----------------------------Original message---------------------------- 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 [log in to unmask]