I can’t help but wonder how people made accurate maps in the old days before satellites or even air-ships. To accurately map the edges of an island, they would need to either see it from above, or else to keep exceedingly—and painstakingly—difficult measures of both distance and angles as the shore twists and turns.
Looking at some old maps, they weren’t very accurate at all, so my question might be specious. ¬_¬