History: Encyclopedia Arctica 11: Territorial Sovereignty and History
History
Early Mediterranean Views on the Northlands
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 wro^u^ght tools and weapons, the like of which no Medi–
terranean-dweller had ever seen. On this wise was the first earth knowledge
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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
^
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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 scholarsEA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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.
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
The
Iliad
and the
Odyssey
are scarcely more revealing. The poet has heard
of the mountains of Thrace whence blows the northern blast (^=^
rhipe^é^
); 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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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
EA -History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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.
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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-
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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).
EA-Histroy. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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)
EA-Histroy. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of the Northlands
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
EA-Histroy. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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.)
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediteranean Views of Northlands
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.
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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.)
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
"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.
)
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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 inEA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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.
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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-
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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.
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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 nativesEA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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:
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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-
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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-
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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
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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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
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
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.
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views of Northlands
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.
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
(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
EA-History. Kimble: Early Mediterranean Views on Northlands
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!
EA-History. Kimble: Ear [: ] y Mediterranean Views on Northlands
BIBLIOGRAPHYI. 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.
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.
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
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 |
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Car [: ] ography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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,
EA-History: Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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.)
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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.)
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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.
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History: Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History: Friis: Arctic Geography
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
EA-History: Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History: Friis: Arctic Cartogr [: ] phy
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
EA-History: Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History: Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History: Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History: Friis: Arctic Cartography
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.
EA-History: Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
(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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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.
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Geography
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.
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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].
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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)
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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.
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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-
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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."
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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
EA-History. Friis: Arctic Cartography
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-
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
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
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
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 ^p^reliminary 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
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
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-
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)
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,
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
.
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-
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
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
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 ^wa^s 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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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,
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
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 duti^es^ on Wrangel Island, completed a large-scale
topographic map of the island. It is notable that very little use was made
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 th^ough 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-
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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 aer^ial^ 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
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
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 (^topo^graphic) 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,"
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Part II.
Meddelelser on Gr o ^ ø ^ nland , vol. 130, pp. 1–364, Ko^ø^benhavn, 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
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
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-
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.
)
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, 194^5^.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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
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.
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.
EA-Hist. Friis: Arctic Cartography, Selected Bibliography
B.
The North-American European Realm
:
1. Who^l^e 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.
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.
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.
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
Mapping of the Arctic: A selected bibliography
EA-History [Herman R. Friis]
MAPPING OF THE ARCTIC A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following bibliography is a selection of generally available sources
that are helpful in obtaining more detailed overall and also regional informa–
tion on the history and development of the mapping of the Arctic. This bib–
liography is divided into two parts corresponding in sequence to the two primary
divisions of the textual discussion, namely I. FOR THE PERIOD PRIOR TO ABOUT
1900 and II. FOR THE PERIOD AFTER ABOUT 1900. Within each of these divisions
the individual entries are arranged in strict alphabetical order in categories
corresponding in sequence to the subject breakdown in the textual discussion.
This has been done in order to provide ready cross-reference from text to bib–
liography for additional, often considerably detailed, information.
I. FOR THE PERIOD PRIOR TO ABOUT 1900
A. SIGNIFICANT COLLECTIONS OF MAPS AND SOURCES IN NORTH AMERICA RELATING TO
MAPS OF THE ARCTIC:
1. American Geographical Society, New York City, New York
2. Arctic Institute of North America, Montreal, Canada
3. Cartographic Records Branch, The National Archives, Washington, D.C.
4. Division of Maps, The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
B. BIBLIOGRAPHIC AIDS:
1. Almagia, R.: Monumenta cartographica Vaticans. Vol. 1. Planisferi
carte nautiche a affini dal secolo XVI al XVII esistenti nella
Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, 1944. 157 pp. and maps; Vol. II,
Carte geographic a stampa di particolare pregio o rarita del
secoli XVI e XVII esistenti nella Bibliotheca Vaticana, 1948.
132 pp. and maps.
2. Ames, John G.: Comprehensive index of the United States Government,
1881–1893. Washington, D.C. 1905. 2 vols.
3. Andreev, A. I.: "...[New materials concerning Russian naval expeditions
and discoveries in the Arctic and Pacific oceans in the XVIII and
XIX centuries',"
Izvestiia...Russkoe geograficheskoe obshchestvo
, vol.
75 (5), pp. 34–35, Moscow, 1943. In Russian.
EA-History. Friis: Mapping of Arctic Bibliog.
4. Bacmeister, Hartwich L. C.: Russische bibliothek, zur kenntuiss des
gegenw
a
^
ä
^
rtigen zustandes der literatur in Russland... St. Petersburg,
1772–1789. 11 vols.
5. Brenneche, Wilhelm: "L
a
^
ä
^
nderkunde aussereurop
a
^
ä
^
ischer Erdteile. Polar–
gebiete, 1898–1904,"
Geographisches Jahrbuch
, vol. 27, pp. 343–375,
Gotha, 1905.
6. Breusing, Arthur: ...Leitfaden durch das wiegenalter der kartographie
bis zurn jahre 1600...Frankfurst, 1883. 33 pp.
7. Conway, Martin: Atlas of Spitsbergen, consisting of originals, Photo–
graphs or tracings of the maps examined by him during seven years
of researches, London, Royal Geographical Society, Map Collection,
1906.
8. Dall, W. H. and Marcus Baker: "Partial list of charts and maps relating
to Alaska and the adjacent regions,"
United States Coast and Geodetic
Survey, Pacific Coast Pilot
, Second Series, pp. 163–223, Washington,
1879.
9. Haack, Hermann: "Die Fortschitte der Kartographie (1930–36),"
Geograph–
isches Jahrbuch,
vol. 51 (1936), pp. 230–312; 52 (1937), pp. 3–74,
Gotha.
10. Harrisse, Henry: Notes pour servir
a
^
à
^
l'histoire,
a
^
à
^
la bibliographie
et
[:
]
a
^
à
^
la cartographie de la Nouvelle-France et des pays adjacents
1545–1700... Paris, 1872. 367 pp.
11. Hermanneson, Halldor: "...The Northmen in America (982 c.–1500); a
contribution to the bibliography of the subject,"
Islandica...,
vol. 2, pp.1–94, Ithaca, 1909.
12. Verner, Robert J.: Northeastern Asia, a selected bibliography;...
Berkeley, California, 1939. 2 vols.
13. Leland, Waldo G.:
[:
]
Guide to materials for American History in the
Libraries and Archives of Paris. Washington, D.C., 1932.
14. Mezhov, Vladimir I.: Bibliographia sibirica. Bibliographia des livres
et articles de journoux russes et
e
e
^
é
^
trangeres concernant la Sib
e
e
^
é
^
rie...
St. Petersburg, 1891–92.
[:
]
4 vols. in 3. See vol. 1 re. cartography.
15. Oberhummer, Eugen: "Bericht
u
^
ü
^
ber L
a
^
ä
^
nder-end V
o
^
ö
^
lkerkunde der antiken
Welt,"
Geographische Jahrbuch
, vol. 19, pp. 307–358; vol. 22, pp.
245–258; vol. 28, pp. 131–194, Gotha 1896–1905.
16. Paullin, Charles C. and Frederic L. Paxon: Guide to the materials in
London Archives for the history of the United States since 1783.
Washington, D.C., 1914, 642 pp.
EA-History. Friis: Mapping of Arctic Bibliog.
1
17. Pfaff, Christian G. F.: "Bibliographia groenlandica, eller Fortegnelse
paa vaerker, afhandlinger og danske manuskripter, der handle om
Gr
o
^
ø
^
nland indtil aereb 1880 incl...,"
Meddelelser om Gr
o
^
ø
^
nland,
vol.
13, pp. 1–247, Copenhagen, 1890.
18. Phillips, Philip L.: A list of geographical atlases in the Library of
Congress, with bibliographical notes. Washington, vols. 1 and 2,
1909; vol. 3, 1914; and vol. 4, 1920.
19. Phillips, Philip L.: A list of maps of America in the Library of Congress
...Washington, 1901, 1137 pp.
20. Phillips, Philip L.: Alaska and the northwest part of North America,
1588–1898; maps in the Library of Congress. Washington, 1898.
119 pp.
21. Ricci, Seymour de and W. J. Wilson: Census of medieval and renaissance
manuscripts in the United States and Canada. New York, 1935–1940.
3 vols.
22. Tillinghast, William H.: "Critical essay on the sources of information —
notes - the geographical knowledge of the ancients considered in
relation to the discovery of America,"
Narrative and Critical History
of America,
vol. 1, pp. 33–58, Boston, 1884.
23. United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (formerly Coast Survey): Annual
reports of the superintendent (now director) showing the progress
of the survey, 1852 to date. Washington, 1853 to date.
24. Watson, Paul B.: "Bibliography of the pre-Columbian discoveries of
America" in Rasmus B. Anderson:
America not Discovered by Columbus,
pp. 129–173, Madison, 1930.
25. Wickersham, James: "A bibliography of Alaskan literature 1724–1924..."
Miscellaneous Publication, Alaska Agricultural College and School
of Mines
, Fairbanks, vol. 1, pp. 1–635, Cordova, Alaska, 1927.
26. Wolkenhauer, Wilhelm: Leitfaden zur geachichte der kartographie in
tabellarischer
[:
]
darstellung... Breslau, 1895. 93 pp.
27. Wright, H John K.: "Notes and bibliography,"
Geographical Lore of the
Time of the Crusades
, pp. 365–543, American Geographical Society,
Research Series, no. 15, New York, 1925.
27. Wright, John K. and Elizabeth T. Platt: Aids to geographical research:
bibliographies, periodicals, atlases, gazetteers, and other reference
books. American Geographical Society, Research Series, no. 22.
New York, 1947. 331 pp.
28. Wright, John K.: "Notes and bibliography,"
Geographical Lore of the
Time of the Crusades, pp. 365–543, American Geographical Society,
Research Series, no. 15, New York, 1925.
29. Yarmolinsky, Abraham: Russian americana, sixteenth to eighteenth
centuries: a bibliographical and historical study. New York, 1943.
45 pp.
EA-History. Friis: Mapping of Arctic Bibliog.
C. GENERAL WORKS:
1. Avezac-Macaya, Armand d': "Coup d'oeil historique sur la projection des
cartes de geographie,..."
Bulletin de la Societie de Geographie de
Paris, cinquieme series 5,
vol. 5, pp. 257–361, 438–485, Paris, 1863.
2. Bagrow, Leo: "A. Ortelii catalogus cartographorum ...,"
Petermanns
Mitteilungen, Ergänzungsheft,
nos. 199 and 210, Gotha, 1928–30, 2 vols. maps.
3. Bardarson, Ivarr: Iver Beres Grønlands beskrivelse, med et kort og
forerindring af Arent Aschlund... Copenhagen, 1832. 12 pp. map.
4. Barrington, Daines: "Additional proofs that the polar Seas are open..."
Read ata Meeting of the Royal Society, Dec. 22, 1774,
m.p., n.d.
51 pp.
5. Barthold, W.: "Die geographische und historische erforschung des Orients,
mit besonderer berücksichtigung der russischen arbeiten,"
Quellen und
Forschungen zur Erd-und Kulturkunde, berausgegeben von R. Strube
,
vol. S, pp. 1–225, Leipzig, 1913.
6. Beazley, Charles R.: The dawn of modern geography. A
[:
]
history of ex–
ploration and geographical science... London, 1897–1906. 3 vols.
7. Berg, Lev S.: "Iz istorii otkrytiia Aleoutskikh ostrovov,"
Zemlevedenie,
vol. 26, pp. 114–132, 1924. In Russian.
8. Berg, Lev S.: Ocherki po istorii Russkikh geograficheskikh
[:
]
otkrytii
[Studies in the history of Russian geographical discoveries].
Akademii Nauk, Moscow, 1946. In Russian. 358 pp.
9. Berg, Lev S.: "Kartografickeskij mif-Anianskij proliv [a cartographical
myth-Anian Strait]."
Izvestiia. Ruzskoe Geograficheskoe Obahchestvo
,
vol. 68, pp.806–810, Leningrad, 1936. In Russian.
9. Berg, Lev S.: "Pervye karty Kamchatki," Izvestiia. Russkoe Geografi–
cheskoe Obshchestvo, vol. 75, pp. 3–7, Moscow, 1943. In Russian.
10. Berg, Lev S.: Ocherki po istorii Russkikh geograficheskikh otkrytii.
Moscow, 1946. In Russian.
11. Berg, Lev S.: "Kartograficheskij mif-Anianskij proliv [a cartographical
myth-Anian Strait'." Izvestiia. Russkoe Geograficheskoe Obshchestvo,
vol. 68, pp. 806–810, Leningrad, 1936. In Russian.
12. Berkh, Vasilii N.: The chronological history of the discovery of the
Aleutian;...]translated from the Russian, dated St. Petersburg,
1823, by Dimitri Krenov]. Seattle, 1938. 127 pp.
13. Bigourdan, G.: "Les origines de nos cartes geographiques,"
La Science
Moderne
, vol. 2, pp. 449–455, 505–513. 18 maps.
EA-History. Friis: Mapping of Arctic Bibliog.
14. Bjørnbo, Axel A. and Carl S. Petersen: Anecdota cartographica septentriona–
lia... [A Chronologically arranged series of cartographical sources
concerning the North from the 14th to the 17th century - English trans–
lation by Sophia Bertelsen]. Hauniae, 1908. 32 pp. maps.
15. Bjørnbo, Axel A.: "Cartographia groenlandica,"
Meddelelser om Grønland,
vol. 48, pp. 1–332, Kjøbenhavn, 1911.
16. Bob
e
e
^
é
^
, Louis T. A.: ...Opdagelzesrejaer til Gr
o
^
ø
^
nland 1473–1806..."
Meddelelser om Gr
o
^
ø
^
nland
, vol. 55, pp. 1–54, K
o
^
ø
^
benhaven, 1936.
17. Breitfus, Leonid L.: "Early maps of north-eastern Asia and of the lands
around the north Pacific. Controversy between G. F. Miiller and
J. N. Delisle,"
Imago Mundi
, vol. 3, pp. 87–99, London, 1939.
18. Brown, Lloyd A.: The story of maps. Boston, 1949. 397 pp. maps.
19. Bunbury, H. E.: A history of ancient geography... London, 1879. 2 vols.
20. Cebrian, Konstantin: Geschichte der kartographie; ein beitrag zur
entwicklung des kartenbildes und kartenwesens. Gotha, 1922. 129 pp.
21. Conway, William M. C.: No man's land, a history of Spitsbergen from its
discovery in 1596 to the beginning of the scientific exploration of
the country;... Cambridge, 1906. 377 pp. maps.
22. Cortes
a
^
ã
^
o, Armando: ...Cartografia e cartogr
a
^
á
^
fos portugueses des
seculos XV e XVI (Contribuic
a
^
ã
^
o para um estudo complete), Lisboa,
1935. 2 vols.
23. Coxe, William: Account of the Russian discoveries between Asia and
America. To which are added, the conquest of Siberia,... London,
1780. 344 pp. maps.
24. Dahlgren, Per Johan: ...Sveriges ajökarta... Lund, 1944. 413 pp. maps.
25. Dall, William H. (transl.): "Geographical Explorations: Early expedi–
tions to the region of Bering Sea and Strait. From the Reports and
Journals of Vitus Ivanovich Bering,"
Annual Report U.S. Coast and
Geodetic Survey, 1890
. Appendix No. 19, pp. 759–774, Washington,
1890. maps.
26. Daly, Charles P.: "On the early history of cartography, or what we know
of maps and map making before the time of Mercator,"
Bulletin of
the American Geographical Society
, vol. 11, pp. 1–33, New York, 1879.
27. Eckert, Max: "Die Landkarte und ihr Gel
a
^
ä
^
ride geschichte und tatsachen
der Geländedarstellung,"
Die Kartenwissenschaft.
.., vol. 1, pp. 399–496,
[:
]
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