KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 57. N:0 4. 



161 



but 70 degrees on his map of the world, has been increased to 85 degrees by Plancius, 

 this enlargement of the breadth of the ocean has had the consequence that, of de la Torre's 

 two groups, the eastern has followed the American mainland to the east and the western 

 has followed the Asiatic mainland to the west; and the result of the operation has been 

 that the distance between the outermost islands in each direction has grown from 20 

 degrees (Laim— La Farfana) to 55 degrees (Malabrigo — La Desgraciada). 



Although Plancius had to some extent improved the main features of the carto- 

 graphy of the North Pacific Ocean, yet he had also considerably underestimated its 

 breadth, and moreover there remained with him, as an inheritajice from his predecessors, 



M 111 Dl L ( nflJIL-lumjHHMM|.)HIIUUlJlJUUUUmiLim)uuiJULIUII'IMLlu;lUlll 



11. Orbis Terrarum Typus by Petrus Plancius, 1594. Purt of the Western Hemisphere. 



another mistake, in that he let the coast of America north of California run to the west 

 and north-west instead of north-west and north. These errors were observed by Richard 

 Hakluyt. In his famous map of the world of 1599 (Fig. 12), on the strength of observations 

 made during Francisco Gali's voyage in 1584, he increased the distance between Asia 

 (Japan) and America, in 38° N. lat., to 1200 leagues (abont 70 degrees of longitude, as 

 against 25 degrees in Plancius), while in 20° N. lat. he retained his predecessor's distance 

 between the two continents. In connection with this he found himself compelled 

 considerably to shorten the extent of the west coast of America from Cape San Lucas to 

 Cape Mendocino, the terminus of the Spanish discoveries at that date towards the north - 



K. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handl. Band 57. N:o i. 



21 



