"This is a curious misconception. Mr. Harrise is doubtless alluding to Prof. Hind as 'the modern explorer,' but neither Prof. Hind nor anyone who borrows his graphic phrase, applies the expression 'living slime to the salmon and cod, but to the infusoria and other minute organisms with which the Arctic current abounds, and which constitute the food of the immense number of fish in these waters, and the attraction which draws them there.

Again, in dwelling upon the amazing quantity of codfish as a crucial indication of the true landfall, Mr. Harrisse has conclusively disproved his main thesis; for the codfish do not arrive at Cape Chidley until August 15th, five days after John Cabot is known to have been in London. In fact, the codfish do not approach any part of Northern Labrador before July 20th." In an appendix to his very useful paper, Dr. Dawson gives full particulars of the arrival of the codfish' at various points along the coast, taken from the evidence given by Prof. Hind before the Fishery Commission of the Treaty of Washington, which met at Halifax in 1877.

Simultaneously with the establishment of a more decided opinion, that in the absence of precise information each person must be left to form his or her own opinion as to the exact spot for the landfall, it has lately been a matter of frequent remark that a consensus of opinion exists to the effect that the greatest reliance should be placed upon the valuable map constructed by La Cosa. This famous map affords positive proof-all sufficient, even if there were no written records in existence-that the land found by John Cabot was part of the continent of 1 Ante, p. 291.

North America. La Cosa's map is headed as follows: Juan de la Cosa la fizo en el puerto de S: maa en año de 1500:-Juan de la Cosa executed it at the Port of Sancta Maria in the year 1500." Upon the map is a quaint representation of St. Christopher carrying the Christ-child across the waters. "As St. Christopher is reported to have received that name because he carried Christ over the deep water with great danger to himself, whence came the name of Christopher, and as he carried over people whom no other would have carried, so Admiral Christophorus Colonus [Columbus], imploring the assistance of Christ in that dangerous voyage, went over safely himself and his company, that those Indian nations might become citizens and inhabitants of the Church triumphant in heaven." (Histoire del S. D. Fernando Colombo, cap. i.)1

Juan de la Cosa was born about the year 1460, at Santoña, a seaport in the north of Spain. Christopher Columbus started upon his first voyage of discovery on August 3, 1492, and one of his three caravels, the Santa Maria or Capitana, was the property of Juan de la Cosa, who was a man of considerable nautical experience. La Cosa commanded her, with an experienced navigator, Sancho Ruiz, as the pilot. Upon this caravel, which was the largest of the three, Columbus hoisted his flag. The other caravels were respectively named the Niña and the Pinta.

1 The legend as to St. Christopher states that after he was baptized by the Bishop of Antioch he went to live in a desert. In the neighbourhood was a dangerous stream, and he is said to have rendered great help to his fellow-men by carrying them across the stream on his back. One day he proffered his services to a little child whom he carried across the water. It turned out that the little child was Christ!-hence the designation, Christophorus, the Christ-bearer. The vignette was evidently intended by La Cosa to represent Christopher Columbus carrying the Christ-child to the aborigines.

In connection with the proceedings of Columbus, after his discovery of land, it may be briefly related that after visiting four islands (the Bahamas) he landed upon the island of Cuba, which he firmly believed to be a portion of the mainland of the continent of Asia! Subsequently he discovered the island of Hayti, which he named Española, or Hispanolia-Spanish land. On December 25, 1492, the flagship, La Cosa's vessel, struck upon a sandbank and became a wreck. Thereupon Columbus determined to return to Spain in the Niña, and amongst those who returned with him appears the name of Juan de la Cosa, of Santoña, the master and owner of the ill-fated Santa Maria. Columbus, as everybody knows, got back to Spain safely, and he proudly announced to their Catholick Majesties Ferdinand and Isabella that he had discovered a direct oceanic path to the Indies! Hence the origin of the term "West Indies" as applied to some of the American Islands. The second expedition of Columbus, which consisted of fourteen caravels and three carracks, that is, vessels of a larger kind, and about 1500 persons in all, started on the twenty-fifth of September 1493. Juan de la Cosa, who was an adroit map-constructor, joined the expedition for the express purpose of making charts, etc. Among the company were several cavaliers of good family, including Juan Ponce de Leon, who at a later date became recognised-probably without good reason as the discoverer of Florida; and Alonso de Ojeda, of whom more will be said hereafter.

In the course of his (Columbus's) explorations among the islands, it seems to have dawned upon his mind that the position assigned to Cipango