Gabriola and Manhattan—two islands

by Barrie Humphrey, Shelagh Huston, Phyllis Reeve, Kit Szanto, Jack

Ruitenbeek, and Nick Doe, based on an idea of Catherine Humphrey

Originally published in Shale, . Copies of the

journal are available from Phyllis Reeve or from the Gabriola Museum.

"If you have reached this point in your reading of SHALE without looking at the

front cover, take a look now. The maps show two islands drawn to exactly the same

scale. The top one is the familiar island of Gabriola; and the bottom one is Manhattan, one of the five boroughs of New York city. The islands are surprisingly similar in size and shape. Gabriola is 53 square kilometres in area, and Manhattan is just a fraction larger—57 square kilometres. Gabriola is 160 metres high, and Manhattan, 120 metres high. What will of course come as absolutely no surprise is the huge difference in populations. At the time of the last census, Gabriola was home to about three and a half thousand permanent residents; while the resident population of Manhattan was over one and a half million." GAB_MAN.pdf