54 
A rctic and A nt arctic Exploration [part i 
Dr Nansen is the first writer I know who treats 
Nicholas of Lynn seriously. He shows that the work 
of Nicholas was known to Las Casas, who had read it, 
and also to Martin Behaim, who on his globe places isles 
all round the pole which are not shown on any older map 
and, Nansen thinks, are evidently taken from Nicholas of 
Lynn. The maps of Claudius Clavus, one of them quite 
recently brought to light, and other medieval maps, also 
probably derived their information from our forgotten 
Nicholas. One would give a good deal to know which 
were the northern islands that he visited. Evidently his 
work had an influence on the productions of the car- 
tographers through the next century. 
We owe much to the cartographers, and it is deeply 
interesting to watch their gradual acquisition of fresh 
knowledge, and their treatment of uncertain and disputed 
points. But there have been cartographers of a different 
kind who have invented and knowingly led students and 
navigators astray. If such men gain a hearing, the 
injury they do may endure for a century or more. Such 
a man was Niccolo Zeno. 
,g)P0DAUDA 
The Zeni map. 
