intelligent, but indolent; fond of reading, but superstitious. They are kind to their wives and children, slaves, and animals, but treat their enemies with great barbarity. Their dwellings reek with filth, and are nothing but huts of the rudest type, built of earth and branches. They cultivate the land to some extent, but their village is of the most primitive description. Of mining and manufacturing they know but little, and practise less. But more important than either is the cattle breeding, for which the meadow lands of the hilly districts are so admirably adapted.

10. Gondar, in the centre of the country, has long been the nominal capital of Abyssinia. It is in no way remarkable, except for the ruins of a fine-towered palace, erected for the earlier kings of Ethiopia by Italian architects. Its population is roughly estimated at 6,000, though in former times it had nearer 50,000 inhabitants. Adowa in the north is a market town. Ankober is the capital of the partially independent province of Shoa in the south.

11. The small external trade of Abyssinia is carried on through the Egyptian port of Massowah on the Red Sea; but a considerable traffic in salt is carried on with the Afar or Danakil country. In this nominal dependency of Egypt salt is cut from the lake beds, and formed into small uniform blocks, to be taken by mule caravans to the Abyssinian markets. These salt blocks pass as a money currency all over Abyssinia.

12. Abyssinia, from time immemorial, has been governed by absolute rulers, who claim to be the descendants of Solomon, and style themselves "king of kings." But the history of the country is a history of perpetual warfare; now a crusade against the inhabitants of the plains, now an invasion in return, to be followed by the rebellion of one or other of the native princes who aspires to the sovereignty of the whole country.

Section IV.-NORTH AMERICA.

LESSON XLV.

NORTH AMERICA.—EXTENT, COUNTRIES, SURFACE.

1. The general form of the North American continent is that of an inverted triangle with unequal sides, having its base in frozen regions of the Arctic Ocean, its apex in the tropics, and its sides washed by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Its area is about nine million square miles; and it has a longer coast line in proportion to its area than any other continent, except Europe.

The

2. North America is made up of the Dominion of Canada, the United States, Mexico, the Republics of Central America, and Greenland, or Danish America, with some islands. Greenland is an immense island, nine or ten times as large as great Britain, stretching away into the icy regions round the North Pole; but its limits in this direction are unknown, and the greater portion of the interior has never been explored. eastern shores, swept by the great "ice-bearing Greenland current from the open arctic sea," are almost unapproachable. The western shores have a less rigorous climate, and support a population of about 10,000, of whom about 300 are Danish settlers. The fiords on the coast of Greenland are the birth-places of enormous icebergs. The Dominion of Canada includes all the northern portion, except Alaska, in the north-west, which is a portion of the United States. Newfoundland is an island of the east coast, a colony of Great Britain, not yet included in the Dominion. The United States occupy the middle of the continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Mexico is in the south, and Central America includes the states which occupy the irregular isthmus connecting Mexico with South America.

3. Four-fifths of North America lies within the north temperate zone. A piece of Alaska, the barren shores and islands north of the Dominion, and the greater portion of Greenland, are within the Arctic circle. About

half of Mexico and the whole of Central America lie

within the tropics. The continent naturally divides itself into three great regions:-(1) The country west of the Rocky Mountains. (2) The country east of the Alleghany Mountains. (3) The great valley or plain which lies between, and extends from the Arctic Sea to the Gulf of Mexico.

4. The Rocky Mountain system extends throughout the whole length of the continent, from the Arctic Ocean to the extreme south of Mexico, here to be connected by the table-lands of Central America with the Andes of South America. It consists of three ranges. The first is the coast range of the Pacific, which extends through the peninsula of California northwards as far as Vancouver's Island. It again appears further north, where its chief peak, Mount St. Elias, an active volcano, attains an elevation of 19,500 feet. The second range is the Western Cordillera of Mexico, continued northwards in California as the Sierra Nevada, and further north again as the Cascade Range. The third range is the Rocky Mountains, a continuation of the Eastern Cordilleras of Mexico. Between these mountain-chains are high table-lands, traversed by mountain ranges, enclosing many broad valleys. Some of these table-lands and valleys are fertile; but barrenness is the rule, fertility the exception.

5. The Appalachian Mountains extend along a portion of the eastern coast. This system is shorter and less elevated than that of the West, and is formed of many short ranges. These mountains contain great quantities of coal and iron.

6. The great central plain includes the basins of the great rivers of America. Almost in the very centre of the continent there are (6 Heights of Land," and from these central heights the Mackenzie River flows to the north, the St. Lawrence to the east, and the Mississippi to the south, and, not far away, the Columbia to the west. The basin of the St. Lawrence is noted for its great lakes. Lake Superior exceeds in extent every other body of fresh water at present known in the world. It receives the waters of about forty rivers

some of which are of considerable magnitude. In the basin of the Mackenzie, also, large lakes are numerous, but elsewhere the lowlands of America are singularly devoid of lakes. The Mississippi-including its great tributary, the Missouri-is the longest known river. The Mississippi valley is one of the most fertile regions in the world.

7. Lying within the sub-tropics or tropics, and coming under the influence of the north-east tradewinds, with their copious showers, the south and southeastern parts of the United States, Mexico, and Central America are characterised by a luxuriant vegetation and a richly-wooded landscape, but are very unhealthy. The uplands of Mexico are dry and cold, whilst the region of Lower California, and of many of the table-lands of the Rocky Mountain region, are characterised by dryness and sterility. The greater part of North America lies, however, in the region of variable winds, and the Atlantic and Pacific slopes are well watered, and hence well wooded; whilst all the central lowlands, receiving but a moderate rainfall, constitute the vast rolling prairies of grass; and trees are only plentiful near the streams and rivers, or other favoured spots. Over all that part of the north of the continent from British Columbia to Labrador, which is reached by the most prevalent westerly winds from the Pacific, pine forests are the main feature in the landscape.

1. The United States consists of thirty-eight partially independent States, one District-that of Columbia, in which Washington, the capital, is situated-and ten Territories, all united, or joined together under one

* The Territories are Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming, Dakotah, New Mexico, and the Indian Territory. These Territories are thinly populated; they have not the privilege of electing their own governor, nor can they, like the States, make their own laws independently of the general Government.