bensozia: Lakes and Islands

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Interesting map from the 1850s that has been wandering around the internet.

G. Verloren said...: I don't quite understand the selection process.

For example, the category that contains Java fails to also include neighboring Sumatra, Borneo, or New Guinea, all of which are larger than Java. It also doesn't include the Spice Islands of the Moluccas, which are smaller but certainly far more famous than any of the above.

Also not included are Japan and New Zealand, bith which are larger than the British Isles. Obviously a great many islands of rather small individual size are lacking, but it does seem odd that large archipelagoes usually taken as a whole, such as the Philippines, would also be missing. Australia is presumably excluded due to popularly being classified as a continent, but what of Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world?

Similar unexplained omissions occur in the other categories as well. They include Lake Baikal, but not Lake Balkhash? Vancouver Island but not Graham? They include Lagua dos Patos (which isn't even a lake, it's a coastal lagoon!), but they don't include Lake Titicaca, the largest lake in South America?

I am, quite frankly, baffled as to how selections were made.; October 31, 2018 at 10:15 AM

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