Our world : or, First lessons in geography for children

Preface

AN experience of several years in teaching has convinced me, either that children begin to study geography too young, or that the books they use are not suitable for them. Though excellent text-books for advanced pupils have appeared within the last few years, I have never found a very good one for children; those intended for them differing from the others only in quantity, and not in quality.

Having a class of children from six to ten years of age who were to commence the study of geography, I gave them a course of oral lessons, loose and general it may be, but so satisfactory in results, that I have been induced to collect them, hoping that other young people may be as much interested in them as mine were. They are essentially primary or introductory lessons; and subjects which may seem to have been omitted are, perhaps, only postponed to a future time, when they will be more easily comprehended. |

Actual experience has proved to me that a child of seven or eight years may acquire in several months a general knowledge of the form of the earth, of its bodies of land and water, of the effects of climate, situation, &c., upon the different nations, which can no more be forgotten than the alphabet.

I have endeavored to teach localities chiefly by associating with them whatever physical or historical interest they may have; believing the aim of such a text-book should be, not merely to give facts, but to inspire sympathy with far-off nations, and to create a desire to learn more.

It is hoped that this new edition will be found well adapted to the wants of the schookroom. The maps prepared to accompany it are made as simple as possible, containing only such names as are needed to illustrate the text. They are designed chiefly to impress upon the minds of the children the relative position and outlines of the continents, with their prominent features and divisions. Mural maps, with which school-rooms are generally well furnished, will meet the demands of class-recitations | better than any which a book of this size can contain.

The lessons in the Second and Third Parts should be studied and recited with maps for constant reference.

The answers to the map questions should, in all cases, be committed to memory.

Since the first publication of these lessons, I have known them used by other teachers with success, and can therefore affirm that children who are required to learn each lesson thoroughly in its place will be able to answer readily all the review questions at the end. The book should not be put aside until this is accomplished.

M. L. H.

Part First

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ABOUT THE OCEANS.

Atlantic.

ABOUT THE ISLANDS.

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ABOUT THE MOUNTAINS.

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ABOUT THE RIVERS.

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, CONTENT

ABOUT THE CONTINENTS.

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PART THIRD. Countries and Nations

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COUNTRIES OF EUROPE.

COUNTRIES OF ASIA.

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COUNTRIES OF AFRICA,

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COUNTRIES OF AMERICA,

How America was found ....

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General Map Questions for Review. .....esesseeeeess

102 103

RECOMMENDATIONS.

I HAVE examined, with careful attention and very great pleasure, Miss Hall’s manuscript of her work on Geography ; and I do not hesitate to say that I have never seen any thing on the subject so well suited to attract, delight, and instruct little children, or which I should so gladly put into the hands of a primary-school teacher.

The author has learned how to teach: she loves and understands children, sympathizes with their wants, and knows how to interest them, and to gain and keep their attention. The language she uses is addressed to their imagination and curiosity, and singularly well adapted to their capacity, and to their imperfect knowledge of words and things.

She began by teaching the substance of these lessons to a little class orally ; and so charmed the learners, that their friends begged her to write out what she had said to them just as she had said it, confident that the effect upon other children would be as happy as it had been on theirs. All experienced teachers, who have examined this work, have come to a similar conclusion.

So interesting is this little book, and so wisely chosen is the substance of the lessons, that it would be a blessing to pupils and teachers wherever it should be used. A child properly instructed in it would be likely to carry from it more valuable knowledge in Geography than from most books on the subject of ten times the size.

The work is, moreover, not only admirable in itself, but it is of great value as showing how books for beginners ought to be written; and, when introduced, it cannot fail to lead to important improvements in elementary lessons upon all subjects.

ALBANY, Oct. 29, 1863.

I have been, for years, anxiously looking for a Geography which should be a suitable introduction of this great study to quite young persons, and unwilling to adopt, as a text-bock, any of the manuals published.

My conscience has cried out against an attempt to feed our children upon the miserable husks which we have been compelled to set before them.

The book has not yet been published, which is fit to be placed in the hands of little children; and I rejoice that this manuscript seems to be the very work we have so long waited for and so ardently desired.

It is scientifically exact, and philosophical in its arrangement. In style, it is not only simple and well ‘adapted, but is positively charming. Every page is replete with the most valuable information, set before the pupil in just the best way to make the most lasting impression ; while it will have, to the children, all the interest of an agreeable story-book.

Miss Hall, the authoress, I well remember and appreciate as a pupil at the West Newton State Normal School ; and know something, not only of her great skill in teaching, and her extensive acquirements, which she has so unselfishly devoted to the noble work of education, with no stimulus of necessity to urge; but also the fact, that her pen has been not unfrequently used in the columns of her father’s paper, long the leading journal in his part of the country.

I shall wait with great impatience for the appearance of the book from the press, and am prepared to give a pledge that I will introduce it into the Academy.

: EBEN S. STEARNS, Principal of the Albany Female Academy.

ConcorpD, Aug. 24, 1864.

Miss Hall has the right idea of the way to initiate children into Geography by awakening the imagination with picturesque views, and giving a human interest to places ; illuminating the dry diagrams which usually prevent, rather than assist, adequate conception of the surface of the earth.

My assistant gives oral lessons of this kind, in connection with talks about objects, in my “ Kindergarten ; ”’

and I hope some publisher, unpledged to any other 5

RECOMMENDATIONS.

Geography, will soon undertake this one ; when it will, I think, have a great success, supplying a real want. ELIZABETH P, PEABODY.

ConoorD, Aug. 25, 1864.

This is just the right kind of book for little children, — I should rather say, the right method; for no book could well contain all that may be said to children under the head of Geography. I always told stories ad infinitum over maps, substituting or appending pictures whenever I could.

This little work is valuable and suggestive to young teachers as well as to children. I hope it will be introduced at once into our schools. Mrs. HORACE MANN.

WEST NEWTON, Aug. 12, 1864.

In examining the manuscript of Miss Hall’s Primary

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Geography, I have been constantly surprised and delighted with its admirable features. So well adapted is it, by its charming style, apt illustrations, and remarkable power of exciting the imagination, to introduce young children to this branch of science, that they will be sure to continue the study with an intelligent interest.

I knew the author, as a teacher, several years ago, and can bear testimony to the great power she had of interesting and developing little children. In this work, she has most happily exhibited her peculiar characteristics.

We shall at once introduce it into our Training School, and shall place it in the hands of those who have just completed a course of ‘‘ Kindergarten ”’ instruction.

I feel confident that all true educators will see and appreciate its distinctive points, and that its influence will be to reform the present unhappy methods of teaching

Geography. atts NATHL. T. ALLEN, Principal of the West Newton English and Classical. School.

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LESSON I.

INTRODUCTORY.

Dear CuILpREN, — Before you begin to learn the things I wish to tell you, look far away down the street or over the country, and you will see that the sky seems to come quite down to the earth. It would not be strange if some of you thought they really touched very far off. Indeed, a great many years ago, older and wiser people believed that, if they should go far enough, they would surely come to the end of the earth ; but, as nobody had ever seen any one who had been there, they could not tell exactly what the end of the world was like, though each one had his own notions about it, and very queer notions they were.

As time went by, and more and more people were born on the earth, they began to need more room and more money: so many of them travelled away farther and farther, sometimes on land, sometimes on water. Still none of

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Lesson I.—Did people ever think they could get to the end of the earth ?

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8 INTRODUCTORY.

SL eS SE 2 a a ee a ee ee en ES a a oS 8 en ae them came to the end of the earth; and, wherever they went, the sky seemed as high overhead as*ever. Wise men began to think there “was no end; and, sure enough, it happened at last that’ some persons, after travelling on for a long time in the same way, found themselves just at the place from which they started, as an ant would after crawling round an apple. This, together with some other signs, showed very plainly that the earth was like a round ball, without any end.

Since then, many people have travelled about over this round world of ours, finding out many things, and telling one another what they have seen. Fairy tales are not more wonderful than the stories that have been written about blazing hills, rivers of moving ice, springs of. boiling water, cities buried under the ground, and hundreds of things as strange.

The outside of this round world is called its surface ; and it will be hard for some of you, who perhaps have never seen more water than a river, to believe that there is more water than land on the surface of the earth,— nearly three times as much. There are great seas of water, thousands of miles wide; and far across the waters are many lands very different from ours.

There are countries where the sunshine is very hot all the year ; where the trees are always green, and flowers always blooming ; where the children have no snow-balling nor skating, but see every day ripe, yellow oranges, and gay-

‘colored parrots in the trees. And hotter still

are some lands, where there is no grass, but

only miles and miles of dry, burning sand. Far off from these are other lands, where it

What was found out about its shape ? How? What is the outside of the earth called? Are all parts of the earth alike? What have travellers learned about it ?

is always so bitter cold that the snow and ice | never melt, where there are no large trees nor — cornfields nor gardens, and where the people use rough bearskins for clothes. <

By travelling over the earth, the people who live in different parts have become a little acquainted with one another. There are on the earth many different kinds of people, with different ways of living; some white, some black, some brown, some tawny, some yellowish-red. Some live in houses of wood and of stone, others make hovels of mud; some have only cloth tents or houses, and others build with skins and bark.

LESSON II.

7 THINGS TO LEARN ABOUT THE LAND.

Tue land, instead of being all in one mass, is in parts, of different sizes and shapes; and there are names for the different forms.

If a piece of land has water all around it, we call it an island. .

But if such a piece of land is so large that it may contain several different countries, then it ig called a continent. . ii

The islands or continents are never regularly square nor round, but are of all sorts of shapes.

The edges, instead of being even and straight, |.

are all notched and jagged where they touch the water; and these edges of land are called shores or sea-coasts. /

When the points of land reach out quite far into the water, they are called capes.

When a piece of land is almost surrounded by water, it is called a peninsula.

A continent @ What is a

Lesson II.— What is an island?

What are shores or sea-coasts? Capes? peninsula ?

A broad stretch of level ground is called a plain. A grassy plain without trees is called a pratrie, llano, pampa, or steppe.

Deserts are large plains destitute of grass, or with only a scanty growth. They are often covered for miles and miles with dry sand, rocks, or gravel, except here and there a little cluster of trees around a spring or well.

When the land in any place rises to quite a height, it is called a hill.

Very high hills are called mountains. They are not often seen standing alone, but are in long rows or ridges, called mountain chains.

Valleys are the low places between hills or mountains, and are often very long and wide.

LESSON III.

THINGS TO LEARN ABOUT THE WATER.

You know that water takes the shape of whatever holds it, whether it is a tub, a pan, or a long trough. Now those great lands which I told you are called continents have between them great basins of water, which are called oceans. .

But you must remember that the edges or shores are not always smooth, but notched in and out. When there is quite a large notch in the land, with the water from the ocean running up, it is a bay, gulf, or sea.

Around every ocean there are many such seas, bays, or gulfs ; and sometimes they are almost or quite shut in by land. The water of the oceans is salt.

When two points of land are so near to-

A plain? <A prairie? What are deserts? Hills? Mountains? Valleys?

Lesson IIIJ.— What are oceans? Bays or gulfs ? 2

ISLANDS.

gether as only to leave a narrow passage of water between, this passage is called a strait.

You all know what a pond is; and very large ponds are called lakes, which are smaller basins of water away from the ocean.

Most of you also know that water bubbling up out of the ground, and making a little pool, is called a spring. Clear, cool water runs from this little pool, and forms a stream. If the land is flat, the little stream comes slowly through mud and leaves; but, if the spring is on a high hill, its stream rushes along fast enough, leaping, sparkling, and foaming over the rocks.

After a while, the stream meets other little streams from other springs, and, joining together,

‘they make a larger one, that still goes on, winding, turning, and taking in other streams, until it grows so wide and deep that it is called a river. Small streams are called branches, or rivuiets.

LESSON IV.

ISLANDS.

EVERYWHERE in the midst of the water are scattered islands of all sizes, some large enough for many towns to be built on them, others so small that they are nothing more than big rocks in the water. Some islands are flat; some are high, with hills and mountains. The strangest of all are the coral islands.

You have seen the bright red and the white coral, used for making beads and other pretty things. But perhaps you do not know that it is made by thousands of little animals, called

Seas? What is a strait? A lake? A spring? How are rivers made ? | Lesson IV.— Where are islands found? Are they all alike? How is coral made?

polyps, that live far down in the water. The coral is sometimes found in beautiful branches, a foot or more long. Men dive under the water to get it, and oftem pieces are broken off and washed up on the shore by the waves.

The beautiful, fine coral is rare, and only found in small quantities: but there are other animals that make a coarser, rougher coral; and it is of this rougher kind of coral that islands are made. animals are at first little jelly-like sacs, floating about in the water; but, after a while, they fasten themselves to the rocks under water, and never leave them Then the sacs open at the top, and lit-

These again.

tle starsshaped mouths are formed. New animals come from the old ones, like buds upon a plant, while new jelly-like sacs float away to fasten themselves elsewhere ; and thus they increase rapidly. Millions and millions of these small creatures are living and growing day and night under the water, taking lime from it, and forming solid walls and partitions in their bodies, till at last they are wholly changed into rocky substance, except their stomachs and mouths. Thus they make the coral as they grow, budding and spreading in all directions, till, in time, they form, with their rocky walls, strange and beautiful shapes; sometimes large branches, sometimes clusters of cells like a honeycomb ; sometimes they spread out like fans, and sometimes form long, round stems. | The animals continue to add more and more

What happens when the coral animals bring their work to the surface of water ?

ISLANDS.

coral, until at last, coming near the surface of the water, they can grow nohigher. Then the waves, all the time rushing and beating against the branches, break, and mix them together. Floating logs, bits of wood, and sea-weeds, lodge on the points of rock, and in time decay, and make.a little soil. the land, spring up into plants, which die and

Seeds are blown there from make more soil, until, after a long, long time, the land spreads wider and deeper, trees grow up, and even men come and build their cities on the islands that were first made by little creatures not half so large as one’s finger. But how many years this must have taken! and how many generations of polyps !

It is the fashion of these animals to build in a circle, for reasons you will understand by and by, so that; when the island comes to the surface of the water, it is a broad ring, These rings are not always round, but often longer with a pond or lake in the middle.

one way, and have usually an opening some-

‘where, so that ships often sail into the lakes from the open sea.

Many of these coral islands, called atolls, are very beautiful; and, if you would know how they look, think of a wide belt of land not much above the water, covered with trees and plants of the brightest green; for it is always warm where the little coral animals live. Here and there are groves of cocoanut-trees waving their long feathery leaves high in the air, and bending their tall stems in the wind. ‘These groves are bordered on both sides, outward to the sea and inward to the lake, by a narrow band of shining white sand lying next to the blue water. All around outside come the great,strong waves, swelling slowly over the ocean, until they dash

What is said of the coral islands ?

MOUNTAINS.

SS en against the ring of rock with a roar, and burst into sparkling foam. But, while it is rough outside, the water inside the ring is still, and smooth as glass: for this reason, these inside lakes, which are called lagoons, are good harbors for vessels.

LESSON V.

MOUNTAINS.

Mountains, as you have learned, are in rows or chains. Sometimes : the chain is narrow; sometimes it stretches out over quite a wide coun- _ try, with high valleys between the different tops, or peaks. The highest mountains are about five miles high ; but not many are so high as this.

You might think that mountains, with their

steep, rough sides, often bare and rocky, would be of no use tous. But, though they are not good for fields or gardens, goats and cows and wild deer think their sides fine pasture-grounds ; for there are often patches of excellent grass, and rocks among which the goats leap. - Beside this, mountains often contain many treasures which we are glad to find and dig out. Under the rocks and earth are great beds of coal, quantities of iron, copper, lead, and even gold, silver, and diamonds. Digging out such things is called mining; and there are coalmines, lead-mines, gold-mines, &c.

When all the coal near the surface in one place has been dug from the earth, a deep hole is made, something like a well, which is called

What are lagoons 4 Lesson V.— Are all mountain-chains alike ?

CORAL ISLAND.

a shaft. Men go down through this shaft by ladders and ropes, and dig out more coal far down under the ground, and draw it up in large buckets. |

But, by digging away a great deal of coal and earth with it, after a while a large cave is made, and the miners must go farther and farther to find more coal. It is dark and dreary there: the air is damp and close, and men are often crushed to death by the earth falling upon them ; though they try to make it as safe as they can by leaving some parts untouched, reaching from top to bottom like pillars, and also by putting up wooden props.

These mines are often very large, than you can imagine; and hundreds of men far larger work day and night in the dark holes with

Of what use are mountains? What is mining? How are mines made ?

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=— to the tops of the mountains, that is, of the high ones ; and, if we go very far up, there will no longer be any trees, only a few stunted bushes and mosses, and we shall begin to feel very cold. If we still have courage to go on, we shall find the mountain toward the top covered with snow, even in summer and in a hot country; for, so high above the surface of the earth, it is always cold. :

The snow among the high tops melts very little. Great

COAL-MINE.

torches and lanterns. Not only men, but women and children, work in mines; and sometimes miners eat and sleep under ground, and do not see daylight for many days.

Beside the treasures buried in mountains, their sides are often covered with forests of tall pinetrees. From the trunks of these a sap, Or juice, runs out, which makes turpentine, rosin, “and other useful things. Great quantities of charcoal and tar are also made from the pine wood, and the tallest, straightest trunks are used for making masts of ships.

But the pine woods and mines do not extend

Of what use are pine forests ?

fields of snow are found between the peaks, and the narrow valleys are filled with it. Though the heat of summer in these high valleys is not enough to really melt it, sometimes it thaws a little and freezes again, and at last becomes ice mixed with snow

SSS ay and water, and begins to slip slowly, slowly down the narrow mountain valleys like real moving ice rivers, which are called glaciers.

These great white rivers creep for miles among the snowy tops, and sometimes reach as far down as the grass fields around the little villages, into the very midst of the hardy little wild flowers. The people who live in such villages are accustomed to the snows above ‘them, and to the steep mountain paths; but strangers often find the way dangerous.

Still stranger than the snow-covered moun-

What is found on the tops of high mountains? What are glaciers ?

MOUNTAINS.

PRAIRIES.

~~ tains are the fire mountains, — always hot and smoking, and often blazing up, throwing out redhot stones and a melted substance called lava.

These burning mountains “ are found mostly in warm countries. They are called volcanoes, and the large - hole at the top from which - the flames and smoke come - outisacrater. Sometimes, after a volcano has been quiet for a long time, a great smoke will burst out with strong odors of sulphur and gas ; then follow ‘lumps of rock, and lava which runs down the sides in large streams that sometimes flow over farms and After a time the flames and roaring noise cease, the lava becomes cold and even towns.

hard like stone, and the people around who had run away go back to see if their homes are safe. I dare say some of you have seen bits of lava made into bracelets and ear-rings ; for it is a curiosity here. It is of several colors, — brown, slate, tea-colored, and white.

LESSON VI.

PRAIRIES.

PRAIRIES are great level lands, sometimes reaching for many miles over the country, having only here and there a clump of trees. The

What are voleanoes? What is lava 2 prairie-grass is long and thick, and makes good food for large herds of cattle, horses, and bisons. I some countries, men are out all the time catchie wild horses or cattle from the troops that go galloping over the prairie. These cattlehunters have swift horses of their own, and hold ready in their hands a long rope with a slip-knot at one end. When they overtake a troop of horses, they choose one, and quickly throw the knot over his head, keeping the other end in their hands. The knot slips close, and holds the horse fast. In some places, the horses are caught by the leg instead of the neck ; and, from long practice, these hunters become very skilful in throwing the knotted rope, which is called a i lasso.

Lesson VI.— What are prairies ? What is a lasso?

PRAIRIES.

A prairie on fire is a grand and beautiful sight ; that is, if one can see it without being in danger. Such a fire sometimes occurs toward the end of summer, when the long grass is dry, and burns easily. It may catch from the campfires of hunters; and, once lighted, the flames rush over miles and miles of prairie-land. Often in warm seasons the prairies are covered with beautiful flowers of all colors, looking gay and bright amidst the green grass. In some places, during the rainy season, it is hard travelling across the flat prairie, —for, as there are no rocks, it is very muddy ; and wagons are made for the purpose, with broad wheels that do not sink down easily.