The Werner grammar school geography

Part I

HORACE S. TARBELL, A.M.

SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, PROVIDENCE, R.I,

MAV M 1«M

WERNER SCHOOL BOOK COMPANY

NEW YORK CHICAGO BOSTON

Copyright, 1896, By HOKACE S. TARBELL.

The Werner Company, Printers and Binders, Akron, Ohio.

Electrotyped by J. 8. Cushing & Co., Norwood, Mass.

i

Preface

The study of geography affords excellent opportunities for the exercise of judgment, generalization, inference, and comparison. In this, the second book of the series, designed for the pupils who are completing a course of elementary studies, the special purpose has been to secure the exercise of these powers. This book appeals to the memory of the pupil as little as possible, but to his judgment as much as the material to be studied and the age of the pupil will warrant.

It is evident that there are two orders of treatment of facts and topics of geography. We may discuss in successive chapters "relief," "climate," "commerce," or we may treat of the "United States," "Brazil," "France," etc.

By the first plan w,e gather around one topic facts from many regions; by the second we localize in one region facts pertaining to many topics.

Each plan has its advantages and corresponding disadvantages. The first suits the mind of the adult, the second the mind of the youth. The first is liable to spin theories with no frame of place on which to hang them, the second to enumerate facts with no explanations of their connections or reasons for their existence. The author has sought to combine the advantages and avoid the disadvantages of both plans by the order of the chapters of the book.

The chapters of the book are arranged in three parts: 3. Preparatory; 2. Descriptive; 3. General and Comparative.

The first part contains those matters of definition, location, relief, climate, products, etc., which the pupil must understand in order to be prepared for the study of the main por-

4 PEE FACE.

tion of the book, part two, which is an account of the continents and their people.

The third part, in some respects a review, treats in a more general and comparative way some of the topics of the first part in the light of the facts of the second part. The third part, while higher in grade of subject matter and broader in treatment than geographies for common schools have usually been, will, it is hoped, be found comprehensible and interesting to pupils who have studied the earlier parts.

In accordance with modern thought, considerable attention is devoted to relief, that vertical dimension of the land so much more important than the horizontal dimensions, length and breadth. Yet it has not been forgotten that relief is not in itself of sufficient importance to the pupil to demand much of his time in study. It is only so far as it influences climate and products, the comfort and opportunities of man, that it is worthy of consideration.

Climate is an element of our surroundings on which we are more dependent than on relief or drainage, and so it has been given a more prominent place. Man has been the center from which everything has been viewed, and objects have taken a perspective, large or small, as they have been near to or remote from human interests. The manner of life, the occupations of mankind, and also that % history which shows the influence of geographical conditions on human progress, have taken unusual, but it is believed not undue, space. Throughout the books are questions that refer to the text, and many others that require thought and can be answered only by the application of principles. Special attention has been given to the United States and to Europe.

The United States, The Five Great Powers of Europe, with the teeming multitudes of China and Japan, are the three great centers of human interest at present, and of hope, or fear, for the future. The remaining parts of the world are dependencies, not indeed politically, but commercially, of these three centers of power and progress. This thought has determined to considerable degree the space given to the treatment of the various regions.

But few mountains, rivers, capes, and cities are named to

PREFACE. 5

burden the pupil's memory with location alone. The effort has been to give him clear and broad views of human life in all important countries, that he may know the conditions that affect human welfare and the progress in comfort and enlightenment that different countries are making.

By making the general treatment of the United States as a whole and of the several sections full, it has been made possible to devote less space than usual to each state, and still to furnish in effect a comparatively full treatment of the several states. By this plan space is saved, and effort of memorizing reduced.

The same plan has been followed in the treatment of the continents and the several countries therein.

The acknowledgments made in the preface to the Introductory Geography should be here renewed; for Hon. Orville T. Bright, Superintendent C. B. Gilbert, and Miss F. Lillian Taylor, have made valuable suggestions in reference to both books.

James Baldwin, Ph.D., the well-known author of many books, has carefully read all the MS. of both books, and suggested many improvements. Henry Whittemore, superintendent of schools, Waltham, Mass., has rendered the same valuable service for this book.

To thesea cknowledgments, must be added here, as always, the recognition of the constant and intelligent services rendered me in all this work by Miss Martha Tarbell, without whose aid I should have had neither time not courage for book-making.

The spelling of geographical names in this book is adopted on the authority of The United States Board of Geographic Names, and of the maps issued by the United States Government. The decisions of this Board are approved by the Eoyal Geographical Society of London, and will probably be adopted within a few years in all English-speaking countries.

In the pronunciation, The Century Cyclopedia of Names has been followed.

H. S. Tarbell.