

Island of California - GuiA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_California

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masterjack
You can buy a replica of the original first edition Encyclopedia Brittanica,
and it's full of interesting tidbits like how California is a "land in the
West Indies. It is unknown whether it be an island or a peninsula."

It's also a great example of either optimism or poor planning at the start of
a major project: the three volumes are N-Z, C-M, A-B. The first volume does
however have very in depth sections on accounting and anatomy (not as
different as you'd expect). They did lose steam by the end, all they have to
say about women is "the female of man".

[http://store.britannica.com/products/052700000](http://store.britannica.com/products/052700000)

~~~
arrrg
If you understand German you can check out the „Zedler Universallexicon“. It
was published between 1732 and 1754 (a couple decades before the Encyclopædia
Britannica) and it’s absolutely massive (68 volumes, about 63,000 pages).

It has been completely digitised (mostly for research purposes, since it is
often used to determine the state of knowledge about a certain topic at the
time) and is available for free online ([http://www.zedler-
lexikon.de](http://www.zedler-lexikon.de)). Browsing it can be very
interesting and often quite amusing.

The entry for California (nowadays „Kalifornien“ in German, but „California“
in the encyclopaedia) is actually pretty long, somewhat hilarious and somewhat
sad. On the issue of whether California is an island it teaches the
controversy and presents both viewpoints, though clearly seems to prefer the
view that California is an island.

I will try to translate the entry quite literally (paragraph breaks are
inserted for better readability):

“California, also called Noua Albion [sic, should probably be Nova Albion?],
an island in northern America, situated in the South Sea, reaches to New
Mexico or New Granada, and is separated from them by a sea arm; however, many
believe it to only be a peninsula that is connected to the mainland towards
the north. In length it measures 600 or 700 French miles from north to south,
from the capes Cabo blanc, Cabo S. Sebastian and Cabo Mendocino to the Cabo de
S. Lucar.

The inhabitants are upstanding people, the men walk naked, the women, however,
are covered to the knees in skins or feathers from the birds. The people are
very skilled in hunting and fishing, as they have a special way of catching
the fish.

The land is arid, barren and cold [huh?], even though it is situated where it
should rather be hot or at least temperate. There are frequently grasshoppers.
Pearls are found eastward on the coasts of California, just as on the coasts
of New Mexico and New Granada, as first discovered by Cortesio [Hernán Cortés,
I assume] in the year 1535.”

There is also an entry in a supplement volume that expands on the pearl
fishing:

“California, island, [reference to previous volume]. Because the coasts there
are famous for pearl fishing, the Europeans strongly wished to be there, and
also, from time to time, attempted to remain there. In the beginning of the
year 1703 a fortress was already built there [I wonder which fortress that is
and whether it still exists in some form], so that it can serve to protect the
Spaniards in an emergency. It stands in the quarter [not sure about this one,
both in the German original and the translation] St Dionysii, on land that the
Indians [„Indianer” in the original] call Coneho [Conejo?]. It was given the
name of our dear Lady of Loretto.”

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dragonwriter
> California, also called Noua Albion [sic, should probably be Nova Albion?]

'u' and 'v' were allographs for the same letter in medieval Latin (and
English, etc.) -- though they became separate in around the 16th Century in
English. Maybe transliteration of Latin into German kept "u" where we would
use "v" longer?(Nova Albion is basically "New Britain" in Latin)

~~~
tanzam75
Fun fact: Nova Albion is named after Britain because it was claimed by the
English privateer Francis Drake during his circumnavigation of the world.

Another fun fact: Drake's circumnavigation was only the second one on record,
after the Magellan expedition. Nobody had done it in the intervening 55 years.

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daveslash
Even though it wouldn't come close to making California an island, I'd like to
point out that it's by geological luck that the sea doesn't _still_ extent all
the way up the Coachella Valley to Palm Sprints & Indio. Most of that entire
valley is at or below sea level. The reason that the sea does _not_ extend
that far up is that it is held back by a natural dam - a large sand-deposit
where the Colorado River empties into the Sea of Cortez. To put it crudely,
the Colorado River carved out the Grand Canyon, carried it away, and built a
natural dam with several hundred miles downstream, which now protects the
Coachella Valley from the ocean.

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daveslash
Man, I really gotta learn to proofread for typos. Sorry everyone. (seems too
late to edit now)

~~~
zatkin
I'm too late to have noticed.

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christianbryant
Great to see what California will look like as an island after the "big one".
Moving more inland no longer looks like an option! I'm going to have to ride
it out, or move a state over :-)

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lutorm
Moreover, if we end up with complete deglaciation of the ice sheets, the CA
central coast would turn into a big peninsula all the way down to Paso Robles
as the central valley becomes a huge bay.

[http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Special:SeaLevel](http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Special:SeaLevel)

~~~
quackerhacker
Cool. If I can live till 2100, I have the possibility of our property becoming
possibly beachfront. :)

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brc
Yeah. I'd look at how fast the ice has to melt in order for that to happen.
Perhaps 21000 might be more likely. Spoiler alert : 2100 is just 85 1/2 years
away. At the current rates, the ocean will have risen...gasp....10 inches.

~~~
hyperbovine
Current consensus estimates put the expected rise at 2100 to be more like ~1
meter ([http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-
consensus-97-...](http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-
consensus-97-per-cent/2013/dec/04/experts-ipcc-underestimated-sea-level-
rise)). That's enough to, for example, permanently flood 1/3 of the roads of
the Gulf Coast, erase several island nations and 1/3 the world's airports from
the face of the earth, and render large parts of New York and Miami unlivable
due to storm surge. Gasp indeed.

~~~
sqrlrgwright
I doubt your estimates of the impact. For example, of the 124 airports in
Florida, only 2 are below 1 meter elevation (St George Island and Key West
International), only 16 are below 3 meters. So I doubt 1/3 of the worlds
airports would flood, or for that matter 1/3 of the roads in the Gulf Coast.

~~~
hyperbovine
Sorry, you are partially correct. I looked up the airport stat and it's
specific to the Caribbean, not worldwide. Regarding the other claim however:

“It is estimated that a hypothetical 1 m rise in relative sea level projected
for the Gulf Coast region between Alabama and Houston over the next 50-100
years would permanently flood a third of the region’s roads as well as putting
more than 70% of the region’s ports at risk,” the IPCC said.

[http://www.rtcc.org/2014/03/26/long-term-sea-level-rise-
will...](http://www.rtcc.org/2014/03/26/long-term-sea-level-rise-will-be-much-
higher-but-barely-studied-ipcc/#sthash.YF7IVjWy.dpuf)

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niix
I just moved to California, I definitely feel like I'm on an island.

~~~
ankurpatel
Island with freezing water around it :-)

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Aqueous
What you call a "mistake" I call "accurate, four hundred years early"

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chris_mahan
You mean it took 266 years to get that fact right? (From 1510 to 1776)

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TrainedMonkey
266 years is nothing, there are quite a few myths, despite overwhelming
evidence of contrary, that are being perpetuated for over two millennia.

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minikites
I get it. It's very clever. How's that working out for you?

~~~
baq
guess he's fed right now.

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waynecochran
What's interesting is how accurate the NE and SE (and southern SW) quadrants
of these maps are. They explored all the crevices in NE Canada and the Gulf of
Mexico, but hadn't made it to the Pacific NW yet I guess...

~~~
vacri
To get to the Pacific NW, you have to explore and send ships all the way
around, right through the Straits of Magellan below modern Argentina. By
comparison, the Gulf of Mexico is 'just across the pond'.

~~~
chetanahuja
Another interesting aspect to note here is the pacific was being predominantly
explored by the Spanish navy in this period. The early investments in looking
west for expansion (Columbus, Magellan et al.) led to many centuries of total
domination of the Americas and even trade to Asia from the western route.

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hownottowrite
Stanford has 800 maps from the Glen McLaughlin map collection online (aka
California as an island):
[http://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/zb871zd0767](http://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/zb871zd0767)

~~~
rogerhoward
There's also the great David Rumsey collection, viewable online:
[http://www.davidrumsey.com](http://www.davidrumsey.com)

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DustinCalim
This sentence was pretty interesting: "The legend was initially infused with
the idea that California was a terrestrial paradise, like the Garden of Eden
or Atlantis."

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petarb
Maybe with a shake or two from San Andreas Fault it will become the Island of
California.

