IN NORTHERN MISTS 



mation, though they may equally well be derived from older 

 German maps. 



Almost contemporary with Behaim's globe is the so-called 

 Laon globe of 1493, which was accidentally discovered in a 

 curiosity shop at Laon some years ago. It gives a wholly 

 different representation of the North, more in agreement 

 with the usual maps of the world of the Nicolaus Germanus 

 type, with sea at the pole round the north of the continent, 



A portion of the Laon globe of 1493 [after D'Avezac] 



which terminates approximately at the Arctic Circle. The 

 Scandinavian peninsula (called " Norvegia ") has a form 

 somewhat resembling this type; but to the north of it, Gron- 

 landia appears as an island, with a land called Livonia project- 

 ing northward on the east, and two islands, Yslandia and Tile, 

 on the west. Nothing is known of the origin of the Laon 

 globe, or of the sources of its representation of the North. 



Such were the geographical ideas of the North at the close 

 of the Middle Ages, when the period of the great discoveries 

 was at hand; they were vague and obscure, and the mists 

 had settled once more over large regions which had been 

 formerly known; but out in the mists lay mythical islands and 

 countries in the north and west. 

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