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every night. This system, differing only from that of Homer in the square figure of the earth, was adopted by many Christian writers of the middle ages.

The earth, in a chart constructed in 787, is represented as a circular planisphere, composed of three unequal portions; and beyond Africa to the south, there is said to be a fourth, which the extreme heat of the sun prevents us from visiting, and on the confines of which are the fabulous antipodes.

The followers of Mahomet, however, cultivated astronomy and geography more successfully. In the ninth century the Arabian navigators had visited China, Sumatra, Java, and other islands of the Malay archipelago, while on the eastern coast of Africa their religion was established from the Red Sea to cape Corientes. Edrisi, however, who composed a treatise on geography in 1153, seems to have been ignorant of the union of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans; for he depicts a large country extending from the coast of Africa to India beyond the Ganges. The navigation of the Arabs on the west coast of Africa does not appear to have extended beyond Cape Blanco; but they speak of an apocryphal voyage of discovery to the west, which at the best seems only to have extended to the Canary Isles.

All the Arabian geographers adopted the ancient idea of the earth being every where bounded by an ocean: one of them curiously enough compares it to an egg floating in water. Abulfeda, after Eratosthenes, describes the sea as terminating Africa immediately on the other side of the mountains of the moon. But their information respecting the Niger is the most curious. This they describe as the Nile of the Negroes, every where bordered by opulent states, and flowing from east to west into the sea.

Their countrymen, it is to be observed, had at this time subdued all Egypt and the northern coast of Africa, held by their descendants the Moors to this day. Hence by means of the caravans, which penetrated Africa then as now, their information on the subject of its interior geography was not so far behind ours as the distance of time would teach us to expect. Their arms, on the other hand, at the period of which we are speaking, had not yet penetrated up the Nile into Nubia; therefore all that tract of country, with Abyssinia, is described by them in a very confused manner. In Asia they occupied Persia, Cabul, Bukharia, and all the finest provinces of Hindostan. Thus they acquired very extensive opportunities of becoming acquainted both with the interior and eastern extremities of that continent. The provinces of Khowarezm and Bukharia are described in narratives, which form still our chief authority for the interior of those countries. India was divided into two parts, Sind and Hind, the former comprehending the western, and the other the eastern part of that vast region. Of the peninsula of the Decan, scarcely any thing was known except the coast of Malabar, considered as forming part of Sind, and along which the Arabs had sailed as far as Cape Comorin. Their Seranda is evidently the Indian name for Ceylon, and their Lamery is

marked, by its productions of camphor, dyeingwood, gold, ivory, &c. to be Sumatra; Java also is mentioned under the naine of Al-Djavah. These geographers also knew that the Spice Islands were situated somewhere in this region. In Eastern Asia, Thibet is designated under the appellations of Tobbat or Alboton, and China under those of Cathay, and Tchin or Sin; the former denoting the northern, and the latter the southern provinces of that empire. Indeed all the regions, known to us as India beyond the Ganges, seem by them to have been comprehended under the name of Sin. But the northern extremity of Asia was a portion of the continent little known to these writers.

Perhaps we should not omit to notice, that they chiefly regarded it as the terrific abode of Gog and Magog, two enormous giants, who gradually retreated before the march of discovery. At this period their castle was seriously described as surrounded with walls of iron cemented with brass, and towers to the skies. Towards its base was a gate fifty cubits high, also of iron, and secured by enormous bolts and bars. The people belonging to these chieftains appear to have comprehended all those which extended to the north and north-east of Asia. Those of Magog, the most remote, are described as of small stature.

The Norwegians, about A. D. 860, discovered the Faroe Islands and Iceland. In the conclusion of the same century Othæ made a voyage from Norway to Biarma (the Dwina), or the White Sea, which is the first time we hear of the North Cape of Lapland being doubled.

In 952 an Icelandic nobleman devoted a period of exile from his country to voyages of discovery: and, having heard that land had been seen far to the west, he directed his course that way, and arrived at a verdant shore, to which he gave the name of Groen or Greenland, and which was shortly after colonised by the Icelanders and Norwegians.

Biorn, an Icelander, in 1001, sailing from Norway to Greenland, was driven upwards of 1000 miles to the south-west, where he discovered a country, to which, on a second visit, he gave the name of Winland, from the wild grapes he saw there. Five years after its discovery the Norman Greenlanders formed a colony in this country; and in 1121 Greenland sent a bishop hither to convert the pagan colonists; but from this period Winland becomes lost to the world; many modern geographers think it to be Newfoundland.

Important additions were made to the geography of Asia in the thirteenth century by Marco Paulo, a Venetian of noble birth. He penetrated by land to China, about 1270, and describes it in detail from his own observation. Of Japan he speaks from the accounts of others: but he visited the coast of Tsiompa, notices Great and Little Java, which seem to be Borneo and Sumatra, and the isles Necaurau and Angana, in the Bay of Bengal (Naucauvery, one of the Nicobars, and Andaman), the inhabitants of which, according to him, were anthropophagi, with the heads of dogs! India he describes throughout the east and west

coasts of the peninsula, between the Ganges and the Indus: but, on the east of Africa, his knowledge extended no farther than Zanguebar and the opposite part of Madagascar which he first made known.

ECT. II.-OF MODERN GEOGRAPHY. The invention of the mariner's compass is the important connecting link between ancient and modern geography. The first person who availed himself of it is said to have been a friar and astronomer of Oxford, Nicholas Lynn, who steered to the northern isles of Europe with the new guide, A. D. 1360.

But the Portuguese have the merit of leading the way in that more extended career of maritime enterprise which has distinguished modern times. Early in the fifteenth century, in one of their voyages to the coast of Africa, Puerto Sancto, or the Holy Haven, the least of the Madeiras, was discovered; in 1432 another of their navigators was driven on the Azores, which were at first supposed to be to the easternmost of Marco Paulo's oriental islands. It was not, however, until 1471 that the equator was crossed, and the islands in the gulf of Guinea discovered. In 1484 they arrived at the river Zaire; and bere the country was taken formal possession of for the king of Portugal, by virtue of a papal bull, obtained in 1432, from Alexander IV., an instrument which granted the full sovereignty and property of the countries of the Infidels discovered by his subjects, to that prince.

At length, the terrors of the torrid zone being gradually dissipated, a fleet was fitted out under Bartholemew Diaz for the express purpose of attempting the passage to India by the south of Africa. This commander coasted Africa to within sight of its southern point, to which he gave the name of Cabo de Todos los Tormientos, from the violent storms he experienced off it; but the want of provisions obliged him to return to Lisbon and it was not until ten years afterwards (20th November, 1497) that Vasco de Gama had the honor of doubling the promontory. He now passed along the eastern coasts of Africa, through the Mosambique channel to Melinda, and arrived at Calicut six months afterwarde.

In the interim Columbus (see our article AMERICA) had performed his first three voyages. Vaso Nunez, in 1513, first obtained a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean from the mountains of Darien, and gave it the absurd name of the South Sea; and two years afterwards the coast of South America had been explored to the southern tropic.

Between 1510 and 1515 the Portuguese had visited all the islands of the Malay archipelago to the Moluccas. But a discovery greater than any hitherto made was reserved for the Spaniards. In 1519 Magellan discovered and passed the straits which still bear his name: after which, sailing north-west across the Grand Ocean for three months and twenty days without seeing land, he fell in with an island in fifteen degrees south, and shortly after with another in nine degrees, to which he gave the name of Pesaventurados, or Unfortunate, from their

affording him neither water nor refreshments, when his crew were perishing with famine. From these islands, the situation of which is not exactly known, steering still to the north-west, he arrived at the group which he named the Ladrones, or islands of thieves, from the dishonest disposition of the natives; and thence directing his course to the west, on the Saturday of Passion Week he discovered what he called the Archipelago of St. Lazarus, but which were subsequently named the Philippines. The first of this archipelago that Magellan touched at was Cebu, with whose king he took part in a war against his neighbours, and was killed in an invasion. The squadron sailed thence to Borneo and the Moluccas; discovered Timor; and, after many disasters, one vessel only, the Victoria, the Admiral's ship, returned to Spain, round the Cape of Good Hope, arriving at Seville the 7th September 1522. This being the first ship that circumnavigated the globe, she was in great triumph drawn up into the city of Seville, and long preserved tnere. Her commander, Sebastian Cano, was ennobled, and received orders to wear for his coat of arms, a terrestrial globe, with the motto 'Primus circumdedisti me.' On their return to Spain the companions of Magellan were not a little surprised on being the first to realize the well-known problem of losing a day in sailing round the world westerly.

The progress of discovery was now rapid: the Portuguese would appear to have reached New Guinea, and even New Holland, between 1530 and 1540. Passing over minor discoveries of the Spaniards in the Pacific, in 1577 we find our own countryman, Drake, first conspicuous in this noble career. He obtained a commission from queer Elizabeth, by virtue of which he equipped a squadron of five vessels, the largest only 100 tons and the smallest fifteen, with a complement of 104 persons. With this small force he sailed from Plymouth the 15th of November, 1577, entered the Strait of Magellan the 20th of August the next year, and cleared it the 6th of September: an extraordinarily short passage, for no navigator since has been able to accomplish it in less than thirtysix days. Having coasted the whole continent to the north extremity of Mexico, and being laden with the spoils of the enemy, he determined to seek a northern passage into the Atlantic. In this pursuit he sailed along the coast to which, from its cliffs, he gave the name of New Albion, and took possession of it in the usual form for England. At Cape Blanco he found the cold so great, that he gave up the search of a passage by the north, and crossed the Pacific to the Molucca Islands, in which long route his only discoveries were some islands in twenty degrees north, which have not been since identified: and, after an absence of 1501 days, arrived at Plymouth, the 3d of November, with only his own ship and fifty-seven men.

Drake was followed by Cavendish, Schouten, Quiros, Dampier, and other celebrated navigators, who each touched that numerous archipelago which stretches across the Pacific at different points. Meanwhile Cabot having discovered Newfoundland, Cortereal, a Portuguese navigator, followed him to the north of Hudson's

Bay, to which he gave the name of the strait of Anian, and to the country that of Tierra de Labrador. It was now concluded that India might be reached in this direction; and a large extent of the north-west coast of America was explored by the Spaniards from California. The attempt to find a passage in this direction was afterwards made from the opposite side by Frobisher, Davis, and Baffin, who explored in this way the great bays of Hudson and Baffin, the coast of Greenland, &c.

Nor was the Frozen Ocean of Northern Asia neglected during this period. The English and Dutch made vigorous exertions to open a passage through the icy barriers of that ocean; and discovered Nova Zembla, the strait of Waygatz, and Spitzbergen. Russian travellers also penetrated to Okhotzk, on the eastern shore of the continent; and Beering finally rounded the eastern shore of Asia. The extent and boundaries of the Pacific were now the most unascertained problems in geography. A vast continent was still supposed to surround the South Pole; and in the north the separation of Asia and America was doubted. At this period our immortal Cook commenced his survey of this vast expanse of waters. He completely established the non-existence of a southern continent; examined the north-west coast of Ame rica, and the eastern coast of New Holland, and sailed round New Zealand. He also discovered New Caledonia, and made Europe acquainted with those interesting groups the Society, the Friendly, and the Sandwich Islands. See Cook. A succession of French and English navigators, Perouse, Vancouver, Labillardiere, Flinders, Wilson, &c., followed, and completed the survey of the large islands which have been sometimes denominated Australasia. The issue of their researches meets us in every part of our Gazetteer.

After all, large portions of terra incognita invite to future efforts. The interior of Africa or Asia, but especially the former, is little known: America has been more fortunate. We must still, however, not forget the obligations of science to a Park, Browne, Barrow, Lucas, Tuckey, Houghton, Denham, &c., with regard to the first of these objects; the efforts of Messrs. Elphinstone, Hodges, Kenneir, Malcolm, and Mercer, with regard to the second; or that the spirit of enterprise and discovery is roused to a greater extent than ever throughout the civilised world. The result cannot fail to give increasing interest to the study of this science.

At the head of the writers on modern geography may be placed Sebastian Munster, the author of a valuable Cosmography, of the sixteenth century, and who has been called the Strabo of Germany. Next in order stands the Thesaurus Geographicus of a Fleming of the name of Ortelius, a work of considerable and laborious research; while superior to both in importance is Mercator's edition of Ptolemy's Geography, and the improvement he made in the construction of maps. The chart which bears his name was invented by him about the year 1557; but the true principles of its construction were first

given by an Englishman of the name of Wright in 1599. Mercator was also a Fleming.

In the seventeenth century the whole science was revolutionised by the successive efforts of the erudite Cluverius, the well-informed astronomer Riccioli, and the profound Varenius. Sir Isaac Newton, it is well known, translated and commented upon the works of the last of these writers. Ancient geography was also systematised at this period by Cellarius; while maps were much improved in France by Sanson, in Holland by Blaew, and in Sweden by Burcus.

One of the greatest geographical names in the last century is that of D'Anville. He greatly improved the method of comparing ancient and imodern geography, abolished many foolish and arbitrary modes of delineation; and accomplished a complete reform in the historical part of the science. Statistical science in the mean time received an increased share of attention, and has been much indebted to the accurate Busching and his successors; among whom may be mentioned Bruns, Ebelins, and Wahl. Other continental geographers of eminence in the eighteenth century were Delisle, Cassini, Lacaille, and Lalande, who, with several of their follow-contributors to the papers of the French Academy, much advanced the mathematics of the science; Gosselin, Voss, Mannert, and Le Brun. We may also mention among the most distinguished of modern names in this science, our own countrymen Major Rennell, Dr. Vincent, and the late Mr. Pinkerton.

PART JI.

OF PHYSICAL AND POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY. The physical geography of the world, would in strict language embrace a complete description of its internal and external organization and productions. Other sciences, however, take up the greater part of the details of these multifarious topics: geography only glances at them generally, and in their great outlines. Its principal topics are 1. The earth; 2. The ocean and waters; 3. The atmosphere; 4. The animal tribes; and, 5, The vegetable productions. Metals and minerals will be fully disposed of in the following article GEOLOGY; or in METALLURGY OF MINERALOGY.

Political geography regards the general state of human society in the several divisions of the globe. This has been divided into the savage, the barbarous, the half civilised and civilised states. These are again diversified by the political institutions of each part of the world. On the whole we feel that this is a topic which it is impossible to treat correctly, but in detail; and therefore refer the reader to the successive accounts of the political state and institutions of each portion of the globe; as they will be found in the body of this work.

1. Of the earth. Geology and mineralogy explain the formation and value of the various strata of which what we know of the earth is composed.

This is indeed but little. The deepest excavations that have been made by art do not exceed 2400 feet, which is less than half a mile, i. e. about

th part of the diameter of the earth; so that

whatever lies below that depth is utterly unknown. We need here only observe that the substances which have been extracted from those excavations are not in general of a nature different from those which in some particular places have been found immediately upon the surface. The mean density of the earth, according to the observations of the late astronomer royal Dr. Maskelyne, is four and a half, reckoning water, as usual, the standard of comparison. In this calculation Dr. Hutton also coincides. The late Mr. Cavendish assigned a greater quantity, or about five and a half, from an elegant experiment on the principle of torsion. Perhaps the true proportion would be found to lie between these limits.

The most obvious natural division of the earth's surface is into sea and land; about seven-tenths of it being occupied by water, although to what comparative depth is unknown. The remaining threetenths consist of land, elevated more or less above the level of the sea, interspersed in some parts with small collections of water, at various heights, and, in a few instances, somewhat lower than the surface of the ocean.

There is no regular plan or principle on which the relative distribution of land and water seems at present to be made. Le Brun's Precis de la Geographie Universelle, thus calculates the proportion of dry land in the two hemispheres. In the northern frozen zone

temperate zone. northern tropic.

In the northern hemisphere

In the southern frozen zone

temperate zone southern tropic

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. 0,400 0,559 0,297

1,256

0,000.

. 0,075 . 0,312

0,387

In the southern hemisphere According to Mr. Myers, if the distribution of land be considered with respect to the two hemispheres (London and our antipodes being taken for the poles of the hemisphere), formed by the equator and the zones, into which they are divided, the quantities will be found to be nearly in the following proportions, where the area of each zone respectively is taken for unity. In the northern part of the torrid zone ·297 In the northern temperate zone. In the northern frigid zone The same estimate for the southern hemisphere, gives,

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⚫559 •400

⚫075 ·000

In the southern part of the torrid zone 312 In the southern temperate zone . In the southern frigid zone By adding the numbers of the respective zones together, and dividing each sum by 2, we may obtain the proportion of land and water in

each.

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This writer calculates onthe above basis that there are on the entire surface of the globe 4,988,181 square leagues of land; and 11,511,819 square leagues of water; the northern hemisphere containing more than three times the quantity of land which is in the southern.

The great outlines of the land are diversified in a very remarkable manner. All the great promontories, both in the Old and New World, excepting the peninsulas of Jutland and Yucatan, are directed towards the south. Those in the Old World have been thus enumerated; Scandinavia, Spain, and Portugal, Italy, Greece, Africa, Arabia, Hindostan, Malacca, Cambodia, Corea, and Kamtschatka: those in the New are California, Alaska, Greenland, Florida, and the whole of South America. There seems to be no other uniform feature in the general outline of the masses of land.

The character of its elevations may be considered as professor Jameson suggests under the denominations of high and low lands. In Europe,' he says, 'we find but two high lands, and one low land. The one is the great European or Southern, the other is the Scandinavian or Northern. The one has its middle point in Switzerland, in the Tyrol, and in the Alps of Savoy. Hence it passes through three-fourths of France, traverses the whole of Spain and Portugal, includes nearly two-thirds of Germany, passes through the greater part of Italy, and also part of Hungary and Turkey, and terminates on the borders of the Black Sea, The course of this high land determines that of the great low land. Saxony lies nearly on the border of this low-land or plain. It passes through the north part of Saxony to the east or Baltic Sea. It also passes by the foot of the rocky mountains through the upper part of Westphalia, and further through the whole of Holland, the Netherlands, and a part of France; it even reaches the east coast of this island. It extends very considerably towards the north, including in its course Prussia, Poland, and nearly all Russia in Europe, and reaches to the Uralian Mountains, including the greater part of Moldavia. The other high land rises in Norway and Sweden, comprehends a portion of Russia, and extends with some interruption to the Uralian Mountains.'

In the New World we find, however, the most remarkable and largest continued range of elevated land, stretching from Cape Horn to Bhering's Strait. Through the whole of South America this range is within a short distance of the Pacific Ocean, and contains the most magnificent elevations. Chimborazo, near the equator, is its highest point; whence it declines on one side to the southern extremity of the continent and on the other to the straits of Panama. In Mexico this chain assumes its former volcanic character and majestic height. Then in a north

west direction it declines again to the height of
about 5000 feet, till at its northern extremity
On the
appears the lofty Mount St. Elias.
eastern side of this continent, another chair runs
parallel to the Atlantic; and forms the Alleghany
and Appalachian Mountains, at the back of the
United States. North America is thus divided
into two high, and three low land, districts. Of
the latter the two which are between the moun-
tain chains and the ocean, particularly that which
borders on the Pacific, are the narrowest. The
third, which occupies the space between these
chains, is of great extent; is partly occupied by
the noble lakes of the interior, and watered
throughout with the finest rivers in the world.
In a similar manner we find in South America
the sloping plain between the Andes and the
Pacific Ocean is contracted to the breadth of
only a few miles, while that which borders on
the Atlantic expands far into the interior. Here
again the low land of the central regions is inter-
rupted by a branch of the Andes which separates
various branches of the Maranon from those of
the La Plata then it expands to the north-east,
and on the one side gives egress to the largest river
on the globe; while far to the south, on the other,
it supplies the mouths of the La Plata with
their mighty collection of waters.

65

It has been remarked, from this general view of the earth's surface, that the principal chains of America and Asia are arranged in a species of irregular arch; and that it is not improbable, if we could connect the mountains of Arabia with those of Abyssinia and central Africa, they would form a continuation of the same figure; the whole being ranged around the shores of the great ocean, in a species of semicircle corresponding to that formed by the shores of the three continents; and forming the common mighty bulwark of nature against the encroachment of the seas.

Some modern geologists contend that the series of rugged and elevated peaks which we find in some of these extensive chains, has always its base in granite rock; while the gentler and more uniform declivities are generally gneiss formations. See our article GEOLOGY.

while basalt, which in our continent has never been observed higher than 4000 feet, is, on the pinnacle of Pichincha, seen rearing aloft its crested steeps, like towers amid the sky. Other secondary formations, as limestone, with its accompaniment of petrified shells and coal, re also found at greater heights in the New than in the Old World; though the disproportion is not so remarkable in these.'

Baron Humboldt mentions one remarkable difference between the formation of the mountains in the Old and New Worlds. Mont Blanc and others of the higher Alps rear their peaks of granite above the clouds. But, in America, ‘the newest flatz trap, or whinstone, which in Europe appears only in low mountains, or at the foot of those of great magnitude, covers the mightiest heights of the Andes. Chimborazo Humboldt considers the mountains of Kamts- and Antisana are crowned by vast walls of porcnatka and of north-eastern Asia, as a prolonga-phyry, rising to the height of 6000 or 7000 feet; tion of the western chain of America. Their long south-western continuation, known as the Slanovas, the Yablonay, and the Altaic ranges, extends through the greater part of Asia, till, in approaching the sea of Aral, it meets another chain from the south-east, which, under the names of Hemalleh and Hindoo Coosh, has been supposed to include the loftiest summits in nature. In traversing Persia these chains descend considerably, but throw up immense masses in Armenia, Asia Minor, and the frontier of Syria. These ridges, it is worthy of remark, form Asia, like America, into three low lands, of which the first, between Hemalleh and the Indian Ocean, consists of the maritime provinces of Persia, of Hindostan, and India beyond the Ganges; the second, between the Hemalleh and Altai Mountains, includes Bukharia, the great desert of Shamo and Cobi, and the greater part of China; the third, stretching from the Altai to the Northern Ocean, is composed of the bleak plains of Siberia.

In Africa only this species of distinction becomes uncertain. The Atlas at the north-western extremity rises to a great height, but it sinks entirely before reaching the eastern coast. To the south extends an immense plain, composed chiefly of sandy desert: and at its termination are found two very high ranges of mountains, running inwards, one from the eastern and the other from the western coast, which are generally supposed to unite and form a continuous chain across the continent. Similar ranges extend behind Congo and Monomopata; and the southern extremity of Africa defends itself by a high mountain wall against the expanse of ocean which it overlooks. But the limits of mountain and plain, throughout all this part of Africa, are wholly unknown.

VOL. X

Volcanoes, one of the great physical distinctions of mountains, occur most commonly in the islands and promontories of the Old World unconnected with the principal chain; but penetrate every part of the New. These observations, however, must only be taken generally: the following is Mr. Jameson's statement of the relative situation of all the principal ones:

Continent of Europe
European Islands
Continental Asia

Asiatic Islands

1

12

8

58

Continent of America

97

American Islands

19

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Vesuvius is the only one on the continent of Europe; those in the islands are chiefly in Iceland, Sicily, and Stromboli. The volcanoes of continental Asia are on the peninsula of Kamtschatka, and on some of the islands between that point and Sumatra. No volcano has yet been discovered on the continent of Africa. Upon the subject of earthquakes, as connected with volcanoes, see our article EARTHQUAKES.

The low lands are divisible into valleys or river districts and plains: under the former we classify those fertile tracts generally bordered by hills or mountains, and sloping toward a middle

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