BRITISH CONTRIBUTION 149 



his pre-eminence. His fame also owed something to the style of 

 engraving. The names are clearly engraved, and much detail is 

 given without confusion. Save for the title cartouches, the 

 maps are entirely without decorative details, behind which lack 

 of knowledge so often had taken refuge. On his maps in general, 

 relief is poorly represented; he considered that altitudes could 

 not be introduced except on very large scales. Four years later, 

 this map, which in his words met with "great approbation", 

 was followed by another of the world on the globular projection, 

 published with a 'Companion', in which he set forth his opinion 

 that the Mercator and globular projections were the most 

 suitable on which to represent the whole surface of the globe. 

 For this second map, he had corrected the positions of some 

 hundreds of places, and considered that "as far as the name 

 can apply to a map", it was "an original work". In the 'Com- 

 panion', Arrowsmith lists nearly 140 authorities on which he 

 had drawn, including a number of manuscript maps of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company's territories by Philip Tumour, 

 astronomical observations by Cook's officers, and three maps 

 of the country north of Fort Churchill by an Indian. Alexander 

 Dalrymple had also presented him with a complete set of his 

 geographical publications, including 623 maps and charts. 



It is not possible to list here all Arrowsmith's productions, 

 but notable among them are his chart in nine sheets of the 

 Pacific Ocean, 1798, the dimensions of which when mounted 

 are over 6 ft. by 7 ft. 6 in., and which is now a valuable 

 source for the history of Pacific exploration ; his maps, nineteen 

 sheets in all, published in conjunction with Thompson's 

 *Alcedo; or dictionary of America and West Indies', and based 

 on original materials "that have till lately remained inaccessible 

 at Madrid and at Lisbon". 



After his death in 1825, his business was carried on for a 

 time by his sons Aaron and Samuel, but was later taken over 

 by his nephew, John (1790-1873), who maintained his uncle's 

 reputation. He was closely in touch with the explorers of 

 Australia, working up and publishing their maps. Abandoning 

 his uncle's practice of issuing large maps suitable for mounting 

 as wall maps, which had alternatively to be bound somewhat 

 inconveniently in sheets, he worked for a number of years on 



