43 2 H O Y A I . S OC 1 i;i Y U 1" ( A N A I > A 



monies adduced in the Address open up the whole of Hudson's Bay 

 and Strait "one Inindred and ten years before Honry Hudson," as 

 eiïectively, and for some, perliaps, more conclusively, than does my 

 orientïition of Cabot's cliart. So Dr. Dawson sbould chide them 

 rather than nie for publishing this item of (reofrrai>hical knowledfje. 

 T merely republished it, and it "appears to have been not an unneces- 

 sary labour. 



"We do not wish to think Dr. Dawson desires the greater part of 

 page 173 of his paper to be taken in a serious mood, when he shows 

 what dire consequences would follow to our Dominion were we to draw 

 a straight line north from Oape Henry to Cape Chidley. Cabot was 

 not concerned' about longitudes, his object was to discover an outlet 

 to Cipango, and he showed it was not to be found between the points 

 36.30 and 67.30 of latitude. 



The example of Ptolemy's misplacing of Scotl'and shows there is 

 no antecedent impossibility- that La Cosa did not place aright Cabot's 

 chart. "We will find Ptolemy's Scotland fairly accurate when we 

 orientate it, therefore, he had much accurate infonnation. Leave 

 La Cosa's map las it is given, and no information, no sense, no indica- 

 tion of even an elementary idea of proportion can be found in it. Yea, 

 more, "well defined islands bearing names cannot by any possibility be 

 located. 



Treat it as w^e must treat Ptolemy's Scotland, that is, place it 

 aright, and at once everything is intelligible. Proportion, the first 

 element of map drawing, is made manifest; the various islands appear 

 in almost their true latitudes, that peculiarly shaped and peculiarly 

 placed one. La Trenidat, the counterpart of which one "would search 

 for in vain, falls into the position assigned it by our best charts. So, 

 too, do those two sm'all ones, near Cavo d'lnglaterra, which are also 

 unusually distinctive, and can be found nowhere else except a little 

 below Cape Chidley. 



Another and most interesting, as well as important proof that the 

 -chart should run north and south was taken from the names thereon, 

 some of which had not been, so far as I know, previously understood. 

 If my interpretati«)n of those names is correct, our store of knowledge 

 will be increased, and important clues will be supplied. All admit the 

 map, or rather Cabot's part of it, to be obscure at least. Surely any- 

 thing which can throw light on it should be welcomed, even did.it 

 prove that some particular theory would be no longer tenable. The 

 truth will bo worth more to us in the end than any triumph of our 

 views at its expense. The Address quoted from an old log book to show 



