Mapping Iceland

This map appeared in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal in 1820. This was a journal that was established in 1819 to publish the latest discoveries in science. From 1826 it was published as The New Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, until merged with another journal in 1864. In this volume, II, January to April 1928, there appeared “observations” about the result of minerology journey of Mr. Menge, written by George Steuart Mackenzie, who had visited Iceland in 1810. At the end of the volume is this map, showing the routes of Mr. Menge. Interestingly, it is not the map of Mackenzie from his Travels in the Island of Iceland during the Summer of the Year MDCCCX, but a map by William Home Lizars, who had made very similar map for the publication of Ebenezer Henderson´s book in 1818. That map was revised in later editions was bigger and much more detailed. But the shape of the country is the same.