IN NORTHERN MISTS 



Europe almost unaltered through three centuries. There is 

 something puzzling in that. We must suppose in any case 

 that these charts were developed through many smaller special 

 charts throughout the whole of the thirteenth century, but even 

 that seems a short period for the development of a represen- 

 tation so complete as this, which thenceforward became almost 

 stereotyped. It is principally the coasts that are represented, 

 with many names, while inland there are comparatively few, 

 which, of course, is natural in sea-charts. 



As Italian trade did not extend farther north than Flanders 

 and England (from whence came wool), it is also characteristic 

 of the compass-charts that their detailed representation of the 

 coast extends to the south of England and to Sluis in Flanders, 

 and to the mouth of the Scheldt. Farther than this the Italian 

 ships did not sail; beyond this boundary began the commercial 

 domain of the Hanseatic League. The delineation on the 

 compass-charts of the greater part of Ireland, northern England, 

 Scotland, the north coast of Germany, Denmark, the Baltic, 

 and Scandinavia has an entirely different character from 

 that of the more southern coasts. The coast-lines are 

 there evidently drawn in a formal way, and more or less 

 h5^othetically ; the names (chiefly those of a few ports, 

 bishops' sees, and islands) are also strikingly few. It is clearly 

 seen that these coasts cannot have been drawn from actual 

 compass-courses and reckonings; they are sketches based on 

 second- or third-hand information. For this reason, too, the 

 shape of the northern countries may be subject to considerable 

 variation in the different types of compass-charts. 



We know little of the sources from which they may have 

 obtained their delineation of the North; probably they were 

 many and of different kinds. A glance at the maps reproduced 

 (pp. 226, 232) will convince one that their image of the North dif- 

 fered greatly from that which we find on the wheel-maps, and 

 from that which was probably shown on the maps of antiquity. 

 It is a decisive step in the direction of reality, although the 

 representation is still imperfect. In a whole series of these 

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