nents. A third mass of land-Australia-is an island so large as to be named the "island continent."

4. The two great divisions are the "Old World," embracing Europe, Asia, and Africa; and the "New World," including North and South America. The western continent is not quite half as large as the eastern, but it has five times the area of Australia. The ocean which surrounds the land is differently named in its different parts. That between Africa and Europe on the east, and America on the west, is the Atlantic; that between America and Asia, the Pacific. The Indian Ocean lies to the south of Asia, and has Africa on the west, and the southern Asiatic isles and Australia on the east. The Arctic and Antarctic Oceans lie around the poles.

5. When we look at the general shape and outline of the great masses of land we cannot fail to notice certain striking resemblances, and other remarkable contrasts. Asia, Africa, North America, and South America, are all massive and broad towards the north, but tapering and wedge-like towards the south. And this tendency is marked not only in the principal masses of the continents, but also in nearly all the peninsulas connected with them. Scandinavia, Spain and Portugal, Italy, and Greece, in Europe; India, the Malay peninsula, Corea, and Kamtschatka, in Asia; Greenland, California, and Florida in America—all have their points turned towards the south.

6. It has been observed as another peculiarity of the structure of peninsulas, that they generally terminate abruptly in bluffs, promontories, or mountains. Thus, at the southern extremity of Africa the Cape of Good Hope stands out a great rocky barrier 4,000 feet above the sea level; the high, black, and precipitous promontory of Cape Horn is the visible termination of the Andes; Asia, in the peninsula of the Deccan, sends out the chain of the Ghats to form Cape Comorin; and, lastly, Australia presents at its southern extremity in the island of Tasmania the abrupt and massive South Cape.

7. The two great masses of land in the Old and New

World also offer striking contrasts, which give to each a marked character of its own. The principal mass of land in the Old World stretches from east to west over one half of the circumference of the globe, and has a "backbone" of high ground stretching from Spain to the extreme east of Asia. In the New World the direction of the land and of the mountain chains is from north to south. A consequence of this is that Europe and Asia extend through similar zones of climate, whilst America traverses nearly all the climatic zones of the earth.

8. More important contrasts are presented when we look at the outline, or contour of the continents. Some are deeply indented, having peninsulas and bays and gulfs and inland seas which give a coast line of great length. Others are compact, exhibiting fewer indentations and a shorter coast line. "In this respect there is, as we see, a gradation between the principal divisions of the Old World. Africa is the most simple; it is a body without members, a tree without branches. Asia is a mighty trunk, the members of which make only one-fifth of its mass. In Europe the members over-rule the body, the branches cover the trunk; the peninsulas form almost a third of its entire surface. Africa is closed to the ocean; Asia opens only its margins; Europe surrenders entirely to it, and is in consequence the most accessible of all the continents."

9. America, too, presents contrasts, but less decided ones. Next to Europe, North America has the most extended coast line. South America reminds us of Africa in the regularity of its outline.

10. A very general comparison of the elevation of the great masses of land will tend to show, first that the Old World is the world of mountains and plateaus, and the New World the world of plains; and secondly, that all the long and gentle slopes are towards the Atlantic Ocean, whilst all the short and rapid slopes are towards the Pacific and Indian Oceans. If we were to make a tour round the Pacific and Indian Oceans we should pass in succession nearly all the highest peaks of the world.

LESSON II.

THE OCEAN.-I.

1. The vast extent of watery area, the one ocean which everywhere surrounds the land, has received different names in different parts. The Arctic Ocean extends from the North Pole as far south as the Arctic Circle. Its waters freeze upon the northern shores of the three continents-Europe, Asia, America. The Antarctic extends from the South Pole to the Antarctic Circle.

2. The Atlantic Ocean separates the Old and New Worlds. Its northern and southern boundaries are the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, while the Americas on the one side, and Europe and Africa on the other, form its lateral shores. It is the most important of the oceans. Through it pass the great highways of the sea. Its waters are not lifeless dreary wastes, but thousands of mariners people its surface, and sails of every nation enliven its bosom. The South Atlantic is the birthplace of the tidal wave-a wave which sweeps round the world, disturbing what otherwise might be stagnant pools, cleansing the river estuaries, and carrying food and salubrity to the fixed inhabitants of the ocean bed or its shores.

3. The Indian Ocean is enclosed by Asia on the north, by Africa on the west, and on the east by the East Indian Islands and Australia.

4. The Pacific is the great ocean; it claims all the rest of the waters. It offers many and striking contrasts to its neighbour, the Atlantic. The one has its greatest dimensions from east to west, the other from north to south. The currents in the Pacific are broad and slow, while those in the Atlantic are narrow and swift. In the one the tidal wave rises to an all but inappreciable height, in the other it heaves the whole breast of the waters, and dashes against the obstructing shores with wondrous force; and lastly, the Pacific, as its name would denote, is comparatively calm and tranquil, while the Atlantic is treacherous and stormy.

5. The line where land and water meet is the coast.

Sometimes the continent pushes back the advancing waves with a rampart of rocks; sometimes boulders detached from the main cliff lie out in the sea, breaking the force of the waves. These rocky and serrated coasts are found in Norway, Scotland, and other countries. The low coasts slope down with gentle declivities, and the land, as it were, glides beneath the surface of the water. These coasts are only found on the shores of countries whose soil is clay, or mud, or some other soft deposit.

6. "The bed of the ocean, like dry land, is diversified by plains and mountains, table-lands and valleys, sometimes barren, sometimes covered with marine vegetation, and teeming with life. Its plateaus and depressions have been ascertained by the sounding-line, and are mapped out in profile as a part of our geographical knowledge. Its average depth is believed to be about equal to the height of the land, the lowest valley of the ocean's bed corresponding with the summits of the loftiest mountains.

7. "The ocean is continually receiving the spoils of the land, washed down by numerous rivers and deposited as sand and mud, or held in solution in its waters. These causes tend to diminish its depth and increase its superficial extent. There are, however, causes in operation which counteract these agencies. It is clearly shown by geologists that processes of elevation and subsidence are continually taking place in different parts of the globe.

8. "The waters of the ocean contain about three and a half per cent. of saline matter; but, owing to the melting of snow and ice in the Polar regions, and the volumes of fresh water poured in by rivers, the degree of saltness diminishes towards the poles, and also near the shores. The temperature of the ocean, though varying in different latitudes, is more uniform than that of the land; its colour, generally of a deep bluish green, is varied in particular localities by the myriads of animalcules and vegetable substances which float on its surface, and also, in shallow places, by the colour of the bed on which it rests. In some parts of the tropical seas the waters are remarkably clear, like an immense vase of