From Peter Vujakovic
The editorial in the Christmas edition credits a scientist with naming the moon as the eighth continent (21/28 December 2013, p 5). By the conventions of precedent it is at best the ninth.
In his 19th-century Ingoldsby Legends, Thomas Ingoldsby (pen name of the clergyman Richard Barham) identified Romney Marshes in Kent, UK, as the fifth continent: “The World, according to the best geographers, is divided into Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Romney Marsh.” If we include Antarctica, Australia and a division of the Americas, we have eight to which the moon may be added. Having said that, this only holds if we accept the view that Europe isn’t just a peninsula of Asia.
Canterbury, Kent, UK
Canterbury Christ Church University
