Nautical chart a Mercator's projection map, a square is a square no matter where you are on the chart, but a square on the Arctic Circle is much bigger than a square at the equator, even though both occupy the same number of degrees on the globe. The result of this is that scale in a nautical chart is dependent on latitude. In practical use, this is less of a problem than it sounds. One minute of latitude is, for practical purposes, a nautical mile. Distances in nautical miles can therefore be measured on the latitude gradations printed on the side of
How Many Miles to Babylon? good and your spurs be bright. How mony men have ye? Mae nor ye daur come and see.</poem> Various places have replaced Babylon in the rhyme, including London town, Barberry and Berry Bright. The rhyme was not recorded until the nineteenth century, but the reference to Cantelon in the Scottish version has led some to conclude that it refers to Caledon in the time of the Crusades. Babylon may be a corruption of 'Babyland', but the city was a common allusion particularly in seventeenth-century England and 'Can I get there by candlelight?' was a common saying in the sixteenth century.