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the continents
 The main directions (north, south, east, west) introduce a right-angled network on the map of Mercator. This fact allow special qualities to be experienced in terms of (rectangular) frames and formats.
One such example relates to the three world continents.
They have been changing in shape, dimensions, and details throughout the millennia. But only today we've got the opportunity to map them with great accuracy.
This is part of the reason why it's the continents of today that give us the proper information.
The two great continents are the so-called Eastern (Asia, Africa, Europe) and the Western (The Americas) worlds. The third continental area is far smaller: Australia. Let us frame them in the mercatorian way. Frames and formats have a revelation in store for us.
C o n t i n e n t A :
Asia's furthest northern point is Mys Chel'uskin, about 105 deg east of Greenwich. To the south we find Africa's Cape Agulhas (not far from the Cape of Good Hope).
These two capes mark the framing latitudinal parallels.
To the east we have Mys Dezhn'eva at the Bering Strait, and the furthest western point is Cap Vert near Dakar, Senegal. Those capes constitute the framing meridians of the Eastern Continent. Thus, the frame is defined.
C o n t i n e n t B
is a bit smaller than its eastern partner. The northern and southern framing capes are Cape Murchison (on Boothia Peninsula, Canada) and Cabo Froward (at the Magelhaes Strait, north-west of the Tierra del Fuego, Chile).
The eastern and western framing capes are Cabo Branco (near Recife, Brazil) and Cape Prince of Wales (Bering Strait, Alaska). The four points define the frame and format of the Western Continent.
When comparing the two formats we find they are equal!
Imagine: two great and very different flakes of land having the very same format! It is just unbelievable. The Earth could in no way have been able to uncover this fact.
Moreover, it is no real fact whatsoever. It's a fact only according to that specific way of mapping the Globe. It's true according to Mercator's way of telling truths.
What, then, can be expected from the Australian continent? Is it what we can name a real continent, or is it just a large island?
C o n t i n e n t C :
Australia reaches from the furthest northern Cape York to the South-East Cape of Wilson's Promontory, and from Steep Point at the west coast to Cape Byron.
We find that the Australian format equals the other two! If the similarity of the two great continents might be thought of as occasional, the Australian witness confirms the opposite.
Mercator thus seems to be a source worth studying.
Even another sign seems to agree: Europe.
There are historical reasons to mention Europe as one of the world's five main parts. Geographically, it's an Asian peninsula, less significant as a unit of its own than f.ex. Africa or any of the two Americas.
Counting with the Russian peninsula Kola's Mys Orlovskij as the geographical feature defining Europe's eastern frame meridian - or, perhaps just as naturally, the furthest eastern bay in the Black Sea - we find that even the continental licence of Europe is intact!
However, what can be deduced from this?
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