-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Fwd: 10 degrees, or 156 1/4 leagues] Date: Thu, 06 Feb 2003 12:51:16 +1100 From: [log in to unmask] To: Maps and Air Photo Systems Forum <[log in to unmask]> ------------------ The best site I have found for informaiton on old and new measurement units is: http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/ by Russ Rowlett. His entry for league states: a traditional unit of distance. Derived from an ancient Celtic unit and adopted by the Romans as the leuga, the league became a common unit of measurement throughout western Europe. It was intended to represent, roughly, the distance a person could walk in an hour. The Celtic unit seems to have been rather short (about 1.5 Roman miles, which is roughly 1.4 statute miles or 2275 meters), but the unit grew longer over time. In many cases it was equal to 3 miles, using whatever version of the mile was current. At sea, the league was most often equal to 3 nautical miles, which is 1/20 degree [2], 3.45 statute miles, or exactly 5556 meters. In the U.S. and Britain, standard practice is to define the league to be 3 statute miles (about 4828.03 meters) on land or 3 nautical miles at sea. However, many occurrances of the "league" in English-language works are actually references to the Spanish league (the legua), the Portuguese league (legoa) or the French league (lieue). For t! hese units, see below on this page. Check the website for the above mentioned entries for Lieue, legoa, legua etc. Brendan Whyte Geography Dept University of Melbourne [log in to unmask]