An Account of the Map of France, According to the Observations of M M. Picard, and de la Hire; Taken from the Recueil d'Observations Faites en Plusieurs Voyages, etc. Paris, 1693. in Fol.

I. An Account of the Map of France, according to the Observations of M.M. Picard, and de la Hire; taken from the Recueil d'Observations faites en plusieurs Voyages, &c. Paris, 1693. in Fol. We thought it convenient in this place to present you in the following Map, with the Result of the Observations that have been made for the correcting of it to the end, that in one Figure alone, may appear whatsoever they contain, and wherein they differ from what is laid down in the Map, which Monsieur Sanson, one of the most Illustrious Geographers of this Age, presented to the Dauphin, An. 1679. What hath been noted in pointed lines, is exactly copied according to this Map, which hath been reduced to the half. The names of Cities, whose situation is also taken from this Map, are written in Italian Characters; the correction of the position of Coasts, which is deduced from preceding Observations, is marked with a single Stroke, with a little shadowing towards the Sea as is commonly done; and the Names of the Cities, whose Situation is corrected, are set down in Roman Characters. The degrees of Latitude, or Elevation of the Pole, are Marked on both sides of the Border; so that it is easy to perceive the Corrections that ought to be made in the Elevations of the Pole, of those places that are Marked. As for the Degrees of Longitude, which likewise serve to understand the difference of the Meridians of the places proposed; they are Mark- Marked in the same Border above and below; but the Division of them begins at the Meridian that passes through the Observatory at Paris, by going to East and West; so that the difference of Longitude of the places Marked in this Map, appears to be the same which is delivered in the Observations that have been made in those very places, and with Correspondence to the Observatory: we judged that Longitudes were not to be Marked as they commonly are in Maps, beginning at the Isle of Fer, as hath been established, because we do not exactly know the Situation of this Island, in respect of the Observatory. We have here proposed Monsieur Sanson's Map, as the most exact of all the Modern ones that have been Published; only to make it appear, how different Observations are from the Relations and Memoirs, upon which the most excellent Geographers, are obliged to go to work, and that such Faults ought not to be imputed to them, as may be observed in this Map, touching the Situation of the Coasts of Languedoc and Provence, which come far short of Truth, as to the Elevations of the Pole, which may be easily enough observed.