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The National Geographic Magazine 



climate and crop service has been ex- 

 tended ; 60 new storm-warning towers 

 have been erected along the Atlantic 

 coast. The professors and officers of the 

 Weather Service are also doing impor- 

 tant work in promoting interest in the 

 study of meteorology by giving lectures 

 before the schools and universities of 

 the country. 



TWO FAMOUS MAPS OF AMERICA 



THE oldest map on which the name 

 America appears, and the first 

 large map to show the Columbian dis- 

 coveries, has recently been found in 

 . Germany. The map was made in the 

 first years of the 16th century, by the 

 famous German cartographer, Martin 

 Waldseemuller, and given to the world 

 in 1507. To accompany the map, 

 Waldseemuller published at the same 

 time a brief treatise in Latin, entitled 

 " Cosmographise Introductio," accom- 

 panied by an appendix containing trans- 

 lations of the letters of Amerigo Ves- 

 pucci. It was in this work that Wald- 

 seemuller proposed to call the new world 

 after Amerigo, evidently believing that 

 Amerigo was its discoverer. The sug- 

 gestion was adopted, and first the south- 

 ern continent and later the entire west- 

 ern hemisphere was called after him . A 

 few copies of the treatise are still ex- 

 tant, several being in American libraries, 

 but the map, though fully 1,000 copies 

 were printed, soon disappeared, and one 

 copy has only just now been accident- 

 ally discovered in the librae of Prince 

 Waldbourg, at Wolfgegg Castle in 

 Wiirtemburg. 



Several years after the publication of 

 this map Waldseemuller learned of his 

 error in crowning Amerigo Vespucci as 

 the discoverer of America and on his 

 later maps omitted the name ' 'America. ' '. 

 But the thousand copies of his first great 

 map had been scattered throughout 

 Europe, so that the name had become 

 too firmly rooted to be displaced. A 



copy of one of these later maps, printed 

 in 1 516, on which the name America 

 does not appear, and which had like- 

 wise utterly disappeared, was found in 

 Prince Waldbourg' s library at the same 

 time. On this map, for the name 

 "America" is substituted the name 

 " Brazilia sive Terra Papagalli " (the 

 land of parrots)'. 



The maps are wood-cut engravings. 

 Each is made of twelve sheets, to be 

 pasted in three rows, four sheets in each 

 row. Waldseemuller probably intended 

 them for wall maps, which helped 

 moisture and time to make away with 

 the copies. The sheets of the maps 

 found in Prince Waldbourg's library 

 had been bound in a large folio volume, 

 which protected them from the ravages 

 of dust and decay. 



It will not be long before Americans 

 will see a facsimile reproduction of the 

 maps. The fortunate finder, Prof. P. 

 J. Fischer, and Dr. Von Wieser, a dis- 

 tinguished German geographer, who 

 had for years been hunting unsuccess- 

 fully for the maps, are hastening to re- 

 produce them in facsimile. 



THE DANISH WEST INDIES 



THE three islands of the Danish 

 West Indies combined are about 

 twice the size of the District of Colum- 

 bia. Thirty-five }'ears ago Denmark 

 offered to sell them for $15,000,000, 

 but finally accepted Secretary Seward's 

 offer of one-half that sum. Secretary 

 Seward, however, did not have his way 

 with the United States Senate, and the 

 islands remained in Denmark's posses- 

 sion. Now Denmark is willing to sell 

 them for $4,500,000. The story of 

 these figures tells not only the value of 

 the islands to Denmark, but also is an 

 index of their present condition. 



St. Thomas, the smallest and most 

 populous of the three, has the best har- 

 bor, Charlotte Amalie, and is the most 

 important. It is 30 miles east of Porto 



