PREFACE. CONSIDERING the improved methods now generally adopted in teaching Geography, the ever-expanding dimensions of our own gigantic empire, the numerous additions recently made to our knowledge of foreign countries, and, as a consequence of these, the increasing interest felt by educated persons in every department of the science, the Author deems it superfluous to offer any apology for issuing the present Manual. As it differs, however, somewhat widely, both in matter and arrangement, from all its predecessors, it may be necessary here to describe its more prominent characteristics. The work commences with a brief account of the relation of the Earth to the Solar system, and of the latter to the other worlds which people space. The form and materials of the globe, the configuration of its surface, its climate, mineralogy, geology, botany, zoology, and ethnography, are next discussed; and thus a foundation is laid for the subsequent details in Physical and Political Geography. The individual continents and minor divisions of the earth's surface then pass successively under review. Each of these is viewed from many sides, and the results presented to the learner in a corresponding series of brief but pointed sections. The precise order in which the different sections should stand was a subject of much careful reflection. While in most other works on geography the physical and political stand widely apart, they are here intentionally combined; and so made, not only to reflect mutual light on each other, but also to correspond |
