GUILD OF CARTOGRAPHERS & NAVIGATORS: how to find North
Elenor de Buch's way of finding North.
Magnetoreception
Many tales of navigation in the medieval period describe how some mariners had a exceptional ability to navigate
without depending on scientific means such as compass or celestial means, this was seen at the time of a kind of magical sixth sense.
Many people are aware that some people have a better sense of direction than others, these people can return to a point
even in an unknown area. Since the 1970s there has been an increasingly vocal hypothesis that this may be due to magnetoreception.
Magnetoreception is the ability to sense the polewise and nonpolewise (i.e. equator) direction from either hemisphere.
There is very strong evidence that some species of birds have a string magnetoreceptivity ability and research suggest
that some cetaceans may use a similar ability to navigate the magnetic field that are present in the Earth's crust
which have reversed over the millennia thus making a permanent magnetic "map". Evidence in humans is less clear
but in a western population experiments show a higher than statistically probable, by chance, ability to sense direction.
Living peoples still utilising such methodology such as the Polynesians tend to show higher ability.
Therefore it is postulated that some medieval mariners, such as Columbus who is noted for his lack of celestial
knowledge but good navigation, had a good magnetoreceptive ability.