-Unders o ø kelser in Oslo in 1906, organized govern–

ment-sponsored scientific exploration and mapping of Svalbard has been carried

out with a high degree of success. The collaboration of the Swedish-Russian

Expedition to Spitsbergen in 1899–1902, for the measurement of an arc of mer–

idian, established a convenient net to which subsequent surveys could be re–

lated and from which they could be derived.

        Under Adolf Hoel, director of the agency until probably 1945, almost

yearly one or more survey and topographic parties were sent out from Norway

to Svalbard to chart the waters and survey selected areas of the land surface.

Results of these expeditions and laboratory research have found expression in

the Skrifter and the Meddel el se series of the Norges Svalbard-og-Ishavs-Under–

sokelser. The Skrifter series (number 1 through 88, 1922 to 1945) like the

Meddelelser om Gr o ø nland series by the Danes for Greenland, serves as an excellent

019      |      Vol_XI-0237                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

source of information government and other surveys in Svalberd.

        During the period 1906–1939, a total of 18,653 square kilometers of

Svalbard was mapped by ground survey parties and some 65,000 square kilometers

were photographed by photo-reconnaissance airplanes. An additional 9,200

square kioometers of ground surveys and some 30,000 square kilometers of

a [ ?] erial surveys were carried out during this period in the areas of north–

east Greenland of interest to the Norwegians. Examination of an index map

showing flight linesto areas covered by aerial photography reveals that prac–

tically all of Svalbard has been covered by air photographs. Most of the West–

ern half of the island of Spitsbergen and all of Prince Charles Foreland have

been surveyed, some 6,200 square kilometers during 1957–1942 from Aero-photo–

grams on a scale of 1:50,000, about 10,000 square kilometers on a scale of

1:200,000 (1942–1943) and the remainder representing earlier less reliable

surveys. During the period 1907–1939, a total of about 110,000 su [ ?] are kilo–

meters of the waters circumjacent to Svalbard and the area of Norwegian in–

terest in northeast Greenland was surveyed.

        Systematic series of large-scale topographic maps of Svalbard for select–

ed areas of the western portion of Svalbard are available on a scale of 1:50,000.

An excellent large-scale 1:25,000 topographic map of Bear Island was published

as a revised edition in 1944. A preliminary edition of topographic maps of

areas in Kings Bay, Icefjord, Bell Sound and Bear Island of Spitsbe rg en on

a scale of 1:50,000 were published to accompany the Svalbard Commissioner's

Report Concerning the Claims of Lands in Svalbard , Oslo, 1927.

        Since Cunnar Isacheen in 1906 and Gerard De Ceor in 1899–1902 carried

out topographic surveys in Svalbard and subsequently published large-scale

maps of those areas, a succession of privately sponsored and often well equipped

020      |      Vol_XI-0238                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

expeditions have carried out detailed surveys and published maps to accompany

their reports. English, Swedish, German, Norwegian, French and American

scientists particularly have sent expeditions to Svalbard. The English,

perhaps more than any other nationality, have made notable contributions,

especially the Oxford, Cambridge and other university expeditions. Some of

the first field experiments in aerial photography in the Arctic were carried

out in Svalbard, notably the surveys by Lieutenant Walter Mittelholzer in

1923 and the following year by George Binney, who led the Third Oxford Univ–

ersity Arctic Expedition.

        The northern, or arctic (Finnmark) fringe of Norway has been surveyed

and charted in detail since before World War I and the maps and charts pro–

duced by the Norwegian Topographic Survey and General Staff of the Army and

the Norwegian Hydrographic Office respectively, represent some of the most de–

tailed, large-scale (1:50,000) maps of the Arctic available.

        The U.S.S.R. Sector . Extensive topographic mapping and charting programs

for this sector of the Arctic are a product almost exclusively of the Soviet

period of control. Although numerous private as well as government-sponsored

expeditions had sailed into the Russian Arctic prior to 1918, for commercial

purposes, in search of the northeast or a northwest passage around the con–

tinent, or in quest of more favorable approaches to the North Pole, detailed

mapping activities generally were subordinated to other interests. As early

as the first half of the eighteenth century, the general outline of the Arctic

coast was known and had been recorded, though not always very accurately, on

maps. The voyages of Bering, the Laptev brothers, Ovtsyn and Promicheshchev

during this period of concentrated search for a Northern Sea Route partly ful–

filled the need for cartographic and hydrographic information on that area.

The results of these expeditions remained significant to the twentieth century.

021      |      Vol_XI-0239                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

        Surveying in the Russian-Soviet Arctic prior to about 1920 was for the

most part concerned with successive attempts at discovery north and east along

the coast from the Kola Peninsula and particularly Arkhangelsk. The estuaries

of the larger rivers and much of the coast line east from Arkhangelsk to the

Ob and Yenesei, had been charted, as had also the Kamchatka-Bering Strait area.

Novaya Zemelya, Nordenskiold Archipelago, Franz Josef Land, the New Siberian

Islands and Wrangel Island had been mapped. Perhaps the most fruitful expedi–

tion of the early twentieth century in point of discovery and mapping was that

by Vilkitski, who led the Taimyr and the Vaigach from 1913 to 1915. In 1913

these ships, stationed in Vladivostok, were ordered into the Arctic and accom–

plished discoveries and surveys of islands along the Russian Arctic coast as

far as Starokadomskii Zemlya west of the Severnaia Zemlya Archipelago, but

were forced to return to Vladivostok. During 1914 and 1915, Vilkitskii, with

the same two ships, accomplished the east-west passage of the Northern Sea

Route and made many valuable contributions to the cartography of the area.

        Significant among the other expeditions into the Russian Arctic during

the period immediately prior to World War I contributing substantial carto–

graphic information are: Sedov's fateful expedition into the area about Novaya

Zemlya and Franz Josef Land during 1912–1914, during which valuable surveys

were made; Rusanov's explorations and circumnavigation of Novaya Zemlya in

1909–1910; Vilkitskii's discovery and mapping of parts of Severnaia Zemlya,

Novosibirskii Island, Vilkitskii Zemlya, Zhukhov Zemlya, Wrangel Island, and

the mouths of several of the main rivers of the arctic coast including parti–

cularly the Kolyma; and finally the first successful air survey in the Arctic

made by Lieutenant Nagurski, whose five flights in 1914 carried him out from

Krestovaya Bay, on Novaya Zemlya, and over Lutke Bay, Barents Bay and Islands,

022      |      Vol_XI-0240                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

and along the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, the longest flight being some 200

miles from the base.

        The several decades following the establishment of the Soviet regime

have witnessed probably the most extensive government-sponsored attempt at

mastering the Arctic and have included widespread mapping programs. These

have been so numerous, and the surveys have been restricted almost entirely

to Soviet agencies about which since the beginning of World War II only in–

complete information is available, that only a brief sketch here is possible.

The All-Union Arctic Institute and the Central Administration of the Northern

Sea Route and their predecessor agencies have been the primary sources of

Soviet activities in the Arctic, the most important of which activities has

been a scientific approach to, and an apparently successful achievement in

opening and maintaining the Northern Sea Route. This achievement is to a

large extent a product of hydrographic and topographic mapping and as well

an intensive survey of the resources of the Soviet Arctic mainland. Scientific

textual and cartographic results of these activities find a ready outlet in

the publications of the two agencies, notably the Transactions and Bulletina

of the Arctic Institute and Materials for the Study of the Arctic and Problems

of the Arctic , also of the Arctic Institute.

        The period from about 1920 to 1930 was for the most part experimental and

was concerned primarily with establishing the overall topographic and hydro–

graphic features of the more than 6,000,000 square kilometers of Soviet Arctic

in order to facilitate and expedite the search for natural resources and poten–

tial avenues of transport and sites for settlement. So it was that emphasis

in hydrographic surveys was placed on the sea [ ?] marginal to the continent and

the major tributaries thereto. Although hydrographic (both plan [ ?] metric and

023      |      Vol_XI-0241                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

bathymetric) charts of the Barents, Kara and Laptev seas and the numerous

bays, and the Co, Yenesei, Lena, Kolymn, and other rivers debouching into

the arctic waters were compiled as a product of expeditions, detailed scien–

tific surveys were left to the period beginning about 1930. Particular emph–

asis was given to hydrographic surveys of the waters adjacent to Novoya Zemlya.

One of the products of these surveys was the compilation and issuance of navi–

gation atlases of the rivers and ice atlases and prognoses on ice conditions

in the seas. Extensive use of the powerful icebreaker type of ship, notably

the Sedov and the Lutke, during the latter part of this period, made possible

more comprehensive and extensive surveys. Likewise, the establishment of wire–

less, geophysical and mateorological stations on strategic sites, such as

islands and peninsulas, helped coordinate the charting and napping program.

        Topographic surveying expeditions during this period were fewer in number

and considerably less significant insofar as the area covered. Much of the

work was expended in the establishment of ground controls, as for example the

determination of more than 40 a stron omic positions adjacent to the Indigirka

River in order to facilitate the mapping of that river in 1928–1930 under J.K.

Tcheriklrin. Of the Arctic Islands, Novaya Zemlya received most attention by

topographers during this period. In 1924, a permanent geophysical observatory

was built at Matochkin Shar and in the same year several topographic surveys,

notably one of the east coast by the Leningrad Institute for the Study of the

North. During 1927–1930, the Novosibirskii group was surveyed by an expedi–

tion under N. W. Pineguin and a large-scale, detailed topographic map of Liak–

hov [ ?] kii Zemlya was made. A small expedition under Dr. Savenko during 1926–

1929, in addition to other duties on Wrangel Island, completed a large-scale

topographic map of the island. It is notable that very little use was made

024      |      Vol_XI-0242                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

of serial photography. This initial period of mapping under the Soviet regime

was exploratory in nature.

        The period from about 1930 to 1939 in a decade of prodigious effort in

mapping the Soviet Arctic. It is a period during which the application of

improved methods in mapping, a growing resource of scientifically trained per–

sonnel, widespread use of serial photography and photogrammetry and modern map

compilation and reproduction methods as well as reorganized and expanded scien–

tific units having charge of the Arctic, gave a remarkable impetus to accomplish–

ment of the task.

        During this period, most of the Arctic and Pacific coasts of the U.S.S.R.

were mapped and charted in detail, as were many of the islands of the Arctic

Sea. Surveys of most of the major rivers were completed and large-scale navi–

gation charts and pilot guides were issued for use though with continued vig–

ilance as to their accuracy. All Soviet ships sailing in arctic waters were

required to conduct scientific hydrographic surveys, record information on the

status of the ice and weather, and to make the results available to the agencies

responsible for investigations in the Arctic, particularly the Hydrographic

Office. These prolific sources of information as well as the special hydro–

graphic expeditions of the Chief Administration for the Northern Sea Route and

the Arctic Institute have made possible the compilation of one of the best,

if not the best, series of large-scale, detailed hydrographic charts of the

Arctic, confined though they are to the Soviet Sector. The charts on scales

of from 1:100,000 to 1:500,00, some thirty-five in number,a result of surveys

mostly prior to 1940 and published since that date, have been issued as emer–

ency reproductions by the United States Hydrographic office, include topographic

information for the coastal areas, considerable detailed hydrographic informa-

025      |      Vol_XI-0243                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

tion such as soundings, obstructions to navigation, currents, radio, wireless,

and polar stations, and of course the configuration of the contact between

land and water. There can be few better current sources of cartographic in–

formation on the outline of the U.S.S.R. extending into, and the islands with–

in the Arctic Sea and the nature of the bathymetry and oceanography of that

water area. The airplane for reconnaissance and photography and the specially

staffed laboratories of the icebreaker and hydrographic vessels have been large–

ly responsible for this success.

        Significant as the published products of those hydrographic surveys are,

it is the prodigious effort and considerable success in topographic, geologic

and other mapping, and in the development of modern rapid methods of surveying

and in geodesy, that command attention. During the period 1930 to 1939, hun–

dreds of topographic and geodetic expeditions were sent out by scientific organ–

izations, mostly sponsored by, or in collaboration with, the Arctic Institute.

The results, though often published separately, were first combined in the

compilation of the "Geological Map of the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics

...1937. Scale 1:500,000." which was published particularly for the Seventeenth

International Geological Congress meetings in Moscow in 1937. This map, ex–

pressed within the limitations of scale and in terms of available information,

presented a new planimetric outline of the Soviet Arctic. This was followed

by the publication of a thirty-two sheet "Planometric Map of the U.S.S.R. and

Adjacent Countries, 1938–1939," on a scale of 1:2,500,000 and in 1938 by a

twenty-sheet "Planimetric map of the European parts of the U.S.S.R.," on a

scale of 1:1,500,000.

        With the publication of the first two volumes of "The Great Soviet Atlas"

in 1937–1939, Soviet cartography came of age and stands out as an epic in modern

026      |      Vol_XI-0244                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

cartography. Included within this atlas are maps of the whole Arctic and

larger-scale relief maps of segments of the Soviet Arctic, which has been

measured and its parts fitted and found to be quite unlike the old version.

Let us select and note a few of the many expeditions which together made pos–

sible these recent maps.

        When in 1931 the Graf Zeppelin, a lighter-than-air ship, glided over

European U.S.S.R., Franz Josef Land, making a brief water landing in Calm

Harbor of Hooker Island, and then on over Severnaya Zemlys, Cape Cheliuskin,

Taimyr Sea, Dickson Island, Hara Sea, Novaya Zemlya, and returned to Berlin,

a new period in the mapping and charting of the Soviet Arctic dawned. One of

the products of this flight was topographic maps of parts of Novaya Zemlya,

Sovernaia Zemlya and other islands, resolved by photogrametric methods. At

once it proved the value of serial reconnaissance and photogrammetric methods

and stimulated modern mapping in the Soviet Arctic. Simultaneously a reorgan–

ized and considerably expanded Chief Administration for the Northern Sea Route

and particularly the Arctic Institute, came into being. One of its first

major mapping activities was the Anadyr-Chukchee expedition, which, from 1931

to 1934, largely under the leadership of Sergei Obruchev, surveyed and mapped

from the air as well as on the ground, a considerable area of heretofore pear–

ly, or unmapped terrain, and contributed hysometric maps of the region, some

on scales of 1:250,000 and 1:500,000, and one of the region on a scale of

1:1,000,000.

        Geodetic positions were established in, and triangulation note were woven

across numerous areas, as for example the lower Indiga River (1930–1932), the

lower Lena River (1931), the Anadyr-Chukchi District (1931–1934), the coastal

area between the Lena River and Bering Strait (1931–1932), Lower Pechora River

027      |      Vol_XI-0245                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

area (1932), the Anni-Kolyma River region (1933–1935), Novaya Zemlya (1932–

1936), Novaskbirskii Zemlya (1934–1935), Tixi Bay (1934), Chaun District (1934–

1935), Nordenskiöld Archipelago (1935–1936), Pronchishobeva Bay (1935), Capes

Cheliuskin and Schmidt (1935), the Taimyr, Anabar and Indigirks rivers (1935),

Wrangel Island (1935), the Orulgan District (1936), Yenisei Bay (1937), and

the Nordenskiold Archipelago (1938–1939). At least two comprehensive publica–

tions have been issued as a product of these and other surveys. (1) V. G.

Vasiliev and Others: "...[Catalogue of the Astronomical Points of the U.S.S.R.

Sector of the Arctic]," Materials for the Study of the Arctic, No. 8, pp. 1–40,

Leningrad, 1935 and (2) "...[Catalogue of the Astronomical Points of the U.S.S.R.

Sector of the ArcticI." Published by the Chief Administration of the Northern

Sea Route. Leningrad, 1937. 357 pp. and map.

        A few of the topographic and geological surveys and expeditions sent out

during the period 1930–1939 bear notice. Sovernaya Zemlya, so long unsurveyed,

was first surveyed and mapped in considerable detail by an expedition from the

Arctic Institute in 1930–1932; a Mr. Lappo, observer on the airplane "Komsever–

put No. 3" (Dornier-Val flying boat) made the first serial topographic map of

Sverdrup Zemlya; the East Polar Expedition of the Air Fleet in 1931–1932 car–

ried out geological and planetable surveys of areas between Bering Strait and

the Lena River; G. A. Oushakov in charge of operations, made substantial changes

in the map of the Sergei Komenov Zemlya in 1932–1933; approximately 15,000

square kilometers of the Chelioskin Peninsula were mapped on a scale of

1:500,00; the Geological Prospecting Detachment operating in the Bulun District

planetabled on a scale of 1:25,000 selected areas in the Lena-Khatanga Region;

Rudolf Zemlya and adjoining islands were mapped topographically in 1933; and

mapping of large portions of the ice sheets of Novaya Zemlya was accomplished

by members of a glaciological station established at Russian Harbour in 1935.

        During 1933–1935, the Arctic Institute Anui Expedition led by V. V. Vaker

028      |      Vol_XI-0246                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

mapped, topographically and geologically, in some instances on scales of

1:100,000 with 100 meter contours, large areas of hitherto unmapped terrain in

the area between the Chaun and Kolyma rivers. Instrumental surveys were made

of several islands in Franz Josef Land Archipelago in 1934 and subsequently,

particularly with respect to establishing airbases; one of the first surveys

was directed by air when M. K. Koshelev flow from the icebreaker Taimyr in

1934. A topographic map of the Chaun Disttict was compiled from the detailed

topographic surveys of the West Chukotsk Geological Expedition in 1934–1935.

By 1936 Novaya Zemlya had been very nearly completely mapped and it was pos–

sible to compile and publish a large-scale topographic map (1:500,000 ?) of

the island by the Arctic Institute in 1936. In 1935 several extensive serial

surveying parties were in the field, the Aero-Photo Survey Expedition of the

Central Hydrographic Department with a two-motored plane and an aerial camera,

surveyed, with occasional weather difficulties, large areas of the coast and

of the rivers of the arctic coast of Eastern Siberia, notably the Lena, Clenek,

Vilnia rivers and areas into Yakutsk. In 1935 the Lavienty Geological Research

Party of the Arctic Institute completed extensive topographic and geological

surveys in the extreme northeastern Chukotsk Peninsula, Asia. During 1936 and

1937, an expedition of the Arctic Institute was in the Yana District and sur–

veyed an area of some 35,000 kilometers from which a geological map on a scale

of 1:1,000,000 and a topographical map on a scale of 1:500,000 were completed.

By 1939 most of the Soviet Arctic had been surveyed in sufficient detail to

make possible a serious attempt at compiling a topographical map on a scale of

1:1,000,000.

        In 1934 the Arctic Institute completed the compilation of a hysometric

map of the Arctic on a scale of 1:20,000,000. In 1935 the Arctic Institute

029      |      Vol_XI-0247                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

announced that its Cartographic and Geodetical Section had been collecting

all available information on topographic and other mapping in the Arctic and

was preparing a comprehensive publication on "the Topographical Knowledge of

the Soviet Arctic." In 1936 the same Section of the Arctic Institute publish–

ed a detailed paper (with a map) on the "Computation of the Areas Occupied by

the Soviet Arctic."

        Numerous large-scale geological, botanical, glaciological, oceanographic,

and topographic maps of small areas accompany articles published in Soviet

scientific periodicals of which there are surprisingly many.

        This period came to an end as World War II broke. In part this is a co–

incidence, in part an obvious consequence of the impending crisis. The period

that follows into the present is one of intensive effort at compiling on pro–

gressively larger scales (1:1,000,000 and larger) a systematic series of top–

ographic and other maps for tactical purposes.

       

Present (1939 to 1947) Status of Cartography of the Arctic

        The following discussion of surveying in and mapping of the Arctic since

1939, is necessarily confined to a few significant activities. For details,

the reader is referred to the sources, particularly the finding aids, listed

in the bibliography.

        The Whole Arctic . Since about 1939 the "air age concept" has yielded

numerous maps of the whole Arctic and projections centered on the North Pole

or in the Arctic. Necessity directed the preparation of systematic series

of maps for use in flying as well as planning logistic covering considerable

distances in the Arctic. Some of the most effective, useful and generally

available should be described. For the sake of convenience these may be divided

into two groups: (1) maps of the whole Arctic, and (2) systematic series of maps

030      |      Vol_XI-0248                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

(sheets) together comprising the whole Arctic.

        The first large detailed relief or physical map of the Arctic centered

at the Pole, compiled from basic sources and correcting many of the illusions

concerning the Arctic, probably was prepared by the Arctic Scientific Investiga–

tional Institute in 1940. This is a remarkably well compiled and clearly re–

produced colored map showing not only the land surface by hysometric tints

but the configuration and depths of the water areas of the Arctic by bathy–

metric tints. On a scale of 1:10,000,000 with clearly distinguished detail,

this map is one of the most useful, though unfortunately it has been produced

only in Russian.

        Following closely on the publication of this map of the Arctic, the Can–

adian Hydrographic and Map Service in 1941 published what continues to be a

useful planimetric (base) map on a polar equidistant projection.

        Recognizing the need for an overall topographic map of the Northern Hami–

sphere including the areas of the middle latitudes that are origins of the

principal treansarctic routes, the Arction Section of the Arctic, Desert, and

Tropic Branch of the United States Army Air Forces in collaboration with the

United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, during 1943 and 1944, compiled and

drafted a map for publication by the Army Air Forces Aeronautical Chart Service.

This map on a scale of 1:6,336,000 at 65° north latitude was compiled from

more than 2,500 different sources including particularly compilations from

aerial photographs. Included on the map, in addition to contour lines showing

relief, are such elements as principal transport facilities, unexplored areas

of the Arctic Basin, the tree-line, settlements graduated by symbol according

to the size of the population, polar stations, factors and posts, land forms

such as glaciers and ice caps, and particularly place names that have been

031      |      Vol_XI-0249                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

approved by the United States Board on Geographical Names. The map is accom–

panied by a useful Gazetteer and List of Sources.

        Since 1946 the Air University of the United States Army Air Forces has

compiled and is publishing through the Aeronautical Chart Service a "Northern

Hemisphere Geography Series" of maps on a scale of 1:24,000,000 and on 1:12,000,000

in color including such subjects as are listed in the bibliography to this article.

These are excellent instructional materials.

        Among the most useful generally available systematic series of maps of

the whole Arctic produced during the past six or seven years are the AAF Aero–

nautical Planning Charts of the World on a scale of 1:5,000,000. The whole

Arctic is covered in six matching sheets: Relief is shown by form line and

gradient tints; transport facilities, air facilities, settlements and significant

terrain features are shown. For overall planning these are among the best.

Probably the best overall topographic coverage of the whole Arctic with details

of terrain and culture and for which sheets, some 200 in number, are matched

to be assembled as a unit if necessary, are the "AAF Aeroneautical (Pilotage)

Charts of the World" on a scale of 1:1,000,000 and on a Lambert conformal pro–

jection, except above latitude 72°, for which a polar stereographic projection

is used. Those sheets are revised as new information warrants, and for parts

of the Arctic, particularly areas recently flown for aerial photography, this

is frequent. Indeed, this service is the closest approach to achieving the

mapping once planned for the International Map of the World.

        The "Glacial Map of North America," published by the National Research

Council in Washington, is a product of faithful collaboration of geologists

in the United States and Canada and is an indispensable graphic tool for use

by the serious student of the Arctic.

032      |      Vol_XI-0250                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

        What remains to be done in order to achieve a continuously up-to-date

accurate topographic map of the Arctic for the use of all peoples is a com–

plete interchange of cartographic information among nations. What has been

accomplished through the teamwork of Canadians and Americans in the Arctic dur–

ing the past seven years is a miracle of rapid mapping.

        The United States (Alaska) Sector . In the relatively short period of

some five years (1940–1946) Alaska has been mapped far more accurately than

more than ninety-nine percent previously had been mapped to that date. During

this brief period, the United States Army Air Forces in collaboration with the

United States Geological Survey was responsible for obtaining more than 35,000

aerial photographs which together cover the largest area ever mapped and fixed

in geographic position as a single physical unit. Using every modern technique

developed before and during the war, and with trimetrogon photography, more

than 292,000 square miles were photographed from flight lines spaced about

twenty-five miles apart. The first accurate planimetric map of Alaska (publish–

ed as Alaska Map E in 1946) by the United States Geological Survey with the

assistance of the United States Army Air Forces, is on a scale of 1:2,500,000

and represents a strikingly different configuration, hydrographic pattern, and

extent of glaciers than on any map of the area prior to this date. Thismap is

the product of the complete air coverage available. Large-scale accurate top–

ographic maps of selected areas of Alaska are now possible for use in regional

planning, settlement, construction of transport facilities and in flying.

        From essentially the same basic sources of information, namely, trimetrogon

aerial photography and ground controls, the United States Coast and Geodetic

Survey during the war produced, and to date continue to produce, a highly accur–

ate series of hypsometric (topographic) aeronautical charts of Alaska on a scale

033      |      Vol_XI-0251                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

of 1:1,000,000. Alaska is covered in fifteen sheets. These sheets fit into

a world-wide series of aeronautical charts on the same scale published by the

United States Army Air Forces Aeronautical Chart Service, though in years before

the war, the Coast and Geodetic Survey pioneered in this type of map. In addi–

tion, aeronautical (topographic) flight charts covering the air routes in Alaska

have been compiled and are being maintained up-to-date.

        Because of the urgent need for accurate large-scale maps of Alaska and

contiguous areas of Canada, the Coast and Geodetic Survey early in the war

carried on extensive geodetic work in the area. Numerous triangulations and

leveling operations were carried out, particularly significant being the arc

of triangulation westward from Nenana along the Yukon River to Norton Sound,

and thence north and west on Seward Peninsula to Bering Strait and the arc of

triangulation and leveling for the Alaska Military Highway. In 1943 when map–

ping activities in Alaska probably were heaviest, the Coast and Geodetic Survey

completed 12,823 soundings, charted 1,234 square miles of water, surveyed top–

ographically about 100 square miles of coastal areas, and established 188 geo–

graphic positions.

        In October 1947 the United States Army Air Forces revealed that among

its notable achievements in the Arctic recently in collaboration with the United

States Navy, more than 35,000 square miles were photo-mapped in the search for

oil reserves much of which area is along the arctic coast of Alaska. In 1946

the United States Navy Arctic Expedition initiated an intensive program of

search for oil reserves along the Arctic Sea flanks of the Brooks Range, one of

the products of which will be more accurate and numerous ground controls and

surveys of local areas.

        United States Topographic Engineering Battalions and field mapping units

034      |      Vol_XI-0252                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

have made large-scale topographic maps of areas selected and occupied as sites

for airfields, emergency landing strips, military installations, proving grounds

and the like.

        The Canadian Sector . The period 1940 to date was ushered in by the rapid–

ly mounting wartime needs for maps of the North American Arctic, particularly

in the eastern Canadian Arctic, for use in surveys for air ferry routes to

England by way of Newfoundland, Labrador and Greenland and in the western Can–

adian Arctic for use in establishing the best ferry routes from the United States

to the U.S.S.R. and in making surveys for the Canol pipeline and the Alaska

Military Highway. The almost total lack of adequate large-scale topographic

maps initiated one of the largest mapping programs in the history of North

America. The United States collaborated with Canada in mapping Canada and

particularly the Canadian Arctic. An extensive joint aerial photographic cov–

erage program was inaugurated, and the United States Army Air Force was made

responsible for systematic aerial photographic coverage of large areas.

        Simultaneously with, and directly related to, these aerial surveys were

the establishment of nets of ground controls by geodetists and surveyors of

the Geodetic Service of Canada. During the period 1942 to 1945, unmapped areas

between Alaska and Labrador were visited by geodetic parties during the short

field season and some 215 stations were established. More recently, additional

stations have been determined particularly in the arctic islands.

        In Canada aerial photography expedited the production of the Air Naviga–

tion Series of topographic maps on a scale of 1:506,880 which to date cover,

in barious degrees of completeness, all of Canada to the Pole. These are the

best available large-scale topographic maps that together comprise a series,

are a product of the most modern methods of compilation and reproduction and

035      |      Vol_XI-0253                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

are being continuously revised on the basis of additional information as the

basic series of topographic maps of Canada. The Department of Mines and Re–

sources issues from time to time large-scale geological and topographic sheets

of selected areas of the Canadian Arctic. These are particularly significant

because, being resolved from Aerial photographs and ground surveys, they reveal

a landscape in such detail that it often defies correlation with all prior maps

of the area.

        During the war, the United States Hydrographic Office compiled and pub–

lished hydrographic charts, including topographic information, of strategically

important fjords and coastal areas, especially of Labrador and Buffin Island.

Naval Aviation Charts [Number 3, 10, 11 and 12] on a scale of 1:2,188,800 of

Canada, have been published with relief indicated by contour intervals of 1,000

feet, and land area being shown in grey tint. The United States Army Air Forces

Aeronautical Chart Service since about 1942, has been responsible for the pro–

duction of a 1:1,000,000 scale aeronautical chart, essentially a topographic

map of Canada, compilation being basically from the aerial photographs result–

ing from the considerable number of flights over Canada, by Army Air Forces

photo-greconnaissance units. Flight charts, essentially detailed topographic

maps of terrain showing air facilities along the route, were prepared and are

available for the eastern and western Canadian air routes. Topographical

engineer battalions surveyed areas for military installations, and large-scale

topographic maps were prepared.

        The Danish (Greenland) Sector . Greenland's strategic location astride

the potential air route between Europe and North America early in the war, if

not before, dictated its use by military authorities of the Nazis and Allies.

As a protective measure, the United States Army Air Forces early in the war

036      |      Vol_XI-0254                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

photographed the land-exposed margins of the island. The Army Map Service,

during 1942–1944, prepared a series of topographic (form line) maps (twenty–

nine sheets) on a scale of 1:500,000 extending north along each coast from

Kap Farvel to latitude 74°. When the United States Armed Forces occupied

Greenland and surveyed the area for advantageous sites for airfields, topo–

graphic battalions prepared large-scale topographic maps of a number of the

fjords and, to a limited extent, selected areas of the icecap. The United

States Army Air Forces Aeronautical Chart Service, from aerial photographs

and ground surveys and other sources, notably the Danish Geodetic Institute

topographic maps, published a series of aeronautical (topographic) charts of

Greenland on a scale of 1:1,000,000 which now are maintained up-to-date as

part of their World Aeronautical Charts series.

        Although the Danish Geodetic Institute survey of Greenland was well under

way on a modern scientific basis prior to the war, and large areas had been

photographed by aerial reconnaissance, the war precluded continuance of field

work but not of office work. Considerable effort was expanded in refining the

field data and in compiling additional sheets of the map on a scale of 1:250,000.

By 1946, 39 sheets had been published, each sheet comprising an area of about

12,000 square kilometers, eight were nearly completed in compilation, and work

on eleven had been initiated. In 1946 field work was resumed, primarily to

complete the mapping of the west coast south of latitude 73° to Kap Farvel.

Significantly, the Institute has completed a triangulation net of the first

order on the west Greenland coast from 60° 40′. The Institute is resuming its

program for surveying and mapping the entire land exposed areas of Greenland,

and has had mapping parties in the field since 1946.

        With the publication in 1940 of Lauge Koch's "Survey of North Greenland,"

037      |      Vol_XI-0255                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

Meddelelser on Gr o ø nland , vol. 130, pp. 1–364, Koøbenhavn, 1940, and an accompany–

ing Atlas, a substantial contribution to the cartography of Greenland has been

made. Particularly important is the map of Northeast Greenland (scale 1:750,000)

which is the product largely of Koch's aerial surveys of 1938 and 1932–1933.

The map was compiled in Bern, Switzerland, during the first of the war.

        The Svalbard Sector . Mapping of Svalbard during the period 1939 ti date

has been limited and for most of the war was held in abeyance. However, com–

pilation of maps of Svalbard by the Staff of Norges Svalbard-og-Ishava-Under–

s o ø kelcer continued in Norway during most of the war. Maps of Tempelfjorden,

Kjellstr [ ü ?] adalon, Skansbrikta, Adventfjorden, Bellsund, Midterhuken and other

areas of the western half of Spitsbergen were compiled on a scale of 1:50,000.

A now edition of the 1:2,000,000 scale map of Svalbard was published, its prin–

cipal feature being that a more accurate distinction was made between ice-covered

and ice-free areas. At least three hydrographic charts of the waters west of

Svalbard and of northeast Greenland were compiled and printed. It is significant

to note that the immensely valuable sets of aerial photographs of Svalbard taken

by members of the staff in the late 1930's and representing very nearly complete

coverage, were evacuated to the Kongsberg mines during the latter part of the

war. Activities of the Norges Svalbard-og-Ishava-Unders o ø kelser are being re–

organized and once again the task of prociding scientific surveys of Svalbard

are being undertaken.

        During the war, ground forces of the Allies raided and photographed Sval–

bard and aerial reconnaissances were sent over the Svalbard area. The British

Geographical Section General Staff issued several large-scale maps and hydro–

graphic charts of Svalbard and its islands during the war. Probably the most

accurate map of North East land to date showing relief and being the product

038      |      Vol_XI-0256                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

of aerial photography, accompanies a statement by A. R. Glen in the Geographical

Journal , vol. 98, p. 207, 1941, who, while in Svlabard during the war, obtained

a copy of the recent Norwegian map of the area. The map reproduced is on a

scale of 1:1,250,000.

        The principal task remaining appears to be the compilation and publication

of topographic maps on scales of 1:50,000 and 1:100,000, from the available

aerial photographs for such areas as have not been covered.

        The U.S.S.R. Sector . During the period from 1939 to date, and particularly

during the war, two series of maps have been compiled, largely from surveys of

the periods to 1939, though nevertheless being recompiled as additional surveys

have been completed. One of these is the so-called IMW or International Map of

the World, on a scale of 1:1,000,000. Although a few sheets on this scale for

parts of the U.S.S.R. had been published as early as 1925, it was not until 1940

that the International Map of the World standards and format were adopted. In

that year the Central Bureau of Geodeay and Cartography began compilation of the

1:1,000,000 scale map and simultaneously issued a set of instructions for its

publication. During the six years from 1940 to 1946, a staff of some 100 or more

cartographers and other map-making specialists, working with basic cardographic

sources from the many different cartographic and geodetic offices in the country,

in the Cartographic Factory at Oask, completed (except for one relatively small

area in the interior of Taimyr Peninsula) a map of the U.S.S.R., including the

Arctic, in 180 matching sheets. Most of the European part of the U.S.S.R. has

been mapped on scales larger than 1:1,000,000.

        The second series is a set of more than thirty-five large-scale (1:200,000

to 1:500,000) hydrographic charts of the arctic coast and islands compiled and

published by the Hydrographic Department of the Chief Administration for the

039      |      Vol_XI-0257                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

Northern Sea Route and published since 1940.

        In 1940 the Chief Administration of Geodesy and Cartography of the

Soviet of Peoples' Commissars issued a remarkably well compiled eight-sheet

"Hypsometric Map of the U.S.S.R." in colors on a scale of 1:5,000,000 and

including all of the Soviet Arctic. In the same year the Arctic Scientific

Investigational Institute in Leningrad issued a "Physical (Hypsometric) Map

of the Whole Arctic" in two sheets on a scale of 1:10,000,000. This ranks

as one of the best maps of the whole Arctic and, centered at the North Pole,

presents one of the most accurate three-dimensional pictures of that area

to date because relief is shown hypsometrically and the water areas are shown

bathymetrically. Since about 1939, the Geological Committee of the U.S.S.R.

has published at intervals sheets on a scale of 1:1,000,000 together compris–

ing a "Geological Map of the U.S.S.R." These conform planimetrically to the

sheets of the 1:1,000,000 hypsometric map of the U.S.S.R. completed in 1946.

At least a dozen sheets have been issued for the European Arctic.

        In one of the Official publications of the Arctic Institute, Problemy

Arktiki, 1940 (3) is an illuminating summary of the scientific activities

of that agency during the period 1920–1940. In addition to a map of the

Soviet Arctic showing the coverage of geological maps (1:1,000,000 and small–

er, 1:500,000, 1:200,000 and 1:100,000 and larger) there are statements de–

scribing the mapping program. During the twenty-year period, some 484,000

square kilometers were topographically surveyed of which some 92,000 square

kilometers were of a reconnaissance nature only. Of this total, nearly 478,000

square kilometers were mapped during the period 1930–1940. About 275 geodetic

positions were established, mainly second and third order. Prior to 1929 very

few maps had been compiled in and issued by the Arctic Institute. Between

1929 and 1939, however, 139 different maps in 371 different sheets were com-

040      |      Vol_XI-0258                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.

piled and published by the Institute. It is only within the past few years

that the Arctic Institute has been completely responsible for the entire

process of mapping and map reproduction.

        Unfortunately, though a good deal of surveying and mapping must be under

way in the Soviet Arctic, very little appears to have been made available to

foreign powers during the past few years. Examination of scientific Soviet

publications reveals that mapping programs are underway and that maps are

being published. (For recent scientific expeditions, see A History of Scien–

tific Exploration of the Arctic Since the Introduction of Flying. )

001      |      Vol_XI-0259                                                                                                                  

       

A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

        The following bibliography is a selection of recent generally avail–

able sources that are helpful in obtaining more detailed overall and also

regional information on the status of cartography in the Arctic. It is

divided into the following categories and subparts thereof according to

the informational character of each item and in order to facilitate their

reference and use. Unfortunately it is not possible, for reasons of Nation–

al Security, to note certain helpful sources particularly with respect to

map coverage and special elements of reproduction. The finding aids and

the maps and charts selected are almost all official government in origin

and publication. Except for the products of individual expeditions limited

for the most part to small areas, recent systematic topographic and hydro–

graphic mapping of the Arctic is restricted almost entirely to organized

government surveys and in nearly every instance maps resulting from such

surveys incorporate proven results of private surveys into their maps and

charts.

        I. REFERENCES ON THE TECHNIQUES OF SURVEYING IN AND THE MAPPING OF ARCTIC

REGIONS.

        1. Achmatov, V. "Die Kartographie der Arktis innerhalb der Grenzen

der U.S.S.R., " Petermann's Mitteilungen. Erg a ä nzungsheft , number

201, pp. 64–72, Gotha, 1929.

        2. Ahlmann, H. W. "Scientific Results of the Swedish-Norwegian Arctic

Expedition in the Summer of 1931. Part III. The Inland Carto–

graphy of North East Land [Svalbard]." Geografiska Annaler , vol.

15, pp. 47–68, Stockholm, 1933.

        3. Breitfuss, Leonid L. ... Arktis der Derzeitige Stand unserer Kennt–

knisse u ü ber die Erforsching der Hardpolargebiete. Text sur

Historischen und Physikalischen karte. Berlin, 1939. 195 pp.

2 fold maps (German and English text.)

        4. Cady, Wallace M. "Aerial Photographs as an Adjunct to Arctic and

Subarctic Geologic Reconnaissance." Transactions New York Academy

of Sciences, Series 2, vol. 7 (6), pp. 135–138, 1945.

        5. Carroll, John "The Eastmain Experiment in Reconnaissance Mapping."

The Canadian Surveyor, vol. 7 (10), pp. 2–11, Ottawa, 1942.

        6. Cabot, Edward C. :The Northern Alaskan Coastal Plain Interpreted

from Aerial Photographs." The Geographical Review, vol. 37,

pp. 639–648, New York, 1947.

        7. Curtis, Heber D. "Navigation near the Pole." Proceedings of the

U.S. Naval Institute, vol. 65, pp. 9–19, 1939.

002      |      Vol_XI-0260                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography - Selected Bibliography

8. De Geer, Gerard "Tome II. Physique Terrestre. M e é t e é orologie.

Historie Naturelle. IXième Section. Topographic G e é ologie.

'Description Topographique de la Region Explor e é e G e é ologie.'"

Missions Scientifiques pour la [ K ?] esure d'un Arc de Meridien au

Spitsberg Entreprises en 1899–1902...Mission Suedoise . Stock–

holm, 1923. 38 pp. maps.

        9. Eckert, Max ...Kartenkunde... Berlin, 1943. 149 pp. illus. maps.

        10. Gaveman, A.V. "...[Application of Aero-photo-survey to the hydro–

graphic work in Arctic regions]." Izvestii a â Akademii a â nauk, U.S.

S.R., serie geographicheskaia , 1940, No. 1, pp. 133–152, Moskva,

1940. (Short summary in English.)

        11. Glen, A. R."The Oxford University Arctic Expedition, North East

Land, 1935–36." The Geographical Journal , vol. 90, pp. 193–222

and 289–314, London, 1937.

        12. Grant, J.Fergus "Air Photographs Speed Reconstruction." Canadian

Geographical Journal , vol. 33 (1), pp. 19–37, 1946.

        13. Hinks, Arthur R. Maps and Survey , 5th ed. Cambridge University

Press, 1944. 311 pp. illus. maps.

        14. Hobbs, William H. "Visibility and the Discovery of Polar Lands."

The Geografiska Annaler , vol. 15, pp. 217–224, Stockholm, 1933.

        15. Jenkins, F. T. "An Aerial Photographic Survey in Labrador." The

Canadian Surveyor , vol. 7, (8) pp. 2–17, Ottawa, 1942.

        16. Joerg, W. L. G. Brief History of Polar Exploration since the Intro–

duction of Flying . Special Publication No. 11, American Geo–

graphical Society. New York, 1930. Second revised ed. 95 pp.

        17. Kedrov, L. "...[The description of the geographical basis to the

geological map (1:2,500,000) of the northern part of the U.S.S.R.

and the index to the map]." Trudy Arkticheskogo institut [Trans–

actions of the Arctic Institute ], vol. 87 (2), pp. 1–57, Lenin–

grad, 1937. (In Russian.)

        18. Killerich, A. "On the Hydrography of the Greenland Sea." Meddelelser

om Gr o ø nland , vol. 144 (2), pp. 1–63, K o ø benhavn, 1945.

        19. Koch, J. P. "Survey of North-East Greenland." Meddelelser om Gr o ø nland ,

vol. 46, pp. 1–468, K o ø benhavn, 1917.

        20. Koch, Lauge "Survey of North Greenland." Meddelelser om Gr o ø nland ,

vol. 130 (1), pp. 1–369, K o ø benhavn, 1940. Also an atlas of maps.

        21. Lacmann, Otto Geleitworte zu den bl a ä ttern Clavering o ö ya , Jordan Hill

und Geographical Society - o ö ya der karte von Nordöstgrönland.

Gotha, 1937. 57 pp.

003      |      Vol_XI-0261                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II, Selected Bibliography

22. Lindsay, Martin "The British Trans-Greenland Expedition. "Appen–

dices I-II." The Geographical Journal , vol. 86, pp. 235–252,

London, 1935.

        23. Mason, Kenneth M. "The Stereographic Survey of the Shaksgam." The

[ ?] Geographical Journal , vol. 70, pp. 342–358, London,

1927.

        24. Meiklejohn, I. F. "The Use of Woreless Equipment vy Expeditions."

The Polar Record , no. 17, pp. 15–24, London, January 1939.

        25. Miller, O. M. and Wood, Walter A. "Photogrammetrical Work of the

Expedition." The Fjord Region of East Greenland , American Geo–

graphical Society Special publication No. 18, pp. 267–287, New

York, 1935.

        26. ----. "The Mapping of Northernmost Labredor." Northernmost Labrador

Mapped from the Air, American Geographical Society Special Publi–

cation No. 22, pp. 165–185, New York, 1938.

        27. Mines and Geology Branch, Department of Mines and Resources, Ottawa:

"The National Air Photographic Library of Canada," The Geo–

graphical Journal , vol. 99, pp. 257–260. London, 1942.

        28. Ney, C. H. "Position Determination of Arctic Coast Lines." The

Canadian Surveyor , vol. 6 (6), pp. 6–14, Ottawa, 1938.

        29. Norlund, N. E. and Sponder, M. A. "Some Methods and Procedures

Developed during Recent Expedition Surveys in South-East Green–

land." The Geographical Journal , vol. 86, pp. 317–329, London,

1935.

        30. Ogilvie, Hool J. "Astronomic Control for Wartime Mapping of Northern

Canada." Transactions of the American Geophysical Union. vol. 27

(6), pp. 769–775. Washington, 1946.

        31. ----. "The Coastline and Islands of Hudson Bay — an Ideal Field

for Geodetic Astronomic Work." Transactions of the American Geophys–

ical Union, Section of Geodesy , April 26, 1934, pp. 41–45, Wash–

ington, 1935.

        32. Peters, F. H. and Smith, F. C. Goulding "Charting Perils of the Sea."

Canadian Geographical Journal , vol. 32, pp. 67–87. 1946.

        33. Pillewizer, Wolf "Die Kartographischen and gletscherkundlichen

Ergelnisse die Deutschen Spitzbergen Expedition, 1938." Peter–

mann's Mitteilungon Erg e ë nsungsheft , number 238, pp. 1–46, Gotha,

1939.

        34. Platt, Raye R. "Official Topographic Maps: A World Index." The Geo–

graphical Review, vol. 35, pp. 175–181, New York, 1945.

004      |      Vol_XI-0262                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Selected Bibliography

35. Reeves, E. A. Hints to Travelers. Vol. I. Survey and Field

Astronomy . Royal Geographical Society, London, 1935. 448 pp.

        36. Rosenbaum, L. "Scientific Results of the Swedish-Norwegian Arctic

Expedition in the Summer of 1931. Part II. Determinations of

Latitude and Longitude [Svalbard]." The Geografiska Annaler,

vol. 15, pp. 25–46, Stockholm, 1933.

        37. Schokalsky, Jules "Hydrographic Surveys Along the Northern Shores

of the Soviet Union." The Polar Record , Vol. 12, pp. 128–133.

Cambridge, 1936.

        38. Schokalsky, J. M. "La carte physique de la r e é gion polaire da Nord."

Comptes Rendus des Seanoes de 1'Academie des Sciences , Paris,

vol. 199, pp. 1557–1559, 1934.

        39. Schulz, B. "Neue karten von Gronland und Svalbard." Annalen der

Hydrographie , vol. 66 (4), pp. 201–204. 1938.

        40. Seidenfaden, Gunner Modern Arctic Exploration. London, 1939. 189 pp.

(Re. mapping and serial photography in Arctic see pp. 59–77.)

        41. Shirshov, P. P. "Oceanological Observations: Deep Soundings."

Comptes Rendus, Akademila Nauk, U.S.S.R., vol. 19 (8), pp. 569–

580. Moskva, 1938.

        42. Sidorov, K. V. "...[The topographical knowledge of the Soviet

Arctic]." Builletin Arkticheskogo Institit. [Bulletin of the

Arctic Instute ), 1935, no. 7, pp. 191–192 (in Russian) and p. 225

(in English). Leningrad, 1935.

        43. Sargent, R. H. and Moffit, F.H. "Aerial Photographic Surveys in

Southeastern Alaska." Part e of Bulletin 797. U.S. Geological

Survey, pp. 143–160, Washington, 1929.

        44. Smith, Philip S. "How the [U.S.] Geological Survey Serves Alasla..."

Engineering and Mining Journal , vol. 141, pp. 54–56, April 1940.

        45. Smith, F. C. Goulding "War Record of the Hydrographic and Map

Service." The Canadian Surveyor , vol. 8, pp. 14–20, Jan. 1946,

Ottawa.

        46. Spender, Michael "Map-making during the Expedition..." Meddelelser

om Gr o ø nland, vol. 104 (2), pp. 1–21, K o ø benhavn, 1933.

        47. --- "Terrestrische und Luft-Photogrammetric in Gr o ö nland. Erfah–

rungen während der Teilnahme an dänischen Expedition in den

Jahren 1932–35." Petermanns Mitteilungen , 1939, pp. 153–158,

Gotha, 1939.

        48. Taracouzio, Timothy A. Soviets in the Arctic: an Historical Economic

and Political Study of the Soviet Advance in the Arctic . New York,

1938. 563 pp. maps.

005      |      Vol_XI-0263                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartograpy, Selected Bibliography

49. Taylor, E. G. R. Hudson Strait and the Oblique Meridian." Image

Mundi , vol. 3, pp. 48–52, 1939.

        50. Trorey, L. G. "A Map in a Day." The Canadian Surveyor, vol. 8,

pp. 9–24, Oct. 1944.

        51. Urvantsev, N. N. "[The Cartography of Severnoya Zemlya (Northern Land)]"

Izvestia de la Soci e é t e é Russe G e é ographique, vol. 65 (6), pp. 496–

515, Moscow, 1933. (In Russian with English summary. pp. 509–

515.)

        52. Waugh, B. W. "Canada's Progress in Air Navigation Charting." The

Canadian Surveyor, vol. 8, pp. 12–16, Ottawa, July 1944.

        53. ----. "Canada's Air Navigation Charts." The Canadian Surveyor,

vol. 6, pp. 2–9, Ottawa, 1939.

        54. Wright, John W. "Methods of [Arctic and low latitude desect] Survey."

The Geographical Journal, vol. 107, pp. 170–173, London, 1946.

        55. ----. "Survey on Polar Expeditions." The Polar Record, number 18,

pp. 144–168, London, 1939.

        56. ----. "Methods of Survey in North East Land." The Geographical

Journal , vol. 93, pp. 209–227, London, 1939.

        57. The Survey of Bj o ø rn o ø ya (Bear Island) 1922–1931." Sicrifter Norges

Svalbard-ag Ishava-Unders o ø kelser, number 86, pp. 1–82, Oslo, 1944.

illus. map (1944).

        58. "...[Computation of the areas occupied by the Soviet Arctic]."

Bu u û [?]lletin Arkticheskogo Institute (Bulletin of the Arctic Institute )

vol. 1936 (3), pp. 105–114 (in Russian) and pp. 145–146 (in English).

Leningrad, 1936.

        59. "...[ Catalogue of the astronomical points of the U.S.S.R. Sector of

the Arctic ]. Russia. Chief Administration of the Northern Sea

Route. Leningrad, 1937, 357 pp. and map.

        II. FINDING AIDS (CATALOGS, ETC.) TO MAPS AND CHARTS

        A. The Whole Arctic:

        1. Catalogue of Admiralty Charts and Other Hydrographic Publications.

1947 . Hydrographic Department, London, 1947. 262 pp. and 46

plates of index maps. Re: Arctic see pp. 32–35 and 206–215 and

plates A, D, D1, L1, O and V2.

006      |      Vol_XI-0264                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Selected Bibliography

        2. (1) Verzeighnis der Hautischen karte under bücher für die Kriegs–

marine (ausrüatungs batalog). and (2) Index karton zum varseich–

nis..., Oberkommando der Kriegsmarine, Berlin, 1941. 191 pp.

and 30 plates of index maps. Re. Arctic see pp. 13–18 and

plates B. Ba, Da and H.

        3. Index to Aviation Charts and Publications on Issuance by the Hydro–

graphic Office. Navy Department, Washington, July 1946 and sup–

plement to Jan. 1947. H. O. Publication No. I-V (R). Re. Arctic

see pp. 6–13 and 21.

        4. Index Catalog of Hautical Charts and Publications. Hydrographic

Office, Navy Department, Washington, April 1947. 7 pp. and 110

index maps. Re. Arctic see: Sailing directions: Publications

numbers 73, 75, 76, 77, 122, 122A, 136; and hydrographic charts

see index sheets A, AA, AB, A–2, A–2x, B, I, S and V.

        5. Aeronautical Chart Catalog. Feb, 1947. Published by the U.S. Coast and

Geodetic Survey, Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C. 33 pp.

text and index maps.

        6. Catalogue of Maps Published by the Geographical Section of the

General Staff: and Amendments from 31 December 1941 to 31 July

1943. London, 1941–1943. 20 pp. 78 amendments and 69 index maps.

        7. Catalog [of] Aeronautical Charts and Related Publications. Sixth Ed.

Sept. 1946. Headquarters, Aeronautical Chart Service, Air Trans–

port Command, U.S. Army Air Forces, Washington, D. C. 86 pp. text

and index maps. Re. Arctic see: pp. 6–9, 12, 13, 15, 19, 21, 28,

64, 68, 69, and 82–85.

        8. General Map Catalog [including index maps and descriptive lists

arranged by Army Map Service map series number and theater area].

Army Map Service, Office of the Chief of Engineers, War Depart–

ment, Washington, 1947. 124 index maps and descriptive lists.

        9. Thiele, Walter Official Map Publications: a Historical Sketch and

a Bibliographical Handbook of Current Maps and Mapping Services

in the United States ... and Other Countries..., Chicago, 1938.

356 pp.

        10. "...[An index map of the world showing map coverage by selected

scales, to 1937. Scale 1:70,000,000]." Sovetskain Atlasa Mira

[The Great Soviet World Atlas], Vol. I, Plate 7, Moskva, 1937.

        11. "...[Index map of the U.S.S.R. Arctic showing the area covered by

geological maps on scales of 1:100,000, 1:200,000, 1:500,000

and 1:1,000,000 during the period 1920–1940]." Problemy Arktiki

1940, number 3, op. p. 22, Leningrad, 1940.

007      |      Vol_XI-0265                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Selected Bibliography.

        B. The North-American European Realm:

        1. American Sector

        Catalog of Nautical Charts and Related Publications. Serial No. 665.

Published by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Dept. of Com–

merce. Washington, July 1946. 48 pp. and 41 index maps. Re.

Arctic see: Index maps A, 22–51 and lists on pp. 22–31 and 43.

        Publications of the Geological Survey. U.S. Geological Survey,

Dept. of the Interior, Washington, May 1947. 300 pp.

        Selected List of Geological Survey Publications [including maps]

on Alaska. Published by the Geological Survey, U.S. Dept. of

the Interior, Washington, 1942. See on back of Index Map of

Alaska.

        Index Map of Alaska Showing Areas Covered by Selected Available

Reports and Maps of Alaska. Prepared by the U.S. Geological

Survey, 1942. Scale 1:5,000,000. Conic-type projection.

Published by the Geological Survey, U. S. Dept. of the Interior,

Washington, D.C. Dimensions: 19 x 26 inches.

        2. Canadian Sector

        Catalogue of Nautical Charts. Sailing Directions. Tidal Informa–

tion and Other Canadian Government Publications of Interest

to Mariners. Corrected to 1st Feb. 1945. Hydrographic and

Map Service, Dept. of Mines and Resources, Ottawa, 1945. 55 pp.

and index maps. Re. Arctic see:

p. 17. Hudson Bay and Strait (large-scale charts)

p. 25. Great Slave Lake (large-scale charts)

p. 34. Hudson Bay Route, Sailing Directions, 1940.

        [Descriptive list of] Published Maps (1917–1946 inclusive) [to

maps of Canada]. Compiled by P. J. Moran. Mines and Geology

Branch, Dept. of Mines and Resources, Ottawa, 1946. 119 pp.

Re. Arctic see: pp. 1, 3–4, 51–56 and 76–96.

        Annotated Catalogue of and Guide to the Publications of the Geological Geological Survey, anada, 1845–1917

Geological Survey, Dept. of Mines, [ ?] Ottawa, 1920.

544 pp. and index maps. Re. Arctic see: pp. 3–104, 313–320

and 355–387.

        [Descriptive catalogue of] Published Maps (1917–1935 inclusive)

[of Canada]. Bureau of Economic Geology, Geological Survey,

Dept. of Mines, Ottawa, 1936. 19 pp. Re Arctic see: pp. 1,

11 and 15 thru 17.

        Publications (1909–1946 inclusive) of the Geological Survey and

National Museum. Mines and Geology Branch, Dept. of Mines

and Resources, Ottawa, 1946. 103 pp.

008      |      Vol_XI-0266                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Selected Bibligraphy

        3. Danish Sector

        Fortesnelse over det Konigelige Sokort-Archivs forhandlines

Artikler [List of publications for sale at the Royal Danish

Hydrographic Office ]. K o ø benhavn, 1944. 22 pp. Re. Arctic

See: pp. 9–10 (charts of Greenland).

        Geodaetisk Institute Kart. 1940 [Danish Geodetic Institute Maps,

1940] . K o ø benhavn, 1940. Unnumbered pages and index maps. Re.

Greenland see: Section 16, Kort over Gr o ø nland.

        Dot Danske Geodaetiske Institute kart. Beskrivelse... [The

Danish Geodetic Institute Maps .] K o ø benhavn, 1940. 28 pp. Re.

Greenland see: p. 26. Index map showing coverage of maps,

(1:250,000 and 1:300,000) of Greenland.

        4. Norwegian Sector

        Katalog over Si o ø karter og Farvannabeskrivelser...samt Arktiske

Si o ø karter og Farvansbeskrivelser utgitt ay Norges Svalbard–

og Iebava-Unders o ø kkelser. [Catalog of sialing charts...

published by the Norges Svalbard-og Ishava-Unders o ø kkelser ]

Oslo, 1946. 12 pp. and 6 index maps. Re: Arctic Norway and

Svalbard see: pp. 10 and 11 and index maps 5 and 6.

        Katalog over Landkarter [Catalogue of topographic (land) maps

of Norway] . Oslo, 1942 (with additions to June 1945). 26 pp.

and index maps.

        " [De scriptive list of] topographical maps and charts published

[by the] Norges Svalbard-og Ishavs-Undersokkelser, 1925–1944."

Skrifter. Norges Svalbard-og Ishava-Unders o ø kkelser, number 88,

pp, 1–71, Oslo, 1945. For list see inside cover and pp. 70–71.

        c. The Soviet-Finnish Realm :

        1. Yermolaev, M. M. and Petrenko, A. A. "...[Explanatory note to

the geological map of the northern part of U.S.S.R. Scale

1:2,500,000]." Trudy Arkticheskogo Institut [TRansactions of

the Arctic Institute] , vol. 87 (1), pp. 1–491, Leningrad, 1937.

(In Russian and includes a descriptive list of maps.)

        2. ...Katalog kart I krug. espravlen na 1 vanvarava 1943 g. [Catalog

of maps and books, corrected to Jan. 1. 1943] , Gidrograficheskoe

Upravlenie voenno-morskogo flota Souiza S.S.S.R. Moskva (?),

1943. 100 pp. Re. Arctic see: pp. 22–42.

        3. Berg, L. S. "[Map of the U.S.S.R. on a scale of 1:1,000,000]."

Igvestiia Vaesouiznogo Geograficheskogo Obachestva, Tom. 78

(5–6), pp. 575–578, Leningrad, 1946. (In Russian and includes

a statement concerning extent and nature of coverage.)

009      |      Vol_XI-0267                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Selected Bibliography

        4. Kutafiev, S. "...[Development of the Soviet cartography for

twenty-five years (1919–1944)]." Izvestiia Vsesouiznogo

Geograficheskogo Obschestva , vol. 76, pp. 144–154, Lenin–

grad, 1944. (In Russian and includes descriptive refer–

ences to many different maps.)

        III. SELECTED MAPS AND CHARTS:

        A. The Whole Arctic :

        1. "Map of the Northern Hemisphere North of 39° 30′ showing Topography

(contour)... Compiled, drafted and printed by the Coast and Geo–

detic Survey with the collaboration of the Arctic, Desert and

Tropic Information Branch, U.S. Army Air Forces. Published by

the Aeronautical Chart Service, U.S. Army Air Forces." Polar ster–

eographic projection. Natural scale 1:6,336,000 at 65° north

latitude. In four sheets each with a dimension of 40 x 34 inches.

Also a "Gazetteer and List of Sources" accompanies this map,

dated January 1945, Washington, D.C. 89 pp.

        2. Weather Plotting Chart [outline map of] the Northern Hemisphere.

WRC-6–3. Polar stereographic projection. Compiled in and pub–

lished by the Headquarters of the Army Air Forces, 1944. Scale

at latitude 60° approximately 1 inch to 375 miles. Dimensions:

38 x 38 inches.

        3. "Strategic Air Chart [with relief of the] Northern Hemisphere [showing

air line distances between selected places.] Compiled for the

U.S. Army Air Forces by the U.S.Coast and Geodetic Survey, Wash–

ington, D. C., June 1943. Polar stereographic projection. Scale

1 inch to approximately 380 statute miles at latitude 40°." In

two sheets. (Dimensions 27 x 49 inches.

        4. "AAF Equidistant Chart of the World Centered Near Fairbanks, Alaska.

Scale 1:55,000,000." Published by the Aeronautical Chart Service,

U.S. Army Air Forces, Washington, D.C. 1947. Dimensions: 30 x 40

inches. Others are available for Thule, Greenland; Southampton

Island and Aklavik, Northwest Territories, Canada.

        5. "Northern Hemisphere Geography [map] Series... Designed for Instruc–

tive Work at the AAF Air University, 1946–47. Scale 1:24,000,000.

Polar stereographic projection." Published by the Aeronautical

Chart Service, U.S. Army Air Forces, Washington, D.C. Dimensions

of each of 11 sheets: 36 x 36 inches. This set of 11 sheets in–

cludes the following:

GH-1. Political and Time Chart

GH-2. Physical Relief Chart

GH-3. Temperature Provinces and Ocean Currents Charts

GH-4. Annual Precipitation Chart

GH-5. Climatic Chart

010      |      Vol_XI-0268                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Selected Bibliography

        5. Cont. GH-6. Vegetation Chart

GH-7. Density of Population Chart

GH-8. Economic Chart

GH-9. Transportation Chart

GH-10. Isobars and Prevailing Winds Chart - January

GH-11. Isobars and Prevailing Winds Chart - July

        6. "AAF Aeronautical Planning [Topographic (contour)] Charts of the

World." Scale 1:5,000,000. Lambert conformal conic projection

except North Polar Region sheet which is polar stereographic.

Published by the Aeronautical Chart Service, U.S. Army Air Forces,

Washington, D.C., 1945–47. Dimensions of each sheet: 45 x 30

inches. Re.Arctic see: Sheets 1. Siberia, 2. Alaska, 3. Canada,

4. Greenland, 5. Russia and 41. North Polar Region.

        7. "World Aeronautical [hypsometric] Charts." Scale 1:1,000,000.

Polar stereographic projection north of latitude 72° and Lambert

conformal conic projection south of this latitude. Published

by the Aeronautical Chart Service, U.S. Army Air Forces, Wash–

ington, D.C., 1943–47. Dimensions of each sheet 29 x 22 inches.

Re. Arctic see: Sheets 1 thru 200.

        8. "U.S. Navy Air Navigation [Topographic (contour)] Charts of the

World." Scale 1:2,188,800. Mercator projection. Published

by the Hydrographic Office, U.S. Navy Department, Washington,

D.C., 1944–47. Dimensions of each sheet 54 x 35 inches. Re.

Arctic see: Sheets 1 thru 6.

        9. "AAF Long Range Navigation Charts of the World." Scale 1:3,000,000.

Polar stereographic projection. Published by the Aeronautical

Chart Service, U.S. Army Air Force, Washington, D.C., 1945–47.

Dimensions of each sheet: 30 x 40 inches. Re. Arctic see: Sheets

1 thru 6 and 77.

        10. "Physical [relief] Map of the Arctic [with insets]. Translated and

revised kby the American Geographical Society of New York from

map in Andree's Handatlas, 8th ed. 1924. Copyright 1929, Amer–

ican Geographical Society of New York." Scale 1:20,000,000.

Dimensions of each sheet 18–1/4 X 23 inches. Accompanying W.L.G.

Joerg: Brief History of Polar Exploration since the Introduction

of Flying . Amer. Geog. Soc. Special Publication, No. 11, N.Y. 1930.

        11. "[Physical (colored) map of] The Arctic Regions. Prepared in the

Map Department of the National Geographic Society..." Scale

1:14,673,400. Azimuthal equidistant projection. Nat. Geog. Soc.

Washington, 1925, reprinted 1943. Dimensions of each sheet:

19 X 20 inches.

        12. "Bathymetric Map of the Arctic Basin. By Fridljof Nanson. Revised

to 1927. Scale 1:20,000,000. Published by the American Geograph–

ical Society, New York, 1927. Dimensions of each sheet [ ?]

[ ?] 10 X 15 inches.

011      |      Vol_XI-0269                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Selected Bibliography

        13. "Ice Atlas of the Northern Hemisphere." H. O. [Publication]

No. 550. Published by the Hydrographic Office, U.S. Navy

Department, Washington, D.C., 1946. 106 pp. maps and biblio–

graphy. Dimensions of each sheet 24–1/2 X 24–3/4 inches.

        14. "Carte Aeronautique de bane [of the world] 1935–36." Scale

1:10,000,000 at the equator. Mercator projection. In sixteen

sheets. Commission International de Navigation Aerienne, Paris,

1937.

        15. "[Hypsometric] Karte des Nordpolargebietes [includes area latitudes

63° -80° N. and longitude 30° W-O° -60° E]. Herausgegeben vom

General-stab der Luftwaffe, 7 Abt. 1942. Stereographische Pro–

jektion." Dimensions of each 41–1/2 X 33 inches.

        16. "Bathy-orographical chart of the North Polar Basin by John Barthol–

omew...1934. Scale 1:14,000,000." Accompanying John Mathieson:

"The Story of Arctic Voyages and Exploration." The Scottish

Geographical Magazine , vol. 50, pp. 281–308, Edinburgh, 1934.

Dimensions: 18 X 18 inches.

        17. "[Planimetric or base map of] The Northern Hemisphere. [Compiled

in and published by the] Hydrographic and Map Service, Surveys

and Engineering Branch, Department of Mines, Canada." 1941.

Polar equidistant projection. Scale at latitude 65° approximately

285 miles to an inch. Dimensions: 36 X 36 inches.

        18. "Special Polar Air Chart [in two sheets: coast and west]." Compiled

and drawn at the War Office. Printed by the Hydrographic Depart–

ment, Admiralty, London, 1944. Polar stereographic projection

(orthomorphic). Scale 1:4,000,000 at the pole. Dimensions:

31 X 46 inches (each sheet).

        19. "Fizicheskaia karta arktiki [Physical (hypsometric) map of the

Arctic], 1940." Scale 1:10,000,000. Lambert conformal conic

projection. Glavnce Upravlenie Geodesii I Kurtografi [compiled

in the Arctic Scientific Investigational Institute]. Leningrad,

1940. In two sheets each 36 X 20 inches.

        20. "Geographical [plemmetrio] map [of the] Arctic composed at the

1st cartographical factory by the engineers N. Lubvin and J. Hakkel

under the direction of the professors R. Samoilovich and D. Rudnew,

Leningrad, 1934." Polar stereographic projection (?) Scale

1:10,000,000. In two sheets each 35–1/2 X 24 inches.

        21. "Arktika [Hypsometric map of the Arctic showing routes of significant

scientific expeditions and including as insets eleven hypsometric

maps of selected areas of the Arctic]." Scale of map of Arctic

1:20,000,000. Sovetsk a i a Atlaa a Mira [The Great Soviet World Atlas].

Moskva, 1937. Vol. 1, plates 18–19. Dimensions: 20 X 24 inches.

012      |      Vol_XI-0270                                                                                                                  
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        B. The North-American European Realm :

        1. Whole Realm

        "Glacial Map [including contours] of North America. Compiled

and edited by a Committee (Chairman Dr. Richard Foster Flint)

of the Division of Geology and Geography, The National Re–

search Council, Washington, 1945." Scale 1:4,555,000. In

two sheets each 55 X 41 inches. Published with a "Biblio–

graphy and Explanatory Notes," 37 pp. as Special Paper No, 60,

Geological Society of America, New York, 1945.

        "Geological Map of the Dominion of Canada. Scale 1:3,801,600.

(Inset: Arctic Islands North of latitude 75° . Scale 1:6,336,00),

1945. Lambert conformal conic projection." Bureau of Geology and

Topography, Department of Mines and Resources, Ottawa, 1945.

        2. American Sector

        "Map E. [Planimetric map of] Alaska Compiled from all Authentic

Sources, Chiefly Maps of the Geological Survey and [aerial

photographs of the] Army Air Forces. Published by the Geo–

logical Survey, Department of the Interior, 1946." Scale

1:2,500,000. Conic-type projection. Dimensions 36 X 49 inches.

        "Outline [Mao of] Alaska, 1947." Scale 1:5,000,000. Lambert

conformal conic projection. Published by the U.S. Coast and

Geodetic Survey, Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C.

Dimensions: 42 X 29 inches.

        "[Topographic (stippled relief) map of] Northwest North America.

Special Strategic Map...1943. Scale 1:3,000,000. Lambert

conformal conic projection." Compiled in and published by

the Army Map Service, Office of the Chief of Engineers, War

Department. Dimensions: 32 X 48 inches.

        "World Aeronautical [hypsometric] Charts of Alaska and North–

western North America. Scale 1:1,000,000. Lambert conformal

conic projection. Published by the Coast and Geodetic Survey,

Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C. 1945–47. Twenty charts

cover Alaska. Dimensions of each sheet: 21 X 28 inches.

        3. Canadian Sector

        "[Planimetric (base) map of the] Northwest Territories and Yukon

[and including the Arctic Islands Preserve] 1939. Scale

1:5,068,800." Compiled, drawn and printed in Hydrographic

and Map Service, Ottawa, 1939. Dimensions: 30 x 40 inches.

        "Map 820–A. Geological Map of the Dominion of Canada, 1945.

Scale 1:3,801,600." Compiled and Printed in the Mines and

Geology Branch, Department of Mines and Resources, Ottawa,

1945. In two sheets each 44 X 31–1/2 inches.

013      |      Vol_XI-0271                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Selected Bibliography

        "[Planimetric map of the] Cominion of Canada [including the

southern half of the Arctic Islands area], 1937. Revised

to 1945. Scale 1:6,336,000." Compiled and Printed in the

office of the Surveyor General and Chief of the Hydrographic

Service, Ottawa, 1945. Dimensions: 25 X 36 inches.

        "[Map of Canada and Part of Alaska showing the] Average Date

of the start and End of Flying Season for Float and Boat Planes."

No date. Scale 1 inch to 325 miles. Compiled in and printed

by the Topogruphical survey of Canada, Ottawa. Dimensions:

9–1/2 X 14 inches.

        "Air Navigation [topographic (from line, contour and bachure)

Charts of the Dominion of Canada, [Newfoundland and labrador],

1942 to 1947." Scale 1:506,880. Transverse Morcator project–

tion. Compiled, dream and printed at the Hydrographic and

Map Service, Ottawa. Dimensions (average): 27x30 inches.

        "[Planimetric] Base Map of the North America Arctic from a Tracing

Furnished by Captain A.L. Washburn and Prepared by William

Eriosomeistor of the American Geographical Society, 1941, with

Additions by the Hydrographic office, 1943, as U.S.H.O. chart

Miscellaneous No. 10,586." Scale 1:3,375,000. Lambert con–

formal projection.

        4. Danish Sector

        "[Topographic map of] Gr o ö aland. [From the survey of and compiled

in the] Geodeatic Institut, Kobenhavn, 1923–1947." Scale

1:250,000. Dimension of each sheet 27x22 inches. A set of

39 sheets published, and 19 being completed by 1947 (?)

        "[Topographic (form-line) map of] Greenland. Prepared under the

Direction of the Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army, by the Army

Map Service... Washington, D.C. 1944. A.M.S. 0401." Scale

1:500,000. Dimensions of each sheet 24x20 inches. In 29

sheets. Area includes east and west coasts from Map Farvel

north to 74°.

        "[General map of] Gr o ö nland [showing the area covered by ice and

that land exposed]. Geodastic Institut, K o ø bonhavn, 1938.

Scale 1:5,000,000." Dimensions: 27–1/2x23–1/2 inches. Also

available on a scale 1:4,000,000.

        [(Topographic) Map of North Greenland." Scale 1:300,000. sur–

veyed by Lange koch in the years 1917–1923. Published by the

Geodetic Institute of Denmark. In 19 sheets. Dimensions of

each sheet: 27x22 inches. Includes west coast from latitude

75° N to north coast and then east to longitude 20° W.

014      |      Vol_XI-0272                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Selected Bibliography

        5. Norwegian Sector

        "[Base map of] Svalbard." Scale 1:1,000,000. [complied and

published by] Norges Svalbard-og Inhave-Unders o ø keleser, Oalo,

1937. Dimensions: 27–1/2 x 23–1/2 inches.

        "[Topographic (hachure) map of] Spitabergen... Published by

the Geographical Section, General Staff, War office, 1942."

Scale 1:823,000. Dimensions: 40x30 inches.

        "[Topographic (contour) map of] Bj o ö ern o ö ya, Svalbard. [Compiled

by the Norges Svalbard-og Ishave-Unders o ø kelser, reproduced

and printed in the] Norges Geographic Oppmiling, Cslo, 1944.

Scale 1:25,000." Dimensions: 40–1/2x31–1/2 inches.

        "Report of the Svalbard Commissioner Concerning the claims to

Land in Svalbard. [By Kristian Sidballe.] Copenhagon, 1927.

Also Cslo, 1927. Parts IA and IIA are text and parts IS and

IIB are large-scale topographic (contour) maps numbered 1–33

and a small-scale general map.

        C. The Soviet-Finish Realm :

        1. "...[Planimetric map of the U.S.S.R. and adjacent countries] 1938–

1939." Scale 1:2,500,000. Conic-type projection. Published

by the Geodetic and Cartographic People's Commissariat,

Leningrad. In thirty-two sheets.

        2. "...[Planimetric map of the European parts of the U.S.S.R.] 1938."

Scale 1:1,500,000. Conic-type projection. Published by

the chief Administration of the State Geodetic Survey and

Cartography, People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs of

the U.S.S.R., Leningrad, 1938. In twenty sheets.

        3. [Topographic (contour) map of Finland] Carte Internationals du

Monde. In two sheets. Eblsinki, 1933 and Turku, 1925.

Scale 1:1,000,000. Modified polyconic projection. Complied

in the Cartographic office of the coast and Geodetic Survey,

Helsinki, Finland.

        4. "[Topographic (contour, form-line and hachure) map of] Eastern Asia

(AMS 5302), 1943–1947. Scale 1:1,000,000. Approximately 90

sheets assigned to cover area within Arctic of which 43 have

been published. Dimensions of average sheet: 24x24 inches.

        5. "Hypeomotricheskaia karta SSSR [Hypsometric map of the U.S.S.R.]

Moskva, 1940." Scale 1:5,000,000. Glavnce Upravlenic Geo–

desii 1 kartografil Moscow, 1940. In eight sheets each sheet

26 x 21 inches.

015      |      Vol_XI-0273                                                                                                                  
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Selected Bibliography

        6. "Geologicheskaia karta SSSR. [Geological map of the U.S.S.R.] 1940...

[Compiled by] Komitet no delam Geologii..." Scale 1:2,500,000.

In thirty-two sheets. Dimensions of each sheet 27x22 inches.

        7. "Geological Map of the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics... 1937

... Published by the Organization Committee of the Seventeenth

International Geological Congress, moscow...Drafted and printed

at the 1st Cartographical Factory of the Chief Service of the

States' Survey and Cartography of the People's Commissariate of

Interior of the U.S.S.R...." Scale 1:5,000,000. In eight sheets

each 27 x 21 inches. (In Russian and English.)

        8. ...Bol'shoy Sovetskiy Atlas Mira... [The Great Soviet World Atlas.]

Complied in and published by the Central Executive Committee and

the Commissars of Soviet Nationalities of the USSR, Moscow, 1937–

1939. 2 volumes.

        9. "[Plainmotric map of] Sovetakaia arktiki 1 Subarktina [the Soviet

Arctic and Subarctic] 1939." Scale 1:10,000,000. Arktichoskii

Nauchno-issledovatelskit Institut Glavsevmsrputi, Leningrad, 1939.

Dimensions: 19 x 30 inches. Also reproduced with additional in–

formation on a scale of 1:6,000,000 in two sheets each 25x25

inches.

        10. [Large-scale hydrographic charts of the U.S.S.R. Arctic Coast origin–

ally prepared by the Hydrographic office of the Administration of

the Northern Sea Route of the Soviet of People's Commissars of the

U.S.S.R., Leningrad, 1938–1942, and reproduced as emergency re–

production with transliterations by the U.S. Hydrographic office,

Navy Department, Washington, 1943–45.] Dimensions: various.

       

Horman R. Friis