22 FEBRUARY 1902, Page 26

The First Map Containing the Name "America." By Basil H.

Soulsby. (The Geographical Journai, February.)--Mr. Soulsby gives in this interesting pamphlet a rdsume of a paper from the pen of Dr. F. V. Wieser in which the discovery of a long-lost map of America is related. A certain Cosmographiae Introductio was published in 1507 at St. Die, in the Vosges. Its author was one Martin Walderseemaller, who speaks of a globe and a map as accompanying it. These have been lately sought for. The map was discovered last year, along with another, in the library of Wolfegg Castle, the residence of Prince Waldburg, in Wiirtem- berg. They are of a very large size (8 ft. by 4 ft. C in.), and, having been used as wall-maps, have perished from various causes. For more information our readers must go to Mr. Soulsby's pamphlet. It was Walderseemilller, it should be said, who started the idea that "the fourth part of the world should be called America, because Americus (Vespuccius) discovered it." And it is in this map that the name first appears.