The Child's Geography for ... Schools and home-tuition ... With maps ... and illustrations

Part I. First Lessons In Geography

CONTENTS LEBSOK PAGE Preface . . . . .7 I. — About Geography 9 II. — About the Land . .10 III. — About the Water on the Land . .11 IV. — More about the Water on the Land .13 V. — About the Ocean . . 15 VI. — About the Divisions of the Ocean . . .16 VII. — How Rain is made, and why the Sea does not overflow 17 VIII. — About the Shapes of the Land . .20 IX. — About the Planets, the Sun, and the Moon . 21 X. — About the Roundness of the Earth . . 23 XI. — More about the Motions of the Earth 27 XII. — About the Seasons, and more about Day and Night . 28 XIII. — About Maps and the Compass 31 XIV. — About Lines drawn on Maps . .34 XV. — About the Zones ..... 36 XVI.— About Climate . . .38 XVII. — About the Plants and Animals of the World 40 XVIII.— About the Races of Man . ,43 XIX. — About Government ..... 47 XX. — About Political Divisions . . 48 XXI. — About Religions .... .50 Tables . ..... 51 XXII. — About the Hemispheres .... 52 XXIII. — About the Oceans . . . .56 XXIV. — Questions on the Map of the Eastern Hemisphere . 58 XXV— Do., do., do. .58 XXVI. — Questions on the Map of the Western Hemisphere . 59 XXVII.— Do., do., do. . s HAVE been for some time convinced that the manuals of rudimentary geography now used in English schools are, for the most part, constructed on wrong principles.

In teaching, and in examining, I have again and again seen how difficult it is for a child to acquire geographical information by means of mere memory lessons. Set formulae are learnt by heart, long strings of names are committed to memory, simple explanation of new terms is ignored, the map is but little used, and the child's own observing powers are not cultivated. Hence it comes that geography is at first an unpalatable subject to a child, and the amount of benefit which he derives from it is very limited. With a view to supply, in some little measure, the acknowledged want of a rudimentary geography which shall teach the first facts and principles simply, and yet thoroughly, I have compiled the following pages. Should the book meet with a favourable reception, it will be followed by two others of wider scope, elementary and advanced.

I write for children, be it remembered, and I use at first only the limited set of words found in the ordinary vocabulary of a child seven or eight years of age. By degrees harder words are introduced, with explanations. A very ample set of questions and hints for young teachers will be found at the bottom of each page. The separate lessons are very short, but, in revision, it will often be found desirable to take two or three of them together. Reliance has been placed upon ample pictorial illustration. M. J. B. W. St. Winifred's, Lincoln. MOUNTAINS, HILLS, VALLEY, TABLE-LAND, RIVER, BRIDGE. THE CHILD'S GEOGRAPHY-FIRST LESSONS LESSON I.* 1. About Geography.— We have now to begin a study called Geography. It will tell us a great deal about the Earth — that is, the World on which we live. We shall hear much that is pleasant and useful to know, and we shall not find it at all hard to leam, if we only pay a little attention.

The word Geography means a description of the Earth. 2. This Earth of which I have just spoken is an immense ball or globe. On its surface, or outside, we live, and there, too, we find all kinds of plants and animals. The surface of the World is made up of land and water only. 3. About Land and Water. — You all know the difference between land and water, I suppose, and I need hardly tell you how different a river is from its banks, or the sea from its shores. Most of us usually spend our time on the land, but we are able to move about on the waters, even when they are very broad, by means of boats and ships. Some people, called sailors, pass nearly all their days going in this way from one place to another. QUESTIONS AUD SUGGESTIONS FOE THE USE OF THE TEAOHES. The suggestions are in italics.

Lesson I. — What is the other name, for the World ? — What does Geography mean ? — What shape is the Earth ? — Show the children clearly what a globe is. — What is the surface ? —Tell me the names of some kinds of plants. — Some kinds of animals. — Do you know how water differs from land ? — What does the shore mean ? — Have you ever seen the sea ? — What are boats and ships for ? — Show how they differ, and asi if any child has seen them. — Look " Some of the lessons, generally easier in their nature, are longer than others ; such lessons can be divided at the teacher's discretion into two parts. 4. We have to give different names to the divisions of land and water, so that we may be able to describe them exactly. A large flat piece of land, where we can walk for miles, from the middle, in any direction, without coming to a rise in the ground, is called a plain.

A plain is a large flat piece of land. SHIP, STEAMER, AND BOAT. 5. Now there is a great extent of the land where we find that the ground slopes, and gradually becomes raised higher than the level parts around it. We have to climb when we want to go up rising ground; and if it is easy to climb, and not very high, we call it a hill. But if it be much taller, and harder to ascend, we call this high land a mountain. The higher parts of the land are called mountains and hills. 6. There are mountains in some parts of the world several miles in height. The air is always colder at the top of a mountain than below, and often its upper portion is covered with snow all the year round. The summit is the name given to the top of a mountain, and the lowest part is called its base. LESSON II 1. About the Land. — There are few mountains which cast out smoke and fire at their sununits.

Often, too, a stream of melted rocks runs down their sides, burning and destroying everything it touches. These burning mountains are called volcanoes. The terrible stream they send forth is named lava. The lava has been known to bury whole towns, and nearly all the people who lived in them. Fortunately for us, we have no burning mountains in our country. VOLCANO. at the illustration. — What are sailors ? — Explain the word division. — What is a plain ? — la there any plain in this neighbourhood ?— Speak of the Sahara and the Prairies. — What is a bill ? — What is a mountain ? — Have you ever seen any hills ? — Why is it tiring to climb up anything ? — What is snow ? — At what time of the year does it fall in England ? — What name is given to the top of a mountain ? Land and Water. 11 A volcano is a burning mountain, sending forth fire, smoke, and laua. 2.

A mountain sometimes stands by itself, but more usually it is joined with many others into a kind of row, called a chain or range. Sometimes a number of mountains are simply placed near one another, without being in one line. Then they form a group. 3. If the top of a mountain is sharp and pointed, it is called a peak. If any part of its sides is almost like a wall, so steep that it cannot bo climbed without great danger, we say that it is a precipice. 4. The hollows that lie between ranges or groups of mountains are called valleys. Some small valleys are called in England dales. These hollows are often very beautiful and fertile. 5. Some countries are low and almost flat. Others, again, are full of moun tains and valleys, and here and there we find large plains raised up between the mountains, high above the rest of the country.

These flat lands, which might be said to be lifted up just like a table above a floor, are called table-lands. A level land, raised high up above the earth's surface, is called a table-land. LESSON III.— (Parts I. and II.) (Part I.) — 1. About the Water on the Land. — We must now learn something about the water on the earth's surface. You have all seen rain falling and snow melting. You have observed, too, how wet the ground becomes after a heavy shower. A great deal of water is soaked up by the earth, and sinks down deeper and deeper. By-and-by some clay or rock stops its downward movement, and the water gradually gathers below the surface, or, if the land is sloping, flows out to the open air. If more water still continues to come, and it can neither sink lower nor flow out along a slope, it must of course rise up.

So, in one way or other, the water at last springs out on the surface of the ground, and it will do so as long as fresh supplies of water are added. Lesson II. — What is a volcano ? — TeU them where the fire comes from. — Does the lava do any harm ? — Say something about the story of Pompeii. — Are there any burning mountains in England ? — If mountains are placed near one another, but not in a single line, what are they called ? — What is a range ? — Draw a peak on your slate. — Show them by familiar illus trations what a precipice is. — What is a valley ? — Explain the word fertile. — Why would you expect a valley or dale to be more fertile than a mountain ? — If possible, give the children examples in your own neighbourhood, and try to make them think. — What difference is there between a table-land and a plain ? — Tell them something of the flats of Holland; also of the table-lands in the Andes.

Lesson III. — Where does the rain come from? — Have you ever seen snow and ice ? — Tell me what they are like.— When does the snow on the ground melt %— What is a spring ? How are springs formed ?— What is a well %— What sorts of springs are there I—Tell them, of A place where water flows out of the earth is called a spring. People have very often to dig down into the earth some way before they can meet with a spring. They make what is called a well for this purpose. But sometimes, when the ground is hilly, a spring rushes forth at the surface with much force. 2. The water, when it bubbles out of the ground at a spring, is usually cold and pleasant to drink. Many springs are, however, known to be quite hot, and these are generally believed to come from a great depth. Some, again, which we call mineral springs, taste of iron, sulphur, and other things. 3.

Water will always flow down wards, and so, when it comes out of a spring on a hill-side, it runs away towards the plains or valleys. As it passes on, it meets with the water coining from other springs, and thus a little rill or streamlet is formed. This streamlet may be very tiny at first, but it joins others after a while, and a single brook or rivulet is made. Then, further down the valley, or along the plain, tliis brook meets SPRING AND RILL. with a brook that has come from some other place, and the waters of the two at once unite, flowing along henceforth as a single stream. Thus a river is made. A river is a large stream of water formed by several smaller streams joining together. (Part II.) — 4. There is no difference between a rill, a brook, and a river, you see, except in size. A river is simply a large brook, and a brook is a large rill.

Many rivers are very large. There are, in some parts of the world, rivers several miles in width. 5. When the land slopes greatly all running water flows quickly, but through plains it usually goes slower. A river's path is called a course, and the hollow ground through which it flows is said to be its bed. The edges of the land bordering a river on either side are its banks. The banks and bed have been formed by the action of the river water, which can cut a way for itself through earth and even through rocks in time. the Harrogate and Bath springs, and say something about the Geysers. — What way does water always flow ? — If you were near running water, how would you know which way the land sloped ? — What is a rill ? — What other name have you for a brook ? — What is a river ? — Name some rivers you have seen. — Give the Amazon as an example of a great river. — What use can men make of running water ? — What is the real difference between rills, brooks, and Rivers. 13 6.

A great river has its branches, or tributaries, spread over a large tract of country, so the water in it comes from very many different places, some far distant from others. Very often what seems to be a large river may simply be the branch or tributary of a still larger one * but all rivers at last fall into a greater body of water, through what is called a mouth. This mouth is really the end of the river, and if we were to go up the banks of a stream as far as we possibly could, we should at last come to its beginning or source. The source is always at a greater height than the land near the river's mouth. A river must have its source in a place higher than its mouth. It flows along a course, and its bed is bordered by banhs 7. When the course of a river is steep, and the stream rushes along so violently that boats cannot go up, it is said to form a rapid; but when the waters suddenly fall down over lofty rock-, a waterfall is produced.

There is a wonderful waterfall, called Niagara, where the whole of the waters of an enormous river suddenly fall down a great height, more than twenty times the height of a full-grown man. This waterfall makes a noise as loud as thunder, that can be heard many miles away. FALLS OF NIAGARA. LESSON IV. 1. More about the Water on the Land. — When rain falls heavily, or when snow melts, the waters of a river become higher, and they may rise over rivers ?— Explain the words banks, bed, course, and tributary. — Show the power of water in transporting earth, gravel, and stone?. — If a river-bed slopes greatly, how does the water run ? — In a flat country do the rivers run quickly ? — Why must the waters of a great river come from very many different places . — What is the mouth of a river ! — What do we call the place where a stream begins P-Which is higher, the source or the mouth ? — Why ? — What is a rapid ? — What use can be made of rapids and waterfalls ? — Are there any water-mills near us ? — What do you know about Niagara ? — How high is it ?

Lesson IV. — Why does a river sometimes flow over its banks? — Say something about the banks and flood the country around. After many days of warm, dry weather, a river loses a great deal of its water. You might then a1 J_st walk across many a stream which is wide and deep at other times of the year. 2. Large hollows or valleys sometimes become filled with water and form lakes. A lake is a piece of water lying in hollow ground, and surrounded by land. 3. Some rivers have their sources in lakes, others end in them, and others pass through them. A small lake, with calm, still waters, is a pond or pool. In some very warm countries there are shallow lakes which become almost dry RIVER AND .AKE. when rain ceases falling, and again spread out when wet weather begins. Some lakes, too, are being slowly filled up by mud brought into them by a river.

There are, however, many large and deep lakes, on which boats and even ships may sail. The water of most lakes is fresh, but in some it is very salt. 4. To show you how large a lake sometimes is, I may tell you that, in a great country called North America, there is a fresh-water lake which is more than half as large as England. And in another part of the world, called Asia, there is the inundations of the Nile, and the meaning of " Oast thy bread upon the waters" (Eccl. xi. 1). — At what time of the year is a river fullest in England ? — When is it lowest ? — You might mention, iiere the temporary rivers of Australia and South Africa. — What is a lake ? — Are rivers ever connected with lakes ? — Do you know of any pond ? — Have you ever seen water-lilies growing ? — Te ll about the great shallow lakes in Central Africa, also speak of tlie Dead Sea and Lake Titicaca. — Are there any very great lakes ? — What is the size of the largest salt-water lake ? — _7__ lakes in Par. 4 are Lake Superior and, the Caspian Sea. — Ex plain the word scenery, and speak ofthe more celeb-rated English, Scotch, or Irish lakes.

What is a marsh ? — Give me two other names for it. — Is there much difference between a marsh and a lake %— You might here tell the children what peat is, and say something about the Fens, or the Irish bogs. The Sea. 15 one still greater. This is a salt lake, and the whole of England would not cover one half of it. In our country none of the lakes are very large, but some of them have beauti ful scenery, especially when they are surrounded by mountains. 5. A marsh, swamp, or bog is a piece of wet, soft ground. If it were covered deeper with water, it would be a lake. MOUNTAIN LAKE LESSON V 1. About the Ocean. — I have told you already that the whole of the earth's surface, or outside, is covered with land and water. But there is far more water than land. Indeed, the land only covers about a fourth of the globe, while all the rest is water.

For there is three times as much water as land. WESTERN HEMISPHERE. EASTERN HEMISPHERE. 2. One enormous sheet of water surrounds all the land. Here is a picture of both sides of the globe. If you look at it, you will see how little land there is, and how great is the extent of the water. 3. This vast extent of water is what we call the Ocean or Sea. The edge of the land along it is called the sea-shore or coast. Perhaps you have been beside the sea, and have seen its great waves, and watched the ships sailing over it. No matter in what part of the world you might Lesson V. — With what is the Earth's surface covered ? — How-much land is there ? — How much water . — Show the children a globe, if possible, and point out to thew, the water and the land. This will explain the subject better than a fiat map. — What is the coast ? — Who has ever seen the sea ? — Tell me what you can about it. — How is it that if you walk in a straight line far enough you must at last come to the sea ? — What can be seen when one is be, if you were only to walk on and on in one straight lino, you would at last come to this great sea or ocean, for you know now that it surrounds all the land.

When sailors go out in their ships and begin to cross the ocean, they soon lose sight of the shore they have sailed from. Then perhaps for days, or even weeks. they may see nothing from their ship but the sky above and the deep waters below, except when they happen to pass another vessel. After a while, however, they begin to observe a dark line appearing before them, where the sky and the sea seem to meet. As they sail on, it becomes clearer, wider, and higher, and they find that it is the shore of another country. SAILING-SHIP. The Sea or Ocean is an immense extent of salt water surrounding all the land. 4. The waters of the Ocean are deep blue or green in colour, and are very salt, and even bitter, to the taste. Sometimes the sea is almost as calm as a pond ; but when the winds blow, great waves arise, and many vessels are wrecked and their sailors drowned.

A seaman's life is a very dangerous one. Yet we could not do without ships. I will leave you to guess why. 5. Though the Ocean is really one great water, the land is so placed in it as to divide it into several large parts, which have different names. The largest of these is called the Pacific Ocean, the next in size is the Atlantic Ocean. The other oceans are the Indian, the Southern, the Arctic, and the Antarctic. LESSON VI. 1. About the Divisions of the Ocean. — I have said that the great Ocean itself is generally called the Sea. But the word sea is also used to mean a smaller division of water than an ocean. A sea is very often partly surrounded by land. A sea is a large division of water, but it is smaller than an ocean. far out on the Ocean ? — Tell me what sailors see when they begin to approach land ?— What is the great Sea or Ocean ? — What colour are its waters ? — Are they pleasant to taste ? — Would they quench your thirst ? — Tell about the fish of the sea, the whale, the coral animal, &c. — Is the sea ever still ? — When is it rough ? — What often happens during storms ? — Why is a sailor's life dangerous ? — Why could we not do without ships ? — Give me the names of the six great divisions of the Ocean. — Which is the largest ? — Which is the second in size .

Lesson VI. — What two meanings has the word sea ? — Tell me what a sea is. — 'What is a gulf? — What is a bay ? — Draw a picture of a gulf and a bay on your slate. — What are Divisions of the Ocean. 17 2. A long narrow piece of water running into the land is named a gulf. 3. A bay is another portion of water partly surrounded by land, but it is not so long and narrow as a gulf is. Sometimes it is merely a small bend of SEA, BAY, CHANNEL, AND HAKBOUR. the sea into the land. There are large gulfs and small gulfs, large bays and small bays. The difference between the words bay and gulf is really trifling. They are both bodies of water more or less surrounded by land. A division of the water extending into the land, and smaller than a sea, is called a gulf or a bay. 4. If two seas are joined together by a narrow strip of water it is named a strait, and if it be wider it is a channel.

Straits and channels are passages which join two seas. 5. When the waters of a small, sheltered bay are calm and deep, so that a ship can anchor there in safety, this place is said to be a harbour. A bay nearly shut in by the land has far smaller waves than the sea outside. 6. Sometimes a river enters the sea by a long deep mouth, almost like a gulf, up which the sea waters can pass for some distance. This is an estuary or firth. In our country there are several estuaries. LESSON VII.— (Parts I. and II.) (Paet I.) — 1. How Rain is made, and why the Sea does not over flow. — Now that we have learnt a good deal about water, we must soon pass on straits and channels? — What is the difference between them ? — What is the meaning of a ship anchoring? — Have you ever seen an anchor ? — Who can draw a picture of one ? — What is the use of a harbour ? — What makes its waters still ? — Why cannot the large sea waves pass into the harbour ? — What do you sometimes find at the mouth of a river % — Does any one of you know the difference between an estuary and a gulf ? — Would the water of an estuary be very salt ? — Another name for estuary. — Toil might tell them something about the estuaries of th- Thames, and the Humber, or of the Shannon, or about the Firths of Forth and Clyde.

B to other matters. But, before doing so, I should like to ask you two questions, which some of you have perhaps been thinking about already. If so many rivers are continually pouring water into the sea, how is it that the sea does not at last get so full as to flow over the land . And, again, where does the rain come from that has to supply such an enormous number of springs, brooks, rivers, and lakes . Well, I must try to explain this to you, but perhaps you will have to wait till you are a little older and wiser before you can understand the subject fully. 2. Have you ever seen a puddle left in the road after a heavy shower in summer, and noticed how quickly it dries up when the sun shines out again, even where the ground is hard and the water cannot sink into it . Or, again, do you remember how I told you that in some warm countries the lakes and rivers become almost dry when the weather is very hot .

And surely every one of you has observed, too, how quickly wet things become dry in the bright sun beams. Where does all this water go ? 3. The warm rays of the sun draw it up, and change it into "vapour." We cannot see this vapour. It rises irom the surface of the water and mixes with the invisible air around us * but it is there all the same, and it is constantly going up from the sea and all other bodies of water. By-and-by it reaches the upper and colder regions of the air, and becomes visible in the shape of those beautiful clouds above us, which have so many strange forms and colours. Not one drop of water changed into vapour by the sun's heat is wasted. The clouds let it fall down in rain ; the springs take it up and pass it to the brooks, and rivers, and lakes ; it thence flows into the great ocean, and from the ocean it rises once more into the air, as vapour, to feed the clouds.

If a drop of water could speak, what a wonderful story it might tell ! (Paet II.) — 4. Have you not all seen a rainbow . This beautiful coloured arch is often formed during a heavy shower, or afterwards, when the sun begins to shine out again on the dark rain-clouds. It is always seen opposite to the sun. 5. Some countries have heavy rains during one part of the year, and dry weather through the rest of it. In our land rain may come at any season. But there are some unfortunate places in the world where rain is almost always falling ; and, what _s still worse, rain never falls at all in some others. The Lesson VII. — Why does the sea not get too full and overflow ? — What is vapour ? Can you see it ? — What forms the clouds ? — How do you know that the Sun is always drawing up water ? — Is there any water wasted ? — Why not ? — Now tell me, if you can, how the waters of the earth are always changing about. — What is a rainbow ? — In what part ofthe sky is it seen ? — Tell me how rain falls in different parts of the world. — Does it rain very often here ? — Which months are generally the wettest ? — Something might here be said of the great rainfalls on the West and South- West coasts of the United Kingdom, and tlie comparative Frost, Snow, and Ice. 19 land is then so dry that hardly any plants will grow on it, and its animals are as few as its plants.