The Land of Generica

Nathaniel Bowditch’s American Practical Navigator is the classic manual for sailors, offering practical (not surprisingly) advice for all manner of maritime situations. Our Technical Services Librarian recently added a copy to our online catalog, which gave me a reason to look through the volume, and I came across the following image (borrowed from Google Books):

Click to view in Google Books

Designed as an teaching aid for future navigators, this map depicts all the usual parts of the map labeled generically (e.g. the “Ocean” ocean surrounds the island “Island”), creating an imaginary land of the generic (not to be confused with Generica proper). If you’re interested in this type of imaginary cartography, the Strange Maps blog has many more examples