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Dear Maps-L Friends;
I had two very interesting questions put to me last week which I had some
success with (which also means I had some failure too), but I would like
some assistance from some other helpful souls.
 
A patron of our map collection was looking at some Vietnam maps along with
an article from a colleague that describe events in certain provinces of that
nation.  The problem is that some of the names in the article didn't match the
map or gazetteers.  The names are as follows:
 
Nghe An
Binh Thuan
Vinh Phu
Phu Yen
Tra Vinh
 
Thanh Hoa....can this be spelled "Khanh Hoa" ??
Ha Nam Ninh....spelled??  "Nam Ha" ??
 
Basically I need to know which names are real provinces; perhaps some have
recently changed spellings or names??
 
The other question deals with coastlines (the reason I post both together is
that they come from the same patron):
 
What is the length of Russia's coastline ?  If one includes all islands within
a nations borders, which country has the longest coastline ?
 
It seems that someone suggested that Russia has the longest coastline in the
world.  However, something tells me that Canada may hold that distinction.
Can someone help verify or refute these notions?
 
Thanks very much,
James Boxall
Map Curator
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Canada
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