In 1577, cartographer Gerardus Mercator penned a letter to English mathematician and astrologer, John Dee. He wrote about many things but his description of the North Pole (Hyperborea) is quite curious.
“In the midst of the four countries is a whirlpool…into which there empty these four indrawing Seas which divide the North. And the water rushes round and descends into the earth just as if one were pouring it through a filter funnel.”
“It is four degrees wide on every side of the Pole, that is to say eight degrees altogether. Except that right under the Pole there lies a bare rock in the midst of the Sea. Its circumference is almost 33 French miles, and it is all of magnetic stone…”
The following description is included in the notes on the original map:
“The four canals there pictured he said flow with such current to the inner whirlpool, that if vessels once enter they cannot be driven back by wind."
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