36 THE ANATOMY OF SCIENCE 



rectly with the compass, or as we say, north and 

 south, and the horizontal line the path of a 

 canoe traveling in a transverse direction, 

 neither to the north nor to the south. The lines 

 were placed, as they supposed, at the same dis- 

 tance apart, namely, ten days' paddling. They 

 had therefore what we call a Mercator's pro- 

 jection. But they had no idea of a spherical 

 earth ; to them it was quite flat. 



The base line of their map ran between the 

 two islands called Ilo and Moa, forty days' 

 paddling apart. Once a number of canoes set 

 out on this voyage leaving Moa at the same 

 time, each paddling by compass. But one was 

 soon lost from the others and came upon a rocky 

 island w^hich the captain of the canoe knew to 

 be far south of the regular route. He discovered 

 that an iron amulet he was wearing had dis- 

 turbed his compass, and having discarded this 

 he set course by his compass for Ilo. Much to 

 his surprise, he arrived there before any of the 

 other canoes. Being of an experimental turn of 

 mind he returned bv the same route, and once 

 more beat all his competitors. The story spread, 

 others made similar trials, and finally they 

 found that the quickest path between the is- 

 lands was the one shown on the map by the 



