246 California ami th Northwest Coast. 



the geographical views of Delisle, in 1752, and ofEngel in 



1765. 



Joseph Nicolas Delisle, a member of the French Aca- 

 demy, and distinguished as a geographer, bad for 22 yean 

 lived at St. Petersburg as Astronomer of the government, 

 and had accompanied the Russian expedition of 1741 which 

 discovered the land which we now call Alaska. His elder 

 brother, First Geographer <>l the king of France, was called 

 the " creator of modern geography,'' and died in 1720. In 

 1750 Joseph Delisle presented to the French Academy a 

 memoir illustrated with maps to explain after his rich ex- 

 perience, his views of the geography of North-Western 

 America. Several editions of it were published. 1 On these, 

 maps, copies of which are in the State Library, he has 

 drawn: First, a sea of the west, within the interior of the 

 continent, six hundred leagues in circumference, having 

 on its shores the great city of Quiviia. and communicat- 

 ing with the Pacific ocean at two points. Second and 

 third, two series of straits and lakes stretching towards 

 Hudson's and Baffin's bays from the Pacific, running north- 

 east by east. Fourth, the straits of Anian, communicating 

 with the Arctic ocean. 



Delisle and his associate Buache, another distinguished 

 geographer of that day, defend this map, by arguments 

 which they thought convincing, during the four or five 

 following years. 



The first novelty, the Sea of the West, he was led to be- 

 lieve in from an account to be found only in Purohas 

 His 1'ilgrimes (III, 849), which was from the pen of one 



' Nouvrllrs cartes des decnuvcrtea de l'Amiral IV Fonte, et antrcs naviga- 

 te urs Espagnola, PortugaiB, Angle-is, Hollandois, Francois el Rosses dans Irs 

 mere fleptentrionales, avec leur explication. Par M. De Lisle. A Paris. I 

 4to. 



CJonsiderationa g&ographiques el physiques but Irs aouvelles decouvertes 

 Nbrd de la grande mer. . . .du Sod, avec des cartes ...Par!'. Buache. A 

 Paris, 175;]. 4a.. 



