title: xlim and ylim for plotting map in R not behaving as expected
body: <p>My map isn't showing the extent I expect it to. Trying to change the extent doesn't result in the behavior I expect, either. I've created a map in R using the following code modified from <a href="https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/44387/use-proj4-to-specify-robinson-projection-with-r-ggmap-and-ggplot2-packages">this question</a>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>library(maps)
  library(mapdata)
  library(rgdal)
  
  # Build a basemap of British Columbia projected as BC Environmental Standard Projection
  download.file(url="http://www.naturalearthdata.com/http//www.naturalearthdata.com/download/110m/cultural/ne_110m_admin_0_countries.zip", "ne_110m_admin_0_countries.zip", "auto")
  unzip("ne_110m_admin_0_countries.zip")
  file.remove("ne_110m_admin_0_countries.zip")
  
  # read shape file using rgdal library
  ogrInfo(".", "ne_110m_admin_0_countries")
  world &lt;- readOGR(".", "ne_110m_admin_0_countries")
  summary(world)  
  
  worldBCESP &lt;- spTransform(world, CRS("+proj=aea +lat_1=50 +lat_2=58.5 +lat_0=45 +lon_0=-126 +x_0=1000000 +y_0=0 +ellps=GRS80 +datum=NAD83 +units=m +no_defs"))
  summary(worldBCESP)  
  plot(worldBCESP, xlim=c(642162.8,1870556), ylim=c(457057.2,1421478), col="gray90")
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The map plots as a skinny rectangle. Like so:
  <img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/F8ECX.png" alt="Map plotted with xlim=c(642162.8,1870556), ylim=c(457057.2,1421478)"></p>
  
  <p>xlim and ylim are based on information from <code>summary(spu)</code> for data (<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3rb9fooavvwlmb4/YBsdT0l45J" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>) read in with <code>rgdal:readOGR.</code> That dataset contains points only in British Columbia and the xlim and ylim should reflect that.</p>
  
  <p>When I change the xlim and ylim, the skinny rectangle does not change at all, but I zoom around the map inside the rectangle. For example, with <code>xlim=c(250000.8,1870556), ylim=c(107057.2,1421478)</code>, the map looks like</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/PvsKx.png" alt="zoomed out map"></p>
  
  <p>How can I get the map to plot as full sized and representing the extent I'm after (just the area around British Columbia)? Do xlim and ylim work differently than I might expect now that I'm working with projected data?</p>