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ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



evident from the fact that Columbus to the day of his death, five years 

 later than the date of this map, insisted that Cuba was a part of the 

 mainland. 



And yet, after all, there is a method as to latitude on this map. The 

 Equator and the Tropic of Cancer are given, and between them are 23° 

 28' of latitude ; so if we take Cavo de Ynglaterra to be Cape Eace, we 



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Fig. 4.— The Canting Map, 1501-2, showing the Greater Antilles north of the 

 Tropic and the elongation of Newfoundland to the east. 



shall find it to be in 54° 30', about the same distance too high as Cuba is 

 too high. A similar result will appear if we measure from the rhumb-line 

 running due west parallel to the tropic from the windrose in the Strait of 

 Gibraltar, so that the whole of the North American side of the map, from 

 the Antilles to Cape Eace, is thrown up in latitude, and, proportionately 

 to the "West Indies, Cavo de Ynglaterra is very nearly in its proper lati- 

 tude — not exactly but nearly, within one or two degrees — near enough 

 to identify it ; for if there be one thing in this discussion which seems 

 irrational to a student of carlogra])h3^, it is to take these early charts and 

 measure them as if they were the result of a scientific admiralty survey. 

 So much for latitudes ; but it is far different as to longitudes, and 

 for two very sufficient reasons : First, because there was absolutely no 



