of the map mistakes existed for centuries.) These map “phantoms” were considered plagues on navigational charts, frequently leading ships astray on fruitless confirmation missions.” The atlas is organized—roughly— alphabetically by title of each map vignette. Each narrative is a minimum two-page spread (with some up to six pages) with multiple maps and corresponding stories explaining the origin of each legendary location. Each map mystery is noted with its approximate latitude and longitude coordinates, and the author captivatingly explains how the ideas behind them (the myths, lies and/or blunders) came about and why they were believed so widely. The historical account of each map is peppered with interesting anecdotes from a wide variety of sources. These include excerpts from ancient texts (Plato, Pliny, Herodotus, and Strabo), travel journals and notes from voyages of exploration (Columbus, Cook, Cortez, and Darwin), letters, official reports, and journals—all written with an enjoyable blend of humor. The first map in the book and the oldest map mentioned depicts Atlantis in 340 BC. Brook-Hitching points out that “all missing islands of the past pale in scale to the largest and most famous fugitive of all: the island of Atlantis—‘larger than Libya and Asia put together,’ according to Plato, whose dialogue...describes the land in detail.” The maps selected for the book draw on examples from the past 2,300 years (360 BC to 2012) and encompass cities, islands, lands, rivers, seas, reefs, straights, and mountains. The atlas then continues with more than 200 pages covering fifty-five misleading maps from around the world and literally from every continent and ocean basin. Additionally, it has ten pages about the sea monsters on maps with enlargements of each creature from the original map, eight pages on monsters in medieval maps (mythological portraiture), six pages on Paradise, and four pages on the history of the Flat Earth. This compilation of lively, skillfully illustrated stories about myths, mysteries, and imaginings as recorded on maps holds something for everyone, young and old.
Many of these stories are known in the cartographic/geography community but here they all are in one place, and it’s a decidedly nautical place. Jennifer L. Rahn Saba, Netherlands Antilles Collecting Evolution: The Galapagos Expedition that Vindicated Darwin by Matthew J. James (Oxford University Press, New York, 2017, 284pp, illus, biblio, notes, appen, index, isbn 9780-19935-459-7; $34.95hc) Eight young men set off for the Galapagos Islands in 1905 for an expected eighteen-month journey to collect biological specimens in a time when slaughtering animals was considered to be a boon for science—the rarer the species, the better. Under the banner of the Museum of the California Academy of Sciences, they
sailed in the wake of Charles Darwin, as well as that of paleontologist Georg Baur. There was a ninth major player in this expedition—the research vessel Academy. The 89-foot schooner, formerly named USS Earnest, had served in two previous careers before setting sail with the collecting expedition, suffering mishaps in both. In 1876, under the operational control of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, it ran aground on Isle au Haut, Maine; in 1904, as a training ship for the US Navy, it was tossed ashore in a storm on Yerba Buena Island in California. The Navy sold it to the California academy for $1,000, and off it sailed into a new branch of maritime history. James’s retelling of the expedition is detailed down to the skinning of the last tortoise and includes the trials of the seagoing portions of the mission. The crew of
ARCTIC ADVENTURE The extraordinary life and legend of Captain Robert Bartlett, the man who guided Peary in his quest for the North Pole. Order: info@boulderpublications.ca www.boulderpublications.ca Tel: 709-895-6383
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