Legendary Islands of the Atlantic: A Study in Medieval Geography

Abstract

THE migration of man across the ocean has differed considerably from his movement overland. On one hand, he has succeeded in taming animals by way of improving on the exertion of his own muscular effort, and in consequence he has perforce followed natural routes determined in part by a minimum of physical obstacles and a maximum or, at any rate, sufficient food supply for his animals, Moreover, through carelessness or accident he has dropped implements or weapons which give clues to the routes he followed and the sites of his settlements. On the other hand, the passage of the sea has called forth a different effort in the art of shipbuilding and seamanship, and the hungry ocean has swallowed up the remains of many a goodly ship which, through storm or adventure, passed over the trackless deep. Moreover, the wanderings of a people leave deeper marks on the historical record than the deeds of the men to whose individual prowess the opening of the sea-ways was largely due.

Legendary Islands of the Atlantic: A Study in Medieval Geography.

By William H. Babcock. (American Geographical Society, Research Series, No. 8.) Pp. v + 196. (New York: American Geographical Society, 1922.) n.p.