labor of ours I hope and pray you will accept with as much gratitude as we have bestowed care upon it. Willem Caesius. In the year 1622.” A citation of all legends which the author has placed on his map would indeed fill many pages, and but few of these are here quoted. [Illustration: Fig. 95. Terrestrial Globe of Willem Jansz. Blaeu, 1622.] In the southern hemisphere, and particularly conspicuous by reason of the artistic cartouch in which it is placed, we find a reference to the question of the proper location of the prime meridian,[40] somewhat lengthy but quoted here in full. “Quamvis longitudinis initium arbitrarium esset, ab occasu tamen ejus auspicium facere ideo veteribus placuit quod illic aliquis terrae limen esset, qui ortum versus nullis expeditionibus deprehendi potuisset. Atque eam ob causam Ptolemaeus (cujus sedulitati et industriae Geographiae incolumitatem omnes, vel inviti, debent) ab ultimo termino occidentis cognito, quae Insulae in Atlantico Mari Fortunatae dictae sunt, auspicium fecit in eisque primum Meridianum defixit: quod theticum principium deinceps fere omnes ejus auctoritate moti retinuerunt. Interim hoc seculo nonnulli hoc principium ex ipsa natura eruendum censuere. Qua in re acus Magneti junctae indicium sequendum sibi sumpserunt, eumque primum Meridianum statuunt quo in loco ea Boream spectat Quos plane allucinari addita illa Magneti vis convincit, penes quem nullum longitudinis arbitrium sit, cum is ipse sub eodem meridiano varium habeat enclisin prout huic aut illi continenti vicinus fuerit. Sed et illi ipsi qui ita sentiunt, ob instabile magnetis indicium, in primo Meridiano, multum inter se dissentiunt. Quamobrem ut summo Geographiae commodo, certus aliquis Meridianus tamquam primum principium servari et retineri possit, Ptolemaei vestigiis insistentes, easdem Insulas, et iis Junonem, quae Teneriffa vulgo creditur, delegimus, cujus excelsa illa et praerupta petra, perpetuis nebulis obsessa, Indigenis El Pico dicta, primi Meridiani terminus esto. Qua in re ab Arabum longitudinibus (qui extrema Africae littora versus occidentem delegerunt), vix unius gradus quadrante abimus diversi: quod quoque monuisse operae pretium putavi.” “Although the beginning of longitude is arbitrarily selected nevertheless it pleased the ancients to begin the counting of it from the west, because there was the limit of the earth, as some thought, while no expedition to the east was able to determine this. Therefore Ptolemy, to whose application and industry all men, even though unwilling to admit it, owe the preservation of geography (geographical science), made the location (of the beginning of longitude) in the farthest known limit of the west, which is called the Fortunate Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, and in them he fixed the first meridian. This hypothetical beginning, almost all who came after him retained because of his influence. But in our century there are some who have said that