lowing into the
Northern Ocean in Lat. 75 deg., but which is in fact no other than Polo's
_Pulisanghin!_[19] Immediately south of this is _Tholomon Provincia_
(Polo's again), and on the coast _Tangut_, _Cathaya_, the Rivers
_Caramoran_ and _Oman_ (a misreading of Polo's _Quian_), _Quinsay_ and
_Mangi_.

[Sidenote: Gradual disappearance of Polo's nomenclature.]

86. The Maps of Mercator (1587) and Magini (1597) are similar in
character, but more elaborate, introducing China as a separate system.
Such indeed also is Blaeu's Map (1663) excepting that Ptolemy's
contributions are reduced to one or two.

In Sanson's Map (1659) the data of Polo and the mediaeval Travellers are
more cautiously handled, but a new element of confusion is introduced in
the form of numerous features derived from Edrisi.

It is scarcely worth while to follow the matter further. With the increase
of knowledge of Northern Asia from the Russian side, and that of China
from the Maps of Martini, followed by the surveys of the Jesuits, and with
the real science brought to bear on Asiatic Geography by such men as De
l'Isle and D'Anville, mere traditional nomenclature gradually disappeared.
And the task which the study of Polo has provided for the geographers of
later days has been chiefly that of determining the true localities that
his book describes under obsolete or corrupted names.

[My late illustrious friend, Baron _A. E. Nordenskioeld_, who has devoted
much time and labour to the study of Marco Polo (see his _Periplus_,
Stockholm, 1897), and published a facsimile edition of one of the French
MSS. kept in the Stockholm Royal Library (see vol. ii. _Bibliography_, p.
570), has given to _The Geographical Journal_ for April, 1899, pp.
396-406, a paper on _The Influence of the "Travels of Marco Polo" on Jacobo
Gastaldi's Maps of Asia_. He writes (p. 398) that as far as he knows, none
"of the many learned men who have devoted their attention to the
discoveries of Marco Polo, have been able to refer to any maps in which all
or almost all those places mentioned by Marco Polo are given. All friends
of the history of geography will therefore be glad to hear that such an
atlas from the middle of the sixteenth century really does exist, viz.
Gastaldi's 'Prima, seconda e terza parte dell Asia.'" All the names of
places in Ramusio's Marco Polo are introduced in the maps of Asia of Jacobo
Gastaldi (1561). Cf. _Periplus_, liv., lv., and lvi.

I may refer to wh