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MllBRARYOc.

A PHYSICAL,

HISTOKICAL, POLITICAL, & DESCKIPTIVE

GEOGKAPHY

By the same Author,

AFRICA

{Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel).

Based on Hellwald's " Die Erde iind Ihre Volker."

With Ethnological Appendix by A. H. Keane, M.A.I.

Large post 8vo, cloth gilt, with 16 Maps and Diagrams, and
68 Illustrations, 21s.

THE LONDON GEOGBAPHIOAL SERIES.

A PHYSICAL,
HISTOKICAL, POLITICAL, & DESCKIPTIVE

GEOGKAPHY

By KEITH JOHNSTON, r.RG.S.

EDITOR OF THE ' AFRICA ' VOLUME IN ' STANFORD'S COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL ;
LATE LEADER OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY'S EAST AFRICAN EXPEDITION.

MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

SE C OND EDITION— RE VISED

LONDON
EDAVARD STANFORD, 55 CHARING CROSS, S.W.

1881

122-

PEEFACE TO THE FIEST EDITION.

The unfortunate death of the Author, on the eve of the
publication of this work, makes it necessary for me to say
a few words to the Public. Mr. Keith Johnston left
England, in order to lead the Eoyal Geographical Society's
expedition for the exploration of the country north of
Lake Nyassa, as the book was passing through the press.
The last portions of the MS. were sent from Zanzibar,
and proofs left by the return mail, that they might receive
attention from him during his halt there, or on his onward
journey ; but before they had arrived Mr. Keith Johnston
had fallen a victim to exposure and tlie clhnate, and a
career already marked by good work done for Geography,
and giving great promise of future achievement, was
suddenly brought to an end. Under these circumstances,
as it was necessary to take steps to ensure for the book
the same advantages which it would have derived from a
last revision by its Author, Mr. Drew, of Eton College,
and the Author's old friend and colleague, Mr, Bolton,
have kindly given their aid, and seen it through the press.
I have therefore much confidence that this last result of
the Author's labour and skill is sent forth in a fitting
state and form.

EDWAED STANFOED.

55 Charing Cross, January 1880.

PEEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The cordial and appreciative reception accorded to the
late Mr. Keith Johnston's " Geography," satisfactorily
proves that the general plan of the work meets the re-
quirements of a considerable portion of the public. In
preparing this Second Edition nothing has therefore been
changed in the arrangement of the materials embodied in
this volume. Mr. Eavenstein, whom I entrusted with
the task of revising the work, has confined himseK to such
amendments as appeared to be called for by the pro-
gress of geographical exploration and statistical inquiry ;
he has corrected a few errors, unavoidable in a work
dealing with such a multitude of facts, and has given
some additional information on the empire of Austria-
Hungary and Polynesia.

I shall at all times be happy to receive suggestions
for still further improving a work which appears to be
destined to take a permanent place amongst English

Geographical literature.

EDWAED STANEOED.

55 CiiARiKG Cross, January 1881.

CONTENTS.

I. Introductory Chapter ......

Explanation of "direction" and "distance" — The compass —
The cardinal points — Boxing the compass — The mariner's
compass — The sun's apparent path across the sky — The pole
star — The "pace" — Natural scale — Mapping — Plan drawing
— Surveying — Construction of sections — Exercises in map
drawing.

PAGE

II. Sketch op Historical Geography
1. From 1000 to 450 B.C.

2. ,

450 to 325 B.C.

3. ,

325 B.C. to 300 A.D

4. ,

300 to 500 A.D.

5. ,

500 to 800 A.D.

6. ,

800 to 1000 A.D.

7. ,

, 1000 to 1300 A.D.

8. ,

, 1300 to 1500 A.D.

9. ,

, 1500 to 1600 A.D.

10. ,

, 1600 to 1700 A.D.

11. ,

, 1700 to 1800 A.D.

12. ,

, 1800 to 1880 A.D.

III. Physical Geography

1. Form and Dimensions of the Earth

Proof of the sphericity of the earth — The visible horizon —
Measurement of an arc by Eratosthenes of Alexandria —
Calculation of the earth's diameter — Modern triangulation
operations — Parallels of latitude — Meridians of longitude
— Projections of the sphere — Orthographic, Stereographic,
Globular — Mercator's chart.

2. Proper Movements of the Earth ....

Rotation on an imaginary axis — Revolution round the sun
— Evidence of daily rotation — Evidence of annual revolu-
tion — The ecliptic — Temperature — Tlie zones.

20
22
23
26
28
30
33
39
45
57
65
74

101
101

112

VIU

CONTENTS.

PAGE

3. Distribution of Land and Sea . . . .122

Area of land and water — Form of the land masses — Elevation
of the land — Depth of the sea — Distribution of mountains
and plains.

4. Causes which Determine Climate . . . .130

Decrease of temperature with elevation — Temperature of sea
and land compared — Temperature of atmosphere — Ex-
planation of land and sea breezes — Periodical winds —
Monsoons — Trade winds — Oceanic circulation, caused by
difference of temperature, and by density. Ocean cur-
rents — The Gulf stream, the Japan current, Mozambique
current, Peruvian current. South Atlantic current, Aus-
tralian current, Antarctic drift. East Greenland current.
Evaporation — Periodical rains, distribution of moisture
by the winds, influence of mountain ranges, deserts. Dis-
tribution of vegetable and animal life — Effects of climate
on the distribution of man.

5. Peoples of the World — Natural religions and Political Systems 146

Total population of the world. Races — Aryan family,
Mongolian, Hamite, Semite, Negro, Bantu, Hottentot,
Eskimo, Papuan or Negrito. Religions — Polytheism,
Monotheism — Numbers of the followers of the chief
religions. Growth of political organisation. Tribal
divisions — Patriarchate, empire, kingdom, monarchy,
despotism, oligarchy, democracy, republic, state, colony.
Boundaries — Natural frontiers, artiticial frontiers.

EUROPE.

General description, Extent, Relief, Hydrography, Climate, Products,
Races, Education, Religion, Government . . . .

I. THE TEUTONIC STATES.

1. The British Isles

2. Scandinavia

3. Denmark .

Faroe Islands and Iceland

4. German Empire

North Germany — Prussia .
Saxony .
Smaller States and Hanse Towns

155

167
182
188
191
193
196
197
198

CONTENTS.

South Germany — Bavaria .

Wiirtemburg
Baden .

PAGK
199

200
200

5. Austria and Hungary

201

Cis-Leithan Austria
The Kingdom of Hungary

205
208

6. Switzerland

208

7. Netherlands
Luxembourg

212
215

8. Belgium

215

II. ROMANIC STATES.

1. France

. 218

Pyeen^an or Iberian Peninsula

. 224

2. Spain .....

. 228

3. Portugal ....

. 231

4. Italy .....

. 232

5. Greece .....

. 239

6. Romania .....

. 243

III. SLAVONIC STATES.

Balkan Peninsula ....

: 245

1. Servia .....

. 250

2. Montenegro ....

. 250

3. Bosnia and Herzegovina

. 251

4. Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia

. 252

5. Turkey Proper

. 253

6. European Russia ....

. 255

ASIA.

General Description, Lowlands, Highland.s, Hydrography, Climate, People,

Religion ........ 261

Russian Asia —

The Caucasus

277

CONTENTS.

Siberia ....

279

KussiAN Central Asia ..... 282

Chinese Asia-

Chinese Empire ...... 283

China Proper

. 284

Manchuria ....

. 292

COEEA ....

. 293

Mongolia ....

. 295

ZUNGARIA

. 297

Eastern Turkistan .

. 298

Tibet .....

. 299

Japan —

Japan Proper ...... 302

Yezo ......

. 305

KuRiLE Islands ....

. 306

Liu-Kiu Islands ....

. 306

Japanese Colony in Corea — Bonin Islands

. 307

Indian Asia —

India ........ 307

Ceylon . . . . . . .320

Laccadive Islands, Maldive Islands . . . 322

Farther India —

British Burmah ...... 323

BURJIAH

324

SlAM ....

325

Annam

327

Lower Cochin China

328

Cambodia

329

Malacca

329

British Straits Settlements

330

East India Islands .

330

Sumatra

332

Java ....

333

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Borneo ....

. 333

Celebes ....

. 335

Lesser Sunda Islands

. 335

Moluccas ....

. 336

Philippine Islands .

. 336

Sulu Islands

337

Mohammedan Asia —

Baluchistan ....

. ■ . 337

Afghanistan ....

. 338

Afghan Turkistan .

. 341

Independent Turkistan

. 342

Persia ....

. 344

Asiatic Turkey

. 347

Arabia ....

. 355

AFRICA.

Contour, Relief, Rivers, Climate, Products, People, Religion, Govern-
ment ........ 360

The Barbary States ...... 368

Marocco . . . . . . . 370

Algeria ....... 371

Tunis ....... 372

Tripoli ........ 373

Sahara (The Desert) . . . . . .374

Egyptian Dominion ...... 377

Abyssinia . . . ^ • • . . • 382

Soudan ........ 384

Senegambia ........ 385

Liberia ........ 386

Gold Coast ........ 386

Inland Countries of the Soudan (Futa Jallon, BanibarrM, Massina,

Gando, Sokoto, Bornu, Baghirmi, Wadai) . . . 388

Lower Guinea ....-■• 389

Portuguese West Africa ..... 390

Xll

CONTENTS.

Somali and Gallas .....

Sultanate of Zanzibar .....
Portuguese East Africa .....
South Africa —

Cape Colony ......

Kafraria ......

Natal ......

Orange Free State .....

Transvaal ......

Griqualand West, or the Diamond Fields

Tlie Kafir KmcDOMS (Zululand, Gasa Country, Matebele,
Barotse) .......

Kalahaba Desert .....

Namaqua and Damara Land . . .

The Islands round Africa ....

Madagascar, Comoro, Mascarenhas, Socotra, Madeira,
Canary, Cape Verd, St. Helena, Ascension.

PAGE

391
392
394

396
399

400
400
401
403

403
404
404
405

AMERICA.

General description. Relief, Pavers and Lakes, Climate and Landscape,
Plants and Animals, People, Religion and Education, Government

Greenland

British North America

Canada Proper .

New Brunswick .

Nova Scotia

Prince Edward Island

North-West Territory

Manitoba

British Columbia

Newfoundland .
Alaska
United States
Mexico

408
414
416
417
418
419
419
420
421
421
422
423
424
431

CONTENTS.

Xlll

Central American States (Guatemala, Honduras
Nicaragua, Costa Rica, British Honduras)

San S

alvador

43S

West Indies ....

435

Colombia

437

Ecuador

438

Venezuela .

439

Guayana (British, Dutch, French)

441

Brazil

442

Peru

444

Bolivia

445

Chile

447

Argentine Republic

448

Paraguay .

450

Uruguay

451

Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego

451

Falkland Islands .

452

AUSTRALASIA.

Australia —

General Description, Relief, Rivers and Salt Lakes, Climate and

Landscape, Animals, Products, People

453

New South Wales

455

Victoria ....

457

Queensland ....

457

South Australia

458

West Australia

459

Tasmanla .....

460

New Zealand . . • .

461

Polynesia .....

463

LIST OF MAPS.

HISTORICAL MAPS.

Chart of the prevailing Winds
Chart of the Ocean Currents

PHYSICAL MAPS.

— 1. From 1000 to 450 B.C.

. To face page 20

2. ,

450 to 325 B.C.

3. ,

, 325 B.C. to 300

A.D. „ 24

4. ,

300 to 500 A.D.

5. ,

, 500 to 800 A.D.

6. ,

, 800 to 1000 A.D

7. ,

, 1000 to 1300 A.E

8. ,

, 1300 to 1500 A.E

9. ,

, 1500 to 1600 A.D

10. ,

, 1600 to 1700 A.E

. . „ 57

11. ,

, 1700 to 1800 A. D

12. ,

, 1800 to 1880 A.D

;ie Seaso

119

Winds
rrents

134
137

Europe

AND Asia

155

Africa

360

North

America

408

South j

\.MERICA

408

AUSTRA

LASIA

453

GEOGRAPHY:

HISTORICAL, PHYSICAL, AND DESCRIPTIVE.

I. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

DIRECTION AND DISTANCE.

1. The first and most important question that Geography^ has to
answer is where ? In order to answer this — to describe where any
place or object is — it is necessary to understand what is meant by
direction and distance.

If we go out into the open fields, the sky above appears like a
vast dome that reaches down to the earth on all sides, forming a
great circle in the centre of which we are standing. This circle,
where earth and sky seem to meet, being the limit or boundary of
what we can see, is called the horizon.^

Every morning the sun seems to rise near the same part of the
horizon circle, and to climb slowly up into the arch of the sky
during the day, descending again gradually till it disappears in the
evening at a point opposite to that at which it was first seen.

If we watch this apparent movement of the sun across the sky
from day to day, we shall soon notice that the sun appears in the
same direction from us, or over the same house, or hill, or church,
or wood, every day at noon, or when it is highest. The best way
to convince ourselves of this will be to mark out on the ground, or
on the floor of the room, the line of shadow thrown by any upright
object — a post or a straight tree trunk, the corner of the house wall

1 From Greek gk the earth, and grnpho to wrfte or describe.
2 From Greek orizo to bouud or limit.

THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

or the side of the window — when the sun is highest, or when the
shadow is shortest, and to watch the return of the shadow to this
line at each midday.

2. That end of this midday or meridian^ line that we have
drawn, which points towards the sun at noon,^ marks the direction
called south; and the opposite end, towards which the shadow
points at noon, shows the direction named the north.^ That side
of the house, or other object, which faces the sun and is lighted up
by it at noon, is thus called the south side ; the opposite one, which
is in shade at twelve o'clock in the day, is the 7iorth side. Notice
some prominent object, a tree, or spire, or hill, that lies north or
south from where you are.

3. The point on the horizon circle near which the sun rises in
the morning, midway between north and south on that side, is
named the east; the opposite direction, that near which the sun
sets in the evening, is called the west; the side of the house which
faces the morning sun is thus the east side; that which looks towards

the sun setting the
west side. We may
mark out these di-
rections by drawing
a line at right angles
across our north and
south line.

4. The four direc-
tions thus laid down
— north, south, east,
and west — are named
the cardinal points
of the compass, and
give the foundation
of all geographical
descriptions,
points, secondary

Fig. 1.

Midway between these cardinal
direction points are drawn, and are named from those
between which they lie — north-east, between north and
east ; soutli-east, between south and east ; soiith-west, be-
tween south and west ; and north-west, between north and

Fig. 2.

1 From Lat. meridics, midday. 2 in the northern hemisphere.

3 To mark the meridian line with greater accuracy, set up a straiglit stick on a level
piece of ground. Three or four hours before noon measure tlie length of its shadow on
the ground with a piece of string, and from the bottom of the post as a centre describe
a circle with this distance as radius. Observe where the end of the shadow touches
tliis circle again in the affbrnoon ; then the line joining the middle point between
these two on the circle, and the bottom of the post, gives the line of the meridian.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 3

west, as in this diagram ; and these should be marked between
the cardinal points you have drawn on the ground.

5. The spaces between these secondary points are further divided
and subdivided. The direction midway between north and north-
east takes the names of these two directions, and becomes north-
north-east; between north and north-north-east comes the point
called north by east, and between north-north-east and north-east
that named north-east by north, and so on. There are thvis eight
recognised points in each quarter of the circle, or thirty-two points
in all. One of the first duties that a young sailor has to learn is
that of " boxing the compass," or telling off these thii'ty-two points
in order thus: —

North. South.

North hy east. South by west.

North-north-east. South-south-west.

North-east by north. South-west by south.

North-cast. South-west.

North-east by east. South-west by west.

East-north-east. West-south-west.

East by north. West by south.

East. West.

East by south. West by north.

East-south-east. West-north-west.

South-east by east. North-west by west.

South-cast. North-west.

South-east by south. North-west by north.

South-south-east. North-north-west.

South by east. North by west.

North.

And backward from north round by west to south and east.

6. As the whole circle is divided into 3G0 degrees^ each quadrant
of the circle, or the arc between the cardinal points, between north
and east for instance, comjDrises 90 degrees of the circle, and 90
degrees thus represents a right angle. Each degree is also subdivided
into 60 minutes; and as there are eight minor spaces in each
quadrant, the angle between two points is ec^ual to 11;| degrees or
eleven degrees fifteen minutes ; marked thus, 11° 15'.

7. The compass that we have been drawing upon the ground
from observation of the sun's position at noon must not be confused
with the instrument called the mariner's comjjass, which is a divided
card borne ujion a magnetised needle that points towards the
magnetic pole of the earth. This magnetic pole does not correspond
to the true north of the earth, and is ever gradually changing its
jiosition, so that the mariner's compass is subject to an error calh^l

1 In the division most commonly euiployed, called the sexagesimal scale.

4 THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

the variation. To find out the amount of this variation in the
instrument, it would be necessary to mark out a true compass from
observation of the sun, as we have been doing. The mariner's com-
pass is thus an untrue guide unless its error is exactly known and
allowed for, but we shall have no occasion to use it, or, indeed, any
instrument or appliance other than we can readily make for our-
selves.

8. If you have been watching the return of the shadow of the
post or corner-wall from which you first got the direction of south
to the same position every day at noon, you will have begun to
notice that the length of the shadow has been gradually changing
from day to day or from week to week. If you began to observe
it in winter or spring, it will have become perceptibly shorter as
summer came on ; or if in summer, longer and longer through
autumn towards winter. In other words, the sun's path across the
sky will seem to have risen to form a higher arch towards summer,
and to have sunk gradually to a lower and flatter one as winter
approached.

You Avill have observed also, in watching the sunrise and sun-
set, that the places where the sun first appears in the morning and
sinks beneath the horizon-circle in the evening, do not correspond^
exactly to the direction of the east and west j^oints of the compass
that we have drawn on the ground, but that they are somewhat to
the south of these, and that from week to week the position of the
points of sunrise and sunset creep gradiially along the horizon,
nearer to the true east and west points in summer, when the
arch of the sun's path is highest and longest, and farther from
them in winter, when its path is lowest and shortest. As the
changes of the seasons of the year, the causes of which we shall
afterwards have to understand, depend upon these changes in
the height of the apparent path of the sun, it is very im-
portant to become acquainted with them for ourselves by actual
observation.

9. Perhaps the most convincing way to do this will be to make
an outline sketch of that part of the horizon- circle which lies
towards the sunrising or sunsetting, or both, from where you are
living, and to mark upon this, each time that a clear sunrise or
simset is noticed, the position where the sun appears or disappears.

The accompanying sketch, upon which the positions of the sun
at setting, from winter on towards summer, have been marked at
various dates, will show what is meant.

10. If we go out and observe the heavens from night to night,
we shall soon notice that though the different groups of stars (or

1 Here in the British Isles.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

constellations as they are
called) exhibit always the
same form and appearance,
they change position from
hour to hour, moving across
the sky just as the sun does,
but with this difference,
that some of them are visi-
ble at all hours of every clear
night, or do not set beneath
the horizon, while others
rise and set like the sun. If,
for example, we watch the
well-known group of stars
commonly called from its
shape the " Plough " or
" Charles's wain" or " wag-
gon," which the Romans
called " Septem Triones,"
the seven ploughing oxen,
we may see it in such a
position as that marked (a)
in the diagram on the fol-
lowing page ; and if we look
again some hours later it
will have moved round to
some position such as (b) or
(c), or an intermediate one.i
This constellation never sets
beneath the horizon here in
Britain, but, in the south of
England, you will notice it
just touching on the north-
ern horizon, when it is at
the lowest part of the circle
through which it seems to
pass in the sky. Others,
such as the three bright
stars of " Orion's belt," or
the cluster of the " Pleiades,"
if you watch them, rise in
the east and set on the
western horizon like the sun,

1 The celestial ' ' waggon " thus goes
backwaril.

.>F

,^^'

THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

■

^ '"' *-

# 'c)

^ ■*

^-"

* ^ "^

}

,''*'''

,,'-'

* '■■,

'' *

,,,'-'''

Ccn ^

■* POLE STAR

Cb)

,'■'

;

,,'"' \

\ *

,-'''

♦

(a) :^

.d4t^

. -'^is^^^ssAg.oa^^SC^^jtS^ii'-^ _- ?"^-' %'l' :~erL

Fig. 4.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 7

but the height of the arch they form in passing acrof?s the sky,
unlike that of the sun, remains always the same.

1 1 . Nearly at the centre of the cii'cle which the Plough and the
other stars seem to form in their course in the northern sky, is a star
which remains always close to the same position, or immediately
beside the centre or pole round which all the other stars seem to
revolve. This is hence called the Pole Star, or the " North Star."
Two of the brightest of the stars of the " Plough " or the " Wain " —
the two which form the back of the imagined waggon or the face
of the plough — are very nearly in line with this central star, and
are called the iwinters, because they point to it. If an imaginary
line be dra'wn through these two stars, and produced onward till
the extended part is nearly live times the length of the apparent
distance between the pointers, as in tlie diagram, its extremity \n\\
fall close to the Pole star. There is no other star equally bright in
its vicinity, so that it cannot readily be mistaken.

12. Being thus able to find the position of the Pole star, we are
in possession of another means of determining the cardinal points of
the compass at any place.^ If overnight, out in the field or the
garden, we set up two sticks so that a line joining them points in
the direction of the Pole star, we shall find that they also point by
day, in the opposite direction, to the sun at noon, or that they stand
in the meridian line, north and south.

13. If, besides the direction of one point from another, we
know the distance between the two, it becomes possible to define
their relative position, and to represent this accurately on paper
on a reduced scale. The most convenient measure of distance
that we have is that of the pace ^ in walking, the distance between
the heel of one foot and that of the other. In the army and among
disciplined men the pace becomes of constant length, and is 2j feet
(30 inches) for ordinary marching, or about 2100 paces go to an
English statute mile of 1760 yards. (Find out for yourself what is
the average length of your pace in ordinary walking.)

14. Suppose now, for example, that there is a flagstaff" in front
of the doorway, and that the shadow of the post points directly to
the door at noon, and that we find the distance from door to flag-
staff^ to be 20 paces, we can say then that the staff is 20 paces south
of the doorway, and the relative positions of the two objects are at
once defined. In representing these relative positions on paper it is
usual to assume that the top side of the paper is the northern, the
"bottom the southern, as the compass has been drawn (p. 2), the

1 In the nortliern hemisphere.
2 Lat. passus. The Roman pace, however, was the interval between one heel-marl(
and the next mark of tlie jiamfi heel, and was equivalent to 4'8 Enjjlish feet.

THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

right being the eastern and the left the western side. Then, taking

any convenient distance to represent 20 paces, say 20
MDoonoai/ tenths of an inch, the places of the staff and the doorway
I would be laid down as in Fig. 5.

Or suppose that, from the place where we have drawn

the compass on the groimd, a tree, the corner of a wall,

or any noticeable object,

lies in the direction mid- ^

way between the north

and east points, and that ,,'''

it requires 15 paces to /'

reach it, we woidd say

that it stood 15 paces

north-east, and its relative

position would be repre-
sented on paper, to the

same scale we used before,

as in Fig. 6.

15. The reduced scale

referred to above is a
smaller distance chosen at will to represent the true or natural
distance in plotting or laying down a representation of the relative
position of two objects on paper. The true scale in the first of the
above examples is one of paces, but to represent even a small num-
ber of these truly on paper would require an enormous sheet, and
accordingly we have chosen a reduced scale, making one-tenth of
an inch represent a pace. This reduced scale is said to be one
three-hundredth (shi) of the natural scale ; or any distance repre-
sented by it on paper must be multiplied by 300 to give the true
length it represents, for we have found the pace to be 30 inches
long, and have taken tV of an inch to represent a pace.

iyStaff

Fig. 5.

Pig. 6.

Mapping.

16. We can now find roughly the direction and distance of any
object, hence we are in a position to begin to make a ground-plan or
map, which is just a representation in miniature of a part of the
earth's surface.^ We can find, for instance, from the points of the
compass that we have drawn, or by making another, what are the
directions of the walls of the room or of the fences of the garden or
field, and by pacing along these we can get a sufficiently accurate
measurement of their length.

1 The African explorer Schweinfiirth, after his instruments had been lost in the
burning of his hut, made a survey of a large district of the Upper Nile by counting his
paces and observing by the sun the direction of his marches.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

Suppose, for example, that in the schoolroom the line of shadow

thrown by the upright sash of the window at noon falls across the

floor in the direction from the left corner of the window side of the

room to the opposite corner, and we

find on pacing it that the room is 1

paces square. We can tell then that

its walls lie parallel to or in the same

direction as the secondary points of

the compass ; that one with the

window in it and the back wall run

from north-west to south-east, and

the two side walls from north-east

to south-west. The plmi of the

room, drawn to the scale that we

have used before, would then be as

we have shown here, the dotted line

representing the direction of the line

of shadow at noon, and the stronger lines the walls.

17. Or we may go out into the garden or the field, and make a

plan of its outline in the same way. Suppose that, after marking

out the compass in the middle of the field by means of the shadow

at noon, or by the Pole star at night, we find that the fence which

contains the en-
^ trance gate mea-

sures 50 paces, and
that it lies in the
direction north -
east to south-west,
we may draw it
on paper, using a
scale of an inch
to represent 100
paces,i as shown
by the line (a) Fig.
8. Next, pacing
along the north
wall, we find it to
be 180 paces long,
and that it lies as
nearly as possible
its plan is then shown by the line (h). The third

east and west

Fig. 8.

1 A larger scale should be used in practice. This reduced scale would be represented
by the fraction g^gW; ^'^^ ^^ *'^'s '^^^^ t^"* Imndredth part of an inch represents a pace
of 30 inches long.

10 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

or south-east hedge proves, let us suppose, to have the same direction
as the fence which has the gate in it, and is 170 paces long ; its plan
will be the line (c) ; the fourth side lies south-east to north-west, and
measures 130 paces, and is thus shown by the line (d) on the sketch.

18. Here then we have made a plan or map of the field, and
have drawn it in its true geographical directions. The whole num-
ber of paces round its sides is 530, or about a quarter of a mile, on
the supposition that each pace represents about 2^ feet. If now
you note carefully what time it takes you to walk round its
boundaries, you will gain another means of estimating any longer
distance ; that is, by observing the time required to walk a quarter
of a mile, or better, a whole mile, or four times round the field.

19. Knowing how to find for yourself the cardinal points of the
compass on any clear day or night, and being in possession of two
measures of distance (your pace, and the time it takes you to walk
a mile), you are now in a position to begin to learn the geography
of your oviTi neighbourhood. What directions do the roads take
from your house, and what villages or towns do you come to in
following them ? What streams or rivers are there near you, in
what directions do they flow, and where do they go to ? What lakes
or canals ? What kind of country is it ? Are there any hills or
mountains ? Is it wooded, or grassy, or under corn ? Are there
any historical monuments in your neighbourhood, and what events
do they recall ?

20. For examj)le, let us take the neighbourhood of Battle in
Sussex, where, on the 14th of October 1066, the Normans under
William the Conqueror finally overthrew the Saxon dynasty in
England, and where William, to commemorate his victory, founded
a splendid abbey, the high altar of which was fixed on the spot
where the standard of Harold fell.

From the grammar school above the town, beside the cross-roads,
or better, from the height called Caldbec^ Hill immediately behind
it, where the windmill stands, and where the Watch Oak'-^ stood,
we have a fine \'iew of all the country round, and away south over
the undulating ridges and hollows, fields, meadows, and woods to the
south, towards Eastbourne and the heights which run out to the
white chalk clift's of Beachy Head, enclosing Pevensey Bay, where
the Normans landed and burnt their ships to prevent retreat.
Watching the sun at noon from this height, it is seen nearly over
Catsfield windmill, which stands prominently on one of the nearer

1 Popularly " Callback Hill," a corruption of Caldbec, or Cold Brook, the name of
a stream which flows from its slope.

2 The name Watch Oak is probably derived from the times when beacons were erected
upon eminences commanding views of the coast, in order to raise the country in case of

invasion. — IValcott.

INTKODUCTORY CHAPTER.

ridges between us and the sea. The south line then runs from
Caldbec Hill a little to the left of Catsfield Mill, or, in technical
language, the bearing of the mill from where we stand is south by
west. Ha\ing fixed this main cardinal point, and having marked
the compass out on the ground, we tind that Black Horse Mill,
which rises high and clear near the top of the ridge beyond the
town and the abbey, is almost exactly in the direction of the south-
east point. Here then we have three prominent objects, the
directions of which from one another we know, to serve as a basis
for our map. Before leaving the hill we may notice that the main
street of the toAvn descending the ridge into the valley, and the road
towards Hastings continuing it up the opposite ascent, have nearly
the same general du'ection as the line joining this point with Black
Horse Mill, or that they run from north-west to south-east. This
may serve for one day's work.

21. Another day, starting from the cross roads immediately
under Caldbec Hill, we know that the south line runs close by
Catsfield Mill, which we can see from this, and we can thus mark
out a compass at once. Facing round with our backs to the south,
we now note that the London road runs straight away in the
opposite direction, and if we follow it a short way over the ridge
we find it descending into the valley beyond, and climbing a farther
ridge beyond, always in the same due north line.

Coming back to the cross roads it may be next observed that
the Lewes road past the Drill Hall and
on towards the " Union," runs along the
top of the ridge neither due west nor
south-west, but between these two direc-
tions, or west-south-west ; and that the
road down into the main street of Battle
follows exactly the direction of the south-
east point. On coming home we may
begin our map by marking down these
roads in their proper dii-ections, as in
Fig. 9.

22. On another occasion, coming
back to the cross roads, the measurement of the high road
through Battle may be made. Starting with our backs to the
finger-post pointing to the London and Lewes roads, and walk-
ing down the High Street, we note that 500 paces bring us to
where Mount Street runs off to the left ; from that, 350 paces
more down through the main street, past the " George " in the
same south-east direction, bring us to the open space called the
Bull Ring, opposite the great towered gateway of the abbey. From

THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

this point the road bends a little more to the east between the
high wall of the abbey enclosure and St. Mary's churchyard, for
a distance also of 350 paces ; then it turns a little more to the
right, or to the south-south-east, for 310 paces, down the hiU to the
toll-gate, where the road to the powder-mills runs off to the right ;
200 paces more, south-east again, passing the road on the left which
leads to the railway station, bring us to the bridge over the railway ;
and for 400 paces more we ascend the ridge in the same direction.
Next there is a bend more to the east for 250 paces, then an east-
south-east stretch of 750 paces up the hill, and 300 paces more,
south-east again, bring us opposite the Black Horse Mill on the left
of the road. From this height we can look back to Caldbec Hill
and the ridge on which the town stands, down which we have come,
remarking also the steep descent on each side of where we are now
standing, down through Bodehurst^ wood to the valley in which
Sedlescomb lies on the right, and to the hollow between us and

Fig. 10.

Telham^ Hill on the left. We may also note that from this point
Catsfield Mill is to our left, and that a line pointing towards it
forms a right angle with the direction of Caldbec Hill. Catsfield

1 Popularly Bathuret ; Bodehurst — " the house in the thicker part of the wood." ,
1 2 7'e;i = a rouud hill, and /iaTO = a home.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 13

Mill thus bears south-west from Black Horse Mill. This bearing,
with that from the cross roads, will enable us to fix its position.
Having noted down all the changes of direction, and the distances
from point to point along the road (reckoned in paces), it will
not be difficult to make a map of the road on paper at home, as
shown (Fig. 10). Here, for convenience, a scale of about 1000 paces
to an inch (uwrcr) has been adopted, but a much larger scale should
be used in practice.

23. "We have now made sure of the central line of our map, and
it will be easy to extend it in any dii-ection. Suppose we next
follow the side road which we noticed branching oflf from the turn-
pike gate, nearly at right angles to the main highway, or south-west
from it (see Fig. 11). We find that it goes straight in this direction
for about 1600 paces along the slope of the Abbey Park, which
rises up to the old dormitory buildings on the right, and we note
the little stream which runs (also to south-west) nearly parallel with
it in the hollow on the left. At the end of the long straight piece
the road turns to the left or south for another 400 paces, to where
it crosses the road which runs east and west up Telham Hill on the
left, and up Camp Hill, throvigh the hop-field on its steep slope, on
the right towards Ninfield. At these cross roads we may notice that
Caldbec Hill and the Catsfield windmill stand in almost exactly
opposite directions from one another, and we know already that
these two points are nearly north and south of one another, so that
these cross roads are very nearly due south of Caldbec Hill or of the
cross roads on the ridge near the Grammar School. This will test
the accuracy of our measurements when we come to mark the road
on our map ; as it is a smaller road than the main highway, it
should be shown by a narrower double line.

24. Another day we may add the pathway which leaves the
main road at the wicket beside the Abbey gateway, leading south-
west, south-south-west, and then south-south-east, round the height
of the Abbey Park, to join the road to the powder-mills. In this
walk the stream in the deep hollow on the right, formed between
the height of the Abbey Park and the high ridge along the top of
which the Lewes road extends, wiU be noticed, as well as the lake
which receives it at the base of Camp Hill. We may afterwards go
along the powder-mills road to mark the place where the stream
from this lake, passing beneath the bridge on the Ninfield road,
joins the other little south-west flowing stream that we formerly
noted running alongside the road from the turnpike. This is called
in geographical language the confluence of the streams. Their right
and left banks are those which rise on the right hand and on the
left as we look in the direction in which the stream is flowing.

14 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

After the confluence the united streams form another lake, and
thence, by the old powder-mills (now made into hop-kilns) on the
left bank, run away south and south-east.

25. For another walk we may take the east road up Telham
Hill, and add this to our map. On the way up the slope, at about
1000 paces from the cross roads, we come to the bridge over the
very deep cutting which has been made to let the railway pass, and
notice that the line at this point lies nearly north and south, or at
right angles to the road. Knowing the position of this bridge, we
shall be able to draw on our map the line of railway l^etween it and
the bridge on the main highway, using a sign that will distinguish
the railway from an ordinary road. As we climb higher up the ridge
we liave a distinct \'iew across the hollow which separates us from
the opposite height on which the Abbey stands, and of the ridges on
each side of it. From this point also we can form the best idea of
the battle-field. It was on the rounded slope now crowned by the
Abbey, and on the ridge beneath Caldbec Hill, that Harold's Saxon
Camp was pitched, guarding the only road to London.^ On reaching
the end of the road up Telham Hill we find ourselves on the main
road to Hastings, and returning by this way towards Battle we may
note that the Telham Hill or Ninfield road branches ofl:' just 900
paces above, or south-east of, the Black Horse Mill.

26. Another day we may add Mount^ Street to the map, noting
how it runs north along the side of the ridge, and then bends north-
east away to Whatlington. Going up again from this to the wind-
mill on Caldbec Hill, let us look this time more particularly at the

1 The Normans (about 60,000 men) coming up from the coast at Pevensey, are be-
lieved to have first unfurled their flag at Standard Hill, near Ninfield, a few miles to the
south-west of us, and to have marched thence, perhai)s along the very line of the road
on which we are standing, to take up their positions liere on Camp Hill and along the
slope of Telham Hill, or Heehelande, opposite the Saxon camp. Their ships had been
burned behind them, so " that their only hope might lie in their courage and resolution,
their only safety in victory." ..." When the Normans had given the signal of battle
the first encounter began with a flight of arrows from both armies for some time ; then,
setting foot to foot, they fought man to man, and maintained the battle a long while.
But when the English, with admirable courage and bravery, had received their fiercest
onset, the Norman horse furiously charged them with full career. When neitlier of
these could break the army, they (the Normans), as they had before agreed, retreated,
but kept their ranks in good order. The English, thinking they fled, broke their ranks,
and witliout keeping any order, pressed hard upon the enemy ; but they, rallying their
forces, charged afresh on every side with the thickest of them, and, encompassing them
round, repulsed them with a mighty slaughter. Yet the English, having gotten the
higher ground, stood out for a long time, till Harold himself was shot through with an
arrow, and fell down dead. Then they presently turned their backs and betook them-
selves every man to flight."

" The Norman, proud and haughty with this victory, in memory of the battle erected
an abbey ... in tliat place where Harold, after many wounds, died amongst the
thickest of his enemies, that it might be, as it were, the eternal monument of the
Norman victory. About this abbey there grew up afterwards a town of the same
name." — (Camden's Britannia.)

2 Originally Montjoye, probably a memorial of the spot whither William rode in
triumph at the conclusion of the battle, and of a mound of stones raised to com-
memorate it.— Walcott.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 15

relief or rise and fall of the ground with which we have now become
familiar. Evidently this, and the top of the ridge along which the
Hastings road passes beyond the Black Horse Mill, are the highest
parts of the ground. Between these heights, the ridge on which the
town stands runs down to meet that up which the Hastings road
ascends beyond the railway. To right and left of the town ridge
are deep rounded hollows. That on the right we have ah-eady re-
marked fi'om the Lewes road, and from the pathway round the
Abbey Park ; the other descends immediately from Mount Street,
and if we go down to the churchyard we can have a full view of it
from behind the church. From this hollow the stream named the
Caldbec runs away to the north-east, and we know that the stream
passing the powder-mills flows south from the opposite hollow.
The main street of Battle thus forms the water-parting of the streams
of the district. When rain falls over it the rills which run down on
one side of the highway go to join the powder-mills stream, and if
we followed this down we should find it reaching the sea close to St.
Leonard's. The rain which falls on the opposite side of the street is
drained olf into the hollow from which the Caldbec flows to join
other streamlets in forming the river that reaches the Channel near
Winchelsea.

27. Having gained a clear idea of the form of the ground
in repeated walks, we may now begin to mark out the relief of
the district on our map, using what are termed hacliures, or short
lines placed in the direction of the slope, and made stronger and
jilaced closer together where the slope is steeper and higher, as
shown in the sketch. This done, the map may be comjjleted by
marking in the blocks of houses along the roads, and by writing the
names of the more prominent objects opposite to each.

28. If we wished to represent the rise and fall of the ground
along any particular line in a more distinct way than can be done
by mapping, we should have recourse to what is called a section on
that line. Take the l^ne of road between the Grammar School and
Black Horse Mill for example. We have noticed in going over it
that the road descends evenly down the High Street to the space
in front of the Abbey gate, that from the Bull Ring on past St.
Mary's Church it is nearly level, and that it descends from there
more rapiilly to the toll-gate. Here again there is a more level
piece, after which the road begins to ascend again over the railway
bridge, and up the undulating ridge towards the Black Horse Mill.
Looking Imck from this jioint, it is evident that Ave are upon higher
ground than that on which the Grammar School stands. Without
careful measurements by means of an instrument called a level or
levelling telescope, we cannot And out very accurately the difl'erences

THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

iMffi.

Scale of One Mile. (1760 Yds.)
i h S

Scale of Paces.
^ E90 ipno 1600

2(100

Fig. 11.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

of height of each point along the road ; but we can get a very
good general idea of the form of the ground without this. The
part of the road before the railway bridge was reached was evidently
the loivest ground that we passed over, for the road ascended on each
side of it, and we may assume that the cross roads near the Gram-
mar School are about 150 feet, and the road at the Black Horse
Mill about 200 feet above this point. To represent a section of the
road between these points, then, we may draw a horizontal line of
the same length as their distance on our map (3400 paces of the
scale), and suppose this line to represent the lowest level, or the level
of the road at the toll-gate (upper section, Fig. 1 2). The left and right
ends of this line will then represent the horizontal distance between
the cross roads and the base of Black Horse Mill ; and distances along
it of 850, 350, 310, and 200 paces, measured from the left end, will
show the horizontal distances ^ of the Bull Ring, the level past the
church, the toll-gate, and the railway bridge. We then measure off a
distance of 150 feet (or 60 paces of the scale), and mark this distance
upward vertically from the left end of the line we have drawn, to re-
present the level of the cross roads. Next a distance of 200 feet (or
80 paces of the scale), marked up from the right end of the line, will
show the height of the road at the Black Horse Mill above the
lowest part. Between these highest levels and the lowest midway
we can now draw an evenly-sloping line to above that point on
the horizontal line which indicates the distance of the Bull Ring, to
represent the uniform descent of the High Street ; then a level part
to show the flat road past St. Mary's church ; and then a slope again
down to touch the horizontal line at the lowest level near the
railway ; and from that an undulating line sloping upward to
represent the rise of the Hastings road to the Black Horse Mill, as
shown below. Here then we have an imaginary view of the profile

Fig. 12.

of the road as it would appear if we had cut down the ground all

1 Tlic horizontal distances are strictly somewhat less than those measnrcil along the
sloping ground ; but for om- present purpose this difl'ercnce may be disregarded.

18 THE LOXDOX GEOGRAPHY.

along it on one side to the level of tlie lowest part of it. This is
called a section to a true scale, for we have used the same scale in repre-
senting the horizontal and the vertical heights. In most cases where
sections are drawn, however, a larger scale is used to represent the
vertical heights than is employed to show the horizontal distance,
for by so doing each smaller rise and fall of the ground is brought
out more distinctly. The lower section, Fig. 12, in which the
vertical distances have been exaggerated four times, the horizontal
scale remaining the same, will make this e\ddent. It is important
to bear this in mind in looking at any section that one may meet
with in books or maps, and to inquire first of all what relation the
vertical scale bears to the horizontal one : if these are the same, we
have a true profile ; if they are different, then this difference must
be clearly understood to prevent erroneous impressions.

29. For practice in mapping, the following examples may be
worked out on the slate or on paper, using a scale of about four
inches to represent 1000 paces ; but the practical mapping of a part
of your own neighbourhood, iii the manner above shown, should
in no case be neglected.

1. At a point which we shall call (a) on a road which runs due east and
west, or at right angles to the direction of the suu at noon, a church spire is
noticed bearing due north from us, and a hill top south-east. Walking east-
ward along the road for 1000 paces, it is noticed that the church spire now
hears north-west, and going on another 500 paces, the dii'ection of the hill is
at right angles to the road, or due south. What are the distances_of the church
and of the hill from the point (a) ?

2. Draw a rough map from the following notes : — i

Ship anchored opposite a small bay. Rowed on shore to west point of
bay, and ascended knoll at end of low line of hills which extends along the
coast towards north-west. Call the knoll (a). From it ship distant 6000
yards bearing south-east. The opposite headland of bay (call it e) bears
exactly east. From knoll look to north and east across a valley ^vith small
stream, and hills beyond, on which note two peaks ; one (call it c) bears due
north, other (call it d) bears north-north-east. Head of bay bears north-east.
Walked along hills from (a), moving north-west, and at 3000 yards observed
peak (d) bearing north-east. On the left the coast was distant 1000 yards.
Went on in same direction (north-west), 3000 yards more, and came to point
(b) on the line -of hills extending from (a) ; (b) is top of cliff rising abruptly
from sea. Beyond it coast-line goes oft', bearing west-north-west. At (b) observed
bearing to peak (c) north-east. From (h) turned to right, and walked due
east 4250 yards, when I found myself with knoll (a) bearing due south, and
peak (c) due north. Going on 1000 yards more, crossed the stream, which
came do\vn from the north-west, and flowed ofi' into the sea on the bearing of
the ship, whicli we saw about five miles off (8800 yards). Going on in the same
direction 2000 yards more, peak (d) was seen to bear due north. Another

1 From one of the examination papers for the prize medal of the Royal Geographical
Society.

HISTOKICAL. 1 9

1250 yards brought us to head of bay ; the ship now bearing nearly due south,
and the east headland of the bay (e) bearing south-east. The whole distance
from (b) to the head of the bay had been 8500 yards. The bay from this
jioint curved slightly round on either side to the headlands (a) and (e). This
line of hills on which were peaks (c) and {d) ran round and ended in the
headland (e).

3. Draw a section of the OTOund from tlie following data, to a

Leaving the house, walked up a path which leads up by a steep slope to
the top of a hill ; descended the opposite undulating slope to a bridge over
a stream in the bottom of a wide valley ; ascended an opposite gentle and
uniform slope to the top of a vertical cliff overlooking the sea. The horizontal
distance from the house to the top of the hill was 750 paces, from the hill-
top to the bridge 1400 paces, and from the bridge to the top of the cliff 1800
paces. The house is 200 feet, the hill 480, the bridge over stream 50, and the
cliff 250 feet above the sea-level.

II. SKETCH OF HISTOEICAL GEOGEAPHY.

1. 1000-450 B.C.

In exactly tlie same way as you liave been gathering informa-
tion about your own home country, all the knowledge that we yet
possess about the surface of the world we live in has been gradually
gained. The geographers of ancient times, beginning with the
district in which they lived, little by little extended the circle of
their knowledge both by their own journeys and by studying the
accounts given by travellers and voyagers outward from that known
centre, learning from them what directions they had taken, whether
towards the sunrising or simsetting, the north or the south ; and
the times and distances between one point and another of the route ;
and by laying down these itineraries on their maps.

Little by little the clouds of ignorance were thus rolled back-
wards, till knowledge spreading westward joined that which had
grown out eastward round the globe. Though in our own day the
unkno^Ti has been chased into the most inaccessible corners of the
earth, the same process of extending knowledge is in progress, and
geographers of the present day are ever gathering accounts of new
journeys past the borders of the unknown regions, each of which
contributes a little towards the removal of the darkness which still
hangs over these " ends of the earth."

We shall perhaps gain the best idea of the gradual expansion of
knowledge if we go back nearly to the earliest times of whicli we
have any definite historical accounts, and fionr that as a starting-

20 THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

point, picture to ourselves tlie world as kno-vvTi to the more civilised
nations, at intervals iip to the present time.

The little maps which have been designed to accompany these
chapters exhibit the known world at twelve such periods ; an
appearance of cloud covers the skirts of each, leaving unveUed only
those lands and seas which were the scene of the recorded events of
history, and this lifts or rolls back as the limits of knowledge gradu-
ally extend. Each is on the same scale, and on each the different
States and Empires of the period are marked out as far as the scale
will admit, so that they combine at a glance the geography and
history of the ages to which they refer, and from one to another the
rise and fall of the great kingdoms of the world may be traced.

1. About 1000-450 b.c.

1. In the earliest times of which we have any records, tlie more civilised
nations of the world were those inhabiting the shores of the Mediterranean
Sea, and there accordingly the great events of ancient history have their
scenes. The commerce, and along with that the geographical knowledge, of
the Egyjitians, the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, the Greeks and Romans,
all centred and spread outward from the deep bays and harbours of that
inland sea.

The Phoenicians especially, the old inhabitants of the fertile country which
slopes down from Mount Lebanon to the eastern coast of the Mediterranean,
where Sidon and Tyre were great seaports, were the sailors and traders
of early times. Within the space of three centuries (from about B.C. 1300
to 1000) they explored all the islands and shores of the Mediterranean, and
covered these with their forts, factories, and cities, while their ships ploughed
the sea in all directions. They colonised Cyjjrus, and, after mastering
the rich islands of the JEgean, sailed farther west to Sicily and Sardinia,
founding also the city of Carthage, destined to be the centre of an opulent
and powerful state on the North African coast, which grew in greatness as
the golden age of the mother country of Phoenicia began to wane. From
Sardinia and the Balearic Isles these indefatigable explorers pushed farther
on through the narrow Strait of Gibraltar into the wide Atlantic, building the
town of Oaddir (the present Cadiz) on the south-west of Spain in a country
wliich gave them fabulous wealth of silver, iron, and lead ; boldly venturing
northward across the stormy Bay of Biscay, they reached the tin-yielding coasts
of Cornwall, and loaded their ships with cargoes of that metal at the Scilly
Isles. Sailing southward also from the gates of the Mediterranean, they dis-
covered tlie islands we now know as the Canaries, obtaining from their shores
the shell-fish which yielded the costly Tyrian purple. It was in this direction
also that Hanno, the Carthaginian, led a famous expedition, consisting, it is
said, of 60 ships, with 30,000 men and women on board of them, to extend
discovery along the African coasts and to found Phoenician tovras and
colonies. In this voyage Hanno went south perhaps as far as our present
colony of Sierra Leone. Himilco, commanding another fleet, starting from
Gaddir, coasted Spain and Gaul, and reached Great Britain, which he calls
Alfionn (Albion) and lerne, a sacred island of the west, the modern Ireland.

While some of their navigators were thus exploring the coasts of the
Mediterranean and the Atlantic, others seem to have found their way out by

f,ese'-U

HISTORICAL. 21

the narrow Red Sea to the Indies, and the overland caravans carrying their
manufactures appear to have made them acquainted with all the lands
eastward of Syria and Palestine.

2. One of the oldest descriptions of the world that has been preserved to
our times is that of the Greek historian, traveller, and geographer, Herodotus,
who lived about 450 (484-408) years before Christ, at the time when Greek
art was at its zenith. With Athens and Greece for a centre, he describes
the countries immediately surrounding the Mediterranean, and shows that
knowledge had then spread out north and eastward to the regions beyond
the Black Sea and the Caspian, to Persia and the confines of India and the
Arabian Sea. Yet, strange to say, the name of Rome, which at that time was
a flourishing city, is not mentioned once, and of the Phoenician and Carthaginian
discoveries outside the Pillars of Hercules he had but an imperfect idea. He
■was minutely acquainted, liowever, with Greece, the ^gean islands, and Asia
Minor ; he travelled also to Phcsnicia, through Egyjit as far as the Cataracts
of the Nile, to Arabia and Mesopotamia, and saw the Euphrates and Tigris,
and the cities of Babylon and Ecbatana. Africa is described by him as being
surrounded by the sea.

3. In the century previous to that in which he lived, the Persians under
Cyrus had established a mighty empire which extended beyond the present
area of Persia to the Indies on the east, and westward over Asia Minor and
Syria. The ancient empires of Assyria and Babylonia also fell under the
dominion of Cyrus, and his successors extended the Persian Empire to
Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Egyjit. Thrace and Macedonia were also added to
the empire, but the attempts to subdue Greece, made only a year or two
before the birth of Herodotus, were completely foiled. Three successive
invasions of Greece ended disastrously for Persia : in the first the invading
fleet was shipwrecked off Mount Athos; the second was pushed back at Mara-
thon ; and the third, under Xerxes, was repulsed at the pass of ThermopyloR,
at Salamis, and at PUdcea.

4. At the period of our first little chart, then, the decadence of the great
Persian Empire had already begun. Greece was becoming a strong power,
and had flourishing colonies all round the Mediterranean and Black Seas, at
Syracuse in Sicily, on the southern shores of Italy, at Massilia (the present
Marseilles), on the coast of Spain, at Cyrcne in North Africa, at Cyjirus, at
Byzantium (Constantinople), on the Thracian coasts, at Theodosia (Kaffa)
near the Cimmerian Bosporus, in the Tauric Chersonese (Crimea), and at
many points between these.

Carthage had already risen from its condition of a colony to that of a
great independent state, which held all the North African coast west of
Cyrenaica, the rich country of Tartessus (Tarshish, Andalucia), and the gates
of the Mediterranean between. The Carthaginians had come in contact with
the Greeks in Sicily, and in their first trial of strength the Carthaginian army
under Hamilcar had been defeated. linm^, had been founded for perhaps
300 years. Already the Romans had taken the lead in Latium, and the Re-
public was in constant warfare with its neighbours on all sides — the southern
Etruscans, the Volscians, and the ^qui.

Thus the great events of this period were clustered round the Mediterranean
shores. As yet the unknown peoples of the west and north beyond these
were vaguely called tlie Hyperboreans by the Greeks, "the dwellers behind
the north wind ; " and eastward beyond Persia and the Indies Herodotus
could only mark "unknowTi deserts" on his map.

22 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

2. 450-325 B.C.

1. With the defeats that resulted iu the attempts to subdue Greece, the
decadence of the great Persian Empire may be said to have begun, and it now
became a prey to internal conflicts. One of the most memorable of these was
the revolt and expedition of the younger Cyrus against his brother the emperor
Artaxerxes, which led to the battle of (Junaxa (401 B.C.), near Babylon, in
which Cyrus was slain, and from which Xenophon made his adventurous
retreat at the head of the ten thousand Greek mercenaries who had joined the
expedition of Cjtus. Civil wars had also broken out between the States of
Greece, and soon after the date of the battle of Cuuaxa the Spartans gained
the ascendency over the Athenian State, which had been the ruling one at the
period of the Persian invasions. These troubles gave occasion for the interfer-
ence of Macedonia, a State which lay to the north of Thessaly, on the outskirts
of the Greek nations, and which had recovered its independence of the Per-
sians after the battle of Platsea.

2. Under Philip II. Macedonia grew in prosperity and power ; he subdued
the southern Greek States, was appointed general of all the Greek forces
against Persia, and was preparing for an invasion of that country when he
was assassinated (b.C. 336). His son, Alexander, not yet twenty years of age,
then ascended the throne, and took up the command of the forces levied
against Persia. After putting dovm several revolts at home with a strong hand,
he crossed the Hellespont l (334 B.C.) with 30,000 foot and 5000 horse,
attacked and defeated the Persians at the river Granicus [Koja Chai). To
this succeeded a victorious march through Asia Minor to the defiles of the
Cilician mountains, in which Darius III. had stationed his army. At Issus,''&
seaport at the head of the giilf of Iskenderun (from Iskender = Alexander),
the famous battle was fought, in which the treasures as well as the family of
Darius fell into the hands of the conqueror, the king himself fleeing to the
Euphrates. The whole country eastward now lay open before him, and he
turned south towards Phcenicia and Syria, occujiying Damascus, and conquering
Tyi-e. Advancing to Egyjit, he was welcomed there as a deliverer from the
Persian yoke, and founded Alexandria in the Nile Delta (331 B.C.), which
became one of the greatest cities of ancient times.

3. In Africa Alexander advanced as far through the Libyan desert as the
oasis in which dwelt the oracle of Jupiter Ammon (Siwah), and returning
thence eastward, went against Darius, who had collected a new army in the
plain of Mesopotamia. The decisive battle near Arbela, a small town east of
Mosul, opened the way to Babylon and Susa, and to Perscpolis, the capital of
Persia, which was entered in triumph. Thence Alexander pursued Bessus, a
satrap of Bactriana (the modern Balkh), through Iran or Persia proper, across
the Oxus to Sogdiana (Bokhara), and penetrated to the farthest known limits
of Asia, defeating the Scythian barbarians (probably the ancestors of the later
Turks) on the banks of the Jaxartes.

4. Two years later, Alexander proceeded to the conquest of India, then
known only by name to Europeans. He crossed the river Indus near the
modern Attack, and marched through the land now knowTi as the Panjab,
Turning at the Hyphasis (the modern Satlej), he caused a fleet to be built, in
which he sent one division of his army down the stream, another section fol-
lowing the banks of the river, and fighting its way through successive Indian
hosts. Having at length reached the ocean, he ordered one division to sail
to the Persian Gulf, while he led another back through the fearful deserts of

1 Dardanelles.

HISTOEICAL. 23

Gedrosia (the modern Baluchistan), where a great part of his force perished
for want of food and water, and was buried in the sands. A third division
came back through Arachosia and Drangiana (the modern Afghanistan), but
only a fourth part of the army that had set out vdih him arrived again in
Persia,

5. The second of our little maps represents the short-lived Macedonian
empire of Alexander, at the date of his return to Persia, when his power was
at its height, and when ambassadors from all parts of the then known world —
from Libya, Italy, Carthage, and Sc^-thia, from the Celts (of Gaul or France),
and the Iberians of the Simnish peninsula — came to his court to secure his
favour. To his victorious career the world owed a vast increase of geographi-
cal knowledge ; all eastern Asia had been unveiled, and the road to India,
with its magnificent wealth, was disclosed to Europeans.

Westward also, about Alexander's time, the geography of the Greeks was
greatly extended by Pj'theas, a bold navigator of the Greek colony of Massilia
(Marseilles), who, from Gadeira (Cadiz), coasted Iberia and the country of the
Celts (Prance), and reached Britain. He followed the southern and eastern
shores of the islands, and, after six days' sail from the Orcades (Orkney
Islands), discovered Thule, a laud of fogs in the north, which has been vari-
ously identified as the Shetland Islands, the Norwegian coast, or even Iceland.
Pytheas also appears to have sailed round Jutland into the Baltic, proving the
existence of sea to the north of Eurojie, which Herodotus doubted.

In Italy the Eomans were continuing their struggles with the neighbour-
ing nations. The whole of southern Etruria had yielded to their supremacy,
and was kept in check by Roman garrisons ; while towards the south, at this
time, a terrible conflict was in progress with the heroic Samnite highlanders.
Of Sicily the Carthaginians held the western, the Greek colonists the eastern
half, a brief lull having taken place in the fierce wars which had been waging
between these powers for the possession of the island, during which the pros-
perity of the great fortified city and seaport of SjTacuse was rapidly reviving.

3. 325 B.C.-300 A.D.

1. After the death of Alexander the Great, the vast Macedonian Empire
that he had raised was divided among those of the generals of his armies who
had been most emineut under his rule ; but for twenty years afterwards in-
cessant wars prevailed, culminating in the battle of Ipsus in Phrygia (B.C.
301). Four of these generals became pre-eminent, and each formed for himself
an iutlepeudent kingdom. Ptolemy held Egypt, Libya, and northern Syria,
and soon after added Judsea to his possessions ; Cassander ruled in Greece and
Macedonia proper ; Lysimachus, in Thrace and western Asia Minor ; and
Seleucus brought under his power all the remaining portions of the former
Macedonian Empire, from Asia Minor to the Indus. The last-named ruler
even extended his expeditions beyond the limit reached by Alexander, and
advanced into India as far as the Ganges (301 B.C.)

2. While these events were in progress in the lands east of the Mediterranean,
the Romans in Italy had been carrjdng on a sanguinary war with the Samnite
highlanders. The heroism of these mountaiueers was unavailing against the
military genius of the Romans, who, shortly after the date of the first partition
of Alexander's empire, were extending their power over the whole southern
peninsula of Italy. Here the Ronums next came in contact with the Greek
colonists, and the Tarentines,i in the name of their fellow-countrymen in

1 Tarentum (Taranto), see map or Italy.

24 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

south Italy, invited Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, the country on the opposite side
of the Adriatic Sea, to command their troops against the enemy. The strange
appearance and gigantic size of the elephants brouglit by PjTrhus, in imitation
of the Indian kings in battle, gained a temporary success for him against the
Romans ; but soon after he gave up the contest and passed over into Sicily, to
aid the Greeks there against the Carthaginians (B.C. 278). All southern Italy
acknowledged the supremacy of Rome, and distant nations began to learn that
a new power had risen in the world, Ptolemy of Egj^)t sending an embassy
to conclude treaties with the Republic.

3. Now followed the terrible contests between Rome and Carthage, which,
in the three Punic ^ wars, lasted for more than a century. The first of these
(264-241 B.C.) was waged merely for the possession of Sicily, and during it
the Roman navy was created, which, notwithstanding terrible disasters, finally
wrested from Carthage the sovereignty of the seas. At the end of this first
Punic war the Carthaginians had lost their hold on Sicily and Sardinia, which
were transformed into Roman provinces. "

4. About the middle of the third century the Carthaginian influence was
much extended in Iberia (Sisain), and a large extent of territory was brought
under subjection. Hamilcar founded the city of Barcelona, and his son-in-
law Hasdrubal that of New Carthage (Cartagena), and concluded a treaty
with Rome, whereby it was stipulated that he should not advance beyond the
Iberus (Ebro). Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar, succeeded him in the penin-
sula, and by attacking and destroying Saguntum (Murviedro), a city which
had been founded by the Greeks, and which had become celebrated for its
commerce and wealth, violated the treaty and gave cause for a declaration of
war by the Romans (218 B.C.)

5. A series of wars with the Gauls now extended Roman power over
northern Italy, and its influence began to be felt on the eastern shores of the
Adriatic. The second Punic war (218-201 B.C.), the gi-eat events of which
were the crossing of the Alps by Hannibal (most proliably by the pass now
known as the Little St. Bernard), the 'defeat of the Romans at Lake Trasi-
mene, and at Caniuv, resulted in the final overthrow of the great Carthaginian
leader at Zanui," when terms of jieace were imposed by the conqueror which
reduced Carthage almost to the condition of a tributary state. The Spanish
possessions of Carthage, like the Sicilian, now passed to the Romans, who
formed out of them the province of Hispania Citerior, the north and eastern,
and Ulterior, the south and western, or most distant from Rome.

6. An alliance formed by the Macedonians with Hannibal after the battle
of Cannae gave cause for the hostile advance of the Romans in their direction
also, and the three Macedonian and Greek wars which succeeded led to the
establishment of the Roman protectorate over the whole of Greece, and the
dismemberment of the Macedonian possessions in Europe and Asia Minor.

7. Although the Carthaginians had been compelled to accept abject terms
of peace, their resources had not been utterly destroyed, and Carthage again
became sufficiently powerful to excite the jealousy of the Romans, and to draw
their armies towards it. After a siege of three years, Carthage was stormed,
burned, and razed to the ground, and the once mighty Carthaginian empire
vanished for ever from the earth (b.c. 146).

8. Under the six Ptolemies who succeeded to Alexander's great general of
that name on the throne of Egyjit up to the date of the fall of Carthage,
Alexandria had become the seat of the intellectual cultivation that had resided
in Greece, as well as the centre of the world's commerce. It was in the famous

1 Or Phoenician, in allusion to the descent of the Carthaginians.
2 300 miles south-west of Carthage.

HISTORICAL. 2 5

school of Alexandria that Euclid taught mathematics, about three hundred
years before Christ. Hither also Eratosthenes of Cyrene, one of the most
eminent of ancient astronomers, was called by Ptolemy Euergetes to superin-
tend the great royal library. The name of Eratosthenes (276-194 B.C.) will
ever be remembered in geography, as it was he who first attempted to discover
the magnitude of the eartli by the measurement of an arc of the meridian, the
same process that is employed at the present day.

9. The next great extension of Roman power was in Asia Minor, where
Attalus, one of the successors of Alexander's general Lysimachus, be-
queathed to Rome the protectorate of Pergamus, which was formed into the
province of Asia. Then followed the conquest of Transalpine Gaul, named
the Province ("Provence") to distinguish it from the rest of the country.
North of the mountains the Romans first came in hostile contact with the
Cimbri and Teutones, in the valleys of Noricum (Tyrol) and at Aquce-
Scxtice (Aix, in the Alps of Dauphiny). In Africa the overthrow of King
Jugurtha of Numidia (Algeria) and of King Juba in Mauritania (Marocco)
added these regions also to the list of Roman provinces.

10. Now the strength of the Roman arms was turned towards Asia, in
the three fierce wars with Mithridates of Pontus and his ally Tigranes of
Armenia, against whom they were finally successful, establishing Roman
authority over all Asia Minor. The last defeat of Mithridates on the
Euphrates, in 66 B.C., was followed by a brilliant career of success. Syria,
Phoenicia, and Palestine were reduced to a state of dependence ; and to the
horror of the Jews the holy city of Jerusalem was taken by storm and its
walls razed to the ground (63 B.C.)

11. Not long after this, Julius CaBsar began his splendid campaigns in
Gaul, conquering the whole of that region for Rome, driving the German
tribes towards the Rhine, and invading Albion, to which he gave the name
Britannia (55 B.C.) In the civil war which followed the assassination of
Caesar, Marcus Antonius, the ruler of the Eastern Roman world, was aided
against his rival Octavianus (afterwards Emperor Augustus) by Queen Cleo-
patra of Egypt, but was defeated in the naval battle of Actium,i and his death
and that of Cleopatra soon following, Egypt became henceforth a Roman pro-
vince. Augustus gathered up into his own hands all civil and military power,'
and the Roman Empire began (29 B.C.) At the beginning of the Christian era
the Roman Empire had spread out nearly to its greatest limits. In Europe
the lines of the Rhine and the Danube marked its northern boundary ; all
Asia Minor and Syria had been subjected, and the whole of North Africa,
from Egyjjt to the Atlantic, acknowledged Roman authority.

12. From this time onward to the date of our third little map (represent-
ing the Empire in the time of Constantine) the chief military events were
the final conquest of Britain as far north as the Firths of Forth and Clyde by
Agricola, and its formation into a prefecture of Gaul, governed by a vice-
regent resident at Ehoracum (York) ; the conquest of Daeia, the country
north of the lower Danube ; the victorious invasion of Armenia and Parthia ;
and the subjugation of all the Nile valley as far as Nubia by Trajan.

Under Constantine the Great two great changes took place — the introduc-
tion of Christianity as the religion of the State, and the transference of the
seat of government from Rome to Byzantium (a.d. 330), which was re-named
after the Emperor, Constantinople.

13. Persia at this time, under the Sassanian dynasty, attained a height of
prosperity and power such as it had never before reached, and against it even
the veteran Roman legions could gain no lasting laurels.

1 At the entrance to the Gulf of Arta.

26 THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

14. It is not till after B.C. 260 that the history of China begins to be
definitely recorded. At this time the chief or king Tsiu (whence China)
gained the ascendency and united the various tribes of that region into one
empire. Now also the great wall was completed as a protection against the
more barbarous Hiong-nou (Huns) or Tatars of the north. Shortly after the
beginning of the Christian era the Chinese seem to have begun intercourse
with the Parthians and to have known the Roman Emi^ire as Ta-tsin ; and
about the time of Constantine's establishment of his new capital the Chinese
Emjieror's court was fixed at Nan-King, the soiithern cai^ital.

15. The increase of geographical knowledge during the period in which
Rome was spreading out its power in all directions could not fail to be very
considerable. Already in the latter part of the first century B.C. a general
survey of the Roman Empire had been begun by the collection and arrange-
ment of the itineraries of the roads to j)laces in the empire. One of these
(called the Peutingerian table after the antiquary who found a copy of it in a
monastery in Bavaria in the fifteenth century) traces the main roads of all
the region stretching from Britain to the mouth of the Gauges in India.
Straho of Poutus was one of the great geograjihers of this period, and he
wrote an account of Europe and Africa, and of Asia, in which his knowledge
extended as far as China. But it was from Claudius Ptolemy, the celebrated
astronomer and geographer, who lived in the learned city of Alexandi-ia about
150 A.D., that geogra2Ay received the greatest advancement in ancient times
— one which made itself felt even down to the fifteenth century. He con-
structed a series of twenty-six maps, with a general mapi of the world, in illus-
tration of his eight books of universal geography. His information extended
from Thule (Shetland) in the north to the Niger and the Nile lakes in Africa,
and eastward to the obscurely known region of China and the island of
Taprobane (Ceylon).

4. 300-500 A.D.

1. Fully half a century before the civil discords of the Roman Empire had
been temporarily abated by the genius of Constantine, the whole of Europe
beyond the Roman frontier, tlie almost unknown nortli, had begun to ferment
and to pour forth wave after wave of barbarian hordes. Against these the
Roman Empire, distracted by discords, could not prevail.

2. The Goths, a people of Germanic origin, had already once broken
through the Roman province of Dacia,^ crossing the Black Sea had ravaged
the northern shores of Asia Minor, and had advanced as far as Greece,
pillaging and burning the famous cities of Athens, Corinth, and Argos. The
Vandals, who are first known as the inhabitants of the Bohemian mountains,
hence called Vandalici Montes, burst like a flood into Gaul, and after ravag-
ing that region, swept south through the passes of the Pyrenees into Spain,
and finally settled in the south of that country, to which they gave the name
Vandalitia, the modern Andalucia. The Franks, or freemen, a confederation
of the trilies inhabiting the borders of the lower Rhine, made incessant incur-
sions through the low countries into Gaul, where they finally overthrew the
Roman dominion.

3. In the reign of Constantine, the Goths had been obliged to sue for peace
with the Romans, but not long after his death they once more engaged the
legions in a three years' war. The Goths now began to be distinguished as
the Ostrogoths, or Goths of the east, the branch which inhabited the shores
of the Black Sea ; and the Visigoths, or Goths of the west, extending along
the Danube.

1 Transylvania and Walachia.

HISTORICAL. 2 7

4. Tlie Huns, a people of Asiatic origin, probably identical with tlie
Scj-thians (Turks), now appear on the scene. Tliey invaded Europe through
tlie country of the Alani, a pastoral people living on the great steppes between
the Volga and the Don ; having conquered them and incorporated the sur-
vivors, they advanced into the country of the Visigoths and drove these people
across the Danube into Moesia (modern Bulgaria), occupying the country
they had abandoned ; afterwards they also crossed the Danube, as the allies of
the Goths against the Komans.

5. Under Alaric, the Visigoths invaded Italy, sacked Rome, and ravaged
the peninsula. Subsequently, under the successors of Alaric, they withdrew
into southern Gaul and crossed the mountains into Spain, beginning a series
of struggles there with the Vandals and the Romans. The fatal rivalries of
the Roman governors of Spain and Africa now led to the passage of a resist-
less horde of the Vandals across the Strait of Gibraltar, and to the devastation
and ruin of all the region between the sliores of the Atlantic and Cyrene,
to the loss of Carthage, and the dissolution of the Roman Empire in Africa.
Hence the Vandals spread over Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily ; they invaded
Italy also, and plundered Rome for fourteen days, mutilating and defacing the
works of art in the city.

6. After his conquests in the region of the Danube, Attila, king of the
Huns, turned his course of invasion westward, and being joined by the Ostro-
goths, penetrated into Gaul, and was defeated there by the united Romans
and Visigoths in a sanguinary battle near the site of the present city of
Chalons-sur-Mame. A year later, however, he recovered strength, and in-
vaded Italy, devastating its northern plains and driving their inhabitants to
seek refuge in those marshy lagoon islands on which Venezia, afterwards the
gi-eat city of Venice, was founded. Rome itself was saved by the mediation
of Pope Leo, only to be plundered three years later by the Vandals, whose
progress we have already traced. After the death of Attila, Odoacer, who
had been his ambassador at the court of Constantinople, put himself at
the head of the barbarians who had flocked into Italy, and finally crushed
the Roman power throughout the peninsula. He in turn, however, was
overthrown by Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, who now became master of
Italy.

7. The contests with the northern invaders in Gaiil had withdrawn thither
the greater part of the Roman troops quartered in Britain, and the few remain-
ing were taken across to the Continent in the beginning of the fifth century.
The Britons, left defenceless, and harassed by the Picts and Scots, invited
the Jutes, the Germanic inhabitants of the opposite shores of the North Sea,
to their aid, and they, having repelled the invaders, began the conquest of the
island for themselves, and established their kingdom in Kent. They were
soon followed by the Saxons, who took up the southern and central portions
of the country, where the names Essex (East Saxons), Middlesex, Sussex,
still in use, and Wessex, extending from Surrey to the peninsula of Cornwall,
recall their divisions of the land. Cornwall itself remained in the hands of
its Celtic inhabitants.

8. Tims, at the period represented in the fourth map, the great Roman
Empire had shrunk down to the limits of the Eastern Roman (also called the
Byzantine or Greek) Empire, and was restricted to tlie countries which lie
round the eastern end of the Mediterranean. The Vandals had established
their rule along north Africa ; the Visigoths ruled in Spain ; the Ostrogothic
monarchy of Theodoric the Great extended over Italy, France, and all the
countries round the Alps as far as the middle Danube ; the Franks, under
Clovis, had possession of the whole of Gaul between the Loire and Somme ;
Persia, still under the energetic Sassanian djiiasty, not only maintained its

28 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

integrity as an empire, but had begun to repel the Roman power in Asia and
had added part of Armenia.

5, 500-800 A.D.

1. At the period represented in the last map we have seen that the Persians
in the east were successfully opposing the Byzantine Empire, and extending their
dominion ia Asia. Westward, however, the arms of the Byzantine Empire
were triumphant, the reigu of the Emperor Justinian being rendered famous
by the exj)edition of his great general Belisarius to Africa, where, after a cam-
paign of two years, he completely overthrew the Vandals and led their king
captive to Constantinople. In a second war, Belisarius wrested all southern
Italy from the Ostrogoths, pursuing them northward to Rome and Ravenna,
beginning the re-conquest of the peninsula, which was completed by his suc-
cessor the imperial general Narses, after which the Ostrogoths disappear as a
distinct nation.

2. At this time, under Khosru, the greatest of the great monarchs of
the Sassanian dynasty, the Persian Empire stretched from the Red Sea to the
Indus, and from Arabia far into Central Asia. Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine,
Egypt, and Asia Minor, were one after another wrested from the Byzantine
Empire : Jerusalem was stormed and plundered, and a similar fate befell
Alexandria. The victorious Persians had even reached to Chalcedon, opposite
Constantinople, when the fortune of war turned, and the Byzantine Emperor
Heraclius began a magnificent revenge.

3. Having organised a Greek and barbarian army, Heraclius landed and
encamped on the famous plain of Issus in Cilicia, and having completely
routed the Persian army sent against him, forced his way through the Taurus
into Pontus, crossed Armenia, made allies of the barbarians north of the
Caucasus, and with their aid attacked Media, and penetrated to Ispahan, in-
flicting repeated defeats on the Persians in the heart of their country, and
giving the death-blow to the Sassanian dynasty.

4. At the height of the fame of Heraclius, however, a new and terrible
power arose in the south. During all the changes of empire in the countries
east of the Mediterranean the tribes of Arabia had maintauied a brave inde-
pendence ; neither the Babylonian nor Assyrian kings, neither Egyptians nor Per-
sians, could reduce them to subjection ; and even though the Romans imder Trajan
had penetrated far into the country, only the northern chieftains were made
tributary to the empire. The Himyarides of Yemen, the district bordering on
the Red Sea, had stoutly repelled an expedition in the time of Augustus. They
carried on commerce across the Indian Ocean with Persia and Syria, and had
planted many colonies on the opposite African coasts. The tribes of Yemen
dwelt in towns, and cultivated the soil, but the most of the Arabs were
nomadic as now, and they retained their ancient pagan fetish worship. About
600 A.D. Christianity penetrated into the peninsula, where Judaism had been
introduced by emigrants after the destruction of Jerusalem, and a religious
ferment began to move the minds of the thoughtful. It was soon after this
time that Mohammed, who was born at Mecca in 570, received his first
divine communication in the solitudes of Mount Hira, near Mecca, and
began to inveigh against the superstition of his time. Persecuted, and unable
to find a hearing in his own city, he took refuge in Medina,^ and at once
assumed the position of judge and ruler of the most powerful of the Arab
tribes. He now went to war in the name of God against the enemies of Islam,

1 The Hedjrah, or emigration of Mohammed to Medina, gives the starting-point of the
Moslem calendar.

' TfuVftV

HISTORICAL. 2 9

and gained a victory over the Meccans at Bedr, after which they concluded a
peace with him. He now sent his missionaries abroad over Arabia, and they
carried his doctrine into Persia, to the court of Heraclius, to Abyssinia, and
to Egj-^jt. Tlie King of Persia received his messenger with scorn, and had him
executed ; this led to the first war with the Moslems, in which the latter were
defeated.

5. The power of the new religion was, however, secured in Arabia, and
shortly before his death Mohammed had made extensive preparations for
expeditions against SjTia and the Byzantines. Abu-Bekr, the first " Calif ^^
or "Successor" of Mohammed, carried war into Babylonia, and after several
victories over the troops of Heraclius completed the conquest of Syria. Omar,
the second Calif, pushed the war of conquest with increased vigour ; Jerusalem
fell into his hands, and he caused the mosque which bears his name to be built
over the site of the temple of Solomon. He next invaded Persia, and subdued
the whole of that region. Amru, one of his generals, such was the prestige
of the Arabs, took possession of Egypt for the Calif without opposition, and
Barca and Tripoli were also subdued.

6. At the time of Omar's death (644) the Saracens ^ had overrun in the short
space of ten years all the lands between Armenia and Khiva in Asia, and the
Syrtes in North Africa. In the time of Othman, the Mohammedan power was
extended westward over Mauretania or Marocco, and the Byzantine posses-
sions were restricted to the neighbourhood of New Carthage. The seat of the
Califate was now removed from Medina to Danmscus in Syria ; Asia Minor
was ravaged, and inefl'ectual siege was laid to Constantinople. Before the
beginning of the eighth century Carthage had been taken, and the Byzantine
dominion in Africa annihilated. The Califate now rose to the zenith of its
prosperity, and the conquest of Turkistan in central Asia was rapidly followed
by the invasion of Spain at the oj)posite extremity of the Arab Empire. The
Moors," as the Arabs or Saracens are called in Sjianish history, under Tarik,
crossed the straits from Ceuta, and effected a landing at Algeciras, near
Gibraltar. Roderick, the last king of the Ostrogoths, met the invader at
Xerez de la Frontera (711). Nine days of battle ensued, and in a single
combat with Tarik, the Gothic king was slain ; the victory was decisive for the
Moslems, and it gave them the mastery over nearly the whole of Spain (except
the mountainous country of Asturias in the north), as well as the outlying
province of Septimania (Languedoc, in southern France).

7. We may now turn to glance at the movements which were taking place
in northern Europe during this rapid spread of the Mohammedan Empire in
the south. Events in Italy have been already traced up to the defeat of the
Ostrogoths, after which the country was placed under the rule of an Exarch or
delegate of the Byzantine Emperor, who had his capital at Ravenyia. The first
of these delegates had only held the country for fifteen years when the Lom-
bards,'' a Germanic people originally from the lower Elbe, poured over the
Alps from Pannonia (Lower Austria), bringing with them numbers of other
German tribes, and conquered all north and central Italy. Here in the
course of time these barbarians became assimilated with the peoples they had
subjected, exchanged their rudeness for refinement, and their German for the
Latin tongue.

8. The first or Merovingian (from Merwig, a chief of the fifth century)

1 Probably from Sharkeyn, "eastern people," as opposed to Maghribe, "western
people," as the inhabitants of Marocco are called.

2 Lat. Mauri, dark ; Span. Moras.

3 Longobardi, referring either to their long beards or to their battle-axes (parta or
harte).

30 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

dynasty of the Frankish kings, to which Clovis belonged, gave place to the
Carlovingian, in which Charles, surnanied Martel, was one of the most promi-
nent rulers. His reign was marked by wars with the surrounding tribes of
the Saxons and Germans, but especially by the stop which l>e put to the
victorious advance of the Saracens northward from Spain, whose power had
filled all Christendom with alarm. He defeated them in a great battle fought
between Puidiers and Tours in 732.

His son Pepin le Bref, taking advantage of the disputes which arose
about the succession to the Lombard throne, invaded Italy. It was left to
his son Charlemagne, however, who crossed the Alps from Geneva with two
armies, by the Great St. Bernard and Mont Cenis passes, to complete the
overthrow of the Lombard kingdom, which had lasted for two centuries.
This monarch also completed the subjection of the Saxons in the northern
border of his kingdom, driving them to the Elbe, and from the Moors in the
south he wrested and added to his dominion all the country from the
Pyrenees to the Ebro, his empire extending also on the side of Germany as
far as Pannouia, where he had subdued the Avari.

9. We left Britain at 'the end of the last period when the Jutes and
Saxons had established themselves in the south and centre of the present
England. Soon after this the Angles, a third Germanic tribe from the
country east of the Elbe, made a succession of descents on the coasts of
Suflblk and Norfolk, as well as in Scotland between the Tweed and Forth,
Eventually these last comers obtained possession of all the portions of eastern
England that had not fallen to the Saxons, and the union of their different
bands wtli the conquered native Celts took the form of seven kingdoms, the
Anglo-Saxon Hejitarchy, a group of states which rose and fell as one or other
of them became more powerful. These were Kent, Essex and Middlesex,
Sussex, Wessex, already referred to ; besides Northumbria, including the
present Northumberland and all Scotland south of the Forth ; East Anglia
(Norfolk, Suflblk, and Cambridge), and Mercia, which embraced the central
portions of England.

10. To sum up the leading features of the period of the world's history
sketched in the fifth of the little maps : — The Arabian Empire had spread
itself out to Central Asia and to Spain, and had already passed the zenith of
its greatness. The dynasty of the Ommiades of Damascus had given place
to that of the Abassides in the east, though a branch from it had set up an
independent Califate at Cordova, in Spain. The Abbaside Harun-al-Rashid,
whose praises are sung by eastern poets, had his capital at Bagdad, on the
Tigris, a city which had been founded by his predecessor in 762. Charle-
magne had consolidated and extended the Frank Empire, received the
ambassadors sent from the court of Bagdad to salute him, and had been
crowned by the Pope at Rome. Irene, the barbarous mother of the Byzantine
Emperor Constantine VI., had conceived the bold plan of uniting the east
and west of Europe in one great empire, by marrying the Frank Emperor, a
scheme which was frustrated by her overthrow and her banishment to the
Isle of Lesbos in the JSgean Sea (802).

6. 800-1000 A.D.

1. After the accession of the Abbaside djTiasty in the Arabian Empire,
Bagdad, as we have noticed, became the capital of the Califate, and the
province of Khorassan, in Persia, began to be considered the nucleus of the
empire. Though Islamism continued to spread, the rule of the Califs began
to be merely nominal. Already during Harun-al-Rashid's reign, independent
kingdoms had been formed in Fez (the city of Fez was founded 808) and

HISTOEICAL. 3 1

Tunis, and soon all the western African territories were lost to the Califate.
Large numbers of Turks from the region between the Caspian and tlie central
mountains of Asia were called in to be emj)loyed in military service.
Acquiring power, the Turks rose against their masters, and for a time
Turkish kings reigned in Khorassan. Several transitory dynasties succeeded,
pre-eminent among which was that of the Ghiznevides, who at the height of
their power ruled an empire extending from the Tigris to the Ganges, and
from the Jaxartes on the north to the Indian Ocean, the central seat of
power being the natural fortress of Ghazni.

2. A Turkish governor of Egypt declared himself independent in 868. A
century later the Fatimides, a sect of Mohammedans, whose leader claimed
descent from Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet, after overthrowing the
rulers of Tunis, conquered Egypt and Syria, and founding C'««ro (970), set up
a new Califate there ; so that at this time there were three — one in Bagdad, an-
other in Cairo, and a third at Cordova in Spain. Algiers (Al-Jezireh, "the
island") had been founded by an Arabian prince twenty-five years previously.

3. In Spain, as we have seen, the inhabitants of the northern mountain
country had not been entirely subdued in the Moorish conquest of the rest
of the peninsula. Asturias and Galicia formed an independent Christian
kingdom, and about the middle of the ninth century the brave and hardy
Vascones or Basques of Navarre also regained their independence, and aided
in the constant warfare that was maintained against the Moors along the
north of the peninsxda. Though the "Spanish March," as the country
between the PjT-enees and the Ebro was named, had been retaken from the
successors of Charlemagne by the Moors, the Christian mountaineers
recovered a large portion of this district. Latterly another Christian
kingdom added its strength to Asturias and Navarre ; it was that of Castile,
which, from its central position in the peninsula, was destined to play a most
prominent part in the future history of Spain.

4. With the death of Charlemagne the great fabric of the Frankish Empire
that he had reared crumbled rajiidly into fragments. Repeated divisions and
subdivisions of the empire among his successors weakened and distracted it,
and brought on internal wars, while foreign assailants threatened it on every
side. The Normans, or Northmen, from Denmark and Scandinavia, poured
in and infested the country as far as Paris, and permanently held the territory
known afterwards as Normandy ; the Spanish March was lost again to the
Moors on the south ; on the east the German princes arrogated to themselves
the right of electing their own sovereigns ; and shortly after the beginning of
the tenth century, Conrad I., a duke or count of Franconia, reigned as king of
Germany. The conquests of his successor Otho over the Danes, the Slavs,
and Hungarians, extended the boundary of the German Empire north to the
Elbe and south into Lombardy, where he was soon after acknowledged suc-
cessor of Charlemagne in Italy, and crowned Emperor of the West at Rome.

5. The Hungarians, or Magyars, as they call themselves, with whom the
first emperors of Germany had to contend, were a people of Asiatic origin, who,
in the year 889, forming a body of fully 40,000 fanalies, left their homes in
the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea aud made a great exodus to the west-
ward, fighting their way to the central basin of the Danube, and the
countries which bordered Pannonia on the north-east. Spreading out in all
directions, they extended their conquests from the Carpathian mountains down
to Servia, and from the Transylvanian Alps to the Aljis of StjTia on the west,
founding that realm on the great central plain of the Danube basin whicli has
outlived the storms of nearly a thousand years.

6. The history of the Byzantine or Greek Empire, as it was now called, was
chiefly characterised by wars with the Arabian powers in the south, to whom

32 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

Crete and Sicily were lost, and by the inroads of the Bulgarians, a people of
Finnish origin, who having conquered the Moesians, established tliemselves in
the country south of the lower Danube.

7. Towards the close of the tenth century, the Hxssians begin to emerge
from obscurity. Among the enemies of the Greek Empire were the eastern
Slavs or Slavonians (the ancestral Russians), part of a group of nations living
in eastern Europe, about the sources of the Dnieper and Don rivers, known to
the ancient ^vriters as the Sarmatians, who had their chief settlements at A^ov-
gorod and Kief. Harassed by warlike neighbours, they sent ambassadors, about
862, to the chiefs of the Varangians, or Northmen, beyond the seas, inviting
them to their aid. In response came the Scandinavian cliief Rurick, at the
head of his armed bands, who, from Novgorod first, and tlien from Kief as
capital, extended the embryo emjiire, till it came in hostile contact with the
Greek kingdom on the south.

8. Another branch of the Slavonic family also begins to take its place as a
political power in Europe about this time. The tribes of the Polani dwelt be-
tween the rivers Oder and Vistula, and gradually acquired tlie ascendency over
their kindred neighbouring tribes. About the middle of the tenth century
their ruler became a convert to Christianity, and under his son Boleslas I.,
surnamed "the Great," gave unity to the kingdom of Poland, and sustained a
successful war with the Germans on the west. Cracow, afterwards the capital,
was founded by a Polish prince, Krak, in 700.

9. In Britain, soon after tlie period represented in the last sketch, the
independent states of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy were united by Egbert, king
of Wessex (827) into the one kingdom of England. To the dynasty thus founded
belonged Alfred the Great, whose exertions in repelling the incessant incur-
sions of the Danes, his defeat of their army at Edrmgtoyi in Wiltshire, his
victories at sea with England's first fleet, and the wise and energetic rule
which make his memory dear to all generations of Englishmen, scarcely need
be here recalled.

10. During this time Denmark and Scandinavia were knovsn only by the
hordes of freebooters who sallied out thence, making raids on England, the
Prankish Empire, and Germany, and taking the lead even in Russia. The
result of these expeditions was the introduction, towards the close of the tenth
century, of Christianity into the Scandinavian countries, and from this time
their mythical stories, contained in the heroic "sagas" or "eddas," give place
to real history.

11. From the time of Ptolemy onward till this period, geographical know-
ledge had rested at nearly the same limits, but now the maritime expedi-
tions of these hardy Northmen were destined to give it a far wider range.
Already two northern seamen, named Wolfstan and Otliere, had excited
interest at King Alfred's court by the story of their voyages through the
Baltic to Witland (Prussia) and Estland (Esthonia), and round the North
Cape of Europe, in pursuit of the Hval-ros (walrus or whale-horse), to the
White Sea. But their discoveries did not end here. The Farije islands (Faar-
oen = sheep islands), with their convenient harbours, became one of their
strongholds ; about 861 one of these chieftains, driven westward by storms,
discovered the mountains of an unknown shore, to whicli he gave the name of
Snowland, the island afterwards known as Iceland. Some twelve years later
the Norwegians took permanent possession of Iceland, settling about Reykiavik,
the present ca])ital of the island. The Icelanders kept up their character of
enterprising sailors, and about the close of the ninth century one of them
named Gunbiorn came upon an extensive country, to which, from its great
cloak of ice reaching down between the black headlands in white glacier arms
to the sea, he gave the very apt name of Hvidscerk ( " white shirt " ), a name

-I'^v^^"^

4(^

HISTORICAL. 33

which was unfortunately changed to the inappropriate one of Greenland by-
Erik the Red, another Icelander who founded (985) the two colonies of the
Ostre and Westre Bygd (east and west bays) on its shores.

12. The great achievement of the Greenland colonists, however, was the
discovery of the American continent nearly tive centuries before the time of
Columbus. Some of their ships, driven astray by contrary winds, reported an
island called Estotiland to the westward, and the country of Drogio, witli
cannibal inhabitants. About the year 1000 an expedition under Lief, son of
Erik the Red, set sail for the exploration of tliis new country. Tlie regions
they discovered were named Helluland (Slateland), supposed to be New-
foundland ; Markland, or Woodland, perhaps Nova Scotia ; and Vinland,
a country named from the wild vine growing there, the reason which caused
the first English settlers to give tlie name Martlia's Vineyard to the same
coast-land.

13. Thus, at the period shown in the sixth map, the great Arabian Empire
had broken up into a number of separate Mohammedan states, extending
from Persia to Spain, and already the central Asiatic Turks had begun to
overrule the power of the Califs in the east ; the Greek Empire had lost still
more of its reduced territory, and was liarassed on the south by the Saracens,
and on the north by the Slavonic peoples of central Europe, now forming
themselves into separate kingdoms, such as Russia and Poland. Germany had
also risen to an independent place, while Charlemagne's. great Frank Empire
had shrunk to a far smaller area, and was overrun by the Northmen. In
Spain, the Christian kingdoms of the northern mountaineers held their own,
and were extending their power gradually southward against the Moors ; Eng-
land was now one kingdom, and the hardy Scandinavian seamen had pushed
back the clouds of ignorance over the vast region of the north Atlantic, and
had reached the shores of the great western continent.

7. About 1000-1300 a.d.

1. We have now reached the central stage of the period known as the
Middle Ages, which separate the ancient or classic times from the modern.
Europe, as we have seen, was fast emerging from the state of barbarism, and
the nations of modern times were gradually forming and developing themselves.
The Christian Church was striving to extend its bounds in northern Europe,
and the Papacy had been rising to great temporal power and influence. Super-
stition and religious enthusiasm prevailed very extensively, and were manifested
in magnificent ecclesiastical buildings and jiilgi-images. This zeal rose to its
li eight in Europe when the barbarous Sel.juk Turks overran Palestine and
destroyed the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, and brought about the great reli-
gious wars between the Christian nations of the west and the Mohammedans of
the East, known as the Crusades (1096-1270).

Before touching upon the chief events of these wars and their efi"ects on
the civilisation of Europe, it will be well to glance at the movements which
were taking place in each State of the known world at this time.

2. At tlie end of the last period we left Persia under the rule of the Ghiz-
nevides. This dynasty had reigned for little more than half a century before
the Seljuk Turks began to migrate into the fertile province of Khorassan.
Tliese were an off'shoot of a number of Asiatic tribes who in 744 had over-
whelmed the "empire of Kiptchak," as the region north-east of tlie Caspian
was called. Their name they took from their leader, who had held the
country about Bokhara. After some conflicts with the Ghiznevides they
occupied northern Khorassan ; then Balkh and Kharesm (Khiva) fell

34 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

before them, and advancing southward through Persia they took Karman
and Fars. Arrived at Bagdad, the Calif there (whose temporal power was
now all but gone, though he was still recognised as the spiritual chief of the
Moslems) acknowledged the Turkish leader, and in 1060 the conquest of Persia
was complete. Later, Melek Shah, the most powerful of the succeeding Seljuk
rulers, added Arabia, Asia Minor, and Armenia, besides Syria, Palestine, and
the countries beyond the Oxus, to the Seljuk Empire, which at the height of
its greatness stretched from the ^gean Sea to India and Tartary.

3. Egypt at this time was in the hands of the now efl'eminate Fati-
mide dynasty, and so remained till the latter part of the twelfth century,
wlien the famous Salah-ed-din, or Saladin, son of the Seljuk governor of Tek-
rit, on the Tigris, established himself as Sultan of Syria and Egypt.

4. Algeria was governed by Arabian princes up to the middle of the twelfth
century ; Marocco had been formed into a separate state shortly after the
beginning of the eleventh century, and the city of that name was founded in
1072. Both of these states were, however, destined to fall before the Moham-
medan sect named the Almoluides or Unitarians, founded by a native of the
Atlas region, to whom Arabs and Berbers flocked. From being a religious
body the Almohades became a political power, which mastered all north Africa
from Marocco to Tunis, and also extended conquest into Mohammedan Spain
as far as the Ebro and Tagus.

5. In the north of the Spanish Peninsula, soon after the foundation of the
kingdom of Castile, another Christian state, that of Aragon, was formed in the
basin of the Ebro. These now, with Navarre, waged war with the common
enemy, the Moors.

6. Portugal, the ancient Lusitania, from the Minho to the Tagus, had fallen
under the sway of Castile, and in 1095 Henry of Burgimdy governed it as a
dependent fief of that kingdom ; but after a great victory over the Moors at
Ourique, in Alemtejo, his son AlfflBiso I. was proclaimed king of Portugal by
his soldiers.

In 1212 a great and decisive battle was fought by the combined forces
of Castile, Navarre, Aragon, and Portugal, against the Moors, on the plains
of Tolosa, which eff'ectually broke the Almohade power in Spain. The
Mohammedan kingdom of Granada, founded shortly after this, was speedily
compelled to acknowledge the supremacy of Castile, and henceforward all
danger from the Moslems was at an end.

7. Wlien Hugh Capet ascended the Frankish throne towards the close of
the tentli century, and first made Paris the capital, the greater part of the
land was held by independent lords, and the authority of the kings extended
little beyond Paris and Orleans. Louis VI., surnamed the Good (1108-
1137), re-extended the royal power over the kingdom, and carried on war with
England and Germany. In the latter part of the thirteenth century Navarre
was added to the Frankish kingdom.

8. We have noticed in a former paragraph that in the ruinous time
which followed the breaking up of the empire of Charlemagne, the Northmen
had invaded northern France, and had subsequently planted themselves firmly
in the country which from them took the name of Normandy. Rolf, or Rollo,
the leader of this nortliern expedition, was the ancestor of the Dukes of Nor-
mandy, who were to play such an important part in English history.

9. The successors of Alfred the Great on the English throne were in con-
stant conflict with the Danes and the Welsh mountaineers, till a more formid-
able invasion by the former drove Ethelred the Unready to Normandy, and
England passed for twenty-eight years under the rule of the Danish kings
Sweyn and Canute. With Edward the Confessor, son of Ethelred, the Saxon
power was again restored in England (1042), notable events in his reign being

HISTORICAL. 3o

the successful wars with the Welsh and Northumbriaus, the advance of an
English army into Scotland against Macbeth, and the building of Westminster
Abbey.

10. Harold, the sou of the powerful Earl Goodwin of Kent, was raised to
the throne on Edward's deatli, but William, Duke of Normandy, to whom
Edward had made a promise of the English crown, asserted his right by an
invasion of England (1066). Lauding at Pevensey, on the Sussex coast, with
60,000 men, he advanced as far as Hastings. Harold met the invader on the
heath, where the village of Battle now stands ; in the fight Harold was slain and
William "the Conqueror" became king, transferring the crown of England
from the Saxon to the Norman line, though twenty years wero required to
complete the conquest, for the Saxons maintained an unequal resistance,
retiring to the forests, and as outlaws became the heroes of popular
legends like that of Robin Hood. The Normans in turn became absorbed
in the stronger Saxon element ; even their language disappeared, leaving only
its traces.

11. The Scots and Picts had gradually coalesced into one people under
King Kenneth (843), who establisheil his capital at Forteviot, in Strathearn,
formerly the centre of the Pictish kingdom. Under Malcolm Canmore, who
ruled at the time of the Norman Conquest, and his successors, the country
enjoyed comparative quiet ; but towards the end of the thirteenth century the
great struggle with England began in which the heroic names of Wallace and
Bruce are prominent — a contest which terminated in securing the independence
of Scotland on the field of Bunriockhurn.

12. Norway was brought for a short time under the sway of the Danish
conqueror Knut, or Canute the Great, but thenceforward continued to be
governed by native kings. Sweden first emerges as an indejsendent kingdom
in the Ijeginning of the twelfth century, when Gothland was united with it,
and soon after we find its Christian kings subjugating and converting the pagan
Finns and adding their laud to the kingdom.

13. Germany during this period was troubled by the dissensions of the
two great rival parties in the empire, who are best known, in the Italian form
of their names, as the Guelphs and Ghibbelines — the one formed of the sup-
jiorters of imiDcrial authority, the other opposed to it, and representing the
church and municipal rights. These parties took their names from the rival
dukes of Franconia and Saxony, whose war-cries were the family names of
Waiblingen and Welf, corrupted into the forms above given by the Italians, in
whose country their conflicts found their chief scene.

14. Poland at this time was mainly occujiied in wars with the pagan Prus-
sians, who, for fear of losing their freedom, resisted every eff'ort at conversion ;
and it was not until the Teutonic knights had been invited by Poland to aid
in their subjugation that the Christian faitli was established in Prussia. The
knights in turn, however, became formidable enemies of Poland, and gained
for themselves the countries of Prussia, Livonia, and Courland.

15. Russia had meanwhile fallen from its condition as a united realm, and
was held by a number of fjetty princes, whose quarrels kept it in a state of
anarchy and weakness.

16. The Greek Empire in the earlier part of this period was harassed on
all sides — by the Arabs, the Seljuk Turks, and the northern barbarians ; and
in Italy the Normans had reduced Byzantine territory to the possession of
Otranto. The twelve sons of a knight of Normandy named Tancred de Haute-
ville, whose estates were insufficient to supi)ort such a numerous family, sailed
to seek their fortune in the Italian wars. One of them, with a small band of
followers, gained possession of Apulia ; another brother, named Roger, con-
quered the island of Sicily. The sou of this knight, Roger II., ultimately

36 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

obtained possession of all his uncle's territories on the mainland, and thus
was formed the kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

17. We have already referred to the lagoon islands of the Adriatic coast,
which gave a refuge to the eastern inhabitants from the devastating wars of
tlie north Italian plains, and to the gi'adual rise of the settlement of Venezia or
Venice. The first form of government of the island state was republican ; which,
by and by, gave way to a magistracy in which a duke or " doge " was invested
with undivided authority (697). Keeping up a close alliance with Constan-
tinople, the naval importance and commerce of the little state increased year
by year. It was after the eleventh century had begun, however, that the com-
mercial relations of Venice gradually extended east and west, to the Black Sea,
and all the coast of the Mediterranean. The territorial possessions of Venice
also increased, and Dalniatia, Istria, and Croatia were first ceded to them.

In central Italy the temporal power and possessions of the Pope of Rome had
been spreading till they reached thence to Bologna, Ravenna, and Ancona.

18. In 1073 the great Pope Gregory had received a supidication for aid
from the Greek Emperor against the Turks, to which he cordially responded,
and thus the gi-and idea of a Christian expedition against the Saracens was
first entertained. His successor Urban revived the design, and after a council
held at Clermont in France in 1095, the expedition was resolved upon. Thou-
sands upon thousands, from the remotest corners of Europe, hurried to engage
in the holy war, and, each wearing as a badge the sign of the cross, gave the
name "crusade" to the movement. First one, then a second great army,
led by Peter the Hermit, set out across Hungary and Bulgaria for Constanti-
nople ; a third and fourth horde followed, though it was not till later that
the real Crusaders, the nobility and yeomanry of Europe, set forth. In this
way not fewer than 600,000 men gathered at Constantinople, whence they
crossed to Asia Minor, into Mesopotamia and Syria, besieging and taking
Antioch; two years afterwards, the remnant of this great army delivered
Jerusalem from the hands of the infidel, and Godfrey de Bouillon was elected
king of Palestine (1099)..

19. Forty years later, a second crusade, consisting of two vast armies from
France and Germany, proved a total failure. Now Saladin, the Seljuk sultan
of Egypt, invaded Palestine, and, compelling Jerusalem to capitulate, gave
the death-blow to the Christian kingdom. This led to a third crusade,
uniting the strength of Germany, France, and England, in which the import-
ant city of Acre was besieged and taken (1191), though no further conclusion
was reached than that of a treaty granting liberty to the people of the west
to make free pilgi-images to the Holy Sepulchi'e.

20. The Crusaders had now changed their object from a religious to a secular
one ; the fourth expedition (1202-1204), in which the Franks and the Venetians
joined, advancing on Constantinople, took that city, and having mastered the
provinces, divided the whole into four parts — Baldwin, Count of Flanders,
being made emperor, and the Venetians receiving the coast-lands of the Adriatic
and .iEgean. A fifth crusade, led by Frederick of Germany (1228), terminated
in the cession of Palestine to that emperor ; a sixth was called forth by the
irruption of a new race of Turks into SjTia, but Louis of France (IX.), who
led it, was utterly defeated ; he himself was captured, and only obtained his
release on paying a heavy ransom to the Sultan of Egj^jt. Still a seventh
crusade was begun by Louis (1270), and carried on after his death by Prince
Edward of England, but nothing of importance resulted, save that the Templars
and other military knights retained, for a few years longer, possession of Acre
and some other towns.

21. By bringing the civilisation of the east and west into contact, and remov-
ing the prejudices of ignorance, relations of advantage, if not of sympathy, weie

HISTORICAL. 3 7

opened up between those different regions ; commerce between east and west
received a great impulse, and other great social changes were brought about.

22. While the wars with the Saracens were occupying all minds in Europe,
vast changes of dominion were brewing in Asia. Towards the middle of the
twelfth century, a Mongol chief named Yesukai Bahadur ruled over some thirty
or forty clans who dwelt between the river Amur and the great wall of China,
far on the east of Asia. On his death, his son Temujin, only thirteen years of
age, assumed his place, but the clans, refusing to acknowledge him, chose
another chief, and compelled the rightful heir to retire to Karakorum, and
place himself there under the protection of the monarch of Keraeit. In the
service of this king, Temujin distinguished himself greatly in conflicts with
neighbouring tribes, and obtained the king's daughter in marriage. The king
of Karakorum, becoming jealous of his growing influence, ordered Temujin to
be assassinated, but he escaped to his own country at the head of a consider-
able following. Raising an army there, he marched against his father-in-law,
whom he vanquished (1203), seized upon the dominions of Karakorum, and
after a short time made himself master of all Mongolia. Assuming now the
name of Genghiz Khan (= Klian of Khans), he turned his forces south towards
China, conquered the northern Chinese region of Khatai, scaled the great wall,
and after a long series of campaigns capj;ured Pekin in 1215. The victorious
Mongols now pressed westward into Turkistan, the vast region stretching
between Lake Lob and the Sea of Aral, and reached the Jihoon on the borders
of Kharesm or Khiva. Seven hundred thousand of his cavalry burst into
Khiva in 1219 ; Samarkatid, Boklmra, and all the chief cities of the land, were
taken ; next his hordes overran Persia, driving out the last of the Seljuk
kings ; they crossed the Caucasus into Russia and routed the ^Russians in a
great battle near the Sea of Azov ; after destroying Ria~an, Moscow, and
tlie other settlements, they carried victory into Poland and Hungary. Nor
were these Mongols less successful in the east, for the whole of southern
Asia, and India as far as the Satlej, was laid waste before them.

23. The sons and grandsons of Genghiz Khan still further extended the huge
empire. One of the latter, named Kulilai Khan, availing himself of an invita-
tion from a king of the Song dynasty in China to aid him against the Manchu
Tatars, entered China (1260) with a great army and drove out the Manchus ;
Ijut afterwards overthrew the Song dynasty and conquered all southern China,
extending his donunion as far as the Strait of Malacca. The court of Kublai
Khan, the magnificence of which is described by Marco Polo, was attended
by learned men from India, Persia, and even from Europe ; and his rule
was a most beneficent one. During it the noble work of the Grand Canal
of China was completed, connecting Tientsin, the port of Pekin, with Hang-
cJmu on the lower course of the great river Yangtze, a distance as great as
from Land's End to the Shetland Isles. Until lately, a grain fleet, with its
400,000 tons of rice for the supply of the capital, passed every year from the
south by this route, avoiding the storms and pirates of the coast.

24. Thus before the middle of the thirteenth century the vast Mongol Empire
had stretched out from China to Poland and Hungary, over all Asia except
India and Asia Minor — an empire which far surpassed in extent any that had
yet been known on the surface of the globe ; and yet one which was so
thoroughly organised under strict laws, that it was said one might travel from
end to end of it without danger.

25. Among the great changes of power brought about by the Mongol
invasion was that of the removal of the Ogiizian Turks, who retreated before it
from the steppes east of the Caspian to the mountains of Armenia. Othman
or Osman, a chief of the tribe, on the destruction of the Seljuk power, obtained
possession of Bithynia, and grew so strong as to be able to attack the Asiatic

p o '" n

38 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

portion of the sinking Byzantine empire vnth. success, founding there (1299)
the subsequently great empire of the Ottoman or Osmauli Turks, as they
are named from hini.

26. In the course of his conquest Genghiz Khan had carried off multitudes
of western Asiatics as slaves. Twelve thousand of these, most of them Turks,
were bought from him by the Sultan of Egypt (a successor of Saladin), who
formed them into a body of troops. From being servants these well-armed
slaves rose to be masters in Egypt, and placed one of their own number in
the sultanate (1254), thus foundiug the Mameluke (or slave) dynasty in Egyjit,
which lasted for nearly three centuries, bringing the country again into great
prosperity and power.

27. Thus about the year 1300, at the period represented in the seventh
little chart, the relic of tlie once great Arabian Empire had been restricted to
its original seat, and to the western region of North Africa, all else having
fallen into the hands of the Turks. The Calif of Bagdad had taken refuge
under the protection of the Mamelukes of Egyjst, retaining his spiritual
power only ; the Ommiade califate in Spain had long fallen ; the Moham-
medan princes now held the kingdom of Granada only, as vassals to the
Christian court of Castile ; Navarre, on the north, had become an appanage
of the crown of France, and Normandy and Poitou had been annexed to it.

The English under Edward 1. had incorporated Wales after ten years'
contest, and Scotland was fighting for independence, led by Wallace and Bruce ;
Anglo-Norman adventurers (Fitzgeralds, Butlers, and Burkes) had established
themselves among the native, clans of Ireland. Denmark, Sweden, and Norway
were separate states, and the Norse colonies across the Atlantic had reached
the most flourishing period of their commerce, the old literature of histori-
cal sagas or tales and poems being zealously cultivated. In central Europe,
Poland and Hungary had been brought to the verge of ruin by the Mongol
invasions, which had swept away for the time the divided principalities of
Russia. In the south, the old Greek Empire was fast sinking, and assaults on
it by the Turks had begun.

28. During the earlier part of the period that we have been considering
there lived and travelled a man who may be called the great geographer of
the middle ages, as Ptolemy was of ancient times. This was the Arabian
Edrisi, a man of noble birth, liorn at Ceuta, in north Africa, in 1099. He
studied at Cordova, then the great centre of commerce and the seat of learning
of the western califate, and afterwards he travelled to Constantinople and Asia
Minor, Egypt and Marocco, through Spain, and to the coasts of France and
England, finally settling with King Roger of Sicily, there to put into .shape
the materials which this enlightened ruler had been gathering for fifteen
years from travellers to all parts of the known world — itineraries, measure-
ments, and observations of all kinds. Here Edrisi drew on a great globe of
silver, and described in a book, all that was then kno^vn of the earth, from the
"Sea of Darkness" west of the Spanish peninsula to the "Sea of Pitchy
Darkness," which was believed to lie east of Asia. He divided the known
world, like Ptolemy, into seven belts of climate, from the hottest in the
south to the coldest in the far north.

29. Later, as we have seen, the crusades brought the western and eastern
nations into close contact, and could not fail to extend the geographical
knowledge of both sides of the civilised world. Then the terrible march of
the Mongols over Asia and eastern Europe drew all eyes in that direction,
and ambassadors and conciliatory embassies were sent from all the western
powers to the court of the great Khan. John de Piano Carpini, a Franciscan
monk of Naples, was the Pope's envoy to the new potentate, and brought
back from the Mongol court a striking narrative of his adventures in the

HISTORICAL. 3 9

rigorous climate of central Asia, describing also the great plains east of the
Caspian strewn with the bones and skulls of the victims of the devastating
warfare that had just passed over them, and giving for tlie first time to
Europeans a true account of the Tatars and their manner of living. William
de Rubruquis, also a Minorite friar, was sent into Asia by Louis of France
(1253-54), and he too reached the court of the Khan at Karakorum after
crossing the great deserts, which he compared to an ocean for extent.

30. Among those who were at this time attracted towards the newly-known
lands of Asia were two merchants of far-reaching Venice, Nicolo and Matteo
Polo, who carried their trading venture past the Euxine and the Volga, round
the Caspian to Bokhara, where, meeting with some ambassadors going south-
wards to the court of Kublai Khan, they accompanied them to Keinenfu, the
summer residence of the ruler. They were well received, and returned to
Europe as envoys to the Pope, bearing a request for 100 Europeans well
versed in arts and sciences to instruct the Mongols. Finding it impossible to
fulfil their mission, they returned in 1271, taking with them Marco, the son of
Nicolo Polo, who commended himself to the Khan by his sliill and learning,
and was made his envoy to several of the other Asiatic rulers, to China,
Assam, Tibet, Bengal, and Pegu. In this service Marco Polo gained the
material for his book, which is the cliief source of information regarding the
state of Asia at the close of the thirteenth century. Having thus passed seventeen
years in travelling through kingdoms whicli no European had ever before seen,
from the high table-lands of central Asia to the great rivers and teeming
population of the lowlands of China, he obtained permission to join the escort
of a Mongol princess travelling to the west of Persia. He accordingly set out
from China (1291), and was the lirst European to sail on the China sea, and to
pass through what we now know as the Strait of Malacca to the Indian Ocean,
lie came to Teheran in Persia ; hearing, on arrival there, that Kublai Khan was
dead, he returned to Venice (1295), bringing much wealth and many strange
objects from the unknown regions he had visited. To Marco Polo is due not
only the opening up to accurate knowledge of the vast region of the central
Asiatic continent, but also the disclosure of the chief of the great islands
which lie beyond it. Before his journey the existence of Jajian, which he
called Zipangu, had not even been suspected, any more than that of the
archipelago to the south-east of Asia. His book, as might be expected, created
au immense interest in the learned world of the west, and was of inestimable
value in stimulating geographical research, as we shall afterwards see.

31. But whilst Venice opened up new paths to commerce towards the
east, Genoa, which found herself excluded from these profitable pastures
through the jealousy of her countrymen, looked westward, and sought to open
up a new road to India by sailing tlirough the Strait of Gibraltar and round
the southern extremity of Africa. It was Genoese who first, in modern times,
ventured upon the Atlantic ; it was they who discovered the Canaries, Ma-
deira, and the Azores, and who first felt their way along the west coast of
Africa. Tedisio Doria and the brothers Vivaldi, who left Genoa in three
small vessels, in 1291, had no other object than the discovery of an ocean
highway to India, and we have good reason to believe that at least one of
their vessels sailed to the Senegal, if not beyond it.

8. 1300-1500.

1. The death of the emperor Kublai Khan was the signal for gr-eat changes
of empire in Asia. In China the power of the Tatar ruler, who had grown
effeminate under the unaccustomed luxuries of a more civilised state, was
overthrown by a revolt of the Chinese, and the Ming or bright dJ^lasty arose.

40 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

China was again united under its own sovereign at the court of Nanking, and
Chinese supremacy was recognised in the surrounding countries of Corea,
Manchuria, and Mongolia on the north, and perhaps also by the Grand Lama
of Tibet.

2. A second great conqueror -hero now appeared in western Asia. This
was Timur or Timur-leng, from his lameness (vulg. Tamerlane), a descendant of
the family of Genghiz Khan, and a chief of the division of his gi-eat empire,
known as Jagatai, or Turkistan nortli of the Amu river, who had reunited
some of its independent sections under his sway. Ambitious of restoring this
kingdom to its former power and extent, he first reduced the rebellious prince
of Herat, and afterwards invading Seistan and Mazanderan, in Persia, subdued
all the districts east of the Euphrates from Tijtis to Shiraz.

3. While engaged in this southern campaign his unprotected northern
territories were invaded by the Khan of Kiptchak. Hastening home, Timur
speedily drove out the invaders, and pursued them westward, almost anni-
hilating the Kiptchak army in a great battle on the Bielaya (a tributary of the
Kama) in 1391. Still advancing westward, he now passed through the gates
of Derbend, and tlience northward by the Volga as far as Moscow, leaving
death and desolation in his track. A few years later he turned his con-
quering army towards India, and going by the pass of Kabul descended into
the plains, fought a great battle before Delhi and took that city, advancing
afterwards beyond it to the Ganges. Returning with immense spoils, he ex-
pended these in adorning his cajntal of Sainarkand.

4. A year later Timur made a new ex^jedition to the south-west, attack-
ing and overthrowing the Egyptian Empire in Syria, capturing the towns of
A leppo, Baalbek, and Damascus. He next attacked the Turkish possessions in
Asia Minor, and completely routed the Sultan Bayazet near Angora, and
captured his person. On his return homeward Timur conquered Georgia, and
by way of Merv and Balkh again reached Samarkand. A great invasion of
China was next projected by the conqueror, and had actively begun, when he
died of a fever caught on the banks of the Jihun (1405).

5. While Timur was beginning his conquests in Asia, the Ottoman Turks
had gained a footing in Europe by taking Gallipoli, and the Greek Emjiire
was reduced to the districts round Constantinople. Tlie power of Servia was
annihilated on the bloody field of Kosovo-polye ("plain of blackbirds"), to
the west of Prishtina (1389), and the decisive victory over the Hungarians,
won seven years later at Nicopoli, opened Central Europe to the inroads of
the Turks. The great defeat of the Sultan by Timur in Asia gave Constan-
tinople a resjiite for fifty years. Recovering from this defeat, the Turks
now mastered Macedonia and Greece. Constantinople was stormed in 1453,
and with it fell the last relic of the empire of the Romans. Before the close
of the fifteenth century the Turkish Empire in Europe had been extended
over all the Balkan Peninsula, and included, besides this, the northern shores
of the Black Sea, with Dalmatia, and Otranto in Italy.

6. During this period Hungary recovered from the wounds inflicted by the
Mongol invaders, and became a firmly established State : at the head of it was
Matthias Corvinus, the greatest of Hungarian kings, who raised the cavalry
force knovni as the Hussars (Hussar meaning the "price of twenty," since one
man was enrolled out of every twenty), and with their aid the indeiiendeuce of
Hungary was maintained against the advancing Turks.

7. Towards the middle of the fourteenth century, when the fierce energy of
the Mongols was declining, the principalities of Russia began to shake oflF the
yoke to which they had been subjected, and to strive among themselves for the
supremacy ; the princes of Moscow and Tver were the strongest, the former
ultimately becoming the chief. The first great step towards liberation was

HISTORICAL. 41

gained in a victory over the Mongol Khan on the banks of the Don (1380),
before Timiir's invasion. It is, however, to Ivan III. (1462-1505), siirnamed the
Great, that the Russian Empire owes its true foundation ; under his skilful
guidance the petty principalities were united into one, and their strength
turned against the Mongol khanates of the south and west (Kazan, Astrakhan,
Krini Tartary, and dismembered Kiptchak), and against the Lithuanians
of the north-west. He married Zoe, the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor,
and thus paved the way for the introduction of European civilisation. He
also introduced the two-headed Byzantine eagle as the Russian arms, au
emblem in connection with which certain pretensions are still remembered.

8. In the earlier part of this period Poland was engaged in repelling the
attack of the Teutonic knights, who had been engaged in a crusade for enforcing
Christianity on the people of the southern shores of the Baltic, and had thereby
acquired possession of Prussia, Livonia, and Courland, but who were finally
overthrown. Subsequently the Polish crown passed to Jagello, a grand-duke of
Lithuania, the founder of the illustrious dynasty of the Jagellons, and for tlie
first time Lithuania was united to Poland.

9. In Germany the house of Hapsburg had been rising into power, and
afterwards held the throne of the German Empire almost uninterruptedly.

The period is marked chiefly by the intrigues of the popes, the Roman
Church having gi-adually merged its spiritual aspect into a widespread
machinery of external government. This spiritual decay was naturally followed
by those corruptions and abuses which began to be denounced by such men as
the Bohemian reformer and martyr John Huss, whose followers subsequently
took such terrible revenge in Mie insurrections kno\vn as the Hussite wars.

10. Tliis time is also memorable as that of the contest for independence
carried on by the Swiss mountaineers against the Austrian power, and the
formation of the Confederation of the Cantons, which successfully established its
independence in many battles, from that of Morgarten (1315) to that of
Morat (1476).

11. In France a great part of the fourteenth century was disturbed by the
constant wars with Edward III. of England, who laid claim to the French
throne in right of his mother ; in this was fought the battle of Crecy (1346),
wliere the Black Prince gained his crest, and that of Poictiers (1356), in
which King Jean was taken prisoner — victories which exit down the flower of
the French nobility. After a pause during the minority of Richard II. the war
was renewed ; Henry V. won the great victory of Agincourt (1415) ; but
fourteen years later, when the English had advanced to Orleans, a reaction
came ; Joan of Arc inspired courage into the hearts of the besieged, and
became the dread of the previously triumphant English. Not many years
later the English lost all their acquisitions with the exception of the town of
Calais, for the disastrous civil contests, known as the Wars of the Roses,
had broken out in England and divided its strength.

12. In the northern countries, after many feuds and changes of territory,
Denmark, Sweden, and Norway were first united as one by the treaty of Calmar
(1397), imder Margaret of Denmark. Iceland passed with Norway under the
new sovereign ; but all communication with the Greenland colonies appears to
have ceased soon after this date, and they seem to have been completely for-
gotten for more than three centuries ; the fearful pestilence which had ravaged
northern Europe reached them about the beginning of the fifteenth century,
sweeping ofl' the greater part of the coloniste, and leaving the rest a prey to
the attacks of the Eskimos, or Skrellings as tliey were named by the Nor-
wegians. The very site of the colonies was lost till quite recently.

13. We come now to the Spanish Peninsula, where great events were in
progress, and where that spirit of adventure and discovery was being fostered

42 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

which was to add a new hemisphere to the known world. Wlien we last
glanced at the changes of power in Spain, the Mohammedan Moors had been
restricted to the vassal kingdom of Granada, in the south of the Peninsula,
whence they were carrying on a chivalrous warfare with the kings of Castile.
The kingdom of Aragon was rapidly spreading outward ; the Balearic Isles,
Sicily, and Sardinia, were added to it before the beginning of the fourteenth
century, and soon afterwards all Naples and southern Italy were brought
under its dominion. With the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon wth
Isabella queen of Castile (1469) began the consolidation of Spain into one
great empire. Granada was conquered, and all those of the Moors who refused
to adopt Christianity were expelled from the Peninsula (1492). Twenty years
later the kingdom of Navarre, in the north, was seized upon by Ferdinand, so
that about the close of the fifteenth century Spain was one united kingdom
from the Pyrenees to Gibraltar.

14. Portugal meanwhile had maintained its independence, and was steadily
rising to the highest place as the greatest maritime power in Europe. Already
in 1415 the Portuguese, taking the aggressive against the Moors, captured from
them the town of Ceuta, on the African coast, and established themselves
there. Prince Henry, son of King John I., distinguished himself greatly in
this conquest, and on his return took up his residence at Sagres, close to Cape
St. Vincent. His mariners, in their sea-fights with the Moors, had sailed into
parts of the ocean long believed to be inaccessible, and Prince Henry's ambi-
tion for discovery had been awakened. Forming an observatory at Sagres, he
gathered there the sons of the nobility of Portugal, and had them trained in
the sciences necessary for navigation. Rumours of the gold-yielding coasts of
Guinea had been gathered from the Moors, and the thoughts of adventurers
were turned thither.

^ 15. The voyagers sent out southward doubled Cape Bojador, on the
African coast, in 1433; and in 1441 Cape Blanco was reached. In the fol-
lowing year Nuno Tristao sighted Cape Verd, whose luxuriant vegetation for
ever silenced those who looked upon the equatorial regions as an uninhabit-
able waste scorched up by the heat of the sun. In 1455 the Venetian Ca da
Mosto, on his return from a visit to the Senegal and Gambia, discovered the
Cape Verd islands, which were immediately taken possession of by the Portu-
guese. The last exi^edition which sailed under the auspices of Prince Henry
was commanded by Pedro de Cintra, 1462, who discovered Sierra Leone.

Thus before Prince Henry's death the coast was known as far as Sierra
Leone, and the work he had set on foot was eagerly taken up by others. The
coast, which was named from the grain of the Meleguetta pepper, was next
explored, and Fernando Po reached the island which now bears his name,
though he called it Ilha Formosa, the beautiful isle. Each new voyager
surpassed his predecessor. Joiio de Santaram and Pedro d'Escobar were the
first to cross the equator, in 1471. Diego Cam, in 1484, found the mouth of the
huge river we now know as the Congo, and there set up the pillar to mark his
discovery, from which the river itself for a long time was known as the Rio do
Padrao ; sailing still farther south, he exjilored the coast nearly to the southern
tropic. Followng him two years later came Bartholomew Diaz, who passed
on beyond this limit to the cape named Das Voltas, near the Orange River ;
whence driven out to sea by storms, he regained the coast at Algoa Bay, and
planted a cross on the islet there, still known as St. Croi.x. He had thus
rounded the south-western promontory of Africa, and from the violent weather
he had experienced it was named Cabo Tormentoso (the Cape of Storms), a
name afterwards changed by King John of Portugal to the more ausf)icious one
of Gaho de bona Esperanza,, the Cape of Good Hope.

16. One of the vague legends of mediceval times was that of a rich and

HISTOEICAL. 43

magnificent kingdom the sovereign and priest of which came to be known in
the west as " Prester John ; " but the locality of this kingdom was undefined,
and it was sometimes supposed to be in Asia, sometimes in Africa. The reports
concerning it had, however, made a profound impression in Europe, and led
the adventurous Portuguese to search for it in Africa. In this quest Ahyssinia
was visited by Pedro de Covilham, an emissary of King John of Portugal, a
few years after the southern cape of Africa was discovered, and thus close
relations were begun with this part of Africa which lasted for several centuries.
But, before entering Abyssinia, the Portuguese emissary had visited Ormuz,
Goa, and Malabar, and, crossing tlie Indian Ocean, he had landed on the
Sofala coast, rich in mines of gold and silver, and identified by some as the land
of Ophir to which Solomon sent his ships. It was then Europeans first heard
of the powerful kingdom of Monoinotajju, to the south of the Zambesi.

17. Lisbon at this time had become the centre of all that was speculative
and adventurous in maritime discovery. Here there lived an Italian of Genoa,
named Colon (Columbus), who while employed in the construction of charts
and maps, conceived the idea of sailing westward to the Indies of Marco
Polo. Toscanelli, the great Florentine astronomer, had sanctioned such a
project in a letter written in 1474 ; and Columbus was confirmed in his views
by the discovery, on the Azores, of pieces of carved wood, and even of a boat
containing the bodies of men whose features differed from those of Africans
or Europeans, and who had evidently been drifted ashore from some distant
countsy in the west. He ultimately found the means of laying his scheme
before King John. The Portuguese sovereign having decided against the
venture, Columbus, disappointed but not despairing, turned to Spain, and
after eight years of hoping and waiting at length was put in command of
three small vessels, only one of which was decked. With these he set sail
from the bar of Saltes, near Palos on the Rio Tiuto, in August 1492. After
a month spent in refitting at the Canaries he ventured out into the unknown
seas, and, disregarding the fears and disaffection of his crew, bore steadily
westward.

On the 11th of October, says Columbus in his diary, "the sailors of the
caravel Pinta saw a reed and a stick ; and they picked wp another small bit
of carved wood, and also a piece of cane, some other fragments of land vegeta-
tion, and a small board. At these indications they drew in their breath and
were all full of gladness. At ten o'clock at night the admiral, while standing
on the quarter deck, saw a light, although it was so indistinct that he could
not say with certainty that it was land ; but he called to Pero Gutierrez, the
king's groom of the chambers, and told him there was land in sight, and
desired him to look out, and so he did, and saw it." At two o'clock after
midnight, the land appeared at two leagues' distance. They struck all sail
and lay to until Friday the 12th of October, when they went on shore in an
armed barge and took possession in the name of the king and queen of Spain ;
the island was called Guanalumi in the Indian language, but Columbus gave
it the name San Salvador. This islet is identified with Watling Island in the
Lucayo or Baliama gi'oup. Continuing westward, Columbus discovered Cuba
and Hayti or San Domingo, and on the latter, which he called Hispaniola,
he left a small colony and set sail again for Spain, where he was now received
with joy and admiration.

18. In the belief tliat the western side of Asia had been reached, the new
lands were collectively named the West Indies. In September of next year
Columbus set sail again for the west from Cadiz with seventeen ships and a strong
force, and on this voyage added the Caribee IsloAids and Javiaica to his dis-
coveries. In a third voyage, in 1498, he steered more to the south, and found tlie
island of Trinidad, and the mouth of the Orinoco river, lauding in the Gulf
of Paria.

44 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

The success of Columbus had naturally inflamed many with the passion
for discovery ; among those who first set out on the path he had opened
up to the west, was Amerigo Vespucci, a naval astronomer of Florence,
who sailed with Admiral Ojeda from Cadiz in 1499, and with him explored
the coast from Trinidad westward, discovering the lake of Maracaybo ; they
gave the name Venezuela (little Venice) to a village built on piles at the
entrance to the lake which reminded them of Venice, a name which afterwards
spread to the whole country. It was Amerigo who first proclaimed the fact
that the newly-discovered countries had no connection with Asia, but formed
a " New World," which geographers, soon after the publication of his narra-
tive, named " America. " Next year, Piuzon, a companion of Columbus, sailed
south, discovering the mouth of the Amazon, and doubling the promontory
called Cape San Roque.

19. Meanwhile the Portuguese had been vigorously following up their
African expeditions, and had made a discovery only second to that of the new
continent in the west. On the return of Bartholomew Diaz from the Cape of
Storms, King John chose Vasco da Gama, an intrepid mariner of high birth, to
search for a southern passage to India. With foTir vessels, and provided with
letters to all potentates that might be met with, among others to the mythical
" Prester John," the little fleet left Lisbon in July 1497, and reached the
inlet we now know as Taljle Bay, near the Cape of Good Hope, in November
of that year. A mutiny of his crew had to be suppressed before he could sail
round the south of Africa. On Christmas day the land which was .thence
named " Natal " was seen, and presently the known coasts of Mozambique
came in view. Reaching the Arab port of Melinde, north of Zanzibar, an
Indian pilot was taken on board, under whose guidance the Indian Ocean was
safely crossed to the port of Calicut in India. The Arab merchants here,
fearing interference vnth their commerce, incited the Hindus against the
Portuguese, and Gama had to fight his way out of the port.

20. Soon after he had again cast anchor in the Tagus the Portuguese king
resolved to follow up the discovery of the new route by sending out a strong
force to establish settlements in India ; and afleet of thirteen vessels under Pedro
Cabral set sail in march 1500. To avoid the calms of the equatorial latitudes
in the Atlantic, Cabral took a course too far to the west, and falling into the
southerly current was borne to the shores of South America near the harbour
now known as Porto Seguro. Landing here, he took possession of the new
land in the name of the king of Portugal, and sent back two of his vessels to
announce his discovery of the " Terra da Santa Cruz,'''' the country now
called Brazil. Afterwards passing round the Cape to Mozambique and India,
and making the force of the Portuguese arms felt at Calicut, he was permitted
to found a factory there, after concluding a treaty with the native ruler.

21. The ardour of the English also had been roused by Columbus' great
discovery, and Henry VII. gave to Giovanni Cabot, a Venetian sailor resident
in Bristol, the command of a squadron of five vessels for a voyage of discovery
across the Atlantic. Caliot the elder was accompanied in this voyage by his
sons Ludovico and Sebastian (born at Bristol), and in June 1497 they sighted
the coast of America, at the Helluland of the old Norwegian voyagers, giving
the re-discovered country the name of Newfoundland. Three years later these
shores were visited by the Portuguese navigator Cortereal, who found the
mouth of the St. Lawrence, and the wild and precipitous shores to the north
of it, on which he bestowed the name Terra Labarador = "cultivable land," a
name quite as inapt as that of Greenland.

22. The immediate result of tlie discoveries of Marco Polo was the establish-
ment of more intimate relations with eastern Asia. The Mongol sovereigns
of China encouraged Christian missionaries, foremost amongst whom were Juan

HISTORICAL. 45

de Montecorv'ino, Friar Odorico of Pordenone, and Marignola. Italian mer-
chants, including Pegoletti of Florence and Nicolo Conti, the lirst European to
cross theDekkan (1424), ])euetrated to India and into Turkestan ; and Clavijo,
the ambassador of King Henry of Castile, partook of the rude hospitality of
Timur Leng at Samarkand. Nor must we omit here Sir John Mandeville's
wonderful account of travels, which enjoyed a popularity quite unprecedented.

23. To recaijitulate the chief features and conditions of the known world,
at the time represented in the eiglith little chart : — In the far east China had
recovered its independence under the Ming dynasty, and its supremacy was
acknowledged over Mongolia and eastern Turkistan, though the states of
Tonquin and Cochin China, in the southern peninsula beyond India, had
assumed a political independence. Western Asia, as we have seen, had been
reconquered by Timur of the country of Jagatai, or western Turkistan, whose
successors maintained his empire till near the end of the fifteenth century, when
it was again subdivided, all eastern Persia falling to the Usbegs of Kiptchak,
who had raised the Khanate of Khiva to power ; while a new dynasty, formed
by the union of a number of tribes, had sprung up in western Persia, making
Azerldjan its chief seat. The Ottoman Turks Imd extended their European
territory to its widest limit over the ruins of the Greek Empire, and their
farther advance had been sternly checked by the Hussars of Hungary. Eussia
had become a united kingdom under Ivan the Great, and had acquired from
its union the power to throw off the Tatar yoke.

24. In western Europe, the Swiss mountaineers had secured their inde-
pendence. France was recovering from the calamities inflicted on it by the
English, who had all but lost their hold on the land. In the south the
reaction of Christendom against Mohammedanism had begun. The Christian
kingdoms of Spain and Portugal had driven back the Moors across the Straits
into Africa, and had consolidated their strength over the whole Peninsula. The
Moors in turn had settled themselves along the north African coast, and had
begun that course of piracy which was first instituted as a retaliation against
the Christian persecution, but wliich afterwards sank to a barbarous profession.

25. Marocco at this time had been formed into a monarchy, and enjoyed
great prosperity. In the south it touched upon a great empire which had
risen in Negrolaml. This was the kingdom of So7ighay, the rulers of which
had embraced Mohammedanism in the eleventh century, and which, under
Haj Mohammed A'Skia, who came into power in the end of the fifteenth
century, extended its dominion across the whole region about the great bend
of the Niger, to the confines of Marocco on the north, and on the west almost
to the shores of the Atlantic. More towards the centre of the continent, round
the basin we now know as that of Lake Chad, another great Mohanmiedan
empire, that of Bornii, had also arisen, and reached its height of greatness
about the close of the fifteenth century.

26. Portugal and Spain, as we have seen, had given birth to the boldest
navigators the world had ever known ; the terrors of the unknown "Sea of Dark-
ness " in the west had been overcome. The wealth of a new hemisphere had
been laid open to adventure and conquest. Africa had been circumnavigated,
and the way to the wealth of India had been found. Spain had already lai<l
hold of the islands of the West Indies ; and Portugal had established the first
European settlements on the shores of India.

9. 1500-1600.

Within the hist eight years of the fifteenth century, as we have
seen, the circle of darkness which had so long hung round the Old

46 THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

World was driven back on all sides, and geographical knowledge
expanded from its former contracted limits with a great leap, such
as it can never again take in the history of the world. The spiiit
of Henry the navigator had entered into the heart of all the mari-
time nations of Europe, the race for the discovery and conquest of
new worlds had begun, and every year, almost every day, brought
tidings to the Old World of fresh wonders from the New.

■ 1. Before turning to follow the progress of events beyond the seas, it may
lie well to glance, as formerly, at the leading events and changes of power
which were progressing meantime in the old world.

In China — still under the Ming dynasty — there is no great change to
notice, but in the western half of the Asiatic continent power was rapidly
changing hands.

The Mohammedan dynasty of Ismail, leading the sect called ^ias or
Shiites, followers of Ali, had acquired command, as we have before noticed, in
western Persia, and soon the 'central provinces of Khorassan and Balkh were
taken from the Uzbegs. On the western frontier tlieir territories were now
attacked by the mighty Sultan Selim of Turkey, whose troops, inflamed by
religious animosity, massacred the Sectaries at Calderoon, but after their retire-
ment, Ismail pressed westward and conquered Georgia. To this ruler is
ascribed not only the restoration of the Persian state to its prosperity, but
the establishment of the particular form of the Mohammedan faith which the
majority of Persians still hold.

2. About this time another Asiatic conqueror, a great-grandson of Timur,
appeared in the country east of Persia. This was Baber, the founder of the
Mogul or Mongol Empire, which had its centre at Delhi in northern India.
Having mastered the provinces of Kashgar, Kunduz, Kandahar, and Kabul,
he crossed the Indus into Hindustan, and after defeating the native princes in
a great battle at Panijput, near Delhi (1526), he captured that city and Agra.
Afterwards he established the powerful empire wliich lasted till the beginning
of the present century.

3. North of Persia, the country between the Caspian and the borders of
Mongolia was in the hands of the dominant Uzbeg Turks in the states of
Khiva, Bokhara, and Kokan.

In the south-west of Asia, the Ottoman Empire was being raised
to its extreme height of power. Sultan Selim ascended the throne in
1512. Urged by a devouring appetite for conquest, he declared war against
the Sectaries in Persia, and marching eastward at the head of 250,000 men,
overran Diarbekr, Kurdistan, and Armenia ; then, turning southwards
through Syria, he defeated the Mameluke Sultan of Egypt, and entered Cairo
unopposed. Here the last descendant of the Abbaside Calif invested him as
the chief of all Islam and the representative of Mohammed. Now the chief
Arabian tribes, and the holy cities of Medina and Mecca, also recognised the
supremacy of the Ottoman ruler. The reign of Selim was marked by the
construction of the arsenal at Pei'a beside Constantinople, and the foundation
of the Turkish navy, which was soon to command the Mediterranean. His
successor, Solyman " The Magnificent," carried on the course of conquest ; he
exterminated the Egyjjtian Mamelukes, and concluded treaties with Persia. In
Europe his arms were turned against Hungary ; Belgrad was cajitured, and his
resistless march was continued to Buda and Pest, in the heart of the country ;
some years later even Vienna (1529) was besieged by his invading hosts.

4. The progress of the Turks in this direction was checked by the Imperial
army of Charles V. of Germany, but ultimately they gained complete posses-

HISTORICAL. 47

sion of Hungary. An alliance between the Turks and the French, by which
the commerce of the Levant was opened to the flag of the latter nation only,
bore fruit in the ravages of the coasts of Italy by the united fleets. The Turks
became supreme in the eastern Mediterranean, and Tri23oli fell into their
hands.

5. During the reign of Selim II. (1570), the first collision of the Turks
wth the Russians was brought about in the following manner : — The project
of uniting the Black Sea and the Caspian by a canal between the Don and the
Volga had been conceived, but the programme required the ijossession of
Astrakhan. The attack made on the city by the Turks brought down the
interference of the Russians, and the projected canal scheme was blighted. At
this time Ivan IV., " The Tei-rible," reigned in Russia, and his arms were every-
where successful, against the Lithuanians in the north-west and the Tatar
Khanates of the south-east. He captured the strong city of Kazan in the
middle of the century, annexing the state of which it was capital to his empire,
and Astrakhan soon afterwards followed the same fate.

6. It was dui'ing his reign that the Cossack Vassili Yermak, an absconded
criminal, at the head of a band of wild followers, forced his way eastward
into Asia, and extended his conquests as far as the river Irtish, taking the
town of Sibir (the site of whicli was near the present town of Tobolsk) from
which the whole land of Siberia was to receive its bame. Before the end of
the century Russian dominion had here been consolidated.

7. Early in the sixteenth century Sweden emancipated itself from union
mth Denmark, and Gustavus Ericson, afterwards known as Vasa of romantic
story, during forty years of noble effort, raised the country from its turbulence
and barbarism to the condition of a prosperous and civilised realm ; a condition
destined, however, only to fall again in the stormy reigns of his immediate
successors, which were marked by internal disorders and disastrous wars \vith
Denmark, Poland, and Russia. When Sweden elected a king of its own, the
crown of Denmark and Norway passed to Frederick, Duke of Schleswig and
Holstein, and these duchies were united to the State.

8. Germany at the commencement of this period was in a state of great
agitation concerning the doctrines proclaimed by Luther, and the great move-
ment of the Reformation had begun, by which the church of the greater part
of north-western Europe became separated from that of Rome. On the death
of Ferdinand of Spain, his grandson Charles rose to the throne of that country,
taking with him to the Peninsula many followers from Flanders, where he had
been born and educated. Three years later he was also elected German
Emperor. As Charles V. of Germany, one of his first acts was an endeavour
to restore tranquillity by summoning the princes and statesmen of the land to
the town of JVorms, where Luther confronted the assembly, and made the
famous declaration of his principles (1521).

9. We have already referred to Charles's successful opposition to the advance
of the Turks in Austria. Between France and Germany a long struggle was
in progress during his reign, in which his armies eventually drove the French
from the greater part of their conquests in Italy, defeating them at Pavia
(1525), and taking the French king prisoner. Another great act of his reign
was an ex])edition undertaken against the jiirate Barbarossa, who had estab-
lished himself in Tunis, and whose ships did great injury to the commerce of
Spain. After Charles's abdication (1556), during the latter half of the cen-
tury, Germany was a prey to internal dissensions of opposite religious factions,
which each in turn invited the aid of foreign powers to contribute to the
growing anarchy.

10. The defeat of the French at Pavia, and the capture of King Francis,
threw that nation into great disorder, upon which followed the persecutions of

48 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

the Huguenots,! as the Protestants or followers of the Reformation in France
were called, culminating in the frightful massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day
(1572) in Paris, and leading the country into the successive religious wars
which continued till the end of the sixteenth century, when the famous Edict
of Mantes established the rights of the Protestants (1598).

11. In England the struggle of the court with the Pope of Rome and the
ailvance of the Protestant doctrines marked the earlier half of the sixteenth
century; then, in the reign of Mary (1553-58), the reaction brought back Papal
supremacy, till the atrocities of the persecutors of the Reformers, and the cruel
martyrdoms of Smithfield, once and for ever turned the popular mind from the
Church of Rome. Then followed the long and happy reign of Elizabeth,
towards the end of which patriotism overcame religious differences, and
Protestant and Catholic alike fought to repel the great Armada. This was
a huge fleet, with the aid of which Philip of Spain had resolved to strike a
decisive blow at the Protestant interest by conquering England, which Pope
Sixtus had made over to him. On the death of Elizabeth the crowns of England
and Scotland were for the first time united (1603).

12. We have already referred to the accession of Charles to the Spanish
throne. As head of the house of Burgundy he also inherited and united the
Netherlands under his sceptre ; and, through the encouragement he gave to
commerce and navigation, that country attained to great prosperity, and
Ainsterdam rose to be its great port. In Spain itself the very events which
had raised the empire to magnificence may be said to have laid the seeds of
its decline ; for all its most active spirits had set out in search of the El
Dorado of the New World, vvhere gold was believed to be more plentiful than
in the old country, the culture of which was in consequence neglected.

13. The expulsion of the Moors from Spain, as we have formerly noticed,
had driven them to the opposite African coasts and made them pirates. Their
outrages drew down an attack from Ferdinand of Spain in 1509, in which he
captured the town of Algiers. Later, one of the Algerian princes invited the aid
of the Greek renegade Barbarossa, who had made himself famous as a Turkish
naval chief ; but when he arrived he treacherously turned his Corsairs against
the Algerians, and made himself Sultan of their country and of Tunis. The
Spaniards marched against him from Oran ; and Barbarossa, after many
encounters, was defeated and slain. His brother was then chosen Sultan, and
placing himself under the protection of Turkey, drove the Spaniards out of
the country. In 1535 Charles of Spain undertook an expedition against the
Corsairs, and set free no fewer than 20,000 Christians who had been held as
slaves ; but a subsequent great armada of 370 ships intended to crush their
power proved a complete failure. Emboldened by this, the Algerians pushed
their excursions even beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, till the maritime states
of Europe were obliged to recognise and pay annual quit money to the pirates
of the mountainous Riff coast, between Tangiers and Algeria, and the Sallee
rovers were the dread of the peaceful mariners of the Atlantic.

14. Philip II., the successor of Charles in Spain, was on his accession
(1555) the most powerful sovereign in Europe, having Spain, the Two Sicilies,
Milan, and the Netherlands, under his sway, but his mal-administration and
enormous war expenditure overtaxed the resources of the empire. His fana-
tical enthusiasm for Catholicism, and his persecution of the reformers in the
Netherlands, excited a rebellion there, and brought about the eighty years'
struggle which resulted in the establishment of the independent republic of
the United Provinces. The direct line of succession in Portugal having become
extinct in 1580, Philip laid claim to the throne of that country, and, occupy-

1 Probably a corniption of the German word Eidgenossen =; confederates.

HISTORICAL. 49

ing it with an army, was recognised as sovereign by the Portuguese. His
subsequent attempt at the conquest of Euglaud by his "invincible Armada" has
been previously referred to.

15. While Spain was thus passing the zenith of its greatness, Marocco, on
the opposite side of the Mediterranean, was spreading out its limits ; the
armies sent soutliward by its emperor, with the aid of the muskets with which
his soldiers were armed, had all but overthrown the gi-eat Songhay Empire,
occupying all the towns aud routes as far as the line of the rivers Niger and
Senegal.

Having thus obtained some idea of what was going on in the
Old Workl of history during the sixteenth century, we may now
turn to sketch out for ourselves the rapid progi'ess of discovery
beyond the old limits.

16. On Ascension day of 1501 the Portuguese navigator Juan de Nova fell
in with the solitary volcanic islet of the Atlantic, to which he gave the name
of the day of its discovery. Tristan da Cuiilm, another Portuguese, found the
islet which bears his name ; and next year, on SL HeUwCs day (22d May),
another of the solitary islets of the South Atlantic came to light. In 1502
Columbus set out for his last voyage, to follow up his discoveries along the
coasts of Central America ; but his venture was a disastrous one, and on his
return home the Spanish Iring proved basely ungrateful, and the ablest of
navigators was allowed to die in poverty at Valladolid.

17. The Portuguese, as we have already seen, had discovered and formed
settlements along a great part of the coast of West Africa, and were beginning
to extend their dominion over the Indian seas — the great Albuquerque, of the
family of the blood royal of Portugal, having been appointed viceroy of the
Indies. During the first years of the century they began to supplant the Arabs
on the south-east African shores, taking possession of the port of Sofala,
extending their conquests inland over the gold region of Manica, and soon
after establishing themselves at Mozambique. Across the Indian Ocean Albu-
querque followed up the beginning made by Cabi'al on the Malabar coast, con-
quering Goa, which he made the seat of the Portuguese government and the
chief place of its Asiatic trade, extending commerce and settlements thence to
the whole west coast of India, to Ceylon, Malacca, the Sunda islands, and the
coasts of China, and gathering knowledge of the Archipelago as far as the
sliores of New Guinea. The Arab state of Muscat fell into their power in
1507 ; the islet of Ormuz, in the entrance of the Persian Gulf, was also taken
aud made into a great entrepot for the goods brought from the Indies ; and
when the king of Persia sent to collect the tribute formerly paid him by the
princes of the island, Albuquerque jjointed to cannon balls and swords as the
only coin that Portugal would render.

18. Meanwhile the Sjjaniards were year by year adding new discoveries
across the Atlantic. Their first settlement on the island of Cuba was made in
1511 ; two years after that the peninsula called Florida, on account of its
rich vegetation, was made known, and St. Augustine, the first European settle-
ment on the mainland of America, was founded on its Atlantic shores. A small
settlement was next made on the inward side of the Caribbean Sea, o)i
the shore of the Gulf of Darien, where the settlers soon gathered rumours from
the natives of rich lands to the south, and of a new sea which might be seen
from the neighbouring mountains. Vasco Nunez Balbao was the first to
penetrate the forests of the Isthmus of Panama to its central range ;
leaving his followers beneath, he ascended the liigliest ridge, aud there, beyond

50 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

the intervening forests and valleys, the immense expanse of the " South Sea "
lay before him (1513).

19. No sooner had the news of Balbao's discovery reached Spain than
Juan Diaz de Solis, who with Yauez Pinzou had been engaged for some years
previously in exploring the eastern coast of South America as far as the La
Plata, was sent out again vnth three well-appointed ships to " sail to the other
side of Castillia del Oro," the name then given to the lands of supposed fabulous
wealth which lay beyond the Isthmus of Panama. Sailing south along the
coast of Brazil, he came once more to the great openiug of the La Plata, which he
hoped to find a strait leading to the South Sea. Finding the navigation intri-
cate, he left|,his vessels and ranged the shores as high as the islet of Martin
Garcia, where, deceived by the submissive movements of some natives, he ven-
tured to laud. The treacherous savages, however, set upon him and killed
him with all his attendants, and, says Charleroix, "roasted and eat them in
sight of those who remained in the boat, and who had now no other course to
take but to return to Spain." The inlet thus discovered is now known as the
Rio de la Plata (the river of silver), but at lirst it received the more appro-
priate name of Rio de Solis.

20. It was about this time that the lonely coral group of the Bermudas
isles was discovered in the North Atlantic : they take their name from that of
the Spanish voyager Bermudez, who first sighted them. Discovery was also
progressing to the nortli-west. King Henry VIII. of England had sent out
Sebastian Cabot in command of an expedition to Labrador, Ln which he sailed
north across the Arctic Circle and found the mde strait which leads into
Hudson's Bay (1517).

21. We left the Portuguese extending the conquests and discoveries they
had begun in India even farther to the east. After the conquest of Malacca
by Albuquerque, they had heard of the famed Spice Islands, and several ships —
one commancled by Francisco Serrao (or Serrano, as the Spaniards called him),
and another by his friend Fernao de Magalhaens (whom we know as Magellan)
— were sent out in quest of them. The Portuguese Serrao was fortunate in
reaching the Spice Islands or Moluccas on tlie western borders of the great
ocean almost at the same time that Balbao and his Sj^aniards caught their first
glimpse of the great South Sea from the east. So little was then known or
conceived of the huge width of this ocean, that Serrao believed, on reaching
the Spice Islands, that he must be close to America, and laid plans with his
friend ^lagellan for reaching them by a nearer route. The latter returned to
the Portuguese court with great hopes of reward for his services in the Indies,
and with schemes for futui'e discovery, but on being coldly received and
denied his well-merited honours, he renounced his allegiance and took service
under the king of Spain.

22. Towards the close of the fifteenth century, when the sailors of Spain
and Portugal were extending their discoveries ever farther west and east
Pope Alexander had divided the world between these nations, giving the
western hemisphere to Sjiain, and the eastern to the Portuguese. The line of
demarcation was drawn indefinitely through the unknown region of the other
side of the world, and when the Portuguese had reached the Spice Islands
doubts were raised as to whether they had not passed the limit assigned to
them by the Pope and tresjjassed on the Spanish hemisphere. Acting upon
these doubts, Magellan, in concert with the astronomer Ruy Faleiro, who had
likewise expatriated himself from Portugal, prepared a globe on which they
showed the Spice Islands in such a position that they lay within the Spanish
hemisphere, and Magellan urged upon the Spanish court that these rich pos-
sessions could be reached more readily by the " Spanish route" — that is, by the
western voyage, than by the " Portuguese " or eastern route round the south cape

HISTORICAL. 5 1

of Africa. At the same time, comparing South America with South Africa, he
showed the probability of tlie existence of a passage to the South Sea round the
coast of South America, and warmly advised a renewal of the search, wliich had
been abandoned in the belief that the land stretched continuously to the south.
23. Thus it came about that five Spanish ships were fitted and manned
with 236 seamen, under Magellan, who weighed anchor and set sail from San
Lucar in September 1519. Taking the ordinary track by the Canaries, the
fleet reached the shores of the Tierra da Santa Cruz (Brazil), and in January
of the next year lay off the " Rio de Solis." After exploring this inlet and becom-
ing convinced that it was no strait, but the mouth of great rivers, and giving
the name Monte Vidi (Monte Video) to a height on its northern shore,
Magellan steered south along the coast, examining each of its many inlets in
the hope of finding a passage to the westward, till the bari'en coasts in the
south were reached, and the cold storms of this region and the diminution
of provisions raised murmurs and discontent in his ships, testing the energy of
the leader to the utmost. Later the discontent broke out into an open
mutiny, only subdued by the masterful tact of Magellan. One of its ring-
leaders was executed, and two others — the general controller, Juan de Carta-
genas, and the priest, Pedro Sanchez — were condemned to banishment, and
set ashore on the desert coast. The harbour of San Julian, where Magellan's
expedition wintered (1520), is memorable also as the place at which the name
Patagones (big feet) was given to the natives from the apparent size of their
extremities when covered up in skins ; a name which has extended, in the form
of Patagonia, to all the south land of America. In August 1520, with the return
of the warmth of spring, the exfiedition again set out, and in October a deep
strait was reached in which the strong tides and currents gave Magellan the
hope that he had at length attained the object of his desires, and which proved
indeed to be the long-sought passage to the South Sea. The land to the left
in passing through it was called Tierra del Fuego, since every night the dis-
coverers saw many fires in the woods, no doubt lighted by the natives. New
fears and difficulties now arose among his command before venturing out into
the unknowTi seas to reach the Moluccas, and many were in favour of return-
ing for new outfit. To them, however, Magellan replied that "if he knew that
they should be brought to such a pass as to have to eat the leather work of the
rigging, still he would go on through the strait, to fulfil the promise he had given
to the king, and he hoped tliat God would help him therein." One ship, miss-
ing the others in the labyrinth of the strait, returned to Europe, bringing
thither the first news of the great discovery, but with the rest Magellan began
his long voyage across the vast South Sea. Soon under the fair trade wind
its warm latitudes were reached, and he gave it the name Oceano Pacijico from
the fine weather he experienced in sailing through its vast breadth. Strange
to relate, Magellan's ships threaded the multitude of the islands of Oceania,
sighting but two barren islets before the discovery of Guahan (6th March
1521), one of the group to which Magellan gave the name Ladrones, or
Thieves' Islands, now known as the Marianas. Next he came upon one of the
group afterwards named the Philippine Islands, and there, on the island of
Zebu, met his death in a foolish conflict provoked with the islanders, in April
1521. The rest of his command, choosing a new leader, reached the long-
sought Moluccas, but only eighteen of the seamen who had set out from Spain
under Sebastian del C'ano crossed the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic again, and
only one ship, the famed " Victoria," with tattered sails and planks as full of
holes as a sieve, again appeared at the mouth of the Guadali|uivir (Se]iteniber
1522), a glorious ruin and an object of wonder to all Europe. Thus the world
was first encompassed, and its roundness was first demonstrated to the
popular mind.

52 THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

24. The chivalrous Francis I. of France now joined in the work of dis-
covery, and the voyager Verazzano, sent out under his auspices, explored the
Atlantic coast of North America, joining the Spanish discoveries in Florida
with those of the Cahots about Newfoundland (1524). Ten years later,
Jacques Cartier, in the service of the same prince, explored the gulf and river
St. Laivrence (giving them the name from having first sailed into the gulf
on that saint's day), and penetrated as far as the rapids, near the site of
the present city of Montreal, in Canada. ^

25. The Spaniards were meanwhile rapidly extending their excursions and
conquests from the settlements in the West Indies. Cuba, the Queen of the
Antilles, began to be colonised permanently in 1511, and soon became the base
of farther operations. As the Spaniards increased in numbers and employed
the conquered aborigines, or Caribs, in working at the mines, these native West
Indians died out with extraordinary rapidity, and the philanthropic Las Casas,
Bishop of Cuba, proposed the introduction of stronger African negro slaves
to work in the sugar plantations and mines. Charles of Spain accordingly
authorised in 1577 the importation of negroes from the Portuguese African
settlements in Guinea, and thus began the American slave trade, which after-
wards gi-ew to such gigantic proportions, and laid the seeds of so much future
trouble for the land.

26. Only three years after Cuba had been conquered, its Spanish governor,
Diego Velasquez, entrusted his lieutenant, Hernan Cortes, with the leadership of
an expedition for the conquest of Mexico, on the western mainland. The
continent was peopled by a race which was very different from that of the
aborigines of the islands. As early, perhaps, as the seventh century, when
the barbarian hordes from the north were beginning to descend in bands upon
the nations of western Europe, a people named the Toltecs had come from
some primitive seat in the north to occupy the Mexican plateau, bringing to it
the elements of civilisation, introducing agriculture and metal-working, mak-
ing roads, and raising great cities and temples of colossal dimensions, the ruins
of which remain to this day. To this peojjle, about the twelfth century, had
succeeded another family, named the Aztecs, also from the north, who engrafted
upon the civilisation bequeathed them by the Toltecs many lierce and san-
guinary religious observances, in which human sacrifices to the patron god
were carried out in splendid temples. Their city of Tenochtitlan, or Mexico,
had been founded about 1325. Their form of government was that of an
elective empire, and the land was ruled by severe laws, though justice was
administered in open courts.

At the time when the Spaniards first reached America the Aztec Empire
stretched across Mexico from sea to sea. When Cortes set out from the
Havana or Haven of Cuba for the conquest of this remarkable country in
1519, its throne was occupied by Montezuma, who had at first been an ener-
getic prince, extending his dominion to the south, but who had later grown
indolent and estranged from his people. The oracles which he consulted fre-
quently portended the speedy fall of his empire, and thus the landing of the
Spaniards on the coast, near where the town of Vera Cruz now stands, terrified
him and his priestly councillors, who endeavoured to propitiate the strangers
by sending costly gifts, llie road to success was thus strangely opened to
Cortes, who had with him but a handful of men to attack this great empire.
Resolved to advance, Cortes burned his ships to prevent retreat, and after
founding the settlement of the Vera Cruz ("true cross"), set out for the capital,
where he was received with great pomp, the Spaniards being regarded as

1 Canada has its name from Kanata, an Iroquois word signifying a collection of
cuts, which the discoverers mistook for the name of the country.

HISTOEICAL. 53

the descendants of the sun, who, according to prophecy, were to come from
the east to succeed to the Aztec Emi^ire. It was soon discovered, however,
that the Spaniards were but mortal, and the city of Mexico rose against them,
but after a siege of four months in 1521, during which a famine aided the
Spanish arms, tlie city was taken, and soon the whole empire was subjugated.
Cortes subsequently tttted out several expeditions, one of which, exploring the
western shores of the newly-conquei^d laud, discovered the peninsula which
was named California (1534).

27. The fame of the splendid achievement of Cortes gave fresh impulse to
adventure, and led others to imitate his exploits. Among the adventurers who
had been with Balbao when he discovered the South Sea from the Isthmus
of Panama, and heard of the golden country to the south, was a Spanish
soldier named Francisco Pizarro, and Cortes' success rekindled his ambition to
reach this unknown country. Forming a copartnery with another adventurer
named Diego de Almagro, and a priest named Hernando Luque, the three
friends made up a small exiDcdition which set out from Panama to the south in
November 1524, but they did not pass beyond a cape at the southern entrance of
the Gulf of Panama, which they called Punta Quemada (Burnt Point). Two
years later, however, they set sail again in two ships, and this time reached
the port now called Santa, in about 9° S. lat., thus discovering the coast-line of
Peru and the northern portion of the giant Andes ; they returned to Panama
with many ornaments of gold and silver, woollen cloths of brilliant dyes, and
some of the great camel-like sheej) called llamas or alpacas. With these proofs
Pizarro now repaired to Spain to seek the aid of King Charles, and he obtained
from him the rights of discovery and conquest. He was named Governor and
Captain-General of Peru, agreeing to send to Spain a fifth of all treasures he
should gain, and, returning to Panama, set sail for the south again with a
small force of 180 men.

28. The new lands thus approached by the Spaniards were by no means
savage countries, but had, like Mexico, a civilisation and history of their own,
leading back into mysterious centuries of the past. We now know that
before the tenth century a.D. a people or nation of Peruvians lived during a
period of unknown duration on the high plateaus of the Andes, and built them-
selves large cities and temples, attested by the great ruins still found every-
where throughout the land. This ancient race was supplanted, perhaps about
the year 1000, by another people named the Tncas, who, according to tradition,
first appeared on the shores of Lake Titicaca, proclaiming themselves children
of Inti (the Sun). Manco Ccapac (or Manco the Ruler), the first Inca sovereign,
who founded the city of Cuzco, introduced law and organisation into his
small territory round the new city. From this nucleus the Empire spread
out, till, in the fifteenth century, the Inca armies had crossed over the terrible
desert of Atacama into Chile, fixed the southern lioundary of Peru at the river
Maule (in 36° S.), and brought all the vast territory extending from the forests
of the Amazonas plain to the sources of the river Paraguay under the sway of
the central power at Cuzco. From the capital, great roads had been made,
radiating out to every part of the empire. The Inca monarch, as the repre-
sentative of the sun, was also the head of the priesthood, and presided at the
great religious festivals. The four great provinces of the empire were each
ruled by a Governor or Viceroy, and the nation, which numbered not fewer
than thirty millions of people, was further subdivided into departments of
about 10,000 inhabitants each. The arts of architecture and agriculture had
been brought to high excellence, and peace and security smiled upon the
land.

29. Shortly before the arrival of Pizarro, however, on the death of the
reigning Inca, a strife arose between his sons Atahualpa and Huascar for the

54 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

inheritance. Atahualiia, to whom the recently conquered kingdom of Quito
in the north had been apportioned, had advanced witli an army against hi.s
brother at Cuzco, had defeated and taken him prisoner there, and had retired
with his army to Cajamarca, on the eastern side of the Andes. At this crisis
Pizarro disembarked his Spaniards at Tumbez, and boldly advanced to Ata-
hualpa's camp. Here, at Cajamarca, while Pizarro's priest was telling the
indignant Inca how the Pope of Rome had presented Peru to the Spanish
monarch, the Spaniards treacherously turned the murderous fire of their mys-
terious artillery against the Peruvians. Atahualpa himself was captured, and,
despite his payment of a vast ransom in gold, was basely executed.

Now the adventurers set out for the capital, Cuzco, which they entered in
November 1533, stripping the splendid Temple of the Sun, and gaining great
treasures of gold and silver. Leaving a garrison in the capital, Pizarro
repaired to the sea-coast, where he founded the " City of the Kings," now
called Lima. There were many insurrections of the Incas before their great
nation was finally conquered, but more serious than these was a quarrel
between Pizarro and his fellow-adventurer Alniagro. This ccniquistador had
obtained from Spain a permission to subjugate for himself a new province to
the south of Pizarro's conquests, and accordingly marched south into Chile.
On returning from this \'ictorious expedition he found the Sj)aniards enclosed
in Cuzco and Lima by the Peruvians, and, taking advantage of the opportu-
nity, endeavoured to make himself master of Peru also. In a desperate
battle before Cuzco (1538), Almagro was defeated, taken, and condemned to
death.

30. While Pizarro was conquering Peru the Si)auish navigators had been
following up Magellan's discoveries in the West Pacific ; some of the islands
of the group, afterwards known as the Carolinas, on the western border of
the Pacific, were discovered, as well as several of those which form the Radack
and Ralik chains. The Portuguese seamen were also busily exploring the
confines of their half of the outer world. Mascarenhas had found the im-
portant islands (Bourbon and Mauritius), in the Indian Ocean which are
still collectively named after him. The ports of China (Macao) and Japan
were now visited by their trading ships ; and Francis Xavier, one of the
founders of the Jesuit order, had set out on his great mission, and had
journeyed from India and Malacca to begin his efforts for the conversion of the
Japanese Empire ; his efforts were so successful that at one time it seemed
as if the whole of this secluded but cultivated region would embrace the
Catholic faith.

31. Spain and Portugal, now at the height of their prosperity, held com-
plete command of the southern seas, and of the kno\vn highways to the Indies,
east and west, to the exclusion of the other maritime nations of Europe,
however anxious they were to share their good fortime and to prosecute trade
with the new realms. It was for this reason that the thoughts of the*northern
maritime nations were turned to the possibilitj' of opening up a new and
independent trade route to the Indies and the Spice Islands, either by what
was called the north-east x>assacje, round Norway and along the coast of
Siberia, or the nortli-west passage, between Greenland and the north coast of
America.

32. The search for a north-east passage was begun by England in 1553,
when Sir Hugh Willoughby set out with three vessels ; passing round the North
Cape he entered the White Sea, and sighted the land now called by the
Russians Xovaya Zemlya (New Land) ; but the voyage was disastrous, and
two of the vessels were lost after drifting about with the ice over the waste of
water, and with them perished the leader of the first Arctic expedition.
The attempt was twice renewed by the English before the end of the cen-

HISTORICAL. 55

tury, in expeditions under Burroughes and Pet, and Jackmau, but without
success.

\Vlien the attempts to force a passage north-eastward had failed, efforts
were directed to the north-west, and Martin Frobisher sailed from Deptford
in March 1576 with two little vessels of 25 tons each, Queen Elizabeth,
who was then at Greenwich, bidding them God speed as they passed down
the river. In July they sighted Greenland, and soon after the barren lands
on the American coast to which the name " Meta Incognita " was given, and
they discovered the bay to the north of Hudson Bay, which is named after Fro-
bisher. Ten years later. Captain John Davis was more successful in sailing
north through the strait which bears his name, and in reaching as high a
latitude as 72° off the west Greenland coast.

33. While other maritime nations were forbidden a lawful share in the good
fortune of the Spaniards, who arrogantly assumed a divine right to the New
World and practised great cruelties uf)ou all foreign interlopers, enterprising
mariners of England and France began to make reprisals in the " Sj)anish
Main," to cut out their trading vessels, and especially to intercept and capture
the heavy galleons which every year brought to the Peninsula the gold, silver,
and other wealth contributed by the American colonies to the mother country.
Sir John Hawkins, the first Englishman it is said who traflicked in slaves, was
afterwards more honourably employed, and became noted for his exploits in the
Spanish Main. In one of his last adventures he was joined by Francis Drake,
who subsequently made several freebooting voyages to the West Indies. In
1570 Drake obtained a commission from Queen Elizabeth, and sailing again
for America plundered the town of Nombre de Dios, on the Isthmus of
Panama. Crossing the mountains, he saw the Pacific, and " prayed God to
grant him leave to sail an English shiji on this sea." Retiring with much
spoil to England, he set out again in 1577, and following on the track of
Magellan reached the Pacific, sacked and plundered all the Spanish coast
towns from Chile up to Peru, capturing also a great plate galleon. He then
steered still northward, hoping to find a northern passage back to the Atlantic,
and took formal possession of the land between 43° N. and 38° 30' N. in the
name of Queen Elizabeth. Thence he sailed across the Pacific to the Moluccas,
to Ternate, and Java, and straight across the Indian Ocean to the Cape of
Good Hope, reaching Plymouth again in 1579, completing thus the second
circumnavigation of the globe.

34. Within a few months of Drake's return. Sir Humphrey Gilbert,
accompanied by the famous Sir Walter Raleigh, set out on an ill-fated
expedition to Newfoundland, with the' object of forming a colony in North
America. The island was formally taken possession of in the name of Queen
Elizabeth ; biit the return voyage was disastrous, and the leader of the
expedition was lost. Raleigh's spirit of enterprise, however, led him again to
America, this time to discover and take possession of the country which he
named Virginia, in allusion to his virgin Queen Elizabeth, planting here the
first little germ of Anglo-Saxon America.

35. It was to men trained in these schools of maritime adventure under Drake
and Hawkins, Frobisher and Raleigh, bold and dexterous in the management of
their little vessels, that England owed her safety when Philip of Spain, burn-
ing to revenge his losses on the Spanish Main, and the aid given by
England to the Protestants of the Netherlands in their war of independence,
sent his huge Arnuida cff 130 great war vessels into the English Channel. It
was there defeated and chased away north to the Orkneys, and round the
Western Isles of Scotland, to be wrecked all along those stormy shores.

36. Meanwhile in Holland William of Orange was fighting for his country's
freedom against the Spanish troops, relieving Leyclen by breaking through

56 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

tlie sea dykes, flooding the country, and d^o^vning many of the besieging
Spaniards ; wliile his coadjutors, the " Beggars of the Sea," made heavy
depredations on Spanish commerce, and took tlie ports of Bnll and Flushing.
Henceforth the Dutch also l>egan to take a place in maritime adventure and
discovery on the high seas. They were the first Europeans to settle and
organise trading stations in the country called " Guaya^m" (or Guiana), on
the coast of South America (1580). The Dutch also took up the quest of
the supposed north-east passage to the Indies, and William Barentz, one of
tlie best seamen of his age, sailed three times to the north, reaching the high
latitude of 80° in his last voyage in 1596 ; he discovered Bear Island, and
the sharp black peaks of the glacial land named Spitzbergen ; douljliug also
the northern cape of Novaya Zemlya he wintered on its eastern coast, and
was the first European to live out a dark season in the Arctic region.

37. Spanish seamen also continued to add to their discoveries in the
Pacific. In 1567 Alvaro Mendana found the islands which he called the
Salomons, to suggest the idea that Solomon had gone thither for the gold
which adornei his temj")le, and thus to draw attention to the discovery. Thirty
years later the group which was called Sta. Cruz was discovered, and in the
next year, the archipelago far out in the centre of the Pacific, to which Men-
daiia attached the name of the reigning viceroy of Peru, calling them the
Marq%iesas de Mendoza. Farther east in the Pacific Juan Fermindez found
the islet on which the English mariner Selkirk (Robinson Crusoe) afterwards
was exiled ; but on the east coast of North America they never got farther
north than 43° 10' during the 16th century, for Juan de Fuca, who claimed
to have discovered the strait now named after him, has been proved an
impostor.

38. Failing in their efforts to find an independent track to the Indies, the
other maritime nations of Europe, now that the pride of Spain had been
humbled, began towards the end of the century to frequent the southern trade
routes hitherto sacred to the Portuguese and Spaniards. We have noticed
that the Dutch had already secured a footing in South America in Guayana.
The British also had laid the foundation of a colony in Virginia on the
northern half of the continent, and were soon to gain a hold on the West
Indies by settling in the fertile islet of Bariadoes. Away in the East Indies
also, British and Dutch ships began to appear, and to compete there with the
Portuguese. The Dutch under Houtman reached Achin, in the north of
Sumatra, in 1599, and two years later brought home to Holland the first cargo
of goods from that region, with two native ambassadors. It was on the
31st December 1600 that Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to a number of
merchants of London trading to the East Indies, which gave them the exclusive
right of trading in the Indian Ocean and Pacific ; and from this East India
Company our great Indian Empire was to rise.

39. To sum up in a few words the state of the kno\vn world at the end
of the sixteenth century : — In Asia the Chinese Empire remained unshaken ;
Persia had again become an independent empire ; the Mohammedan Moguls
had begiin to reign in northern India ; the once great Tatar emj^ire had been
reduced to the states east of the Caspian. In the north, Russia was spreading
eastward over Asia, and had come in contact with the Ottoman Empire, now
exijanding to its greatest extent in the south, and vnth Sweden in the north-
west. The great Reformation had passed over Europe, separating its Catholic
states of the south from the Protestants of the north, and giving rise to fierce
wars and many political changes. Maritime discovery and adventure and
commerce were being eagerly extended by tlie nations of western Europe.
Four times the world had heen circumnavigated — by the Portuguese Magellan,
by the English Drake and Cavendish, and lastly by the Dutchman Van Noort.

HISTOKICAL. 57

Spain had extendefl her conquests to Mexico, Peru, and Chile, which were now
ruled by Spanish viceroys. The Portuguese had established themselves firmly
on the African shores at Senegambia, Guinea, and Angola, on the west, and at
Mozambique and Sofala on the east ; their possessions and settlements in the
East Indies included the Malabar coast of India, Cejdon, and Malacca ; and
their traffic reached to all the islands of the Asiatic archipelago, to China and
Japan, touching on these seas the discoveries and claims of Spain.

The English and Dutch, after vainly seeking an independent highway to
the north-east or north-west through the ice-fields of the Arctic region, had
become formidable rivals of the Spaniards and Portuguese in their own lines,
both in the West Indies and round the Cape of Good Hope to the eastward.
In the Indian Ocean the Dutch (1598) even took one of the Mascarenhas
isles from the Portuguese, giving it the name Mauritius in honour of their
prince Maurice.

10. 1600-1700.

1. Not long after the coasts of Cathay or China began to be better kno%vn
to the maritime nations of the west, and to be brought under the influence of
the Christian religion by the Jesuit missionaries, the Manchu Tatars from
beyond the great wall on the north-east took advantage of a civil strife in the
empire to invade it. The rebel bands entered Peking, whereujjon the last of
the Ming sovereigns strangled himself with his girdle, and a seven years' con-
test began, which was to end in the establishment of the Tatar " Tsing " or
pure dynasty. The Manchu Tatar conquerors were not, like the Mongols, a
nomadic race, but a much more cultivated and agricultural people, and they
had the wisdom to conform in great measure to the existing institutions of
Chinese government ; but they altered the national Chinese costume, and
compelled the men of the country to wear the badge of servitude implied in
shaving the head and wearing the long Tatar queue with which we are now
familiar in all pictures of Chinamen.

2. In the latter part of the century, the Russians, overrunning and con-
quering Siberia, threatened the northern Manchu frontier, and a desultory
warfare ensued with the Cossack freebooters which extended over thirty years ;
but a mission was finally sent to the frontier, and the boundary dividing the
two nations was settled by mutual agi'eement in 1689.

3. Westward of the Chinese Empire the Khanates of Turkistan do not
appear to have materially altered their relative positions in this century. In
Persia the period begins in the midst of the reign of Shah Abbas the Great,
who distinguished his rule by recovering Kurdistan, Mosul, and Diarbekr for
Persia from the Ottoman Turks in the west, and by taking Kandahar from
the possessions of the Great Mogul on the 6ast. The reigns of his successors
during this century were not marked by further increase of territory, but wei'e
spent in promoting the internal prosperity of the kingdom.

4. This was the period, also, at which the Mohammedan empire in India
was raised to its highest point of splendour and greatness by Shah Jehan, the
" King of the World," who subjugated the kingdoms of Ahmednuggur, Bee-
japur, and Golconda, on the Deccan plateau ; and by his son, the famous
Aurungzeb, the crafty and ambitious " reviver of religion." It was during
these reigns that tlie English began to gain a hold on India and to take a part
in its politics ; we shall afterwards, however, have occasion to notice the
chief events of their arrival and estalilishment.

5. Coming now westward to the Ottoman empire, we find its Sultans con-
tending successfully with Austria in the earlier part of the century for the
possession of Hungary, but losing Mesopotamia, as we have seen, to the

,58 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

Persians in the east, and the allegiance of the Kliauates of the Crimea. Wars
with the Poles and Venetians followed, in whicli the island of Candia was gained
by the Turks, along with most of the old Venetian strongholds in the ^gean,
though with some losses in Dalmatia. Later, a combined Polish and German
army defeated a Turkish force which had advanced to lay siege to Vienna ;
and the Austrians followed up their victory by repossessing themselves of
Hungary after the great battle of Mohacz (1687). The peace of Caiiomitz
at the end of the century put an end for ever to the Turkish dominion in
Hungary.

6. For Russia the seventeenth centurj' began very disastrously with internal
quarrels, which gave Sigismund of Poland the opportunity to invade the country,
to take Moscow, and carry off the Czar to die in a Polish prison, and to leave
the country completely disorganised. A rising of the Russians three years
later drove the Poles out of the country, and placed the Czar Michael, of the
house of Romanof, on the throne (1613). After restoring order in his empire,
tliis sovereign concluiled a treaty with Sweden, giving that country the coasts
of the Gulf of Finland. His successor carried on a war with Turkey, and
obtained Smolensk from Poland and the aliandonment of all claims on Little
Russia by the Turks. The close of the century brought Peter the Great to
the throne, and opened his gi"and schemes for the reorganisation of Russia.

T. Eastward the Russians had been busily pushing their conquests across
the forest lauds of northern Asia. The river Obi had been reached, as we
have seen, in the last century, and the towTi of Tobolsk had been founded.
During the early part of tlie seventeenth century the Yenisei was passed and
the Lena crossed ; the settlement of Yakutsk was made in 1632, and the
shores of the sea of Okhotsk were reached in 1639. Thus, while the Manchu
Tatars were advancing southward to the conquest of the Chinese Empire, the
Russians were occupying the laud on their northern borders, and had confirmed
themselves so strongly in its possession that they could conclude a treaty with
the Chinese in 1689, which defined the Siberian-Chinese frontier in the line
running from the sea of Okhotsk, north of the basin of the Amur, westward
liy the great lake Baikal, and thence to the source mountains of the Obi,
called tlie Ala Tau.

8. In the last cliapter we left Sweden at a time when the feeble rule of
the successors of Gustavus Vasa had brought the land into disorder and had
involved it in war with Russia, Poland, and Denmark. Early in the seven-
teenth century^ Gustavus Adolphus, grandson of Vasa, succeeded to the
throne, established a feudal or military government, drove the Danes out
of the Baltic coasts of Sweden, opening up the ocean route to western
Europe ; allying himself with the Hollanders, he obtained a settlement
of the Russian limits. The new boundary line included in Sweden the
country beyond the south coast of the Gulf of Finland. A settlement with
Poland was next agreed on, which gave to Sweden the Baltic coast districts of
ElMng, Braunsherg, Pillau, and Memd. Gustavus's hands were now free to
carry out a cherislied plan to aid the Protestants of Germany in their struggle
with the Catholic League. Marching south at the head of 15,000 men, he
gave the Catholics good reason to fear the " snow king and his bodyguard,"
for he crossed the Danube, gained a great victory at Ingolstadt, marching
triumphantly to Munich, and dying on the victorious field of Lntzen (1632).

9. The reign of his successor, Charles X., was also a warlike one. Poland
was again invaded, when Russia, Denmark, and Prussia combined against the
northern king. From Holstein Charles at once marched across the
frozen Belt to the Danish capital, before which he dictated the peace of
Boeskild. The reign of Charles XL was also characterised by success abroad ;
and at the close of the century, when young Charles XII. had newly ascended

HISTORICAL. 59

the throne, we find Sweden so strong as to have become the oliject of a com-
bined attack ujion it by the neiglibouring powers. The young king, however,
tlireatening Copenhagen, compelled the Danes to a new peace, and with only
8000 Swedes stormed the Russian camp wth its army of 50,000 at Narva in
November 1700.

10. In Norway and Denmark, beyond the frequent contests with Sweden
referred to, there is nothing of moment to occupy us at this time.

11. During the first half of the seventeenth century, Germany was kept in
ferment by the succession of contests which are generally termed the " Thirty
Years' War " (1612-1648), and which originated with attempts of the Catholics
to deprive the Protestants of the liberties they had attained. The treaty of
Westphalia (or of Miinster) drawn up by congresses of all the great continental
powers of Europe, restored tranquillity to Germany and established a new
system of political equilibrium in Europe.

By this treaty, the independence of the United Provinces of the Netherlands
was recognised by Spain, and that of Switzerland by Germany, which last
country was cut up into a multitude of petty states.

12. In former paragraphs we have referred to the forcible Christianisation
and conquest of the lands south of the Baltic by the Teutonic knights, the
cession of west Prussia to Poland, and the declaration of the remainder of
the country as fief to that kingdom. The Grand Masters of the Order subse-
quently took the title of Dukes of Prussia (by one of whom the university of
KiJnigsberg was founded in 1544). Early in the seventeenth century the
Duchy of Prussia became incorporated with the Electorate of Brandenburg.
During tlie thirty years' war the country was alternately a prey to the Swedish
and Imperial armies ; but the treaty of Westphalia restored to it Eastern Pome-
rania and other territories, and the aid given by the Elector Frederick Williana
to Bling Charles of Sweden in the taking of Warsaw (1656) was recomjjensed
by the complete emancipation of the Prussian Duchy from Polish dejiendence.
Frederick William, called the " Great Elector," now devoted himself to con-
solidating and advancing the prosperity of his dominions. Such was his
success that Prussia now rose to the rank of a great European power. Frederick
III., who succeeded him, exhibited the same zeal for the amelioration and
extension of his dominions, and was crowned first King of Prussia at Kiinigs-
berg in 1701.

13. The politics of France in the earlier portion of the century were
directed by the great Cardinal Richelieu, who, in furtherance of his great ob-
ject of humbling the power of the house of Austria, allied himself ^vith the
Protestants in Germany, and with their champion Gustavus of Sweden, involving
France in long and costly wars. At home, however, he ojjpressed the Protest-
ant party and overthrew the jiolitical jjower of the Reformers or Huguenots,
conducting in person the siege and capture of their stronghold La Rochelle.
During the minority of Louis XIV., the French nobles seeking to shake off
the authority of the Crown, and the political faction known as the Frondeiirs,
caused gi'eat domestic disturbances ; but with the assumption of absolute
j)Ower by the young king (1661) a new era began for France ; prospei'ity was
again restored ; the military successes of Louis's generals, Turenne and Conde,
were most brilliant, and the borders of France were greatly enlarged. First,
in virtue of his claim to it as the son-in-law of Philip IV. of Spain, Louis
mastered the portion of Flanders known as French Flanders, and the whole of
Franche Comte. The triple alliance of England, the Netherlands, and Sweden,
compelled him to relinquish the latter, and arrested for a time his course of
conquest ; but two years later, after seizing Lorraine, he marched into the
Netherlands, conquering half the country. Ten cities of Alsace also fell into
his power, and the free German city of Strassburg was taken in 1681. During

60 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

the earlier part of his reign, manufactures had hegun to flourish greatly — the
textures of the Gobelins, the silks of Tours and Lyon, and the tine cloths of
the northern towns, Louviers, Ahberille, Sedan, acquired great celebrity. Not
long after the zenith of his power and influence had been reached and passed,
Louis fell under the influence of the Jesuits ; the efi'ect of the change was
the adoption of severe measures against the Protestants, and the revocation of
the Edict of Nantes, which had given them liberty of worship. The result of
this despotic act, disastrous for France, was the exodus from the country of
not fewer than 400,000 of the most industrious and intelligent of its people,
chiefly manufacturers and artisans, who carried with them into exile, to all
parts of the known world, their skill, knowledge, and taste. From them
England especially learned the art of silk manufacture, and many other in-
dustrial arts.

Towards the close of the century an invasion of south Germany led to a
coalition against France ; and, his resources being exhausted, Louis signed the
Treaty of Ryswick (between Delft and The Hague) concluded between
England, France, Spaiji, and Germany, 1697.

14. The seventeenth century opened for Britain with the union of the
crowns of England and Scotland, under James I. ; then followed the disturbed
reign of Charles I., beginning badly wth the unsuccessful expedition against
Cadiz, and the loss of the fleet off Rochelle. His persecutions of the Puritans
in England, and of the Presbyterians in Scotland, and the embitterment of
popular feeling, brewed the storm which broke out in the civil wars and the
battles of EdgehUl and Marston Moor. The final defeat of the royalists at
Naseby was followed by the execution of Charles in 1649, and the protectorate
of Cromwell, under which England was respected abroad and was brilliantly
successful at sea against the Spaniards. Charles the Second was at the
Hague at the time of his father's execution, and immediately assuming the title
of King proceeded to Scotland, and was crowned at Scone in 1651 ; putting
himself at the head of the Scots, he marched into England, only to be de-
feated on the field of Wcuxester, whence he escaped amid many dangers to
France. After the death of the Protector, a reversal of popular feeling recalled
Charles from France to the English throne, when he began his dishonourable
and dissolute reign, persecuting all Presbji;erians and Nonconformists at home,
agreeing for money to carry on war ^\ith the Netherlands, till compelled
by the appearance in the Thames of the Dutch fleet under De Ruyter to
make an ignominious peace. James IL now succeeded, and by his tjTanny
estranged all classes of his subjects.

15. The independence of the United Provinces (the Netherlands) had
been acknowledged by the treaty of Munster (1648). During the reign of
Charles II. of England they had been engaged in a seven years' contest with
Louis XIV. of France, which had terminated in an honourable way for the
United Provinces, and the power of the " Stadtholder," William, Prince of
Orange, 1 who had married Mary, the eldest daughter of the Duke of York,
afterwards James II. of England, had become great in Europe. The Stadt-
holder had leagued himself with the malcontents in England, and when dis-
attection was at its height, landed at Torhay (1688) with 15,000 English and
Dutchmen, entered London as a national deliverer, and Parliament gave the
crown to William and Mary. The adherents of James held out in Scotland
and Ireland till the battle of the Boyne terminated the contest, and James fled
to France. Then Britain and Holland came into close union against France.

16. We left the Spanish Peninsula, in the last section, at the time of the
death of Philip II., when Portugal had been reduced to a Spanish province ;

1 A principality now comprised in the French department of Vaucluse.

HISTOEICAL. 6 1

but the Spanish kingdom had been impoverislied in unsuccessful wars in the
Netherlands, and in the attempts against England. One of the earliest acts of
his successor Philip III. was the unwise expulsion from the Peninsula of the
remaining Moriscoes, or half-caste Moors, wlio had been allowed by Ferdinand
the Catholic to remain ; about half a million of these industrious and peace-
able inhabitants were thus driven from the land. The reign of Charles II. was
still more unfortunate ; Spanish armies and fleets were everywhere defeated,
and the wealth of America was in vain poured into the enervated country.

17. A few years before the peace of Westphalia secured the independence
of Holland from the Spanish yolce, Portugal freed itself by a rebellion (1640)
from the forced union with Spain, which had lasted for 60 years, and had
involved the coimtry in war and disaster at home, as well as abroad in the
Indies.

18. In Italy, during this century, the Papal States grew out to their widest
limit. Venetia was at war with the Turks ; and Naples and Sicily, in the
south of the peninsula, continued under the sway of Spain.

19. Across in north Africa the Algerians continued to harass the powers
of Christendom trading in the Mediterranean, and their insolence at sea
increased. They even attacked the south coasts of France, comj)elling Louis
XIV. to retaliate by bombarding Algiers (1682) ; when, by way of replying
to the cannonade, the Dey caused the French consul to be shot off from the
mouth of a cannon. The result of the punishment was indecisive ; nor were
the English and Dutch fleets more successful in repressing the ferocity of the
Corsairs.

20. In Marocco, the empire that had extended its limits to the Soudan in
the previous century fell to pieces in this, and was succeeded (1647) by the
government of the Sherifs of Tafilet, who conquered Marocco proper and Fez,
united the whole under one rule, and founded the djmasty whicli reigns at
present. The influence of Marocco again spread southward till it reached, in
tlie middle of the century, even to the borders of the Portuguese settlements
in Guinea.

If we now turn to look at the progress of conquest and discovery
beyond the seas during the seventeenth century, it cannot fail to he
remarked how completely the spread of knowledge on the outer
borders of the known world was controlled by events which
took place in western Europe. We have remarked the gradual
crippling and decay of the maritime supremacy of Spain and
Portugal, and the rise of that of the Dutch and British into strength.
Maritime enterprise during this century passed to Holland, England,
and France.

21. Just at the end of the sixteentli century, the Dutch first opened uj)
trading communication with the East Indies, and entered into alliances with
the Achinese of Sumatra ; two years later their East India Company was formed.
Spain and Portugal being united in war with the Netherlands at home in
Europe, the contest was extended to the Indies, where by violence and intrigue
the Dutch began to oust the Portuguese from their possessions. A footing
was also gained in the Spanish half of the world, for in the year 1600 the
Dutch captured the island of St. Eiistatius ; and five years later tlie British
settled in Barbadoes, the most easterly of the Antilles.

22. Among the last important discoveries made by the Spaniards in the
Pacific were those of the island of Hagiltaria (now known as Tahiti) by the

62 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY,

voyager Quiros, and of the strait whicli has been named from its discoverer
Luis Vaez de Torres, who sailed into it in 1605, and who saw the northern
extremity of the great southern continent, afterwards to be made known.

23. Wliile the Dutch were wresting the Spice Islands from the Portuguese,
a band of English gentlemen and a few artisans went out to Sir Walter
P^aleigh's Virginia, and formed (May 1607) the first permanent English colony
on the North American shores, foimding James Toiva on the James River
(named after King James), and buying land and provisions from the friendly
Indians. A year later the French were following up the discoveries of Jacques
Cartier on the St. Lawrence ; Champlain discovered the great Lake Ontario,
and founded the city of Quebec, which for more than a century was the centre
of French trade and civilisation in North America, and the f)oint whence the
efforts of the Roman Catholic missionaries radiated.

24. During these two years the navigator Hendrik Hudson was making
vain attempts to penetrate the north-east passage by Novaya Zemlya ; giving
up hope of finding a passage there, he sailed a third time to the north-west by
Davis Strait, in a vessel fitted out by the Dutch East India Company (1609).
Reaching America about latitude 44° north, he discovered the beautiful river
which bears his name, and took possession of it for Holland. Next year he
again bore to the north-west, and on the farther side of Davis Strait
passed through the channel now known as Hudson Strait, and entered the
vast bay beyond, which he took to be none other than an inlet of the Pacific, an
opinion which was contradicted some years later by the researches of Baffin.
He resolved to winter here and to follow up his discoveries in the following
spring, but his crew mutinied, and placed him with his gun in a small boat
at the mercy of the waves, after which nothing was ever heard of this brave
mariner.

25. As early as 1611 the solitary Bermudas Islands were colonised from
the new British settlements in Virginia ; in the same year a Dutch navi-
gator sailing north of Iceland discovered the island which takes his name,
Jan Mayen, with its volcano sending flames and smoke out of its snow-clad
cone.

26. About the year 1614 there was living at Amsterdam a famous mer-
chant named Lemaire, wlio then began to interest himself in geographical
discovery ; for it had been a recognised rule in Europe since the time of
Columbus that any one making a new discovery beyond the seas had the
rights and use of whatever he found. The Dutch East India Company had
now been successful in exploring for themselves the way by the Straits of
Magellan, and had consequently the exclusive right to the use of this passage
to the South Seas. With some other merchants of the town of Hoom,
Lemaire joined to form an "Austral Company," and fitted out two ships,
the "Eendragt" and " Het Hoorn," placing them under the command of
the navigators Schouten and Jacob Lemaire, son of the merchant. In
June 1615 the vessels left the Texcl, and by the end of December had reached
tlie south of Patagonia, making what was then considered a very rapid passage
through the Atlantic. Here the yacht " Hoorn " took fire, and was totally
wrecked, and her crew was transferred to the "Eendragt." Passing the
eastern entrance of the Strait of Magellan, they came upon the long eastward
jiromontory of Tierra del Fuego, through which they soon found a broad
deep passage to the south ; the land east of this they named, in honour
of the States-General of Holland, Staaten Land. Thence bearing south and
west against the adverse winds, they passed along the island-bound south coast of
Tierra del Fuego, and, reaching a high rocky island peak, which they took
to be the extremity of the mainland, they named it Kaep van Hoorn, in
honour of the native town of Schouten and manv of his sailors. Thence

HISTORICAL. 6 3

sailing into the open Soutli Sea and northward by Juan Fernandez island,
they crossed the ocean to the East Indies, being the first to see the land
afterwards called New Britain. Schouteu alone of the discoverers again
I'eached Holland, his companion Lemaire having died on the homeward
voyage.^

27. The British East India Company had meanwhile been establishing
itself on the mainland; in 16r2 they had factories at Sural, Ahmedabad, Cam-
baya, and Goyha on the coast of the Gulf of Cambay, and in 1615 the English
ambassador was well received in the court of the Great Mogul.

28. It was about this time that the great south land, now known as Aus-
tralia, began to be made known. The Dutch, finding the harbours on the
east coast of Africa and in India closed against them by the jealousy of the
Portuguese, sought for a passage in more southerly latitudes ; and thus, partly
by accident, partly by design, they discovered a large portion of Australia.
In 1605 Captain Saris, of the Dutch yacht " Duiveken," was despatched from
Bantam to search for a passage to the south of New Guinea, and obtained
some glimpses of the north coast. In 1616 another Dutch voyager. Dirk
Hartog, in the ship " Eendragt," sailed down its western shores as far as
27° S., and his discovery is perpetuated in the name of Dirk Hartog Island,
one of those which enclose Shark's Bay, on the west Australian coast.

29. The course of discovery and colonisation now takes us back to the
Atlantic. In Britain, the hope of the possible discovery of a shorter north-
west passage to the Pacific was still strong. The accoimt of the complete
closure of the inland sea discovered by Hudson was not universally credited,
and accordingly, in 1615, Captain Bylot sailed for that bay, without, how-
ever, finding any outlet from it. Next year, with his pilot Baffin, he sailed
up Davis Strait, reaching 78° N., and, after a superficial examination of the
coast, came to the conclusion that this also was a great gulf without outlet.
Hence the name Baffin Bay was given to this, the northern broad ex-panse of
the strait which divides the American Arctic islands from Greenland.

30. The violent efi'orts made by King James to extirpate Puritanism in
England drove a large number of the Independents to embark at Plymouth,
in 1620, for the New World. These emigrants, known as the " Pilgrim Fathers,"
disembarked from the " Mayflower" on the North American coast, in lat. 42° N.
on a bay about 200 miles north-east of the river-mouth discovered Ijy Hudson,
and there founded the settlement of Nevj Plymouth, calling the land New Eng-
land. A year afterwards the Dutch bought Ahmhattan Island (at the mouth of
Hudson River, on which the central portion of the city of New York now stands)
from the native Indians for twenty-four dollars, and founded there the settle-
ment of New Amsterdam, naming the country round it New Holland. Thus
there were now five European settlements on the North American coast, — those
of the Spaniards in Florida, the English Cavaliers in Virginia, the Dutch at the
mouth of tlie Hudson, the English Puritans more to the north, and the French
on the St. Lawrence ; in 1638 a sixth was added by the Swedes, who then
colonised the Delaware river.

31. In the West Indies also the nortliern nations began to gain ground
on the Spanish lands. Barbadoes, as we have noticed, was already British;
St. Christopher, or St. Kitts, was added in 1623, and from thence English
emigrants passed to Nevis in 1628. Antigua, and Montserrat followed in
1632. Then the French came to settle on Martinique and Gua.daloupe in
1635, and about that time British settlements were formed on the South

1 On reaching the East Indies and tlie Dutch settlements in Java, tlie Govenior
there, disbelieving the report of their discovery of a new passage, or taking it to bo
adverse to the interests of the Dutch India Company, contlseated the " Eendragt " and
lier crew.

64 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

American mainland in Guayana at the mouths of the Berbice and Surinam,
and by the French in Cayenne, fartlier east.

32. The French now began to appear in the Indian Ocean also; for in
1642 we find them taking possession of the southern island of the Mascarenhas,
and naming it He Bourbon, and also settling on the north-west of Madagascar.

33. Meanwhile the Dutch had been extending their circle of exploration
from their settlements, and the western coast of Australia had been traced
along its whole extent ; for in 1619 the merchants named Edel and Hout-
man had passed beyond Dirk Hartog's farthest, to 32^° S., and named the
coast-land there EdeVs Land. Another Dutch ship, in 1622, reached the
south-west cape, giving it the name of the ship, Leeuivin (or Lioness). Before
the end of 1627 the south-west corner had been turned, and another Dutch-
man sailing along it in the " Guldezeepard " (golden sea-lion), gave the name
Nuyts' La7id to the coast, in honour of a distinguished passenger, Peter Nuyts
— a name which is preserved in Nuyts Archipelago in the great Australian
bight.

34. Far more extended discoveries were made in this direction by the
navigator Abel Jansen Tasman, who sailed from Batavia in November 1642.
Rounding the west coast of Australia, and then turning east, he came upon
what he believed to be a portion of the same southern continent of New Hol-
land, and named the new territory Van Dievien^s Land, in honour of the
Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. An island on its eastern coast
he called Maria, after Van Diemen's daughter. Sailing still farther east into
the Pacific, Tasman discovered the shore of a new land, which he took to be
a continuation of the Staaten Land of Schouten and Lemaire, and named it
accordingly; but Hendrik Brouwer, in the follo\ving year, showed that it
could not be united in any way to the Staaten Land east of Tierra del Fuego,
and re-named it New Zealand, from the Dutch province.

35. We have already noticed the rapid advance of the Russian Cossacks
over Siberia, conquering and rendering tributary the native tribes of Tnn-
guses and Yakuts ; how the Arctic Ocean was reached at the mouth of the
Lena in 1636, and the Pacific at the sea of Okhotsk in 1639. Not halting at
this barrier, the Cossacks took to the sea at the farthest limits of their land
journeys, and one of them, named Deshenev, as early as 1648, reported that
he had sailed between Asia and America, and that the two continents were
not imited. His whole voyage, however, was at the time regarded as a fable,
and was not confirmed till nearly a century after.

36. The leading movement of subsequent years in the Asiatic region
appears to have been the extension of Dutch power over Portuguese in the
East India Islands, — in Celebes, Borneo,^ and at Padamj in Sumatra. It was
in the middle of this century also that the attention of the Dutch East India
Company was first effectively directed towards South Africa, when, in 1652,
Jan Anthony van Riebeek, a surgeon in the service of the company, first
settled on the promontory of the Cape of Good Hope with about a hundred
officers and servants of the company. On the Gold Coast of Africa the Dutch
had already supplanted the Portuguese, and there the British first settled
in 1664.

37. Three or four years later the French gained a footing on the Senegal
coast, and afterwards formed their Senegal Company. In 1668 they first
appear in India at Surat, and four years later we find them buying their
possession of Pondichery from the native princes.

38. In America the British dominion was extended by the addition of one of
the Virgin Islands (1666), and by the formation in 1670 of the Hudson Bay

1 A corruption of the native name Bruni or Brunei.

\ 1, ,

HISTOEICAL. 6 5

Company, wliich at first consisted of Prince Rupert, cousin of Charles II. of
England, and certain associates of his who were invested with the absolute pro-
prietorship and sovereignty of all the territory draining to Hudson's Bay and
its strait. In 1690 this fur company was in full working, and had built several
forts and factories on the coasts, whence from time to time their operations
extended inland.

The French also, after their countryman La Salle first descended (1682) the
great river Mississippi, "the father of waters," invaded Spanish claims by
settling in Louisiaiia, about the mouth of the great river, in 1699.

11. 1700-1800.

According to tlie general plan that we have been following, we
now return to review briefly the greater changes, extensions, and
contractions, of power within the Old World, before taking up again
the outline of discovery and conquest beyond the seas, within the
next hundred years.

1. Of China under the prosperous rule of the Manchu Emperors there is
little to be told that affects the outer world. One of its rulers during this cen-
tury (Kien-lung) had a reign of sixty years of uninterrujited external peace, and
was successful in many military expeditions against tlie interior tribes, over
whom he asserted the authority of the empire. It was only during the latter
part of his reign (1796) that the turbulent and aggressive prince of the State of
Nepal, on the southern slope of the Himalaya range in north India, invaded
Tibet on the high Asiatic plateau, and plundered the Lama monastery of
Teshu Lumpo near Shigatzc.

2. Tibet had for several centuries been partially tributary to China ; its
danger now gave an opportunity for the intervention of the empire : a
Chinese army marched into it, defeated the Nepalese, and drove them back
across the Himalaya. From that time onwards Tibet has remained under
Chinese control ; a Chinese viceroy sits at Lhassa, and the Grand Lama of
Tibet, or Pope of Buddhism, retains no more than spiritual authority. The
limits of the empire were even extended during the reign of Kien-lxmg to
eastern Bokhara at tlie heads of the Oxus and Jaxartes.

3. Near the end of the century the semi-tributary State of Anam or
Cochin China was extended by incorporating Tonquin, its sovereign receiving
aid in this from France. Burma, another State of the peninsula of farther
India, also begins to acquire importance at this period; it was in 1752 that
Aloung-Pra, the most celebrated warrior-king in Burman history, arose, sub-
dued the hostile Peguans and incorporated their country and many neighbouring
States, thus forming an empire wliich continued to expand to such an extent
as to attract to itself a Chinese military expedition (1767) for its conquest,
which, however, was destroyed on the river Irawadi.

4. The expansion of Russian power, both in Europe and Asia, is one of the
great features of the century. European Russia at the beginning of this period
was still shut out from navigable seas, — by Sweden, from the Baltic in the
north, and by Turkey from the Euxine in the south, — leaving only the northern
port of Archangel on the icy White Sea as the outlet of its ships. One of the
most cherished designs of Peter the Great, in the middle of whose reign the
century begins, was that of creating an armed and mercantile fleet for Russia ;
for this, however, tlie possession of accessible seaports was essential, and these
were to be obtained only by breaking through Turkish or Swedish territory.

60 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

The Turlvish port of Azof at the mouth of the Don was taken after a long
siege (1696). In the north the Czar joined with Poland and Denmark in
attacking Sweden, and though defeated, as we have seen, at Narva, in 1700,
he laid the foundation of the city of St. Petersburg in Swedish territory in 1703,
and by routing the Swedish army at Poltava in 1709 gained for Russia the
whole of the Baltic provinces and part of Finland. Two years later an
unsuccessful war with Turkey lost him the hard-won port of Azof ; but in the
north his arms were crowned with success ; the Swedish fleet was defeated
at Hango, and the outlet of the Baltic was secured.

5. In 1722 a war was begun with Persia in order to open up the Caspian
Sea to Russian commerce, and for a time the provinces of Persia bordering on
that sea were in Russian hands. The reign of Catherine II. (1762-1796) was
not less glorious for Russia than that of Peter the Great had been. Her suc-
cessful wars with Poland and Sweden in the north, and with Turkey and Persia
in the south, widely extended the limits of the empire. In a scheme for the
partition of Turkey between Austria and Russia, the former aggressive power
was constantly defeated, but tlie Russians were as uniformly successful : the
Turkish provinces on the Danube fell into their hands, and the main army of
the Turks was signally defeated before Shumla. In spite of a clear treaty
concluded in 1774, the Crimea and the whole country eastward to the Caspian
were immediately afterwards annexed. Again war broke out ; the Russian
armies again overran the northern pro\inces of Turkey, and by the treaty of
Jassy (1792) the Dniester river was made the boundary line, and the Crimea
and Kuban were finally ceded to Russia, which thus gained the whole north
shores of the Black Sea.

6. It was during the reign of Catherine that the Russian Empire was first
divided into governments, an arrangement which, with some modifications, still
subsists.

Power was also being rapidly consolidated in Asiatic Russia ; already
in 1727 a line of armed Cossack outposts was drawn along the Chinese frontier
from the sea of Okhotsk to the Ala Tau Mountains ; in 1772 these posts
were increased in numbers and strengthened by regular troops. Discovery
had also been progressing towards the north and east, defining more clearly
the natural limits of the new possession. Adventurers had even gone beyond
its shores : the Liakhov, or New Siberian islands in the icy Arctic Sea, with
their stores of mammoth ivory, had been found; and the voyager Vitus Bering,
sailing out from a port of the peninsula of Kamtchatka in 1728, had reached
the entrance of the strait which bears his name, coufirming the separation of
Asia from America that had been reported by the Cossack Deshenev.

7. Sweden's wars with Russia in the early part of the century, whiclt lost
for her the south-eastern coasts of the Baltic, have been already referred to ;
these overwhelmed the country with debt, and were followed by a long period
of disorganisation. In 1788 Sweden again went to war with Russia, at the
time when that country was engaged in active hostilities against the Turks, but
without advantageous issue.

8. Denmark during this period was still united to Norway ; it exercised no
very important influence in the aff'airs of Europe, but increased greatly in
wealth and commerce. A Danish Asiatic Company was formed in 1733, and
the French gave their share of the Virgin Islands in the West Indies to Den-
mark, on the condition tliat they should not be made over to any other power
without tlie sanction of France. It was during the reign of Frederick V.
(1746-1766) that a Greenland Company was formed, and that a number of
learned men, among whom was Niebulir, the explorer of Arabia, were sent
from Denmark to travel in the east.

9. Prussia, we have already seen, had risen in the first year of this century

HISTOKICAL. 6 7

to the rank of a great European power. Frederick William created for it his
splendid army of tall soldiers, which his successor Frederick the Great (1740-
1786), used to sucli advantage for the extension of the kingdom, beginning his
career by occupj'ing Silesia, and holding it against tlie utmost efforts of Austria,
The desperate conflict of the " Seven Years' War " (1756-1763), in which all the
powers of central Europe were engaged, made no change in the territorial
distribution, but left Frederick the acknowledged sovereign of Silesia.

10. Poland had been closely allied Avith Russia against the Swedes, and
thus the dependence of that country on the stronger power had begun. From
this time its government fell more and more under Russian intiuence, the
intensely national spirit of the Poles being craftily turned so as to keep alive
the dissensions which were surely weakening the country. A few zealous
patriots, alarmed at the closing grasp of Russia, and supported by Turkey,
raised an army and declared war.

11. It was at this juncture that Frederick of Prussia proposed to Austria
and Russia an iniquitous partition of Poland ; the mediation of the other
powers of Europe was sought by Poland in vain, so that in 1772 a first parti-
tion of a large part of the country was effected by these three powers. A
second partition of still larger territories between Russia and Prussia followed
in 179.3. The Poles now became desperate, and compelled the Prussians to
retreat to their own country, and several times routed the Russian troops.
But Austria, chagrined at having had no share in the second division, now
again appeared on the scene, and fresh Russian forces arriving, the patriot
army of Kosciusco was finally defeated, Warsaw was captured, and the Polish
monarchy for ever annihilated. The third and last partition of this unfortunate
kingdom gave all eastern and central Poland to Russia, Posen to Prussia, and
Galicia and Bukoviua to Austria.

12. All western Europe became involved in the very first year of this cen-
tury in the long contest known as the war of the Spanish succession (1700-
1713). Charles II. of Spain died without heir, and Louis of France and
Leopold of Austria became the rival claimants for the vacant throne, which
carried with it the sovereignty of the Spanish Netherlands, the Milanese,
Naples and Sicily in Italy, and the vast American possessions. The Austrian
party at first prevailed in Spain, but Louis succeeded in undermining their
influence and in having his second grandson Philip declared king. This union
could not fail to endanger the independence of every other state in western
Europe, and the subsequent occujiatiou of the Netherlands by Louis brought
about the alliance of Britain, Germany, and Holland against France and the
Spanish usurper. A combined army of these powers, under Marlborough,
attacked the French in Belgium. The Austrians also sent an army into Italy,
Bavaria alone declaring for France. The defeat at Blenheim, in Bavaria, lost
the French their hold on Germany ; at liamillies the fate of the Spanish
Netherlands was decided ; and in the battle of Turin the French power in north
Italy was shattered. A force of British and Dutch troops also landing at
Lisbon, were joined by the Portuguese, and invaded Spain from the west, ulti-
mately driving the Bourbon forces across the PjTcnees. By the peace of
Utrecht, which concluded this contest, France ceded to Britain her American
possessions of Hudson Bay, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia, with St. Kitts
in the West Indies ; the Italian possessions of Spain were renounced in favour of
Austria ; the rock of Gibraltar and the island of Minorca were given up to
Britain ; Portugal gained the country north of the Amazon in South America;
and the profitable "asiento" or monopoly of the supply of negro slaves to
the American colonies was transferred to Britain.

13. The death of the Emjieror Charles VI. of Austria (1740), liy which the
male line of the house of Hapsburg became e.\tinct, was the signal for another

68 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

war among the powers of Europe, which continiied with alternating success
for eight years, but left the limits of the various states, at the peace of Aix
which concluded it, very much as before.

14. In 1756 broke out the Seven Years' War, in which Britain took the part
of Prussia against France, Austria, and Russia ; during this contest Wolfe made
his conquest of the French Canadian possessions, and Clive took from them
their settlements in India.

15. It was soon after the conclusion of this war by the treaty of Paris, by
which the greater part of the French colonial possessions were given up to
Britain, that the first attempt was made to increase the finances of the United
Kingdom by taxing the American colonies, a measure which excited the most
determined opposition, ultimately leading to a war (1774) between them and
the mother country, in which they were materially supported by her enemies
France and Spain, and by Holland. Alter eight years of fighting this struggle
concluded in the acknowledgment of the indejiendence of the American colonies
and the formation of the Republic of the United States (1783), which we shall
afterwards notice more particularly.

16. This war for freedom had disseminated republican ideas in the minds
of the lower orders in France, where an incapable government and prodigal
court threatened the bankruptcy of the state, and undoubtedly laid the seeds
of the great revolution which was about to break out. Insurrections first
alarmed Paris in 1789, when the people took possession of the Bastille, but
the conciliations attempted by the king and nobles delayed the grand out-
break till 1792, when a war with Austria was begun and the defeat of the
French was visited on the unfortunate Louis. Revolt now broke loose in every
part of France ; a reign of blood and terror succeeded, and all the surround-
ing states combined against the new republic, till the brilliant exploits of the
young general Napoleon Bonaparte, at the head of the French troops against
the Austrians in Lombardy, turned all men's thoughts to follow his suc-
cesses.

17. In 1797 Bonaparte was master in Italy, and Austria had been com-
pelled to give up Belgium, which had been hers since the peace of Utrecht,
and which was afterwards recognised as part of France. In Holland the French
troops had been warmly received by the so-called patriots of the United Pro-
vinces ; the Stadtholder William V. and his family (1795) had been obliged to
escape to England in a fishing-boat, and the Batavian Republic, under the
protection of France, had been set up. A year later Bonaparte undertook the
famous expedition against Egyjit, in whicli the battle of the Pyramids made
the French for a time masters of the Nile Delta. This also was the expedition
which gave Nelson the opportunity of signalising his first independent com-
mand by the grand victory of the Nile, in which he utterly destroyed the
French fleet and cut ofl' Napoleon's communications with Europe. Leaving
his army behind, Bonaparte escaped from Alexandria, and we leave him at the
end of the century First Consul of France, soon to extend the limits of his
kingdom by further successes in Europe.

18. Passing by Portugal, now apathetic and subordinate, from which state
the ancient glory had departed never to return, we come to the states which
lie along the shores of the Mediterranean. Marocco we find remaining an
independent state under the rule of the Sherifs of Tafilet ; Algeria, a military
oligarchy, at the head of which was the Dey, and under him a strong Turkish
militia, lawless and turbulent at home and piratical abroad, defying the greater
Christian powers, and forcing tribute from the lesser on the waters of the Medi-
terranean. Against them the last Spanish expedition, with 44 ships of war
and 340 transports, carrying 25,000 soldiers, went fruitlessly in 1775.

Tunis at this time had been made tributary to Algiers ; Egypt remained a

HISTORICAL. 6 9

province of Turkey, administered by Pashas, until Bonaparte's invasion brought
it for a year or two at tlie close of the century under the power of France.

19. The repeated aggressions of Russia and Austria in the Ottoman
dominion in Europe, and the loss to Turkey of the lands bordering on the
north coasts of the Black Sea, have been already alluded to. In part recom-
pense for these losses the Turks received the Morea from the Venetians, and
brought the whole of Greece again under Mohammedan dominion.

20. In Asia the story of the Ottoman Empire at this time connects itself
with that of Persia. At the beginning of this century the Afghans of the east
had accjuired independence and power, and Persia was ruled by an Afghan
king, whose cruelties have made the name of his people hated in Persia to the
present day. A notable leader, wlio has been called the Wallace of Persia,
soon, however, appeared as the deliverer of the coimtry. This was Nadir
Shah ; at first merely the leader of a band of outlaws who levied contri-
butions on the province of Khorassan, by announcing his intention of expel-
ling the hated race of the Afghans, he drew large numbers to his standard ;
he reduced the cities of Mashhad and Herat, and afterwards subdued all Kho-
rassan, and placed a Persian king again on the throne. He was then sent
against the Turks (1731), and defeating them at Uamadan, regained for Persia
the Armenian provinces. On returning after this campaign Nadir was himself
crowned Shah. He resumed his war with the Turks, and granted terms of
peace only on condition of recovering the province of Georgia. He now
advanced against the Afghans in the East, and conquering them passed on
to the north-west provinces of India against the Great Mogul ; took Delhi,
and returned to Persia with an enormous booty, including the famous dia-
mond, the " Koh-i-nur." He next drove back the Uzbegs on the north, and
reducing Bokhara and Kharezm, or Khiva, restored for a time to Persia the
wide limits of the empire in the days of the Sassanian kings. On his death
anarchy again liroke loose in Persia, and before the end of the century we find
Afghanistan and Baluchistan finally separated as independent states from
Persia proper, and large territories in the north-west, bordering on the
Caspian, in the hands of Russia, to which empire Georgia was also soon
to be added as a new province.

21. The frequent wars between Britain and France at home in this period
carried hostilities out to India, where the French and British were already
sufficiently jealous of one another's influence with the native j)rinces. It was
now that the great soldier-statesman Clive laid the foundation of British
supremacy in the East, breaking the power of France in this region by his
great victory at Arcot in 1751. The next great event here was the siege and
capture of Calcutta by the viceroy of the Great Mogiil in Bengal, when
the prisoners captured suffered the horrors of the "Black Hole of Calcutta."
In command of an expedition fitted out at Madras, Clive soon recovered
Calcutta, and before 1765, Bengal, with part of Behar and Orissa, had been
ceded by the Great Mogul to the East India Company. The power of
the great Mohammedan ruler of Northern India had indeed already suffered
greatly from the expedition of Nadir Shah. Ten years later two powerful
Mohammedan sovereigns of Southern India, Hyder Ali and the Nizam of the
Deccan, assisted by French officers, combined against the English, but the able
policy of Warren Hastings broke uj) the federation and defeated Hyder Ali.
War next broke out with Tippoo, Hyder All's son and successor, who had
invaded Travancore, then under British protection. Seringapatam, his capital,
was taken, and half his dominions ceded to the company as the price of peace.
Not long after this the bad faith of Tippoo and his intrigues with the French
again drew the British, under Marquis Wellesley, to Seringapatam (1799),
when Tippoo lost both his crown and his life.

70 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

It remains for us now to sketch out the progress of geo-
graphical discovery beyond the limits of the Old World during this
period.

22. One of the earliest important expeditions sent out from the Old World
in this century was that of Hans Egede, a Norwegian clergyman, who, believ-
ing it possible that the old Greenland colonies might still be in existence,
determined to seek out his forlorn countrymen ; accordingly in 1721 he
embarked vnth liis wife and family and 46 emigrants, sailed for the west coast
of Greenland, and there founded the settlements which at present occupy that
rock and ice bound shore.

23. We have already referred to the Eussian expedition from Petro-
paulovsk in Kamtchatka under Bering, in which he discovered the straits
between Asia and America. After some years spent in exploring the Asiatic
coasts of Siberia, this voyager sailed in 1741 from Okhotsk out to the east,
sighted land in about 584° N- ^'"^ '^v^s the first to trace the American coast
in the Alaska peninsula, and to discover the high volcano called Mount St.
Elias ; but it was not made certain by his voyage whether these were really
parts of tlie American continent, or only the shores of islands lying between
the mainlands. Bering followed the coast northward, till, overtaken by
sickness and storms, his ship was wrecked on the island of Awatska, since
called Bering Island, and he died there in December 1741.

24. About this time the search for the " north-west passage " was renewed,
and several ships were sent to explore the coasts of Hudson Bay, where it was
believed some outlet to the west would be discovered ; but in vain ; and
though a reward of £20,000 was ofiered by the British Government to the
fortunate discoverer of such a navigable passage to the Pacific, the search was
abandoned for almost the whole remaining part of the century. On the side of
the " north-east," the search for a navigable route had also been abandoned by
the western nations of Europe ; Russia, however, was exploring the Arctic
shores of her vast Siberian territory, and a Russian walrus-fisher for the first
time found the eastern or inner coast of Novaya Zemlya in 1742.

25. Two years before this, war between England and Spain ha\ang again
broken out in 1739, Lord George Anson was sent out from England, command-
ing a fleet which was intended to inflict whatever injury was possible on
Spanish commerce and colonies in the South Seas. His fleet of seven vessels
was scattered before rounding the stormy Cape Hoorn, but four of these
arrived at the island of Juan Fernandez ; with these he captured a Spanish
galleon from Accqndco, and steering across the Pacific discovered a number of
the smaller uninhabited islands which lie west of the Sandwich group. He
reached Spithead again in 1744, having circumnavigated the globe in a cruise
of three years and nine months.

26. Another British oflicer, Captain Vancouver (1791), was the next to
make any important discovery in the Pacific ; during four years of incessant
exertion he explored the shores of the island on the west coast of North
America which now bears his name, and the labyrinth of islands and sounds
which extends thence to the limit of Bering's discoveries, thus showing for the
first time that no navigable passage existed between this coast and Hudson
Bay, as had been so confidently hojiied and expected.

27. Shortly before these discoveries were made. General Wolfe had set
out (1759) from England with his little army of 8000 men to take Canada
from the French. Arrived there, he landed on the island of Orleans in the
St. La^vTence opposite Quebec, scaled the Heights of Abraham at fearful risk,
and made his memorable capture of the city. At the date of the union of

HISTOKICAL. 71

Canada to Britain by the Treaty of Paris, 1763, the colony had gathered
a French poiralation of 65,000, inhabiting the immediate banks of the broad
St. Lawrence.

28. Soon after his succession to the throne, and after the close of the Seven
Years' War, George III. of England took advantage of the returning time of
peace to send out, one after the other, a number of voyagers, who made them-
selves famous by their circumnavigations of the globe and discoveries of new
lands. Byron, Wallis, Carteret, and Cook, all left these shores soon after
1764 ; it was at this time also that Bougainville set out to make the first
French circumnavigation of the globe. To Byron geography owes the first
survey of the Falkland Islands; to Wallis the discovery of the Queen Clmrlotte
Group of islets in the Pacific, and the re-finding of the beautiful Tahiti ;
while Carteret made known the afterwards famous Pitcairn Island, and was
the first to sail through St. George's Channel, between New Britain and New
Ireland ; but Cook's three great voyages formed the great geographical event
of the century.

29. Captain Cook's surveys of the shores of the lately acquired possessions
of Newfoundland and Labrador introduced him to the notice of the Royal
Society, who gave him command of an expedition to the Pacific to observe the
approacliing transit of Venus over tlie sun's disc ; and he sailed from Ply-
mouth in August 1768. Having passed round South America to Tahiti in the
Pacific, he there successfully carried out the main object of his voyage, and leav-
ing that island in July of the following year, steered westward for New Zealand,
which had not been seen by Europeans since Tasman's visit, 126 years before.
He landed on the coast of North Island, at a place which he named Poverty
Bay, in October 1769 ; the natives, the cannibal Maoris, as was afterwards
learned, took his ship for a gigantic bird, and were thunderstruck at the
beauty and size of its \vings. Nearly a year was spent in surveying the coasts
of these islands, and thence sailing westward Cook discovered the eastern side
of New Holland, or Australia, and coasted along nearly its whole length,
taking possession of it in the name of Britain, and giving it the name of New
South Wales. A landing was made in the inlet which was called Botany Bay
(34° S.), from the great number of strange plants seen for the first time on its
shores. He next turned north to New Guinea, and proved, by passing
through Torres Strait, that the island was really separated from New Hol-
land ; thence continuing his voyage by Java and the Cape of Good Hope, he
reached the Dovras again in June 1771.

30. Geographers had long theoretically held that there must exist a great
continent in the south to balance the mass of land in the northern hemisphere,
and accordingly a vast " Terra Australis Incognita " was shown on most maps
of the time, filling up the Antarctic regions. To ascertain the truth about this
unknown land was the main object of Cook's second expedition in the ships
" Resolution " and " Adventure," with which for three years he searched all
round the icy Antarctic region, passing due east from the Cape of Good Hope
to New Zealand, and thence round to Patagonia, steering south at frequent
intervals, till brought to a halt each time by the close pack-ice of the Antarctic
region. He thus made known the vast extent of the southern ocean, freeing it
from the fantastic lands that had filled it up, an<l proving conclusively that no
greiit continent existed at all outside the limit of the south Polar circle.

31. The belief in the possibility of a nortli-west passage between the
Atlantic and Pacific still prevailed at home, and Cook had no sooner returned
from his second voyage, than his ofi'er to set out on a new voyage of explora-
tion was accepted by the Admiralty. In this third campaign (1776-79),
Cook sought a passage through Bering Straits instead of the old route by
Davis Straits, and rounded the north-western extremity of America by this

72 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

route, but was brought to a standstill by the barrier of ice in front (Icy Cape).
On returning south, he was the tirst to explore the Sandwich Islands (one of
which had been seen by Gaetano in 1542), naming them thus after the First
Lord of tlie Admiralty at the time. It was on the island of Hawaii, in this
group, that Cook met his tragical death in 1779.

32. While Cook was absent on this third voyage, the attempts to enforce
taxation on the North American colonies had led to gi-eat events in that part
of the world. Though of very various origin, as we have seen, these colonies
were united by common fears and interests, so that their first impuLse was to
join in their common grievance. The first Act to raise revenue by stamps
caused gi-eat indignation, and was repealed, but the principle was not aljau-
doned, though ultimately the only duty remaining was that on tea. From north
to south in the colonies, however, it was determined that this tax should not be
paid, and rioters in Boston, disguised as Indians, were the first to break the
peace by wantonly destroying some cargoes of it, " blackening the harbour
with unexj^ected tea." It was now deternuned to enforce the government of
the crown over the colonies, and a fleet with 10,000 trooj^s was despatched to
America, and war was begun in 1775, when the famous battle of liunh-r's
HUl, near Boston, was fought. Next year the colonies proclaimed their
separation from Great Britain, declaring themselves free and independent
under the general title of the thirteen United States of America. These
thirteen states,^ occujiying the Atlantic coast-slope between Spanish Florida
and Canada, east of the Alleghany Mountains, had gathered a population,
in the century and a half which had elapsed since the first settlement on the
coast of Virginia had been made, of about 2,500,000. The war was carried
on with varying success ; army after army was sent out from England. The
States on their part endeavoured in vain to induce the British colonies of
Canada and Nova Scotia to join iu the struggle for independence ; but Spain
and Holland joined them in the war, and Paul Jones, with ships fitted out in
French ports, but sailing under the American flag, fought desperate battles on
the English coasts. It was only in 1783 that peace was finally concluded
between England, France, Holland, and America, the independence of the
States being acknowledged. Four years later the constitution of the United
States was framed, and Washington was the first president.

33. Thus in the latter part of this century, the portions of the North
American continent which had been occupied and brought under European
government were five. (1.) Mexico or New Spain, with California (which had
been occupied in 1767 by the Franciscan friars, the successors of the expelled
Jesuits in Mexico), was under the dominion of Spain ; (2.) Louisiana, which
had been made over to Spain by the ignominious peace of Paris in 1763,
was restored at the close of the century to France. (3.) The United States in
the east were extended before the end of the century by the addition, to the
original thirteen, of the new states of Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
(4.) Canada after its conquest had been extended to include all the interior
country down to the confluence of the Mississipjji and Ohio; but the territories
of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, were given up
to the American Republic in 1783. (5.) Finally, in the north were the terri-
tories of the Hudson Bay Company. All the interior and western region of
the continent remained still in the hands of the warlike aboriginal Indians.

34. Explorers sent by the American fur traders of the north were the first
to gain a knowledge of the interior of the continent and of its extent towards

1 New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
and Georgia.

HISTOKICAL. 73

tlie Arctic sea. The Coppermine River was first traced dovra to its mouth on
the shore of the Arctic Ocean by an emissary of the Hudson Bay Company
named Hearne in 1769 ; twenty years later, on behalf of a rival association
called the North-West Company of Montreal, Mackenzie descended the great
river which now bears his name, past the Great Slave and Bear Lakes to the
Arctic sea, and was the first to cross the continent in its entire breadth over the
Rocky Mountains to the Pacific.

35. In Sjianish South America several changes were made in the administra-
tive divisions during this century ; in the north New Granada was made into
a separate viceroyalty, formed of the jorovinces of Panama, Santa Fe de
Bogota, and Quito, the last being taken from the existing viceroyalty of Peru.
Down to 1775 the basin of the Rio de la Plata in the south remained a
dependency of Peru, but in that year it was erected into a distinct viceroyalty,
and Upper Peru or Bolivia was subsequently added to it. During the earlier
half of the century the " Christian Republic" of the Jesuit missions in
Paraguay had enjoyed unexampled prosperity and was rising surely to wealth
and power, when the edict went forth from Spain banishing the Jesuits from
the realm, and Paraguay was added to the viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres.

36. Brazil meanwhile had entirely recovered its independence from the
Dutch, who had all but supplanted the Portuguese in their East Indian colonies,
and the fostering care of the motlier country was devoted to it almost exclusively.
In 1780 the boundaries between Spanish and Portuguese America were first
defined. Here, however, as in North America, the European settlements were
mainly along the coast-land and the lines of the gi-eat rivers, all the interior of
the land remaining in possession of the native Indian tribes, who were gradu-
ally amalgamating with their conquerors and the Africans brought thither as
slaves.

37. Over in Africa, the coast-line of the vast continent was now well known,
and had been settled at various points by European colonies. The period of
those inland journeys of exploration which have little by little disclosed its
hidden features and unveiled the very fountains of the Nile itself, had now
begun. In 1770, James Bruce had reached the capital of Abyssinia and the
source-lakes of the Blue Nile, bringing back with him such marvellous tales
that some of them were set down as fabrications, though they have now been
fully confirmed. In 1793, Browne first reached Darfur, and brought the
first reports of the White Nile. Three years later, Mungo Park first saw the
Niger ; and in the same year the Portuguese sent Dr. Lacerda from Mozam-
bique and the Zambesi stations to visit the inland potentate, the Cazembe.

38. It was in 1793 that the British first took possession of the Cape
Colony, though six years later it was temporarily restored to Holland ; and in
1787 the philanthropic endeavours then being made in England under the
leadership of Mr. William Wilberforce brought aliout the establishment of
the West African colony of Sierra Leone, to show the possibility of obtaining
colonial produce ^vithout slave labour. Perim Island, a barren rock, important
however in its position at the entrance to the Red* Sea, of which it may be
called the Gibraltar, was now first taken possession of by the British.

39. Across the Indian Ocean the first European settlement in Australia
was formed by the despatch from England of a batch of 760 convicts and 700
soldiers, besides a few cattle, horses, and sheep, all which were landed (January
1788) at Cook's Botany Bay ; soon afterwards tlie settlement was trans-
ferred a little way north to the more promising shores of Port Jackson, the
beautiful harbour of the present city of Sydney. Twelve years later Nor-
folk Island was made into a penal settlement for the colony of New South
Wales.

40. An important voyage of discovery on the Asiatic coast remains to be

74 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

noticed. It was made by the French voyager La Perouse, who distinguished
himself during the American war by his expedition to attack the British forts
on the stormy ice-bound shores of Hudson Bay ; he was sent out in 1785
to attempt again the discovery of a north-west passage by Bering Strait. He
for the iirst time surveyed the shores of Japan and Tartary, discovering
Saghalien Island, and the straits which separate it from the island of Yesso
and the mainland, sending home his journals by way of Kamtchatka. He also
examined part of the little-kno\vu American coast on the opposite side of the
Pacific, though he failed to add to knowledge farther north. His voyage has
a strange interest, for after anchoring in Botany Bay on his return, his ships
disappeared altogether, and no trace of them was ever afterwards found, though
several expeditions were sent out in search — the only clue to his fate being the
discovery thirty years later of some articles that had belonged to his vessels on
one of the small northern islets of the New Hebrides.

12. 1800-1880.

By far the most important and rapid changes of power and
territorial limits in the beginning of the nineteenth century were those
■which were taking place in western Europe, where the boundless
ambition of France under Napoleon Bonaparte brought about the
most tremendous wars that the civilised world had ever knowai, and
threatened the overthrow of the oldest states of Europe. With this
part of the world, accordingly, it may be well to begin our outline
of the leading movements of the century through which we are now
passing.

1. We left France when that State had been extended far beyond its normal
limits to include the greater part of North Italy on the one side, and Belgium
on tlie other. Egypt also had fallen imder its sway, and Napoleon, as First
Consid, had in his hands the entire command of its affairs, civil and nuli-
tary. Austria in alliance with Russia had renewed the war with France in

1799, to recover Piedmont and Lombardy, gi\ing the cause for Napoleon's
daring march across the Alps by the Great St. Bernard pass, in the spring of

1800, and the great battle of Marengo, which for the second time compelled
the Austrians to resign their hold on Lombardy. The peace of Luneville,
(1801) confirmed the conditions which had been premised by those of Cam230
Formio two years before, Austria recei\ing Venetia within the Adige, while
France gi-asped all the remaining portions of the old maritime state, including
its possessions on the Albanian coast, and the Ionian Islands. Nearer home
also the French boundary was extended over Belgium to the Rhine.

2. Wliile these events were progressing, the northern powers of Europe-
Denmark, Sweden, Russia,'and Prussia — ^jealous of the growing maritime power of
Britain, sho\\^l by the splendid \'ictories over the Spanish at Cajje St. Vincent,
and the French at Aboukir Bay, had entered into an armed neutrality to
restrict its power. On this, tlie British fleet was promptly despatched to the
Baltic, and in the glorious battle of Cojjenhagen (1801) Nelson not only
captured the Danish fleet, but shattered the dreaded coalition comi^letely.
About the same time the British and Turks were finally expelling the French
from Egypt — events which paved the way for negotiations.

3. The peace of Amiens (1802), which was intended to settle the points in
dispute between France, England, Spain, and Holland, obliged the French to
leave Rome, Naples, and Elba, but restored tranquillity for a brief space

HISTORICAL. 7

only : next year the peace was again dissolved, war with Britain was de-
clared, and a large army was assembled at Boulogne to invade our islands.
The French troops now took possession of Hanover; Sweden joined with
Britain, and Spain with France. Over the seas, the Dutch possessions of
Surinam, Denierara, and Essequibo, which had been restored to the Batavian
Rejiublic by the treaty of Amiens, again fell to Britain.

4. In 1804 Napoleon assumed the title of Emi^eror of France ; in the fol-
lowing summer he was crowned King of Italy at Milan, and in the same year
the Genoese or Liguriau Republic was incorporated with France. Alarmed at
the grovnng extent of French power, Austria, Russia, and Sweden now formed
a new coalition with Britain, and hostilities began, in which a series of extra-
ordinary triumphs crowned the arms of France. Though at sea the British
were still triumphant, gaining the glorious victory of Trafalgar over the
combined French and Spanish fleets (October 1805), the Austro-Russian army
was totally defeated by Bonaparte, two months later, on the field of A usterlitz ;
the continental coalition against France was thereby broken, and the peace
that was signed at Presburg on the Danube, gave Venetia and the Adriatic
provinces of Austria to France.

5. Next year Bonaparte made his brother Joseph King of Naples, and
Louis Iving of Holland. He then formed the "Confederation of the Rhine,"
which induced tlie ruler of Austria to give up his title of Emperor of Germany.
Sixteen of the German Princes, the chief of whom were the sovereigns of
Bavaria and Wiirteniberg, signed an act of confederation at Paris, dissolving
their connection with the Germanic Empire and allying themselves with
France. Hostilities were now begun against Prussia, which found an ally in
Russia, while Napoleon summoned the Poles to his aid by promises of libera-
tion, and gathered round him an army of Patriots. The French entered Berlin,
defeated the Russians in the great battle of Friedhmd ; and the peace of
Tilsit in 1807 cost Prussia half its dominions, the Poles being rewarded by
the partial restoration of their indej^endeuce by the creation of the " Duchy of
Warsaw," to which Galicia was added in 1809.

6. The kingdom of Westphalia, which included that province and a number
of the adjoining petty German States, was now formed, and placed under
Jerome Bonaparte as a preliminary step to its incorporation with France.
Denmark, which had hitherto maintained neutrality, and had been rapidly
increasing her fleet, was now summoned to enter into an alliance with England.
Refusing this, Copenhagen was bombarded by the British, the arsenals and
docks commanding the Sound were destroyed, and all the shipping disabled,
sunk, or taken back to England. Smarting under this treatment, Denmark
soon after became the ally of France.

7. Napoleon next turned his attention to Portugal, which country had
refused to conform to his edict issued at Berlin, excluding British manufac-
tures from the Continent, and Dom Joao, the Prince Regent, learning that
Napoleon had determined upon the destruction of his dynasty, left Portugal
with all his family in 1807, transferring his seat of government to Rio de
Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, an act which was immediately followed by the
occupation and annexation of Portugal by the French.

8. Spain had been a party to the aggressions of France in Portugal, but
soon herself felt the effects of her folly ; the whole of her royal family was
entrapped at Bayonne, and the crown of Spain and the Indies was made
over by Napoleon to his brother, Joseph of Naples, his kingdom there being
given to his brother-in-law, the " Swordsman," Murat. The patriots of Spain
and Portugal soon rose against the yoke of France, and Britain being invited
to their aid, the Peninsular war began (1808), in which Sir Arthur Wellesley
(afterwards Duke of Wellington) gained liis glorious name in the triumphs of

76 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

Vimiera and Talavera, on the famous lines of Torres Vedras, at Giudad
Rodrifjo, Salamanca, and Vitoria, pursuing the French gradually back across
the Pyrenees and across the Garonne, to defeat them beneath the walls of
Toulouse (1814).

9. Wlien the Peninsular war was just beginning, Austria had once more
taken arms against the French, drawing ujion itself another invasion by
Napoleon ; the French again entered Venice, and notwithstanding the defeats of
Aspern and EssUng, once more prostrated Austria in the decisive battle of
Wagram, compelling the ignoble peace of Vienna, by which more than
58,000 square miles of her territory on the soTitli and all her seaboard passed
into the hands of France — western Galicia, with Cracow, being given up to
the Duchy of Warsaw.

10. Tliis treaty was followed by the marriage of Napoleon to the Arch-
duchess Maria Louisa ; and three years later Austria joined with France in a
short-lived alliance against Russia, when, gathering between the Vistula and
Memel a huge force from all his allies — Austrians, Poles, Italians, Swiss, and
Germans — Napoleon undertook the invasion of that country. Through
Wilna, losing thousands after thousands of his troops by sickness and by
the incessant attacks of the Cossacks who hung in the rear of his army,
he chased the Russians by Smolensk till he came up with them at the battle-
field of Boroddno, a week after which deserted Moscoru was reached. Winter
coming on early in the already wasted country compelled the disastrous retreat,
October 1812, the very time at which Wellington was beginning to invade
southern France from Spain.

11. Abandoning the WTetched remnant of his army. Napoleon hastened
back to Paris, there to raise a fresh conscription and again to march into
Germany. But the spell of terror which the very name of Bonaparte had
hitherto exercised was broken. Russia and Prussia allied themselves against
him ; Austria also joined them ; the Confederation of the Rhine and the
powers of Westphalia vanished like a mist, the whole German people rising
to deliver themselves from tlieir bondage. The three days' " battle of the
nations " at Leipzig hopelessly ruined the power of Napoleon, and compelled
his retreat across the Rhine, followed into France by the allies. In March
1814 Paris was taken, and the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia
entered it as conquerors, the victorious Wellington joining them a few weeks
later from the south. Napoleon abdicated, but was allowed to retain the
title of emperor and the sovereignty of the little Italian island of Elba, whither
he was conveyed in a British ship.

12. Not a year later Napoleon had made his escape from Elba ; landing
near Frcjus (March 1815) on the French coast, he rallied round him his
old soldiers, marched to Paris and once more prepared to give battle to the
allies. The news of his landing had again spread terror throughout Europe,
and Austria, Russia, Prussia, and England at once allied themselves, the Duke
of Wellington taking command of the armies of the Netherlands. The cam-
paign lasted but a few days, the memorable battle of Waterloo (18th June
1815), annihilating the power of Nai^oleon, who, under the safeguard of the
British, was exiled to the solitary ocean islet of St. Helena.

13. Immediately after the downfall of Napoleon, the representatives of
every sovereign state in Europe, to the number of 500, gathered in the Congress
of Vienna to re-arrange and settle the respective limits which had been so rudely
broken through in Napoleon's aggressive wars. By this conference, Belgium
and Holland were joined to form the " Kingdom of the Netherlands ;" Norway
was separated from Denmark and annexed to Sweden in consideration of the
aid given by the Swedes against Napoleon, though Iceland and the Greenland
colonies remained to Denmark ; Hanover was restored to Britain, with a large

HISTORICAL. 7 7

slice of Westphalia ; Lombardy to Austria ; Savoy to Piedmont. Greater
discussion was needed before it was decided that Prussia should oljtain a por-
tion of Saxony (Prussian Saxony), with Posen and the gi-eater part of the left
bank of the Rhine ; and before those portions of the Duchy of Warsaw which
were not resigned to Austria and Prussia, were formed into the kingdom of
Poland as a separate state, united to Russia by the personal tie of the same
monarch being sovereign in each. The old constitution of Switzerland was
re-established ; Genoa was joined to Sardinia ; and the Pope was restored to
his territorial authority.

From the starting-point of this re-arrangement of the map of
Europe we may now follow rapidly the subsequent changes of terri-
tory in each of the leading States of Europe which have given them
the limits they occupy at the present day.

14. France was now restricted to the limits which it had before the outbreak
of the Revolution (1790), and her frontier fortresses were occupied by the
allied troops for live years. It may be suihcient here to recall three leading
points in the subsequent history of this state — the conquest of Algeria, begun
in 1830, which we shall afterwards refer to more jjarticularly ; the Italian
campaigns in aid of Sardinia against Austria in 1859, in compensation for
which the provinces of Savoy and Nice (Alpes Maritimes) were added to
France ; and the Franco-German war of 1871, during which more than a
fourth part of France was overrun by the Germans, and after which two of its
most populous and industrial provinces, those of Lorraine and Alsace (which
had formed part of Germany till the end of the seventeenth century), were
incorporated as part of the German Empire.

15. Directly after the settlement of Vienna, those of the German States
which still retained their sovereignty (now about forty in number) united to
form a confederation, of which Austria and Prussia were naturally by far the
most powerful members, rivalling one another for the leadership of Germany.
This rivalry displayed itself in mutual jealousy and ill-will, which seemed
more than once likely to end in war.

On the northern border animosity had long existed between the German
and Danish inhabitants of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, which
broke out in an actual war in 1848, put down for a time by the defeat of
the Schleswig-Holsteiners at Idsted in 1849. On the death of Frederick
VII. of Denmark in 1863, however, the duchies refused the oath of allegiance
to the new king as their rightful duke, and appealed to the German Diet ;
this gave a j^retext for the entry of an Austro-Prussian army into Holstein.
For ten weeks the Danes made a gallant resistance, but the final victory of the
greater powers was inevitable, and after protracted negotiations Denmark was
obliged to accejit peace (August 1864) on the hard terms of ceding to Austria
and Prussia the duchies of Holstein, Schleswig, and Lauenburg, when, by the
treaty of Gasteln, a joint occupation of the duchies by these powers was
agreed upon.

16. Already differences of policy between the two rival powers of Germany
had begim to show themselves, Prussia being supposed to intend the final
annexation of the duchies, Austria to desire the question relating to them to
be referred to the Diet for settlement, and both nations made preparations for
a final struggle. Italy also was actively arming to take advantage of the
impending contest to strike a blow for Venetia. On the sitting of the Diet in
1866, Austria placed the question of tlie ducliies at the disposal of the Diet —
an act which was considered as an insult by Prussia ; war was soon after de-
clared against Austria. Then followed the Prussian mvasion of Austria

78 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

through Bohemia, and the decisive battle of Koniggratz or Sadotva, which
allowed the victorious Prussians to advance towards Vienna. The South
German states — Bavaria, Wtirtemberg, and Baden — had sided with Austria in
the contest, but their armies were likewise isolated and del'eated. The
Italians had attacked Austria by land and sea, in Venetia and the Adriatic,
but without great success. By the treaty of Frague, which concluded the
contest, Austria was excluded from all farther share in the organisation of
the Germanic States, and formally agreed to the incorporation of Schleswig-
Holstein with Prussia and the surrender of Venetia to Italy. Most of the
smaller states north of the river Main which had taken up arms against
Prussia were incorporated, and the others were united with Prussia to form
the North German Confederation, from which Bavaria, Baden, and Wtirtem-
berg, or the South German states, were excluded.

17. In these events, and in the subsequent reorganisation of the country
with the prospect of a united Germany, its great statesman and soldier
Bismarck has been the leading spirit. The opportunity for the accomplish-
ment of this unification of Germany came in 1871. France had declared war
with Germany in July of the former year, and South and North Germany
united to oppose the proposed invasion. In place of a march to Berlin, the
campaign was carried on entirely on French soil, the Germans being victorious
throughout from the opening battle of Saarhruck to the capitulations of
Sedan, Metz, and Paris. At Versailles, in January 1871, the King of Prussia
was crowned Emperor of Germany, the empire being formed by the close union
of every German state with the exception of Austria ; the treaty of peace
signed at Frank fort-on-the- Main in May of the same year added Alsace and
Lorraine to that empire.

18. Early in the century,' at the instigation of Napoleon, Persia had taken up
arms again in a vain contest with Paissia, terminating (1813), after two years of
contest, by the cession to the northern power of all the Persian provinces to the
north of Armenia, and conceding the right to the navigation of the Caspian.

19. The events of 1814 had equally altered the condition of Russia, giving
that country great weight in European politics, while internal reforms had
acted very favourably on the industry and well-being of the empire. This
course of progress was, however, checked on the accession of Nicholas I.
(1825), who reverted to the ancient despotic jiolicy of the Czars, and soon
involved the country iu fresh wars with Persia and Turkey. That with Persia
was begun in 1826, and cost that power the remainder of its territory in
Armenia, with Erivan, and a large sum for the expenses of the war. The year
(1828) that peace was concluded with Persia, an invasion of Turkey was
begun ; Walachia, Moldavia, Bulgaria, and Rumelia were overrun ; but at the
peace of Adriano2>le (1829) these territories were left in possession of the
Porte, in consideration of the cession to Russia of the whole north-east coast
of the Black Sea, from the mouth of the river Kuban to the port of Nikolaya
(42° N.), with the territories of the Caucasus, besides the right of free navi-
gation of the Danube and the free passage for Russian ships through the Dar-
danelles from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. The independent moun-
taineers of the Caucasus range still held out, though war was continually waged
against tliem with energy and perseverance.

I 20. A national rising of the Poles next occupied attention. This was sup-
pressed only after a very sanguinary contest of nearly a year's duration, and
punished by the conversion of Poland into a mere Russian province. Viewing
with alarm the extension of British power in Asia, Nicholas desjjatched an
expedition for the conquest of Khiva, in Central Asia, in 1 839 ; but it failed,
as the previous one of Peter had done, the greater part of the Russian army
perishing in the desert.

HISTOEICAL. 79

21. In 1853 the hereditary scheme for the absorption of Turkey was again
entertained, when the unexpected opposition of Britain, France, and Sardinia
brought on tlie Crimean war, during which, if the allies did not gain any
signal successes, the defeat on the Danube at Silistria and on the Alma, and
the capture of Sebastopol, drained Eussia of men and money, lost her much
nulitary prestige, and closed to her the navigation of the Danube and the
unrestricted passage of the Black Sea.

With" the capture of the j^rophet chief Schamyl, the most active of Russia's
foes in the Caucasus, in 1859, the conquest of that mountain region may be
said to have been completed.

22. The next important addition to Russian territory was that of the
region of the coast-land of eastern Siberia north of Manchuria. By the treaty
with China of 1861, all the territory north of the Amur river and east of its
tributary the Usuri, including the Asiatic shores of the Sea of Japan as far
south as the fine harbour of Peter the Great, or Vladivostok Bay, was ceded
to Russia, giving the Siberian provinces a good outlet to the Pacific. A new
insurrection in Poland in 1863-186-1 was put down ^\ith extreme severity.

23. Central Asia next claims attention. For many years a series of wars
had been waging between the Khanates of Turkistan, in which direction the
line of Russian outposts east of the Caspian had been steadily if gradually
pushed forward. Bokhara, Khokau, and Khiva had been mutually at war,
the first generally prevailing. Taking advantage of these disputes, the
Russians, siding with Khiva, invaded Khokan in 1864, and taking the city
of Tashkpid, became virtually masters of this Khanate, forming it in 1867
into the nucleus of the general government of Russian Turkistan. The city of
Samarkand, in Bokhara, once the capital of Tamerlane's great emiaire, fell
before the Russian advance in 1868, and this, with the surrounding country,
was incorporated with Russian Turkistan in 1870 as the province of Zerat-
shan, from the river which flows through it. A farther advance eastward was
made in 1871, when the town of Kulja, with the upper valley of the Hi river,
on which it stands, was annexed by the Russians. A third campaign against
Khiva in 1873 terminated successfully, the capital town being occupied, and the
whole of the former Khivan territory along the right bank of the Amu Daria
(Oxus) being ceded to the conqTierors. During the next year a new Trans-Cas-
pian province was formed, extending from the government of the Ural along the
eastern side of the Caspian Sea as far as the Attrek, the frontier river of Persia.
In 1875 the remainder of the Khanate of Khokan was finally incorporated, the
Russian frontier in Central Asia being thus extended to the summit of the range
of the western Thian Shan mountains, thence to the Oxus and the Sea of Aral
and the limits of Persia on the eastern side of the Caspian. Thus since 186'1
Russia has added nearly a million and a half of square miles of territory and
perhaps four millions of inhabitants to its empire in Central Asia alone.

24. In April 1877, on the pretext of enforcing reforms in the government
of Turkey, the Russian Enq)eror, who during the previous year had been collect-
ing troops in Bessarabia, declared war, his army beginning simultaneously to
cross the river Pruth into European Turkey, and from Alexa7idropol against
Kars in Asia Minor. Romania, though nominally a dejiendency of Turkey,
was friendly to Russia, and no obstacle stood in the way of the advance to the
Danube. This river was crossed in the end of June. The heroic defence of
Plevna by Osnian Pasha and his army tluhiyed the Russian advance in Europe
till the beginning of December, Kais having been cajjtured in the previous
month. After the fall of Plevna, a general advance of the Russian armies
took place across the Balkan mountains, almost unchecked, to the neigh-
bourhood of Constanlinojjlc. All the noith-eastern region of Eurojjean
Turkey was thus again in the hands of Russia. A Congress of representatives

80 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

of the gretat European Powers subsequently met at Berlin to determine the
future limits of Russia and Turkey. By the treaty whicli was signed in July
1878, the Russian frontier was extended over Western Bessarabia to the
Danube (thus to Russia the territory which had been taken from her after the
Crimean War was restored), and in Asia the territory from the port of Batum
on the Black Sea, and round Kars in the interior, was added to the Russian
territory of the Caucasus. The independence of Romania, Servia, and
Montenegro was recognised. Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia were Separated
from the direct rule of the Sultan ; Bulgaria being erected into a tributary
Principality, and Eastern Roumelia into an autonomous province under a
Christian Governor. Servia and Montenegro received considerable accessions
of territory, and Bosnia was placed under Austrian military occupation.

25. Perhaps the most important series of events in the history of China
during this century have been those which have opened its vast territory to
greater freedom of foreign intercourse. It does not appear that when the
coasts of the China Sea were first made known to Europeans, in the four-
teenth century, there existed any feeling of opposition to the admission of
strangers, but the conduct of the Portuguese and Spaniards, who were the first
to come in contact with the Chinese, seems to have excited their hostility.

For nearly 200 years (previous to 1834) the East India Company had held
a monopoly of trade with China at the port of Canton, and though differ-
ences had arisen out of the opium traffic, a British embassy had been well
received in Peking in 1792. Dissensions, however, rose again in 1839, when
open acts of hostility were begun, troops being sent into Canton, and all
the opium belonging to the English merchants seized and destroyed. War
was thereupon declared ; in 1841 the Chinese fleet was scattered, Canton was
taken, with Amoy, Xing-2M, Wu-Sung, and Shang-hai, and by the middle
of 1842 China was sufficiently humbled to agree to the peace of Nanking, by
which the ports of Amoy, Fuchow, Ningpo, and Shang-hai were, with that of
Canton, throwai open to foreign trade, the island of Hong-Kong being ceded
in perpetuity to Britain. Soon the British trade with China assumed gigantic
proportions. A second war broke out, after the seizure of a vessel from Hong-
Kong by the Chinese. In 1857 Canton was stormed by the French and Eng-
lish, the forts at the mouth of the Peiho river on the north were taken, and at
Tientsin a new treaty was concluded, which added that port to the five already
opened, besides those of Kiung-chcnu (in Hainan island), Stuatoio, Teng-chow
(in Shan-timg), New-chivang (in Manchuria), and the river ports of Chin
Kiang, Kiu Kiang, and Hankow, on the Yangtse, the great central water-
way of China. The treaty also stipulated that British diplomatic agents
should have residence in Peking ; that the Christian religion should be pro-
tected ; and that British subjects should have the right to travel in all parts of
the interior of China, — conditions which were ratified at Peking itself, which
was temporarily occupied by the British and French troops in 1860.

26. Among the events in the internal history of China during this time,
the most remarkable was the rise and progress and final supjiression of the
rebellion of the followers of the self-styled " Tai-ping-wang," or " Heavenly
King," a religio-political fanatic, who believed that he had a mission to uproot
the Tatar dynasty and re-establish native rule. His insurrection broke out
in the mountains of the southern province of Kwang-tung in 1849, his fol-
lowers at once making themselves distinct by allowing their hair to grow
naturally long, and not confined in the native queue. Quickly gathering
strength, the Taipings overran all southern China, and passing down the
Yangtse, they captured and established themselves at the southern capital of
Nanking ; afterwards marching northward, their army reached to \rithin 80 miles
of Tientsin, where they encountered the Inijjerial forces in a long contest, and,

HISTORICAL. 8 1

after many defeats, were obliged to fight their way south again. Till 1860,
however, the provinces in the lower basin of the Yangtse remained in their
hands, when the Imperial forces, ^\ith the aid of a British leader, began a
final campaign which lost them every imjsortant position. It was not till
1866 that the last embers of this great insurrection were trodden out in
Kwang-si, the original nest of its origin.

27. The Mohammedan Tatars of the western provinces of China also kept
the interior country in ferment for a long period, and established themselves as
an independent power in the south-western province of Yun-nan. Their rebel-
lion spread far inland to Kansu and north-western Mongolia, from which
regions they drove the Chinese garrisons, closing for several years all the
direct routes of communication between China and Turkistan. In Yun-nan the
Mohammedans were in power from 1854 till 1872, when the chief stronghold,
the city of Tali-fu, again fell to the Chinese troops : the province of Kansu
was not again mastered till 1876, and it was only during 1877 that the
Chinese again gradually recovered the territories west of Mongolia.

28. In connection with these movements in the far interior of China and
with the Russian advances in Western Turkistan, there remain to be noticed
the rise and fall of a very remarkable state in the high central plateau of the
coutinent. Until 1864, Eastern Turkistan had formed part of the Chinese
Empire, the Manchu kings having conquered it, as we have seen from
the descendants of Genghis Khan. In that year the Mohammedan rebels of
Kansu made a successful incursion in this region, and were assisted in expel-
ling the Chinese troops by Usbeg soldiery who had been driven out of
Western Turkistan by the advancing Russians. The leader of these Uzbegs
was a man of remarkable jjowers, named Yakub Beg, who, after the expvdsion
of the Chinese, on being joined by thousands of his countrymen from the
west, seized instantly the cliief power in the newly conquered country, and,
organising a strong soldiery, in turn drove out the Tungauis, or Kansu
Mohammedans. So able was his administration that in a few years Eastern
Turkistan, or " Jetyshahr," as it was named from its seven cities,'^ became to
all appearance such a well consolidated state as to merit the recognition of
Britain. A treaty of commerce with India was concluded in 1874, and by
firman of the Sultan of Turkey its ruler took the title of Amir Yakub Khan.
The Chinese, however, had meanwhile been very gradually recovering their
lost provinces in Central Asia ; their troops appeared on the border of Eastern
Turkistan, and again attacked the usurjiers. During the lifetime of Yakub
Khan the State continued to resist the returning tide of Chinese power; but
his death in June 1877 was a fatal event for Jetyshahr, which had Vjeen only
held together by his iron will. Dissensions for the succession arose, and gave
the Chinese opportunity to advance from Manas and Urumchi almost with-
out resistance, so tliat before the end of 1877 the capital city of Kashgar had
fallen into their hands, and Eastern Turkistan was again in process of being
incorporated with the Cliinese Empire.

29. The islands of Japan, soon after their discovery by Europeans in tlie
fourteenth century, had been freely opened to the foreigner; Portuguese and
later Dutch traders had established very extensive commercial relations there,
and the Jesuit missionaries had extended Christianity very widely. An edict
for tlieir complete exclusion had, however, been put in force in 1638, and
from that time onward till the middle of the present century, Jajjan main-
tained a most rigid isolation, no Japanese beiiig permitted to leave his own
shores, and no foreigner allowed to land on them. This state of matters con-

1 Khotan or Ilchi, Yarkand, Yangiliissar, Kasligar, Ush-Turfan, Aksu, and Kune
Turfan.

82 THE LONDON GEOGRArilY.

tinned till 1853, when the United States Government succeeded in obtaining
a permission to trade at two ports, under restrictions. The isolation thus
broken, a more satisfactory treaty was concluded in 1858, by which foreigners
were allowed to trade at the live ports of Hakodate, Kanagaiva (the port of
Yedo, or Tokio), Nagasaki, Niiyata, and Hiogo (the port of Osaka). Ee-
opened to foreign intluence, changes of almost startling rapidity have been
adopted in the country : the whole political constitution of the empire has
been re-modelled ; religious reforms of the most sweeping character have been
adopted ; everything is being rapidly Europeanised ; railways, telegraphs,
colleges, have been set up, and European costume, even, is speedily superseding
the native dress.

30. We have already noticed how toward the end of the eighteenth century
the French secured an interest in the kingdom of Anani or Cochin China.
Their first interference, owing to complications at home, had not been rewarded
by an accession of territory, but the desire for such a convenient resting-place
in the East Indian seas had remained, and a claim to it was set up again in
1860. Landing a force at the delta of the Mekong river in that year, the French
captured the city of Saigon, and forced a treaty by which three provinces
were ceded to them in 1867 ; the remainder of Lower Cochin China voluntarily
submitted to them. Since that time the French have made very extensive
explorations inland, by the Mekong, as well as by the more northerly Song-ka
river, seeking a trade route to southern China. Through their influence the
port of Kesho, in Tong-king, was opened to the commerce of the world in 1875,
and the right of navigation of the Song-ka river to the Chinese province of
Yun-nan was secured.

31. The very interesting countries of Siam and Cambodia have played no
important part in the world Ijeyond their limits, and we may pass over them
to Burmah. This empire, which began to rise to power in the last century,
attained its greatest expansion about the year 1822, when it extended from
Bengal on the north-west to Cambodia in the south-east, including all the
territory between Assam and the island of Junk Seylon or Salanga, off the
coast of the central Malay peninsula.

The East India Company had obtained a settlement, and some other advan-
tages, ill Burma in 1737 ; but at the period of greatest power, aggressions on
the part of the Burmese, and insolence to the British ambassador at the court
of Ava, gave cause for a first war, which terminated in the cession to Britain
of the maritime provinces of Tenasserim and Aracan. A second war in 1852
deprived the emjnre of its remaining seaboard, the provinces of Pegu and
Martaban being retained at its conclusion ; these, with the two previously ceded
areas, were formed into the tenitory of British Burmah. At the close of the first
Burmah war, the northern province of Assam, in the basin of the Braniaputra
river, was also ceded to the British, and was for a time transferred by them to
a native Rajah whom the Burmese had formerly expelled ; but its mis-govern-
ment led to its being brought finally under British administration in 1838.
Thus we again approach India.

32. In touching upon the events, of conquest or of annexation by which the
Indian peninsula has lieen brought directly or indirectly under the British crowai,
it is impossible, within our limits, to do more than recall a few of their many
prominent points. We left India in the last chapter, when Marquis Wellesley
had brought Mysore under British influence. His gi-eat victory over the
Mahrattas under Scindia at Assaye, in 1803, gave the British arms still higher
fame in Central India. The same year saw the conquest of Delhi, the capital of
the Mogul Emperors of North India, by General Lake, and a very considerable
extension of the dominions of the Company in that direction. Sir Charles
Napier's conquest of Sind against fearful odds in 1843, is one of the most

HISTORICAL. 83

brilliant military feats in the history of India ; immediately after it followed
tlie Sikh wars, 1845-46, and 1848-49, wliich gave Britain the government of
the Panjab. In 1856 tlie Company was obliged, in the interests of its mis-
governed inhabitants, to annex tlie province of Oude. In 1857 discontent in
the native army, fostered by a Mohammedan conspiracy, broke forth in the
Sepoy rebellion ; the march of the mutineers to Delhi, the massacre of Cawn-
pore, and the siege and then the relief of Lucknow by the heroic Havelock
followed. In 1858 no position of imi^ortance had been left to the mutineers,
)iut such a calamity showed the necessity for concentrating the supreme power
in the hands of the Imperial government ; and, in sjiite of strenuous resistance,
tlie East India Company was obliged to cede its powers to the crown in
August 1858. The system of government of the country was in some degi-ee
altered ; natives of the higher classes were admitted to a share in the councils,
and the proportion of native to European troops was much lessened. The
Governor-General, formerly the servant of the East India Company, liecame
"Viceroy and Governor-General." In 1876 the Queen of England assumed
the title of "Empress of India."

33. The Portuguese settlers of the sixteenth century in the great island of
Ceylon were driven from that island, as we have before noticed, after a contest
of twenty years, by the Dutch in the middle of the seventeenth century.
Before tlie beginning of the nineteenth, the Hollanders in turn gave place to
tlie British. During the great European war which succeeded the French
Revolution, immediately after the Batavian Republic had been set up under
the protection of France, a British exjiedition under Colonel James Stuart
landed at Trincamali and captured Colombo, when all the Dutch settlements
on the island were ceded, though it was not till the Peace of Amiens in 1802
that Ceylon was formally annexed to the British Empire.

A war with the Kandj-an king in 1815 gave the British direct rule over
the central territories of the island, since which time its material prosperity
has made rapid strides.

A very imjJortant station, that of the island of Singapore, on the highway
of commerce, in the straits which lead from the China Sea to the Indian
Ocean, was acquired by purchase from the Malay Sultan in 1819.

34. During the brief existence of the Batavian Republic, and Napoleon's
subsequent incorjjoration of the Netherlands with France, all the Dutch East
Indian possessions, besides Ceylon, fell into the hands of the British — Malacca,
Sumatra, the Moluccas or Spice Islands, in 1795-96 ; Java in 1810. All were,
hovvever, restored to the Dutch after the re-arrangement of atl'airs in Europe,
excejjt Malacca, which remained in the hands of Britain.

Lahunn, important from its extensive coal-beds, was made over to Britain
by the Sultan of Bruni, the native prince of nortli-west Borneo, in 1846.

35. Passing westward from India, w6 come to Afghanistan, which, as we
have seen, first appears as an independent state after the breaking up of the
empire raised bj' Nadir Shah (p. 69). Wliile the soldiers of the East India
Company were extending their conquests in Northern India in the early part
of this century, the ruler of Afghanistan, Dost Mohammed, was at war with
the Persians on his western border, and with the ruler of the Panjab on the
east. The Panjab was at this time in friendly relations with the British
in the North-West Provinces; and when hostilities broke out in 1S38
between the British and Afghanistan (the object of the former being to place
a more friendly ruler on the Afghan throne), the PanjaT) joined, tliougli not
heartily, in the enterprise. A British expedition went into Alghanistan by
the Bolan Pass, which captured Kandahar and the fortress of Uhazni, and enter-
ing Kahal seemed to have completed the conquest of the country. But when
the winter of 1841-2 came on, and assistance from India was impossible, the

84 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

Afghans again rose to arms. A humiliating capitulation was necessitated, and
a winter retreat to India began. Once within the walls of the Khurd Kabul
Pass, the British were attacked on all sides, and slaughtered by the fanatical
tribes, only one man out of the 15,000 who formed tlie expedition reached
India alive to tell the tale. A British army of retriljution marched into
Afghanistan in the same year (1842), destroyed the great bazaar of Kabul,
and then retired to India. Wlien the second Sikh war began in 1848, the
Afghans joined with them, but forsook them after the decisive battle of
Oujerat in 1849. Dost Mohanyued fled over the Indus, and was followed
to the mouth of the Khyber (or Khaibar) Pass by the British, whose frontier
was thus brought up to its entrance.

The later history of Afghanistan is one of continual disorders and factions,
gradually becoming consolidated round the stronger central power of Kabul,
which has occasionally been aided by subsidy. To Kabul, Dost Mohammed
Khan being still ruler, the northern province of Balkh was added by
conquest in 1850 ; and Kandahar in the south in 1854. The province of
Herat, to the west, the scene of frequent contests with Persia, was finally
incorporated with Afghanistan in 1863 ; and, Shere Ali having established
himself in his father's place as Amir, friendly relations with the Indian
Government were confirmed in 1869. The present relations of this State to
the Indian Government are sketched in the special description of the country
farther on in tlie book.

.36. In 1871, in consequence of the annexation by Persia of portions
of Baluchistan and soutli-west Afghanistan, the question of the boundary
between Persia and Afghanistan was referred to the arbitration of a British
commission, which in 1871 defined the boundary as it now stands.

37. About this time the continued advance of the Russians each year in
Turkistan made it important that the belt of neutral territory between British
dominion and that under Russian influence should be clearly defined. It was ac-
cordingly decided in 1872 that the northern frontier of Afghanistan should be
the line of the Oxus continued by an arbitrarily drawn line from a point on
that river at Khoja Sale through the Turkoman desert to the Persian frontier.

38. Baluchistan to the south of Afghanistan occupies a very similar political
position to that of its northern neighbour, its ruling chief, the Klian of Khelat,
being maintained in power under English direction and influence. It was in
accordance with this policy that in 1877 the important station of Qiietta, at
the head of the Bolan Pass in Khelat, was occupied liy the British as a guaran-
tee for the preservation of the most important line of communication between
Baluchistan, south Afghanistan, and India.

39. The chief alteration in the territorial limits of Persia has already
(p. 78) been noticed in touching upon the extension of Russian dominion to
the southward. After the repeated wars of the beginning of the century, and
the consequent losses of territory south and west of the Caspian, to which we
have referred, the Persian court became the scene of the rival influences of Russia
and Britain, the former power gaining more and more influence, and securing
for itself the monopoly of building ships of war at the Persian ports of Jtesht
and Astrabad in the Casjiian. By the taking of Herat in 1856 Persia drew
down upon itself an invasion by British troops under Havelock, and the
restoration of Herat to Afghanistan was the result.

40. Coming now to the Ottoman Empire, we may recall the aggressions made
on the Turkish territory in Europe and Asia, which we have already outlined
in referring to the expansion of the northern power. We have also noticed
that, with the aid of Britain, Turkey recovered her possession of Egyjit,
snatched from her by Napoleon.

41. Greece had remained subject to the Mohammedan dominion since the

HISTOKICAL. 85

conquest of Constantinople in 1453 ; its inhabitants groaned under the
t}Tannous and brutal yoke, till in 1820 they were provoked to rebel against
the Turkish rule, and, with the countenance and aid of the Christian powers of
Britain, France, and Russia in the struggle, gained the establishment of Greece
as an independent kingdom in 1829, a son of the king of Bavaria being
ultimately chosen king of the new state.

42. About this time two large regions of the northern side of European
Turkey, though not actually separated from the empire, became to some
extent distinct from it in their government. These were the principalities of
Molda\-ia and Walachia, in which a number of the nobles were of Greek
descent, and who, simultaneously with the Greeks, made an effort to free them-
selves altogether from Turkish rule. lu this they were not successful, but the
influence of Russia gained them certain privileges, and in 1861, by firman of
the Sultan, they were formed into the tributary State of Romania, which after-
wards (1866) obtained a representative government. The complete independ-
ence of Romania was recognised, as we have seen, by the Treaty of Berlin in
1878.

43. Ser\'ia, the country lying on the southern side of the Danube to the
west of Romania, was uniformly the scene of the fierce wars between the Turks
and Hungarians, and passed once or twice alternately into the hands of Austria
and the Porte, finally falling to the latter. After sixty years of the most oppres-
sive government the Servians revolted in 1801, and by the aid of Russians gained
their independence for a time. Napoleon's invasion of Russia, however, with-
drew that support, and till 1815 the country again fell under Turkey's tyran-
nous rule. In that year a war for independence recommenced, and in 1829
the Turks were compelled to grant a virtual independence to Servia. Russia
has also aided the mountaineers of Montenegro in maintaining their independ-
ence of the Turks. The independence and accessions of territory obtained by
these two little States through the Treaty of Berlin 1878 have been already
referred to.

44. As if in compensation for the losses of territory sustained in Europe
during this century, and on its northern border in Asia, the limits of the
Ottoman Empire in south-western Asia and in Africa have spread out
enormously. We have already noticed that the Turks, aided by the Bi:itish,
quickly regained their hold of Egypt. One of tlie Turkish officers who was
sent to Egypt to co-operate with the British against the French invaders was
Mehemet Ali, whose military qualities then displayed themselves to such
advantage that he was raised first to the command of the Turkish troops in
Egypt, and then to the position of \'iceroy of the country. Mehemet was soon
involved in a struggle with the Mamelukes, who had by this time gained such
power in Egj-pt that the Viceroy of the Sultan was merely their nominal
ruler. In the end many of them were cruelly massacred at Cairo, and
the rest, fleeing up the Nile to Nubia, were pursued thither by Mehemet
and utterly exterminated. His son Ibrahim Pasha was engaged during this
time in an expedition against the new Mohammedan sect of the Wahabis, who
had sjiread out from tlie Nejd in central Arabia, and had closed the pilgi-im
caravan route through Hejaz to Mecca, to the Turks and Persians. This
successful undertaking extended the authority of the Porte through Egj^it over
a large part of Arabia. Along the Nile valley Mehemet Ali next added
Kordofan (1S21) by conquest to his dominion, and opened up a great traffic
in slaves from the Sudan to Egy])t.

Thus his position became one of great power and wealth, and his ambition
rose in proportion. During the war of Greek independence his fleet was
destroyed off Xavarino by the combined British, French, and Russian navy,
and this checked his progress for a few years. The government of the island

86 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

of Candia was given to him by the Porte in 1830, but, not satisfied with this,
he sent Ibrahim Pasha on an expedition for the conquest of Syria in 1830, the
success of wliich brought the Turkish home government to the brinlc of ruin.
Tlie European powers interfering, Syria was restored to the Porte, but the
Pashalic of Egj'pt was made hereditary in the family of Mehemet Ali.

45. During the occupation of Egypt by Napoleon's troops attention had
been drawn to the possibility of re-opening the ancient canal which united the
Mediterranean with the Red Sea in the time of the Ptolemies, and a careful survey
of the isthmus was then made. From that time onwards plans were continu-
ally agitated by French engineers for the construction of a ship canal, which
should open a short water- route to the Indies, and in 1856 the concession for
such a work was granted to M. de Lesseps. The result was the completion (in
1869) of the greatest engineering enterprise of modern times — the ship canal
which unites Port Said on the Mediterranean ^\itll Suez at the head of the Red
Sea, 100 miles south.

Such an increase of prestige has been gained by Egypt through this and
other important works of advancement, that in 1866, by imperial firman, the
title of Khediv, or "King" of Egypt, was granted to the late ruler (the fifth
of the line of Mehemet Ali), with powers which made him practically an
independent prince, yielding only homage to the Porte. Financial embarrass-
ments, caused by borrowing money largely from foreign countries and waste-
fully expending it, brought his reign to an end in 1879 ; for the Christian
powers, wliose subjects were his creditors, persuaded the Sultan to depose
him, and to appoint his son Khediv in his stead, in the hope that he would
govern more in accordance with their advice.

46. Since the opening of the Suez Canal the additions by conquest to
Egyptian territory in the Nile basin have been enormous. In 1871 the whole
country of the eastern Soudan and the borders of the Red Sea up to the base
of the Abyssinian highland were added. Under Sir Samuel Baker, and later
under Colonel Gordon, the Egj'jrtian troops have conquered the whole Nile
basin up to near the margin of its great lakes. Westward, Dar-Fur has been
incorporated, and eastward the territory along the Red Sea coast as far as the
Gulf of Aden, and inland to Harar, has come within the Egyptian limit.

47. Beyond Egypt on the Mediterranean coast-land, Tripoli, with the
territories of Barka and Fezzan, remains a province of the Ottoman Empire ;
but Tunis, still farther west, was freed from its annual tribute to the Porte in
1871 though its Bey still receives investiture at Constantinople.

48. For many years previous to the opening of the Suez Canal, the Turkish
power in Arabia had been allowed to fall into abeyance, the struggle of the
Egyptians with the strong nation of the Wahabis having l^een abandoned about
1849. After the opening of the great highway, however, it became important
that these regions should be under settled government, and accordingly,
through the influence of France and Britain, active means were taken by the
Turkish Government for their recovery in 1871. Between that year and
1873, the whole of the coast-land of the Red Sea was recovered and formed
into the two governments of Hejaz and Yemen. The Turks have also
mastered the coast-land of the Persian Gulf from the Wahabis, extending their
donunion from the mouths of the Euphrates to the island of Bahrein, and
forming this into the government of " El Hasa." Thus, the Wahabi kingdom
of the Nejd has been again restricted to the central region of the Arabian
peninsula, and the Turkish borders have been extended to meet those of the
independent state of Oman, or Muscat, in the south-eastern corner of Arabia.

49. Muscat, as we have noticed in a former chapter (page 49), was one
of the earliest conquests of the Portuguese, under Albuquerque, after their
advance round the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Seas. It remained in

HISTORICAL. 87

their hands for nearly a century and a half, till it was recovered by the Arabs.
Wlien the Portuguese were finally expelled (about 1735) from the northern
parts of the East African coast, the Imam of Muscat also took possession of
their former settlements about Zanzibar. The greatest extension of native
power in this state was obtained during the reign of Said Seid, who
reigned in Muscat from 1803 till 1856, extending the Sultanate of Oman not
only over the south-eastern portions of Arabia, and on the Zanzibar coast of
Africa, but to the opposite shores of the Gulf, to Bunder Abbas and Linga on
the Persian coast, and tlie island of Ormuz between. On the death of this
ruler his dominion was divided between his sons, the one becoming Sultan of
Zanzibar, tlie other retaining the sovereignty of the Asiatic provinces, which
have dwindled in extent. The possessions on the Persian coast were given
back in 1867, and the incursions of the Bedouins from tlie desert, and of the
Wahalns from the Xejd, have again reduced the sultanate of Muscat to the
immediate vicinity of its capital.

50. Before passing across to Africa, we must notice the British station of
Aden, on the south-west Arabian coast, on the route to India. Though
exceedingly important from its position at the entrance to the Red Sea,
and having on this account been an ancient mart of Asiatic commerce, to
which even the Chinese were wont to come, this " Eye of Yemen " is a hot
barren volcanic crater that would never have attracted attention or invited
residence but for its geographical position. Its situation, however, made it a
very desirable vantage point. Not long after it began to be thus coveted, in
1838, a British vessel was shipwrecked off its coasts, and the crew being ill-
treated and plundered, restitution was forced from the native Arabian sultan,
and terms of cession of his territory to Britain were agreed upon. Repenting
of his transaction, the chief would have witlidra%vn his consent, but was
held to the bargain by force of arms ; since 1839 Aden has become a strong
British fortress, and has gathered a population from all quarters of the earth.

51. On the other side of the Red Sea, in Africa, rises the wedge-like plateau
of Abyssinia, the top of which, somewhat more extensive in area than the
United Kingdom, is occupied by the mixed peoples — primitive Ethiopians,
Arabs, .Jews, Gallas, and true Negi-oes — whose name, Abyssinians, from the
Arabic habesh — " confusion," refers to this variety of origin. The name is not
less applicable to the political condition of the country, for it has been the
scene of continual struggles for mastery, warfare within and without. Cliristi-
anity appears to have gained ground here as early as tlie fourth century, and
two centuries later the Abyssinians were powerful enough to invade Arabia
and conquer Yemen. The Mohammedan tide of conquest took the coast-land
of the Red Sea from Abyssinia. The Portuguese, arriving in the fifteenth
century, for a time raised the kingdom to importance, but its later history is
of continual changes ; one or other of the cliieftains of its clans gaining, it
may be, tlie. sovereignty over the whole jilateau, only to lose it again by fresh
revolutions. This condition of affairs was well illustrated in the events which
made the British Abyssinian expedition of 1868 a necessity. The chief
Theodore having raised himself by conquest from the condition of the leader
of a band of robbers to he. for a brief period " King of kings of Ethiopia," and
failing to be immediately recognised as a riglitful sovereign by European
powers, imprisoned and held ca])tive the few British sulijects and foreign
missionaries who happened to be in the country. All peaceable eliorts for the
release of these captives having failed, warlike measures were decided upon,
and in 1868 a British force landed at Annesley Bay, near Massotvn, on the
Red Sea, and passed in an arduous march along the high eastern edge of the
table-land, towards the mountain fortress of Mai/dnla in the south, whither
Theodore had retreated. Hoping to avoid punishment, Theodore now sur-

88 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

rendered his prisoners ; but his personal surrender was required. Holding
out to the last, Magdala was stormed by the British, and Theodore, rather
than submit, fell by his own hand.

Since the time of the British expedition, Abyssinia has again been the
scene of contests between rivals for supreme power : in the north-west, north,
and east, it is being constantly encroached upon by the advancing tide of
Egjiitian conquest.

52. Immediately south of Abyssinia proper, on the same high plateau, lies
Shoa, which, until recently, was an independent state. Beyond we come to the
wild and almost unknown region of the Gallas and Somali tribes, who cannot
be said to have either political organisation or iulluence.

53. The Suaheli, or Zanzibar coast, farther south, is, as we have already
seen, in the hands of the Arabs of Oman, though the power of the Sidtan
does not extend inland, or indeed beyond the walls of the Arab forts, which
are dotted along the coast from the Somali country in the north to Cape
Delgado in the south, where the Portuguese East African territory begins.
Although the Portuguese have had settlements on the Mozambique coast
from the beginning of the sixteenth century, a few years after Vasco da Gama
touched at it in his voyage to the Indies, and a long belt from Cajje Delgado
to Delagoa Bay is nominally Portuguese, their influence to this day is restricted
to the immediate vicinity of their forts and settlements ; these are, Pw,
Mozambique; Quelimane, Sena, and Tete, on the Zambesi ; Sofala, Tnhamhane,
and Delagoa Bay, which they hold by a very small military force, chiefly of
deported convicts, their government and trading relations being alike in the
most debased and backward condition.

54. Still farther on we come upon the regions of South Africa which have
passed under British rule — the Cape Colony, Natal, and the Transvaal ; and it
may be interesting to note, in jjassing, the leading points of their history in
this century. The British, as we have already noticed, gained final possession
of the Cape Colony in 1806, after the fleet had been sent out to aid the
Prince of Orange in recovering the possession for the Dutch from the settlers,
who, influenced by the revolutionary ideas then spreading in Europe, had
rebelled against the mother country, and after tlie Batavian Republic had
come under Napoleon's power. At this time the territory did not exceed a
third of its present area; for the colonists had not spread beyond the Hot-
tentot country, nor as far as the Fish River in the east, nor beyond the Great
Karroo, the central mountain range. Tlie Treaty of Paris in 1815 gave
Britain formal possession. Before this the "Boers," or peasant farmers of the
colony, extending eastward, had come in contact with the warlike Kafir
tribes beyond the Fish River, and had fought the great Kafir war of 1811.
The Kafirs invaded the territory west of the Fish River in 1818; but they
were unable to stand against the guns with wliich tlie colonists were
armed ; this second war terminated in the annexation of a large slice of
their territory. A third Kafir invasion, in 1830, had the same result,
the invaders being driven back, and more of their territory — this time as far
as the Kei River — being added to the colony. The emancipation of slaves
throughout all the British domiuions in 1833 had the eff"ect, in the Cape
Colony, of increasing the already existing dissatisfaction of the Dutch " Boers "
with I5ritish rule, to such an extent that many thousands of them left the
Cape Colony, marching with all their belongings northward across tlie Orauge
River and the Drakenberg mountains ; one section of them founding what
is now the colony of Natal, another the Orange State, and a third settling in
the Transvaal; while a body of the Griquas or " Bastards," a race sprung
from the intercourse of the Boers with their Hottentot slaves, settled them-
selves in the neighbourhood of the confluence of the Orange and Vaal rivers.

HISTOEICAL. 8 9

A fourth great Kafir war, in 1846, terminated as before in the farther exten-
sion of the colonial limits, wiiich were now declared to be the Orange River
on the north, and "British Kafraria," the space between the Kei and Keis-
kama river on the east, occupied at first by the Kafir tribes who had been
dispossessed of their lands to tlie westward by tlie colonists. Still a fifth
Kafir war broke out in 1857, and a sixth in 1863, after which British Kafraria
was finally incorporated with the colony. In 1868 the Basutos, or mountain
Bechuanas, who occupy the hill country at the head of the Orange River, were
proclaimed British subjects. A grand discovery of the presence of diamonds
was made in the country near the junction of the Vaal and Orange rivers in
1867, the country to which the Griquas had emigrated in 1833, and thither
rushed thousands of Europeans from all parts of the world. It thus became
necessary, for the proper government of this valuable region, that it should be
brought under British rule, and accordingly, in 1871, its Griqua chief ceded
his rights, and the country (a territory as extensive as Switzerland) was
annexed to the Cape Colony as Griqualaud West, or the Diamond Fields.

55. Since 1870 the limits of the Cape Colony have been expanded eastwards
by the peaceful siibmission of a number of the chiefs and tribes of formerly
independent Kafraria to British rule. In the end of 1877, indeed, what may
be called a seventh Kafir war broke out in the extreme eastern districts of
Kafraria, resulting in the incorporation of the Galeka territory of Chief Kreli
with the colony, leaving only a small remnant of Kafraria in an indejiendent
condition. Along the Atlantic side of the continent preliminary arrangements
were also made for the annexation of the lands of the Namaqua Hottentots
and of the Damara Kafirs to the Cape Colony, which would thus meet at its
northern limit with the eastern boundary of the Portuguese West African
pro\inces.

56. Natal, as we have just seen, was first brought under European influence
by the migrating " Boers " from the Cajie Colony in 1838 ; but they had
scarcely entered it when their main body was set upon and massacred by the
Zulu Kafirs at a place which bears the significant name of Weenen ("weeping")
to this day. A war of retaliation began, and led to the interference of the
British Governor of Cape Colony ; after a brave struggle the Boers were over-
come, the country being i^roclaimed British in 1843, and in 1856 erected into
a sjaecial colony.

57. The Orange State, in the interior, immediately north of the Orange
river, was also settled by the Boers from the Cape; and fell to the British at
the same time as Natal, when it became known as the Orange River Sovereignty.
It remained thus till 1854, when it was abandoned to the Boers, who thereupon
formed it into an independent republican state, as it now stands. On its
annexation by Britain many of the " Boers " who had settled in it retreated
still farther to the north, across the Vaal River, to the slopes of the Magalies-
bergen, establishing there the. new republic which became known as the
Transvaal.

58. Till about 1876 the Transvaal seemed to be destined to a gi-adual
increase of prosperity ; but at that time conflicts took place with the Zulu
Kafirs on its eastern limits, especially in the district of Lydenburg, where
rich gold-fields had been discovered ; the Boers were defeated by the now
well-armed Kafirs, and disorders in the financial government of the State
brought it into a condition of hopeless anarchy and to the verge of ruin.

At this crisis, and to avert the impending invasion of the State by the
powerful Kafir chiefs on its eastern borders, the British intervened ; and in
1877 the Transvaal, a space larger in area than the British Isles, was annexed
to the British dominions. Thus Britisli power in South Africa has been
ever progressing steadily outward from the original nucleus of the little

90 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

settlement founded by Riebeek, in 1642, under the shade of Table Mount, till
it now holds an area larger than the United Kingdom and France put together.

59. Passing round the Atlantic side of the continent northward, we next
come to tlie Portuguese West African territory — the jirovince of Angola, with
its subdivisions of Ambriz, Loanda, Benguela, and Mossamedes. This terri-
tory, with a coast-line of 800 miles from Cape Frio to Ambriz, has no definite
inland limit ; though the dominant Portuguese live for the most imrt iu the
coast towns from which the subdivisions of the possessions are named, their
influence is not limited to these, as in their eastern province of Mozambique.
The country, however, can scarcely be said to have advanced in prosperity
under their rule in any greater degree than that which they formerly held on
the east coast. The government has all along been utterly corrupt, being neither
more nor less than a system of extortion and robbing of the produce and labour
of the native negro tribes. It is significant that though the Portuguese have
had settlements here since 1488, there is not to this day a single highway or
passable road in the whole possession.

60. Still farther along the coast, passing the estuary of the river Congo,
which, since Stanley's discovery of its course, is destined to become a great high-
way of international commerce with central Africa, the next European settle-
ments of importance that we come to are those of the delta of the Ogowe river and
of the inlet of the Gaboon to the north of it, immediately under the equator.
The Ogowe river, though its mouth has been known from the beginning of
this century, was first opened to European commerce after the French surveys
of 1862, and several French, British, and Hamburg factories now trade on its
banks. The abundance of ivory in the neighbourhood of the Gaboon induced
the French to build a fort there in 1842, since which time it has been con-
sidered a French possession.

61. Opposite this settlement in the Atlantic begins the line of the high
volcanic islands of the Gulf of Guinea, two of which. Princes Island and St.
Thomas, have belonged to Portugal since their discovery ; the other two,
Annobom and Fernando Po, have been given over to Spain. The last named
and largest came into possession of Spain in exchange with Portugal for a
settlement on the Brazilian coast in 1778.

62. Past the delta of the great river Niger, now regiilarly navigated by
British trading steamers, the first European possession on the coast of Upper
Guinea that we come to is that of the British colony of Lagos on the Slave
Coast. Formerly a notorious centre of the slave traffic, Lagos was attacked
and taken after a desperate engagement in 1851, when a treaty was concluded,
by which its native ruler granted freedom of commerce, protection of Christi-
anity, and the abolition of human sacrifices and of the slave trade. In 1861
the British Government pensioned oft' King Docimo, and turned Lagos into a
colony. Beyond it lies the barbarous native state of Dahomey, famed for its
army of Amazons, and west of that the numerous forts and settlements of
the Gold Coast.

63. Almost immediately after the discovery of this coast by the emissaries
of Prince Henry the navigator, the Portuguese founded (1481) the fort of El
Mina — " the mine " — the oldest of all European stations on this coast. This,
with other settlements which had then been established, fell to the Dutch in
1641, at the same time that they were systematically ousting the Portuguese
from their East Indian possessions. The British first came to form trading
stations here in 1667, and were followed by the Danes and Brandenburgers.
At the back of these colonies, in the interior country, the native kingdom of
Ashantee rose to power in the middle of the eighteenth century. In the
course of their conquest of the Fantee tribes, who live near the coast, the
Ashantees first came in contact with the British in 1807, becoming involved

HISTOKICAL. 9 1

in a war which lasted till 1826, when they were driven from the sea coast.
The Danisli settlements here were acquired by purchase for Britain in 1850,
and those of the Dutch in 1872, when the entire coast remained in British
hands. Immediately after the transfer of the Dutch possessions, the Ashan-
tees reclaimed the sovereignty of the tribes round Elmina, aud thus brought
on another sanguinary war, leading to a British expedition in 1874, in which
the Ashantee capital of Coomassie was caj)tured, and British supremacy
established along the coast.

By letters patent of 1874, the "Colony of the Gold Coast" was united
under one government with that of Lagos.

64. At Cape Palmas we reach the borders of a remarkable state wliich
has been created during this century. This is the negro republic of Liberie.
Wlien the presence of freed slaves in America had begun to be' found an
incubus, a committee of philanthropists was formed in America in 1816,
with the object of founding a colony for freed negroes, and giving them an
opportunity of self-improvement. In 1822 a compact was made with some of
the native chiefs of the Pepper or Grain Coast of Upper Guinea for the
acquirement of a tract of laud ; thither the emancijiated negroes were sent,
and were exjiected to till the soil, and collect the palm oil with which the
country abounds. A settlement was first formed at Cape Mesuratlo and named
Monroma, and the new colony was styled Liberia, the land of the freed. New
settlements were founded, other tracts of land purchased, and in 1847 the
colony proclaimed itself an independent republic, adopting a constitution in
imitation of that of the United States. Sorue years later an adjoining colony
at Cape Palmas, named Maryland, was incorporated. The state, however, has
not realised the ardent expectations formed of it ; the American " civilised "
negroes, few in number comparatively, seem for the most part to have relapsed
into indolence — the stamp of the republic being generally that of a caricature
of its model ; though it has established a very considerable trade ■with Europe
and America.

65. On the north-western border of Liberia lies the British settlement of
the peninsula of Sierra Leone, or the "Lion Hill," the origin of which in 1787
we have already referred to. In 1808 it was made into a colony, aud used as
a refuge at which the slaves captured by the British cruisers along the coast
were debarked. Since 1875 it forms one colony with the British settlement
on the Gambia river, which dates from 1806. Passing over a few isolated
French and Portuguese settlements whicli lie lietween these two detached
British possessions, we come to the chief West African settlement of the French,
between Cape Verd and the Senegal river.

66. The French apjaear to have first arrived on this coast about the middle
of the seventeenth century; their old "Senegal Company" dates from 1685,
and at one time claimed all the coast from Cape Blanco to Sierra Leone.
Twice these possessions fell into the hands of Britain, in the reign of Louis
XV. and during Napoleon's wars, and were twice restored. Between the
Senegal and the borders of Marocco rise the inhospitable shoi-es of the Western
Sahara desert, thinly peopled by nomadic races, shunned by El^iropean vessels.

67. Out at sea lie the Cape de Verd Islands and the Canary group. The
former, after their discovery in 1460 by the Venetian Ca da Mosto, were taken
possession of by the Portuguese, but remained a private property till 1692,
when they passed to the Portuguese crown, and with the settlements on the
oj)posite continental coast form the " Province of Cape Verd." The Canaries
have been Spanish since tlie end of the fifteenth century, but Madeira has
remained for that time in the hands of the Portuguese, excejit during its
occupation by the British from 1807 till 1814.

68. Of Marocco there is little of importance to note. Sliruuk down from

92 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

the wide limits it reached to in the seventeenth century, the real power of its
Mohammedan Sultan does not appear to extend over more than a fraction of
the nominal area of the country, which remains at a low stage of ci\'ilisation.
Fully two-thirds of it are in the hands of the independent mountain chiefs of
the Atlas range, who defy the Sultan to interfere with them. The pirates of
the Ritf on the north were not checked by the Maroccan government till
1817, and even as late as 1856 their plundering of French vessels necessitated
the payment of compensation by the Sultan of Marocco. Similar outrages on
Spanish vessels led to au invasion of the country in 1859, and to the cession
of Tetuan to the Spaniards.

69. In completing the circuit of the continent we come to Algeria, which we
left in the last chapter in the hands of the "nation of corsairs," who by their
piracies had dra\\ii upon themselves so often the vengeance of the maritime
powers of Europe. Wlule Napoleonic w'ars were in progress the presence of
strong fleets in the Mediterranean kept them in harbour, but at the close of the
wars their raids began as vigorously as ever. The Americans this time took the
lead, and after defeating the Algerian fleet off Carthagena (1815), compelled
the Dey to respect the American flag ; then the British and Dutcli fleets
furiously bombarded Algiers, and rescued the Christians who had been
detained there, but still next year (1817) the corsairs were as busy as ever,
and now ventured to extend their piracies even to the North Sea. Between
this time and 1823 French ships suff'ered severely, and in consequence of one
of the disputes that arose the Dey wTote an angry letter to the King of
France : to this no reply was sent, and the Dey, summoning the French consul,
asked why his master remained silent. To this the consul is reported to have
replied that a King of France could not condescend to correspond with a Dey
of Algiers, on which the Dey struck the consul and roundly abused the
king. This insult brought a French squadron to Algiers in 1827, and for
three years a blockade of the coast was maintained. In 1830 an expedition
of 100 ships of war with 40,000 men effected a landing, Algiers was again
bombarded, and capitulated on the 6th of July. From this time forward till
1857 the arduous task of the conquest of Algeria was in progress. Seven
years of fighting were required to master the coast-land, and the towns of
Oran, Bona, Arzeu, Mostaganem, and La Calle, which lie along it. The Tell
country, or fertile slope of the mountains to the Mediterranean, was not
brought under French rule till 1845 ; from that time till 1847 the battle was
waged along the Maroccan frontier, and then eastward towards Tunis.
Between 1857 and 1859 the contest was carried inland over the high plateaus
and down into the Algerian Sahara beyond. Until 1864 sanguinary conflicts
were constantly occurring with the Kabyles or Berbers of the mountains,
descendants of the fiery Numidians. The great enemy of the French in this
conflict was Abd-el-Kader, the brave leader of the Arab tribes of Oran, who had
seized the opportunity of the downfall of the Turkish Dey at Algiers to make
themselves independent, and who in their later struggles against the French were
aided by the Sultan of Marocco. The capture of Abd-el-Kader in 1847, after
he had troubled the French for fifteen years, was one of the most important
points of the conquest. The arduous character of the struggle for this posses-
sion may be estimated when it is known that the French troo])s had at times
to be raised to a strength of 100,000 men, and that a sum of 120 millions of
pounds sterling was spent in military operations. Till 1871 the country
remained under strict military rule, and it was not till that time that a civil
administration in the provinces of Oran, Algiers, and Constantine could be safely
organised.

70. Having thus completed a rapid survey of the possessions which lie
round the margins of Africa, we may now glance at one or two of the more

HISTORICAL. 93

prominent of the discoveries which have been made within the vast continent
by the host of European explorers who have been besieging its hidden regions
from all sides during this century. Among the earliest travellers of this
period were the Englishmen Clapperton, Oudney, and Denham, who started from
Tripoli, and after crossing the Great Desert, first reached the state of Bornu,
in the Soudan, and saw the gi-eat shallow lake, the Chad. In 18'26, Major Laing
first reached the famed city of Timbuktu, which had been known by report to
Europeans since the fourteenth century, paying for his hardly- won knowledge
by his life. Then the Frenchman Caillie brought back an account of this great
centre of commerce ; and the German, Heinrich Barth, returned from his six
years of travel to and fro in the Soudan (1849-55). It was not till after these
arduous journeys that any distinct conception coidd be formed of the political
condition of tlie great fertile belt of central Africa, which lies sonth of the
barrier of the vast Sahara. Then came to light the great series of Moham-
medan states which lie between Dar-Fur on the east and Senegambia on the
west — -Wadai, Bornu, and the Felattah states on the west of these.

71. The powerful state of Bornu, in which the descendants of Arabs are
the ruling race over the far more numerous negro inhabitants, had its first
Moslem nder as early as 1086, and seems to have reached the zenith of its power
in the eleventh century, when its limits extended over Fezzan on the north.

72. The states lying westward — Sokoto, Gando, Masena, Timbo — with
many ndnor ones, owe their foundation to the remarkable negro race of the
Fulahs or Felattahs, who appear to have been converted to Mohammedanism
as lately as the middle of the eighteenth century, and who have been extend-
ing their religious wars of conquest eastward over the Niger basin since 1802,
and are even yet extending their influence farther into the pagan domain of
central Negroland.

73. Among the many notalde points in the progi-ess of South African dis-
covery, it may suffice to recall here the first crossing of the continent by
Livingstone, and his exploration of the course of the great river Zambesi in
1854-55 ; the discovery of the snowy mountains of the eastern equatorial
zone by the missionaries Rebmanu and Krai)f in 1849, and the news they
gathered on their travels of the vast lakes in the interior ; Captain Burton's
discovery of the Tanganyika Lake, and Speke's first view of the Ukerewe, or
Victoria Nyanza, in 1858 ; Speke and Grant's subsequent exploration of the
Victoria Lake, an expanse of water larger than Ireland, and their discovery
that the Nile flowed from its northern shores ; Livingstone's arrival at the
Nyassa in 1859 ; Sir Samuel Baker's discovery of the Albert Lake in 1864 ;
the exploration of the lake chain of the Lualaba by Livingstone in 1866-70 ;
Lieutenant Cameron's journey across the equatorial region from Indian Ocean
to Atlantic in 1874-75 ; and Stanley's brave voyage downi the Congo in 1876-77.

74. The labours of these explorers have now given us a general definition
of the long-debated problems of the hydrographic systems of Central Africa,
enabling us to distinguish, and so far to map out, the l^asins of the three
great rivers — the Nile flowing north, the Congo west, and the Zambesi east.

75. Among the many tribal organisations and native states, if they can be
so called, which have come to light in central S. Africa, the most extensive,
perhaps, is the central one of Urua, stretching across the rivers which feed
the central Congo from the southward, over an area not less than that of the
United Kingdom. Tliis state, at the time of Cameron's visit, was ruled over
by the native king Kasongo, and parcelled out into many captaincies under his
absolute authority. Ulunda, westward of Unia, is also a great state, governed
by a hereditary chief styled the Mata Yafa, or Muata Yanvo, who has been
known by report to the Portuguese on tlie West Coast since the beginning of
the century, and to whom the Cazembe (page 73) is vassal. Another native

94 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

kingdom which has come prominently into view, from its having been visited
by several travellers, and from the favourable reception given by its ruler to
Europeans, is that of Uganda, which extends round the northern border of
the Victoria lake.

We may now cross over to America, to review rapidly the politi-
cal changes which have taken place in that part of tlie world during
the present century ; Leginning with the Spanish regionin the south.

76. Britain, as we have noticed, was at war with Spain, the ally of France,
when the century began, and at tliat time sucli reports of the disaffection of
the Spanish colonists of the La Plata had reached Euroi^e, as to incline the
Englisli to make an attempt to obtain possession of this territory, which had
already become the most considerable mart of Spanish America, and whither
the steady tide of immigration from all parts of Europe was setting. In the
3'ear 1806, accordingly, a British squadron of five vessels entered the La Plata,
took Ilaldonado, on the north coast of the inlet, and landing, advanced upon the
city of Bueiios Ayres, which capitulated at once. The triumph, however, was
of brief duration, for the people soon rallied and compelled the British to
retreat to Maldonado again. Reinforced next year, Monte Video was invested
and carried by assault, but a second attempt to gain Buenos Ayres was a
complete failure ; and a convention was entered into by wliich the British
abandoned La Plata.

The Spanish American colonists thus gained a knowledge of their strength
in rejielling a force stronger than that of their rulers ; for a time they had
remained faithful to Spain, but disaffection showed itself unmistakably when
the French luider Napoleon had occupied Spain, and when the Bourbons were
dethroned by him in 1808. An agent of Napoleon was then sent out to
induce the colonists to swear fealty to Joseph Bonaparte, but was put under
arrest for his pains. A claim made by the Prince Regent of Portugal was
likewise rejected for several years. Under a provisional government, the people
of the La Plata were divided in opinion, some desiring a monarchy, others a
new organisation and independence.

77. Paraguay was the hrst to assert her right to self-government, having
become not only free from the authority of Spiain, but indei^endent also of the
other states of La Plata, as early as 1811. On tlie other extreme limit of
Spanish America, in Mexico, the discontent which had been gaining ground
against the viceregal government during Napoleon's wars in the Peninsula
broke out in open rebellion ; Chile in the south now also began the war for
independence. The patriots of the Captain-Generalship of Caracas or Vene-
zuela, under the leadership of the famous Simon Bolivar, claimed independence
in 1810, but the country was restored for two years more to its allegiance.
In 1813, however, Bolivar entered Caracas as conqueror, and was hailed as
liberator of Venezuela. In 1816, an assembly of representatives from all the
provinces of the La Plata met at Tucuman, where a declaration of independ-
ence was drawn up. Four governments were formed from the former viceroyal-
ties of Buenos Ayres, Paraguay, Alto Peru or Bolivia, the Banda Oriental (eastern
side of the Uruguay river) or Uruguay, and the tmiteil provinces of La Plata.
The victories of Tuya and Boyaca released New Granada and Ecuador, and
in 1819 the republic of Colombia was declared. The battle of Mayjm
achieved the independence of Chile in 1818 ; that of Ayacucho, the freedom
of Upper Peru, now called Bolivia in honour of the liberator. The republic
of Colombia also became independent of the mother country in 1819, and the
three states composing it remained in union till 1830. Mexico finally estab-
lished its freedom in ,1824. Peru, the first formed viceroyalty in South

HISTORICAL. 95

America, was the last to set up the standard of independence ; it remained com-
pletely in the hands of Spain till 1820, but then, aided by imtriots from C'hile
and by English volunteers, it quickly gained its independence. Before 1823,
the Central American States had also thrown off the rule of Spain and formed
themselves into a federal republic, comj)osed of the states of Guatemala,
Nicaragua, Honduras, Salvador, and Costa Rica — a confederation which held
together till 1839.

Thus before 1825 all the vast continental possessions of Spanish America
were separated from the mother country and divided into a number of separate
republics, in too many of whicli a continual round of revolutions forms the
sum of their subsequent history.

78. We have already remarked, in noticing events in Portugal, that under
the threat of Napoleon's invasion the royal family transferred itself thence
to Brazil i)i 1807 ; tlie seat of government of Portugal was for the time trans-
ferred to llio de Janeiro. After the combined efiorts of the Britisli and Portu-
guese had freed Portugal from the French, on the death of Queen Maria iu
1810, the Regent succeeded to the joint crowns of Portugal and Brazil. The
continued resilience of the new king at Rio de Janeiro, however, gave rise to
discontent at home, and ixltimately to the revolution of 1820 at Lisbon, and
to the proclamation of a constitutional form of government there. Brazil, on
shaking otf the imperial yoke like its neighbours, found a merely nominal
revolution sufficient, and accejrted a hereditary monarchy instead of a restless '
republican system, its independence being ratified by King Joao, and its
government i^laced in the hands of Dom Pedro his son — an arrangement which
has secured to Brazil comparative peace and prosperity.

79. Of all the vast extent of Spanish America there remain now under
the government of the mother country only the islands of Cuba and Puerto
Rico in the West Indies. The former, which has long been an object of desire
to the United States, still lies under a thoroughly corrupt and ojjpressive rule ;
Spaniards alone, as in the viceroyalties of the continent in former years,
engrossing all the offices and emoluments of government, to the exclusion of
tlie Creole or native-bom colonists.

A rebellion which broke out in the eastern half of the island had partially
freed that portion of Cuba from the Spanish dominion, and a warfare was
maintained there for ten years between the patriots and the home troojis,
of which the utmost efforts of Spain have only quite recently made an end.

80. The island of Hayti or Hispaniola, lying between these two Spanish
possessions (not much inferior to Ireland in extent), has had a remarkably
disturbed history. On its shores the first settlement of Spanish America was
]ilaced by Columbus, and after the aboriginal Indians had been swept away it
became one of the earliest fields of negro slavery. During the seventeenth
century the buccaneers and filibusters of the Caribbean Seas made its western
harbours their great haunt, and, as they were chiefly French, this part of the
island was ceded to France by the peace of Ryswick in 1697. For nearly a
century the buccaneers imported great numbers of Africans ; an intermediate
race of mulattoes sprang up, and soon the mutual antipathies of these tliree
colours gave rise to the terrible internecine struggle of 1791, which ended in
the extermination of the once dominant Euroi)eans.

In 1801 a fruitless effort was made by P'l'ance to recover this dependency.
For a time a negro named Dessalines was "Emperor of Hayti," after whicli
revolution on revolution changed the political condition to and fro from
republic to monarchy or despotism. In 1843 the inhabitants of the eastei-n
or Spanish portion of Hayti formed tliemselves into the Dominican
Republic, which during 18{il-G5 placed itself under the authority of Spain,
but in the latter year again proclaimed the republic and expelled the Spanish

96 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

troops. The western half of the island remains as the negro republic of
Hayti.

81 . Returning to the mainland of North America, some important jjoints must
be noted in the history of Mexico after its rise to independence. After
Louisiana had been j^urchased from the French by the United States in 1803,
the territory of Texas, lying between that and Mexico, became a debateable
land, claimed alike by Spain and by the United States ; till 1837 Texas was the
scene of continual disturbances brought about by the attempts of the Americans
to wrest the country from the Mexicans, the warlike native Apache and
Comanche Indians keeping up the unsettled condition of the land. In 1837
however, after an unsuccessful Mexican invasion, Texas became for a few years
an independent republic, which in 1845 was annexed to the United States.
As Mexico had never recognised the independence of Texas, this annexation
gave rise to a war with the United States ; hostilities were carried on for three
years, and the city of Mexico was stormed and taken.

During a series of revolutions between 1850 and 1860, such wanton
aggressions were committed against foreign resideuts in Mexico as to provoke
the interference of European powers, and in April 1862 the French Emperor
declared war against the republic. In June of the following year the French
troops entered the capital, a provisional monarchy was set up, and the crown
was accepted by the ill-fated archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria. The
repugnance of the United States to the establishment of an empire on its
borders led to the removal of the French trooj)s, when the republicans immedi-
ately rose to arms, defeated the Imperialists, and Maximilian, betrayed into
their hands, was executed in 1867. After this the republican constitution of
1857 again came into operation.

82. The marvellous changes which have been brought about in the North
American continent by the expansion of the Republic of the United States
now claim attention, as they have no parallel in the history of the globe. At
the beginning of the century four states had been added to the original thirteen
which lay along the Atlantic slope of the Alleghany mountains; now the
territory of the United States reaches across froiii Atlantic to Pacific. In 1800
the States already had a population of about 6 millions : this has now increased
to nearly 50 millions : the continent was crossed for the first time by Europeans
in the expedition of Louis and Clarke in 1804, and in 1869 a railway liad been
constructed from ocean to ocean. The whole of the interior was the domain of
Indian tribes when the century began : now there is but a little remnant, the
survivors of a few tribes, submissive and jjowerless, interesting now as they
are rapidly disappearing or becoming incorporated with the stronger race.

A few leading points in the history of the development of the United
States may be I'ecalled.

83. On the death of the first president, the seat of government of the
Republic was removed in 1800 to the city on the Potomac which he had
planned for the capital, and which bears his name of Washington. Three
years after this the area of the territory of the United States was more than
doubled by the acquisition of Louisiana. During Napoleon's wars the debated
right of search of American vessels for British-born subjects to be impressed
into the naval service, gave rise to disputes and then to a war, in which
Canada was invaded from the United States, and Washington city was taken
(1814) by the British fleet. Peace once more restored, the rapid tide of
European immigration required the formation of seven new states within the first
twenty years of the century.* The peninsula of Florida also was ceded by Spain

1 Ohio 1802, Louislaua 1812, Indiana 1816, Mississippi 1817, Illinois 1818, Alabama
1810, Maine 1820.

HISTORICAL. 9 7

in 1812. Before this time slavery had been gradually abolished in the
northern and midiUe States, but was retained in the purely agricultural States
of the south. Two sections were thus formed in the Republic.

84. The war with Mexico for the possession of Texas has been previously
referred to. Just before the treaty which concluded it, after the occupation
of the capital city of Mexico by the American troops, the discovery of gold
was made in Upper California, an event which was to work the most
marvellously rapid change in the condition of all Western America. The
Mexican treaty, concluded immediately after, added New Mexico and Upper
California to the United States ; men rushed thither from all parts of the
world, San Francisco rose as if by magic to become the great mart of the
Pacific coast, and only three years after the discovery of the precious metal
gold was exported thence to the value of nine millions sterling. California having
been raised to the condition of a State, the country inland, between it and the
states already formed east of the Mississippi, was rapidly explored and incor-
porated.

85. In 1854 the attempt to introduce slavery into the central territory of
Kansas led to the first active outbreak of the storm which had been brewing
between the slave-party and the friends of free labour in the United States,
and after a violent contest the latter prevailed.

At the presidential election of 1860 the northern or abolition party and
the southern slaveholders were formally arrayed in opposition in Congress,
and the Southern States being outvoted at once began to withdraw from the
union. The legislature of South Carolina was the first to dissolve its union,
Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed at
once, and a year later North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas
joined them ; Kentucky and Missouri were divided between the Northern and
Southern inclinations. For the capital of the Southern or rebel government
Richmond in Virginia was chosen, and the contest between the Northerns or
Federals and the Southerns or Confederates l>egan with the battle of Bull Run,
near the Potomac river, in July 1861. In the four years' war which ensued,
the decisive victory of the Federals at Chattcmooga in Tennessee, and the
capture of Vicksburg on the Mississippi, nearly at the same time in 1863, may
be said to have been the great turning points of the war, as they re-opened
the highway of the great river from its mouth upward, and divided the
Confederate States into two portions. The great battle of Petersburg in April
1865, by which the evacuation of Richmond was necessitated, brought the
gi-eat rebellion to a close. In 1866 all the seceded states were restored to the
union, and slavery ceased to exist in the United States.

86. The remote north-western provinces of America, discovered by
Bering on his voyage from Siberia, remained in the hands of the Imperial
Russian Fur Trading Company, as a vast hunting ground, from 1799 till 1867.
In that year the territory was purchased from Russia by the United States,
and has since taken the title of the Alas/ca territory.

At the jjresent time the Union consists of 39 states and 7 territories, each of
which is represented according to its population in the Congress of the Union,
but is independent in the management of its internal and local afi"airs.

87. We now come to British North America. By the treaty of Utrecht
in 1773, which ended the ten years' conflict of the wars of the Spanish
succession, the French possessions on the eastern coasts of North America —
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland — passed into the hands of
Britain. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were not formally settled as colonies
by the British till the middle of the eighteenth century, when the French, who
with the native Indians had kept up hostilities against the new comers, were
finally expelled or mastered.

98 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

Newfoundland, on the coasts of ■which the French still hold the privileges
of the cod-fishery, obtained a government of its own in 1728, and Labrador
has been included in its administration since 1809. Prince Edward Island,
adjoining New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, though settled in 1745, was not
finally annexed to Britain till 1758. It takes its name from Edward, Duke
of Kent, commander of the British forces in America at the end of the
eighteenth century.

88. The conquest of Canada in 1759-60 has already been noted. After
the territory had been restricted to its present limits north of the great lakes
and the 49th parallel of latitude by the cession of the six sovereign states of
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to the United
States, it was divided in 1791 for a time into two separate provinces ; the
eastera one, or Lower Canada, with a larger proportion of French inhabitants,
retained its national institutions, and the western province, or Upper Canada,
became the English section of the land. Dissensions between these differently
constituted provinces increased in malignity, till in 1834 armed insurrections
broke out, which were only suppressed after martial law had been proclaimed ;
the result of the movement being the union of the provinces under one govern-
ment in 1840.

89. The whole unoccupied territory west of the Rocky Mountains called
Oregon (as far as the 55th degree of N. latitude) was claimed equally by
Britain and by the United States, and by a treaty made in 1818, and renewed
in 1827, it was agreed that this region should be considered joint property.
Its increasing importance, however, made it necessary to have some definite
line of division, and in 1846 a compromise was made by which Britain held
all the laud north of the 49th parallel, the United States all south of that line.

90. Vancouver's Island, which the Hudson Bay Company had been
accustomed to visit regularly for the furs provided by its native Indians, was
brought prominently into notice by this boundary question, and was granted
in 1849 to the Company, under the express condition of colonising it. At this
time the territory of the Pacific side of the continent north of the 49th parallel
was still a part of the hunting gi'ounds of the Hudson Bay Company. The
discovery of gold here in 1857, as in California farther south, drew crowds of
adventurers to its shores, and when the monopoly of the Company ceased in
1858, the territory was named British Columbia, and was raised to the rank
of a colony.

91. The question of the union of the various British American provinces now
began to be discussed, and foimd favour from the obvious advantages that
the plan would confer. It was not till 1867, however, tliat an Act of Imperial
Parliament was passed uniting federally the separate provinces of Canada,
Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, into one Dominion under the name of
Canada, with a constitution modelled on that of the United Kingdom.
Subsequently the Dominion has been extended over the North -West Territory
(the Hudson Bay Company's territory and Rupert's Land), which was
acquired by purchase in 1869. From this territory the small province of
Manitoba, embracing the basin of the Red River next the United States
boundary, was formed in 1870. In 1871 British Columbia and Vancouver
Island also joined the Dominion ; Prince Edward Island was added in 1873 ;
so that at present Newfoundland alone holds out independently from the rest
of the group now included in the Dominion of Canada.

92. Scarcely less wonderful than the rapid development of the Republic of
the United States of America has been that of the Australian colonies of
Great Britain. Though Cook had sailed along the greater part of the
eastern shores of New Holland, and a British colony had been established at
Botany Bay in 1788, so little was known even of the coast-line of the new

HISTORICAL. 99

continent that it was not until within two years of the close of the eighteenth
century that Dr. Bass, in H. M.S. 'Reliance,' established the fact that Van
Diemen's Land (Tasmania) was really separated from the mainland by a strait
150 miles in width. During the year 1803 a vessel carrying a party of
convicts and a small armed guard was sent out from England to form another
station, lii<e that of Botany Bay, on the shores of Bass's Strait. This party
lauded at Port Philij} (the site of the present city of Melbourne) but considering
the country too sterile left the place and crossed the strait to Van Diemen's Land,
and formed a camp at SuUivaji's Cove, where the little settlement struggled
through its first years in resisting the attaclis of the aborigines. In 1825
another convict station was placed at Moreton Bay, on the north of the New South
Wales coast, and West Australia was first occupied in 1826, the S^uan River
being chosen as the point of settlement. Port Philip, after the first cursory
visit to it, does not appear to have attracted attention again till 1835, when a
stockowner bartered a quantity of cloth with the natives there for a large
tract of land ; his schooner arriving in the mouth of the Yarra Yarra (a stream
flowing into Port Pliilij)) was moored to the trees on its banks where the
wharves of Melbounie now stand.

93. In 1825, when the settlers in Van Diemen's Land numbered about
3000, Tasmania was raised to be a separate colony, and ten years later was
under the governorship of Sir John Franklin, of Arctic fame, under whom it
made great progress. South Australia was unoccujjied till 1836, when a party
of 200 colonists landed and began a settlement at the site of the present city
of Adelaide. The Swan River Settlement on the west coast had not pros-
pered greatly before 1850, at which date, by petition of the colonists, it received
the convicts wlio were now refused by New South Wales, and between that
time and 1868, when the transportation ceased, about 10,000 prisoners were
added to its little population.

94. A grand event in the history of Australia was the discovery of gold in
the Port Philip district of New South Wales in 1850, causing the whole settle-
ment to become "drunk with gold ; " drawing men of all avocations — mer-
chants, sailors, tradesmen — from all parts of the world to the diggings. Up
to this time the Port Philii? district had been but an appanage of New South
Wales ; now it was created into the independent colony of Victoria, which
developed its roads, railways, and manufactures with astonishing rapidity.

From New South Wales, on the northern side, the Moreton Bay district
was separated in 1859, to form the colony of Queenshmd.

95. As yet the interior of the continent was all but unknown, though
explorers were every year lifting the borders of the veil which covered it.
Most prominent of all in the long list of Australian pioneers stands M'Douall
Stuart, who after many attempts succeeded in crossing the continent from
South Australia to its northern shores in 1862. In consequence of the
favourable report given by Stuart, the South Australian government
determined to attempt the colonisation of the northern territory, which was
tlien added to its existing limits. The experiment was not successful, but
within ten years of Stuart's exploring march a line of electric telegraph had
been set up all along the route tluit he followed from sea to sea, uniting
South Australia with tlie Asiatic and Euro]>ean system of communication.
From a few liundreds dotted al)out at various convict stations along the coasts
tlie population of the live divisions of Australia has now risen to upwards of
two millions ; explorers have investigated the interior in all directions ; tlie
large cities of Sydney, Melbourne., and Adelaide have arisen, and settlements
e.xtend far inland on all sides excepting the northern and western.

96. No European is known to have resided in New Zealand before 1814,
and no attempt at colonisation was made until 1839, when a patch of land at Port

100 THE LONDOX GEOGEAPHY.

Nicholson, in Cook Strait, was bought from the natives foi" the first party of
settlers, by a number of gentlemen who had clubbed together to form a New
Zealand Company. Wellington, the present capital, and Aucklimd, the
former seat of government in the North Island, were first founded in 1840 ;
Ah'io Plymouth and Nelson in 1841 ; Dmiedin in Otago, by a Scotch
company under the auspices of the Free Church, in 1848 ; and (Janterhury in
1850, in connection with the Church of England. The first British governor
took ofiice in 1840, and the liistory of the colony thence onward until 1865,
especially in the North Island, is one of almost constant warfare with the brave
and skilful Maori natives. This fine aboriginal race, found by the discoverer
Cook living in a state of considerable civilisation, under fixed laws, has been
reduced by incessant wars from several hundreds of thousands to about 5000,
the greater proportion of whom now live peaceably on the North Island, sharing
the land with their white neighbours, but in the altered conditions of life they
are rapidly dying ofi". Previous to 1875 the colony was divided into eight
provinces, but smce that date the provincial system has been abolished by the
New Zealand Parliament, and the islands have been brouglit under one
government.

97. North-east of New Zealand the archipelago of the Viti or Fiji Islands
forms one of the latest acquisitions of the British Crown. As early as 1804 a
number of escaped convicts from New South Wales reached their shores, and,
remaining there, acquired considerable influence La the tribal wars which were
constantly being waged. About 1820 the Wesleyan missionaries began their
work here, and so far paved the way for the amval of white settlers that the
number of these has increased in late years to two or three thousand. As
long ago as 1859 the reigning chief Thakonibau offered the sovereignty of
these islands to England, and for several years a form of government
instituted by the settlers, consisting of a council and house of representatives,
has been in operation. In 1875 the islands were formed into a British
colony.

98. With the close of the eighteenth century the age of great maritime
discovery may be said to have ended ; the voyager Cook had for ever dispelled
the idea of the great southern continent, and by sailing roimd the icy barriers
of the Antarctic circle had shown that no habitable land lay open for conquest
in that direction. In the far north also, those who had gone repeatedly in
search of the passage east or west to the Pacific had everywhere been bafiled
by the ice-pack of the Arctic zone. Between these icy limits no part of the
open seas remained unvisited by the mariner, no land of any importance could
be hidden there.

New tracts of great extent have indeed been found towards the southern
and northern poles of the globe during this century, and each succeeding
expedition has added something towards the completion of the fidl knowledge
of land and sea on the face of the earth. But there has been no revelation of
lands which can ever be of value for the habitation of men, and, in later years
especially, exploration has taken an altogether new direction, and has been
prosecuted far more in furtherance of the scientific conquest of the globe than
with the hoije of adding any new land to that already known.

Towards the South Pole duruig this century the voyages of exploration
have reached those limits beyond which it seems impossible for men to pass
with the present appliances. The South Shetland Isles, south-east of Cape
Hoorn, were found by Captain Smith in 1816 ; the Russian voyager Belling-
hausen found the most southerly land then known, Peter Island, in 1821 ;
Captain Biscoe discovered the coast he nuraed £nder by Land in 1831 ; Balleny
the islands named after him in 1839 ; the French commander Dumont D'Urville,
Addie Land, in 1840 ; and Sir James Ross reached the highest south latitude

PHYSICAL. 101

yet attained in 1841, discovering the barren Victoria Land, with its volcanoes
of Erebus and Terror.

In the Arctic seas, Parry, following the inlet of Lancaster Sound, in 1819
reached Melville Island and some others of the large archipelago of barren
Arctic islands to which his name has been given ; Scoresby and Graah made
known the fiord and glacier coast of East Greenland in 1822-23 ; the many
expeditions in quest of the lost Sir John Franklin and his ships, which had
gone on the last search for the north-west passage, added many hundreds of
miles of coast-line to the Arctic American shores ; the brave Dr. Kane extended
knowledge in Smith Sound in 1853 ; an Austrian expedition in 1872-74
discovered the archipelago of islands north-east of Novaya Zemlya which was
named Franz Josef Land ; Captain Markham, of a British expedition under
Captain Nares, after a toilsome journey over the ice, stood nearer the North
Pole than any man had previously done ; and last of all, Nordeuskjijld, after
eflbrts continued for years, effected the north-east passage, and was the first to
circumnavigate Asia. In this Arctic region also the unknown has been driven
l^erhaps into the narrowest limits to which the energies of man can reduce it.

99. Discovery, as we have said, has now taken a new direction, and the
truly scientific conquest of the globe has begun. The lands of Europe which
have been longest inhabited by civilised men are being surveyed and mapped
out with the minutest accuracy of detail, and in every other region the
preliminary stage to this, the closer weaving of a network of routes of explora-
tion, is ever in progress. Not content with a knowledge of the length and
breadth of the seas, and of their arn\s and inlets, the systematic sounding of
these has begun, so that their true depth in every part may be known, just as
every height of the land is being more accurately measured. As the first
representatives of this newly instituted exploration of the domain of the deep
sea by civilised nations, may be taken the circumnavigation voyages of the
British ship 'Challenger' (1872-76), the United States Government expedition
to the Pacific in the 'Tuscarora' (1874-76) ; the German 'Gazelle' voyage in
the same years ; that of the Norwegian ship ' Voringen ' to examine the deep
seas between Norway and Iceland in 1875-76 ; and the latest German, French,
and Danish expeditions in the European seas.

III. PHYSICAL GEOGEAPHY.

I. FORM AND DIMENSIONS OF THE EAETH.

1. Having sketched out for ourselves in the previous chapters
tlie gradual development of knowledge of the earth by sea and
land, from the times in which the most advanced of ancient nations
knew only those parts of its surface which lie round the coasts
of the Mediterranean, till the present day, when the clouds of
ignorance have been rolled away from all excepting the icy caps of
the polar regions, we may turn to take a general survey of what is
now known of the form and dimensions of the world we live in.

The earliest speculators as to the nature of the earth seem
to have regarded the world as a great plain, the centre of which
was occupied by the land to which they themselves belonged, all

102 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

outside this, to the edge of the plain, being filled np by the
imagined lands of mythical peoples. This is illustrated in the
view of the world accepted by the Greeks of Homer's time, which
represents the land round central Greece, and on each side of the
sea, passing into the teiritories of the Cimmerians and the borders
of night on the north, to the borders of day and the land of the
Pygmies on the south, and to the Elysian fields, the paradise of
terrestrial heroes, in the far west — all being girt about by the ocean,
from which the sun rose and into which it was believed to set.

2. But already two hundred and fifty years before the Christian
era, when the Romans were beginning their aggressive wars against
opulent Carthage, the philosophers of the schools of Alexandria
seem to have abandoned these di-eamy ideas and to have gained from
theoretical considerations a remarkably clear conception of what we
now know practically to be the true figure of the earth. Ptolemy
in his Geography gives a calculation of the size of the sphere of the
earth, and from his time onward it seems to have been universally
accepted by men of learning that our world was a globe. It was
this belief that led Columbus to seek a shorter route to the Indies
by sailing due west from Spain ; but his supposition that on reach-
ing Hispaniola and Cuba he had really come to the eastern shores
of Asia near Japan, shows how very erroneous were the ideas of
the extent of the world in his day.

3. It was not however till after Magellan had first crossed the
Pacific, and that one of his ships which had sailed out westward
from San Lucar was brought back to the same port from the east,
that there existed any proof of the sphericity of the earth which
could be convincing to the popular mind, or that any true concep-
tion of the extent of its lands and seas was obtained, for before that
time no one had any idea of the vast width of the Pacific. We can
readily understand why the earliest notion of the form of the earth
should have been that of a flat disc floating in or suri'ounded by
water, since it is difficult, if not impossible, to become convinced by
practical observation that the earth is round without moving from
one spot on its surface. The irregvilarities of the surface of the land,
trees, hills, and valleys, generally give a broken horizon, and the
first idea suggested by looking at any small space of water is that
of the apparent levelness of its surface.

4. As soon, however, as men began to extend their journeys and
voyages in all directions, a number of appearances must have been
observed which could only be explained on the supposition that the
surface of the earth was curved and not flat. Watching the dej^arture of
a vessel from harbour, as she sailed out to sea, it could not fail to be
noticed that the hull Avas the first part to disappear, sinking as it wert^

PHYSICAL. 103

beneath the sea, that the lower masts and sails were next hidden,
till the top masts alone remained, before the ship was finally lost
sight of; or if scanning the sea horizon for the return of a cargo-ship,
the same appearances were noted, but in exactly reverse order, as
the vessel drew towards the port. Such appearances could not be
explained on the supposition that the earth and the sea over it was
a flat plain ; but the explanation becomes clear at once, if it be ad-
mitted that the surface is curved, the rise of the curve being that
which conceals from \'iew the lower part of the distant ship.

5. If, instead of watching the ship's arrival or departure from
the land, one were sailing away from or towards shore in the ship
itself, the appearances of the vanishing or rising land would be pre-
cisely similar. The low gi'ounds of the shore are the first to be lost
in leaving, the last to be seen in approaching. On nearing the
low coasts of Holland, for example, the first objects noted are probably

Fig. 13.

the top of a church steeple or the upjier half of a windmill which seems
to be spinning in the sea itself ; and it is not till much later that the
low dyke or bank which keeps out the sea from the land at the
same level, comes into view. This is one of the most familiar and
yet most convincing proofs of the curvature of the earth's surface,
and one that can readily be tested at any part of the sea coast ; and
as we now know that precisely the same appearances are presented
in every part of the world that has been visited, and that the
amount of the curving is practically the same in all, the only
conclusion that can be arrived at is that the earth is a sphere.

6. On land the \'isible horizon is, as we have said, in most parts
broken by the irregularities of the surface, but wherever there is a
plain wide enough to allow an i;nrestricted view in all directions,
the limit of vision of the observer standing on it is formed by a
circle where sky and land seem to meet at a uniform distance from
liim on all sides. At sea this definite circiilar limit of the horizon
becomes more distinct ; move in what direction one may, the limit
of the circle is never reached ; new objects may rise on the limit
towards which the ship is sailing, or towards which you may walk
on the plain, while others formerly within sight sink on the back-
ward horizon, but the vessel or the individual always seems to

104 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

furm the central point of this horizon-circle. This is observed
all over the world, to whatever part one may go, and the same
height above the sea level or above the plain gives practically the
same extent of horizon in any part of the earth. Now there is no
other shape than that of a sphere which would seem circular in
every point of view.

7. It may also be taken as a proof of the earth's roundness that
as one climbs a height the circle of vision expands ; for as Ave
ascend we are enabled to look over a part of the curve which has
limited our vision below. Observations show that an equivalent
expansion of horizon is obtained by an ec^ual increase of elevation
in all parts of the world. The conclusion again is that the earth is
a sphere.

8. In early days of navigation the sailors of the eastern Mediter-
ranean were wont to steer by the constellation Ai-ktos, the Bear,^ and
later by the smaller group of stars to which the name Lesser Bear
was given, the brightest of which we now call the Pole-star. Sail-
ing north and south between Greece and Egypt, they could not
fail to notice how their change of position affected the altitude
of these stars ; how as they sailed southward the Little Bear
seemed to sink down towards the earth, and to rise again in the
heavens as they steered northward; and the sailors of our day
voyaging in wider seas find the Pole-star rising over their heads to
near ' the zenith as they sail towards the Arctic ice ; as they go
south through the Atlantic the Pole-star sinks down and down
towards the horizon, till at length it touches it and disappears
beneath, while new constellations, among them the Southern Cross,
rise in the heavens to the southward. On the homeward voyage
from the south the Pole-star again appears on the horizon, and again
seems to mount the sky, till at the port where the ship started it is
found to have the same altitude as when it was last seen there, and
to the people who have stayed at home it has not changed its posi-
tion at all. Evidently, then, the apparent movement of the stars is
due to the real change of position of the voyager along the surface
of the sea.

9. This only shows, however, that the surface of the earth ig
curved in a north and south direction. If the voyage were madei
in a due east and west direction, the Pole-star would maintain the
same altitude throughout ; but the apparent movement of the sun
and stars gives evidence of curA-ing in this direction also. If
the earth were level from west to east, the sun would rise at the
same moment to all places along this line. But a voyager starting,
say, for instance, with his chronometer set to Greenwich time, finds

1 Part of which we ah-eady know as the Plough or the Wain. (p. 5).

PHYSICAL. 105

that as he sails west the sun and stars rise and set later than at
Greenwich ; till when he reached the West Indies he would find his
chronometer six hours in advance of the time of the place, which is
called local time. If he had steered east to India he would have
observed the sun and stars rising and setting earlier as he proceeded,
till on arriving there his clock would be six hours behind the apparent
time in India. Reaching London again, his clock agrees with local
time as before. This change in the times of sun and star rising could
only take place if the earth were curved in an east and west direc-
tion also. The observation that the shadow cast by the earth in
eclipses of the moon is always circular, was made as long ago as the
time of Aristotle, and affords another strong proof of the globular
form of the earth.

10. Coming now to the question of the actual size of the earth,
it has already been noted that the philosophers of the schools of
Alexandria made a wonderfully close approximation to the true
solution of this problem, though at the time they lived not a
hundredth part of the earth's surface was known from actual dis-
covery. One of these philosophers, named Eratosthenes, watching
the apparent annual movement of the sun across the sky, had
observed that at midsummer, or the longest day, its rays illu-
mined the bottom of a deep well at Syene (Assuan), on the Nile. By
obserNnng the slope of the sun's shadow at Alexandria at the same
time, he found that there the sun was a fiftieth part of the cir-
cumference of a circle (7° 12') from the zenith, or the point
directly overhead in the heavens. Reasoning that if the earth is a
sphere and its centre the middle point of the visible celestial vault,
any change which makes an alteration in the zenith-distance of a
celestial object such as the sun or a star must correspond to a like
distance on the earth's surface, he concluded that the distance
between Syene and Alexandria, which he found to be about 5000
stadia, must be a fiftieth part of the earth's circumference, which he
accordingly set down as 250,000 stadia, a calculation which is in
error only by about a seventh from what we now know to be the
true circuit of the earth.

11. Thus to Eratosthenes belongs the credit of having first ap-
plied a true principle for the solution of the problem of measuring
the earth, the principle upon which more accurate measurements
are being extended at the present day. At intervals from the time
of Eratosthenes, measurements on the plan that he had adopted
were made both in eastern and western Europe, but it was not till
after the invention of the telescope in the seventeenth century had
given new and wonderful powers of observation of the heavens, and
aid to the labour of the sur\'eyor on the earth itself, that measurements

106

THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

of large belts of the earth's surface began to be made with care and
precision. These measurements, which are still being extended and
perfected in all civilised countries, and which form the basis of
every accurate map, are conducted somewhat in the following way.
Two stations (it may be several hundreds of miles apart), which lie
as nearly as possible north and south of one another (Fig. 14), are
chosen, and the difference of zenith distance of several celestial
objects, the sun and stars, is accurately ascertained at the same
moment ; next what is termed a " base-line" is accurately measured
on the ground in feet and inches at one of these stations, and by
the method known as triangulation the measurement is extended
over the whole distance to the second station, the distance of which
from the first is thus precisely found.^ As the pre-
N viously determined differences of zenith distance
between the two chosen stations give the number
of degrees contained in the length which separates
them, the length of a degree in feet or yards or miles
can be at once determined ; and hence, on the sup-
position that the length of a degree is uniform, the
circumference (360°) of the whole earth in feet,
yards, or miles, becomes known.

12. Delicate operations of this kind have now
been extended not only in Europe, but in India,
Cape Colony, the East India Islands, the United
States, Peru, and in Asiatic Russia, and have en-
abled the figure of the earth to be determined with
great accuracy. As a general result from all of
these measurements, it is found that the earth's
figure is not precisely that of a true sphere ; that
a degree measures 68"7 English miles in the neigh-
bourhood of the equator and 69'4 miles in the
neighbourhood of the poles of the globe ; in other
words, that to bring about a change in the zenith
distance of a celestial object of one degree, it is
necessary to travel nearly a mile farther in a north
and south direction in the polar than in eqviatorial
parts of the earth. The globe is flattened a little
at the polar region, so that a section of it cut
through the poles would, on very minute measure-
ment, be found to be not precisely a circle but an ellipse very

1 The measured base-line is talcen as the known side of the primary triangle, and when
the angles of this have been measured the lengthsof the other sides are readily derived
from it. From the sides of this primary triangle a series or network of triangles is
extended (advantage being taken of some marked point, hill tops or church spires, for
the corner points of the triangles) between the two extreme stations, and the dimen-

Fig. 14.

PHYSICAL. 107

closely approaching one, and this figure, which may be de-
scribed as a flattened sphere, is called a spheroid. Minute differ-
ences in the result of the degi-ee-measurenients in various parts
of the earth show further, that the earth varies in different parts
slightly from even a truly spheroidal form. So minute, however,
are the deviations from true sphericity in the globe, that they
could never have been discovered without the aid of powerful
instruments and refined calculation ; and, as far as any of the pheno-
mena that we shall have to do with here are concerned, it may be
assimied tliat the earth is a perfect sphere with a diameter of 7900
English miles and a circumference of 25,000 miles ; a degree, or a
360th part of a great circle of its surface, being sixty-nine statute or
sixty geographical miles long.^

13. In order to describe and compare difterent parts of the
earth's surface, which are so far apart that actual measurement be-
tween them is not possible, it becomes necessary to have some means
of determining their relative position.

It has already been noted, as a proof of the spherical form of
the earth, that as one travels north or south the stars apparently
change their altitude. If we could stand at the North Pole, the
chief star in the constellation of the Little Bear would appear im-
mediately overhead, and all the others would move round it in
horizontal circles. Coming southward, the traveller would see the
Pole-star gi-adually sinking and the stars circling round it dipping
beneath the horizon as they turned, till a point was reached at
which the stars would seem to rise vertically from the east and set
due west of the traveller. Passing this, going still southward, the
circles formed by the stars overhead begin again to increase and
complete themselves, till at the South Pole, as at the north, the
stars would seem to move round in perfectly horizontal circles.
The imaginary central line round the earth, midway between the
poles, at which the stars rise and set vertically, is termed the Equator,^
since it di\'ides the globe into two equal halves — a northern and
a southern hemisphere. A certain distance north or south of the
equator corresponds, as we have seen, to a certain change in the
apparent height of the stars above the horizon, and the measure-
ment of their altitudes when due north or south, or of the Pole-star

sions of each of these triangles is ascertained by calculation from that of the first from
which they spring.

1 365,000 feet, as many thousand feet as there are days in the year.
The dimensions of the earth, in tlie round number on which all calculators are agieed,
are as follows : —

Greater or Equatorial diameter 7,926 English miles.

Lesser or Polar diameter 7,899 ,,

Equatorial circumference 24,900 ,,

Area of surface 196,900,000 square miles.

2 Lat. luqiio, to make equal.

108

THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

in the northern hemisphere, gives the means of determining th.©
latitude of a particuhir place, or its distance, expressed in degrees^
minutes, and seconds, from the equator, north or south. Imaginary
circles, conceived to be drawn parallel to the equator at equal inter-
vals from it to the poles, becoming smaller and smaller as they
approach them, are called parallels of latitude (Fig. 15).^ Lati-
tude thus determines the
distance of a place north or
south of the equator, but
does not describe its posi-
tion, for any number of
places might lie along the
same parallel.

14. To fix the position
of a place along its parallel
of latitude, reference is made
to the meridian of longitude
upon which it stands. These
meridians of longitude are
conceived to be drawn from
pole to pole through each
of the 360 degrees of the
equator which they cut at
right angles. These lines,
as shown on Fig. 16, differ from the parallel circles of latitude,
which diminish towards the
poles, in being all of them
great circles like the equa-
tor, or having their centres
in the centre of the earth.
They also differ in having no
naturally defined starting-
point, such as the parallels
of latitude have on the equa-
tor. They are all equal ;
every one of them has as
much natural right to be
considered the first as any
of its fellows. Thvis, just
in the same spirit as that
in which the ancient Greeks
beUeved their land to be the
centre of the world, modern nations have chosen generally the meri-
1 Latitude and Longitude.— To the ancieut Greeks, whose country lay between the

Fig. 15.

PHYSICAL. 109

(lian of their capital, or of a well-known observatory within their
territory (Greenwich, Paris, Washington, Pulkova), as the zero point ^
or initial meridian fi'om which to number the lines of longitude
east and west round the world. These lines of longitude are termed
meridians, because every point along each of them has its midday
(meridies) at exactly the same moment ; it is by observing the change
of time at which the sun comes to the meridian of one place as com-
pared with another (most readily accomplished by means of a chron-
ometer set to record the local time of one of them, and carried to
the other), that the difterence of longitude is determined. Thus
Battle lies nearly on the i:)arallel of 51° N.; 51 x 60 = 3060 geo-
graphical miles north of the equator. The meridian on which it
lies is half a degree or 30' east of that of Greenwich. In this
case, however, the distance east of the meridian of Greenwich is not
represented by 30 geographical miles, for, as may be observed from
the figure above, as the meridians gradually converge towards the
poles, the degrees of longitude decrease from their value of 60 miles
to a degree at the equator, to no extent at all at the pole. Thus
the length of a degree of longitude in latitude 51° has decreased from
60 to 38 geographical miles, so that the distance of Battle east of
the meridian of Greenwich is only half of 38 or 19 miles.

15. These two sets of lines thus give a framework upon which
tlie relative position of every jaoint, the latitude and longitude of
which has been determined, can be laid down. Thus the map of
the known world has been gradually extended, and is still in process
of being perfected, as voyagers and travellers to different parts of
the earth accumulate knowledge of its lands and seas, or improve the
existing half-knowledge by more accurate observation.

16. When these lines are laid down and the map is drawn upon
the surface of an artificial globe, an almost perfect representation of
the earth's surface may be obtained ; but when the attempt is made
to show the countries of the world on a more convenient flat surface,
or a map {majypa, a towel), it is found to be quite impossible to
give a true representation of any large portion of the eaiih in this
way. One may readily understand this by trying to lay down the
peel of an orange on a flat surface without breaking it at some point.

17. Thus geographers have been driven to seek the least inac-

Black Sea, tlie nortliern shores of which have an almost Polar winter, and the hot
deserts of Africa only across the Mediterranean, the habitable earth seemed to be
confined within narrow limits from north to south ; but from east to west tlie world
they knew ottered no such narrow limits. "This latter direction, tlierefore, came to be
considered as that of tlie earth's len;jth, while the dimension along the meridian, or
north and south, was its breadth ; ami this mode of speaking still remains to us in the
terms Longitude and Latitude." — Cooley.

1 Generally, but erroneously, called the prime or first meridian. The first meri-
dians lie 1° east and west of the zero meridian.

THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

curate method oi fvojeding^ the rounded surface on the flat one, with
the result that several methods are employed, each of which has some
advantage or minimum of disadvantage to commend it. In that
named the orthographic projection (Fig. 17), the eye of the observer is

conceived to be infinitely distant, so
that, when looking at the earth from
a point vertically over the equator,
the parallels of latitude project them-
selves as straight lines, and the meri-
dians crowd together towards the
outer margin of the representation.
For this reason, though the central
parts are well shown by this projec-
tion, the outer are crowded together
and reduced in breadth. Another
method of projection of the hemis-
pheres, named the stereographic (Fig.
18), is obtained by supposing the eye of the observer to be at the
surface of the globe, and to be able
to look through the solid sphere as
if it were a globe of glass, so as to
see the countries which are on the
ojiposite side ; these outlines are then
drawn as they would project them-
selves upon a screen stretched over a
section of the globe from pole to
pole, facing the eye of the observer.
On this plan, as shown in the figure,
the central countries are somewhat
crowded, those on the outer border
of the map expanded. To obtain a
more equal representation of the

equivalent areas marked out by the meridians and parallels, the
position of a more favourable point of sight, between those employed
in the former projections, has been calculated, giving that which
is known as the c/lobular projection (Fig. 19), one of the most com-
monly used. On this, the point of view is assumed to be also verti-
cally over the centre of the plane of jirojection, at a distance equal
to the sine of 45° of the arc of a great circle of the sphere.

By none of these projections, however, can more than half of the

1 If a flat circnlar disc be held over a flat surface so that the sunlight comes down
perpendicularly upon it, its shadow will be a perfect circle ; but if it be inclined, its
shadow passes into an ellipse, which will become narrower as the plate is turned, till,
when the light falls on the edge only, the shadow becomes a straight line. The shadow
here is said to be projected on the surface beneath, and the plan of representing the
round sm-face of the earth on a flat one is also called a projection.

Fig. 18.

PHYSICAL.

Ill

earth be shown at a single \-iew, and in none of them are the true
bearings of places, one from another,
preserved. The entire terrestrial sur-
face, excepting the parts about the
poles, can, however, be shown by a
method invented by a geographer of
Flanders named Gerhard Kremer, who
first published his chart in 1556.
His devace is retained to this day as
the basis of all charts for the use of sea-
men, and is known by the Latinised
form of his name as Mercator's chart
(Fig. 20). The earth is here conceived
to have the form of a cylinder, along
the length of which the meridians

are represented by equidistant straight lines. The parallels are also
represented by straight lines at right angles
to the former, but placed at distances which
are increased outward from the equator to-
wards the poles, in such a manner that the
true shape of every individual part of the
land, and its true bearing from every other
part, is preserved, though the northern and
southern portions of the map, as compared
with the equatorial, come to be grossly
exaggerated in size. Greenland, for ex-
ample, appears to be six or eight times as
large as the peninsula of India, whereas
in reality it is not half as large. The maps
in the foregoing historical chapters are
drawn upon this method, though, for the
sake of clearness, the lines of latitude and
longitude have been omitted from them.

18. Wlien it is desired to represent
only one country of the world, such as
England, on the map, another plan, which
gives more accurate results for such a small
area, is adopted. This device may be
understood by supposing a cone of paper to be set upon an arti-
ficial globe in such a way that the paper touches the globe along
the central parallel of the country to be shown on the map. (In
the case of England the cone would be made to touch along the •
fifty-third parallel.) The meridians and the parallels on each side
of this central one are then conceived to be brought up to meet

—

PUATOR

Fig. 20.

112 THE LONDOX GEOGKAPHY.

the cone, and to be projected on it along with the outlines of
the land between them. When the cone is unfolded, it may be
spread out on a flat surface. In this case the country lying along
the central line of the map, where the cone touches upon the
sphere, is represented with perfect accuracy ; on each side there
is a small amount of distortion, which increases as the area in-
cluded in the map is extended. Almost all the special maps in
the second part of this book are drawn upon this plan, or on a
modification of it which supposes the cone to cut the globe through
tivo parallels of the area to be mapped, which are chosen at such a
distance from one another that the error is more equally distributed
over the whole map, which is perfect along two lines instead of one
only.

11. PROPER MOVEMENTS OF THE EARTH.

1. How long ago it is since men began to doubt the belief that
the earth was the fi:sed centre of the universe, round which the sun
and all the heavenly bodies moved in circles, cannot be known, but
the germ of the system which bears the name of Copernicus, the
astronomer of Thorn in Prussia (1473-1543), seems to have existed
already in the schools of ancient Greece. Through him, however,
the system of the world now known to be the true one, representing
the sun to be the centre round which the earth and all the other planets
move, fu'st gained definite form, enabling the complex and apparently
irregular paths of some of the heavenly bodies to be understood as
parts of an orderly system. To Kepler of Magstadt in Wtirtemberg
(1571-1630) is due the subsequent discovery that the orbit of the
planets is not circular, but elliptical, one focus of the ellipse in each
case being occupied by the sun. The revelation of the governing
principle of these movements in the grand law of universal gravita-
tion, which gives completeness to the whole plan of the universe,
was left for the English Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). Later dis-
covery makes it clear that the whole solar system, the sun with all
its planets, has itself an onward movement through space.

2. It is, however, with those movements of the earth which
directly aftect the condition of its surface that we have here to do.
The fii'st of these is its movement of rotation, whereby it spins
round continuously on an imaginary axis which coincides with its
polar diameter, the extremities being called the poles. Tliis rota-
tion is from west to east. The second movement is that of trans-
lation or revolution round the svm.

3. Without long-continued and close observation of the move-
ments of the heavenly bodies, it would be impossible to convince

PHYSICAL. 113

ourselves practically from any external appearances that the earth
really moves. We feel no movement, for there is no halt or friction,
and the atmosphere which envelopes us, held in its place by gravita-
tion, forms an integral part of the globe in its passage through
space, taking as perfect a share in its rotation as the sea or land does.
Remembering this, it is not surprising that men accepted the
natural and obvious explanation of the apparent change of place of
the sun and stars, by believing that they did move round the earth
from east to west.

4. But without looking beyond the globe itself, it can be shown
by experiments that the evidence of the senses is here in error. An
experiment which is a very convincing one, and one that has been
made with great care and accuracy,^ is that of observing the fall of a
stone or a shot from a vertical height.

It may readily be understood that if the w_^ ""-^ e

earth be revolving from west to east, '"' || """-■

the top of a high tower must describe {]

a larger circle round the centre of the __^ i i

earth than its base, and must move in ^0#»*®*'®*™™^^
some degree faster than the ground on " Pi„ 21

which it stands. If, then, a shot be

carried to the top of such a tower, it will there acquire a rate of
movement, which will be greater than it had at the base of the
tower in proportion to the elevation to which it has been carried.
If now the shot be let fall, it will retain during its descent the speed
of revolution that it has acquired at the top of the tower ; it will
decline a little eastward from the perpendicular, and will strike the
ground on that side of the base of the tower.

A very interesting experimental proof of the earth's rotation,
first made by M. Foucault, is afforded by a freely suspended pen-
dulum. The plane of vibration of such a pendulum appears to turn
in the same direction as the sun, that is in the opposite direction to
the earth's rotation on its axis. The pendulum indeed maintains
its uniform swing, but the earth turns beneath it. To illustrate
this, suppose such a pendulum to be hung over the pole of the earth
and swung at starting so as to coincide with the meridian of London ;

1 The first exiieriments of tliis kind were made by Rieeioli, in 1040, from tlie tower
Degli Asinelli at Bologna, from a lieight of 256 feet. Their anthor erroneously inferr ;il
from the results obtained that tlii^ eartli stood still. Newton, in 107i>, maintained th it
they proved the contrary, Imt the experiments made at his suggestion by the Koy U
Society failed to demonstrate this. It was not till about 112 years after this that
Guglielmini, of Bologna, made the first satisfactory experiments from the tower iJcgli
Asinelli, by drop])ing lead bullets upon a cake of wax spread beneath. In 1802 a
series of experiments was made by Dr. Benzenberg from St. Michael's Tower in Ham-
burg, from a height of 250 feet ; and in 1S31 another extensive series by Professor Keieh
in the mines of Freiberg in Saxony, with a depth of fall of 020 feet. In all of these the
easterly direction was clearly shown.

114 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

if it vibrates constantly in the same direction, and it will do so unless
disturbed by some force, the revolution of the earth below it once
in 24 hours would make it appear as if the plane of the pendulum's
motion were turning once round in 24 hours, but in the opposite
direction, and it will coincide with every other meridian in turn.
This experiment has not actually been made at the pole, but has
been tried at many different latitudes between that and the equator,
where the effect ceases. In the latitude of London, such a fi'eely
suspended pendulum will appear to change its plane of vibration
round a circle in about 30 hours.

5. The form which has been assumed by the earth, the flattening
of its polar regions and the bulging of the equatorial, is in itself an
evidence of the uniform rotation of the earth on an axis, showdng
as it does the tendency of those parts of the earth which are rotating
the most rapidly to overcome the force of gravitation.

6. One most important purpose accomplished by the rotation of
the earth is that of maintaining the position of its parts in relation
to the sun. But for its rotation, the earth might change its position
continually with regard to the sun, the source of its heat and
light, with the effect of introducing extraordinary vicissitudes of
temperature. The example of a common spinning-top is sufficient
to show the effect of rotation in keej^ing a body in one position, for
it is impossible to balance a top with its point on the ground without
having caused it to rotate ; once set in rapid rotation, however, it
requires considerable force to upset it. It is with this very object
of keeping a projectile in one constant position, by means of rapid
rotation during its flight, that rifling is used in guns and cannon.
The top slackens its speed and falls at last because its motion has
been overcome by the friction of the point on the ground, and of
the air around it. The earth, revolving in empty space, carrying
its atmosphere with it, continues to rotate because there is no
friction to retard its motion. The most ancient astronomical observa-
tions, compared with those of the present day, show that, for 2000
years at least, the earth has not perceptibly slackened its speed of
rotation.

7. The turning of the earth on its axis gives the interpretation
of most of the apparent movements of the heavenly bodies, — the
apparent rising of the sun in the east, its passage across the sky
during the day, and its setting in the west, as well as the similar
movements of all the stars by night. The turning of any part of
the earth towards and away from the illuminating sun into the
shadow gives alternate day and night. The time elapsing between
two successive passages of a place beneath the sun gives the astro-
nomical day of 24 hours ; the civil day of like period is reckoned

PHYSICAL. 115

from one midnight to another, or from the moment when the place
is farthest turned from the sun till its return to that station. Since
every point of earth's surface, from east to west, or along each of
the parallels of latitude, necessarily has a different meridian, or
has its midday at a different time, it follows that at any moment
all times of day and night may be found in different parts of the
globe. One place on a j)articular parallel may be turning from
shadow into sunlight, and have its morning ; while a second, distant
eastward from the first by a quarter of the circumference, has its
midday ; a third, at a like distance farther on, is just revolving
from the lighter side of the east into the darkness, and has its even-
ing ; and a fourth, a quarter of the circumference farther, is in the
deepest of the midnight shadow. Thus, when the parts of America
about the Mississippi are revolving into the morning light, it is
already noon in the British Isles, evening on the delta of the Ganges
in India, and midnight in New Zealand.

8. But the daily rotation of the earth does not interpret all the
apparent movements of the heavenly bodies. In a former chapter
we have been observing how, day by day and week by week, the
sun seems to change its position in the sky ; how it rises gradually
from the low flat arch it seems to make in midwinter, higher and
higher in spring, till at midsummer it takes its highest arch across
the heavens, and then sinks gradually back again, throwing longer
and longer shadows, till they are longest in midwinter again. Thus,
in the course of the period of time we call a year, the sun has com-
pleted one series of apparent changes, from its lowest arch to its
higliest, and back to the lowest again. In this case, as in the former
one of the sun's apparent passage across the sky, the first e\ddence
of the senses is that the earth is standing still and the sun moving to
and fro in the heavens. The apparent change is, however, in fact
due to the real movement of the earth round the sun ; and just as
one rotation of the earth on its axis gives one day, so the time of one
revolution of the earth round the sun defines the year of 365j days.

9. Evidence of this second great movement of the earth — that
of. translation in an orbit round the sun — is not derivable from
anything that can be experienced on the earth itself, but depends
wholly upon observation of the other heavenly bodies and their
apparent movements. To understand these we should consider the
distance between the sun and earth, and their comparative sizes.

The distance between sun and earth, as determined by astro-
nomers, is in round numbers 92 millions of miles. If an express
train had started to accomplish the distance in the year 1700, and
maintained its speed all the way, it would by this time be a})proach-
ing the sun.

116 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

Now witli regard to the magnitude of the sun. Its diameter is
106 times that of the earth nearly, and in bulk its vast globe
is a million and a quarter times greater than that of the earth.
Figures, however, give no adequate conception of this enormous
disproportion in size ; a more distinct idea will be obtained if
we compare the sun to a globe of six feet in diameter ; then
the earth on the same scale will be represented by a little pellet
of the same diameter as a thi'eepeuny piece. Or if you take the
length of a page of this book to represent the sun's diameter, that
of the earth will be smaller, on the same scale, than one of the
letter o types on the page. Now, it would be quite contrary to the
teaching of the laws of gravitation that such a vast body as the
sun should revolve round one comparatively so minute as the earth ;
but quite in accordance with it that the earth should belong to a
system of planets circling round the sun.

10. The analogous movements of the other planets, as seen from
the earth, may be taken as evidence of this orbital movement of the
earth. These are seen to disappear and reappear behind the sun,
and the telescope shows that each has a gi-eater or less surface
enlightened, and has greater or less apparent size, according to its
position,.

11. By means of the telescope, also, it has been observed that each
of the fixed stars apparently describes a small ellipse round its true
position within the period of a year, an appearance which can only be
interpreted by admitting it to be the effect of the movement of the
earth round the sun. These stars are so immensely distant from the
earth, even as comjsared with the sun's distance, that this apparent
and very slight change of their position in the heavens can only be
determined by close scrutiny, so that to all intents and purposes
they are for us fixed, and the interval of time between two successive
passages of one of these stars over the meridian of any place (the
sidereal day) marks the true time of the earth's revolution on its
axis. The interval between two successive passages of the sun over
a meridian (the solar day by which we reckon) is, however, ob-
served to be longer by about four minutes than the interval between
two passages of a star. Why should this be ? If the earth simply
revolved on its axis, and had no other movement, the sun and
the stars would reach the meridian after the same interval The
fact is that the solar day does not represent merely one rotation
of the earth on its axis, l)ut this movement, combined with that of
a movement of translation through space round the sun. This
movement of translation through a cii'cuit of 360° round the sun is
accomplished in a year, or 365 days; so that nearly a degree of the
circuit is traversed by the earth every day. But a 360th part of a

PHYSICAL. 117

day of twenty-four hours is four minutes ; so that the change of
position of the earth due to one day's advance in the annual circuit
round the sun corresponds to an addition of four minutes to the
time of daily revolution.

The observed difference in length of the sidereal and solar day
thus gives us another evidence of the revolution of the eaith round
the sun.^

12. But the path of the earth round the sun is not a circle.
Accurate measurement of the ajjparent diameter of the sun at
different times shows this to he the case. From one part of the
earth's orbit the sun's diameter is measurably smaller ; from another
it is sensibly larger; and this appearance can result from no other
cause than the greater distance of the earth from the sun at one
period than at another. The sun's apparent diameter increases up
to the beginning of January, and at that time the earth is said to
be in 'perihelion'^ (near the sun) ; thenceforward till July the appa-
rent size of the sun decreases, so that in July the earth is said to be
iji aplielion (distant from the sun). The change of its distance from
the sun between these times is found to be nearly l-30th of the
mean distance, or about three millions of miles. Now, since the
sun is the great source of heat, it seems at first sight fair to assume
that the amount of heat received by the earth's surface must be
much greater at one part of the orbit — that in which it approaches
nearest to the sun — than at the other extreme. Here, however, a
remarkable law comes in to show that the distribution of heat is
after all equalised ; for it is found that the angular velocity of the
earth in its path varies in
such a proportion, that ex-
actly equal amounts of heat
are received by it from the
sun in passing over equal '■.--;/„
angles round it.

13. The accompanying
diagram (Fig. 22) gives an
exaggerated representation Fig. 22.

of the ellipse of the earth's
orbit. If we suppose it to be divided into two segments by the line

1 It is an interestins exiieriment, ami one that requires no instruments, to estab-
lish this fact for ourselves. To do this, it is only necessary to stand to the nortli of
some well-defined vertical object, such as the angle of a house or a flagstafi; and by
placing the eye at a certain fixed point, to note \yy watch tlie exact times of two dis-
appearances of the same fixed star (choosing a bright one) behind tlie fniilding. Next,
observe the times of two disappearances of the same edge of the sun lichiiid the same
vertical line, using a bit of siiiolied glass to protect the eye, and cdniparc tlie length o.
the sidereal day— the interval between the two disappearances of the star— with the
Bolar day, or the interval between the two corresponding passages of the sun.
2 Peri near, hdios sun ; apo from, helios sun.

118

THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

AB passing through the svm, and the earth to circulate from A
through the perihelion point round to B, it will have passed through
180° ; and as many degrees will be passed through in completing the
circuit from B round through aphelion to A again. But these segments
will be parsed through in unequal times ; that on the side of peri-
helion in shorter, the opposite in longer time, in proportion to
their area ; the more rapid passage through the smaller segment
compensating for the greater proximity of the earth to the sun there,
and thus maintaining an equilibrium of heat-supply from equinox
to equinox.

14. Admitting the fact of the earth's motion of translation round
the sun, this in itself does not account for the apparent change
of the sun's altitude in the heavens from week to week that we have
been observing. To explain this we must consider next the position
with regard to the sun which the earth maintains in its annual
transit. We have seen that, as a consequence of the earth's rota-
tion in free space, its axis must maintain the same direction ;
that is, it must always remain parallel to itself. Suppose now that
this axis were perpendicular to the plane of the movement round
the sun, or to an imaginary radius from the sun to the earth, as in
Figure 23, the rotation of the earth would bring every part of its
Burface in succession beneath the sun's light and heat ; a great circle
passing through the poles would always divide the illuminated from

->-SUN

Fig. 23.

->■ SUN

Fig. 24.

the shadow side ; day and night would be of equal length all over
the world, and all the year round. But now suppose the earth's

PHYSICAL. 119

axis were parallel to tlie plane of motion round the sun, as in
Figure 24, it is evident that during a long period of the passage
round the sun, one half of the earth would remain in constant
darkness, while the other half had lasting daylight ; one side would
experience the severest frosts, while the other was burned up with
excessive heat.

15. The actual position of the earth's axis is neither that of
the first nor the second supposed case, but in an intermediate
position, inclined 66|° to the plane of its orbit, called that of the
ecliptic, being the plane in which eclipses of the sun and moon
can alone take place. In other words, the axis of the earth is in-
clined 23|^° from one that would be perpendicular to a ray from
the sun.

16. The position which the earth thus occupies relatively to the
sun at various stages of its annual round will be best understood by
reference to the illustration on the opposite page. This shows the
earth at four positions in its orbit, each 90° apart. The shaded por-
tions here represent the dark or niglit hemisiihere, the bright those
which are under the sun's light. When the earth is in the positions
A and C the sun is vertically over the intersection of the planes of
the equator and ecliptic. In these positions, whioh correspond to
those which the earth reaches in March and September, the boundary
between the lightened and dark sides runs exactly along a meridian
and through the poles. For the time every point on its surface
describes half its daily rotation in darkness, half in light ; so that
day and night are each twelve hours long all over the globe. Hence
the term equinox. The earth is in the position A at the time of
the vernal or spring equinox, and at C during the autumnal
equinox, of the northern hemisphere. As the earth reaches the
position B, its axis continues to point in the same direction, its
northern pole appears to incline more and more towards the sun,
allowing a still increasing part of each circle of latitude north of the
equator to be reached by the sun, which consequently, to an observer
at any part of the northern hemisphere, as in England, seems to
rise more and more in the heavens, and to make a higher and larger
arch. The days consequently grow longer and longer, till, when the
earth has reached the position B, in the month of July, the sun is
vertical over the northern tropic or turning point, the Tropic of
Cancer, and the North Pole with all the lands round it within a
radius of 23|°, or within the Arctic CVrc^e, remains constantly enlight-
ened. At the same time, all within a similar radius round the
South Pole turns in continued darkness. This then is the position
of the summer solstice of the northern hemisphere, so called because
when reaching the tropic the sun's meridian altitude varies so little from

120 THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

(lay to rlay as to seem to stand still. Advancing round another quarter
of its circuit, tlie earth ajaproaches the position of the autumnal equinox,
when days and nights are again equalised ; passing this, on towards
the position D, the southern half of the earth, as you will under-
stand from the illustration, seems to become inclined towards the
sun ; to us in the northern hemisphere the sun then seems to travel
by a lower and lower arch through the sky, and the days become
shorter and shorter. For the southern hemisphere, however, they
are now increasing in length, till at last the whole of the circle of
23^° round the South Pole, the Antarctic cap of the earth, comes into
continued daylight, the sun at the same time reaching its southern
turning point or tropic, 23^° south of the equator, called the Tropic
of Capricorn. This then is the midwinter position of the northern,
the midsummer position of the southern hemisphere.

17. We can now understand why it is that the sun's path seems
to rise and sink gradually during the year. In the illustration, the
true sizes of the sun and earth could not be shown, and we must be
careful not to be misled by it. From the immense distance of the
sun its rays reach the earth in parallel lines, not in divergent rays
as a glance at the illustration might suggest. Remembering this, if
you draw a line parallel to a radius from the sun, to meet the
latitude of 50° N. (that of south England) on the side of the earth
next to the sun in the summer and winter positions B and D, you
will notice what a large angle the sun's rays form with the earth at
that latitude in midsummer, and how small an angle in winter. Thus
it is that in the latitude of London the sun appears to vary in its
meridian or midday altitude above our horizon, increasing its arch
gradually from one of a height of 15° in midwinter to one of 62° in
midsummer.

1 8. Since the sun is the great source of the heat which is ex-
perienced on the surfece of the earth, it follows that the temperature
of any part of the surface mainly depends upon the amount of sun-
shine it receives. When any part of the earth is turned towards the
sun it is recei\'ing heat, when it has turned away from the sun at night
into the darkness, it rapidly parts with heat by radiation. As the
average temperature of every place on the earth, observed from year
to year carefully by thermometer, is found to remain very nearly con-
stant, it follows that the whole quantity of heat received from the sun,
and the amount radiated away into space, must be nearly balanced ;
there is no accumulation of heat going on in any part of the world,
and no rapid increment of cold in any region.

19. The amount of heat received by any place during the year,
however, varies not only with the time of its exposure to the sun's
rays, or the length of day and niglit, but in a still greater degree

PHYSICAL.

121

Fi£T. 25.

with the angle of incidence of the solar rays, the apparent height
of the sun above its horizon. It is obvious that the rays which
fall vertically are the most concentrated of all, and that those
which fall slantingly are more diffused, the diffusion increasing
with the amount of obliquity. This will be readily understood
from the accompany-
ing diagram (Fig. 25),
Avhich represents a ray
of light of the same
breadth striking the
ground at three differ-
ent angles. When it
falls perpendicularly
it is concentrated on
a space of the ground
which is only equal
to the breadth of the ray ; as the angle of incidence decreases, the
heat and light of the ray are spread over a much greater breadth,
and are weakened in proportion.

20. This fact of decrease of temperature with increasing obli-
quity of incidence of the sun's rays enables us to understand both
those variations of temperature which are experienced between the
poles and the equator, and the changes of warmth during the period
of a day, from tlie cool morning, when the earth is turning to
meet the sun's almost level rays up to the heat of midday, when
its light is pouring dowai upon us from the crown of its arch in the
sky.

2 1 . Thus the equatorial regions of the globe, receiving the most
direct rays, are the hottest of all ; the zone between the two
tro pics^o r apparent^ turning points_,of the sun, in which the sun
can never appear at a greater distance than twice the distance of
each tropic from the equator (231 + 23|), or 47° from the zenith
of an observer in any part of the zone, is on this account called
the torrid or hot zone. It has little seasonal change. Between the
tropics and the Arctic and Antarctic circle, tlie sun's midday altitude
has a range nearly from the zenith, on the borders of each tropic,
down to the horizon on the skirts of the polar circles ; the belts
marked out between the tropics and the polar circles are thus called
the temperate zones, and have very marked seasonal changes. The
caps of the globe within the polar circles, each of which receives
but scanty heat from the almost horizontal rays of the sun during
its long daylight, and is in the shadow side of the earth for a con-
siderable period of each year, are the coldest parts oi the earth, and
are thus appropriately called the frigid zones, or the Arctic and

122 THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

Antarctic regions. In these the sun never appears at a higher level
above the horizon than t^vice 23 J or 47 degrees.

22. A raj of sunlight, Ijesides being more diffused or spread
over a larger space in reaching the earth at a low angle, loses part
of its heat by absorption in the earth's atmosphere : the farther a
ray has to pass through the air, or the more obliquely it falls, the
more its heat will then be absorbed. Part is also reflected from the
atmosphere, and thus lost to the earth, the loss on this account being
also greater the more the obliquity increases.

23. From all these considerations it results that in comparison
^Yith the amount of heat received by the earth from the vertical sun,
the quantity is reduced by about a fourth when the sun's meridional
altitude is 60°, by a third when it is 50°, by nearly a half when it
is 35°, and by about three-fourths of its amount when the sun's
altitude is 25°. When the sun's arch is as little as 5° above the
horizon, the comparative amount of heat received from its rays is
but TTirth part of that given by the vertical sun ; a result which
enables us to understand why it is that during the long-continued
daylight experienced within the polar circles for six months of the
year, the ice which characterises these regions is 7iot entirely melted
away by the sun's rays.

24. If there were no other circvimstances affecting the distrilau-
tion of the sun's heat, or if the earth were perfectly uniform in
surface, the temperature of each belt would decrease equally at each
season by the parallels of latitude from the equator to the poles,
and the zones, torrid, temperate, and frigid, with their definite
boundaries, would be precise limits of climate ; but other causes
intervene to disturb the regularity of these divisions, and this leads
us to consider next the distribution of land and water on the globe.

III. DISTRIBUTION OF LAND AND SEA.

1. We have noticed in the foregoing sketch of the progress of
discovery how for centuries after Columbus had crossed the Atlantic,
and Magellan had sailed through the vast breadth of the Pacific
Ocean, men clung still to the idea of a great southern continent, a
land that must exist, it was thought, to maintain the balance of the
great continents, the coast-lines of which were beginning to be known
in the northern hemisphere ; how Tasman, when he discovered
New Zealand, following this idea, believed it to be no other than
a part of Staaten Land which his countrymen Schouten and Lemaire
had seen to southward of Magellan's Strait ; and how it was not till
Cook, in his great voyages during the eighteenth century, had sailed

PHYSICAL. 123

back and forward zigzag all tlirough the region in wliich this
mythical southern continent had been depicted upon the maps of
the world, finding nothing but sea up to the ice-barriers of the
Antarctic region, that the enormous expanse of water in the southern
hemisphere of the globe was finally realised.

2. Now that all, or very nearly all, the coast-lines of the globe
have been mapped oiit, it requires but a glance at the chart of the
world to con\dnce oneself that the sea covers a far greater j^ortion of
the earth's surface than is exposed as dry land. About three
quarters of the surface is occupied by ocean, leaving only one
quarter above the sea ; or, if we measure still more acciu'ately, we
find that of the 197 millions of square miles of the globe's superficial
area, 52 millions only are occupied by land, and 145 millions by
water.

3. It is also evident that the distribution of land and sea is a
very irregular one ; that the land is crowded together in that
hemisphere which is north of the equator, and that this half of the
globe has nearly three times as much land as the corresponding
southern half. If, however, we suppose the globe to be di\dded into
hemispheres, one of which has its pole in southern England, the
other near New Zealand, and draw a map of the world on this plan,
as in the figure (Fig. 26), the contrast in the distribiition of land and
water is brought out most clearly of alL The hemisphere with
England as its centre embraces nearly all Europe, Asia, and Africa,
besides North America and South America except its southern pro-
longation ; while the other hemisphere, of which New Zealand is
the centre, shows no land except this, and Australia, the East India
Islands, and the long southern cape of South America. On this
account tlie halves of the globe shown in the figure have been called
the continental or land and the oceanic or water hemispheres.

4. In looking at the chart the general outward similarity in
the form of the great masses of the land called the continents^ can-
not fail to be noted as a remarkable feature. Each of the four, as
shown in the land hemisphere — Asia, Africa, North America, and South
America — is massive and broad toward the north, but tapering and
wedge-like to the south. The islands or fragmentary parts of the
land appear as a rule to the south and east of the continents ;
the East Indian Archipelago to the south-east of Asia, Madagascar
to the south-east of Africa, the West Indian Islands to the south-
east of North America, the Falkland Islands to the south-east of
South America.

5. While there is a general similarity in the form of the masses
of the land, strong contrasts are presented when we come to look at

1 Con "together," and teneo " I hold."

. T ^_L HEtvi ,

Fig. 26.

PHYSICAL. 125

tlieir outline more in detail. Some reach out in spreading members,
others are rounded and compact. Looking at the continent of
Europe and Asia, we see that it is deeply cut into by arms and
bays of the ocean, between which corresponding promontories and
peninsulas ^ of the land run out. On the European side are the
great inlets of the Mediterranean and the Baltic, corresponding to a
series of peninsulas such as those of Spain, Italy, Greece, Denmark,
and Scandinavia. On the opposite side, the continent also branches
out in the peninsulas of Kamtchatka and Corea, in the great promon-
tories of further India, Hindustan, and Arabia. Africa by contrast
is rounded and close in outline, and has no single deep inlet in its
coast-line. Its rounded form is nearly coj^ied in Australia and in
South America, but North America, like Asia and Europe, has deep
bays and branching arms on both coasts, such as those of Alaska
and California on the Pacific side, and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and
Florida on the Atlantic coast-line.

6. When taken in connection with the history of the progress
of discovery, and after that of the gradual spread of knowledge and
civilisation over the earth, this study of the external form of the lands
of the globe, and the shape of their coast-line, becomes one of
remarkable interest. Discovery has always advanced, as we have
seen, far more rapidly by sea than by land. Now those parts of the
land which are most easily approached by sea from any direction,
are the small fragments of it (the islands) which are bathed on all
sides by the ocean ; after these, in point of accessibility, come those
shores in which deep inlets and projecting peninsulas give smoother
water and shelter to approaching shijjs. Those coasts which are
rounded and unbroken and exposed to the unchecked power of the
ocean, on the other hand, refuse a harbour to the approaching ves-
sel, or an easy landing to its crew.

7. In a former paragraph it has been stated that the position of
any point on the surface of the earth is determined by reference to
its latitude, its distance north or south of the central line of the
equator ; and longitude, its distance east or west of a chosen zero
meridian, at right angles to the former. This, however, is still an
imperfect determination, for it omits the consideration of the eleva-
tion of the point on the earth's surface in respect to other neigh-
bouring points. The third co-ordinate of elevation is necessary to a
perfect definition of position.

8. Since for the purpose of comparison all measurements of
height or depth must be referred to one uniform datum line or
starting point, the level of the surface of the sea has been adopted
as giving the zei'o line of all measurements of so-called absolute

1 Pcene "almost," inmla, "an island."

126 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

height ahove, or absolute depth beneath, this level on the earth's sur-
face. A distinction must of course be drawn between measurements
from this base and the relative heights or depths of any points, such as
the elevation of a mountain peak above tlie neighbouring plain, or
the depth of the bed of a lake beneath the level of its surface water.

9. It would carry us too far away from our subject to discuss
here the various methods which are employed in determining
elevation, by means of the barometer, which shows the amount of
atmosphere left beneath the observer in ascending, or by trigono-
metrical measurement with the theodolite ; or to describe the method
of measming depth by the sounding line.

10. As yet this third element of elevation has been determined
with precision for comparatively few points of the earth's surface ;
though, by means of the convenient barometer, a good general
idea has been obtained of the absolute height of large areas of the
land. Accurate depth-measurements from wliicli the form of the
sea bed can be obtained are as yet fewer in number, but we are
receiving additions every year.

11. Let us glance, then, first, at what is known of this
general elevation of the continents. The greatest absolute elevation
that has been measured is that of the summit of Mount Everest in
the Himalaya range, north of India, 29,002 feet, or 5j English
miles, above the sea level. It is useful to compare this great ele-
vation ^Yith the diameter of the globe, both to gain an idea of the
size of the earth, and of the insignificance of even such a mountain
range as the Himalaya when compared with its mass. The height
of Mount Everest does not amount to a 1400th part of the diameter
of the earth ; or, if we suppose the earth to be represented by a
globe of 14 inches in diameter, the highest mountain shown on this
scale would not amount to the 100th part of an inch, or would
come within the thickness of a sheet of paper laid on the globe. It
must be remembered, however, that Momit Everest is only a single
point in a range, the average elevation of wMch does not much ex-
ceed half the height of its summits.

1 2. The average elevation of the whole of tlie land of the globe,
again, is very small in comparison with that of the range of the
Himalaya. As yet the nimiber of elevations that have been deter-
mined are too few to enable any accurate estimate of the mean
elevation of all the land above the sea level to be made ; but present
knowledge indicates that this may be safely assumed at about 1500
feet. If then the greatest height of all on the earth's surface would
lie within the thickness of a sheet of paper laid upon our supposed
globe, a tenth part of this thickness would nearly represent the
average height of the land above the sea level.

PHYSICAL. 127

13. Only w'itliin recent years, and chiefly in connection with
the hiving of telegi-aph cables from one continent to another,
has attention been tiirned to the question of the depth of
the sea and the form of its bed beyond the mere margin
of its shores. The North Atlantic has now been sounded
in many directions, so that a general plan of its trough can be
made with some accuracy ; elsewhere, as in the South Atlantic,
the Indian Ocean, and Pacific, accurate soundings are as yet fewer
in number. The gi-eatest depth yet found by trustworthy sounding
does not exceed 27,900 feet, a depth which was found by the
scientific expedition sent by the United States in 1873, near the
Kurile Islands, north of Japan in the Pacific. Greater depths than
this may remain to be found in the still unsounded regions of the
sea bed. Although no depth has yet been sounded that exceeds the
greatest height known on the land, the average depth of the sea
proves to be very much gTeater than the mean elevation of the
land. The average depth of the North Atlantic amounts to about
12,000 feet, and there is every reason to believe that the Pacific
and the other great oceans are not shallower than this.

14. The average depth of the sea, then, is at least eight times
the mean height of the continental land ; and the oceanic water on
the earth occupies fully eighteen times as much space as the land
which rises above its surface level. This contrast will be made
more striking if we suppose that all the continents could be pared off
from the globe at the line of the sea level and gathered up. If
then this mass was thrown into the trough of the North Atlantic, it
would not half fill it up.

15. At first sight there appears to be no general relation sub-
sisting between the distriljution of height on one continent and on
another. The two Americas indeed correspond remarkably in hav-
ing their greatest height along their western borders, but in Asia
and Africa and Australia the highest lands lie towards the opposite
margins of the continents. A closer study of the great lines of
height on the globe, however, discloses some very remarkable points
of correspondence throughout their whole system. It is first
observed that the higher parts of eacli continent rise towards one or
other margin of the mass of land — not centrally ; next that these
heights descend more steeply towards that coast of the continent
nearest which they rise, and sink with a more gentle descent on the
opposite side, the farthest from the sea. Still further, it is noticed
that almost all the greater heights of the land lie on those sides of
the continents which are nearest to the greater areas of water, the
Pacific and Indian Oceans ; and that almost all the more gentle
slopes, and the broad plains extending from them, lie round

128 I HE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

the narrower divisions of the water, the Atlantic and Arctic
Oceans.

16. If we were to make a tour of the shores of the Pacific and
Indian Oceans, we should pass in succession all the highest moun-
tains of the world. Starting at Cape Horn, we would keep in sight
of the vast range of the Andes all along the South American coast
for 5000 miles ; sailing on by the Isthmus of Panama, the high vol-
canoes of Central America would come in view ; next, the high
western edge of the table-land of Mexico, then the Sierra Nevada of
California, and after that the Cascade Range, and the lofty peak of
Mount St. Elias seen fifty miles out at sea. The chain of high
volcanoes of the Aleutian Islands would guide us across to the moun-
tains of Kumtchatka, the mountains of Corea, and the Khinghan
Range, which form the eastern slope of the great table-land of Asia.
The outliers of the Peling and Nanling mountains of China would
next pass in review. From the Indian Ocean we might approach
the base of the giant range of the Himalaya ; from the Arabian Sea
the buttresses of the plateau of Persia. All along the African coast
of the Indian Ocean also we should have the highest land of that
continent near at hand ; from the Abyssinian heights in the north,
past the snowy peaks of Kenia and Kilimanjaro, near the equator, to
the Drakenberg of Natal and the terraced ranges of Cape Colony.

17. Thus we have seen that all the highest lands, with scarcely
one exception, lie close to the borders of the gi'eatest expanse of
ocean on the globe, and in most cases rise directly from its waters.
If we were to climb any of these steep buttresses that we have been
looking at in making the cii'cuit of the Pacific and Indian Oceans,
and pass over their summits, we should find that in almost every
case the inner slope was a comparatively short one, that the land
immediately behind them appeared as a high table-land or plateau
of more level character ; farther, that this plateau was enclosed on
the landward side by a second range of heights running roughly
parallel to the coast range at a greater or less distance from it. On
crossing this second ridge, however, we should find the land descend-
ing by a gradual slope to low plains which stretched away for hun-
dreds of miles to the Atlaijtic or Arctic coast.

1 8. This general form of the land will be made clearer by com-
paring the accompanying diagrams, which represent sections, greatly
exaggerated in vertical scale, through South and North America,
Asia, and Africa.

1 9. If we were to climb the steep slope of the Andes from the
Pacific shores and cross the summit by one of the passes, we should
find ourselves on the high table-lands, it may be of Bolivia, of Peru,
or Ecuador, which are supported between the lines of the Cordilleras

PHYSICAL. 129

at an average elevation of 12,000 feet above the sea. Behind the
Sierra Madre of Mexico we should find ourselves on the great table-

Rorhy ^ri Ptattau ^

Fig. 27.

land of Anahuac, everywhere about 7500 feet above the sea level.
Farther north, across the Sierra Nevada or the Cascade Mountains,
the great plateau of the Western United States would be reached
spreading out to the Rocky Mountain ranges which support it on
the landward side. In Asia, if we ascended the Khinghan Mountains
or the Himalaya, we should find ourselves on the great plateau of
Tibet, where rivers are navigated at an elevation of 14,000 feet
above the sea ; and the land would remain high as we advanced into
the interior of the continent, until the second inclosing ranges of
the Altai and Thian Shan mountains were crossed, when the land
would be found to sink in the low plains of Siberia. Or again,
if the steep edge of the mountains which rise from the Red Sea had
lieen climbed, we should stand on the high plateau of Abyssinia,
^\^th its pastoral plains 7000 feet above the sea level, and crossing
its opposite border, should descend to the valley of the Nile and the
lowlands of the Sudan, which extend all the way to the Niger and
the Atlantic.

20. The mountains which rise round the Mediterranean, in
southern Europe and north Africa, may not exhibit this system
of distribution of height so completely. Still if we look at the
general form of the Alps we shall see that their steeper slope
is to the south, and that they support the Bavarian plateau
on the continental side. The mountains of Algeria also have
their steepest descent to the Mediterranean, and enclose the high
plateau of Barbary between their coast I'anges and the inner Sahara
Border Range, as it has been called, crossing Avhich one would
descend gradually to the lowlands of the desert. The general form

130 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

of the heights is here the same as in the greater elevations. If we
come to Australia we shall find the same system of distribution.
The Australian Alps lie close to the Pacific border of the con-
tinent ; behind them are the high pastoral " downs," and from them
the land sinks away to the lowlands which form all the remainder
of the great island.

21, Ha\'ing gained a general idea of the distribution of land on
tlie earth's surface, of its extent, and of the broad features of the
relief or elevation of the continents, we now come to consider the
general character of the different regions of the land as they are
adapted for the habitation and development of mankind, as well as
of the animal and vegetable populations of the earth.

IV. CAUSES WHICH DETERMINE CLIMATE.

1. The chief circumstance that determines the character of any
region of the land, and the abundance or limitation of vegetable and
animal forms upon it, is that of climate. Now the principal
element in the formation of climate is, as we have already seen,
the distribution of the sun's heat, the length of day and night, and
the duration of the seasons. It was the observation of the effect of
the varying slope of the sun's rays in countries lying north and
south of one another that led Ptolemy, the geographer of Alex-
andria, to divide the earth into climates,^ or zones differing in the
length of their longest day. But there are a number of causes
in operation which very considerably modify the manner of recep-
tion and distribution of the sun's heat and the effects of it on the
earth's surface, all of which are taken into account in what is now
understood by climate, a term which groups together all those
external circumstances which give character to any region of the
earth. We propose then to find out what these modifying, causes of
climate, in its old acceptation, are, and then to survey tlie general
results of varying climate shown in the general character of the
different regions of the land.

2. We have just been considering the relief of the land of the
globe and the difference of elevation of its surface. Every one who
has climbed a mountain must have observed how the air became
cooler as he got up higher, and that it was colder at the top than
it had been at the bottom. Why this should be the case may be
understood when we learn that the air is warmed, not by the direct
passage of the sun's rays through it, since but little heat is absorbed
in this way by the atmosphere, but chiefly by contact with the

KXluara, slopes or inclinations.

PHYSICAL. 131

warmed surface of the eartli ; hence it is evident that the lowest
strata of the air, in immediate contact with the earth, will be most
lieated by the sun's rays, the upiser least of all. The upper air, also,
subjected to less pressure, occupies greater space, and a loss of heat
attends this expansion or separation of its particles ; and the less
covering of atmosphere there is, the more rapidly can radiation of
heat take place from the earth. The rate at which temperature
diminishes with elevation is generally stated to be about 1° of the
scale of Fahrenheit's thermometer for every 300 feet of ascent ; but
on mountains this varies very much according to situation and
season.

3. The clearest evidence of the existence of such a decrease of
temperature with elevation is afforded by the snow-clad summits
which may be seen even in the tropical zone. Mount Kilimanjaro,
for example, rises on the eastern heights of Africa, almost under the
equator, and snow lies all the year round on its summit above an
elevation of 16,400 feet. The average temperature of the air at
the sea level in this part of Africa is about 85° F., an almost
burning heat, but the presence of the snow on this mountain shows
that the temperature at 16,400 feet must average less than 32°.
But snow does not remain unmelted at the level of the sea in any
jDarts of the earth excepting the jJolar regions. From this it is
evident that a change of elevation of a few thousand feet at the
equator produces a change of temperature-climate as great as would
be experienced in sailing from the equator 6000 miles to the frozen
regions of the poles. Thus also, two places at the same distance
from tlie equator, each receiving the same amount of sunlight, having
days of the same length, and exijeriencing the same changes of
season, but one of them elevated, the other low-lying, may have a
very different climate. The elevation of the land thus introduces
one very important modification of the climate due to latitude.

4. A second modification, scarcely less considerable, is due to the
situation of different parts of the continents v/ith reference to the
ocean ; for land and water differ very greatly in their manner of
reception of the sun's heat, and in their powers of conducting and
retaining it. The heat which falls upon the land is arrested by
a thin layer of the surface scnl, tlie particles of which, having no
movement among one another, cannot communicate their wai'mth
downward except by the slow process known as conduction. This
daily process of heating downwards ceases to be percej^tible generally
at a depth of four feet from the surface, but varies according to the
nature of the soil. Bare desert sand, for example, has so little
conducting power, that the sun's heat accumulates during the day
on the very surface layer till it is raised to an intense heat. Where

132 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

A'egetation, sucli as grass, covers the land, the temperature does not
rise so rapidly, for part of the heat is spent in evaporating the
moisture of the plants, and their blades, in free contact with the air,
give off to it their supeifluous warmth. Where forests cover the
ground, the change of temperature during the day is much retarded ;
observation shows that the trees do not reach their maximiuu
temj^erature till after sunset, and they thus store up the heat of day
against the cold of night. The heat rays which descend upon the
ocean are not stopped and accumulated at the surface as on the
land, but penetrate to some d^pth — not, however, by conduction.
The action of waves tends to ditluse their heat through the surface
stratum ; but evajjoration, on the other hand, is always reducing
tlie temperature. And the " specific heat " of water is very great. It
requires more heat to raise its temperature by one degree than it
does to increase the temperature of abnost any other substance by
a like amount. The amount of heat that would raise a pound of
water one degree, would produce an equivalent rise of temperature
in four pounds of chalk or nine pounds of iron.

Hence the temperature of the sea in any latitude cannot be
raised to the same degree as that of the land on the same parallel
receiving the same amount of sunlight. But, for the same reasons,
the sea retains its heat much longer than the land.

5. Now, since the temperature of the atmosphere depends mainly
upon the heat radiated upward from the surface upon which it
rests, the air over the land must be heated in a ditl'erent degree
from that which lies over the ocean. During the long days of their
summer, the temperature of the great masses of land in the northern
or southern hemispheres becomes much warmer than the ocean on
each side of them ; but in winter the land, and the air over it, falls
to a much lower temperature than the heat-storing ocean. This
brings about a difference of climate between those regions of the
land which lie nearest the sea and the interior countries of the con-
tinent. The temperature of a country bordering on the sea in the
temperate zone is lowered in summer by the presence of the more
slowly warming sea nearer it ; in winter, however, its temperature
does not fall so low as it otherwise would, for the sea round it has
stored up the warmth of summer, and quantities of moist air How over
the cooler land, bringing with them and distributing the warmth of
the sun in winter rains. Countries lying far from the sea have, in con-
trast to this, great heat in summer and excessive cold in winter. Thus
the unequal reception of heat by land and sea introduces the modifi-
cation known as the insular or maritime and the continental climate,
the one more uniform, the other excessive. Our climate in the
British Isles is decidedly a maritime one, its average temperature

PHYSICAL. 133

ranging from about 40° to 60° F. In central Asia, however,
in the same hititude, and at the same height above the sea, the
average temperature ranges from 0° ^ in winter to about 70° in
summer. The temperature of the British Isles siuTounded by the
sea thus varies only 20° on an average during the year, but that of
the centre of the continent in the same latitude changes to the
extent of 70°.

6. In bringing about this difference of maritime and continental
climate, especially in aiding to equalise that of the coast regions,
the movements of the air brouglit about by the unequal heating of
land and sea play an important part. The movement of air due to
heat at one point is familiarly ilhistrated in the draught which
ascends the chimney over a fire, or the current from outside into a
warm room when the door or window is opened. Heat accumu-
lating rapidly on the surface of the land during the day causes an
ascending current, towards which the cooler air is drawn from over
the sea, which, as we have seen, takes a far longer time to become
warmed. At night the land radiates its heat rapidly, the tempera-
ture of the air over it falls below that of the neighbouring sea, the
air is thus made dense, the current is reversed, and the wind blows
seaward. This is the origin of

the land and sea breezes which _y

alternate on the coasts of all _^ ^_ — ^ ^mrtirmmiimMM/^ ^^^^
countries in warm latitudes; ~ "sea breeze 'by day" " ~ ~"'

it explains also the much more
extensive movements of the
atmosphere caused by the ex-
cessive heating of the contin-
ental lands during their sum-
mer and their excessive cooling during winter. Excess of heat in
summer produces an expansion and an upward current, which draws
the winds inward to the continent from all sides ; excess of cold in
winter, on the other hand, tends to increase the density of the air
over the continent, and to bring about a downward or outward
flow of it to all sides. Thus the winds round each of the con-
tinents have a more or less regular pericxlical or seasonal flow —
into the continent during its summer, and out of it on all sides when
its winter cold is greatest. Tliis movement is most marked in the
largest of the continents, that of Asia, and the periodical winds
round its south and eastern borders are on this account known as the
monsoons, a name adopted from the Arabic word Mausim, a season.

7. Over the belt of the equatorial region of the globe which is
beneath the vertical sun, where the heat is greatest and evaporation

i Or 32° below freezing point.

LAND BREEZE BY NIQHT

Fig. 28.

134

THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

most rapid, an ascending current of air rises at all seasons ; to supply
the place of the air -which is thus raised, cooler denser air flows
in horizontally from north and south towards the equatorial region,
forming the most constant of the great atmospheric currents known
on the globe, the trade winds. But air which is drawn towards the
equator from, say, N, lat. 25°, has at first a velocity of rotation (W.
to E.) which is less than that of the places it will in succession
reach (since in 24 hours it describes a smaller circle) ; these places,

then, in their movement from W.
to E., strike against the air which
is being drawn from the north ;
hence the trade winds of the
northern hemisphere appear as
N.E. winds, and similaily those of
the southefi-n hemisphere as S.E.
winds.

8. The return currents towards
the poles, which restore to the
north temperate regions the air
which has been drawn from them
"" "■ to supply the trade winds, appear

in like manner not as direct southerly or northerly winds, but as the
south-westerly \\-inds with which we are familiar, and as the north-
westerly currents of the southern temperate latitudes.

9. It would take us too far from our subject to examine here
the other complex agencies which bring about the manifold move-
laents of the atmosphere ; sufficient has perhaps been said to enable
us to understand how the winds blowing generally from colder to
warmer regions of the earth along its surface strive continually to
e(pialise the temperature of the air over the Avhole globe, and to
reduce the excessive variations of climate which would result from
the absence of their powerful agency.

10. The accompanying charts indicate the direction of tlie
gi-eater currents of the atmosphere during the year. In looking at
them, however, we must be careful to remember that they represent
only the average of the many variations of direction that are brought
about by local, changing, circumstances, which would require a
chart for every day, perhaps for every hour, to represent them ade-
quately. Even the so-called constant trade winds vary in position
with each season, moving to and fro with the vertical sun between
the tropics, and changing in strength with eveiy hour of the day.

11. A fourth very important agent in modifying the climate
due to latitude is present in the continual circulation of the waters
of the ocean. Here we mav leave out of consideration those swell-

PHYSICAL. 135

ings and fallings of the ocean which take ])lace twice within the
lunar day, called the tides, brought about by the attraction of the
moon and si;n on the waters of the globe. The undulation thus
formed involves no onward movement of the water in the oj^en
ocean, no circulation of its particles ; and it is only along the
immediate shore that the titlal undulation is converted by the
opposing land into an actual forward or sideward movement of the
water. The tides play but a very insignificant part in the move-
ments or interchange of the waters, and have no appreciable influ-
ence in modifying the climate of any part of the globe.

12. The great causes of circulation in the waters, like those
which set the air in motion, operate at the surface of the earth itself,
and though very various in their modes, are all referable, directly or
indirectly, to the distribution of the sun's heat.

13. The grandest movement of circulation in the waters of the
ocean is one which, it is now generally admitted, is caused by the
differences of temperature of the polar and equatorial regions of the
globe. The point of maximrim density of fresh water is 39° F.,
and it freezes at 32° F. ; but the salt water of the ocean does not
solidify into ice till it lias cooled down to 27°, or even to 25° if it
is very saline, and its point of maximum density is still two degrees
lower than this. When the water of the Arctic or Antarctic polar
seas is cooled down to near this temperature, its greater weight
gives it a tendency to sink and displace the water of less specific
gravity beneath it. In this way a disturbance of equilibrium may
be gradually brought about, and a very gradual " cieeping flow " of
the polar waters takes place along the floor of the ocean towards
the equatorial region. To compensate this movement, the upper,
warmer and lighter, stratum of water from the equatorial region is
drawn north and south, and floats towards each polar region. The
thermometers sent down with the sounding lines in each of the great
sea-basins conclusively show that such an interchange of jiolar and
equatorial water does take place ; for it is found that the ocean
water, in the greatest depths of the equatorial seas, has a tempera-
ture only a degree or two above the freezing point ; and that
only a comparatively shallow upper stratum of the surface water
within the tropics is at a high temperature. ^

1 other causes than the difference of temperature may be at work in producing or
aiding tlii.s circulation. One high authority 2 considers the inllux of cold water along
the floor of the ocean, from the Antarctic regions, to be solely due to the "excess of
evaporation over precipitation in the northern portion of the land hemisphere, and the
excess of precipitation over evaporation in the middle and soutlicrn part of the water
hemisphere." We have yet to leani, however, from actual observation, that there is
an excess of precipitation over evaporation in the southern hemisphere. Quite the
contrary view seems priitm facie to be the reasonable one, that evaporation is in excess
in the southern or water hemisphere, precipitation in excess of evaporation in the
northern or land hemisphere of the globe.

2 Sir Wyville Thomson.

136 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

Thus, in course of time, every drop of water in the ocean may
pass from the poles to the equator and back again, and from the
greatest depths up to the surface.

14. Much more important in theii' relation to climate than this
gradual interchange of the ocean waters in its vertical circulation,
are the superficial movements of the ocean waters in horizontal
directions, forming the streams which are known as ocean currents.
Among the various agencies which are at work upon the exposed
surface of the ocean in producing these movements, the winds are
the most active and powerful. Beneath the trade winds, in each
hemisphere, great ec^uatorial currents are found in each of the oceans,
the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific. Meeting and moving
westwai'd together, these equatorial streams reach the shores of con-
tinents which interrupt their path, and since the pressure of the wind
continues from behind, the accumulated water escapes northward
and southward. Thus, in the Atlantic, part of the water, carried
westward to the American shores by the equatorial streams, turns
south along the Brazilian coast, but the greater portion, passing into
the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, escapes thence by the
narrows of Florida as the well-known Gulf Stream. A third part
of the excess of water drawn westward escapes back again eastward
between the main branches of the equatorial streams, and forms the
counter-stream known as the Guinea current.

15. In the Pacific this system is developed on a still larger
scale, and there the water carried westward escapes, as in the
Atlantic, south and north by the coast of Australia, through the
channels of the East India Islands, and by the great Japan current,
called the Kuro Siwo, or black stream, the counterpart of the Gulf
Stream of the Atlantic. Part also returns towards America as a
central equatorial stream. In the Indian Ocean also the equatorial
currents meeting the African coast escape southward by the
Alozamhique current, which flows down the East African coast to
Cape Colony, and at some seasons also they find their way north-
ward into the Arabian Sea. The currents of the north Indian
Ocean are, however, controlled entirely in their movements by
the monsoon winds, and thus change their direction completely in
the course of the year, giving the clearest possible evidence of the
power of the winds in the formation of these ocean streams.

16. Since the waters drawn forward by the trade winds to
supply the great equatorial currents must be continually replaced,
a series of supplying currents are formed, which complete the circu-
lation. The finest examples of tliese are found in the great water
expanse of the southern hemisphere ; in the Humboldt or Perxwian
current, which feeds the trade-wind stream along the west coast of

}(i!j|!|i|lii .111%,

PHYSICAL. 137

Soutli America ; in the similarly formed South Atlantic current on
tlie west coast of South Africa ; and in its counterpart, the west
Australian current, passing into the trade-wind region of the south
Indian Ocean. The indraught currents of the north Atlantic be-
tween Spain and the Azores, and of the Pacific opposite the shores
of north California, are of exactly the same character.

17. But the indrawing by the trade- wind currents is only in
part the cause of these supplying streams ; for the waters of the
temperate region in each hemisphere are being borne forward, just
as the currents beneath the trade winds, by the westerly winds, the
retiirn current of the trades, which jDrevail in these latitudes. As
almost the whole of the Southern Ocean in temperate latitudes is
encircled by water, there consequently the westerly winds have their
greatest influence, and the whole surface of the ocean appears to
have an eastward movement under their influence in the general
current known as the Antarctic drift. In the northern hemi-
sphere the Gulf Stream, escaping from the basin which gives
its name, flows northward along the coast of the United States as
far as Newfoundland, with the momentum given it by the "head"
of water in the Gulf of Mexico ; but in doing so it becomes
merged in the general drift of the ocean in a north-easterly
direction under the south-west winds, and supplies this drift current
with part of the warmed waters that it carries past the British
Isles and Norway into the Arctic Gulf between Spitzbergen and
Novaya Zemlya.

Just in the same way the Japan current is taken up and continued
by the westerly wind drift of the Pacific, to be carried back to the
American coast and round again by the equatorial stream.

18. Though Bering Strait, tlie connecting channel between
the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, is about thirty-six miles wide, it is so
shallow that its existence scarcely affects the conditions of the ocean
on either side of it : the Arctic Sea, indeed, may be considered as a
great guK enclosed between North America and Siberia, partly
blocked up at its mouth by the mass of Greenland, with one broad
opening into it between Greenland and Norway, and a number of
nari'ower connecting channels between Greenland and the islands
of the American archipelago. We have seen that the westerly
winds drift before them a great volume of Avater from southern
latitudes past the British Isles and Norway into the Arctic Gulf
between Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. This water esca]ies
again from the closed sea, in the same way as the accumulated water
of the Caribbean Sea does in the Gulf Stream, mainly by the great
ice-bearing current of East Greenland, whicli fills the sea between
that coast and Iceland, and whicli, flowing into the Atlantic round

138 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

Caj^e Farewell, joins the united escape currents which have made
their way through the channels of the Arctic islands, to form the
ice stream of Labrador and Newfoundland.

19. The extraordinary effect of these ocean streams in modi-
fying the climate of the lands towards which they flow, is nowhere
so strikingly illustrated as in the contrast presented by the climate
of the two sides of the North Atlantic in high latitudes. While on
the loestern side the ice-bearing Labrador current closes the har-
bours of that coast, chills the atmosjihere, and stunts the vegeta-
tion all along the shores of Newfoundland, carrying icebergs into
the western Atlantic nearly to the latitude of Malta in the Mediter-
ranean, the eastern shores of this ocean, our own islands, and the
coasts of Norway, right up into the Arctic regions, are washed with
warm water from the far south, which not only keeps them free of
all ice, but enables the land to support a luxuriant vegetation. That
this water has actually come from far southern latitudes is shown
not only by its temperatiu'e but by its casting ashore on our coasts,
or even on those of Norway, strange nuts and seeds or pieces of
wood from tropical America or the West Indies. One might bathe
off the North Cape of Norway, in 71° north latitude, in water of the
same temperature as that in the harbour of New York, on the
oi)posite side of the Atlantic, in lat. 40°.

20. The two sides of the North Pacific present the same contrast,
from the same cause. There the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk are
frozen over from November till April, and all its harbours are
closed. The western shores of America, in the same latitude,
towards which the south-west drift of the North Pacific caiTies
warm water, are always freely open to navigation. It is through
the agency of the winds, however, that the warmth thus carried l)y
the ocean streams to high latitudes, or the chilly air from over the
ice-pack which they bring southward, is carried on and distributed
over the land to modify its climate. Here in England we know
well the difference between a warm south-west and a chilly north-
west wind ; the one has come to us over the warm waters of the
Atlantic ; the other may have passed over the broad ice stream that
comes down along the East Greenland coast.

21. As the currents are, in the main, dependent on the winds,
it is not surprising to find, on comparing the chart of the prevailing
winds with that of the ocean currents, that there is a very close
agreement between them in direction and form. The winds, how-
ever, are not restricted as the ocean streams are, and so are able to
carry their temperature onward over the land.

22. Hitherto we have been dealing with those modifications of
climate which result from causes which raise or decrease the tem-

PHYSICAL. 139

perature that would result from exposure to a certain quantity of
sunlight. But heat and cold are not the only circumstances which
go to form climate ; moisture, and the absence of it, dryness, have
(piite as important an influence in determining its character. Let
us see, then, in what manner moisture is broadly distributed over
the land of the globe.

23. Evaporation, as may be readily understood, though it pro-
ceeds continually from water in whatever form it may occur, even
in its solid state of ice and snow, is greatest where the sim's heat is
most strongly felt, in tropical regions. In the belt of calms which
lies between the two great converging air-currents of the trade winds,
over the ocean in the equatorial zone, the sun generally rises in
a clear sky ; but about midday, when its rays have gained their full
strength, the heated air from the surface of the sea ascending carries
up wdth it great quantities of vapour, and the sky is soon covered
with black clouds, from which prodigious quantities of rain descend ;
towards evening the sky again clears. A great part of the vapour
thus drawn from the eqviatorial ocean falls back again in torrents
to its surface, but a very large part is also carried on with the
great trade-'wind currents to the westward, to be expended ulti-
mately in copious showers on the land which lies across the path of
the broad current.

24. If we look at the chart of the mnds, it will be seen that
the north-east and south-east trade-winds of the Atlantic con-
verge towards the American coasts between the Gulf of Mexico
and Brazil. To the whole of the eastward slope of this region of
the New World, from the Atlantic shores upward to the crests
of the Andes, the trade winds carry the moisture they have gathered
from the ocean, distilling it in the hea\'y showers which flood the
vast rivers, the Amazon and Orinoco. From the great caldron of
the Indian Ocean the south-east trade wind continually carries
a supply of moisture towards equatorial Africa; the north-east
monsoon aids it in this work for half the year, but during the
other half turns to blow towards Asia, and travels laden with vapour
till intercepted by the heights of India, giving to that region its
season of heavy rains. The islands of the East Indian Archipelago,
lying also across the path of the trade and the monsoon winds,
are among the wettest regions of the earth.

25. Before going farther, it is necessary to understand one of the
main conditions upon which the distribution of moisture by the
winds depends. If a current of air is advancing from a cooler to a
warmer zone, and if no otlier circumstance intervenes, its power of
al)Sorbing and retaining moistUre will increase as it advances to
warmer latitudes and l)ecomes itself warmed. If, on the other

140 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

hand, tlie direction of the current is from warm to colder hititudes,
its power of holding moisture is decreasing as it advances and
becomes cooled. We have already noticed, however, that an in-
crease of elevation above the earth's surface brings about a change
of temperature which is equivalent to that which would be expe-
rienced in moving to a higher northern or southern zone; so that
a current of air forced upward by any means to a higher level, will
lose its power of retaining moisture just in the same way as if it
had been carried to a colder latitude.

26. This enables us to uudei'stand how it is that the trade
winds, blowing from cooler to warmer regions, lose the power of
retaining the moisture they have gathered from the sea as soon as
they are forced upward to higher levels by the intervening
land. Over the ocean these winds, advancing to warmer latitudes
at a uniform level, and increasing in temperature as they advance,
appear uniformly as dry winds. In the Atlantic, for example, the
islet of St. Helena, lying in the path of the south-east trade wind,
and being of such inconsiderable size as to effect no disturbance
in the current of the stream of air which passes it, has only about
five inches of rain in the year. The Cape de Verd islets, in the
path of the north-east trade wind of this ocean, are also parched and
dry. If we follow the broad paths of each of the trade-wind cur-
rents still farther back, to where they seem to come out of the land,
we cannot fail to notice that every one of the regions from which
they spring is barren and desert. Tracing the path of the north-
east trade ■wind of the Atlantic eastward, we come to the great
desei't of the Sahara ; the south-east current of the Atlantic, in like
manner, seems to spring from the arid deserts of the Kalahara and
of the south-west African coast. The north-east trade wind of the
Pacific leaves the dry deserts of the western United States and of
Lower California behind it ; its south-east wind comes from the
coast deserts of Peru, and Bolivia and Chile. If we follow the south-
east trade wind of the Indian Ocean, we again reach a most arid
region, that of central and western Australia. If we ask why all
■the driest regions of the land in each hemisphere should be those
which lie in the areas of the original indraught to the trade winds,
the answer evidently is this : they are thus dry and barren, because
the air which passes over them has been drawn in each case from
long distances overland, and is moving from colder to warmer
latitudes, so that it passes by not only uncondensed in rain, but
with an increasing tendency to promote evaporation, and to take up
moisture from every water-surface over which it may blow. The
intluence of the horizontal extent of the land in determining its
climate is here made apparent, for where this is greatest — as in Asia,

PHYSICAL. 141

Africa, and Australia — the dry regions are widest; in America, where
the width from sea to sea is much less, the dry regions are compa-
latively narrow and insignificant.

27. Thus we see that the greatest of the atmospheric currents,
the trade winds, at the originating points of their paths, are the
cause of drought and harrenness, but that where they cross land at
the termination of their course in the equatorial zone they give the
most copious rain sujiplies. This contrast may be made more
striking if it is observed that in some parts of the Maroccan Sahara,
near what may be called the head of the north-east trade wind of
the Atlantic, not a shower is experienced for, it may be, twenty
years at a time ; but where this same wind reaches the coasts of
South America, it brings a rainfall tliat represents a depth of twenty
feet of water in the year.

28. The other great prevailing currents of the atmosphere, the
westerly winds of the temiierate regions, vmlike the trade winds,
blow from warmer to colder latitudes, so that the vapour they carry
tends to become condensed as they advance, and they readily part
with it in heavy rain showers whenever an opposing coast raises the
stream to a higher level. To these south-westerly winds from the
Atlantic the British Isles and all western Europe owe their moisture
supply, as the similar winds from the Pacific bring the rain to the
coasts of north-western America, and from the southern ocean to the
slopes of Chile and New Zealand.

29. These great atmospheric currents, modified in many Avays
both by local cu'cumstances and by seasonal changes, thus regulate the
broader features of the distribution of moisture over the land. One
oi the most important of the minor conditions that guide the dis-
tribution of moisture is that of the relief of the land. Whenever any
height intercepts the movement of a current of moist air from the
ocean, the obstructing slope, wedging the air up into the cooler strata
of the atmosphere, condenses the moisture into cloud and then into
rain, which descends upon the outer slope, thereby diminisliing the
supply of the lands that lie behind this barrier. We need not go
farther than our own islands for a good example of this. The

Fig. 30.

mountain districts of the west coast of Britain, of Wales, or Cumber-
land, or of Scotland, facing the prevailing south-west winds from
the Atlantic (Fig. 30), have in some places ten times as much rainfall
every year as the opjjosite or leeward coasts ; in some years ujiwards

142 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

of 200 inches of rain ^ fall in some valleys of the Cumberland moun-
tains in England, while the average annual rainfall of the east coasts
on the opposite side is not more than 20 inches.

30. It may be safely said that every considerable mountain range
or plateau has a wetter side and a drier one, or shows this contrast in
a greater or less degree. An extreme example is presented by the
lofty chain of the Andes in the trade-wind region, that side which faces
the Atlantic winds ha\'ing a rainfall that fills the great tributaries
of the Amazon, while the opposite or leeward coast is so completely
screened by the great barrier as to receive scarcely a drop of rain
from year to year. This may also serve as an illustration of the
influence of the rotation of the earth from east to west upon the
climate of diflerent regions of its surface. If we suppose the earth
to have been set in rotation in the opposite direction, on the same
axis, the direction of the trade winds would have been the reverse
of their present curve, or they would have appeared as nortli-west
and south-west winds. On the supposition of such a change, the
trade winds of the Pacific would have poured their rain supplies on
the steep western slope of the Andes, and all the humid forest basin
of the Amazon would have been a bare riverless steppe.

31. All the great plateau lands of the globe, indeed, but more
especially those which are walled in by two mountain buttresses, a
maritime and an inland one, are characterised by deficiency of
moisture supply. Such are the liigh bare plateaus of Boli-via and
Peru between the Cordilleras of the Andes, called the Punas, and the
" great basin " of the western United States lying between the Rocky
Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, where the Salt Lake of Utah
and the dry deserts of Colorado are found. The great central
plateau of Asia, with the bare region of Mongolia and the Gobi
desert, between the outer walls of the Khinghan and Altai moimtains,
is another examj^le ; as is also the dry plateau of Khorassan in Persia,
enclosed between the mountains of Karman and the Elburz range.

32. Intermediate between those regions which are most bounti-
fully supplied with rainfall tlu'ough their situation with respect to
moisture - bearing winds, and those in which deficiency of rain
is observed, either through their position in relation to a current
of air which passes over them from colder to warmer latitudes, or
through their being screened from rain-bearing winds by mountain
barriers, lie intermediate belts in which the supply of rain gra-
duates from one extreme to the other. Excej)ting along the lines of
some of the higher mountain ranges, there is nowhere any abrupt
transition from a very moist to a very dry region.

1 Meaning an amount that would cover tlie ground to a depth of 200 inches if the
whole of it were collected for a year.

PHYSICAL. 143

33. We have tlius followed the chief links of the chain of
conditions that go to form climate : we have seen that exposure to
the more direct or more oblique incidence of the smi's rays resulting
from latitude is not always the most influential element ; that its
effects are modified both in temperature and in moisture-supply by
the relief of the land, by the maritime or continental situation of
its different parts, and by the prevailing winds and the ocean
currents which are driven by them, both of these being dependent
in direction upon the rotation of the earth itself.

34. In re^^ewdng and grouping together the broad features that
characterise the landscape of dift'erent regions of the earth's suiface,
we find that these correspond precisely to the changes and grada-
tions of heat and cold, moisture and drought ; the more closelv
we study them, the more convinced do we become of their com-
plete dependence upon climate in its widest sense. We now under-
stand, for example, that it is not owing to any peculiarity of the soil
that the Sahara region is a desert, and the Amazon basin a land of
luxuriant forest growth, but mainly that the one is a region of
extreme cbought, the other of great moisture, both having a high
average temperature ; for we find the same conditions at the ex-
tremities of each of the di\'isions of the great trade-wind currents.
In our own island, the same rock which weathers into the fertile
soil of the Channel Islands gives the comparatively barren ground
of some parts of the Highlands of Scotland ; the rich pastures of
Hereford, and some of the infertile moors of North Britain, lie
on the same old red sandstone. To take another instance; the high
Viti islands are clothed on that side which faces the trade wind of
the Pacific with a luxuriant mantle of huge tree-ferns and creepers,
while the leeward side displays only a grassy country. We cannot
suppose this to be due to any difi'erence of soil on the two sides of
the island, but simply to the fact that one side is supplied with
constant moisture from the ocean, while the other is deprived of this
by the intervening height of the land, esj^ecially when we find the
same appearance repeated not only on every ocean island but on
every hill and mountain range of the land that is similarly situated
with resi:)ect to a moisture-bearing stream of air.

35. The limits of the ai:)pearance of forest, of prairie or steppe,
of desert " tundra" and snowfield, whether in latitude or in vertical
elevation above the sea level, may thus be taken as marking in
the most distinct way the true natural boundaries of the various
climates of the land, and -the great natural provinces of the globe.

As all animals live either on other animals or on vegetable food, it is
e\'ident that their distribution depends primarily ujion that of climate.
The herbivorous are restricted to the more limited regions correspond-

144 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

ing to tlie different zones of vegetation ; the carnivorous remain
within hunting distance of those animals on which they prey.

It is, however, to the limiting effects of climate upon the distri-
bution of man himself that we wish to direct attention here. In the
first place, it is evident that man in his natural state cannot live where
the land and sea are bound up so constantly in the grasp of frost
that he cannot obtain food by hunting or fishing. The Eskimo of
the Arctic region cannot range north farther than those latitudes in
which the seal, their all in all, is sufficiently abundant, and all the
Antarctic region capped by heavy ice is uninhabited by man. The
great deserts of the world equally forbid almost any permanent
settlement by man, and in crossing them the traveller makes what
speed he can away from their barren sands. Thus the first paths
of each of the trade-wind belts lie over almost uninhabited ground.
It might be supposed that man would attain his greatest powers
where vegetation and the lower forms of animal life attain their
greatest luxuriance of growth, or in those equatorial regions in which
heat and moisture are combined in greatest degi-ee. But, on the
contrary, if we look along the belt of equatorial forest, we find it
everywhere to this day inhabited by savages the most barbarous.
The selvas of the Amazon basin have their numberless tribes of un-
civilised Indians ; the African equatorial forests their cannibal negro
tribes ; Borneo and Papua the naked and wild negritos in the deep
solitude of their forests. If we look back at the history of the
world as far as we know it, there is not the least sign of any spark
of enlightenment, or of a thought much higher than the instincts of
the lower animals, ever having been fostered within the hot and
humid climate of these equatorial forests. Even when transferred
thither from other regions, the energies and powers of man seem to
fail beneath the tropical sun.

36. It is in the temperate regions of the Old World that the germs
of religious thoiight, of art and government, and wide intercourse, have
taken root and flourish, and thence too all the power that rules the
Avorld has spread out. It is in these middle latitudes alone that
human energy seems capable of attaining its highest development.
The history of progress in the American continent since its discovery
by Europeans affords the best illustration of this. If we look for
those portions of America which are now farthest advanced in every
respect, most populous and most prosperous, we find them, not in
the equatorial region which was earliest discovered and settled from
Europe, but in the temperate latitudes, the United States in the
northern, and the province of the La Plata basin in the southern
continent. Approaching the equatorial zone from either of these
two regions, we come to States such as Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador,

PHYSICAL. 145

Venezuela, vliich lie indolent and half civilised, their natural
wealth undeveloped, their government in the hands of half-castes.
The tropical island of Hayti, where Columbus planted the first
European settlement of the New World, is now a debased negro
republic, the Africans having expelled the Avhite men who brought
them thither.

37. The natural condition of men inhabiting the forest regions
of the globe is that of hunters and trappers, and these pursuits are
characteristic of the sombre forests of Hudson's Bay territory and of
Siberia at the present day. Pastoral countries, on the other hand,
generally present a small nomadic population, like that of the herds-
men of the Kussian steppes, the cattle-driving " gauchos " of the
Argentine pampas, or the Arabs with their droves of camels. It is
between these extremes, in the belts which lie along the borders of
the forests, that the agricultural districts of the world are found —
districts in which men have first collected together in fixed habita-
tions, gradually forming Adllages, and towns, and cities, acting
together for common purposes and becoming civilised.^ From these
points iiu'oads have been gradually made into the forests, for their
climate and vegetable soil is also well adapted for agriculture, until,
as in Europe or the eastern United States, the larger proportion of
the land has been cleared of its natural wood and parcelled out into
hedged fields. The most densely inhabited portions of the Old World,
the great plain of China, the alluvial valley of the Ganges, the plain
of Lombardy, and the lowlands of Belgium, are those which have
the greatest agricultural capabilities.

38. The general distribution and condition of the human race are
thus determined mainly by climate and by the characteristic land-
scapes which have resulted from its variations.

39. Subject to this main controlling element, the local aiTange-
ment and accumulation of population seems to have been to a large
extent determined, especially in the later historical periods, by
another indejjendent cause — the presence of mineral wealth. It
was the wealth of Tarshish in silver, lead, and iron, that di-ew the
Phoenicians through the Straits of Gibraltar, and the tin of Cornwall
that brought their ships to Britain ; the search after " El Dorado "
caused the Spaniards to overrun all the South American continent
and Mexico ; California owed its population, in the first i)lace, to
its gold, just as the gold of Victoria in Australia has raised it above
the older parent colony of New S(nith Wales ; and as the discovery
of diamonds drew thousands to settle even in the arid plains of
Griqualand in South Africa.

With the more extended use of machinery driven by steam,

1 Lat. tivis, a citizen.
L

146 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

in place of manual labour, coal and iron have wielded the greatest
influence in determining the local concentrations of people. The
manufacturing districts of our own island, the " Black coiintry,"
lying over the iron and coal fields, is its most densely peopled area,
the workshop of the world. A dense population has in like manner
gathered over the iron and coal fields of Pennsylvania, in the United
States. Commerce, dependent on the variety of productions of
different lands and the exchange of surplus products or manufac-
tures, is regulated in the paths which it follows by physical causes,
and brings men to the natural inlets of every country, the estuaries
of the river highways. In the ports, the business of the world is
carried on, the products of the interior are stored for export, and
those of foreign lands for distribution inward ; hence many of the
great cities of the world have grown up round their seaports.

V. PEOPLES OF THE WORLD: NATURAL, RELIGIOUS,
AND POLITICAL SYSTEMS.

1. It is important to remember that the population of the world,
now estimated at not far short of 1500 millions, is by no means
a constant number ; that it has been increasing steadily and rapidly
throughout all historical ages. The United States of America, for
example, have amassed their forty or fifty millions of inhabitants,
foreign to the soil, in less than a century, and Australia has been
peopled within far less time. If the present average rate of increase
of numbers continues, it has been calculated that the population
of Europe will be three times as dense in the year 2000 as it is in
the j^resent year. The rate of increase in different parts of Eurojie
is, however, very various ; some states, such as Great Britain, are
rushing upwards in numbers ; while others, such as Portugal, appear
to have arrived at a point, from which the popvilation neither
advances nor decreases.

2. It has been well remarked that countries which possess the
most varied physical features, and which, in consequence, have the
greatest variety of climate and landscape, giving the greatest range
of character and occupation to their inhabitants, have produced the
most highly-developed races, who have borne and continue to
bear rule upon earth. Such countries are Persia, Greece, Italy,
Spain, and in a far higher degree our own British Isles.

3. Tliroughout the many classifications of the varieties of the
human family in the different schools of ethnology,^ there is a
general agreement in recognising the peoples of the most highly-
developed nations of the world, which extend fi'om India across

1 Ethiios, race ; logos, discourse.

PHYSICAL. 147

Europe, as belonging for the most part to one race. This is called
the Aryan or Indo-European family of nations, the first name
being preserved in the modern native name of Persia, Airan or
Iran. Somewhere in central Asia the mother nation of the Indo-
European race had its primitive seat, while Europe, before the dawn
of history, was perhaps inhabited by tribes allied to the Finns or the
Indians of America. From this Asiatic centre successive migrations
seem to have taken place outward to north-west, the first swarm
having been the Celts, who at one time appear to have occupied a
great part of Europe ; later, along the Mediterranean shores, came
the ancestors of the Greeks, and of the Italians, and of the Teutonic
peoples ; while a more northerly stream is thought to have taken its
way round the Caspian to form the Slavonic nations. Subsequently
migrants seem to have poured out in the opposite direction towards
the plains of India, where the Aryans became the dominant race of
the fertile Ganges valley, those remaining at home becoming the
great Medes and Persians of history. Increasing ever in civilisation
and intellectual power from age to age, this race has become the
dominant one in the world, extending its influence to every part of
the earth, supplanting many inferior races, and re-peopling wide
areas, as in America and Australia.

4. Another great branch of the human family in the Old
World is known as the Mongolian, corresponding very closely with
that called Turanian by some writers. The Persians from the
earliest times called the land lying to the north of them Turan, a
name which is still used synonymously with that of Turkestan in
central Asia. This race may be said to occupy now almost all the
mainland of Asia that is not inhabited by Aryan nations. Though
an offshoot from this family seems to have founded an empire in
China, and to have attained there a high state of civilisation before
any nation had risen to an equal stage of advancement on the
shores of the IMediterranean, the western nations have long since
passed the Mongolians, whose influence has been chiefly confined to
the one continent. They figure continually, however, in the
history of this part of the earth, as the Scythians of Greek
geography ; the Huns, who carried desolation westward ; or the Tatars,
who spread their conquests over all the wide region from Russia
to the plains of India.

5. Two other families of Asiatic origin have, however, ex-
tended their area south-westwards into Africa. These are called
the Hamitefs, who have peopled Egypt, Libya, and Numidia, from the
earliest beginnings of history, inventing on the borders of the Nile
the hieroglyphic literature and the arts in which Egypt excelled ;
and their successors from south-western Asia, the Semites, or Syro-

148 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

Arabians, wlio had founded the splendid cities of Nineveh and
Babylon by the rivers of Mesopotamia. To the Canaanitic branch
of this family belonged the Phoenicians, whose colonists on the
African coast, the Carthaginians, appear to have been absorbed, like
the Romans and Vandals who followed them, by the numbers of the
Hamitic Numidians who were there when they came ; or by another
branch of the Semites, the Arabs, who followed after them, and who
extended their rule not only to that part of Africa but to almost all
the Sudan, carrying Mohammedanism with them to Wadai and
Bornu in the Chad basin, and over the Somali country southward
along the east coast to beyond Zanzibar and Sofala.

6. This brings us to the indigenoiis families of Africa, the
Negroes proper, who occupy the whole of the central portion of the
A^ast continent in enormous numbers, of diverse ti'ibes, from the
Atlantic about Cape Verd to Khartum on the Nile, and south-
ward to the Congo ; and the family which has been named
Bantu, speaking a language which differs essentially from any negro
tongue, covering fully a third of the continent on the south, from
the Gulf of Guinea, the Congo, and the great Nile lakes/ southward
to Cape Colony.

7. Compressed into the south-west corner of the continent we
find the remains of another distinct family, that of the yellow Hot-
tentots, possessing a language which is radically distinct from any
other known form of speech.

8. In the islands and peninsulas of south-eastern Asia appears
another family, regarded by some students as a distinct race, by
others as a branch of the Mongolian. This includes the Malays of
Malacca, Sumatra, Java, the Moluccas and Pldlippines ; the Poly-
nesians of the multitude of the Pacific islets ; and the Hovas, or
ruling race of the people of the island of Madagascar. This
branch is therefore scattered over an exceedingly wide area.

9. As another group or family, the aboriginal Indians of North
and South America are classed together as the " copper-red " race of
men, though it seems very questionable whether we have here to
do with one original stock or with people of separate centres of
origin. In the northern half of America, these aboriginal peoples,
as we have seen, have been so supplanted by the tide of emigrants
from Europe and their African slaves that only small remnants
of their original tribes remain. In South America, on the other
hand, they still hold all the central regions of the land, and on its
maritime borders have to a great extent become combined with
the settlers from Europe and the Africans introduced by them.

1 The best known branch nf this family is that of the " Kafirs " (from the Arab Kafir =
infidel, or, as we would say, heatlien) of the Cape Colony.

PHYSICAL. 149

10. From the aborif,anes of America must be separated the
Ushimo, the strange inhabitants of the borders of the* polar seas — a
people of North Asiatic origin, who probably crossed by the natiiral
bridge or rather stepping-stones afforded by the Aleutian Islands.

11. Lowest of all in the scale of humanity stand the Papttas
or Negritos^ of some parts of New Guinea and the interior forests of
some of the Sunda Islands, with the allied aborigines of Australia,
now rapidly disappearing from that continent before the advance of
the European settlers. Their features, the retreating forehead,
woolly hair, flat nose, and thick lips, in many cases surprisingly
recall the African blacks. Those in Australia are the most abject
of all beings in the likeness of men — without history or tradition,
perpetual wanderers, never tilling the ground, destitute of all means
of bodily comfort, and apparently incapable of permanent improve-
ment.

12. The following is an estimate of the numbers of men
included in each of the great divisions above enumerated, excepting
the last, for it seems impossible in the present state of our know-
ledge to arrive at even a guess of the numbers of the Papuan branch
of the human family ; it is, however, at the present time certainly
the smallest of all : — -

Indo-Germanic or Aryan race . . 550,000,000

Mongolian or Turanian . . . 635,000,000

Semitic and Hamitic .... 65,000,000

Negro and Bantu .... 150,000,000

Hottentot and Bushmen . . . 150,000

Malay and Polynesian . . . 35,000,000

American Indian .... 15,000,000

1 3. Second to distinctions of race and language in marking out
at once the broad di\dsions and bonds of union among mankind,
come the differences of religious belie£ There are everywhere in the
world traces of order, plan, and design, as in the circuit of the
seasons, the alternations of light and darkness, the ebb and flow of
the tide, so that the idea of a Being who controls and guides all things
is more or less definitely expressed in almost every language. Among
the savage tribes in which the reasoning powers have not been
developed, two principles are first recognised as striving for the
mastery, a creative and a destructive, a good and an evil agency —
the one, it may be, sending sunshine and showei's which promote
verdure and abundance, the other sending excessive cold or scorching
heat, and denying the fertilising rain. Hence their eff"orts are
directed rather to projiitiate and pacify the evil than to worship the

1 Spanish diminutive of Negroes.

150 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

good. The whole belief of the West African negro, for example, is
in evil spirits 'and in " fetishes"! to counteract their evil influences ;
and the adoration of the Hindu is mainly divided between Siva, " the
destroyer," and Vishnu, " the preserver." With the increase of in-
telligence and reasoning power, however, comes the conception of
a svipreme being ; culminating in the belief in one living and true
God, infinite in power and wisdom and goodness, the Creator and
Preserver of all things.

• 14. Here then we have the broadest distinctions of religion — the
polytheism, or belief in many powers of good and evil, of the heathen,
and the monotheism, or belief in one God, of all the more civilised
peoj^les of the world.

To the former belong the superstitions of the aboriginal Indians
of America, of the natives of Africa, and of the islands of the Pacific :
a higher stage is reached in worship of the gods of the Hindus, and
from that we pass to the religion of Buddha, professed by perhaps
a third of all the multitude of human beings in the world. Though
originating in India about 2500 years ago, this religion has now
little hold in the peninsula, but bears full sway in Ceylon, and pre-
vails over the continent of the Old World from Lapland and the far
north of Siberia through Tibet and Mongolia, over China, Japan,
Burma, and Siam, to the farther Indian peninsulas and the East India
Islands ; its area thus corresponds in great part with the limits of
the Mongolian race. Buddhism has lost much of its original purity,
and its temj^les are now filled with images of the spirits of the woods
and the valleys ; but it is characteristic of this widest-spread of all
faiths, breathing as it does a spirit of universal charity, that force
has never been employed in its projiagation, rarely even to resist
aggression. In China, Buddhism divides adherence with the Con-
fucian system of philosophy, which contains scarcely a trace of a
personal god, and with that founded by Laou-tze, a contemporary of
Confucius : the followers of the latter philosopher being known as
the Taou or " sect of reason."

15. The belief in one God was the chief distinguishing peculi-
arity of the descendants of the patriarch Abraham, the Jews who
migrated from Mesopotamia about 2000 B.C. to Canaan or Palestine ;
their religion under a new dispensation is Christianity, which
has taken deepest root in the most highly developed branch of
the human race, the Aryan or Indo-Germanic, and its off'shoots in
all parts of the world. Latest of all the creeds which have taken
hold of the minds of large sections of the human race comes Islam,
the religion founded by Mohammed, but based mainly on the Jewish
faith, which burst out like a volcano from Arabia about 600 years
1 Portuguese feitiQao = magic. .

PHYSICAL. 151

after Christianity had begun to spread. Obeying its injunction
(which is now all but a dead letter) of making war upon all infidels,
the followers of Mohammed spread their conquests and their faith
all across North Africa, far into the Soudan, down the coasts of the
Red Sea into India and the archipelago beyond, as well as far into
central Asia and (with the Turks) into south-eastern Europe. In
most of these regions Mohammedanism still prevails.

16. In point of religions the numbers of the inhabitants of the
world may be approximately divided as follows : —

Christians 375,000,000

Jews ....

Mohammedans .

Buddhists

Hindus ....

Heathen and fetish worshippers

Various and unknown

7,000,000
170,000,000
503,000,000
177,000,000
170,000,000
48,000,000

17. The influence which religious belief has exercised in deter-
mining the events of history, and wluch it holds over the jjolitical
systems of all nations of the world, need scarcely be pointed out.
It may suffice to recall the fierce wars by which Mohammedanism
was spread over a large area of the globe, the reaction of Christen-
dom in the crusades, the struggles of the Reformation in Europe,
or in the present day the great conflict begun by Russia ostensibly
for the emancipation of the Christian Bulgarians from their Moham-
medan oppressors the Turks.

18. Among the perfectly barbarous peoples of the earth, who
are generally wanderers over a vast tract of thinly-peopled country,
there is rarely found any approach to organisation or union ; each tribe
indeed may hold together under one head or patriarch,^ or under a
chief chosen for his prowess, but these separate tribes are most fre-
quently hostile to one another.

Wherever, from the character and products of the country,
the population has become denser and more settled in habits,
a more united condition begins to appear, even if it is not accom-
panied by any approach to higher culture. Examples of this are
aff"orded by the kingdoms of Central Africa (Rua, Uganda, etc.), the
inhabitants of which, though remaining in almost tlie lowest stage
of barbarism, are united under liereditary and absolute rulers, who,
through subordinate chiefs, hold sway over territories as large as
those of Eurojieau kingdoms. The extreme contrast to the condition
of savage commuiuties, in which each member or family shifts for
itself, is reached in the orderly association of highly-civilised peoples
for intercourse, government, and mutual protection.
1 Gr. patriarchi, the liead of a tribe.

152 THE LONDOX GEOGRAPHY.

19. The highest in rank and importance of such associations of
men are those which are termed Empires; such are governed by an
emperor, a name taken from the Eoman " imperator," the general
of an army, which had at first a military signification, but the
meaning of which has now become very various. The name is
nsed in some cases to express the agglomeration of many states
under one crown, as in the case of the British Empire meaning the
whole of the British possessions in all parts of the world, as distin-
guished from any one portion. Countries ruled over by a king or
queen (Saxon cyning; Sanskrit ganaka, father), or hingdoms, are
generally placed next to empires, but there is practically no such
sequence. From its derivation the oifice of king seems to have
grown out of that of the patriarch, the king having originally had
a similar rule to that of the father of a family. The term monarchy
(Greek monos arJJios, sole ruler) is applied equally to empires and
kingdoms where the supreme power is concentrated in one indi-
vidual.

20. If all three great powers of government — the legislative, the
executive, and the judicial — are centred in one person, and exercised
iini'estrainedly by him, the monarchy becomes a despotism. Such
a conclition can only be permanent among savage peoples; by
culture men become conscious of their rights. Military despotism
has from time to time been extended over great territories, but
in almost every instance, as in that of the great kingdom of
Genghiz Khan, or in that of Napoleon, the power has crumbled
away immediately on the death or downfall of the one man whose
will upheld it.

2 1 . When the head of the state, still maintaining the dignity of
royalty, shares the supreme power with a class of nobles, with a
body of popular representatives, or with both, the government is
termed a Limited Monarchy. Here the sovereign represents the
will, the executive; the aristocracy, the mind of the deliberative
assembly ; the representatives of the people, the suggestive element.
When the first is predominant, in proportion to this predominance
the monarchy apjiroaches a despotism ; whei'e the second element
preponderates, an ligarchy ^ arises ; where the third is in power, a
Democracy?

22. A Republic^ implies a government dependent upon the will
of part or Avhole of the people, and is thus properly a democratic
form of government ; but, according to the constitution of the govern-
ing body, a republic may vary from being the most exclusive oligarchy
to a pure democracy.

We shall afterwards notice that in difl'erent countries and among

1 Greek, oligos arkhi, the rule of few. 2 Greek, demos, the people ; krateo, to rule.
3 Lat. Res xmhlica, commonwealth, public good.

PHYSICAL. 153

flifferent races these forms of government vary between each of these
extremes.

A Stated is any country having supreme authority within itself,
but the name is generally applied to smaller political bodies which
are united together for mutual advantage within an empire, as in
the States of the German Empire, or as in a republic of the United
States of America. The States or Estates is the name given to the
classes of population in a country, directly, or by their representa-
tives, taking part in its government, as in the phrase " the estates
of the realm."

23. The name Colony'^ is applied to embrace various classes of
territories in foreign lands, either directly dependent or subordinate
to a parent state, from which they have been peopled, the name
having been adopted from the fact that the first inhabitants of a
colony have generally been agriculturists. The Australian and North
American possessions of Britain are colonies in the true sense. All
dependencies of a state are not, however, colonies. Such possessions
as Gibraltar, at the gate of the Mediterranean, and Perim Island, at
the entrance to the Red Sea, are mere fortresses upheld for pro-
tective purposes ; the garrison residing in them being maintained and
paid by the State. India, again, which affords profitable residence
to the British who live there as the rulers of the native races, is in
no sense a colony.

24. In passing on to consider more in detail the many political
divisions, empires, kingdoms, and states of the world, as they appear
at the present day, we shall have first to consider their limits or
boundaries. Here we shall find that, subject to the extent of
the land, and its natural limits towards the ocean, the interior
frontiers of every state have been determined by the combination
of a number of circmustances, such as the climate and character
of the land, the history of the people who occupy it, the race
of men they belong to, their language, or their religious belief. In
some cases, as a natural limit, a mountain range or a broad river
forms part of the fi'ontier, but in quite as many instances this has
been decided by other circumstances, or has been drawn arbitrarily,
without regard either to natui'al features, to race, language, or creed.
The artificial frontiers thus laid down have, in most cases, the great
disadvantage of necessitating the maintenance of barriers both against
armed aggression from neighbouring states, and for the protection of
legitimate from contraband trade. Hence a maritime state has
many advantages over one the boundaries of which lie wholly in-
land ; its seaboard, if it possesses available harbours, opens the way
for commerce with far distant lands. Our own country, doubtless,

1 Lat. status, a condition. . - Lat. colonus, a husbandman.

154 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

owes its political as well as its commercial importance in a great
degree to its situation, open to the sea on all sides. The dis-
advantages attending the deficiency of permanent natural outlet by
the sea are illustrated in the gigantic empire of Russia, which, ever
since it became a maritime state under Peter the Great, has been
striving to add to its seaboard in a southerly direction, to escape
from the blockade of the ice which annually closes all its northern
European and Asiatic coasts, as well as the harbours of the Baltic
and the Black Sea.

25. Within the limit of each state, in order to arrive at a clear
conception of its political value in the world, we shall have to con-
sider its relief, and the character impressed on it by climate, as far as
these circumstances react upon the condition and occupation of its
inhabitants ; its productions, whether of the vegetable, animal, or
mineral kingdoms ; its manufactures, affording the means of pro-
fitable exchange with other countries ; its inhabitants themselves,
and their relation to the peoples of neighbouring lands in race and
creed, their distribution over the land, whether in cities, or as
peasants or nomads ; and, lastly, the form of government under which
they live, representing, as this does in many cases, the outcome of
many experimental trials, struggles, and experiences in the past,
and, in some degree, the final choice and intention of the nation
itself. This will have been made more clear by the previous
chapters, in which the leading points of the history of each state
have been sketched. We shall now come back to them as to old
friends, of whom we have known something from their birth
upwards.

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EUROPE.!

1. Although Europe — from its historical and actual importance —
has always been regarded as one of the great divisions of the earth's
surface, it is not a separate and independent mass, but a great pen-
insula of the continent of Europe and Asia (sometimes called Eurasia)
reaching westward with many limbs between the Arctic Sea on the
north, the Atlantic on the west, and the Mediterranean on the south.
On the side of Asia, the crests of the Ural mountains and of the Cau-
casus are generally recognised as the natural limits of Europe, though
these do not correspond to its political boundaries in this direction.

2. Extent. — The area of Europe measures about 3,800,000
square miles ; but as these figures convey no definite impression in
themselves, it may be noted that its extent is about a third of that
of Africa, a fourth of that of America, and somewhat more than a
fifth of that of Asia, or that it comprises about a fourteenth part of
the known land of the globe.

The greatest distance between its extreme north and south points — the
North Cape of Norway and Cape Matapan in Greece — is about 2400 miles ;
and from east to west^ — from Cape La Roca, or the "Rock of Lisbon," to
Cape Apsheron, the eastern extremity of the Caucasus range, on the Caspian
— about 3000 miles.

3. The most striking feature of its outline is that of its great
irregularity, the deej) inlets and gulfs of the ocean which penetrate
its mass, and the peninsulas which run out from it.

Gulfs and Inlets. — On the north the Wliitc Sea, so called from the ice
and snow which bind it up for more than half the year, reaches in from the
Arctic Ocean. From the Atlantic, the shallow A'orth Sea, or German Ocean,
and the English Clmnnel (called La Manchc, or " The Sleeve," by the French)
break in to separate the British Isles from the mainland; and from the former
the Ska,gcr Rack, "the crooked and boisterous strait," leads through the
Kattegat, the " Cat's Throat" (also called "The Sleeve," by English seamen),

1 The name Europe appears to have come into use among tlie Greeks between tlie
times of HoniRr and Herodotus, and seems to have been tirst employed to distinguish
between tlie kind of the Hellenes and tlie Pelii|ionnesns .-ind isluiids. Carl Hitter derives
it from Apia, tlie name K'^'en by the 8eythians, areiniiiii.:,' to Herodotus, to the tlat
steppe lauds west of the Caspian, contrasting with the high lands of Asia.

156 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY,

and the " Belts " of the Danish islands, to the Baltic,^ or the " Ostsee " of the
Germans, and its continuations, the Gulfs of Bothnia, Finland, and Riga.

Farther southward, tlie stormy Bay of Biscay, named from the Basque
province of Vizcaya, sweeps in along the northern coast of Spain, and beyond
the Peninsula the narrow Strait of Gibraltar lead into the great Mediter-
ranean (mcdius, middle ; tei'ra, land), which stretches eastward for 2300
miles. Among the many branches of this great basin are the Gallic Sea, run-
ning north towards Gaul, between Spain and the islands of Sardinia and Cor-
sica, forming the stormy Gulf of the Lion and that of Genoa ; the Tyrrhenian
Sea, between Sardinia and Italy ; the Ionian Sea, and the Adriatic running
north from it, between Italy and the Balkan peninsula, towards the ancient
seaport of Adria, perhaps the oldest in Europe, in the delta land of the rivers
Po and Adige, now separated by the sea to which it gave its name by a stretch
of ten miles of alluvial land formed by the action of the rivers. Beyond
Greece, the island-studded yEyean leads north to the narrow inlet of the Dar-
daiiellcs,' opening into the little Sea of Marmora, named from its marble-yield-
ing islands, and from that by the Bosjwrus or Ox ford (the canal of Constan-
tinople), into the second great Mediterranean basin, the Black Sea or Euxine,^
vi^ith its offshoot the shallow Sea of Azov (a tovni at the mouth of the Don),
behind the peninsula of the Crimea, called the Balik Deniz by the Tatars from
its abundance of lish. The Caspian Sea, forming part of the natural frontier
between Europe and Asia, probably at one period extended as a third great
Mediterranean, united to the Black Sea by a strait lying to the north of the
Caucasus, where the ground between is so low that a rise of twenty feet only
in the Black Sea would cause its waters to overflow into the Caspian basin.
Since the separation, the waters of the Caspian have shrunk down by excess
of evaporation over supply, till the level of its surface is now eighty-four feet
beneath that of the other basins of the Mediterranean which are still connected
with the ocean. The indented seaboard of Europe measures not less than
60,000 miles.

4. Peninsulas. — Between each of these branches of the sea there run out
corresponding promontories and peninsulas of the mainland : these are most
numerous on the south side, where we find the Crimea, Turkey and Greece,
Italy and Spain, bordered by the islands of tlie Archipelago, by Sicily, Sardinia
and Corsica, and the Baleares. The western or Atlantic side presents the
greatest peninsula, that of Scandinavia ; and the most important island group,
tiiat of the British Isles. The Danish peninsula is remarkable as the only one
in Europe, and indeed in almost any part of tlie world, that points northward;
the long snow wastes of the island of Novaya Zemlya, detached portions of the
chain of the Ural mountains, cut oil" from the mainland by a narrow strait,
point in the same direction.

Iceland, Spitzbergen, and Franz-Josef Land in the Arctic Seas lie so far
out from the mainland of Europe, with whicli they are nominally classed, as to
make it doubtful whether they should be considered satellites of this or of the
American continent.

1 This name is supposed by Dr. Latham to be derived from the island of Baltia men-
tioned by Pliny, and identified probably with Zealand. By others, it is supposed to
come from Lat. balteus, a belt = the " sea of belts."

2 From Dardanus, a Greek city on its shore ; also called the Hellespont = the "Sea of
Helle."

3 The original name, given either from the dangers of its navigation or'from the
savage triV)es who inhabited its shores in early times, was Axine r= inhospitable ; this was
changed by the Greeks to Euxinus — hospitable. The Turks seem to have reverted to the
old name, calling it Kara Deiliz, the " Black Sea," perhaps from the strong N.E. winds,
the fogs, and thunderstorms to which it is subject.

EUROPE GENEEAL. 157

5. Relief. — The varied outline of the coasts of Europe is re-
peated in tlie diversified relief of its surface ; the main mass or body
of the land next Asia lies low, but almost all the members, attached
or detached, jjeninsular or insular, are high and mountainous.

The great lowland of Europe thus lies towards the east, embrac-
ing the vast continental area of Russia, and sending out arms west-
Avard round the Gulf of Bothnia and the Swedish side of the Baltic,
and through North Germany and Denmark, to form the lowlands of
Holland and Belgium and of Western France, along the shores of
the Bay of Biscay, as far as the rise of the Pyrenees.

6. The vast central area of the Russian lowLand has almost everywhere the
same character, woods and marshes alternating with cultivated land, affording
a superfluity of grain, which is sent down by the rivers to the seaports of tlie
Baltic and the Black Sea ; but along its northern border, next the icy Arctic
Sea, lie the moss-covered swamps called tie Tundras,i\\% soil of which is never
thawed for more than a yard's depth ; all its southern margin towards the
Black Sea and the Caspian is a treeless steppe, over which at some seasons the
grasses shoot up above a man's height, concealing the pasturing herds.
Towards the Caspian, over the area covered by that sea in former times, the
steppe has a different aspect, the soil being so filled with salt left by the re-
tiring sea as to sujiport only the prickly saltwort and such salme plants.

Finland is one of the most remarkable regions of the great European
plain ; its granite floor, elevated above the sea-level probably in a recent geo-
logical period, is worn into thousands of angidar lake-basins, which form a
perfect network over its surface ; to the sailor on tlie Baltic its margin
presents a girdle of steep cliffs guarded by a fringe of rocky islets or skerries.
The cliffy Alaud Islands are detached fragments of this remarkable formation.
A curious feature of the lowlands of Scandinavia is observed in the gravel
ridges, containing rounded granite boulders, called " iisars," which extend
generally from N.N.W. to S.S.E.

The eastern portions of the North German plain, as far as the Oder, have
the same character, the same corn-yielding clay soil, as the adjoining lowlands
in Russia ; but farther west, round tlie capital city of Berlin, the plain be-
comes less fertile, in some parts sandy and bare. Beyond the Elbe, in
Hanover, the L'Anebiirg heath covers a large jjart of the plain ; next it lie the
moors, marshes, and fens of Oldenburg and the borders of Holland, wliere cattle
and horses are the wealth of the land ; and beyond these the highly cultivated
lowlands on each side of tlie liliine delta, separated by the heaths {Cauipine)
and moors {Peel) of Braliant, whicli run out towards the lower Scheldt like a
dividing wedge between Holland and Belgium.

Passing into France, and aci-oss the broad river basins of its lowlands
which opeu to the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay, we come upon the
great wine-yielding lands, sucli as Champagne and the Vignobles of tlie
Garonne, with the corn country of Brie north-east of Paris, and of Touraine,
on the Loire between these ; and lastly, at tlie extremity of this branch of the
European jilain, to the Landes along the coast between the mouth of the
Gironde and tlie Pyrenees, over whose sandy heaths and marshes the natives
stalk about on stilts.

Of the more isolated lowlands of Europe, two of large extent occur in the
basin of the river Danube, separated by the gorge of the " Iron Gate," formed
where the Balkan and Carpathian ranges aj)proach most closely. The upper
plain, circled about on all sides by mountains, is that of Hungary, over wliich

158 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

corn-fields interchange with pastoral steppes well stocked with horses and
cattle, sheep aud swine, merging in some parts into marsh lands with cranes
and storks, or into dusty sand flats. Where the plain begins to rise to the
sunny hills, the Hungarian grape ripens to yield its famous wines. The lower
])laiu of the Danube, which might be called a branch of the vast Russian low-
land, is that of Romania, with its far-stretching treeless heaths and pasture
lauds supj)orting great herds of cattle and horses, passing into wide reed.
swamps which characterise the delta of the Danube. H

Corresponding to the Romanian plain is that of Lomhardy, perhaps the
most productive region of Europe, in which the irrigated meadows may be six
times mowed in the year, and where wheat and rice, and wine aud daily
produce are yielded in vast quantity.

The islands of Europe, as before remarked, are generally high ; the only
ones which are altogether low are those of the Danish archipelago. The only other
considerable island i)lain is that of central Ireland, with its extensive peat bogs.

7. Highlands. — Europe presents two great highland regions ;
a southern, extending along the northern border of the Mediterranean
from Turkey to Spain, in continuation of the chief line of the
heights of Asia ; and a northern, appearing in Scandinavia and
Britain, separated from the former by the western branch of the great
lowland that we have been noticing.

The Alps rise as the central mass of the southern highland region of
Europe. The many groups comprised in this series of heights which curve
round the plain of Lombardy arrange themselves into three generally recog-
nised divisions : — The Western Alps, the groups lying between the Gulf of
Genoa and the Little St. Bernard Pass ; the Central Alps, extending from the
St. Bernard to the pass named the Stilfser Joch ; and the Eastern Alps beyond
this. The central mass is the highest, rising with majestic forms from deep
valleys up to sharp riven peaks, high above the line of permanent snow ; its
wings to east and west decrease in elevation towards the Gallic Sea and the
plain of the Danube on either side. All the less jagged heights are mantled in
snows, from which glacier streams descend. The largest of these ice streams are
the Aletsch glacier from the group of the Fiusteraarhorn, and those of the
frequented valley of Chamouny, descending from Mont Blanc, the monarch of
the Alps (15,784 ft.)

The passes of the Alps have always had importance as the gates of trafiSc
from North Italy to the rest of Europe ; some of them, such as the two St.
Bernard Passes, are under the protection of friendly monks ; but railroads have
now been constructed to pass the great barrier by the tunnels of Mont Cenis in
the west and of St. Gotthard in the centre, by a line over the Brenner Pass
from Innsbruck to Botzen, and by an eastern road over the Semniering from
Vienna to Gratz.

8. Southward the Alps fall steeply to the low plain of Lombardy, but a
mass of lesser highlands and plateaus extends northward from them over central
Europe to the border of the plain of Northern Germany.

The first outlier of the Alps in this division is the long limestone range of
the Jura, with its magnificent pine forests. Beyond, bordering the Rhine
valley, rises the ScJnvarzwald, or Black Forest, then the Odenwald and the
llhon mountains, leading into the Vogelsberg aud Taunus, and to the out-
lying Ha.rz, the farthest north of the central European heights. Turning
eastward, we reach the Thuringcnvald, the Fichtel Gebirge, and the metalli-
ferous or Erz Gebirge ; then across the Elbe, in Saxon Switzerland, come

EUROPE GENERAL. 159

the Riesen Gebirge (the Giant Hills), and the Siulclic Mountains, extending
to the Oder. Turning south again towards the Alps, the Mahrische Hohcn
(the Moravian heights) are reached, and joining with these to close in the high
valley of the Upper Elbe, the high Bohmerwald, the forest mountain of
Bohemia. Almost all the area of South Germany, including Wiirtemberg,
Bavaria, and Bohemia, enclosed by these heights, which extend northward
from the Alpine mass, is high plateau land. It is remarkable here how the
name " wald, " = forest, has come to be synonymous with that of mountain.
The lower lands have been cleared of their natural forest growth for agri-
cultural purposes, but the hills retain their covering.

9. Westward of these central European heights, beyond the Rhone, rises the
range of the Cevenncs in France, e.xtending from near the Pyrenees north-
ward through the Foreza.n(\. Cole d'Or to the plateau of Langres, to the Vosges
and Hardt, the undulating plateau of Ardennes covered with beech and oak
wood, and the volcanic group of the Eifel, skirting the Rhine valley.
More centrally in France, contrasting with the adjoining long range of the
Cevennes, the volcanic cones and domes of Auvergne rise from bare lava-
covered plateaus.

10. Shut otf from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees ^ (Pic de Nethou,
Maladetta, 11,168 feet), whose high and close barrier admits easy passage only
round its flanks, is the Spanish Peninsula, which, excepting in its river
valleys, and along some parts of the seaboard, is a continuous highland.
A number of mountain ranges, sujiporting broad plateaus between, traverse it
from east to west. Along its northern edge the Cantahrian mountains
prolong the high line of the Pyrenees ; centrally rise the Sierras of Guadar-
rama and Estrella ; farther south the Sierra Morena, and along the Medi-
terranean border the Sierra Nevada of Granada. Throughoiit the summer
the tablelands of Castile, bare and treeless, are burned up by the hot sun,
but through the cliilly winter they are swept by violent winds. The herds-
man who wears a broad-brimmed hat for protection against the excessive heat
during the day, a few hours later puts on his thick warm cloak ; in the same
way, after the almost rainless summer, follows a cold winter with ice and snow.

11. 'J'he AiJennines prolong the Maritime Alps, and run like a backbone
through the peninsula of Italy. Cleared of its natural wood, and scorched
by the southern sun, this range is generally dreary and barren in aspect,
like a long wall, with few peaks or salient points to recall the magnificent
forms of the Alps. The volcano of Vesuvius, the only active one in all the
continental part of Europe, rises over the coast plain of Campania.

The lines of the eastern wing of the Alps are prolonged north-eastward
across the Danube by the grand curve of the wooded Carpathians and
Transylvanian Alps, circling round the plain of Hungary. South-eastward
they branch into the manj' ranges wliich support between them the confused
mass of highlands of Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro, of Servia and
Albania. Farther on these heights take more definite shape in the range of
the Balkan which runs east to the Black Sea, in the mass of the Jihodope
mountains extending south-eastward to the .^gean Sea, and in the Pindus
range, which gives shape to Greece, and runs out into the Mediterranean
in the peninsulas of the Morea.

12. Distinct from all the rest of the southern highlands of Europe stands the
huge mass of the Caucasus, the natural frontier of Eurojie on the south-east,
rising like a wall from the Hat isthmus between the Black Sea and the Caspian.
Its close parallel chains are united by high plateaus cut into by deep
narrow transverse gorges of extreme depth. Though attaining far greater

1 Supposed to be from the Basque word Pyrge =.high.

160 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

lieights than the Alps (Elbiirz, 18,572 feet ; Kasbek, 16,545 feet) aud reaching
several thousand feet above the limit of perennial snows, the glaciers and
snovv-tields of the Caucasus are small and insignificant in comparison with
those of the Alps. This is owing to the dryness of the region in which
they stand, and the small snowfall over them.

The hills of the Crimean peninsula, rising steeply from the Black Sea to
the "yaltas" or "alps" of the Tatar herdsmen, are evidently a western
continuation of the line of heights of the Caucasus.

13. In the north European mountain region the mass of heights which
forms the Scandinavian peninsula are by far the most important. These
present no definite range, but are rather a collection of broad plateaus
topped with moor or snow-field, cut into by long steep-walled "fiords " on
the Atlantic side, aud resembling the Alps in the pine woods of their slopes,
in their lakes and extensive glaciere, though they are nowhere of very gi'eat
altitude (Galdhoppig, Ymes Field, 8546 feet).

The name field, which is applied to most of the Scandinavian mountain
groups, suggests their plateau form ; the Hardangcr Field, Ymcs Field, and
Dovrc Field, with the Jostedals Brae (or ice-brae = glacier), are the most pro-
minent of the southern heights of Norway ; in the north the broken heights
which run along the Atlantic and Arctic borders of the peninsula have the
general name of the Kiolen. The heather-covered hills of Scotland — the
Grampians aud west coast mountains — as well as those of Cumberland and
Wales farther south in Great Britain, belong to the same system as that of the
Scandinavian heights.

14. We have formerly noticed that almost all the European islands are
high. In the Mediterranean we find the island of Crete reaching to upwards of
8000 feet in Mount Ida ; Sicily, with its volcano of Etna (10,866 feet) ; Sar-
dinia, with Mount Gennargenttc (6116 feet) ; Corsica, with Monte Rotondo
(8607 feet) ; Iceland, on the border of the Arctic seas, recalling Norway in its
grand fiords, rises high in its mass of volcanic jokuUs (Omfa, 6408 feet ; Hecla,
5115 feet), covered iu between with accumulated snows and glaciers ; S2ntzher-
gcn's black peaks, which give its name, also rise high from its white glacier fields.

15. Separate and distinct in character and direction from the mountains
of the rest of Europe, is the long chaiu of the Ural, rich in gold, platinum, iron,
and copper. It takes its name probably from the Tatar word meaning " belt,"
which well expresses the length aud continuity of this remarkable line of
heights, stretching along the eastern border of the great Em-opeau plam for
more than 1200 miles. In height, however, the Ural is insignificant (Toll-
poss-is, 5542 feet). Another sef)arated height, that of the forest-covered
Valdai hills in Western Russia, would scarcely be worthy of mention among
tlie European highlands if it did not form the water-parting of the greatest
of European rivers, the Volga.

16. Hydrography. — The rivers of Enroi:)e flow in part to
the Atlantic and its Mediterranean branches, partly to the Arctic
Sea, and partly to the Caspian, which last belongs to the " con-
tinental " system of drainage, or th.e area from which no rivers escape
to the open ocean.

The Volga, the largest of European rivers, is the great feeder of this
largest of inland seas. Spreading out with its many arms through the corn-
lands of Russia eastward to the mines of the Ural, and south through the
salt-yielding plains about the Caspian, it forms the great natural highways of
commerce of the vast Russian lowland, which have been extended from it by

EUROPE GENERAL. 161

canals to reach the White Sea, the Baltic, and the Euxine. Besides the
steamers and trading vessels which regularly traverse the Caspian, a large fleet
of war-shii3s is maintained there by Russia. Its navigation, at all times difficult,
is jjerilous when the fierce stejipe winds blow over it ; its northern portion is
also ice-bound in winter, so that vessels cannot enter the Volga mouths till
the middle of April.

17. Four great navigable rivers — the Don, Dnieper, Dniester, and Danube,
flow to the Black Sea. Tlie last-named is the second of European rivers, and
forms, with its sixty navigable tributaries, the great highway between Central
Europe and the East. So important is tlie navigation of the Danube that it
was placed in 1856 under the control of a commission appointed by the Euro-
pean powers. The Sulina mouth of the delta is kept navigable by two long
artificial dams, and even the rapids of the rocky barrier of the "Iron Gate"
have been rendered passable for vessels of considerable draught. Several thou-
sands of vessels navigate the Danube, carrying out immense quantities of grain
from the lands drained by its branches. All these large rivers of the Black
Sea drainage are subject to the annual blockade of frost, though in a less de-
gree than the Volga. Ice covers the Sea of Azov in winter, and extends round
the north coast of the Euxine. The Danube itself is closed by ice in severe
winters as long as from December till February.

Only three rivers of importance flow directly to the Mediterranean. These
are the Po, which gives natural highways to the fertile plain of Lombardy ;
tlie Rhone, the most rapid and wild of European rivers, subject to devastating
floods, and of little value for navigation above its delta ; and the Ebro, the
narrowest and shallowest of all Simnish rivers, filled with water only after the
snows melt on the Pyrenees.

18. The Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Caspian, may
be called tideless seas, and the rivers which drain to them have
thus no estuary,^ and no double current in the lunar day. Their
stream is always against a vessel entering from the sea.

Coming round to the open Atlantic, however, we find that the
rivers which lead directly to this greatest of maritime highways,
have, besides this advantage, that of an upward fiow of their waters
at the river mouth twice in the day, which will bear the approach-
ing vessels with it into the land. It is this advantage mainly that
has given the river mouths of western Europe their immense im-
portance in commerce, and that has been the means of forming
on them some of the greatest cities of the world.

If we look along the Atlantic coast of Europe, we find the great city and
port of Lisbon on the estuary of the Tagus ; Oporto on that of the Ducro ;
Bordeaux on that of tlie Gironde; Nantes at the head of tlie tideway of the
Loire; London, the greatest city and port of the world, on the estuary of the
Tluimes; Rotterdam opposite it, on the estuary of the Meuse; Liverpool on that
of the Mcrsf)j; Hamburg on that of the Elbe. None of the Atlantic rivers of
tlie highland of the Iberian peninsula ; — the Guadalquivir, Guadiana, Taijus,
or Duero — are of much value to commerce excepting at their mouths; the great
rivers of France, the Garonne, Loire, and Seine are of greater im]iortance in
navigation ; most valuable of all are the Rhine and the Elbe ; the former gives
an uninterrui)ted water way up to tlie borders of Switzerland, the latter into

the heart of Bohemia.

— ^ .

1 Estuary from cesluarium, pertaining to the tide.
M

162 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

19. The drainage basin of the Baltic is characterised rather by its lakes
than by large rivers ; its southern affluents, the Oder, Vistula, Niemen, and
Diina, are all, however, important highways of the European plain, carrying
down its products in barges and rafts to the Baltic ports. The short but large
channel of the Neva, the river of Petersburg, is important in itself, and from its
navigation being joined by canals with all the great waterways of the interior
of Piussia. Like the Caspian, the shallow Baltic and its rivers are closed to
traffic by ice all thiough the winter for a period of from three to five months.
Charles X. of Sweden, we may remember, marched his whole army across the
frozen Belt in 1658 to attack the Danes.

20. The great rivers which flow to the Arctic Sea from Europe are the
Dvina and Pechora. Both are navigable, the latter almost to its source, but
both are held in the grasp of frost for more than half the year. It is only
during the summer months that the timber, furs, and gi-ain which are ex-
ported from Archangel can be brought to it by rafts and barges, and
trading vessels from a distance can make but one hasty voyage in the year to
the White Sea to avoid being caught in its icy covering.

21. The great lake region of Europe lies round the Baltic. There is the
Ladoga, the greatest fresh-water lake of Europe, as wide across as the
English Channel between Portsmouth and Cherbourg, with Onega and Peipus
also in Russia ; Wetter and Mcelar in Sweden ; besides the myriad lakes of
Finland. The beautiful lakes of the folds of the Alps, Geneva, Neuchatel,
and Constance, on the north side, Maggiore and Como and Garda in the
Italian valleys, form the oidy other considerable lake series of this division of
the earth.

22. Climate. — A glance at the map shows that Europe belongs
for the most part to the northern portion of the temperate zone.
Its most southerly peninsulas are still 12 or 13 degrees distant
from the tropical line, over which the sun becomes vertical, and its
northern borders reach well into the Arctic zone, where the sun's rays
are low even in summer, and where he scarcely peeps over the
horizon in winter. The greater part of it also lies within the influ-
ence of the westerly winds, bringing the moistiu-e from the ocean,
and thus it belongs to the forest zone of the temperate region ; only its
northern margin, the " tundra " belt, being too cold for tree growth,
and its southern border of steppes along the Caspian and the Black
Sea being too dry to support a covering of woods.

Farthest north, where the average temperature of the year is not above the
freezing point, extends the desolate country of the Tundras, where the winter
darkness is lit up by the "Northern Lights," a very waste of snow for nine or
ten months of the year ; when the warmth of the long summer day melts this
covering, then swamps, and lakes, and marshes with grey plains covered with
mosses and lichens between, appear in this desolate landscape. The largest
plant to be seen is a little willow, never rising more than a finger length above
the gi'ound, and hiding its stem among the protecting moss. Here the culti-
vation of grain being impossible, and warming food being required to resist the
cold, the Arctic Samoiedes and Laf)landers depend for this on the animal king-
dom, on their reindeer, on the seals, and sea-birds, and on fish when the rivers
are free. Next comes the subarctic belt of the pine-woods, extending across
Scandinavia and Northern Russia, in the cultivated portions of which barley

EUROPE GENEEAL. 163

and oats are the staple food plants, and in which cattle and sheep are the
domestic animals. Then follows, across Central Europe, the zone of the
deciduous 1 trees, or those which annually lose and renew their leaves; this
belt includes tlie greater part of the many trees and shrubs of the temperate
regions ; in it wheat represents the cultivated grains ; fine fruits, apples, pears,
and peaches, ripen, and the \ine begins to yield its grapes and wine. Lastly, iu
the south we come again to a zone in which evergreen trees, such as the cork-
oak of Spain, the chestnut, the stone-pine of Italy, give character to the
landscape. Here also a few palms, wanderers from warmer latitudes, begin
to be seen ; figs and oranges become the common fruits ; maize and wheat the
chief food grains; and the grape jields its sweetest and strongest wines.

23. These climatic belts arranged from north to south in lati-
tude, with their accompanying landscapes, appear also in stages one
above another, wherever the elevation of the land carries it up
through corresponding climatic regions. In the extreme south, for
example, we should find these stages ranged one above another from
the sea-level to the point of perennial snow, thus : —

Perennial snow.
Snow-line

Alpine plants, mosses and lichens.

Pine woods.

Deciduous trees.

Evergreen woods.

Sea-level

In the farthest north, in Spitzbergen, only the uppermost of these stages
is represented, for the snow limit comes down nearly to the water's edge.
The heights of the tundras of Lapland have the two uppermost ; the moun-
tains of Scandinavia three, and of Central Europe four, the lowest stage being
that of the deciduous trees. In the Alpine regions, for example, we find the
deciduous trees of the plains at their base extending up to an elevation of
nearly 4000 feet, where a climate is reached that corresponds with that of
their northern limit in latitude ; pine woods follow in the stage between 4000
and 5000 feet above the sea ; Alpine jjlants, corresponding to those of the
tundras of Lapland, between 6000 and 9000 feet ; and above lies the region
which is constantly snow-clad. The snow limit, and with it the limits of all
the stages beneath it, varies in diti'erent parts of tlie continent in the same
latitude, from causes which have before been referred to, chiefly that of tlie
distribution of moisture, and with the seasons. In winter, just as the realm of
snow and ice s])reads out southward from the Arctic regions over a great
]>art of Europe, Innding up the Baltic and the rivers, .and covering tundra and
pine forest alike with a white mantle of snow ; so at this season the snows of
the Alps, reaching farther and farther down, drive the herds before them into
the sheltering valleys ; in spring and summer the lierds follow the retreating
snows upwards to higher and higher mountain pastures, till a few weeks later
the descent must again l)e begun.

» From de aud cado, falling off.

164 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

24. With but few exceptional places, such as the malarious Pontine
Marshes and the Maremma of the east coast of Italy, or the Dobrudsha
swamp of the delta of the Danube, the climate of Europe is a very healthy
one. Clouds, rain, and fog are commonest over western and south-western
Europe, which is first reached by the moist south-west winds from the tropical
Atlantic ; losing their moisture as they pass, the west winds become thoroughly
dry land winds before they reach the Ural. The seaward aspect of western
Europe, broken into peninsulas and gulfs, gives it also a maritime climate,
which is damp and equable in contrast to the drier climate and excessive
changes of temperature in the eastern or more continental region.

Hot south winds from the African desert, the Solano of Sjjaiu and Sirocco
of Italy, visit the Mediterranean peninsulas, and appear in the north as the
FiJhn wind, the snow-melter of the Alps. The south-eastern region, that of
the Caspian and the south Russian ste^jpes, comes within the indraught of the
dry north-east trade wind.

25. Products and Material Culture. — Though Europe is naturally a
forest - covered country, so wdely have agricultural operations been ex-
tended, esjiecially in the west and soutli, that these regions, except along the
mountain belts, are all but cleared of wood. The great natural granaries of
Europe lie in Russia, Poland, and the plains of the Danube, where agricul-
ture is not so advanced. Cattle and horses, sheep and swine, are domesticated
everywhere, but occur in greatest "numbers on the natural pastures, the
steppes of South Russia ; the camel also appears in the neighbourhood of
the Caspian. Just as in the extreme north the reindeer takes the place of
cattle, so in the far south, in Italy especially, the buffalo supplants the ox.
Round the coasts the fisheries employ and give food for a large part of the
population : we may note tlie turbot and lobster fisheries of Norway, those of
herring and mackerel from the British coasts, the sardine fisheries of France,
and the tunny fisheries of the Mediterranean, besides the inland fisheries of
many rivers.

Of mineral products, gold is most abundant in the Ural and in Tran-
sylvania ; silver and lead in Spain, England, Norway, and the Ural ; quick-
silver in Spain ; copper in England, Russia, and Sweden ; iron and coal are
mined for the most part from Britain ; in smaller quantity in Germany,
France and Belgium, Austria and Russia.

Volcanic Sicily yields sulphur, and salt is almost everywhere abundant
either as rock or bay salt. In the production of raw materials, in manu-
facture by aid of machinery, Britain takes the lead, followed by Germany and
France and Belgium.

26. The form of Europe adapts itself admirably to the exchange of raw or
manufactured products, for large rivers, the natural highways, extend over the
wide plains ; and in the highland regions, where the streams are smaller
and generally unnavigable, long arms of the sea reach into the land. Canals
have been constructed to unite the river highways all over Europe ; roads and
railways have been extended in every direction across rivers and ravines, even
over the Alps, or through them by tunnels ; upwards of 90,000 miles of railway
now form a network over Europe ; telegraphs not only bring every corner of
tlic land into momentary connection with every other, but reach out in sub-
marine lines to all jjarts of the world.

27. Races. — The Europeans belong, as we have seen,^ in by
far the greater part to branches of the Aryan race, characterised
generally by their white skin, fair hair, and well-formed features ;

1 P. U6.

EUROPE GENERAL. 165

those of Mongolian race — of whom a yellowish colour, scanty beard,
flat features, and oblique eyes are generally characteristic — are com-
l>aratively few in numbers. To the latter belong the peoples of north-
eastern Europe, the Samoyedes and Lapps, with the Finns and other
tribes of Northern Russia.

28. Long before the race which uow occupies the greater part of Europe
began to migrate from Central Asia, these northern tribes, the Ugrian Mon-
golians, as they have been called (the Ogres of mauy long-preserved stories),
extended over a far larger part of Europe, and were gradually pushed north-
ward into the inhospitable region which they now occupy, by their more
powerful successors in Central Europe. The Hungarian " Magyars " are
believed to be old Scythian emigrants from the environs of the Caspian. Later,
the victorious armies of the Osmanli Turks established themselves in the
Balkan Peninsula, where, taking to themselves Circassian wives, their descend-
ants have become rather Caucasian than Mongolian in feature.

29. The first swarm of the Aryan race that migrated into Europe is
believed to have been that of the Celtic peoiyles, who seem at one time to
have occupied a gi'eat part of Europe, and who at the earliest dawii of history
extended from the Ebro in Spain through France to the mouths of the Rhine.
The relics of the language of this people, pressed into the farthest corners
of the continent, are still found in the Bas Breton of Brittany, the western
hill corner of France ; in the Irish tongue still spoken in the western skii'ts
and islands of Ireland, in the Welsh, ^ the Gaelic of the Scottish Highlands,
and till last century in the now extinct Cornish of the south-western ex-
tremity of England. The Basques of the Pyrenees, however, are not Celts,
but a remnant of the ancient Iberians.

30. One chief group of the Aryan peoples of Europe is that which has
arisen over the old Roman Empire, hence called the llomanic group, occupy-
ing the south-western peninsulas. To this belong the Spaniards and Portu-
guese, the French and Walloons, the Italians and the Romanians ; the new
Greeks might be added as related most closely to this group. Here the white
colour passes towards bro^vn ; a slight form, black hair, dark grey eye, activity,
and quick wit are general characteristics.

31. Another great group is that of the Germanic 2}Cophs, the northern
blue-eyed and flaxen-haired barbarians of Roman times, many of whom,
marching southward victoriously into the Roman provinces, remained there,
giving great vigour to the peoples of those lands whose language and customs
they adopted. The descendants of these hunting and pastoral tribes occupy
the central and north-western region, as the Germans, the Dutch and Flemish,
the Swedes, Norwegians and Danes and Icelanders, and the English, the most
mixed of Germanic peoples.

32. The Slavonic iKoples, pressing in from the east, also appeared as
wild barbarians to the more civilised Romans. A heavy figure, liglit brown or
reddish hair, is generally characteristic of the Slavonic jieople ; crouching in
submissive obedience to their rulers, they have not the jiroud freedom of the
Germanic nature, and have been longest of all in adoj)ting the cultivation
that has distinguished the rest of Europe. To this group belong tlie Russians
and Poles, the Letts and Wends, Czechs of Bohemia, the Servians or southern
Slavs (Croats, Slavonians, Bosnians, Montenegrins) and the Bulgarians. The
Bulgarians were originally a Finnish tribe from the Middle Volga, who

1 Wales, from Wealhas, plural of Wcalh, a foreigner. The Welsh were foreigners to
the Aiiglo-Saxuns.

1G6 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

crossed the Danube in the seventh century, and, subduing the Slavonic peoples
(Mcesians) of the Balkan region, became incorporated and assimilated with
them.

33. Two elements of population remain to be noted — that of the Semitic
Jews, scattered as active traders over every part of Europe, and kept apart by
their faith ; they are most numerous in Poland, which country ottered them
an asylum during the fierce persecutions and massacres to which they were
subjected by Christtan Europe from the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries ;
and the mysterious vagabond Gi/psics, of Indian origin, restless wanderers,
fortune-tellers, tinkers, or beggars, in every part of Europe.

34. Education. — Such progress has been made in general
culture throughout Europe that its inhabitants belong for the
most part to the civilised world ; the hunting Lapps and Samoyedes
of the far north, as well as the nomadic Nogai, Kirghiz, and
Kalmucks of the Eussian steppes, are the only general exceptions.

But the advance which has been made by the different peoples is very
various ; of the three chief groups that have been named, the Germanic stands
highest, the Slavonic lowest, in the scale of culture. Education has been
general and compulsory in Prussia for a long time ; but it was only in 1870
that an act for this end came into force in England, in which country about a
fifth of the inhabitants are unable to write. In France, in 1878, nearly a
third of the grown-up men and women were found to be unable to read or
^\Tite ; on an average, in Italy, 64 people out of every himdred are totally
illiterate, and in the other Romanic nations the scale falls still lower ; the
masses of the Slavonic people, however, are the most backward ; among the
Slav inhabitants of Austria only about 15 per cent can read and write, and in
Russia only about 12 in every hundred recruits can read.

35. Religion. — Excepting the heathen Samoyedes and Lapps,
the Europeans are Monotheists, and chietiy Christians ; with nearly
5^^ millions of Jews, and 4 millions of Mohammedans.

The Christian confessions are three : —

1. The Roman Catholic, chiefly in Romanic countries.

2. The Greek or Byzantine Church, chiefly adhered to by the
Slavonic peoples.

3. The Protestant, chiefly in the Germanic section of Europe.
Tlie first includes almost as many adherents as the two latter,

while these are about equal in number.

The separation of these confessions was the work of time ; when the Roman
Empire fell into an Eastern and Western division, the two capitals of Rome
and Constantinople, rivalling one another in precedence, drew round them two
parties differing to some extent in belief and practice ; the Eastern separating,
under the Patriarch of Constantinople, from the Western Church under the Pope
of Rome. The separation of the Protestants, who hold that the authority of
the Bible is supreme, and above that of councils and bishops, from the Roman
Catholic Church, has already been sketched. Of this church the chief sects
are the Lutheran, in North Germany and Scandinavia chiefly ; the Reformed,
in Holland, South Germany, and Switzerland ; the Anglican, in England ; and
the Presbyterian, in Scotland.

BRITISH ISLES. 167

36. Government. — Unrestricted sovereign power is found in
Europe only among those peoples who are lowest in the scale oi"
advancement — the servile Slavs of Russia, and the 8emi-barl)arous
peoples ruled by the despotic Turks.

In Eussia the whole legislative, executive, and judicial power is
vested in the Emperor, whose will alone is law ; in Turkey the will
of the Sultan is absolute. The majority of the states of Europe are
governed by limited monarchies, in which the monarchical, aristo-
cratic, and democratic elements are more or less equally represented.
With the exception of France, which has frequently changed its form
of government since the great Revolution, the Republics of Europe
are the states of least importance : they are Switzerland, a confedera-
tion of twenty little republics or cantons, the little state of San
JMarino in Italy, and Andorra in the PjTenees. f-

In poiut of rank, Great Britain, Germany, France, Austria, and Russia,
stand first as tlie " five great powers." These include within their limits more
than two thirds of the entire population of Europe, and have for a long time
controlled all continental questions. Second come Italy, Sjiain, and Sweden ;
in the third rank are Turkey, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Portugal.

In describing the political divisions of Europe somewhat more in detail, it
may be well to keej) to the groups that have been sketched out, beginning
with the highest in culture, the Germanic ; passing thence to the Romanic ;
concluding with the Slavonic, and the lands under the rule of the Turks,
lowest in the scale, which are most closely connected vvith Asia.

I. THE TEUTONIC STATES.

1.— THE BRITISH ISLES.

1. That the British Isles distinctly belong to the mainland of
Europe may be inferred both from their geological formation, which
is found to correspond precisely with that of the nearest parts of the
continent, and from the fact that they rise on a submarine plateau
which unites them to the mainland, and which beyond their shores
sinks rapidly to the depths of the Atlantic. The sea between England
and Holland is nowhere so deep that it would cover the cathedral of
St. Paul's if set down in any part of it. If we imagine that the sea
level were to fall 60 feet, the height of an ordinary house, the broad
Dogger Bank, midway between England and Denmark, would begin
to show its sands, and if a fall of 200 feet took place one might
walk dryshod across to the continent, to Belgium, Holland, <n'
Denmark. From its shallows and banks, its stormy cross seas arul
frequent fogs, the navigation of the North Sea is dangerous ; yet the
tnilhc over it is enormous, for it is surrounded by countries, the

168 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

inhiibitants of ■\vliicli have been famous on the seas from the earliest
times. The great highways of commerce from it are Dover Strait
(Pas de Cahxis), leading to the English Channel, in the south, and the
stormy Pentland Firth, which separates Scotland from the Orkney
Islands, in the north. Tlie English Channel, though deeper than the
North Sea, is also shallow ; the enclosed Irish Sea, between England
and Ireland, with St. George's Channel and the North Channel lead-
ing out from it to the ocean, has been scoured deeper in its central
lines ; but there is a width of about 50 miles of shallow sea, or
" soundings," all round the islands in the west, where they face the
broad Atlantic.

In looking at the general coast-line of the islands, it is evident that their
eastern shores on the North Sea are generally rounded, sandy, and flat, while
the western or i^tlantic coasts, especially those of Scotland and Ireland, are bold
and rugged, broken into deep sea lochs or fiords guarded by islands, recalling
those of the Norwegian coast farther north, difficult of ai^proach both from
their intricate channels and strong flowing tides.

2. Extent. — As we shall afterwards have occasion to use the
British Isles as a standard measure with which to compare the size
of other countries over the world, it is important to get as clear an
idea as jjossible of their extent. The main island of Great Britain,
roughly triangular in shape, measures about 600 miles in a straight
line from its south-west corner, where the granite walls of Land's
End and the dark serpentine cliffs of the Lizard run out into the
Atlantic, to the northern apex, the high red sandstone rocks of
Dunnet Head, frequented by sea-fowl, or its companion Duncanshy
Head, where John o' Groat's House ^ stood, on the beach of the
Pentland Firth.

If we could walk this distance straight across country at the rate
of 20 miles a day, it would take us a month to go from one
extremity of the island to the other.

The base of the island, forming the north coast of the English
Channel, measures only about half this distance, or 320 miles ; and
the eastern side, from the chalk cliffs of the South Foreland, on the
Strait of Dover, to the Pentland Firth, is about 540 miles long.
No part of the interior of Great Britain is more distant than three
or four days' walk from the sea on one side or other. In the
narrower parts of the north of Scotland indeed, where the Moray
Firth runs into the land, it is an easy day's journey from the head
of this inlet of the North Sea to that of one or other of the opposite
sea lochs running in from the Atlantic.

The area of the island is nearly 90,000 square miles ; its north-

1 John de Groot, or Groat, of Warse, built a house on the west side of this headland
in .Tames IV. 's time, probably as a ferry house to the opposite Orkney Islands ; settling
at the same time the controversies between his brothers, by giving it eight sides, so
that each might enter by his own dooi'.

BRITISH ISLES. 169

ern division, Scotland, including 30,000 ; its southern, England and
Wales, nearly 60,000 square miles (58,311).

The second island, Ireland, more rounded in general outline,
measures 300 miles from Malin Head, its northernmost point, to Mizen
Head, its most southerly extremity, and 200 miles from Carnsore
Point, its south-eastern corner nearest England, to £rris Head, its
north-western promontory on the Atlantic ; its area is 32,524
square miles.

The most extensive of the many satellite island gronjas and islets which
belong to the British Arcliijjelago, are those which lie oft' the broken west coast
of Scotland, the wild and rugged Outer and Inner Hebrides, of which Leiuis,^
separated by tlie cliannel called the Mincli,- and Skye,'^ Mull, Islay, and Arran,
in the inner gi'onp, are the largest. The Orkney gronp, separated from the
north of Scotland by the turbulent Peutland Firth, consist of no fewer than
fifty-nine rocky islets ; and the Shetlands, forty miles farther north, comprise
upwards of a hundred separate points. The high Isle of Man* in the middle
of the Irish Sea ; Anglesey,^ close to the Welsh coast, and now united to it
by the famous railway tubes across the Menai Strait ; and the Isle of Wight,
"the garden of England," in the English Channel, separated from the main-
land by the busy Solent, are the others of importance. The Channel Islands,
of which Jersey and Guernsey are the largest, belong politically to Britain,
but are physically parts of France.

The names of the many capes and headlands, with those of the inlets
between, and the relative positions of these, will be learned far better from
the map than from any ^vl■itten description, so that it seems useless to give a
list of them here.

3. Relief. — In the island of Great Britain, the broadest distinc-
tion in the relief of the land is that the highest portions lie generally
to north and west, the lowlands to south and east. This corresponds
to the geological structure of the islands ; the older rocks of the west
and north forming the mountainous region, the newer strata of the
south and east seldom rising to any great elevation.

The heather-covered Highlands which fill the north of Scotland are divided
by the great natural passage of Glca More, which runs in a straight line across
the island from north-east to south-west, into two chief grouj)s, the northern
and central.

The northern group consists of irregularly-distributed and often almost
isolated masses, separated, it may be, by deep sea-fiords, and presenting
every variety of contour, from that of the round mass of Ben Wyvis^ to
the steep wall-like sides of Suilvein'' or the sharp peak of Ben Stack. The
Central Highlands or the Grampians, extending from the peninsula of Cantyre
north-westward to the precipitous coast of Buchau on the North Sea, are far
more massive and continuous. Be7i Nevis,^ a huge round outlier of the range

1 Norwegian ijod/t^iMS, the ".SDUiidiiig lionse." 2 Recalling La il/cotc/ie.
3 Icelaniiic s/.-.i/, a "cloud."

4 Or Mona; supjiosed to 1)6 derived fioiii the Sanscrit root Mdn, which appears in
Monk, referring to tho nimtcil holy character of the isle in ancient times (Cunnuing).
The native name is FAlmt Vuiuiin veg Veen, "dear little isle of Man."

5 =: Angles ey, " Englishman's Island."

6 Ben or Pen = mount = " The Mountain of Horror." 7 " The Sugar-Loaf."

8 "The Mountain of Death."

170 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY,

on its north side, ascending abruptly from the shores of Loch Eil at the mouth
of the Great Glen, is the highest mountain of the British Isles (4406 ft.) ; Ben
Midch Dhui,^ in the central part of the range, is second in height (4296 ft.)

The Campsic, OrJUl, and Siiilaw hills are outliers of the Grampians on
the south, separated from them by Strathmore = the great valley.

The Southern Highlands of Scotland, stretching from the peninsula which
terminates in the Mull or headland of Galloway on the North Channel to St.
Abb's Head on the German Ocean, are again more broken, and separated by
river valleys. 3Iount Merrick, in the south-west (2764 ft.), is their highest
jioint ; the Loicthcr Hills form their central group ; the Podlanrls, Moorfoot,
and Lammermoor hills their more detached portions, on the north-east.

With the Cheviot hills, the boundary range between 'Scotland and Eng-
land, begins the long Pennine chain, which reaches due south into the heart
of England. Cheviot Hill, in the north (2676 ft.), Crossfell (2892 ft), and
Whernside (2414 ft.), and the Peak of Derby (1981 ft.), in the south, mark
the summits and direction of the chain. To the west of the Pennine chain
rises the compact circular knob of slate mountains of Cumberland, with the
summit of England proper, Scawfell'^ (3161 ft.); and corresponding to this
mass, near the opposite coast, the eastern moorlands and wolds ^ of Yorkshire
(1489 ft.)

Separated from the Pennine heights by the plain of Cheshire (west
of England) rise the highlands of Wales, collectively called the Cambrian
Mountains. The main direction of the connected ridges forming this mass
is the same as that of the Scottish Highlands, from north-east to south-west,
as may be noticed in the peninsula which runs out to Braich-y-P\vll from
Snoivdon (3570 ft.), the highest mountain of South Britain, in the north
of the mass ; or that which extends on the south to St. David's Head,
from the central heights of Plynly7nmon (2469 ft.), and Radnor Forest. The
Black Mountains of South Wales, highest in the Bi-ecknock Beacon (2910
ft.), are a more distinct part of the highland, and the Malvern Hills (1395
ft.) an almost detached outlier in the east.

Across the Bristol Channel we come to the heights of the south-western
peninsula of England, with its three groups of Exmoor (Dunkery Beacon,
1707) ; Dartmoor, with its rugged granite tors* (2040 ft.) ; and the Cornish
Heights (1368 ft.) These are all the more important mountain groups of
Great Britain.

Over all the south and east of England the elevations are comparatively
insignificant ; broad, undulating, grassy uplands, called the Sotith Doicns ^
and the Chiltern Hills, rarely attaining more than 800 feet of elevation,
follow the chalk formation across southern England as far as Beachy
Head on the Channel and the Foreland Clifls on the Strait of Dover. The
limestone Cotswold Hills between these and the Welsh Highlands rise some-
what higher (1093 ft.)

4. Almost all the lowlands of Great Britain, as we have noticed, lie to the
east and south. Here we find the plain of the "New Forest" in Hampshire
and the treeless Salisbury Plain, the broad open Valley of the Thames, the
" Eastern Plain " of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, extending with rounded
shores towards the North Sea ; the low " Fen district " behind the shallow
estuary of " Tlic Wash,'" from which many tracts have been reclaimed ; the
long " Plain of York " beyond ; the valleys of the Tees and Tweed, the latter

1 "The Black Boar Mountain." 2 "The Craggy Hill."

3 Wold or weald (German, vmld), forest, suggesting the former woodeil covering of
these heights, as in the present forest hills of Germany.

•1 Tor, Celtic, " a projecting rock ; " occurs also in Taurus, Tauern, etc.
5 Dun, Gothic and Celtic = a "hillock" or "duue."

BRITISH ISLES. 171

iiichiding the cultivated " Mcrsc," the march or border land of Ber\vicksliire ;
tlie Scottish " Lowlands " between the Central and Southern Highlands ; the
" C«rsc " or alluvial plain of GowTie, north of the Tay ; '■^ Strathmorc,'''' the
Viroad valley which extends between the Grampians and their southern out-
liers ; the plain of CroiiMrty and the level moors of eastern Caithness farthest
north of all. The only extensive lowlands on the western side of the island
are the " Vale of Severn," the "Plain of Cheshire," between the Pennine
cliain and the Welsh Highlands, the lowlands round the estuary of the Solway,
those of Ayrshire, and the Valley of the Clyde.

6. Crossing over to Ireland, though we tind the lines of elevation rimning
generally in the same direction as those of Great Britain, or from north-east to
south-west, as shown in the peninsulas of the south-west coast, the mountains
appear rather in detached clusters than in definite ranges, with shapes rather
rounded than abrupt, forming a fringe round the coasts. Three groups, those
called the Twelve Pins, Mweelrea (2688 ft.) and Croagh Patrick, and the
Nephin Mountains, form the central promontory of the western coast in Con-
naught. Farther north we come to the coast group which culmLnates in Ctdl-
(jach (2188). Round the north coast rise the Derryveagh Mountains (Errigal,
2466), and the Blue Stack group in Donegal ; the S^jerrin Mountains (2240),
with Carntogher and Trostan on the coast ; the plateau of Antrim, which forms
the precipice of Fair Head (530 ft.), the nearest point to the Scottish coast,
and the remarkable basaltic scenery of the Giant's Causeway. On the eastern
side we find the granitic groups of the Mourne Mountains in Down (2796),
and of the Wicklow Mountains (Luguaquilla, 3039 ft.) Near the centre of
the south coast rise the Comeragh, Knockniealdown, and Galty Mountains
(3015 ft.) ; and in the south-west the Mountains of Kerry, the chief of which
are Mangerton and tlie Macgillicuddy Reeks, the latter containing Cam
Tual,^ the summit of all Ireland (3414 ft.)

The only important groups that lie centrally in the island are the moun-
tains of western Tijjperary, round their summit Ii.eeper (2278 ft.), and the Slieve'^
Bloom (1733 ft.) to the northward of these.

6. Within the circle of these heights, and branching out between them at
many yioints to the sea-coast, lies the Great Plain of Ireland, averaging per-
liaps 200 ft. in elevation aliove the sea. The highest point between Dublin
and Galway, east to west across its centre, is only 320 ft. above the sea-level.
Many parts of it, such as that which surrounds Lough Neagh in the north,
are scarcely 50 feet in elevation.

7. Hydrography. — As the higher mountains of Great Britain
rise in the west of the island, so the water-parting line following the
greatest general height lies nearer the west than the east. The
longer and gentler slope of the island is to the North Sea ; the
shorter and steeper to the Atlantic side.

Hence most of the larger rivers belong to the North Sea drainage. From
south to north on this side we find the Thames, the largest of all, 200 miles
in length, draining an area of over 5000 scjuare miles, giving a navigable
highway for 160 miles to Lechlade, and possessing a tidal uj^flow as far as
Teddington Lock, 60 miles above its ojien estuary. The next longest river to
nortliward is the Great Ouse, navigable from the west for 90 miles to Bedford ;
then we come to the group of rivers which water the long plain of York, and

1 Irisli, carran, a reaping-hook, and tinthail, left-handed or reversed, applietl in
reference to tlie curved and japged edge of tlie mountain. — Hichardson.
'■i Irish, Sliahh = mountain.

172 ' THE LONDON GEOGRAniY.

unite in the estuary of the Humber, including the Trent from the south, navi-
gable 105 miles to Burton ; the Yorkshire Ouse, navigable 45 miles to the
city of York, with its main tributary the Derwent. Farther north are the
Tees and Wear, and the busy Tyne. Passing into Scotland, we reach the
Tweed, valuable for its fisheries, but unnavigable ; the Forth, winding in links
through the fertile lowland, navigable to Stirling ; tlie Toy, navigable to Perth ;
the rapid Dee and Spey from the Grampians, and the Ness from the lakes of
Glenmore.

On the western or Atlantic side of Britain, the largest river, the second in
drainage area in the island, is the Severn, 178 miles long, drawing its upper
tributaries from the Welsh mountains, and its chief lower affluent, the navi-
gable Avon, from England, curving round to the British Channel ; it is
navigable to Welshpool, 120 miles from its mouth. Tlie Mersey, though a
short river, forms one of the most important estuaries of the island, the " Liver-
pool Channel." Scarcely less valuable in this respect is the lower Clyde, the
most important commercial river of Scotland, navigable to Glasgow, and form-
ing in its upper valley the largest falls in the island.

Almost all the river estuaries of Britain are great highways of commerce ;
the Solway FLrth, between England and Scotland on the west coast, is the
most important exception, its swift and strong tides, rushing in over the sands so
fast that a galloping horseman can scarcely escape from them, being exceedingly
dangerous to shipping. Besides these estuaries many natural harbours lie
round the coast. Such are the sheltered Solent and Portsmouth harbour be-
hind the Isle of Wight, Plymouth Sound farther west, and Milford Haven
on the south coast of Wales, unequalled perhaps in the world as a deep and
spacious harbour thoroughly sheltered from all winds.

8. Among tlie many canals which have been constructed from river to
river by aqueducts over valleys, by tunnels, or locks over heights, to aid inland
navigation in Britain, may be mentioned those which, leaving the Thames at
London, Brentford, and Oxford, pass through the heart of the country to the
manufacturing districts, to Birmingham and Staiibrd ; the Thames and Severn
Canal, passing by a tunnel more than two miles long through the Cotswold
hills ; the Trent and Mersey and Leeds and Liverpool Canals, uniting the
navigation of these rivers across central England ; the Forth and Clyde Canal
in the lowlands of Scotland ; and the Caledonian Canal, joining the deep lakes
of the Great Glen of the north of Scotland, from the North Sea to the
Atlantic.

9. The lakes of South Britain are comparatively few and small. Bala
Lake, only four miles long, is the largest in the Welsh Highlands, and in Eng-
land the only considerable group is that which clusters round the knot of
mountains in Cumberland— U'tHtZenftere,^ the largest, 10 miles in length,
Ulleswater and Derwentwater, the next in size. Scotland, however, abounds
in lakes in all three Highland districts, and their number increases towards
the north. Loch Lomond, 24 miles long, the largest in Britain, Loch Atce,
Loch Tay, Loch Punnwch, and Loch Ericht, may be mentioned as the largest
of those in the Grampian valleys. Loch Ness, 24 miles long and 800 feet
deep, with Loch Oich and Loch Lochy, fills the deep trench of the Great Glen
between the Grampians and the Northern Highlands ; Loch Shin, 20 miles
long and only 1 mile broad, and Loch Maree, are the largest of the Northern
Highland region. On the western watershed of the Northern Highlands, how-
ever, lakes are so thickly sown that hundreds may be counted from a mountain-
top, and the Outer Hebrides are covered with a perfect network of them.

10. In Ireland, in contrast to Britain, the watersheds are more evenly

1 Mere = lake (meer — mare).

BRITISH ISLES. 173

divided towards all points of the compass ; the greatest drainage, however, is
to the west, to the Atlantic. On this side we find the largest river, the
S/uDtnon, 160 miles long, draining an area second only to that of the Thames
in extent, and aftbrding a navigable highway over the central plain almost
up to its source. The Erne is another large river of the western drainage
of Ireland. Flowing northward we find the Foyle, and the Bann passing
through Lough Neagh, and navigable for 55 miles. On tlie eastern watershed
the Liffey, from the Wicklow Mountains, is the most important stream ; the
Barroiv, navigable to Athy, 70 miles, from its fine estuary of Waterford Har-
bour, receiving near its mouth the almost equally important Nave and Utiir,
is the chief river of the soutliern drainage ; the Blackwater, aftbrding 22 miles
of na\agation, and the Lee, flowing to Cork Harbour, are the other notable
rivers of this slope.

By means of the canals inland navigation is extended throughout the
plain of Ireland from sea to sea, north, west, and south and east. Among
the natural harbours of Ireland which are not river estuaries properly so-called,
may be noted Belfast Lough, Carlingford Lough, Dundalk Bay, Dublin Bay
(wth the artificial harbour of Kingston), and Wexford Bay on the east coast ;
Cork and Kinsale harbours in the south. Tralee Bay, Galway Bay, the ter-
minus of a line of steamers to America, and Sligo Bay, are natural ports of the
west coast ; Lough Foyle, on the north coast, leads to Londonderrj', the chief
port of that side.

The lakes of Ireland, in contrast to those of Britain, belong rather to the
plain than to the mountain regions. LoikjIi Neagh, in the basin of the Bann in
the north, is the largest of all in the British Islands, 154 miles in area, 20
nules in length. The lakes of the Erne, upper and lower, stand next in size ;
Loughs Corrib and Mask in Connaught, joined by a subterranean channel, are
the largest in the west. The Shannon has three large expansions, Loughs
Allen, Ree, and Derg. Most famous for their scenery, however, are the
much smaller highland Lakes of Killarney, embosomed in the south-western
mountains of Kerry.

11. Climate and Landscape. — The climate of the British
Isles displays the effect of maritime situation, in relation to the pre-
vailing south-westerly wind currents of the temperate zone, more
remarkably than any other part of the earth between the same
latitudes (50° to 60° N.) In comparison with that of any conti-
nental region between the same parallels the climate is mild and
equable ; the winters being considerably warmer, the summei-s
cooler. The moist and genial south-west winds prevail throughout
tlie year, excepting in the spring months, when for a few weeks
they give place to north-east winds, which appear to be dry and
jiarched, because they ai'e flowing from colder to warmer latitudes,
and have a great capacity for absorbing moisture from every surface
over which they pass. Ireland, from its more maritime position,
and from its first arresting the moist west winds, has a greater
rainfall (average about 36 inches) than Britain ; its climate and
moisture being so favourable to vegetation as to have given it from
early times tlie name of the " Green " or " Emerald Isle."

Tlie high side of Britain faces the west, and, arresting the moist winds, con-

174 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

denses upon itself an excessive rainfall, leaving for the eastern slope only a mode-
rate siqjply. We have already noticed that the rainfall of Western Britain is
more than double that of the eastern coast-lands. A regular decrease of tempera-
ture takes place from south to north in both islands with increasing latitude.
The distinction between maritime and continental climates, however, begins
to show itself clearly in the islands themselves, the Atlantic sides being one
or two degrees cooler on an average in the summer months, and several degrees
warmer in winter, than the slopes which face Europe. Thus, the south-west
coast of Ireland has an average temperature of 62° in July, while in Loudon,
in the same latitude, the mean temperature is 64° ; but in January that part
of the Irish coast enjoys a mean temperature of 43°, while the average for
Loudon is as low as 37°.

12. The climate of the British Isles belongs naturally to that of the forest
zone of Europe, Scotland mainly to the pine wood belt, England and Ireland
to that of the deciduous trees ; woods still form a part of almost every land-
scape within them, and in earlier times these no doubt spread over the greater
part of the country, though as land became valuable and as agriculture spread
the forests were gi-adually cleared away. Many parts of England — such as the
"Nexv Forest" in Hampshire, the Forest of Arden in Warwick, Sherioood in Not-
tingham ; and parts of Scotland — in the fir forest of Bothiemurchus and the
pine-covered slopes of Braemar — remain under their natural covering ; many
more wide districts, such as the Saxon IVenlds (woods) of Kent, the Wolds of
Lincoln and Yorkshire, the deer " forests " of Scotland, retain the names given
them when tliey were covered with wood. The black oak roots and trunks
preserved in great numbers in tlie Irish bogs testify to the ancient forest land-
scape of the great jjlain of Ireland, though at the present day the island is
deficient in timber, the woods being restricted now to the hilly districts.

13. In South Britain a line drawn diagonally across from the
mouth of the Tees round the plain of York to the vale of the
Severn, and across the southern peninsula to the mouth of the
Exe, marks out two divisions of England which are strongly con-
trasted in several ways. North and west of this lie the mountainous
districts of Cumberland, the Pennine chain, Wales, and Cornwall, in
which pasturage prevails over agricultural land ; south and east of
it lie the agricultiu'al and pastoral lowlands, where corn fields,
market gardens, and meadows enclosed by hedgerows, take the
place of the more open hill pastures and moorlands,^ divided by
walls and fences. The only extensive lowland in the north-western
region is the pastoral lowland of Cheshire, famous for its cheese.
This line, as we shall afterwards notice, also shuts off the mining
and manufacturing districts of the north-west of England from the
non-manufacturing region of the south-east.

North Britain divides itself naturally into the agricultural low-
lands, occujiying about a fifth of the area, in which the science and
practice of this branch of industry have been carried to a higher
point than in perhaps any other part of the world ; and the pastoral
highlands, in which numbers of sheep and cattle are reared. Very
large areas of the Grampians and northern moorlands and heather-

1 Auglo-Saxon mur= waste laud.

BRITISH ISLES. 1 / O

covei'ecl hills are, liowever, preserved as " deer forests" and grouse
covers, to the almost total exclusion of sheep and cattle.

The great plain of Ireland, in contrast to the lowlands of
Britain, is ahuost entirely a pastoral country. Till the middle of
last century it was exclusively so, and to the present day its agri-
cultural system is very inferior. Cattle are far more abundant than
sheep ; butter is produced in immense quantities, but very little
cheese. Characteristic of the surface of the Irish plain are its
spongy peat bogs, occupying fully a seventh of the whole area of
the island. The largest of them is the succession of morasses
which lies east of the Shannon, called the Bog of Allen, which
covers 350 square miles. From the level character of the plain
great ditiiculties are met with in the attempts to reclaim this land,
which would be almost waste did it not yield valuable stores of
peat fuel or " black turf," as it is called.

14. England and Ireland lie within the climatic belt in which wheat and
barley flourish, and the former country excels in the cultivation of these
grains, though not nearly enough can be grown for its population. While
the greater number of Englishmen live on wheaten bread, the Irish are more
dependent on the potato (first introduced from Virginia), the cultivation of
which in Ireland has become more extensive than in any other European
country. Much of the soil is suited to the growth of flax, and in the north
this is by far the most important crop, giving employment both to an agri-
cultural and manufacturing i^opulation. Scotland passes north into the
climatic belt in which the hardier oats thrive best, and oatmeal porridge and
cakes are consequently supposed to be the popular food.

15. Mineral Products To north and west of the agricul-
tural division of England lie all the great mining districts of the
country. Of these the coal and iron fields, as determining the most
advantageous position for those manufactures in which steam ma-
chinery is employed, are the most important.

The principal coalfields in England are these : — The Newcastle coaljidd in
the north, lying across the basin of the Tees ; the Yorkshire and iMncashire
fields, one on the eastern, the other on the western side of the Pennine chain
of mountains, occupying the northern part of the plain of Cheshire ; the
Staffordshire field, farther south, between Trent and Severn ; and the South
Wales conlfcld, on tlie nortli side of the Bristol Channel. Some idea of the
enormous value of -these mines, whicli are by far the most productive in the
world, may Tie gained by remembering that they yield every year about 135
millions of tons of coal, or about four tons to every man, woman, and child
in the British Isles, besides 6 A millions of tons of pig-iron ; that is, fully half
as much coal and iron as is given by all other parts of the earth put together.

The Tin mines of Cornvxdl are by far the richest in Europe, but here,
from the absence of coal, there are no manufactures at all. The most impor-
tant salt mines are those of Northwich in Cheshire.

In Scotland a rich coal and iron fii-ld similar to those of England extends
from the Firth of Forth across the Clyde basin to the coast of Ayrshire.

176 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

Over this area, accordingly, with few exceptions, the manufacturing industries
of Scotland are congregated. Though iron and coal are widely distributed in
Ireland, yet, from the thinness and poverty of the seams, mining has never
become important there. Gold and silver exist in the Wicklow mountains, but
the mines were abandoned as unproductive at the beginning of this century.

16. Inhabitants and Race. — During the four centuries in
wliicli the Romans held the lowhmds of South Britain, many of the
native British tribes became Romanised, but the Celtic peoples of
the mountain regions of Wales, the Scottish Highlands, and of the
west of Ireland, have retained their language and more or less pure
blood to the present day. After the fall of the Roman power the
invading Anglo-Saxons and Jutes conquered the island, and to their
strong Germanic element followed that of the brilliant Normans,
the Northmen who had settled in Normandy, and who had there
adopted the religion, language, and manners of the French.

Thus the population of these islands is a mixed Celtic, Germanic, and
Romanic one, all its elements bemg more thoroughly amalgamated in the
populous lowlands of Britain, the Celtic remaining purer in the highlanil
regions, which are more difficult of access. In Ireland the Teutonic element
prevails along the eastern margin ; thence towards the western mountains the
transition is gradual to the pure Celtic.

The English character thus combines the characteristics of German and
Gaul, the earnest conscientiousness of the one with the active wit and skill
of the other.^ The English language, though it has perhaps a larger propor-
tion of words of Latin than of Saxon derivation, and has incorporated words
from almost every laud of the globe, retains its Teutonic basis.

In 1880 the population of England and Wales was 25,480,000
„ „ of Scotland 3,661,000

„ „ of Ireland 5,364,000

In all, including the islands 36,855,000

In point of numbers the population of England is at the present day nearly
four times as large as it was at the begiiuung of this century. In the same
period the p)opulation of Scotland has more than doubled itself. In Ireland,
however, the total number of inhabitants at the present day is nearly the
same as at the beginning of the century, 2^ millions of people having emigrated
from it during the past quarter of a century.

17. Religion. — In regard to religion, rather more than half of the popu-
lation of England claims membership with the Anglican branch of the
Reformed Protestant Church — the Church of England ; the most prominent
dissenting bodies being those of the Wesleyan Methodists, the Independents,
and Baptists. About a twentieth part of the population (one million) is
Roman Catholic.

Wliile the English Church has three orders of clergy — bishops, priests, and
deacons — under the two archbishops of Canterbury and York (the former of
whom is the first peer of the realm, next to the royal princes), the Established
Church of Scotland is a perfect democracy.

1 As it is well to see ourselves as others see us, it may be noted that the English are
considered by Continental writers as wilful, proud, and unapproachable, conser-
vative in customs, not unfrequently subject to "spleen," a "kind of dulness induced
by the foggy and melancholy climate."

BEITISH ISLES. 177

The dissenters from the Chiirch of Scotland — chiefly the Free and United
Presbj-terian Chirrches — are nearly equal in nuinVier to the adherents of
the State Church. In Ireland the mass of the population remains Roman
Catholic, only a fourth belonging to the Protestant, Ei)iscopalian, Presbji;erian,
or Dissenting bodies. The Roman Catholic Church of Ireland is under four
archbishops of Annagh, Cashel, Dublin, and Tuam. Both the Government
sulisidies, to the MajTiooth College for the education of priests, in Kildare,
and the royal bounty to the Presbji;erian clergy, were abolished in 1869.

18. Education. — Public education in Britain lias made im-
mense progress during the past quarter of a century, though, as we
have already seen, the country is not so far advanced in this respect
as some of the continental states. The manufacturing and mining
portions of England are lower in the educational scale than the agri-
cultural. By the legislation of 1870 it was made compulsory
upon parents to give their children the advantage of education.

Besides the two ancient (thirteenth century) Universities of Oxford and Cam-
briclge, in close connection with the Church of England, though now open to all,
there are the modern ones of Z«o>icJo?i and il/awc/iester (Victoria University), which
have no ecclesiastical connection, and of which the tirst confines itself to examiu-
ingand conferring degrees. Durham has a small University, and there are several
Colleges, such as that of St. Bees, in Cumberland, for the education of the clergy
of the north of England ; at Lampeter, in Cardigaushu-e, for the Welsh clergy ;
University College, and King's College, in London. The great Public Schools
of England, in the order of their foundation, are Winchester (1387), Eton
(1441), St. Paul's London (1510), Manchester (1515), Berkhampstead (1545),
Birmingham (1552), Shrewslniry (1552), Christ's Hospital London (1553),
Tunbridge (1553), Repton (1556), Westminster (1560), Merchant Taylors',
London (1561), Bedford (1566), Rugby (1567), Harrow (1571), Uppingham
(1587), Charterhouse Godalming (1611), Clifton, and the more modern
Cheltenham, Marlborough, Wellington, Rossal, and Haileybury.

In Scotland the establishment of parisli schools began with the Reforma-
tion, and the lower classes of that country have always stood higher in
education than those of England. Higher education is provided at the
Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and St. Andrev^s; but in these
the students are not resident, as at Oxford and Cambridge.

In Ireland education stands lower than in England, more than 35 per cent
being illiterate. Now govei'nment elementary schools have been established
in every district. For higher education there are Dahlin University (1592),
with its one College of Trinity, and University of Ireland, on the plan of
that of London, with Colleges at Cork, Belfast, and Galway.

19. Industries and Chief Towns. — Population is densest
and is increasing most rapidly over those areas of Britain in which
the manufiicturing industries are Lusiest, and in tlie great commer-
cial seaports which cairy on the exchange of raw and manufactured
products with foreign lands.

Of the latter, London, with its 3.1 millions of inhabitants, the
greatest city in the world, extending over 123 square miles, has been
likened to a province covered with houses. Its populatioii equals
that of all Scotland. Its traffic in hiter times has risen to a marvellous

178 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

extent ; its harbour, the Thames, is crowded with a press of ships from
all corners of the earth, filling the magazines round its docks with the
products of every land ; and its streets are thronged with busy crowds.

Hull, the Tyne Ports (Newcastle, Gateshead, and Shields), and
Sunderland, \vith London, form the great outlets of the east of Eng-
land.

Liverpool (with Birkenhead), ranking even before London in
maritime importance, a<nd Bristol, are the go-eat outlets and seats of
commerce in the west of England, as Southampton and Plymouth on
the Channel are in the south.

20. The most important of all the textile incUistries of England is that
of cotton, which has centred itself in 3fanchester (with Salford and Chorltou),
and in its satellite cities on the coalfield of Lancashire and Cheshire (Preston,
Blackburn, Oldham, Wigan, Bury, Rochdale, Bolton, Stockport, Macclesfield),
drawing a dense population round these centres, with their thousands of
factories, fed with raw material from abroad, and relieved of their mannfac-
tiired products by Liverpool.

The woollen manufactures, next in importance, are gathered over the coal-
field on the opposite side of the Pennine chain, in the gi'eat towns of Leeds
and Bradfard, as well as in Halifax, Huddersfield, Wakefield, and Dewsbury,
clustering round these. Linen manufactures centre at Barnsley, farther
south, also on this Yorkshire coalfield. Three outlymg woollen manufacturing
centres may be noted ; these are Leicester, in a famous sheep-rearing district,
and Kidderminster, noted for its carpets, Stroud, Bradford, and other towns
in the west of England, noted for the quality of their cloth. Newtown, in
Montgomeryshire, is the centre of the Welsh flannel trade.

Hardwares have two great points of production — the one round Sheffield,
on the Yorkshire coal and iron field, the other round Birmingham and its satel-
lite towns on the South Staff"ord coal and iron field (Wolverhampton, Wednes-
bury, Bilston, Dudley, Walsall), called the " Black Country " because large
parts of it are so completely cut \\]) \nl\\ collieries and ironworks that no cul-
tivation exists.

In North Staflbrdshire, between the iron and the cotton manufacturing
regions, lies the " Potteries," a district which by supplying coal is able to main-
tain its staple industry. Stoke-iipon- Trent "is the centre of the cluster of
Pottery towns (Biirslem, Longton, Hanley, Tunstall), all connected by lines
of busy hamlets. Worcester, on the Severn, is also celebrated for its pottery.

English silk manufactures give importance to three separate districts,
those round Congleton and Macclesfield, in Cheshire ; Derby ; and Coventry,
in Warwickshire. Notthiglmm town combines silk and cotton manufactures
in hosiery and lace work. Stafford town supplies boots and shoes to all the
manufacturing towns which lie round it.

21. The coal trade of North England centres in the Tyne 2^orts and
Sunderland, which are also famous for their iron ships and engines, and their
chemical works. Tlie South Wales iron and coal field has its heart in
Merthyr Tydfil, the largest to^vu of Wales ; Cardiff, its port, has fine docks
and iron shipbuilding yards, besides its large coal export trade ; Swansea is
the head-quarters of copper and tin smelting, from ores brought thither from
the most distant parts of the world.

Among the few large towns besides London which lie outside the manufac-
turing and mining region of England, may be noted Norioich, in agricultural

BRITISH ISLES. 179

Norfolk, a seat of manufactures of tlie most various kind, introduced by about
4000 Flemings who fled thither in Queen Elizabeth's reign ; Brighton, on the
channel, which has gro^vn to importance solely from its attractions as a sea-
side watering-place ; Bath, near Bristol, which owes its prosperity to its hot
saline springs ; Portsmouth, the chief naval arsenal and fortress of Britain ;
and Devonport, next Plymouth, also a fortified arsenal and dockj'ard.

22. On the Scottish coal and iron field, Glasgow, favoured by its position
on the estuary of the Clyde, has risen to be at once the great conmiercial and
manufacturing centre of the country, carrjdng on a large trade with all parts
of the world, in manufacturing cottons and machinery, and in building iron
ships. A number of manufacturing to\vns (Paisley, noted for its shawls ;
Greenock, for its sugar-refining ; Dumbarton, for its iron shijas ; Airdrie, in
the midst of the collieries and iron works) have risen round Glasgow over the
Scottish coalfield.

Edinburgh, the metropolis of Scotland, which gi-ew up originally beneath
the protecting walls of its castle, is not a manufacturing to^vn, but derives its
importance mainly from the law courts, its university and schools, and its
book publishing trade ; Leith, the port of Edinburgh, is mainly engaged in the
Baltic grain trade ; Dundee, on the estuary of the Tay, owes much of its
prosperity to its jute and hemp factories, and to its Greenland whaling and
sealing trade.

23. Owing to its poverty in coal and iron, the manufactures of Ireland have
not attained an extent at all comparable with those of Britain. Its only
extensive manufacturing district is that which lies round Belfast in the north-
east, where the flax, gi'0-\\'u largely in the north of the coimtry, is made into
linen. The linen district extends to Arnmgh on the west, and Coleraine in
the north.

Dublin, the capital, is not a manufacturing town, though its j^oplins and
porter are celebrated ; nor has it any extensive foreign trade through its port
of Kingstown.

Cork, Avith its fine harbour the "Cove of Cork," or Queensto^vn, in the
south ; Limerick, ou the Shannon ; Galicay, the jjort of the west ; London-
derry, in the north, are the other important centres of population in Ireland.

24. Trade and Communications.— Several circumstances
which may be gathered from the foregoing paragraphs have com-
hined to secure for the United Kingdom its grand commercial pre-
eminence in the Avorld : — the position of the islands in the centre
of the land hemisj)here of the world ; their temperate climate,
allowing free navigation of the surroundiiig seas at all seasons ; the
proximity of every part of them to the liighway of the sea ; the
splendid system of communication over tlie land, by river, canal,
and railway ; the excellence of the manufactures ; and above all
their economy, due to the presence of coal and iron in conjunction
over large areas. Upwards of 20,000 sailing and steam shi])s
belong to the ports of the United Kingdom, and are engaged in the
home and foreign trade of the islands. These, Avith foreign vessels,
now bring or take away more than 50 millions of tons of goods
every year, and the amount is steadily and largely increasing.

The chief among the many articles of home produce or manufacture
exported from the British Isles, are cotton goods (£70,000,000), woollens, iron

180 THE LONDON GEOGRArHY.

and steel, coal, machinery, and linen. Among imports, corn and flour, cotton,
wool, sugar, timber, and tea, take rank one after the other.

Besides the fluvial and artiflcial waterways extending over the lowlands
of the British Isles, a network of roads, some of them foUomng the old
straight lines laid dowu by the Romans, reaches to every corner of
the islands. Since 1825, when the first short line of steam-carriage railway
was opened for passenger traffic between Stockton and Darlington, in Durham,
railroads have been made to intersect the country in all directions, till there
are now (1880) 18,000 miles of these iron highways in the United Kingdom.
Telegraph wires, also first brought into practical use in England for general
purposes in 1837, now join every city, towTi, and hamlet in the kingdom, and
by sea cables place the British Isles in immediate union with almost every
part of the world.

25. Political Divisions. — Soutli Britain is (li™led into 52
counties or sliires (40 in England, 12 in Wales) ; Scotland into 32
counties, and 1 stewartry ; Ireland into 4 provinces, and these again
into 32 counties. These divisions have no sort of uniformity or
relation in point of extent or population. Yorksliu'e, the largest of
the English counties, is 40 times the size of Rutland, the smallest ;
and in population the variations are still greater.

Several of the counties of England — such as Kent, Essex, Norfolk, Sufi'olk —
were formed out of the small Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, earls being substituted for
kings as the consolidation of the country into one kingdom advanced ; the
Saxon earls were replaced by Norman counts after the conquest. Other small
kingdoms were split up into shires (sciron, to divide) ; some — such as York,
Durham, Cheshire, and Worcester — take their names from ancient bishoprics.
The name stewaHr}/, still applied to Kii'kcudbright in the south of Scotland,
though its government does not now diifer from that of other counties,
recalls the time when Galloway (the present Wigton and Kirkcudbright), after
it had forfeited its Celtic princes and laws, luider whom it had been rather a
dependency than an integral part of Scotland, was placed under a steward who
had more extensive powers than a sheritt'.i

The four provinces of Ireland — Ulster, Leinster, Munster, and Cormaught
— retain the names of old Celtic kingdoms, the di\asion into counties having
been made after the conquest by England, as the country gradually came more
under English influence, between the twelfth and the sixteenth centuries.
The names and relative positions of these internal divisions vdW be best
learned from the map.

26. Government. — Ireland, as already noticed, was conquered by Eng-
land in the twelfth century, and Scotland was united to the English crown at
Queen Elizabeth's death (1603). Ireland remained a distinct kingdom till 1801,
when it was joined wth Great Britain to form the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland. By the constitution, the supreme legislative power is
vested in the Parliament,- the origin of which may be traced to the great
Saxon Council or Wittenagemote.'* For a long period this council consisted
of the king's baruus, or those who held estates from the crown ; but its con-
stitution was altered by the Magna Carta (1215), by which it was ordained
that all archbishops, earls, and greater barons, should be summoned to form what
is now calleil the House of Lords. As cities grew up, chiefly round the pro-
tecting \valls of the baronial castles, and their citizens or burgesses'* grew

1 Scir-gerefa, the reeve or fiscal officer of a shire. 2 pr. purler, to talk.

3 Meeting of wise men. * Sax. liirg = a hill, castle.

BRITISH ISLES. 181

wealthy, it became necessary to sxxmmou some of their members to the
council ; in the same way the freeholders of the country came to be repre-
sented by knights of the shires. The constitution ajjpears to have taken this
form in the thirteenth century, when writs were issued directing the election of
two knights for every coimty, two citizens for every city, and two burgesses for
every borough, to form the Lower House, or Commons of the Grand Coimcil. The
Acts of union with Scotland and Ireland fixed the number of members to be
sent to tlie one Parliament by each jiart of the United Kingdom ; the system
as it now exists was first settled by the Reform Act of 1832, and revised
in that of 1867, which rearranged the representation more in conformity with the
existing distribution of jiopulation. Tlie constituent parts of tlie Parliament
are the Sovereign, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. The
whole executive power is vested nominally in the Sovereign, but practically
in a committee of ministers called the Cabinet ; the Crown is also the foimtain
of justice and honour. The _Sovereign summons and dissolves Parliament.
The pro^dnce of the Houses of Parliament is chiefly to legislate with the
Crown ; but they also review the Acts of the Executive, and can practically, by
their censure, cause a change of the Ministry or Cabinet. The House of Lords
exercises also judicial functions, since it forms the highest court of aj^peal in the
realm. It consisted in 1880 of 502 members. The House of Commons numbers
644 members, returned as follows by the 3 divisions of the United Kingdom.

England and Wales.

Members.

52 counties 187

198 cities and boroughs ... 289

3 universities ..... 5

481

Scotland.

33 counties 32

22 cities and borough districts . . 26

4 universities ..... 2

60
Irehind.

32 counties 64

31 cities and boroughs .... 37

1 university ..... 2

103

Thus in England the boroughs and cities preponderate.

The principal courts of law and equity in England hold tlieir sittings
in London. Twice a year judges from the courts go round the vifhole
country on circuit, holding the Assizes (sittings) in the jirincipal town of each
county. The coimtry is divided into eight circuits, called respectively the
Home, Norfolk, Miilland, Oxford, Western, Northern, North Wales, and Soutli
Wales. County courts decide minor cases. It is one of the cliief oflSces of
the Sheriff to carry out all judgments and orders of the courts of law.

27. Tlie executive government of Ireland is vested in a Lord-Lieutenant,
and the law is administered by a Lord C'hancellor and twelve judges. An
armed constabulary, however, is maintained. Scottish law diflers in many
particulars from that of England, as well as in its administration ; the highest
civil tribunal of Scotland, the Court of Session, has its seat at Ediuburgli ;

182 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

the Circiiit Courts of Justiciarj-, of wliich there are three — the North, West
and South — resemble the assizes of Eugland.

The British army is small in comparison with the armies of continental
states, and differs from these in so much that service in it is voluntary. It
is supplemented by the militia and volunteer forces. The strength of the
country lies in its na\'y, the finest in the world.

28. The Britisli possessions in Europe are Heligolaiul, taken from
the Danes in 1807, an islet or fifth of a square mile in area, off the
mouth of the Elbe, with Friesland fisher in'ha1)itants ; the fortress of
Gibraltar (Jebel-al-Tarik = Tank's Mount), British since 1704,
guartling the entrance of the Mediterranean ; and the islands of
Malta and Gozo, in the central Mediterranean, with Valetta (in Malta),
now one of the strongest fortresses in the world. In 1878, by a
convention -with Turkey, Cyprus "svas ceded to England as a naval
and military depot.

2.— SCANDINAVIA.

1. Sweden^ and Norway.- — The Scandina\-ian peninsula,
the largest of Europe, shuts oft" the Baltic and its prolongation the
Gulf of Bothnia on the east from the Atlantic on the west ; for several
hundreds of miles it is washed north-west and north by the Arctic
Ocean ; the Skager Eak, Kattegat, and the Sound, separate it from
Denmark on the south. Its only landward frontier lies along the in-
hospitable lake region of northern Finland, where the Tornea river, at
the head of the GuK of Bothnia, and the Varanger Fiord on the Arctic
coast, separate Sweden and Norway politically from northern Eussia.

The length of the peuLnsida from north to south is nearly 1200 miles, or
double that of Great Britain ; its width at greatest 450 miles, and its area
294,000 square miles (172,000 in Sweden, 122,000 in Norway).

2. The general configuration of the peninsula — the lowland to-
ward the Baltic forming a branch of the great European plain, the
moiuitains and snow fjelds and glaciers towards the west, and its
high deeply-fi'etted fiord coast on the Atlantic — has already been
sketched in connection with the other great features of Europe.

The coasts of the Gulf of Bothnia are flat and sandy, covered with the soil
brought down ))y the many streams, and the numerous islets are likemse
low. From the Qvarken Islands northwards, however, the coast is partly
low and sandy, partly marked by lines of cliti's fringed with rocky skiirs
or skerries, separated by narrow passages with intricate wndings, rendering
access tedious and difficult. The island of Gotland (=good land), 80 miles
long, is a high cliff- walled terrace ; the narrower Oland near the coast is also a
tableland. Approaching the southmost plaiu of Skane or Scania the rocky
coast line ceases, the coasts appear low and sandy and free from islands.
Turning north again, however, into the Kattegat and Skager Eak, and up into

1 Sverige = Swedes' Kingdom. - Norge = Northern Kingdom.

SWEDEN AND XOliWAY. 183

tlie fine fiord of Kristiania, the rocky islets, the high and broken coasts, again
appear. The deep fiords of tlie west coast, filled with such ])eautifully clear
water that one can see the bottom through a depth of 100 feet, penetrate into
the land between the high mountain sides, sometimes presenting steep walls
1000 feet high, over which waterfalls leap into the abyss ; or glaciers descend
nearly to the water's edge, or borders of dark pine forest ; while hundreds of
romantic rocky islets stud the ueighbouring sea. The Sognc Fiord (in 61°
N.) is the largest of all, reaching eastward into the land more than 100 miles ;
one of the many waterfalls, the Vattisfos, tumbles into this fiord.

3. Most important of the many lofty islands with which the Atlantic coast
of Norway is studded, is the mountainous granitic group of the Vcsteralen
(68° to 69° N.), which runs out south-westward like a long promontory, broken
through by narrow tortuous fissures. The largest of the group is Hindoe, 50
miles long ; and the five islands farthest to the south-west, enclosing the West-
fiord, are the Lofoten, which sometimes give their name to the whole gi'oup,
between two of which the famous Mosko or Mael Strom whirlpool is formed
by the rushing tide pent up by the island barrier. The most notable of
the islands farther north is that called Mageroe, 22 miles long, the northmost
laud of Europe, inhabited by a few Lapp families, who can look out over the
Arctic Sea from the summit of its northward cliff, the North Cape, 970 feet
high. This is to be distinguislied from the Nonl Kyn, the northernmost point
of the mainland, 40 miles farther east.

4. Hydrography. — The .shallow Baltic on the east is frozen
over during a considerable part of the year, closing all the ports of
Sweden, and that of Kristiania in Norway, for at least four months.
Entering the Skager Rak we find the sea-bed on its northern side
sinking to a depth of more than 200 fathoms in a deep trough
which skirts the southern promontory of Norway. All along the
west coast, however, from lat. 60° to the North Cape, at some dis-
tance from the fiord mouths, there runs a chain of baidis partly of
.sand, partly of rocks and stones, which form the great fi.shing
grounds of the peninsula. Outside of these the Atlantic siidvs to
great depths. In contrast to the Baltic shores, all the western coast
of Norway, from the Skager Rak to the North Caj^e and the
Varanger Fiord, is kept free of ice all the year round by the warming
waters of the Gulf Stream drift, borne towards them by the south-
westerly winds.

5. Few countries are so copiously watered as this, with
innitmerable les.ser and greater streams, or present such a multitude
of large and small lakes at every elevation. The rivers are, for the
most part, .so broken by rapids and falls ^ that few of them can be
rendered valuable for any traffic, and the navigation even of the
larger lakes is intricate and dangerous. The streams, however, are
turned to account in iloating down the vahxable timber of the forests,
and their rapids give abundant mill power.

1 Among the finest are the Rjukancl Fos, or smoking fall, of the Maan EIv, iu South
Norway, one of the finest in Europe, and the Viiring Fos.

184 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

From the position of the mountain region on the west the river
slope lies towards the south and east.

The largest river of Norway, the Glommen or Utor-Elv (great river), has a
rapid course of about 300 miles southward to the Skager Rak, tumbling at a
distance of 10 miles from the sea over its last fall, the Sarpen Fos,'60 feet
high. Up to this it can be navigated by large boats. Next to its basin in
Sweden comes that of the Klar Elf, the chief of those which feed Lake
Wener, the largest water expanse of Scandinaxia. This lake overflows to the
Kattegat by the Geta, noted for its picturesque rapids and its larger falls,
the Rdnnum and Trolhatta. By means of the Trolhdtta Canal and its locks,
designed by the English engineer Telford to avoid these falls, and cut
in the granite rock, the navigation of the GiJta forms part of a line of na\d-
gation which joins the Kattegat, through the great lakes, with the Baltic.
Among the larger of those which flow south-eastward from the mountains to
the northern part of the Baltic coast (from south to north) are the Dal Elf,
with its east and west upper branches ; the Ljusne Elf, Indals Elf, flowing
through the large Stor Lake ; Angerman Elf, one of the largest rivers of
Sweden, navigable for a few miles from the Gulf of Bothnia ; the Umed, \\'ith
two splendid falls not far from its mouth ; the Skelleftea, the Piteu, from
Sulitelma (6150 ft.), the highest mountain of the northern dialing range ; the
Luled and the Torneu, the lower half of which forms the boundary between
Sweden and Russia. The only river of imjiortance flo\ving to the Arctic Sea
from Scandinavia is the Tana, which also forms part of the Russian frontier.

6. Lake Wener, more than 2000 square miles in area (or as big as the county
of Northumberland) is nearly divided l)y peninsTilas running out from its north
and south shores. Its coasts are studded with islets, it is in many parts
shallow, and strong wind gusts make its navigation difficult. Lake Wetter,
about 25 miles south-east of the former, 70 miles long, has clear green water,
surrounded by lofty unbroken shores. These lakes are respectively 150 and
300 feet above the Baltic. Lake Malar, the intricate maze of waters next
the Baltic coast, on the other hand, is scarcely 6 feet above the level of that
sea ; it is 81 miles long, and its shores are varied \di\\ cliff's and woods
and slojiing la^vns or cultivated fields. The most important line of artificial
navigation in the peninsula is that of the Gota Canal, before noticed, which
unites the Gota river Avith Lakes Wener and Wetter.

7. Climate. — Eeacliing north and south through more than
a thousand miles, the Scandinaidan peninsula has a great range of
climate from latitude alone. In the extreme south its days and nights
correspond in duration to those of the north of England ; towards
the north the summer days and ■winter nights grow longer ; at the
Arctic circle the mid-winter day is scarcely lighted by the sun, and
at midsummer the sun may be seen at midnight ; at the North
Cape there are nearly three months (May, June, July) of summer
daylight, and an equally long Avinter night (November, December,
January).

All the northern part of the land is held in the sway of frost and snow,
and the streams are closed with ice, from September till June. Farther
soiith, in the latitude of Stockholm, the winter frosts bind the ri^'ers and lakes
from December till April, and in the exireme south of Sweden only till
March. Summer by contrast is hot, and the apparent change to this season

SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 185

from winter is verj' rapid, o\ving to the sudden disappearance of tlie snow,
especially in the north. The two sides of the jjeuinsula are, however,
remarkably contrasted in climate, that facing the Atlantic having a foggy,
rainy, and mofe equable one ; the other, sloping to the Continent, having a
drier climate, vfith. great extremes. This cannot be better illustrated than by
remembering that the Skager Rak in the south, lying within the extreme
continental climate of the Baltic, is frozen in ■winter, while the North Cape,
1000 miles higher in latitude, is kept open and free of ice all through the year
by the warm water carried against it by the prevailing south-westerly winds.
On this account also the limit of perennial snow on the mountains reaches
higher on the eastern or Continental than it does on the maritime side of
Scandinavia. Even the western side of southern Sweden, next the Kattegat,
has a milder and more fickle climate tlian the eoiTespouding east coast on
the Baltic.

8. Products. — Forests of pine and fir (beech and oak only in the far south)
form the natural covering of all tlie low«r lauds of Scandinavia, and reach
up to a considerable elevation iu the moimtains, higher also on the eastern
than on the western side of the hills, correspondiug to the snow-line.

North of 64°, however, on the greater elevations, the trees become stunted,
and finally give place to scanty grasses, berry-bearing plants, mosses, and
lichens. Above these, on the mountains, come the snow-fields with their
dependent glaciers.

At the North Cape potatoes and cabbages can only be reared with care in
enclosures. Rye vnll not ripen north of 66°. Between the 64th and 65th
])arallels oats seldom come to maturity, and this is the northerly limit of all
orchard fruits, as well as of flax and hemp. Hops grow as far north as 62°.
The 61st parallel may be said to separate the agricultural from the forest region
of Scandinavia, all the lowland to the north of this being left for the most
]iart under its natural woods. South of that line agriculture has now been
widely extended, oats, barley, rye, and wheat lieing gro^\^l in sufficient quan-
tity to be largely exported. The plain of SMne, the southernmost promontory
of Sweden, may be termed the granary of the countrj\

9. Iron aij^l copper and silver are %videly distributed in Scandinavia.
Central Sweden has not far short of 200 iron muies, but the quantity produced
is less than a twentieth of the yield of the British iron fields. The most
famous mine of Sweden is that of Dannemora in Upsala, north of Stockholm,
giving magnetic iron which is formed into the finest steel. The most pro-
ductive cojiper mines are those of the Dal valley in Sweden, and of the
Kaafiord, a branch of the Altenfiord in tlie north of Norway (70° N.)
Silver is obtained in greatest quantity at Sala in Vestmanland, north-west
of Stockholm.

10. People. — The people of the peninsuhi are of Germanic
race, with tlie exception of the small number of Finns and the
Lapps in the north. Population, 6,338,000 (Norway, 1,807,000 ;
Sweden, 4,530,000).

The Northmen of Norway, of middle stature, strong, generally blonde-
haired and blue-eyed, seamen by choice, have adopted the Danish as the
language of the towns and of literature, its nearly-related Old Norse being
banished to the outlying country districts and unfrequented fiords. The Fin-
landers of Finmark, on the north, and between the Glommen and Klar Elv in
the south {Kwdneii or Kajanen), few in numbers,^ are darker than the Nor-

1 22,500 in Sweden and Norway.

186 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

wegiaus, but do not differ much in outward form ; tliey speak Finnish (a dialect
of the Ural-Altaic family of languages); the Lftpps^ (who call themselves
Sahmelads) of the northern Arctic pro\inces, are little, yellow, thickset people,
with small slit eyes, broad low brow, and sharp beardless chin, and have been
kept sejjarate as an inferior race by the Northmen.

The Swedes are also a Germanic people, tall and strong, but with more
variety of characteristics than the Norwegians. The Swedish language, allied
closely to Norse and Danish, a]ii)C'ars in very many dialects.

11. Religion and Education — Almost the whole poptila-
tiou is Protestant, adhering to the Lutheran Church, memliers of
which alone are permitted to hold public offices. Education is
well advanced in both countries, piiblic instruction being gratuitous
and compulsory.

Sweden has the Universities of Upsala (1500 students), which dates from
1477, and of Lund (550 students), founded in 1668, besides the many scien-
tific and educational institutions of Stockholm. Norway has the University
of Christiania, founded in 1811.

12. Industries. — In Norway liy far the largest division of
the inhaliitants find employment in agriculture and in cattle-rearing
(though only about one-thousandth part of the surface of the land
is cultiA^able), or as seamen or fishers, or as woodcutters in the pine
forests, so that only a very small proportion of the people, about a
sixth, are dwellers in towns.

Agriculture, as we have seen, is not i^rofitable except in the extreme south,
and in the deep valleys ; cattle-rearing, however, is the industry of the higher
valleys ; here each farmer has a sater or summer pasture on the heights of the
field, whither he repairs with his cattle, and where the animals grow fat, but
they need to be kept indoors upon hay and moss during the w«iter.

The fisheries give occupation and food to a large jjart of the population of
Norway. Herring shoals come twice a year to the coast, in mnter and sum-
mer, and at the latter season great numbers are netted. Soon after New Year
tlie cod-fishing begins, the Lofoten Isles being one of its greatest centres. In
this about 4500 Ijoats \vith 25,000 men, besides about 250 " yaegts " or storing
ships, are employed. The two most frequeiat trees, the pine and the birch,
are indispensable to the Norwegian. Of these he builds houses, churches,
bridges, sledges, carioles, and boats. The birch twigs also give winter food for
the cattle, and are useful in sweeping. The forests also supply timber for
exjiort, the most important outlets of the forests being the rivers which flow
to the Skager Kak.

13. Kristiania (pop. 113,000) is the capital and seat of Govern-
ment, on its fiord reaching north from the Skager Back ; Bergen, on
the Atlantic coast, the commercial town of Norway, is the only other
important centre of population in the country.

Troyidhjem, Stavanger, and Kristmnssand, on the same coast, are seaport
towns, trading in fish, timber, and copper. Drammen, on a branch of the

1 24,000 in Sweden and Norway.

SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 187

Ivi-istiauia fiord, is the chief timber port. Tromso and Hammerfest are remark-
able as the most northerly ports of the world that are open to na\'igation all
the year round.

14. In Sweden about 87 per cent of the population is rural,
emi^lojed mainly in the agricultural region of the south, in the
central mining regions, and in the industries of the forests farther
north. Manufactures of various kinds, chiefly of cotton and woollen
spinning, are, however, extending in Sweden.

15. The trade of the country centres in the capital, SfocMolm
(pop. 170,000), advantageously placed for commerce in the island of
Lake JMiilar, where its channels open to the Baltic through a maze of
rocks and tree-covered islets, and at Gotehorg (pop. 75,000) on the
Kattegat. These are the only large towns of the country.

Malmd, on the Sound, opposite Copenhagen, is the outlet of the corn granary
of the southern plain ; Norrkoping, on an inlet of the Baltic, after Stockholm,
is the busiest manufacturing to^vu of Sweden, its mills being driven by the
rapids of the Jlotala ; Gefle lies north of Stockholm, and is second only to it
as a seaport on the Baltic side of the country ; and Karlskronn, on the south
coast, is the fortified naval arsenal and head-quarters of the fleet of Sweden.

Within recent years a network of railways has been formed over southern
Sweden and Norway, connecting the capital towns with the ports of GiJteborg,
Malmli, and many other points.

16. Government. — After the crisis of Em-opean affairs
brought about Ijy Napoleon's wars, Denmark, we may remember,
lost lier hold over Norway, Avhicli had been united to it for more
than fom- centuries, and that country was made over to Sweden in
exchange for Finland, which then passed under Russian sway.
Norway, however, though united \\ith Sweden under one king,
retains its independent constitution.

17. The constitution of Sweden dates from 1809, but in 1866, when the
.sejiarate meetings of the four estates — nobles, clergy, liurghers, and peasants
— were done away, the legislative system was much modified, and it now
approximates to that of Britain. The executive power is vested in the king,
acting under the advice of a Council of State ; the legislative in the two Cham-
bers of tlie Diet, l)oth of which are elected by the people — the first for nine
years from proprietors, the second for three years from a lower class. The
administration of justice is entirely independent of the Government.

18. Norway is much more democratic ; no privilege of birth or hereditary
nobility has been recognised since 1821. There the Chambers of the
" Storthing" or Great Court, represent the sovereign will of the people,
and the king has only a limited power of veto on the laws passed by this
assembly.

19. For administrative purposes Sweden is divided into twenty-
tive lUii or governments, grouped within three great regions of the
country — Svealand, or Svea Rike, the old kingdom of Sweden, in the

188 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY,

centre ; Gothland, or Gota Rike, in the soutli ; and Nor)-land=noTth.
land. Norway is di\'ided into twenty amis or bailiwickf!, grouped
in the six dioceses or stiffs, of Kristiania, Hamar, Kristianssand,
Bergen, Trondhjem, and Tromso.

Sweden no longer jDossesses a colony since the island of St. Bartholomew in
the West Indies, ceded by France, in 1784, has been restored to that power.

3.— DENMARK.

1. The Danish territory includes the northern tract of the
Cimbrian peninsula or Jutland, and the archipelago of islands whicii
lies east of it ; besides the widely-separated Faroe islands and Iceland,
belonging also to Europe, and Danish Greenland, whicli must Ije
described along with the American continent.

The home portion of the territory, that which lies south of the
Scandinavian peninsula, has an area of 14,800 square miles, which
does not exceed the half that of Scotland or Ireland. Its coasts
are washed by shallow seas : by the North Sea on the west, the
Skager Rak and the Kattegat on the north and north-east, the
Sound and Belts and the Baltic on the east ; the only land frontier
being that which crosses the peninsula, separating Jutland from the
German province of Schleswig.

Two-thirds "of the area is formed by the peninsula. The islands
form three main groups — (1) Those of Fycji or Fiinen, with its
satellites Langeland, Arro, and Taasinge, nearest the peninsula,
separated by the Little Belt ; (2) of Sjalland or Zealand, with Mden,
Falster and Laaland, Amager and Salfhohn, between the Great Belt
and the Sound ; and (3) Bornholm, in the Baltic. Most apart lie the
islands of Lceso and Anholt on the Kattegat, and of Samso between
Zealand and Jutland.

2. Physical Features. — The sea round all the coasts is
shallow and difficult of approach. The western shore of Jutland
especially is one of the most dangerous in the world, and is so
deficient in harbours and anchorage-ground as to be called the " iron
coast " hj the sailors.

Tlie most frequented highway to the Baltic leads from the Kattegat
through the well buoyed and lighted Sound, and in this, opposite Copenhagen,
the Konge Dyhet, or King's Deeps, afford the best and safest anchorage in all
the Danish coast. The Great and Little Belts are also navigable, but the
channel througli them winds about so much that the passage is double the
length of that through the Souud. Among the many inlets of the coasts,
the Liiiii fiord, which reaches across and isolates the northern part of Jutland,
is the most remarkable. It opens by a narrow channel to the Kattegat
at Ilals, and on the opposite side by the Agger Minde to the North Sea,
which broke through into the fiord during a storm in 1825. From its shallow-
ness it is only jiassable by flat-bottomed boats called " Kaage."

DENMARK. 189

3. The whole of this home country of Denmark, except the
island of Bornholm, is so low and flat that an elevation of 100 feet
woiild be noticed as a marked rise.

The very highest poiut of all is the Himmelsberg, in Eastern Jutland, a hill
the top of which is 565 feet above the sea. Bornholm is an extension of the
granite mass of South Sweden, presenting steep slopes to the sea. The
greater i^art of the other Danish islands and Jutland are, however, of chalk
formation, which, as in England, occasionally appears in sea cliffs, the most
notable being those called Stevns Klint, on the eastern coast of Zealand.
Here, as in Sweden, erratic blocks occur, the largest being that called the
Lady's Rock, in Fiinen (128 feet in circumference, 42 feet high), which,
according to the legend, was thrown from Langeland to Fiinen by a noble lady.
Dunes of drift sand extend almost continuously along the west coast pro-
tecting it from the sea, from the Skaw or horn of Skagen in the extreme north
of Jutland, to the Blo.avands Hid; 200 miles south.

4. Climate and Products. — Denmark, surrounded b^^ the
sea, has a climate more humid, milder, and more equable than
that of Germany to the south of it, rain and fog and change being
characteristic ; but it is more excessive or continental than that of
the parts of England and Scotland in the same latitude, as is shown
by the winter freezing of the Baltic and its Sounds. The summers
are occasionally very hot. The contrast of its east and west sides is
as remarkable as that of the Scandinavian peninsula north of it — the
west coast remaining ice-free during the year. West winds pi'evail,
as in Britain, during the greater part of the year, excepting in spring,
when cold iliy east and north-west winds (skai) set in.

The damp climate Tof Denmark supplies the country with many brooks,
but there are no important rivers. Lakes, however, are numerous in east
Jutland and on the islands.

5. The more hilly eastern belt of Jutland is a fertile corn-land, inter-
spersed Vfith beech woods. The centre and west of the peninsula, from north
to south, presents bare sandy heaths, with here and there " holms " or islands
of more cultivable land. Zealand and Fiinen have little wood, but are well
supplied with turf fuel, and possess much fertile corn-gi'owing land. Laaland
grows excellent wheat, and has fine beech and oak woods, and Falster is called
the orchard of Denmark. The central heights of Bornholm are heath-covered,
but elsewhere the land is tolerably fertile. This is the only part of the home
country of Denmark that has any mineral resources at all, yielding a little
coal and the porcelain clay which is used at Copenhagen.

6. People. — The inhabitants of Jutland and the islands
number nearly 2 millions (1880, 1,968,500). They belong to the
Scandinavian branph of the Teutonic peoples, and speak the Danish
form of the old Norse, which was fixed in writing about the time
of the Reformation.

Three dialects are, however, to be distinguished — (1) The Zealandic, closest
to the WTitten tongue ; (2) the Jutic, which differs very much from the written
language, and which, in the west, becomes very like English ; (-3) the dialect
of iSornholm, which is like that of Sweden.

190 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

7. Religion and Education. — Since the Reformation the
Danes have been adherents of the Evangelic Lutheran Chi;rch.
The kingdom is divided into seven bishoprics. Education is well
advanced, and there are very few people in the country who can
neither read nor wi'ite.

Copenhagen lias a university and Royal library. Sorci academy, in central
Zealand, ranks next as a school of learning.

8. Industries. — Denmark is essentiallyan agricultural country,
nearly a third of its surface l^eing fertile and ciiltivable, so that
about 60 per cent of its inhabitants find their occupation in tilling
the soil — oats, barley, rye, and wlieat being the chief crops. The
peninsula of Jutland, with its uncultivable heaths and marsh lands
in the west, is the chief pastoral region of Denmark, supporting
large herds of cattle, horses, and sheep. All the inhabitants of the
sandy west coast are fishers, the flounder fisheries of the Skmv being
the most important of all. Herring and seals are taken in the Belts,
in some parts of which also large numbers of porpoises are trapped
as their shoals are passing in or out of the Baltic.

Denmark is not to any considerable extent a manufacturing country, for
both water power and coal for steam machinery are wanting ; but rough
woollen cloth is woven by hand in many of the country houses, and the
making of wooden shoes employs many hands in the wooded parts of the
country. Neither is Denmark a trading country, only about 5 fier cent of its
inhabitants being engaged in commerce. On this account but few canals have
been constructed. The roads in Zealand are good, but in Jutland very bad.
In comparison to its area, however, Denmark is lietter i^rovided with railways
than even the British Isles.

9. Chief Towns. — Copenhagen^ (pop. 274,000), the capital,
most advantageously placed beside the best anchorage and across
the best harbour of the most frequented passage to the Baltic, is the
only large town of Denmark.

It embraces within it more than a tenth of all the urban population of the
country, and is the centre of education, art, manufactures, and trade, besides
being the arseual of the coimtry. The city lies across the harbour formed by
the channel between the mainland of Zealand and its satellite of Amager, and
is strongly fortified. Odense," in Fiinen, connected by canal with its fiord, is
the largest provincial town of Denmark, and the oldest one in the country.
Aarhuus, on the east coast of Jutland, and Aalborg, on the Liim fiord, are
the chief ports of the peninsula. At Ehinore (Helsingor), on the narrowest
part of the Sound, vessels formerly stojiped to pay the " Sound dues " collected
by the Danish Government, before entering the Baltic ; these, however, were
abolished by treaty in 1857. Beside this is the strong stone fortress of Kron-
iorg, the guns of which command the passage.

1 Dan. Kjobenhavn = Merchants' Harbour.
2 Odin's Oe = Odin's Island.

DENMARK. 191

10. Government. — Tlie present constitution of Denmark
dates from 1849. The executive power is vested in the King and
his ministers, the legislative in the Rigsdag or Diet, comprising the
Landsthing or Upper House, and the Folksthing or House of Com-
mons, partly nominated by the crown, partly elected, indirectly, by
the people.

For administrative purposes the country is divided into 22
aemter^ or districts — 12 on the islands, and 10 in Jutland.

FAROE ISLANDS.

11. The Faroer (probably meaning sheep islands, from Faar, a
sheep), out in the Atlantic, between Norway and Iceland, 200 miles
north of Cape Wrath in Scotland, belonged at one time to Norway,
came with that country to the Daaiish crown in 1397, and remained
in its possession after Norway was separated. They consist of 25
irregularly-shaped mountainous islets of trap and basalt rocks, the
coasts of which descend steejily by jagged cliffs to the narrow
channels which separate them, and through which the tidal cuiTents
rush. Together they occupy nearly 500 si[uare miles, the largest of
them, Stromci, being 30 miles in length.

The highest point, nameil Slattaretindur, occ^U's in the island of Osterd,
and rises 2792 feet above the sea. Their climate is thoroughly maritime,
with clouded skies and frequent changes ; though they are in such a high
latitude (62°), snow seldom lies for more than a day or two in winter. The
heavy storms which sweep over the islands prevent the gro\vth of trees ;
barley does not always ripen. The general aspect of the islands is dull and
bare, green only when the soil happens to be a few feet thick. The islanders,
nearly 10,000 in number, living on 17 of the islands, are Norse colonists,
speaking the old Scandinavian dialect ; their food is given chiefly by the flocks
of sheep ; ponies run half- wild. Many of the islanders live by climbing the
dangerous cliff's for the eggs and featliers of the multitudes of sea birds that
nest on them ; others are fishers, chiefly of cod and the round-headed whale,
called the Grindhval by the islanders, which comes in large " schools " or herds.

The Far6e Islands send two deputies to the Danish Rigsdag, and form
part of the bishopric of Iceland. Tlie amtman or governor resides at Thorshavn
on Stromd.

ICELAND.

1 2. The interesting island of Iceland lies on the border of the
Arctic Circle nearer Greenland than Europe, and might be considered
part of America ; but as a Danish province it is generally grouped
with the European countries. It is the second largest of the European
islands, nearly half as large as Great Britain, and considerably
larger than Ireland, covering about 38,500 square miles. Its
general outline, cut into by tiords, recalls that of Norway or the

192 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

coast of Scotland ; the fiords of the south and east coast are com-
paratively small, those on the north and west run deep into the
land ; there the Htina Floi and Breithi fiord, filled with skerries,
almost shut off the large north-western peninsula, and the Faxa fiord
forms a great bay.

Almost all the interior is high and mountainous ; cliffs of bare
trap rocks form the eastern and western halves, a belt of volcanic
island heights Ipng between, from south to north. The three-fourths
of the island which are mountainous rise to an average elevation of
from 1600 to 3000 feet, and as perennial snow lies at heights of 3000
feet in the south, the greater part is at too high an elevation to allow
of agricultm-e. About a ninth part of the whole island is covered
with Jokulls or glacier fields, an eighteenth part with lava beds.

On the soiitli of the volcanic central area rises the huge mass, called the
Vatna or Klofa JokuU, covering more than 3000 square miles (or as large in
breadth as between London and Brighton), on the sea border of which rises
OrccfcA (6429 ft.), the highest point of the island. Towards the south-west
stands the devastating volcano of IIekla~ (5095 ft.)

13. Only a few moist tracts along the south and west coasts, and a few
grassy dales in the south, are in any degree capable of cultivation ; elsewhere,
mosses, snow fields, and volcanic ashes cover the land. Scarcely a tree is to
be seen, and though oats and barley will sometimes grow, the chance of their
ripening is so precarious that it becomes more expensive to cultivate than to
import grain.

14. In the south of Iceland the longest day lasts 20 hours, the shortest
4 ; but in the extreme north the sun never sets for a week at midsummer, nor
rises for a like time in midwinter. The climate in the south, where the warm
Atlantic ciu-rent reaches the shores, is wet, foggy, and variable. The winter,
though • long, is not very severe, the summer cool — June, July, and August
being the only months in which snow does not fall. The north and north-
east coasts, which are washed by the cold East-Greenland current, contrast
with the southern and south-western. This stream carries drift-ice through
the strait between Iceland and Greenland at all times of the year, and in
winter this frequently extends so as to blockade all the northern shores : upon
these, however, the ice casts an abundance of drift-wood from the Siberian
seas, valued as fuel by the islanders.

The streams are generally short torrents, but lakes are frequent, and in
some cases of great deptlr; Thmyvalla Vatn in the south, and My Vatn
(Midge lake) in the north, are the largest. In the volcanic region the hot
springs and geysers ^ are remarkable features.

15. The Icelanders, 71,000 in number, are the descendants of
the old Norwegian colonists, and are distinguished for their honesty
and love of education ; notwithstanding their poverty and adverse
circumstances, it is rare to find an Icelander who cannot read and
write. They are all Protestants, belonging to the Lutheran Church.

Sheep, cattle, and ponies form the chief wealth of the land ; in spring

1 Orsefa = " wilderness." 2 Hekla or Heklufjalla = " mantle mountain."

3 From ad geysa = breaktng up suddenly.

GERMAN EMPIEE. 193

nearly all the men go oflF to tlie south coast for three months to the cod
fisheries on tlie banks, to which French and Dutch vessels also come at this
season. The eider ducks and seals, along the coast, are taken in large numbers.
Knitting of stockings and gloves is the domestic industry of the island.

Among the minerals, Surfar brand, a kind of brown coal found beneath
the lava beds, is used for fuel ; suljiliur is abundant ; but Iceland spar is the
only mineral exported.

16. Iceland has its own constitution and administration imder
charter of 1874, the legislative power being vested in the Altkiwj
of 30 members elected by the people, and 6 nominated by the King
of Denmark.

A minister for Iceland is at the head of the administration, while the
highest local authority rests with the Governor or Stifts amtman, who resides
at Reykjavik (2000). The island is divided into three amts or provinces, of
Xordlendinga, the north ; Sudlendinga, the south ; and Westyrdinga, the west,
subdivided into syssels or counties.

4.— GEEMAN EMPIRE {Das Deutsche ^ Reich).

1. This combination of Germanic States extends now from the
outliers of the Alps and the Bohemian mountains on the south to
the Baltic on the north ; and from the borders of France, Belgium,
and Holland, on the west, to those of Russia on the east ; the greatent
distance across it from east to west and from north to south being
about 500 miles. The area amounts to 208,500 square miles, or
somewhat less than four times that of England. The mountains on
the south and the sea on the north give natural frontiers for the
most part, but west and east artificial boundaries are marked out,
Avhich correspond only in a few parts with the ethnographic limits
of Germanic and Romanic peoples on the one side, and Germanic
and Slavonic on the other.

2. Relief. — The country lies partly on the plateau lands and
minor ranges which extend northward from the Alps, partly on the
plain of Northern Europe, and this gives the broad distinction
between Upper and Lower Germany (Ober and Nieder Deutschland).

The most remarkable features of the coast are the expansions of the river
moiiths in the Baltic ; the lagoons called the Kurische Ilajf, Frische Jlaff,
and Siettiner Haff; the estuaries of the Elbe and Weser; and the rounded inlets
of Jade Bay and the Ems mouth, on the North Sea.

3. Rivers. — By far the greater part of the country is drained
northwards to the Baltic and the North Sea by its navigable high-
ways the Vistula, Oder, Elbe, JFeser, and Rhine, which have l)een
already noticed : the south-eastern corner alone belongs to the upper
basin of the Danube flowing towards the Black Sea.

1 From diet or diota, "belonging to the people." The Latin name Germania, from
which the modern derives, does not seem to have been used by the Germanic tribes
themselves, but may have been borrowed by tlie Romans from the Celtic word
"gairm " = a loud cry, referring to the war shout with which they began an attack.

194 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

4. Climate. — The climate of Germany presents less diversity
than might be inferred from the difference of latitude between its
northern and southern borders, for the greater strength of sunlight
and heat received in the soutli is compensated to some extent by
the rise of the land in that direction from the Baltic plain. The
average temperature of central Germany may be said to be the same
as that of southern England, but it lies between much wider ex-
tremes, the heat in summer being nearly 10° greater than in England,
and the winter cold falling nearly the same amount lower, so that
at Berlin the hackney coaches are converted for the time into sledges ;
but the climate graduates from an almost maritime one in the west
to a thoroughly continental one in the east.

The Elbe at Hamburg is only closed by ice for a short time in severe
^vinters, but the Vistula is sealed up from December till the beginning of
March every year. The swallows appear in western Germany four weeks
sooner than in eastern. Westerly winds prevail througli the greater part of
the year, as in Britain ; cold dry east ^\inds in spring. Rain falls at all
seasons, but most in summer (about 20 inches in Berlin), and more towards
the west or Atlantic side of the country than towards the east.

5. Products. — Following this distribution of climate, the forests which still
cover a gi-eat part of Germany, and form a feature of its landscapes, are chiefly
of the hardier pines in the north and east, and of deciduous trees in the south
and west. About 61 per cent of the surface of the empire is suitable for culti-
vation, the forests occupy 25 per cent, and the uncultivable moors and moun-
tain tracks only 8 per cent. Rye, oats, potatoes, wheat, and barley, are the
chief grain crops ; flax is grown in all parts, tobacco in the upper valleys of
the Rhine and Oder ; the middle valleys and slopes of the Rhine and Main
are noted for their vineyards ; north Germany is noted for its horses and
cattle, the central districts of the northern lowland for sheep.

The ndneral products of Germany are widely spread. By far the most
important coal and iron fields of the empire are those of the valley of the
Ruhr, a small tributary of the lower Rhine, on its left bank ; next in point of
jiroductiveness stand those of the upper valleys of the Oder in Silesia ; third,
those of the valley of the Saar, a tributary of the Moselle, from the Vosges
Mountains, on the left of the Rhine basin. The Harz Mountains are especially
noted for their wealth of silver, lead, copper, and zinc ; the Baltic coasts for
their amber.

6. People. — The whole population of the German Empire is
over 44 millions, or a quarter more than that of the British Isles.
The whole of the German jjeople of Western Eurojie are not in-
cluded within the boundaries of the empire (a considerable portion
remaining in Austria and Switzerland), but the political boundaries
reach beyond the borders of the German area proper, on se^^eral sides.
Along the eastern frontier and in Lusatia nearly 3 millions of Slavonic
Lithuanians, Poles, Upends, and Czechs, are. included ; in the north
about 150,000 Danes, belonging to the Scandinavian branch of
the German family, live within the boundary of the empire ; and
in the west over 200,000 Komanic French and Walloons.

GERMAN EMPIRE. 195

The natural di\'ision of the country into liighland and plain, Upper and
Lower Germany, also marks out broadly two regions which differ in dialect.
The Upper German, from wliich the so-called Hoch cUutsch, the written lan-
guage, has come, is distinguished by the use of the article das ; the Lower or
Piatt deittsch, which is giving way more and more to the other, by the article dat.

7. Education, Religion. — It has already been noticed that in point of
education and general culture the Germans are in advance of all the world ;
theirs is, above all, the nation of earnest thinkers. There are no fewer than
twenty-one universities in the empire (at Konigsherg, Berlin, Breslau, Grcifs-
wald (in Pomerania, south-east of Stralsund), Kiel, Halle, Gottingen, Milnster,
Bonn, Marhurg, Rostock, Giessen, Jena, Leipzig, Heidelberg, Freiburg, Strass-
burg, Tubingen, Munich, Erlangen, and Wilrrlmrg), vnfh many other academies
for special branches — art, military, forest, agriculture, and navigation.

8. Protestantism (62 per cent) prevails in all parts of Germany excepting
in the south-west ; Roman Catholics, most numerous in South Germany, form
36 per cent of the population ; Jews about 1 per cent.

9. Constitution of the Empire. — The constitution of the
German Empire dates, as already described (j). 78), from 1871, and by
its terms the States which comprise it are united for the protection
of the realm and the care and welfare of the German people. The
supreme direction of the military and political affairs of the empire
is vested in the King of Prussia, controlled by the Buvdesrath, or
Federal Council, formed of the representatives of the States consti-
tuting the empire, and the Reichstag, or Diet of the Realm, elected
by universal suffrage.

The States of the empire are as follows : —

Area.

Population.

English Sq. Miles.

Dec. 1, 1875.

Kingdom of Prussia .

134,178

25,742,404

„ Bavaria .

29,292

5,022,390

„ Saxony .

5,789

2,760,586

„ Wiirtemberg

7,531

1,881,505

Grand-Duchy of Baden

5,828

1,507,179

„ Hesse

2,965

884,218

„ Mecklenburg

Schwerin

5,137

553,785

» "

Strelitz .

1,131

95,673

„ Saxe-Weimar

1,404

292,933

„ Oldenburg

2,471

319,314

Duchy of Brunswick .

1,425

327,493

„ Saxe Meiningen. .

953

194,494

„ Saxe Altenburg

510

145,844

„ Saxe Coburg-Gutha

760

182,599

,, Anhalt

906

213,565

Principality of Schwarzburg R

udolstadt

364

76,676

„ SchA\-aizburg S(

jndershaus<
•d .

m 333

67,480

Carry forwai

200,977

40,268,138

19G THE LONDOX GEOGRAPHY.

Area.

Population.

English Sq. Miles.

Dec. 1, 1875.

Brought forward .

. 200,977

40,268,138

Principality of Waldeck

433

54,743

„ Eeuss (old line)

122

46,985

„ Eeuss (younger line)

320

92,375

„ Schaumburg Lij^pe

171

33,133

„ Lippe .

438

112,452

Free town of Lllbeck .

109

56,912

„ Bremen .

142,200

„ Hamburg

158

388,618

Reiclisland, or Imperial territory of Alsace-

Lorraine (Elsass-Lothringen)

5,603

1,531,804

Total

. 208,425

42,727,360

10. The States of the Empire, together with Luxemburg, but vnth the
exception of the two cities of Hamburg and Bremen, which remain free
ports, are combined for the furtherance of their trade and commerce in a
Customs' League or Zollverein, the administration of which is merged in the
Reichstag, or Diet of the Empire, at Berlin. The customs' receipts, together
with excise and stamp duties, and the profits from telegraphs and the post-
office are paid into the Imperial Exchequer, to be applied to the common
expenses of the Empire. Upwards of 20,000 miles of railway (1 mile to each
10 of area) facilitate communication over the empire, and nearly 5000 ships, of
over a million tons burthen, belong to the ports. Each state, however, retains
its own independent internal administration, and on this account it is neces-
sary to notice the more important of them separately.

NORTH GERMANY.

Pru.ssia.

11. Prussia,^ the growth of which state has been sketched in
the pre\dous chapter, now extends uninterruptedly from the frontiers
of Holland and Belgium on the west across to Russian Poland ; the
incorporation of Schleswig-Holstein, taken from Denmark in 1865,
and of Hanover in 1866, united the formerly separate eastern and
western portions of the kingdom. Prussia lies for the most part
in the northern lowland of Germany, and embraces two-thirds of
the entire area of the empire ; its population (26 millions) is also
considerably more than half of that of the whole empire.

1 2. The crown of Prussia is hereditary in the male line, and in
the exercise of executive government the king is assisted by a council
of ministers.

The legislative authority is shared by the king vnth a representative
assembly composed of two Chambers, the Herrenhaus (or House of Lords) and
the Abgeordnctenhaus (or Chamber of Deputies).

1 Named from the Pruczi, the ancient inhabitants of Prussia proper, between the
lower Vistula and Niemen rivers.

GERMAN EMPIRE. 19V

Prussia is divided administratively into the twelve provinces of East and
West Fnissia, Braiulenburg, Pomerania, Posen, and Silesia, in the east ;
Saxony, central ; Schlesivig-Holstein, the southern part of the peninsula
between the Baltic and the North Sea ; Hanover, Westpludia, PJiineUind or
Rhenish Prussia, and Hesse-Nassau, in the west.

13. By far the most important centre of population is the city
of Berlin (1,100,000), the capital both of the empire and of the
kingdom of Prussia. The growth of this city round tlie islets of the
Spree, on the sandy plain of Brandenburg, is comparatively modern,
and at iirst sight its situation seems to present no natural advan-
tages. But its position midway between the natural highways of
the Oder leading to the Baltic, and the Elbe to the Noith Sea,
and the channels which almost unite there across the plain, give it
great natural facilities of communication with widely separated
regions. It is now a great railway centre, and besides its attraction
as the seat of government and of the court, and its university and
schools, it has important manufactures of cotton and linen, and is
famous for iron-casting and porcelain.

The great manufacturing districts of Prussia, as of England, are those of
its coal and iron lields, in Silesia and Rhenish Prussia. Breslau (pop. 240,000),
on the Oder, the capital of the mining districts of Silesia, has grown to be the
second town of the kingdom, carrjing on very extensive manufactures and a
great trade by river and railway. It is also the emporium of the flax-grow-
ing district of Silesia. About the Rhenish coalfields, which jield half the
supply of the kingdom, stand the manufacturing and trading towns of Cologne
(pop. 155,000), Aachen or Aix, Barmeii, Dussddorf, Elberfeld, Crefeld, and
Dortmund, spinning cotton, wool, linen, and silk ; and the famous iron and
steel works of Solingen and Essen, where Krupp's steel guns are made. Mag-
deburg, on the Elbe, and Cassel, on the Fulda, are the great manufacturing and
trading towns of central Prussia. Much of the internal trade of Germany
is still carried on at great annual fairs, and in this respect the two Frankforts
(on the Main to the west, and on the Oder to the east) hold the most import-
ant place. Hanover, on the Leine, is the point of exchange of the mineral
products of the Harz for the goods which come in by Bremen on the Weser,
and has besides important manufactures of its own.

The chief ports belonging to Prussia are the Baltic ones — Konigsberg,
Danzig, Stettin, Stralsund, Memel, Rostock, Wismar, and Kiel, on the
Baltic ; Altona, on the Elbe, next Hamburg. Posen, on the Warthe, was the
ancient capital of Poland, and is the most imi)ortant fortress towards the
Russian frontier. Wiesbaden is the most imjiortaut and the oldest of the
watering-places which liave grown up round the mineral springs of Nassau.
Eisleben, where Luther was born, and Erfurt, where he resided, both in
Prussian Saxony, are notable points in connection with the history of the
Reformation in Germany.

Saxony.

14. The kingdom of Saxon V lies along the northern slope of the
Erz Gebirge, which divide it from Bohemia. The river Elbe
breaks through these mountains into Saxony by the pictures(iue
wooded gorges known as Saxon Switzerland, and flows on nortli-

198 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

westwards as the great highway and outlet of the country. The
products and manufactures of busy Saxony are very varied. Its
mountains are clothed with woods, and are rich in iron, lead, copper,
silver, and coal ; its porcelain clay is the best in Europe ; its sheep
are celebrated for their wool ; its cattle and horses are numerous ;
and its soil is cultivated ^vith great care.

15. Dresden (pop. 198,000), its capital, finely placed on the Elbe,
famous for its ai't treasures, has also many varied manufactures.

So-called "Dresden china" is made for the most part at Meissen, 15 miles
north-west of Dresden. Leipzig (pop. 210,000) is not only the seat of a
famous university (second in the Empire) and the great book market of Ger-
many, but has one of the largest annual fairs in the world, to which merchants
come from all parts of the earth, even from America and China. Chemnitz
and Zioickau, beside the Saxon coalfield, are the great woollen and machine-
manufacturing towns of the kingdom. Freiberg is famed for its school of mines.

16. The present constitution of Saxony dates from 1831. The
king holds the execvitive power, and shares the legislative ■\\ath a
parliament of two chambers, the upper composed of princes, barons,
burgomasters, and deputies from the University of Leipzig and
from five collegiate institutions ; the lower, of deputies from the
landed proprietors, manufacturers, merchants, towns, and villagers.

The kingdom is divided into the four provinces (Kreis-Hauptraannschaften)
of Dresden, Leipzig, Bautzen, and Zwickau.

Smaxler States op North Germany,

17. All the smaller states of central and northern Germany
— the Grand-Duchies of Hesse-Darmstadt, Mecklenburg, Saxe-
"Weimar, and Oldenburg ; the Duchies of Brunswick, Saxe-Alten-
burg, Saxe Coburg-Gotha, and Anhalt (Dessau-Kothen) ; and the
Principalities of Schwarzbiu'g, Waldeck, Reuss, and Lippe — are
little constitutional and hereditary monarchies, in each of which the
legislativ^e power is vesteil in a diet or parliament. In Mecklenburg
Schwerin and Strelitz alone, the diet is composed of the equestrian
order and the burghers, the peasantry being unrepresented.

These little states present few features that require notice. Mecklenburg-
Schwerin (5137 square miles) is the largest of the northern Grand-Duchies ;
Reuss senior (122 square miles) the smallest of the principalities. Brunsmick,
on the Ocker, a tributary of the Weser, between Magdeburg and Hanover, is
the largest town of these minor states.- Mainz (or Mayence), in Hesse, at the
confluence of the Rhine and Main, is the strongest fortress in Germany.
Gotha has the most important geographical establishment in the world.

18. Hamburg (348,000), Bremen, and Lubeck, the remaining

free Hanse^ towms, are republics, each governed by a senate and

1 The Hansa or League of the North German towns was the first trade-union of ^
Europe, ami dates from the tliirteenth century. At one time it included 85 towns, and
had several foreign factories.

GERMAN EMPIRE. 199

house of burgesses. Each of them has a small territory besides
that occupied by the city.

Tliey are the great gates of the external commerce of Germany, and from
this have also become important centres for the preparation of foreign pro-
ducts, and of the necessaries of trading (tobacco, sngar-refining, cotton-spin-
ning, shipbuilding). Besides the traffic brought to Hamburg and Bremen by
their rivers, all the railways of the north-west converge towards them, and
through them a stream of emigration constantly flows to America. More
than 5000 vessels come to Hamburg in the year ; nearly 3000 to Bremen
or its port of Bremerhaven,

SOUTH GERMANY.
Bavaria.^

19. The kingdom of Bavaria (29,300 square miles), about the
same size as Scotland, lies on the plateau lands which extend north
from the Alps to the Ilhine and Ficldel Gehirr/e, and eastward to the
height of the Bolnner Wald. All the soiith lies in the basin of the
Danube, flowing east ; all the north of the country in that of the
Main, flowing west to join the Rhine. The detached Rhenish
palatinate lies west of the Rhine, partly on the heights of the
Hardt, partly on the low valley of the river.

Woods occupy 34 per cent of the surface ; cultivated land 41 per cent.
Iron, coal, graphite, and kaolin (from the Bohmer Wald), and lithographic
stone (from Soleuhofen, in North Bavaria) are the most important minerals.
Its population of 5 millions is two-thirds Roman Catholic, one-third
Protestant.

20. Munich (Miinchen), the capital (212,000), stands in the
midst of a bare elevated plain on the left bank of the Isar, 1700
feet above sea-level, but has risen to importance as the central
point of the great grain-growing plateau of southern Bavaria. It
is the great corn depot of the country, and the place of manu-
facture of its favourite beer, the national beverage. In recent
times it has become celebrated as a seat of the fine arts and for
its splendid buildings. Munich, Erlangen, and Wlirzburg, are the
seats of universities.

Ancient Xurnherrj (Norimberga), with its double line of walls, where
watches, first called Niirnlierg eggs, were invented, is the great seat of
industry and commerce in the north of Bavaria, exporting toys which go to
all parts of the world. It stands on the Ludwigs Canal, the mo.st important
one in the kingdom, uniting the navigable tributaries of the Rhine and Danube.

Auf/sburf/ (Augusta Vindelicoruni), on the Lech, north-west of Munich,
where the Protestants presented the Confession of Faith to Charles V., is a
chief centre of Bavarian trade an<l exchange. JFiirzhurf/, on the Main, is the
old capital of Franconia, the district which was peopled liy colonies of Franks
in the sixth century.

1 Bayern (Lat. Boiaria, from the old Germanic people Boioarii).

200 THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

Speijer or Spire and the fortress of Landau are also iinjiortant i:)laces in
the palatinate.

21. The constitution of Bavaria dates from 1818. The king
has the executive power ; the legislative functions are performed by
the Crown and the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament.

The provincial divisions of the country are Upper and Lower Bavaria in
the south-east ; Sioabia ^ in the south-west ; Upper, Middle, and Lower Fran-
conia and the Bavarian Palatinate in the north ; besides the Rhenish
Palatinate,^ Ij'ing west of the Rhine between Hesse and Lon-aine.

WURTEIIBERG.

22. The little kingdom of Wurtemberg (7500 square miles) is a
hilly country, averaging 1500 feet above the sea, well watered by
the system of the Neclcar, a tributary of the Rhine. The Swabian
Jura or Rauhe Alp rises in the south-east, the Schwarziuald in the
west. About 30 per cent of the siu'face is wooded ; elsewhere agricul-
ture is carefully prosecuted. The vineyards, especially of the Neckar
valley, give excellent wine. Iron and salt are the chief minerals.

The manufactures of the country are considerable ; those of lineu, cotton,
wool, silk, paper, tobacco, beer, and iron-work are the chief; and the
external trade in timber is large. The book trade of the country stands next
to that of Leipzig and Berlin, this centres in the capital, Stuttgart
(107,000), where Hegel was born, and where Schiller spent his youth. The
fortress of Ulm, on the Danulie, where it leaves Wurtemberg, has a large
transit trade. Heilbronn is another important trading place. Tubingen is the
university town. Like Bavaria, Wurtemberg is a constitutional monarchy.

23. The little territory belonging to the house of Hohenzollern, which
runs into Wiirtemberg on the south, fell by inheritance to the King of Prussia
in 1849.

Baden.

24. Baden, the largest of the Grand-Duchies (5800 square
miles, one-sixth less than Yorkshire), occupies one of the most
beautiful portions of Germany, the eastern or right side of the
broad lowland of the Middle Rhine and the slope of the Schwarz-
ivald. The Rhine, bordering it for the greater part of its extent,
affords a fine highway, and the streams flowing to it from the hills
water the land acbnirably, besides giving great motive power by
their rapid descent.

Thirty-four per cent of the surface is forest-covered ; thirty-seven per cent
well-tilled agricultural land, meadow, vineyard, or orchard. It is not a manu-
facturing state, and its trade is chiefly in the transit of goods. Carlsruhe,
the capital, and Mannheim, at the confluence of the Neckar and Rhine, are its
largest towns. Heidelberg (north) and Freiburg (south) are the seats of uni-

1 An ancient ducliy of the Frank empire named from the tribe of the Suevl.

2 The name Palatinate or Pfalz is derived from the territory wliich was from the
eleventh century onward under a hereditary Count Palatine or Pfalz-graf of Germany.
Bavaria received the largest share of this territory at the peace of 1815.

AUSTKIA AND HUNGARY. 201

versities. Baden-Baden in the centre, the famous watering-place, gives its
name to the Duchy.

25. The " Reiclisland" or imperial territory of Elsass-Lothrin-
GEN (Alsace and Lorraine), restored to Germany after the -war of 1 87 1 ,
comprises the area beyond the Rhine within which the Germanic
element of population prevails. Ehass (which from 1798 to 1871
formed the French departments of Haut and Bas Rhin), sloping
to the plain of the Rhine from the Vosges, is an exceedingly rich,
populous, and fertile territory, which was called in the old times the
storehouse, granary, and wine-cellar of Germany. Lothringeu
(embracing the whole of the former French department of Moselle
and the eastern half of that of Meurthe) extends farther back over
the undulating forest plateau between the Vosges and Ardennes, and
has its chief wealth in the coal and iron mines of the Saar valley.
The main outlets of the country by water are the Rhine and Moselle,
and the Rhine-Rhone canal which passes through Southei'n Elsass.

The fortress of Strasshurg (94,000), on the Rhine, in central Elsass,
anciently a free imperial city of Gennany, is the chief place in the Reiclisland
and its university town, noted also for its manufacture of leather-work and
of beer. The cotton, wool, and silk factories and machine works of the
province centre at M'dUiausen in southern Elsass. The fortresses of Metz and
Diedenhofen or Thionville, memorable in the war of 1871, are the chief places
in Lothringen. The administration of the territory is under a Governor-
general or Statthalter, appointed by the Emperor. There is a Representative
Body with limited powers. The population (1,500,000) is mainly Roman
Catholic.

5.— AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY.

1. Since 1867 Austria (German, Q^ster-reich ^) and Hungary
(Ungarn) are two distinct kingdoms (sometimes called the Cis-Leithuu
and Trans-Leitlian monarchies, the Leitha being a small stream which
joins the Danube from the south, forming part of the frontier be-
tween Austria and Hungary), united by having a common ruler of
the German house of Hajisburg, as well as in external policy and in
military affairs. Austria-Hungary belongs to the Germanic grouji of
Euroi:)ean States, because the dominant race is Gorman. The Germans,
however, do not form so much as a third of its varied population.

2. Extent. — In point of area (241,000 square miles) Austria-
llnugary ranks third among the European States, Scandinavia and
Russia alone being larger. It is rather more than four times as
large as England, its extreme north and south points being nearly
700 miles apart, its east and west extremities nearly 900 miles
distant from one another.

1 Charlemagne founded the (Ester-reich or eastern realm as an eastern frontier pro-
vince for iirotection against the incursions of the tribes of the Pannonian and Daci.nn
I'lain, which was suhswiuently (8'JO) occupied by the hosts of the Magyars or Hungarians
after many a hardfouglit battle.

202 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY,

Italy, Switzerland, and Bavaria are conterminous with Austria on the
west ; Prussia and Russia lie north and north-east ; Romania lies south-
east of Hungary ; Servia and Montenegro to the south. The peninsula of Istria,
extending into the northern Adriatic, with its gulfs on each side, is the only
maritime portion of the frontier of Austria proper ; but to reach this the great
barrier of the Eastern Al])s must be crossed. The steep and rocky shores
of Dalmatia belonging to it are almost isolated from the rest of the empire.

3. Relief. — Austria-Hungary has been well termed the " Empire
of the Danube," since it lies for tlie most part within the basin of
that river, and embraces the whole of its upper plain, which lies at
an elevation of about 300 feet above the sea.

On the west, however, Austria embraces nearly half of the great mass of
the Alps between the plateau of Bavaria and the plain of Lombardy, the
mountain and valley scenery of Tyrol and Salzburg resembling that of Switzer-
land on a lesser scale ; the highest point of all here is the Ortler Spitze
(12,817 ft.) An eastern outlier of these heights, the Bakony Wald, runs into
Hungary, compelling the Danube to form a sharp east-to-south bend or knee
in its course. In the north-west the Bdhmer Wahl, the JErz and Riesen
Gehirge (Schneekoppe, 5254 ft.), the Sudetic Mountains, and the Moravian
heights, enclose the high basin of the Upper Elbe in Bohemia. Farther east
the wooded Carpathians, with the high outlying granitic mass of the Tatra
(8685 ft.), rise round the north of the Hungarian plaiu. These are continued
by the Transijlvanian Alps (Negoi, 8345 ft.), which form the south-eastern
frontier, next Romania, and which, with their northern branch the Biharia
Mountains, enclose the highland of Transylvania or Siebenburgen, on the
east of the Hungarian plain.

4. Rivers and Lakes. — The Danube, entering Austria from
Bavaria as a considerable river, and flowing south-eastward over the
plain of Hungary, grows to more than half a mile in width before
it leaves the Hungarian border to descend by the gorge of the Iron
Gates into its lower plains. It is the great highway of the kingdom,
and the great outlet to the Black Sea on the east.

The Save, the southern boundary river of Hungary, and the Brave, join the
Danube in the south from the Eastern Alps, up to the base of which both are
navigable. The Theiss, winding south through the plain of Hungary from its
source in the Carpathians, is its great northern tributary, also navigable, and so
full offish as to be jjopnlarly described as "two-thirds water and one-third fish."
The March, from the Sudetic Mountains, corresponds to the Leitha from the
south in forming part of the boundary between Austria and Hungary. The
high basin of Bohemia, as before said, forms the upper basin of the Elbe,
which escapes thence into Saxony. The head stream of the Oder passes
through Austrian Silesia ; and the Vistula, draining like these to the Baltic,
has its head streams in the northern slopes of the Carpathians in Galicia, the
eastern portion of which province, however, drains to the Black Sea ])y the
Dniester.

The two large lake basins of the country, which seem to be remnants of
mxich more extensive inland waters, lie in Hungary between the Danube and
the Drave. The larger, the Flatten See or Balaton Lake, fifty nules long,
shallow and stagnant, overflows into the surrounding marshes only in spring ;
the Neusiedler See, farther north, is now so dried up that its deeper hollows

AUSTEIA AND HUNGARY. 203

only are filled with water. Between the years 1865 and 1870 its bed was so
dry that cultivation was extended over a great part of it. The Lake of
Constanz, on the northern margin of the Alps, and the Lago di Garda, on the
southern, touch upon Austrian territory.

5. Climate. — Thougli from the variations of elevation the
climates of different parts of Austria-Hungary are very diverse, three
broad divisions may be recognised — (1) The climate of the countries
which lie north of the Carpathian heights, in which the Mdnteis
are long and cold, and in which the vine does not flourish ; (2)
that of the central plains and slojaes of Hungary, fa\'ourable to wheat
and vines ; and (3) the Mediterranean climate of the Adriatic shores,
which yield oil and silk.

Snow begins to fall on the Carpathians in the north in September, and lies
on the heights till May. If we take the climate of Vienna as representing
that of the central regions of the country, we find it nearly the same as that of
London on the average of the year, but it is much more excessive. During
the whole month of January the temperature at Vienna averages two or three
degrees below freezing-point, and then the Danube is crossed on the ice. The
heat at midsummer, however, is nearly ten degrees on an average in excess
of that felt in England. The rainfall generally is somewhat less than in
England. The north Adriatic coasts are subject, especially in summer, to the
strong, cold, dry north wind known as the Bora.

Generally speaking, all the mountainous borders of Austria -Hungary are
forest-covered, the woods occupying a third of the whole surface of those
regions ; the great plain of Hungary, on the other hand, is an open treeless steppe.

6. People. — Austria-Hungary extends over the area in which
the difterent families of men in Europe meet and interlace. Its
population of 38,000,000 includes Germanic, Slavonic, Magyar,
and Romanic elements, with their various tongues and dialects.
The Germanic pi-evails in the Alpine regions and in the valley of
the Danube in the west, and is widely mingled with the Slavonic
and Magyar in the northern and central parts of the country.

The Slavs, the most numerous branch, forming about 45 per cent of the
whole population, appear in two divisions, a northern and southern ; to the
northern Slavs belong the Czechs of Bohemia (the most westerly outpost of this
family), the Moravinns and Slovaks, Poles and Jiuthenians, or Russniaks
of Galicia and Bukovina ; to the southern Slavs belong the Slovenes, Croats,
and Srrviaiis, who occupy the southern border lands of Hungary, between
the Drave ami Save, westward to the peninsula of Istria and the Dal-
matian coasts of the Adriatic. The Ronvmir, element appears in the soutli-
east on the Danube frontier, in southern Transylvania and eastern Bukovina
( Wallachians), and in the south-west, where the ItnUuns prevail in numbers
on the borders of Venetia. Tlie Magyars occupy the central plains of Hun-
gary. The Szeklers of eastern Transylvania are a brandi of the same family,
1)y some believed to be the descendants of the once formidable Huns. Among
minor elements of jjopulation Jevs are numerous in tlie northern provinces,
Oyjysies in Hungary, and Armenians in Transylvania and Galicia.

7. Religion and Education. — The stiite religion is ilie
Roman Catholic, and this is professed l)y two-thirds of the ]>iipuhi-

204 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

tion ; a large jjioportion on the eastern borders next Russia adhere
to the Greek Church ; Protestants are most numerous in Hungary
and Transylvania, but form only a tenth part. General education,
excepting in German Austria, where the compulsory system is
enforced, is in a very backward state. There are, however, ten
universities in Austria - Hungary — at Viemui, Prague, Pest, Graz,
Innsbruck, Cracow, Lemberg, Czernowitz, Klausenburg, and Agram.

8. Industries. — The occupations of the country naturally
divide themselves between the mining and pastoral industries of the
mountains, and the agricultural and pastoral of the plains.

Agriculture employs by far the largest share of the population ; and the
lower lands of Austria-Hungary are among the most fertile portions of Europe,
and would be still more productive if better methods of farming were in
general use. Oats, rye, barley, wheat, and maize, are the commonest grains ;
flax and hemp are widely grown, wines and tobacco chiefly in Hungary, hops
in Bohemia. The central Hungarian stejjpes are full of cattle, and those of
the Alpine regions are an exceedingly fine breed. Merino sheep, introduced
by Empress Maria Theresa in 1763, are carefully reared, especially in Moravia,
Bohemia, and Hungary. Hunting is still an important industry in the forest
countries ; the bear appears in the Carpathians and the Alps, and in Dal-
matia ; the wolf in southern Hungary, Transylvania, and Galicia. The river
fisheries are important all over the land. The coast fisheries are of the utmost
importance in rocky Dalmatia, where there is little cultivable land.

9. Mineral Products. — The mountains are rich in mineral
wealth, and some parts of them, in Bohemia and Hungary in the
north, and in Carniola in the south, are nearly the richest in
Europe in this respect. .

Gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, nickel, are present in large quantities, but
the most important product of the mines is that of iron, which is found in
every province excepting those which lie round the Adriatic, and most
abundantly in Styria and Carinthia. Austria possesses numerous coalfields,
the richest of which are those of Bohemia, and it stands fifth among European
countries in respect of the quantity annually mined : the Carpathian moun-
tains are incomparably rich in salt ; at the famous mines of Wieliczka (near
Cracow), the largest in the world, where galleries, halls, and even a chapel,
have been cut out of the solid rock salt, a million cwts. of salt are annually
raised. Salzlnirg, in the TjtoI, takes its name from the salt mountains of its
vicinity.

10. Manufactures. — Although great progress has been made
in manufactures in some parts of Austria, the country is still de-
pendent to a considerable extent on foreign lands.

Manufactures are most developed in the German portion of Bohemia,
in the districts round Vienna, in Moravia and Austrian Silesia, and in
Styria. The Magyar countries are far behind in this respect, and Dalmatia
and Bukovina have scarcely any manufactures at all. Weaving employs the
largest number of hands ; next in number come the metal, stone, and wood
workers, then the workers in leather. Iron and steel goods are made in the
Alps of Styria.

AUSTEIA AND HUNGARY. 205

11. Trade.— Enclosed on almost all sides by mountains, the
kingdoms of Austria and Hungary have few natural facilities for
traffic with the outer world, and their foreign commerce is conse-
quently small.

The only available sea-board on the Adriatic has to be reached by crossing
the high ranges of the eastern Alps, and then opens only ujiou an inland
branch of an inland sea ; the Danube, its great highway, also leads to an
inland sea. Two-thirds of the commerce of the country passes overland
through Germany ; part to Turkey by the Danube ; smaller shares towards
Italy and Russia. Britain receives large quantities of wheat and flour from
Hungary. From the diversity of products of the great divisions, however, tlie
internal traffic is very large ; the Danube joins the treeless granary of
Hungary with the Alpine lands of the west, which are rich in wood but
deficient in corn.

Railways now extend over every part of the kingdoms, and several lines
have been carried over the mountains to bring the central lands into easier
communication with the Adriatic.

12. Government. — Previous to the war of 1866, referred to
in a former cliapter, Austria was an absolute monarchy. The
disasters of that war, however, compelled the emperor to reform
the internal administration of the state, and to grant to the
Hungarians the constitution for wliich they had struggled in 1848.
The government of both states is now a constitutional one.

Austria and Hungary have each their own Parliament, Ministers, and
Government. In Austria the lieichsrath, or Council of the Empire, consists
of an Upper (Herrenhaus) and a Lower Chamber (Abgeordnetenhaus). In
Hungary the Diet is also composed of an Upper House of Magnates and
a Lower House of Representatives. The kingdoms are united by having one
hereditary sovereign, a common army and navy, and a united external dijilo-
macy controlled by a body called the Delegations, half of which represents
the Legislature of Austria, half that of Hungary, its jurisdiction being
limited to foreign affairs and war. Each of the Cis-Leithan Crown lands has
its provincial diet in addition.

Cis-Leithan Austria.

13. The Arch-Duchies of Austria (pop. 3,000,000), below and
above the Enns, form the nucleus of the monarchy. They e.xtend
along both banks of the Danube, which below Vienna emerges upon
a broad plain, of which the Marchfeld forms the best-known part.
The country is hilly, and in the south quite alpine in its character.
Coal and iron are won ; the vine is cultivated with success, and the
manufacturing industry of great importance. The inhabitants are
almost without exception Germans.

Vienna^ (pop- 1,100,000), the capital of the Austrian monarchy, on the
Danube, just where it leaves the mountainous region and enters the plain, is
a great centre of traflic ; all the provinces radiate outward from this centre,
and the most convenient highroads from one to another lead tlirougli it.

1 German Wien, from the little stream of the Wien which flows through the old city.

206 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

Vienna comprises within itself one -seventh of all the industrial acti\nty of
Austria. Linz, also on the Danube, is the seat of a considerable trade.
Steyr, on the river Enns, is noted for its steel and iron industry. Right in
the centre of the limestone mountains, in a district famous for its salt mines
and brine springs, and hence known as the Salzkammergut {" 'EiHi^iQ oi Van
Salt Office"), are Ischl and Uallstatt.

14. The Duchy of Salzburg Qjop. 155,000) is a mountain
country, bounded on the south by the ice-clad Hohe Tauern, and
drained by the Salza, a tributary of the Inn. Gokl, iron, nickel,
and salt (at Hallein) are won. Salzburg, the capital, is reno^vned
for the beauty of its site.

15. The Duchy of Sttria (Steiermark, pop. 1,200,000) is
traversed by three spurs of the Alps, but not wanting in fertile
plains and valleys, which are for the most part carefully cultivated.
The principal rivers are the ]\Iur, Drau or Drave, and Sau or
Save. The north is inhabited by Germans, the south by Slovenes.

Northern Styria is the centre of the Austrian steel and iron industry,
carried on more especially around Leohen. The capital, Graz, is a staple
place for the manufacture of machinery.

16. The Duchy of Carinthia (Kiirnten, pop. 340,000) is shut
in between lofty ranges of the Alps, and drained by the Drau or
Drave. Lead and zinc are foremost amongst the products of its
mines. Capital, Klagenfurt.

17. The Duchy of Carniola (Krain, pop. 473,000) lies almost
wholly to the south of the river Save, and is remarkable for its
limestone moimtains, abounding in underground rivers, winter
lakes (including that of Zirknitz), and stalactite caverns (Adelberg).
The mines yield iron, copper, lead, zinc, coal, and quicksilver (at
Idria). Capital, Laibach. The inhabitants are for the most part
Slovenes.

18. The Adriatic Coast Lands (pop. 641,000) include Gorz
(Gorizia), Gradisca, the city of Trieste, the peninsula of Istria, and
the islands in the Gulf of Quarnero, and are sejiarated from the
inland provinces by the sterile upland of the Carso or Karst.
Though the bulk of the population is Slav, Italian prevails in the
towns.

Trieste, the only great seaport of the Empire, at the head of its gulf, on
the North Adriatic, is the seat of the Austrian Lloyds' Steamship Company,
and carries on a considerable trade with all the Mediterranean ports, Great
Britain, Brazil, and India. Pola, near the southern extremity of the peninr
sula of Istria, is the chief naval station of Austria, which j^ossesses ten first-
rate ironclads.

19. The Tyrol (pop. 800,000) is the most alpine part of the
monarchy. Its principal rivers are the Inn, in the north, and the
Etsch or Adige, in the south, the mountain range separating them

SWITZEELAND. 207

being crossed by the Pass of the Brenner (5860 feet). Coal, iron,
lead, and other metals are won.

Innsbruck, on the Inn, is the capital ; on the Adige are Botzen, Trent,
and Roveredo, the two last inhabited by Italians.

20. YoRARLBERG (pop. 104,000) is a small mountain district
which slopes down to the Ehine, which separates it from Switzer-
land, and the Boden See. Bregenz, at the head of the latter, is the
cajntal.

Within this small district lies the still smaller principality of Liechtenstein,
the smallest independent portion of Europe (66 square nules, pop. 9124), with
Vaduz, a little market town, for its capital. Its inhabitants render no mili-
tary service. »

21. The kingdom of BoHEiiiA (pop. 5,475,000) is a hilly
country, shut in between the Bohmerwald, the Erz-Gebirge, the
Riesen-Gebirge, and the Mora^'ian. tableland, and drained by the
river Elbe, which escapes in the north, through the picturesque
gorges known as Bohemian and Saxon Switzerland. The kingdom is
rich in iron, coal, and silver, and its manufactures are highly devel-
oped. Two-fifths of the inhabitants are German, three-fifths Slav.

Prague (pop. 190,000), finely seated upon the Moldau, a head stream of
the Elbe, is the kernel of Bohemian commerce and transit trade ; Reichenherg,
in the north, is the centre of the textile trades ; Teplitz and Karlsbad, at the
foot of the Erz-Gebirge, are famous watering-places ; Pilsen, in the west, is
noted for its beer. KoniggrUtz and Sndowa, where the battle was fought
which decided the seven weeks' war in 1866, are in the east.

22. Moravia (pop. 2,116,000) is a fertile region stretching
from the Sudetic mountains and the Moravian tableland, on the
borders of Bohemia, eastward to the foot of the Carpathians. The
March is the principal river. Coal and iron abound.

Briinn (pop. 80,000) is the great centre of the Austrian woollen trade ;
near it is the old State prison Spielberg. Obniitz is a strong fortress on the
March.

23. Austrian Silesia (pop. 580,000) is a small fragment of the old
Duchy, the bulk of which now belongs to Prussia. It lies to the north of
Moravia, and is drained by the incijjient Oder and Vistula. Coal and iron
abound. Tropjjau is the principal town.

24. The kingdom of Galicia (pop. 6,269,000) stretches from
the crest of the Carpathians into the level country of Poland and
Paissia. Coal, iron, and salt abound. Poles inhabit the west,
Ruthenians the east of this extensive province.

Lemberg and Cracmo (the ancient capital of Poland) are tlie centres of
trade, and the marts for the. agricultural produce.

25.BUK0VINA (pop. 565,000) is a small duchy at the head of the Sereth
and other rivers falling into tlie Black Sea, with Czernoivitz for its capital.
About 40 per cent of the inhabitants are Romanians.

208 THE LONDOX GEOGRAPHY.

26. Dalmatia (pop. 479,000) .stretches for 300 miles along the eastern side
of the Adriatic. Its coast is indented by deep fiords, and fringed by numer-
ous islands. Zara, Spalalo, liagusa, and Catturo are the principal towns.

The Kingdom of Hungary.

The Kingdom of " Hungary " includes Hungary with Tran-
sylvania, Croatia-Slavonia, which has a diet of its own for local
aflfairs ; the Croato-Slavonian Military Frontier ; and the municipal
territory of Fiume. Out of a total population of 16,000,000 souls,
42 per cent are Magyars and Jews, 16 per cent Romanians, 12 per
cent Germans, and nearly all the remainder Slavs.

27. Hungary lies within a basin alm&st wholly shut in by the
Carpathians and by spurs of the Alps. Its wide plains are watered
by the Danube and its tributaries, which enters through a " gorge "
above Pressburg, and leaves through a similar gorge, known as the
" Iron Gate," below Orsova.

Buda-Pest, two cities united by a fine suspension -bridge across the
Danube, form the central point and capital of Hungary, and the seat of the
exchange of the products of the agi-icultural plain, wool, wine, wheat, cattle,
leather, for the wood, soda, and potash brought from the mountain region.
Pressburg, near the eastern frontier, is the old coronation city ; Komorn,
lower down on the Danube, is famous as a fortress ; Szegedin, the chief town
on the Theiss, was almost wholly destroyed by floods in the year 1878.

28. Transylvania, that is, the " Country beyond the Forests,"
in German Siebenburgen, the Land of the Seven Castles, built by
the Saxons on their establishment in the country, lies within the
bastion formed by the Carpathians above the plain of the lower
Danube. Hermannstadt is its finest, as Kronstadt is its most

populous tOTVTl.

29. Croatia and Slavonia (jiop. 1,818,000), with the adjoin-
ing part of the old military fi-ontier distinct, stretch eastward from
the Adriatic to the confluence of the Save with the Danube at Semlin.

Agram {Zagor) is the capital ; on the Drave is the fortress of Eszek, on
the Danube that of Peterwardein. Fiume, at the head of the Quarnero Gulf,
is the chief seaport of Hungary.

30. Bosnia and Herzegovina, at present in Austrian occupation,
are described at page 251.

6._SWITZERLAND.i

1. Extent. — The alpine country of S\\'itzerland is entirely an
inland one. No part of it is vidthin 100 miles of the sea. It is
also a very small country (15,900 square miles), not much larger
than the half of Scotland.

1 Genu. Schweiz ; Fr. Suisse.

SWITZERLAND. 209

Its extent, from its German frontier in the north to that of Italy in the
south, is about 150 miles = London to Hull ; and from France in the west to
Austria in the east 210 miles.

2. Configuration. — The southern boundary lies for the most
part along the highest crests of the Alps, which descend by the
Italian valleys to the plain of Lombardy ;' the summits of the
Matterhorn (14,705 feet) and Monte Rosa (15,217 feet) rise in the
boundary line, which is crossed by the Great St. Bernard, Simplon,
and Spliigen passes. North of this mass of heights the deep valleys
of the Upper Rhone flowing west to the Lake of Geneva, and of the
Upper Rhine flowing north-east to that of Constanz, mark a deep
trench all across the country. In the heart of the country rises the
mass of the Bernese Alps or Oberland, the Alps of Uri and Glarus,
wdtli the summits of the Finsteraarhorn (14,026 feet) and Jtmg-
frau (13,671 feet); still farther north the country descends gradually
by less elevated mountains and hills to the undulating lowland of
Switzerland (still 1500 feet above the sea), which extends in a curve
from the Lake of Constanz on the north-east along the Valley of the
Aar, by the Lakes of Biel (Bienne) and Neuchatel to that of Geneva.
Beyond this the long parallel ranges of the Jura close in the country
on the north-western frontier.

More than half of the whole country is covered by rocks, glaciers, forest,
and mountain pasture, and cannot be permanently inhabited, except by the
chamois, or by the now rare lamniergeier or bearded vulture. The wolf is
extinct, whilst the bear has become very rare.

3. Rivers and Lakes. — All the northern part of the country
belongs to the basin of the Rhine flowing to the North Sea. That
river, having purified its waters in its passage through the Boden-See
or Lake of Constanz (partly in Switzerland), is joined by the Aar,
which rises near the Grimsel, and flows through the lakes of Brienz
and Thun. To this basin also belong the lakes 'of Ziirich and Zug,
Luzern, Neuchatel, and Biel or Bienne. The south-western district
drains by the Rhdne towards the Mediterranean, through the Lake of
Geneva or Leman, which is partly in Swdtzerland, partly in France.

The smaller part of the southern boundary that laps over the Italian
valleys of the Alps, includes the head of Lacfo Maggiore in Switzerland and
the upper Ticino, which flows through it to the plain of Lomliardy and the
Adriatic. In the east the boundary embraces only one valley which drains to
the Danube, tlie Engadin, through whicli the Upper Inn flows north-eastward.

From the elevation at which they rise, and their rapids, the rivers of
Switzerland are of no value in navigation. The Rhine only begins to l)e
freely navigable at Basel, where it leaves the country. Tlie larger lakes,
however, have little steamers plying from shore to shore ; that of Geneva,
47 miles long, has a considerable traffic.

4. Climate.- — ^The climate naturally varies with the elevation
above the sea-level, from that of the perennial snows at an elevation

210 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

of about 9000 feet, do%\niward, througli the pastoral alpine region
and the tall pine forests, to the lower lands in which the chestnut
flourishes, and where orchard fruits, the Adne, mulberry, and wheat,
can be gro\vn. The temiJerature in the Swiss lower lands averages
two or three degrees Ipwer than the mean at London, but is several
degrees higher in summer and lower in winter.

5. Products. — The forests, which cover about a sixth of the
siirface, are of immense value to the country, where most of the
houses are built of wood. The mountain pastures give the char-
acteristic employments of the people of the Alps and Jura, as
herdmen and shepherds, tending their cattle and making cheese in
the mountain chalets during summer.

Arable land appears only in the lower parts of the country, and does not
form more than a ninth of the siirface, so that, although it is diligently tilled,
the crops are insufficient and corn has to be imported. Salt, obtained on the
banks of the Rhine, is the only valuable mineral of the country.

6. Inhabitants. — Three-fourths of the population (nearly
2,900,000) of Switzerland, occupying all the centre and north of the
country, is Germanic ; the remaining fourth belongs to three branches
of the Romanic family — the French in the west, the Italian in the
south, and the Ehseto-Romanic in the south-east. A little more
than half of the population is Protestant, the rest, chiefly in the
mountain region, Roman Catholic.

Education is ^videly diffused, especially in the Protestant districts of the
north-east, where the law of compulsory education is rigidly enforced. There
are universities at Basel (foimded 1460), Bern, ZiXrich, and Getieva.

7. Switzerland, which has been called the playground of Eiu'ope,
is \'isited by large numbers of tourists fi'om all parts of the world,
attracted by its magnificent mountain and lake scenery.

Geneva SlTiA Lausanne on the beautiful lake of Geneva, Interlaken (between
the lakes of Thun and Brienz), Luzern, and the Ptigi, SchaffhoAiseti at the
Rhine fall, Zermatt beneath Monte Rosa, Lugano in the heart of the Italian
lakes, are notable tourist stations ; St. Moritz in the Engadin, and Leuk
(Loueche) in the Rhone valley, Pfiifers in that of the Upper Rhine, are
famous for their baths.

Einsiedeln has a Benedictine abbey wth a black image of the Virgin,
to which 150,000 pilgi'ims annually repair.

8. Manufactures are carried on only along the northern lower
lands of Switzerland ; the characteristic industry in the west is that
of watches, the different parts of which are made all o^-er the
country, and put together at the centres of this manufacture, Geneva
(68,000) and Neuchdfel. In eastern Switzerland, on the other hand,
the cotton and silk weaving are the prevailing industries, centring
at Zurich (57,000), St. Gall, and Basel (45,000), which supply the
surrounding countries far and wide.

HOLLAND. 211

Although the country is obliged to import almost all the raw material
required for its manufactures, and lias no natural facilities of commerce, nor sea-
board, its trade is very considerable. On the north this converges to Basel
and has its outlet by the Rhine ; on the south-west to Geneva; a third direction
mil be given to traffic when the railway which is being constructed across
the Alps from Ziirich, by the lake shores of Zug and Luzern, beneath the St,
Gotthard Pass (690C ft.) to the head of the Lago Maggiore, is complete, to
unite the manufacturing lowland of Switzerland with the Italian plain.
Railways already extend in a network over all the northern lowlands, and
penetrate up the valley of the Rhone to within 30 miles of its source, where
the line of communication into Italy is carried on over the Simplon Pass
(6600 ft.) by Napoleon's fine military road.

9. Government. — At the close of the political storms which
raged in Europe from 1789 till 1814, the affairs of Switzerland
were re-arranged l\v the Congress of Vienna, which pro\'ided for
the perpetual neutrality and independence of S^vitzerland in its 22
cantons.^ Since 1848 the independent states or cantons of Swit-
zerland have become a united confederacy (Bundes Staat), the
supreme legislative and executive authority of which is vested in a
Parliament of two chambers, sitting at Bern — the Stdnde Rath or
States Council, and the National Rath, the first composed of two
members for each canton, the second of representatives of the people
according to numbers. The cantons are still, however, in a great
measure indei^endent democracies, each making its own laws and
managing its local affairs.

10. The cantons in which the Germayi lamjuage prevails are —

Bern (Berne).

Solothurn (Soleure).

Basel (Bale), town and country.

Aargau- (Argovie).

Ziirich.

Schaft'hausen (Schaffliouse).

Thurgau (Thurgovie).

Appenzell ■^-inner-Rhoden.

Appenzell-ausser-Rhoden.

St. Gallen (St. Gall).

Graubiinden, (Grisons).

Glarus (Glaris).

Zug.

Uri.

Scliwyz.'*

Unterwalden ob dem Wald.-''

Unterwalden nid dem Wald.

Luzern (Lucerne).

Those in ivhich the French element prevails are —

Pays de Vaud (Waadt). Le Valais (Wallis").

Geneve (Genf). Fribourg (Freiburg).

Neuchatel (Neuenburg).

The Italian canton —
Ticino (Tessin).

1 Fr. canton, a corner or district.

2 Gau = district. Aargau = district of the river Aar.

3 From Germ. AhUn zdk ^iha abbot's cell, residence of the abbot. St. Gall
founded an abbey in this district in the .seventh century.

* Gives its name to the whole countix ^ Above and below the forest.

6 Wallis from the same root as Wales; the people of Wallis were foreigners to the
Germans.

212 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

7.— HOLLAND OR THE NETHERLANDS.

1. The remarkable little country of Holland, not so large as a
fourth part of England (12,600 square miles), occupies the western
corner of the plains of Central Europe, where the North Sea is ever
striving to gain more ground from the continent.

From the Belgian frontier ou the south, to the north coast of Holland, is
a distance of about 160 miles (London to Sheffield) ; from the German border
to the west coast, about 110 miles.

2. Almost the whole country is flat and low ; the parts of it
nearest the coasts are even below the sea-level, the waters being
kept oiit by dykes, which are maintained at a great amiual cost.
One stretch of 50 miles of the coast is guarded by a triple wall of
piles driven into the soil, filled up between, and buttressed by huge
granite blocks brought hither from Norway. If it were not for
these dykes controlling the rivers and keeping out the sea, nearly
half of the country (i?) would be under water. All the southern
part of Holland belongs to the alluvial delta lands formed at the
mouths of the Rhine (the chief branch of which is named the Waal),
the Meuse or j\Iaas, and Scheldt. Opening out into broad shallow
estuaries, these river mouths form a number of islands, of which
Walcheren and Beveland, Schouwen and Tholen, Over FlaJckee, Voorne
and Beyerland, are the largest. Towards the north appears the
great shallow gulf called the Zuider Zee (or South Sea, in distinction
from the North Sea outside), which was formed in the seventeenth
century by the bursting of the sea into a former inland lake called
" Flevo " by the Roman geographers. Outside of it a chain of
islands — Texel, Vlieland, Terschelling, Ameland, and Schiermonnikoog —
marks the line of the former coast of the mainland.

3. Rivers and Canals. — Besides the natural channels formed
by the estuaries of the Scheldt, the Maas, and the delta branches of
the Rhine (the Waal, Lek, Old Rhine, Vecht, Amstel, and Yssel), the
country is intersected in all directions by Grachts or larger canals,
lined ^vith rows of trees, joining ri\'er to river, and marking out the
green polders ^ between, which are cut up by smaller drainage
channels. No country in the world has such a network of water-
ways ; ships' masts, and AAindmills with large sails, pumping the
water from the smaller drainage canals, are seen everywhere.

The largest canal until recently was that of North Holland, which allows
the passage of large ships from the great granite-liuilt dyke of the Helder, at the
entrance to the Zuider Zee, 40 miles south through the land, to Amsterdam ;
but a still greater work opens a direct channel to the capital from an artificial
harbour on the North Sea, through the narrow neck of land which separates

- Polder = a drained morass or pool.

HOLLAND. 213

it from the Y, a branch of the Ziiider Zee, on which Amsterdam stands.
Though much territory has been lost to Holland by the invading sea, much
has been regained through the unwearying energy and perseverance of the
Dutch ; one of tlieir gi-eatest engineering enterprises was the draining of the
Jlaarleni lake (72 square miles), south-west of Amsterdam, which was accom-
plished between 1840 and 1853, its site being now occupied by waving fields.
A gigantic scheme for the recovery of the whole of the southern part of the
Zuider Zee has recently received the sanction of the Government.

4. Climate. — The general climate of Holland resembles that
of England opposite to it in its rapid variations ; but it is less dis-
tinctly maritime, and from the abundance of water in the country-
more humid. Dense sea fogs from the North Sea drive over it.
In most winters the rivers and canals are frozen over for two or
three months, when even women skate to market ; in summer the
thermometer rises to 80° or 90° in the shade.

All the western and central districts of the land (70 per cent of the whole
area) are covered with well-giiarded " polders," meadow or agi'icultural laud ;
in the east there remain some unproductive areas, such as the Bourtanger
Moor, which reaches in from Hanover, and the boggy Peel in the south-east,
from which large quantities of peat fuel are dug. These districts are, howev'er,
being gradually reclaimed by the process of planting them with fir and oak ;
elsewhere there is scarcely any timber growing in the country, supj^lies being
draviii from the Black Forest and Norway.

5. People. — Of the whole population of 4,000,000, the greater
part (70 per cent) is formed by the Dutch or Bata-\dans, the descend-
ants of the Germanic tribe of the Batavi who occupied the delta of
the Rhine in the time of the Roman conquest of the land.

The character of these people bears the impress of their incessant struggle
vvith opposing natural elements : they are brave, diligent, and economical,
clean to excess, born traders and seamen. Frieslanders (14 jier cent), descend-
ants of the ancient Frisii, occupy the northern borders of the country,
where the peasantry still speak a language closely allied to Anglo-Saxon ;
the Flemings (13 per cent) occupy the south-eastern borders of the country.
Tlieir language differs little from the Dutch ; but the dialects throughout the
country are very numerous.

6. Religion and Education. — The larger proportion of the
Dutch (60 per cent) are Protestants ; the smaller (38 per cent) Roman
Catholic ; Jews form about 2 per cent. General education, though now
provided for by law, does not yet extend to the adidt rural popula-
tion, among whom one-third of the women and about a fourth of the
men can neither read nor write. Higher culture, however, is well
represented in the imiversities of Leyden, Groningen, and Utrecht.

7. Industries. — Cattle-rearing, butter and cheese making, are
the most general industries of the country, for the grazing meadows
are far more extensive than the corn lands. In the latter, rye, barley,
wheat, and potatoes, are the chief crops. Flax, and beet-root for
sugar, chicory, and tobacco, are grown also to a considerable extent.

214 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

The herring-fisheries of Holland, in the North Sea, date from
the twelfth century, and are atill one of the most imi^ortant sources
of national wealth. The cod-fisheries of the Dogger Bank, in the
North Sea, and of tlie banks of Iceland, emj^loy a number of boats.
Vlaardingen and Maassluis near the mouth of the Maas, and Scheven-
ingen on the North Sea coast, are the head-quarters of the fishers.

Holland is not distinctively a manufacturing country, for it has no mineral
resources of its o\vu, and coal becomes exiiensive in carriage from abroad.
Shipbuilding is the most important mechanical occupation of the country,
and there are between 600 and 700 building yards, in connection with which
many windmills are in operation in sa\ving the timber. Distilling of gin (or
Hollands) is another characteristic industry ; at Schiedam on the lower Maas
there are more than 200 distilleries. Woollens are largely manufactured at
TiUnirg near the south border, and at Leyden ; linen (Holland) and cotton
weaving employs many hands at Haarlem.

8. The unexampled perseverance of the Dutch has raised Holland to the
position of one of the most important and most prosperous trading countries
of Europe. This has esjiecially been the case since the beginning of the
seventeenth century, when the Dutch supi^lanted the Portuguese in the islands
of the East Indies, and founded their great colonial trading company, which
supplies eastern Europe with coffee, sugar, tin, indigo, tobacco, cotton, cloves,
gutta-percha, camphor, etc., for which produce Amsterdam and Rotterdam,
Dordrecht and Schiedam (all upon the delta branches of the Rhine), are the
great depots. At most of these places large sxigar-relineries have grown uj).

9. Amsterdam^ (309,000), built on piles driven into the sand,
with canals for its streets, has thus become one of the great com-
mercial cities of the world. An industry which is almost peculiar
to it is that of diamond-cutting, which employs about 650 hands.

The Hacfue (s'Gravenhage, 111,000),'-^ the seat of the court of Holland,
lies 14 miles north-west of Rotterdam (147,000), which is the gi-eat port of
the country. The chief fortified places are the Helder on the coast ; Bergen
op Zoom, and s" Hertogenhosch ( = Duke's Wood) and Mcuistricht'* on the Maas
in the south; Nymegen on the Waal; Utrecht (68,000) in the centre; De-
venter on the Yssel, and Oroningen in the north.

10. Government.- — On the re-arrangement of European affairs,
after the fall of Napoleon, Holland and Belgium were formed into
the ill-assorted kingdom of the Netherlands under the family of
Orange. The differences between the northern and southern divisions
in race and language, in history, religion, and customs, proved too
great ; and Belgium seceded in 1830, receiving a Coburg prince for
its ruler. The j)resent constitution of Holland was granted in
1848. The executive authority lies in the sovereign, who is of the
House of Orange, and a responsible council of ministers ; the whole
legislative authority is vested in the States-General, a parliament of
two chambers elected liy the provinces, according to pojiulation.

1 Formerly Ainstelerdamme = the dam of tlie Amstel.

~ = The count's hedge or enclosure.

s Trajectum superioris.

BELGIUM. 2 1 5

11. The provinces of the kingdom from south to north are as
follows : —

Zeeland.
North Bratant.
Limburg.
South Holland.

North Holland.
Utrecht.
Gelderland.
Overyssel.

Drenthe.

Friesland.

Groningen.

Luxemburg.

12. The King of Holland is likewise grand-duke of the neutral
territory of Luxemburg, between the Rhenish provinces of Ger-
many, the Reichsland or Imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine,
Belgium, and France, which belongs to the German Zollverein
though not to the German Empire. The territory is about 1000
square miles in area (or nearly the same size as the county of
Cheshire), and belongs to the basin of the Moselle which forms its
south-east boundary. Its inhabitants (205,000) are chiefly Ger-
mans, with an admixture of Romanic Walloons, and are mainly
engaged in agriculture. The duchy was declared neutral territory
in 1867, and the fortifications of its capital, Luxemburg, formerly
one of the strongest places on the continent, were demolished.

8.— BELGIUM.

1. This small kingdom lies across the boimdary between two of
the gTeat branches of the European peoples. The Germanic and
Romanic elements of its population are very nearly balanced ; the
former, however, prevails, and for this reason the coimtry has been
classed \vitli the German States, though its spirit is more French.

2. Extent. — Belgium is even smaller than Holland (11,400
square miles), and is not so large as a fifth part of England.

From the eastern boundary, which touches upon Dutch Limburg, Rhenish
Prussia, and Luxemburg, to the North Sea on the west, the distance across it
is only 150 miles (Hastings to Bristol), and from the French frontier on the
south to that of Holland on the north about 100 miles. Only about 40 miles
of the boimdary lies on the low unbroken seaboard, along which the waters
are kept out by dunes and dykes from inimdatiug the " polders."

3. Relief. — All the north and west of the country is low and
level plain like Holland, but the undulating forest plateaus of the
Ardennes cover all the south and east, rising near the frontier in
that direction to a height of 2000 feet above the sea.

4. Rivers. — The land thus slojies generally northward, and this
is the direction of the numerous rivers and streams whicli water
it. The great river of the country is the Meuse, which enters from
France and passes out into Holland, being navigable all through
Belgimu. Its tributary the Sambre, from France, which joins it on
the left near the centre of the country, is also a na^^gable stream ;

216 THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY,

and the Ourthe, from the frontier of Luxemburg, which joins it lower
down on the right, is navigable for half its course. The Escaut or
Scheldt is the main river of the lowland in the west, and with its
chief tributaries, the Li/s on the left and the Eupel on the right,
forms the waterway of the plain. A widespread canal system
unites these natural channels of communication.

5. Climate and Landscape. — Belgimn has a climate which
resembles that of England opjjosite to it in the same latitude, but
which is more continental or excessive. The lowland of the north
is foggy and damp, like Holland ; the higher country south and east
has clearer skies. «

The plain of the north and west is characterised by its cultivated
fields and gardens, the hilly region of the south and east by its forests,
pastoral valleys, and mines ; but along the l)road borderland between
Belgiimi and Holland there extends the unfertile district called the
Campine or Kempen, covered with marshes and barren sandy heath.
Through this waste has been cut the Campine Canal, which unites
the navigation of the Scheldt and Maas.

6. People. — Belgium, \\'itli its 5 J millions of inhabitants, is
one of the most densely peopled countries of the world, only equalled
in this respect by some parts of the plain of China, or of the valley
of the Ganges in India, a result which is no doubt due to the com-
bination of natural facilities for agriculture, manufactures, and trade,
within its limits. About 57 per cent, or more than half of the
people, are Flemings, a branch of the Teutonic family, who speak
the Flemish form of Low German. These are the inliabitants of the
northern and western plain. About 42 per cent, the jjeojile of the
hilly south and south-east, are Walloons, descendants of the old
Gallic Belgae, who eventually became Romanised, especially in their
language, which is now a French patois.

Their name (in Dutch Walen) shows that, like the Welsh, Wallacliians,
etc., they were " foreigners " to the Germanic peoples. In their impulsive
character, dark hair, and grey eyes, they contrast with the fair, phlegmatic,
earnest Flemings.

7. Religion and Education. — Almost all the inhabitants of
Belgium are Roman Catholics, though complete liberty and social
equality is allowed to all religious confessions. The kingdom is
divided into six dioceses — the Archbishopric of Malines, and the
Bishoprics of Bruges, Ghent, Liege, Namur, and Tournay. Educa-
tion is not yet generally diffused through the jiopulation, and was,
until recently, almost entirely in the hands of the Roman Catholic
clergy. There are State universities at Ghent and Liege, and an
independent liberal university at Brussels, but the Roman Catholic
university of Louvain has by for the largest number of students.

FEANCE. 217

During the occupation of the country by the French in Napoleon's time,
the official use of the Flemish language was forbidden, and it is only since
1830 that this national form of speech and its literature have been reviving.
French is the language of the Court and of the higher classes, and the facili-
ties for the introduction of French literature hinder the development of a
national one.

8, Products and Industries. — Aliout a fourth of all the
inhabitants of Belgium are occupied in agricultiu'e. Besides wheat,
rye, and oats, hops are cultivated on a large scale, for export chiefly
to France and England. Beetroot for the sugar-factories, of which
there are over a hundred in the country, is also a large crop, and
flax is largely grown in the Flemish lowlands.

Two great coalfields extend across the central part of the
country from west to east, along the valleys of the Meuse and its
tributary the Sambre, and from these nearly fifteen millions of tons
of coal are mined every year. In proportion to its area, Belgium
produces more coal than even the British Isles. Iron is olatained in
smaller jiroportion, but still in large quantity, as well as lead and
zinc, and Belgium has more than 2000 stone quarries.

9. Along the line of the coalfields in the valley of the Meuse lie the great
iron towns of Liege, where about 20,000 men are employed in the manufacture
of arms and cannon ; of Seraing, near it, where machinery is forged on an
almost equal scale ; NamMr, Charleroi, and Mons. ■■ Manufactures of various
kinds employ about a fifth of the whole population. The oldest industry is
that of linen-weaving, which is still the characteristic one of all the towns in
the west of the lowland — Ghent (or Gaud) and Aalst (Alost), Tournay (where
the so-called Brussels carpets are made), Kortryk (Courtrai), Rousselcere, and
Brugge (Bruges^). Ghent is also the chief seat of the cotton manufactures.
Lace- weaving is characteristic of Brussels and Mecheln (Malines).

10. Brussels, the capital (391,000), near the centre of the
country, is a second Paris, with its boulevards, palaces, monuments,
and galleries. The commerce of the country, however, flows
through Antwerp (160,000), the great seaport town and fortress of
Belgiiim, on the Scheldt, towards which railways converge from all
parts of the country.

Belgium has a much greater extent of railway in proportion to its area than
any other European country. Through the fortress of Ostend, the only jjlace
of importance on the North Sea coast, almost all the direct traffic %vith England
passes, and it is the liead-quarters of the Belgian cod and herring fisheries.
The field of Waterloo lies twelve miles south of Brussels. >S^;a, formerly much
frequented for its mineral waters, is near tlio German frontier on the east.

11. Government and Political Divisions.— The consti-
tution of Belgium, the most recently made regal state of the Conti-
nent, dates from 1831. By this the legislative power is vested in the
King, a Chamber of Representatives chosen according to population,

1 = Bridges, there being 54 of them in the town ; a venerable but half-deserted
place, once the metroijolis of the world's coinmcrce.

218 THE LOXDON GEOGKAPHY.

one for every 40,000, and a Senate, also elected by the people
Tlie executive power lies in the king and a responsible ministry.
The provincial di\'isions of the country are as follows : —

( Brabant (South Brabant).
I Antweqi.
Chiefly J Limburg (Belgian Lim-

Flpmisli 1 Viiircr^

Flemish. ] burg).

I West Flanders.
(.East Flanders.

' Hainaut or Hennegau.

Naraur.

Luxemburg (Belgian Lux-
Walloon. I emburg).

Liege (Luyk, in German
^ Liittich).

Chiefly

II. THE ROMANIC STATES.

To these belong especially France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, with
Romania, till recently a vassal state of Turkey.

1.— FRANCE.

1. France occupies the narrowest part of the great western pen-
insula of the European continent between the Mediterranean, where
the Golfe du Lion runs into the land, and the Atlantic which
invades the continent in the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel.
As both coasts have many harbours, the situation between two seas
is a very advantageous one. In extent (204,000 square miles) it is
fully tlrree and a haK times larger than England, measuring about
600 miles each way across it. Most of its frontiers are natural.

The Atlantic washes it in the west and north-west ; the Mediterranean in
the south-east ; on the south the high barrier of the PjTenees rises between it
and Spain ; on the east the Alps and Jura separate it from Italy and Switzer-
land, and part of the Vosges mountains forms the boundary towards Germany.
On the north-east alone the political limit towards Germany and Belgium is
artificially drawn, and has to be guarded by a line of fortresses. Since 1768,
France has held the Mediterranean island of Corsica, a rugged pyramid of
forest- covered mountains, a little more than half the extent of Yorkshire.

2. Relief. — Within France the long curve of the G^vennes
Mountains in the south-east, prolonged northward by the Cote-dVor,
the Plateau of Langres, and the Vosges, determines the slope of the
country. Between them and the Alps lies the deep valley of the
Rhone, with a southward fall to the Mediterranean. But these high
lands, ramifying outward with gentler descent to north and west,
give direction to the drainage of the longer slope to the Atlantic
coast, the Bay of Biscay, the Channel, and the North Sea.

Mu7it Blanc (15,777 ft.), the highest point of Europe, rises within France,
near the point of union of its boundary with that of Italy and Switzerland ;
the Pic de Nethou (11,168 ft.), the highest point of the PjTeneau barrier,
stands just oiitside the boundary on the Spanish side ; centrally in the country,
the highest point is Mont Dore (Puy de Sancy, 6180 ft.), in the volcanic group
of the mountains of Auvergne, embraced by the curve of the Cevennes. The

FRANCE. 219

lowlands of France are not level plains like those of Belgium an J Holland, but
for the most jiart undulating districts ; they lie along the Atlantic border
(excepting where the heights of Normandy and Brittany run out into the
ocean) and in the Mediterranean valley of the RhSne.

3, Rivers. — The main direction of the drainage of France is
from south-east to north-west over the long slope of the land. The
Garonne, receiving the numerous gaves, as the streams from the
Pyrenees are called, and its tributary the Dordocjne, from the moun-
tains of Auvergne, forming the estuary of the Gironde in the south ;
the Loire, ciu'ving through the centre of the country from the
Cevennes to the Atlantic, — the longest river of France ; the Seine,
from the Cote-d'or, flowing north-west to the English Channel ; and
the Meuse, from the Vosges, passing out to join the Rhine in the
Netherlands — are all naidgable rivers, forming with their tributaries
the natural waterways of France, wliich possesses a river navigation
of about 5500 miles. The great southern river, the Rhone, from
the moimtains of Switzerland, receiving its chief tributary, the SaSne,
from the southern Vosges, is comparatively valueless to na\agation
from the rapidity of its cuiTent.

About 150 canals unite the various river basins or pass laterally along
the unnavigable portions of the rivers. Among the more important of
these may be noted the Marne-Rhine Canal, the longest in the French system,
which joins the Rhine above Strassburg over the Vosges with the Jlarne, a
tributary of the Seine, which falls into that river above Paris : and the Canal
du Midi, or the southern canal, completed in 1668, which joins the Atlantic
and Mediterranean from the basin of the Garonne to the GuLf of Lions.

4. Climate and Landscape. — Occupying a middle position
between northern and southern Eurojie, France enjoys one of the
finest climates of the continent. Towards the north-east it becomes
more continental, towards the north-west more maritime and liker
that of southern England ; in the warm south the hot winds from
the African deserts may occasionally be felt, and in contrast to these,
in the Rhone valley, the chilly north-east wind known as the
Mistral at times descends from the Alpine heights with great
violence ; but the greater part of the country is within the area of
the westerly winds.

At Paris the temperature of the coldest winter month is scarcely above
the average of Loudon at the same time, though the summer heat exceeds that
of London by an average of three or four degi-ees. Tlie distribution of climate
is, however, best indicated by the limits of the growth of some of the more
important products : thus, the region in which the oil-yielding olive flourishes
lies south-east of the Cevennes, across the valley of the Rhone ; maize extends
northward to a line drawii diagonally across France, from the Gironde estuary
to the Rhine north of Strassburg ; the vitie finds its northern limit in a parallel
line drawn from above the mouth of the Loire to where the Meuse leaves the
country ; and all the remaining north-western maritime region nearest Eng-
land may be called the lolieat region of France.

220 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

5. Very few parts of the country are not adapted for cultivation ;
only some parts of the Pyrenees, the Landes, and of the Vosges, can
be thiis characterised. The destruction of natural timber in France
■within the past two centuries has been enormous, and it is only in
comparatively recent years that attention has been directed to the
preservation of the forests and to planting.

It is estimated that now about an eighth part of the surface is wooded,
the most extensive remaining forests being those of Orleans and Fontaiiiebleau,
between the northern curve of the Loire and Paris ; of the hills of Var in the
extreme south-east ; and of the Jura and the Vosges. Much of the depart-
ment of Vaucluse, in the lower valley of the Rhone, is covered with Truffle
oaks, from about the roots of which enormous quantities of this fungus are
obtained. The western promontory of Brittany is now barest of all, but here,
as in the mountains of Auvergne, the Ceveunes, the Pyrenees, and the Alps,
rejjlanting has begun. The vine is grown in all parts of France excepting the
north-western departments ; more than 1400 varieties of grapes are recognised ;
the finest growths being those of Cluunpagne and Burgundy in the east, and
of the basin of the Gironde {Bordeaux) in the south-west. Wheat, flax, and
beetroot for si:gar, are the stajile products of the north ; olives of the extreme
south-east. Apples and pears are widely grown in Normandy for cider and
perry ; oranges, citrous, and i^omegranates come from the Mediterranean
departments. But throughout the country the subdivision of farms, in con-
sequence of the law of succession, and the small number of landed proprietors
who reside on their estates, have checked the progress of agriculture. In
pastoral wealth, in cattle and sheep rearing, France is far behind England and
Germany, in proportion to its extent, and it is mainly dependent for its
cavalry horses on other countries. Among the larger wild animals bears are
now only foixud in the Alps and Pyrenees ; the older forests, however, shelter
the wolf, fox, and wild boar.

6. People. — To the aboriginal Iberian and Celtic peoples of
France came the i?omajis, chiefly in the south and east ; the descendants

■ of this intermixture being the small dark and lively Frenchman of the
south ; in the north, in some degree, the Germanic element became
interwoven ; hence the Frenchman of the northern parts of the land
partakes more of the character of Ms neighbours, is taller, blonde,
blue-eyed, and less volatile than the southerner. Hence also the old
division of the Romanised French language into the Langue d'oc (or
Provengal) of the south ; and the Langue cVoil (or Roman Walloon) of
the north, from which the many dialects now spoken have descended.

The Celtic element remains almost pure in Brittany, and the Iberian in the
Basques of the western Pyrenees. Italians appear in the south-east, Flemings
on the Belgian frontier, and Germans towards Lorraine and Alsace, though, in
this direction, the boundary drawn along the Vosges and round Lorraine since
tlie war of 1871 follows as nearly as possible the meeting points of the Ger-
man and French inhaliitants of the north-east. With its 862 millions of
inhabitants, France belongs to the best peopled region of Europe, but its
jiopulation has not exhibited the same rate of increase as other European
lands during the present century.

7. Religion and Education. — France is a Roman Catholic

FEA-NCE. 221

country. Protestants form but a small proportion, and are most
numerous in the south-west between the Loire and the Pyrenees.
Public education is entirely under the supervision of the Govern-
ment, and partly in the hands of the clergy. Of the whole adult
population it was found in 1872 that more than a third were
unable to read or write. But the distribution of education is very
unequal in different parts of the country, and shows a very remark-
able gradation from advancement to extreme backwardness in the
direction from the districts which lie nearest to Germany towards
the Atlantic coast-lands of the west and south-west, in which
education is most deficient of all.

The University of France, which has academies in tlie chief towns, pro-
vides for higher education in letters, science, law, theology, and medicine.
From its graceful ease the French language has become almost universally
ciu-rent among the higher classes of all nations of Eurojie, and French litera-
ture is the most imiversally circulated of all. In a still greater degree,
however, than through its language, France (through its capital, Paris), rules
the higher classes of other nations by its fashions, that is, through the varying
forms of dress adopted in its capital and eagerly copied by the outer world.

In almost all the sciences France has representative men of high standing.
Bravery, ingenuity, and liveliness characterise the nation ; but on the other
hand, in impulsiveness and inconstancy, and in a love of pleasure which passes
to extreme frivolity, the French contrast strongly with the earnest Germans.

8. Industries and Trade. — Agricultural and pastoral pur-
suits occupy the larger share ot the jieople of France, one of the
principal sources of agricultural wealth being, as before said, the
vine and its ^vdnes. The trade of the Champagne wine district
centres at Reims and Chdlons-mr-Marne, east of Paris ; that of the
Burgundy wines at Dijon, in the Saone valley, on the east ; that
of the Gironde wines, or claret, at Bordeaux, on the south-west.
The subsidiary products of vinegar and brandy are made most
largely, the one at Orleans, on the Loire, the other at Cognac, a
small town on the Charente, north of Bordeaux.

Textile manufactures are the most important of the mechanical industries
of France. Lyons, the second city of France, in pojnilation (343,000), at the
junction of the Saone with the Rhone, is the centre of the silk-growing region
and the metropolis of the-silk mamifactun's, in whicli the country stands vmri-
valled. tit. Etienne (126,000), soutli-west of Lyons, comes second to it in this
manufacture, after which come Nimes, near the delta of the Rhone, Tours, on the
Loire, and Paris. Inland trade and manufactures in the south are most active
at ancient Toulouse (131,000), on the Garonne, and at Montpellier, near the
Rhone delta. Woollen, liiien, and cotton manufactures are almost entirely con-
lined to the northern region. Foremost among these manufacturing towns of
the north stands Lille, the fifth city in point of size in France (163,000),
with its neighbour towns of Jioubaix and Tourcoing, still nearer the Belgian
manufacturing region ; and Camlwai, ^ Douai, Valenciennes, and St. Quentin,
south-east of it ; Rouen (10.5,000), on the Seine in Normandy, and Amiens,

1 Whence cambric.

222 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

on the Somnie, between Rouen and Lille, Reims, in the Champagne district,
Sedan, on the Ardennes, and Xancy, in French Lorraine, still farther east,
are the other chief manufacturing towns of the northern region. Le Mans,
on the Sartlie, a northern tributary of the Lower Loire, A/irjers on the
Loire, and Rennes north-west of it, are more southern woollen and cotton
manufacturing centres. Paris manufactures costly shawls.

At Sevres, south-west of Paris, are the chief porcelain factories, which
give the models and take the lead in this industry. Limoges, on the Vienne,
a southern tributary of the Loire, is also a noted centre of porcelain manu-
facture. Glass is very extensively made in the northern departments. Paris
itself excels in every Ivind of luxurious and fanciful manufacture. Besangon,
the largest town near the frontier of Switzerland, is a great depot for the pro-
duce of the French half of that country, and manufactures watches largely.

9. The mining industries of France, though on a limited scale in com-
parison •with those of England, are still very considerable. Coal is drawn
chietly from the basin of Valenciennes, which continues the Belgian coalfield
on the north, from the basin of the Loire and Rhone, and from that of
Creuzot, on the south of the heights of the Cote d'or. Though more than 17
millions of tons are annually mined, the sujjply is insufficient for the wants
of France, which imports coal largely from Belgium, Germany, and England.
Iron occurs in eleven districts and is of excellent quality, but generally lies
distant from the fuel necessary to smelt it, so that this metal must also be
imported in large quantity. St. Etientie, south-west of Lyons, is the most
noted centre of the French hardware manufactures, especially of chassepot
guns and machinery; Le Creuzot, in the midst of its coal basin, has also
noted ironworks.

10. Tlie trade of France is only inferior to that of Britain and the United
States ; the position of the country, vrith coasts on three of the most frequented
seas, is exceedingly favourable to its commerce, which is further aided by
nearly 14,000 miles of railway. The great seats of maritime traffic with all
the world are Marseille (320,000), on the Mediterranean coast; Bordeaux
(215,000) and Nantes, with St. Xazaire, on the coast of the Bay of Biscay;
Le Havre (at the mouth of the Seine, 92,000), Boulogne, Calais, and Dun-
kerque, on the English Channel. All of these may in a sense be called the har-
bours of the central point of the life of the state, luxurious Paris (1,990,000),
which has gro^vu out from the original settlement of the Celtic Parisii, which
Csesar found on the island of the Seine, to be the second city of Euroi^e, with
nearly two millions of inhabitants.

11. The naval arsenals of France, dockyards, and stations of the fleet, are
at Cherbourg and Brest, on the north-west coast ; VOrient and Rocliefort
(south of La Rochelle), on the Bay of Biscay ; and Toulon, on the Mediter-
ranean. Nice and Cannes, on the Riviera, are favourite winter resorts. France
has more than 100 fortified places ; indeed almost every town along the north-
ern and north-eastern border is a fortress. Brian<^on, the highest town in the
country, in the Alps, south of the jjass of Mont Cenis into Italy, is the chief
arsenal and depot of this mountain barrier, and is considered impregnable.

12. Government and Political Divisions. — By the latest
of the frequent pcjlitical changes that have taken phice since the
great Revolution (1789), France was prochximed a Republic. Its
present constitution dates from 1875, and vests the legislative
power in an assembly of two houses, a Chamber of Deputies and a
Senate. The executive is in the hands of a chief magistrate, called
the President of the Republic, controlled by a responsible ministry.

FRANCE. 223

Previous to the Revolution France was divided into jirovinces,
which bore the names of the separate territories out of which the
state had been gradually built uj^. These are accordingly of much
greater historical interest than the later division into 87 depart-
ments, which are almost universally named after the river basins in
which they lie. The pro\'incial names are also those Avhich are
still most in use in ordinary life in France.

The following are the provinces, with the dates of their incor-
poration as parts of France, and the departments they include : —

I. He de France, the original kernel of the state round Paris.

{Departments — Seine, Seine et Oise, Seine et Marne,

Oise, Aisne).

II. Champagne (part of France since 1285) ; to the east of

the former (Ardennes, Marne, Haute-Marne, Aube).

III. Lorraine (since 1766), east of Champagne (Meuse,

Meurthe et ]\Ioselle, Vosges, and territory of Belfort).

IV. Flanders (since 1677), on the border of Belgium (Nord).
V. Artois (since 1640), on the Channel (Pas de Calais).

VI. Picardy (original), adjoining He de France on N. (Somme).
VII. Normandy (since 1203), along the Channel (Seine-

inferieui'e, Eure, Calvados, La Manche, Orne).

VIII. Brittany {since 1 5.32), the western peninsula (Finistere, Mor-

bihan, Cotes-du-Nord, Ille et Vilaine,Loire-inferieure).

IX. Poiton, (since 1375), south-east of Brittany (Vendee, Deux-

Sevres, Vienne).

X. Anjou (since 1202) north of Poitou, across the Loire

(Maine et Loire).
XL Maine (since 1202), between Anjou and Normandy
(Mayenne, Sarthe).
XII. Angonmois, Aunis, and Saintonge (since 1242), south of
Poitou, along the Bay of Biscay (Charente and
Charente-inf(jrieure).

XIII. Touraine (since 1256), across the Loire, east of Anjou

(Indre et Loire).

XIV. OrUans^ (original), south of He de France (Loire et Cher,

Eure et Loire, Loiret).
XV. Nivernais (since 1707), south-east of Orleans (Nievre).
XVI. Bourhonnais (since 1559), south of Nivernais (Allier).
XVII. Marche (since 1531), soutli-west of Bour1)onnais (Creuse).
XVIII. Berri (since 1100), between Marche and Orleans (Cher,
Indre).
XIX. Limousin (since 1369), south-west of Marche (Haiite-
Vienne and Correze).
1 From its capital Aureliarmm, named from Roman Emperor Aurelius.

224 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

XX. Auvergne (since 1531), west of Limousin (Cantal, Puy-de-
Dome).
XXI. Lyonnais (since 1 30 7 ),nortli-east of Auvergne (Loire, Rhone).
XXII. Burgundij (since 1476), south of Champagne (Ain, Saone
et Loire, Cute d'or, Yonne).

XXIII. Franche Comt^^ (since 1674), nearest S-\\dtzerland (Haute-

Saone, Jura, Doubs).

XXIV. Dauphin^ (since 1349), between the Alps and the Rhone

Channel (Isere, Drome, Hautes-Aljies).
XXV. Savoie (since 1860), south of Lake of Geneva (Savoie,
Haute-Savoie).
XXVI. Languedoc (since 1271), along the Mediterranean, west of
the Rhone (Ardeche, Haute-Loire, Lozere, Card,
Herault, Tarn, Haute-Garonne, Aude).
XXVII. Guyemie (since 1453), in the basin of the Garonne, south-
west (Aveyron, Lot, Dordogne, Tarn et Garonne,
Lot et Garonne, Gironde).
XXVIII. Gascogne (since 1453), in the south-west, old Aquitame
(Landes, Gers, Hautes-Pyrenees).
XXIX. Beam and Navarre (since 1607) (Basses Pyrenees).
XXX. Foix (since 1607) next Sjmin, in the south (Ariege).
XXXI. Roussillon (since 1642), in the south-east (Pyrenees-
Orientales).
XXXII. Avignon, Vennaissin, and Orange (since 1791), near the
Rhone-delta (Vaucluse).
XXXIII. Provence, Roman Provincia (since 1245), in the south-
east along the Mediterranean (Bouches-du-Rhone,
Basses-Alpes, Var, Alpes-Maritimes).
XXXIV. Corsica (since 1768), in the Mediterranean (Corse).

THE PYREN^AN OR IBERIAN ^ PENINSULA.

We shall first consider the physical characteristics and the
population of this Peninsula as a whole, and afterwards describe
separately the government, pi'oductions, etc., of each of the two
countries (Spain and Portugal) which occupy it.

1. Extent. — This most westerly of the southern peninsulas of
Europe, pushed out like a great buttress into the ocean (228,000
square miles), is nearly four times as large as England, or is larger
than the German Empire or France, and somewhat less than Austria-
Hungary.

From north to south and from east to west the irregular square of the
Peninsula, which was compared in old times to a bull's hide in shape, is about
500 miles.

1 = Free country of Burgundy.
2 From the ancient name Iberia, given from the Iberus or Ebro river.

IBERIAN PENINSULA. 225

2. Relief. — The whole Peninsula is a plateau and mountain land,
the most extensive and continuous if not the loftiest in Europe.

On its northern side rise the Pyrenees (11,168 ft.) and the Cantahrian or
Asturian Mountains (summit Peiia Vieja, 8740 ft.), the ramifications of
which may be said to ex-tend to Cape Fiuisterre in the west. In a direction
generally parallel to those farther south, beyond the valleys of the Ebro and
Duero, rise the ranges of the Sierra de Guadarrama (7900 ft.), de Gredos, de
Gata, and do, Estrella, terminating at the cape called the Rock of Lisbon,
which shuts in the estuary of the Tagus. In the centre of the peninsula,
between the valleys of the Tagus and Guadiana, are the Mountains of Toledo
and the Sierras de Guadalupe and Mamede continuing them westward.
Next southward, with the same east and west direction, the Sierra Morena
and its outliers may be said to reach across the country from Capo de la Nao
on the Mediterranean to the Sierra de Monchique, which forms Cape St.
Vincent, the south-western corner of the quadrangle. In the line of the Sierra
Morena prolonged eastward are noticed the three islands of Ivi^a, Majorca, and
Minorca. Lastly, along the south coast .rises the Sierra Nevada and its
tributary ranges between the Capes of Gata and Palos on the south-east, and
those of Trafalgar, Tarifa, and Gibraltar on the extreme south, facing the
strait which leads from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. Mulahacem, the
summit of the Sierra Nevada, is the culminating point of the peninsula
(11,661 ft.), higher even than the summit of the PjTenees, and suppljing
from its snowy cap the most southerly glaciers of Europe. Nearly half of
the area of the Peninsula, in the central region between these ranges, is high,
bare, monotonous table-land, the most important sections of which are named
the Plateau of Old Castile and Leon, or that which extends between the
Cantabrian Mountains and the Guadarrama ; and of JVew Castile and Estre-
madura, between the Guadarrama and Morena. The city of Valladolid stands
near the middle of the former plateau, at an elevation of 2220 feet above the
sea. Madrid, the capital, on the latter, is 2130 feet.

The only lowlands of the Peninsula which are of any considerable extent
occur in the lower part of the valley of the Ehro in the north-east ; and as the
plain of Seville in the lower basin of the Guadalquivir in the south-west ; this
plain has the Camjyina of Cordova at its upper end and the saline swamp land
named the Marismas, which extends across the mouth of the river, at the
lower, shut out from the sea by the great sand-dunes called the A renas Gm-das,

3. About two-fifths of the coast-line of the Peninsula lies on the Mediter-
ranean, three-fifths face the Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay. The north coast is
almost everywhere steep, its high broken rocks being beaten by the waves of
the stormy bay, and is all but inaccessible to ships, excepting in the deep
inlets or rias, which recall the northern fiords. The northern part of the west
coast is also bold and rocky, with deep inlets such as those of Pontevedra and
Vigo. Beyond the mouth of the Minho it becomes a broad sandy strand, and
from that passes to marsh lands with stagnant jiools, from which mu( h salt is
obtained. Between the Estuary of the Tagus and the Bay of Setuhal rise
the chalk heights of Arrabida, which terminate at the high point called Cape
Espichel. lieyond i\\\i>,\\e.^ i\\e coast j^lnin of Alemtejo, \\i\\\v\\ is terminated
in the south by the high coast of Cape St. Vincent. The south coast round
by the sand-dunes of tlie plain of the Guadalquivir and the famous Bay of
Cadiz is lower again. From tlie high Cape Trafalgar past the south-west point
of Europe by the Rock of Gibraltar to Cape de Gata steep shores interchange
with more level strand. The steppe-like Campo de Cartagena beyond Cape
Gata includes the Mar Menor, a large coast lagoon fourteen miles long, past
which the east coast forms high jagged capes. Beyond Cabo de la Nao begins

226 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

the stormy Bay of Valencia, feared by sailors, bordered by the cultivated
Plana. Again a varied coast follows ; then the low lagoon-covered Delta oj
th^ Ebro pushes out into the sea, and beyond that is the high coast formed by
the spurs of the Pyrenees.

4. Rivers. — Frorii the parallel east and west direction of the
lines of heights on the Peninsula it follows that all the important
rivers take these directions. The longer slope and the greater num-
ber of the rivers flow west to the Atlantic, a smaller number east-
ward to the Mediterranean. The great general height of the land
from which they have to descend gives them a rapid course, gener-
ally over rocky beds. They are also subject to great changes of
level in winter floods and summer droughts, so that in general they
neither serve well the purpose of irrigating the land nor that of
navigation.

To the eastern system belongs the Eh-o, which gathers its supjilies from the
Pyrenees, and from the eastern descent of the plateau of Old Castile. The Ouadal-
aviar, Jacar, and Segura are the other important rivers of the eastern watershed.
The Minho, Duero, Tagus, Guadiaiui,^ and Guadalquivir drain the western
valleys which are formed between the mountain ranges of the Peninsula.
The Tagus, the largest river of the Peninsula, the estuary of which forms such
a magnificent harbour, is only navigable for seventy miles above its estuary (to
Abrautes). The Guadalquivir, though the shortest of the larger streams, is the
most important on account of its fulness and its course through the most
extensive lowland of the Peninsula. The effect of the tide in it is felt for
several leagues above Seville, to which city it is navigable, eighty miles from
the sea. From its rapid ujiper course and sluggish flow over the plains beneath,
its waters overflow these whenever a heavy rain falls in the Sierra Morena.
The Ebro is the narrowest and shallowest of the large rivers, chiefly because a
number of canals are drawn off' from it for irrigation and navigation. The
most important of these is that called the Imperial Canal, which runs parallel
with its middle course for nearly a hundred miles. This, with the Canal de
Castilia, which extends from the southern slope of the Cantabrian mountains
to Valladolid near the Duero, is the chief artificial waterway of the Peninsula.

5. Climate and Landscape. — From the extent and varied
elevation of the Peninsula its climate and aspect are very diversified,
but the greatest contrasts, from temjierate to almost tropical, are
presented in the direction from north-west to south-east.

All the north-western maritime region has a damp, foggy, and rainy
climate (at Coimbra 118 inches of rain fall in the year), with long winters,
during which cold winds blow from the snow-covered mountains. Hill and
dale alternate here with meadow-lands watered by copious streams full of fish.
Corn, wine, and wood, from the pine on the heights to the chestnut and apple
beneath, are abundant. The middle zone of the great bare table-lands, with
wooded mountains between, occuj^ying the larger part of the Peninsula, has a
pleasant spring and autumn climate ; chilly winter winds, however, sweep

1 Guad, of frequent occurrence in the names of the southern Spanish rivers, recalls
the occupation of the country by the Mnors. It is the equivalent of the Ai-abic Wadi
= river-bed. Thus, Guadalquivir = Wadi-aJ-Kebir, or large river.

IBERIAN PENINSULA. 227

over the treeless plateaus, which in summer are burned up by the hot sun.
At Mailrid the pools can be skated over almost every winter, but in June
and July the plains of New Castile round it become a dusty wilderness,
wthout water or any green vegetation, and over all hangs the haze called
the calina. Tlie rainfall begins to be scanty here (only ten inches annually at
Madrid). Pasture, with corn, wine, and olives in the lower districts, is
characteristic. On descending from the plateaus the almost tropical heat and
rich vegetation of the southern zone present the most striking contrasts. Here
the winter is temperate, the spring and autunm delightful ; but the simimer
heat is almost intolerable to northern Europeans, especially when the hot south
wind called the Solano blows from the African deserts. This is the region
of the orange and date, of sugar-cane, cotton, and rice.

Portugal, from its more maritime position, is exempt from the dry summer
heat of the interior table-lands. Snow falls abundantly on its northern hills
in winter, which is also the rainiest season of its lowlands, but it never is seen
in the extreme south, where the spring begins with the year and harvest is
over by midsummer.

6. The northern and central mountains shelter deer, bears, wolves, and
wild goats. The Spanish scorpion is especially abundant in the Ebro basin ;
the moufflon or wild sheep appears in the mountains of the south ; the rock of
Gibraltar has its Barhary apes ; the Jfammgo nests in the lower Guadalquivir ;
and the chameleon is seen in the neighbourhood of Malaga,

7. People. — The basis of the population of the whole Peninsula
(now nearly 21,000,000) is that of the old Iberians, modified by
the admixture of Celtic, Phcenician, Roman, Germanic, and Moorish
(Arab) invaders, who from time to time gained ascendency in the
land and became intermixed with the ancient inhabitants.

A remnant of the aboriginal Iberians is found in the brave and independent
Basques (500,000) of the northern Cantabrian mountain region ; a residue of the
Gothic invaders live in the mountains south of the Duero ; and much Arabian
blood is still traceable in the inhabitants of the southern and eastern coast-lands.
The Romans, however, gave their language to the Peninsula. Both the rich and
soft Spanish or Castilian and the more nasal Portuguese are daughters of
Latin, but the antipathy which long prevailed between the branches of the
inhabitants speaking these sister tongues has served to keep them separate and
dissimilar. The language of the Basques of the north (called by them Euscara)
is peculiarly their own. The Gallegos, the rude but honest and industrious
peojjle of the north-western province of Galicia, speak a dialect which is not
understood by the Castilians, and which is more nearly allied to the Portu-
guese than to the Spanish.

8. Beligion and Education. — At one time the proudest
and most opulent of the States of Europe, sharing between them
the empire of the world, Spain and Portugal had lapsed before the
beginning of this century into stagnation and apathy, in which ease
and squalor seemed to be preferred to labour and a Hhience. Since
that date, however, the Peninsula has again been tlirowing off its
lethargy, promoting education and industry, and advancing to a
more healtliy condition. Still, the mass of the i)t)pulati(»n in both
States remain in extreme ignorance and bigotry. The Roman

228 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

Cathblic is the religion of tlie Peninsula, and little toleration is as
yet shown to other creeds.

At the head of the Chiirch in Spain stands the Archbishop of Toledo ; tiie
Portuguese Church is under the jurisdiction of the " Patriarch " of Lisbon.
Spain has ten universities — at Madrid, Santiago, Barcelona, Granada, Seville,
Valencia, Valladolid, Oviedo, Salamanca, and Saragassa (Zaragoza). Portu-
gal's only university is at Coimbra.

2.— SPAIN.

9. All except the south-western sixth of the Peninsula belongs
to the kingdom of S])ain, which has thus an area (193,000 square
miles) nearly three and a half times that of England. Spain also
includes more than four-fifths of the j)opulation of the Peninsula.

The artificially-drawn frontier towards Portugal is guarded by the fortresses
of Badrijoz and C'iudad Rodrigo ; the chief passes of the Pyrenees towards
Trance by those of Pamplona and Geroiui.

10. Government. — The present monarchical constitution of
Spain dates only from 1876, and by it the executive power rests
with the king and his responsible ministry ; the legislative rests with
the king and the Cortes, which is a parliament composed of a senate
(made up of the grandees or nobles of the country, who are senators
by right, of senators nominated by the king, and of others elected
by the state), and a congress elected by the country according to
population. The palace of the Cortes is at Madrid, the capital
(398,000), which is in every way the very heart of the kingdom.

For administrative purposes Spain has been divided since 1833 into forty-
nine districts, each of which has its local administration. Here, as in France,
however, the old provinces and kingdoms of which this state was originally
made up, and of which the districts are subdivisions, are of far greater im-
portance and historical interest.

These are

Old Castile and New Castile, the central kingdoms which took

their name, it is said, from the castles built along their

frontiers for defence against the Moors.
Leon, north-west of Old Castile, one of the oldest parts of the

monarchy, earliest freed from the Moorish rule, and joined

to CastUe in the eleventh century.
Estremadura (Extrema Ora), the southern province of the old

kingdom of Leon beyond the Duero.
Galicia, the north-western corner of the Peninsula.
Asturias and Biscaya, on the maritime slopes of the Cantabrian

mountains, whose inhabitants held their own against the

Moors.

' sPAix. 229

Navarre, on the soutliern slopes of the PjTenees, at the head of

the Ebro valley.
Aragon, north-east of Castile, to which it was united in the

fifteenth century by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella ;

along with
Catalonia, in the north-eastern corner of Spain, which had been

joined to Aragon in the twelfth century.
Valencia, extending along the coasts of its Mediterranean gulf,

which remained Moorish longer than any of the preceding

provinces.
Murcia, on the south-east, subjugated by Ferdinand III. of

Castile in the thirteenth century.
Andalucia, in the south, including Se\nlla and Granada, whence

the Moors were not tbiven till the end of the fifteenth

century.
The Balearic and Canary Islands are considered part of the home
country of Spain.

11. Products and Industries. — Agriculture is the chief source of
national wealth in Spain. Valencia and Catalonia in the east, Galicia,
Asturias, and the Basque districts in the north, are the most industrious in
this respect. The vineyards of Andalucia, whence come our sherry (Jerez)
and Mdlaga wine, are the most famous. Raisins are dried chiefly about
Malaga, Alicante, and Valencia, on the south and east coasts. Apples are the
chief fruit of the north-west, oranges, figs, and almonds of the Mediterranean
provinces ; while nuts, known by the name of Barcelona, the port at which
they are chiefly shipped, are grown on a large scale in Catalonia and Asturias.
The Andalucian horses surpass all others in the Peninsula ; those of Castile
are strong and well suited for heavy cavalry; Galician jwnies are hardy and
well suited to their country. The horse-fair of Ronda, in the south of Anda-
lucia, is the most important in the country. Spanish mules are the finest of
all. Wild cattle from the Guadarrama mountains and Navarre are prized for
the bull-fights, the national pastime, in which from 3000 to 4000 horses are
annually killed. The most important pastoral industry of Spain, however, is
that of sheep-T^armg. Under an ancient law called the mesta, the sheep-
owners of Castile, Aragon, and Leon, drive their vast flocks southward on the
approach of winter to the pastures of southern Estremadura and Andalucia,
in herds of about 10,000 head (cabanas), and every proprietor along the roads
through which they pass is obliged to leave a breadth of ninety paces wide
free to the herds. The silk worm is cared for chiefly in Valencia and Murcia.
The Cochineal insect is cultivated in the extreme south. The fisheries of
Galicia, of Cadiz, and Valencia, are the most important.

In recent times, on account of the great destruction of i\\(i forests in Spain,
the Government has turned its attention to their preservation, and a forest
academy has been established at Villa Viciosa, north-east of Madrid. About
a fifth of the country, in the mountain ranges chiefly, is covered with timber,
and about a fifth of that is pine wood.

In mineral wealth Spain is one of the richest countries in Europe, as the
Phrenicians and Romans discovered in ancient times. Most important are the
royal quicksilver mines of Almaden, on the northern slope of the Sierra Morena,
and the Copper mines of Rio Tinto, west of Seville, Iron is very widely dis-

230 THE LONDON GEOGEAPIIY.

tributed, but is mined for the most part in Biscay and Asturias, near Toledo
south-west of Madrid, and in Miircia and Granada on the south. Coal is found
in almost every province, the most numerous mines being in Asturias in the
north, and about Cordova in the Guadalquivir 1)asin in the south, but owing to
the difficulties of carriage the imports of Belgian and English coals are large.
Salt is abundant ; near Cardona in Catalonia is a famous salt mountain, which
presents a brilliant aspect when the sun shines on it ; sea salt is obtained
chiefly on the coasts of Miircia and the bay of Cadiz.

12. Manufactures and Chief Towns. — Spain long re-
mained far beliind the other countries uf Europe in its manu-
factures, and though within recent years it has made great advances,
its imports still greatly consist of foreign manufactured goods.
Much of its raw silJk goes to France ; its merino wool to England.

Cotton-spinning is the main industry in Catalonia, chiefly in the towns of
Barcelona (which is the great manufacturing town of Spain, second in size to
Madrid, pop. 250,000) and Tarragona, on the Mediterranean coast ; silk is
woven at Madrid and Toledo in the centre, at Valencia (144,000) and Barce-
lona on the east coast, at Granada, Seville, and JSMrcia in the south. Paper
is made chiefly in Barcelona, and at Gerona, north-east of it. Among the
many iron foundries of Spain, those of Barcelona are numerous ; near Bilbao,
in Asturias, where an apparently inexhaustible quantity of fine magnetic iron
occurs in conjunction with coal, are the royal arms factories of Spain, which
supply large quantities of cannon, guns, carbines, bayonets, and cuirasses for
the army. Toledo has its great Fabrica de Armas, built in 1788, though
long before that time Toledan blades had become famous. Tobacco manu-
facture is a monopoly of the state, and is carried on at seven great factories
in Seville, Madrid, Santander, Gijon, and La Coruila, on the north coast,
at Valencia and Alicante on the east coast. Cordova is famous for its
leather. Corks for bottles are very extensively made from the bark of the
cork oak, which is abundant in the southern parts of the Peninsula.

13. Trade. — The trade of Spain, like its industries, is again re^dving from
the low point to which it had fallen. Situated between two seas, the country
is admirably adapted for trade, and its coasts possess more numerous harbours
than those of France. The customs duties le\ied in Spain are, however,
heavier than in any other country of Europe, so that smuggling is carried on
to a large extent. Internal trade has its centre at Madrid, the capital ;
the other chief trading towns of the interior are Valladolid, Pakncia, and
Burgos, in the Duero basin, on the most direct lines of communication with
the ports of the north coast, Zaragoza on the Ebro, and Granada at the
northern base of the Sierra Nevada. The great seaports of Spain are Barcelona,
Valencia, and Alicante, on tlie Mediterranean coast ; Cartagena, (the chief
naval port of Spain), Mdlaga, and Cddiz, with its sub-port of Jerez on
tlie south coast ; La Coruha, the centre of the Galician fisheries ; the naval
station of Ferrol opposite to it ; Santander, the most direct outlet of Madrid
to the north, and San Sebastian, on the shores of the Bay of Biscay. Palma
on the south coast of Majorca, the largest of the Balearic Islands (about the
same size as the county of Cornwall), has also a fine harboiu'.

The African jjorts of Ceuta and Melilla, on the coast of Marocco, belong
to Spain.

14. The fact that until the year 1848 Spain had not a mile of railway, and
that it now possesses nearly 4000 miles radiating outward from Madrid to all the
chief seaports, is very significant of the recent progress made by the country.

PORTUGAL. 231

Its communications are still, however, far behind those of the rest of western
Europe ; Belgium, for example, is ten times as well provided with railways
as Spain. The mercantile fleet belonging to Spain numbers about 3000
vessels (Great Britain has 20,000).

15. The strange little republic of Andorra, occupying a high forest valley
of the PjTenees (about 150 square miles in area), in the north of Catalonia, dates
its independence from the time of Charlemagne, who gave it freedom in return for
the services rendered by its people in the Moorish wars. Its little pastoral
population of about 12,000 is governed by a council-general of six members,
under the i^rotection of France, but belongs to the bishopric of Urgel in
Catalonia.

16. The famous rock of Gibraltar^ has belonged to Britain since 1704 ; it
is about 3 miles long, and rises to 1400 feet ; every point of it bristles with
defensive works and artillery, galleries and batteries hewn in the solid stone.
A garrison of about 5000 men is maintained. With the town beneath the
fortress, the possession has about 25,000 inhabitants.

3.— PORTUGAL,

Portugal, occupying the south-western sixth of the Peninsula
(34,600 sc|uare miles), is a somewhat larger country than Ireland ;
but its population (4,350,000) is much less.

17. Government. — The constitution of Portugal dates frorp,
1826. Its crowai is hereditary in the female as well as the male
line ; its legislature rests in the Oortes, a Parliament of t\yo
chambers, the " Cdmara dos Pares " or House of Peers, nominated by
the Sovereign, and the " Cdmara dos Diputados " or House of Deputies,
chosen by the people. The executive authority is vested in the
Sovereign and his responsil)le Cabinet ; the seat of government is at
the capital, Lisbon (204,000), the largest city of Portugal. The old
provinces of Portugal are subdi\T:ded for administrative purposes
into seventeen districts.

The provinces are —

Entre Douro e Minlio, the maritime province between the
Douro'^ and Minho j-ivers, in the north.

Tras oz Monies, across the hills, inland from the former.

Beira alta or upper, and Beira haixa or maritime, south of the
former.

Estremadura, central.

Alemtejo and Algarve, in the south.

The Azores Islands and Madeira are considered part of the
home possessions of Portugal.

18. Products and Industries.— Agriculture in Portugal flourishes only
in the northern province of Minho, and in Algarve in the south — wheat, maize,

1 Jebd Tarilc = Tank's Mountain.
2 D6uro in Portuguese = Duero in Spanish.

232 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

and barley being the chief crops. Tlie vine is gro%vn ever3rwhere, but the
Douro Ijasin gives the most valuable jjort \uine (or Oporto). Oranges, figs,
olives, chestnuts, are gro^vn in great profusion. The coast fisheries of sardines
and tunny form an important industry. The mines and forests of Portugal are
more neglected than even those of Spain ; the yearly product of the former is
unimportant, but salt is obtained in large quantity from the coast lagoons, and
is in gi'eat request abroad. The most extensive forest in the country is that
of Leiria, on the north slope of the Sierra da Estrella, which has perhaps 20
millions of pine trees. This, and the smaller forest of Busaco, in the valley of
the Mondego, north-east of Coimbra, famed for its tall cypresses, belong to
the state.

19. Manufactures. — Linen is woven in almost all parts of Portugal ;
cottons are made largely at Oporto and Lisbon ; woollens in the district of
Castello Branco, between the Estrella mountains and the Tagus, about Guarda
on the opposite side of the Sierra, at Oporto, and Lisbon. Bragan^a (which
gives its name to the reigning family), in the north-east corner of the state, is
in the midst of the most important silk district of the country.

Most of the trade of Portugal, and nearly all its import traffic, is with
England. Lishon and Oporto ^ are at once the seaports and trading centres of
the country ; the former rises on an amphitheatre of heights above the north
side of its splendid port, formed by the widening estuary of the Tagus, and
will always be memorable for the great earthquake which shook it into ruins
in 1755. Unlike Madrid, where every one is Spanish, the cosmopolitan port
of Lisbon is thronged with white and negro, English clerks, bearded Jews, and
weather-beaten sailors of all nationalities. Oporto is busiest in sending the
port ■wine of the Douro valley to England.

20. The high volcanic cluster of the nine islands of the Azores ^ lies
out in the Atlantic, 800 miles from the toast of Portugal ; the largest of
them, St. Michael, is upwards of 200 square miles in area, and has the chief
to^v^l of the group, Ponta Delgada ; the islands supply immense quantities of
oranges and pine apples for the London market.

21. The beautiful island of Madeira,^ famous for its delightful climate,
lies nearly 400 miles out from the coast of Marocco ; it is high and precij)itous,
the lower slopes are covered with tropical plants, vines, and sugar cane. Its
people are mixed Portuguese, Moorish, and Negro.

4.— ITALY.

1. The alpine peninsula of Italy, reaching down into the
Mediterranean, the central one of the three which form the southern
extremities of Europe, wdth the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, which
belong to it politically, may be compared in extent (114,400 square
miles) with the British Isles, though it is somewhat less than these.

From the northern barrier of the Alps, where they fall steeply round the
low plain of Lombardy and Venetia, in the north, and where Austria, Switzer-
land, and France touch upon the confines of Italy, to where tlie promontory
that terminates in Cape Leuca runs out to form the Strait of Otranto and the
Gulf of Taranto, iu the south, is a distance of nearly 700 miles (Shetland to
Land's End). The lowland in the north, between the French and Austrian

1 O Porto = the port, referring to an ancient town named Cale, which Is now over-
spread by the modern town. Oporto gives its name to the wliole country, Portus Cale.
2 AQor, a hawk. 3 = Wood, timber.

ITALY. 233

frontiers, has a width from east to west of 300 miles, but the general breadth
of the peninsula, between the Adriatic and the TjTrhenian Seas, does not
exceed 100 miles, or about the distance between Hull and Liverpool.

2. Relief and Rivers. — The northern plain of Italy (generally
but a few feet above sea-level), round which the Alps rise like a
wall, is believed to have been at one period an extension of the
Adriatic Gulf, which has been gradually filled up with rich alluvial soil
worn down from the steep sides of the mountains by the snow-fed
torrents. The Po, the only great river of Italy, winds through the
lowland, and, fed by its many tributaries (the largest of which are
the Ticino from Lago Maggiore, the Adda from Lake Como, the
Oglio from Lake Iseo, and the Mincio from the La/jo di Garda), is ever
carrying fresh material down from the heights to add to its delta in
the Adriatic. Ill this way the plain has extended eastward by many
square miles since the old port of Adria, now an inland toAvn, gave
its name to the gulf. The Etsch or Adige, descending from the
mountains of the Tyrol and reaching the sea on the north side of
the delta of the Po, may thus also in time become a tributary of the
main river.

The form of all the more strictly peninsular part of Italy is
given by the central railge of the Apennines, which extends con-
tinuously through its length from the maritime Alps of France,
round the head of the Gulf of Genoa, dowTi to Cajie Spartivento in
the extreme south.

The Apennines have their highest part, called the Gran Sasso d' Italia,
" the great rock of Italy " {Monte Corvo, 9810 feet), near the centre of the long
range. Tlie slopes of these heights to the sea, north-east and south-west, are so
short as to allow of only small rivers. The largest of these are the famous
Tiber (Tevere), which flows through Rome ; and the Arno, on which Florence
stands. Among the lesser lowlands of the peninsular part of Italy are the
plain of the Arno, which opens out on the coast to the marshy Maremma ; ^
the bare Campagna di Ronuv, north of the city, also opening into the un-
healthy maritime plains which extend from north of the Tiber mouths
for sixty miles along the coast to the Pontine Marshes; and the plain of
Naples, called the Gamparpm Felice from its fertility.

Nearly parallel with the southern ))art of the Apennine range, and west-
ward of it, there appears a more recent cliain of isolated volcanic heights. Chief
of these, on the peninsula, is the cone of Vesuvius (41(50 feet), which rises
abrujjtly from the Campagna of Naples, above the old cities of Herculaneum
and Pompeii buried by its lava streams and ashes. North of Rome, in
this volcanic region, the round lakes of Bolsena and Bracciano occupy the
craters of old volcanoes. Carrying the line southward, across tlie Tyrrhenian
Sea, we come to the volcanic group of the Lijiari Ishinds, with the ever-active
volcano of Strmnboli ; and farther on to Mount Etna (Mongibello), in Sicily,
the highest of European volcanoes (10,840 feet). Almost all the rest of Sicily,
not volcanic, is covered with mountains of moderate elevation, the main
line of which extends along the northern side of the island from east to

1 Maremma or Maritima = maritime district.

'234 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

•west as if in continuation of tlie course of the Apennines across the narrow
Strait of Messina.

The island of Sardinia, separated from Corsica by the Strait of Boni-
facio, 150 miles long from north to south, is for the most part mountainous,
especially along the eastern side, in the middle of which rises the granitic
Mount Oenargentu^ (6292 feet). The mountainous south-western corner
of the island is separated from the larger highland on the north-east
by the plain called the Campidano, which reaches across from the Bay of
Cagliari on the south coast, to that of Oristano on the western.

The island of JUfxt, famous as the place of Najioleou's exile, between
Corsica and the peninsula, 18 miles long, is high, its western part being
formed by Mount Capanne, which rises to 3343 feet. Cajn-i, south of the
Bay of. Naples, where the Emperor Tiberius passed the last ten years of
his life ; and Caprera, Garibaldi's home, on the north coast of Sardinia, are
other noteworthy islands.

3. Climate and Landscape. — The north of Italy has the
excessive cliiiuite of the temperate region of continental Europe ; in
the central parts of the peninsula the climate becomes more genial
and sunny, and to the south almost tropical.

The plain of Lombardy, with an average temperature of 55° F., has winters
■which are as cold as those of the Scottish lowlands, and the lagoons of Venice
have been frozen over ; but its summers are as hot as those of Rome or Nice.
The changes are few ; rain lasts for weeks together in autumn, but in summer
the blue sky is never cloiuled except when a violent thunder and hail storm
occurs. The east wind brings up clouds from the Adriatic, and the west
wind from the Alps dispels them ; from the abundance of water in the
streams and canals of the plain the east wind causes November fogs just as
it does in the Thames valley. About Florence the winters are much milder,
with the same summer heat, and this difference between the seasons de-
creases still more to southward. The summer of the Campagna of Rome,
when a heat mist rises over the plain, is almost unbearable ; in January
the sky is blue, the mornings may be frosty, and fresh spring air blows
over the land ; in March the trees are already leafy, and in June the harvest
begins ; in July everything withers under the excessive heat, till the autumn
rains revive the land. In Naples and South Italy the sky is cloudless for
mouths together, and the air is so pure that distant plains appear to be close
at hand. The chief faults of the Italian climate are the cold mountain winds
called tlie Tramontana, like the mistral of south France, and the Bora of the
north Adriatic, and, in contrast, the hot Sirocco which occasionally blows from
the African deserts, besi(Jes the malaria of the western coast marshes and of
the Venetian lagoons.

4. Round the lakes at the base of the steep southern slope of the Alps
Mediterranean forms of vegetation appear ; the chestnut reaches xip to 2500
feet, above that comes the belt of beeches and oaks, still higher the pine
woods, then the pretty alpine plants and high pastures. Scarcely any part of
the world is so covered with irrigating canals (navi(jJios) as the highly culti-
vated plain of Lombardy, so that the whole of it appears like a great garden.
At the northern base of the Apennines the Mediterranean flora of laurels and
myrtles, cork oak and cypress, covers the first slopes ; above that groups of
oaks appear, then beech woods and the extensive summer pastures which

1 Janua argenti.

ITALY. 235

reach all over the Apennine range. The Apennines have no permanent snows,
hut their highest summits are frequently snow-clad between October aud May,
and seud down cold breezes into the warm valleys.

On the Mediterranean slope round the coasts of the Gulf of Genoa, called
the Riviera, the characteristic vegetation of the lowlands of the southern
portion of the peninsula appears ; the roads are lined with aloes, and lead
through olive woods and orchards of almonds, oranges, peaches, figs, aj^ricots,
and now and then of date palms. In Sicily the vegetation takes an African
character, and many trojiical forms flourish ; it is not a well-wooded island,
but forests occur here and there.

5. People. — The present liomogeneous population of Italy
(30 millions) has arisen froiu, a perfect chaos of races. The ancient
Ligurians of Iberian race and the Umhrians of the north were joined,
from an unknown quarter, by the strange people called Etruscans'^
or Tuscans by the Romans, who exercised sucli an immense influence
on European civilisation. The Greeks peopled the south, and held
Sicily along with the Phoenicians ; the Romans spread out from tlie
centre of the j^eninsula, to extencl their conquests far beyond its
limits ; then the Goths and Franlcs poured in fi-om the north, and
after them the Lonyohards, who gave theip name to Lombardy.
Tlie Savoyards and JValdenses of the valleys of Piedmont along the
French border ajipear to be of Gtallic descent. Insular Sardinia
was free from the irruptions of the northern people, but came under
the influence of the Greeks, the Arabs, and tlien of the Spaniards.

Here, as in France and Spain, the Roman, language endiired aud prevailed
over all others, and now the people of Italy have one language and literature,
the Italian descended from the Latin, Its dialects show traces of the mixture
of nationalities, but the Tuscan has now become classic, for the great writers
(Dante, Boccaccio) were Tu,scans.

6. Education and Religion. — Although in ancient times
and in the middle ages men were born in Italy who left great
masterpieces of art Ia sculpture, architecture, and painting, as
models for all time, an,d though modern Italy has talented musicians
and poets, the greater part of its inhabitants still remain without
even the rudiments of education ; beggars are very numerous, in
south Italy especially, where even yet brigandage exists.

Great efforts are being made, however, by the young kingdom to improve
this state of things, and much of the property confiscated by the Government
from the many monastic estalilishmeuts has been devoted to the purposes of
public education. Higher education is well provided for, since there are not
fewer than 22 universities in Italy, the oldest of which are those of liologna,
Parma, Padua, and Turin, on the northern plain ; of Perugia, near the centre
of the peninsula; of Florence, Pisa, Siena, Rome, and Naples, ou the south-
western slope of the Apennines.

The Roman Catholic is the state religion of Italy, but since the suppression

, 1 Exteri = strangers.

236 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY,

of the temporal government of the pope the power of the clergy has been
subordinated to tliat of the civil government, and perfect religious freedom
has been secured.

7. Previous to 1859, as we have seen in the historical chapter, Italy was
divided into a number of separate states : in tlie north were the liingdora of
Sardinia, and the Lombardo-Venetian state under the dominion of Austria ;
the grand-duchy of Tuscany, and the duchies of Parma, Modena, and Lucca ;
the Pontifical States extended from sea to sea, and from the river Po on the
north to the Gulf of Gaeta on the south-west ; lastly, the kingdom of the Two
Sicilies, with Naples for its capital, occupied the whole of the southern region.
Aided by France, Sardinia obtained j)ossession of Lombardy, after the victories
of Magenta and Solferino, in the campaign of 1859, when the departments of
Nice and Savoy became parts of France. Early in the year 1860 the duchies
and the Emilian provinces of the Papal States were added to the kingdom of
Sardinia, and in March of that year Victor Emman\iel assumed the title of
King of Italy. A swift conquest of the Neaxiolitan kingdom on the south by
the patriot Garibaldi added this also to the new kingdom. Umbria and
Ancona were next incorporated, and the States of the Church became reduced
to the five departments round Rome. ^

After the Austro-Prussian war of 1866, Austria agreed to the surrender of
Yenetia also to the Italian kiiigdom. Now for a time the remaining Pontifical
territories were protected from further diminution by tlie influence of France
and the presence of an armed force from that country ; but on the outbreak
of the war with Germany in 1870 the French troojis were withdrawn, and
after but a feeble resistance the Italians entered and took possession of Rome,
thus completing the unification of Italy as one kingdom.

8. Government and Divisions. — The present constitution
is an expansion of that which was granted to his subjects in 1848
by the king of Sardinia, from which country as a nucleus the
unification of Italy spread out. According to it the executive power
rests with the sovereign and his responsible ministers ; the legislative
power is exercised conjointly by the king and a parliament of two
chambers — the Senate of princes and members nominated by the
king, and the Chamber of Deputies elected by the people. For
administrative purposes the kingdom is divided into 69 provinces,
in each of which the executive power is intrusted to a prefect
appointed by the ministry. As in the case of other countries, the
larger and older divisions of the country, called Govipartimentos in
Italy, are of much, greater historical and geographical interest than
the modern ones.

These are as follows : —

Piedmont (Turin) and Liguna (Genoa) in the north-west, which.

formed the continental part of the former kingdom of

Sardinia.
Lomhardy (Milan) and Venetia on the great plain of the north.
Emilia^ on the northern slope of the Apennines to the Po,

1 Rome, Viterbo, Civita Vecchia, Velletri, and Frosinone.
2 Named from the old Via Emilia.

ITALY. 237

including tte former duchies of Parma and Modena, and the

Eomagna (Bologna).
Tuscany, the former grand-duchy (Florence), between the Apen-
nines and the Mediterranean opposite Corsica, which

includes the island of Elba.
Umhria (Perugia), the central proxduce of the broadest part of

the peninsula.
The Marches of Ancona, the eastern slope of the Apennines to

the Adriatic opposite Umbria.
Latium or Rome, the coast slope to the Tyrrhenian Sea on each

side of the Tiber.
The Ahruzzi and Molise, the compartment which extends across

the highest part of the Apennines to the Adriatic coast

opj)osite Rome.
Campagna (Naj^les), the western coast-land south of Latium,

extending round the Gulfs of Gaeta, Naples, Salerno, and

Polycastro.
Apulia, the territory extending along the Adriatic and Straits

of Otranto from the promontory of Monte Gargano to Cape

Jjeuca.
Basilicata, the country at the head of the Gulf of Taranto.
Calabria, in the extreme south of the peninsula, between the

Gulf of Taranto and the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Sicily and Sardinia,_ the insular provinces.

9. Products and Industries. — Of the whole surface of
Italy it is estimated that 83 per cent is suitable for cultivation.
The greatest proportion of agricultural land, however, lies in the
great plain of Lombardy and the Campagna Felice of Naples.
Notwithstanding this, the supply of corn grown in Italy is not
sufficient for its wants, and more is imported from Russia, Egypt,
and even from North America. Maize and wheat afford the staple
food of the lower classes, as polenta and macaroni.

A sixth of the area of the kiugdom is covered with wood or bush, the
island of Sardinia liaving the hirgest forests of all the kingdom — the districts of
Lake C'onio, of Southern Tuscany, and Genoa, being the best wooded parts of
the mainland. The olive grows all over peninsular Italy, and enormous quan-
tities of oil are produced, much being exported. All parts of the country
are suited to vine-growing. Most vnne, however, is made in south Italy and
Sicily ;■ most horses are bred in Lombardy, where cattle are most numerous in
the dairy farms, which supply enormous quantities of cheese (Parmesan, etc.) ;
Tuscany has most slieep ; Sicily the finest mules and asses; Umbria the
greatest number of swine. The coast fisheries of Italy employ between 5000
and 6000 boats, and fully 26,000 men. Coral fishers go out from Najiles,
Leghorn (Livorno), and Genoa to the coasts of the Balearic Isles and of
Algeria and Tunis in large numbers.

The most important mineral product of Italy is the sulpliur of Sicily ;

238 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

iron is widely distributed, hxit is obtained in most considerable quantity in
Lombardy and Liguria ; lead is an important prod^ict of Tuscany ; sea salt
of the vicinity of Cagliari, the chief town of the island of Sardinia. Famous
pure wliite marble is quarried at Carrara and Massa, on the north-west coast-
land of Tuscany.

10. Manufactures. — The zenith period of Italian manufac-
tures, when Milan was famous for its wool-workers, Venice for its
(lyes, Florence for its cloth, has long since passed away, and in this
respect Italy now occupies a low position.

Silk-gio'wrag, spinning, and weaving is now the most important branch,
and in this the towns of Lombardy — Bergamo, Como, Milan, Turin — take the
lead, followed by those in the plain round Naples, and by Catania and
Palermo in Sicily. CrZass-making has also fallen from its old position ; the
works at Intra, on Lago Maggiore, and the manufacture of beads and mosaics
at Venice (Murano), are, however, still very important. These beads serve
for coin in Africa. Porcelain is now made chiefly at Milan and Florence ;
straw hats at Vicenza in Venetia, and in Tuscany, whence they come to us
as Leghorn hats, from the port at which they are shipped.

11. Trade. — The great advantages of the peninsular position of Italy
on the Mediterranean are modified by the presence of the great mountain
lian'ier which shuts the country off from the rest of Europe. Hence
tlie eagerness of its statesmen and men of business to complete the rail-
ways under or over Mont Cents, the Brenner Pass, and the -St. Gothard, two
of which are already finished, and bring the cities of Turin and Milan, as well
as the great ports of Genoa and Venice, in direct communication with the
Continent. The external commerce of Italy is chiefly carried on with France,
Britain, Austria, and Switzerland. Corn and cotton goods are the chief
articles required from abroad. Silk and oil and sulphur are the chief
articles with which Italy supplies other lands, and the country possesses
about 11,000 ships that make long voyages. The chief seaports of the
country after Genoa, "the Superb," which is the busiest of all, are in order
round the coast — Livorno, or Leghorn, the port of Tuscany and Florence ;
Civita Vecchia', the port of Latium ; Naples (the second in business in Italy),
with Castellamare on the south side of its bay ; Messina, on the Sicilian side
of the Strait named after it, with one of the finest harbours in Europe, beside
the eddy which was feared as the whirlpool of Charybdis in ancient times ;
Palermo, " la Felice," in the vale of the Golden Shell, on the north coast of
Sicily ; Catania, on the east coast of the island. Coming round to the
Adriatic coasts we reach the port of Brindisi, a notable point in the most
direct route from western Europe to Egypt and the East. The most impor-
tant line of railway in Italy, tliat leads from the plain of Lombardy all down
the east side of the peninsula, has the port of Brindisi as its objective point.
Farther north in the middle of this coast is Ancona, the port of the Marches.
Lastly we come to Chioggia and Venice, the city of canals and bridges, on
the coast lagoon of the north of the Adriatic.

12. The Italian navy is a strong one, and possesses two of the most
powerful men-of-war yet constructed, each carrying four 100-ton guns. The
naval arsenal of Italy is at Spczia, between Genoa and Leghorn. Mantua, on
the Miucio, in the east of the plain of Lombardy, is one of the strongest
fortresses of Europe, and with Peschiera, at the point wliere the Mincio
leaves the Lago di Garda, Verona, and Legiuigo, on the Adige, forms the
famous " Quadrilateral."

13. The wonderful beauty of its site and the fertility of the surrounding

GEEECE. 239

plain, with its maritime commerce, have made Naples, the former capital of
the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the most populous place in Italy (451,000).
Rome (234,000), on the seven hills, owes its greatness rather to its military
and political importance from the oldest times, its triumphs and the trea-
sures which flowed to it as the seat of the sovereign pontiff of the Catholic
Church, and has now only half as many inhabitants as Naples. Since 1870
the territorial possessions of the Pope have been limited to the portion of
Rome which lies west of the Tiber, named the Citta Leoniua, which includes
the Vatican, the church of St. Peter, the Borgo, and the castle of St. Angelo.
Rome is now the capital of the kingdom. Milan (262,000) and Turin
(214,000), on the fertile northern plain, come third and fourth ; then, in order
of size, Palermo (232,000), Florence ("La Bella," 168,000), Genoa (163,000),
and Venice (125,000).

14. The only district in Italy that has not yet become one with the
kingdom is the little republic of San Marino-, on the north-east slope of the
Apennines, between Bologna and AnCona, one of the most ancient and the
smallest states of Europe, which had its pigmy feuds and factions even in
the middle ages. Saint Marines is said to have settled here in the fifth
century, and to have founded the state. It is a craggy height only 24 square
miles in area, with SOOO people, governed by two captains-general and a senate.

15. The group of the Maltese islands, Malta, Gozo, and Comino, 60 miles
south of the coast of Sicily, belongs geographically to Italy, but politically to
Britain. Malta (or Melita), the largest (17 miles long), has the impregnably
fortified and splendid port of Valctta, with dockyards and arsenal, on its
north coast, where a garrison of over 5000 men is ordinarily maintained. The
islands form an admirable naval station for a fleet commanding the Mediter-
ranean, and a military point for the concentration of a force which could
protect the great highway to Egypt and India. Malta is thus one of the most
important dependencies of Great Britain and the head-quarters of the British
Mediterranean fleet. The islands have about 15-3,000 people, and are imder
a British governor and council.

5.— GREECE.

1. The extremity of the third peninsula of southern Europe is
occupied by the kingdom of Greece, the land of the ancient
Hellenes, called by them Hellas, and first named Grtecia by the
Romans. Greece is essentially a country of rugged mountains and
valleys, peninsulas, gulfs, and islands. It comprises a northern, or
more continental portion, called Eumelia, and the peninsula of the
Morea (Peloponnesus), joined to the mainland by the Isthmus of
Corinth, which is only four miles wide at its narrowest ; besides a
large share of the islands of the ^gean Sea, and the Ionian islands on
its west coasts. All of these make up an area (19,300 square miles)
which might be compared with that of Scotland north of the low-
land between the Forth and Clyde, the length of the country from
its northern or Turkish border to the extreme south cape being
about 170 miles.

2. Its coasts form a succession of deep bays and gulfs. The north-west
frontier is formed in part by the Gulf of Arta ; the Morea is all but sci)arated
from the mainland by the Gulf of Fatras and its inner Gulf of Corinth; the

240 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

Bay of Arcadia indents the western side of the Morea ; the Gulfs of Koron
(or Kalamata) and of Lacmiia (or Maratlionisi) run into the south of the
Morea between the promontories which terminate in Capes Matapan and
Malea ; the Gulfs of A^aupUa (or Argos), of uEgina (or Athens), break the
eastern coast ; the narrow channels of Egripo and Talanta separate the long
island of Euboea from the mainland ; and in the noi'th-east the shores of the
Gulf of Volo form part of the northern boundary.

3. The mountainous Euboxi or Egripo (called Negroponte' by the Italians) is
the largest island of Greece — more than 100 miles long. North-east of it lie
the Spwrades or scattered islets, the largest of which are SkjTO and Skopelo ;
within tlie Gulf of Athens lie Salamis and J5gina ; south-east is the archi-
pelago of the Cydades (Kyklades), so calkd from their circling round the
little island of Delos, sacred in old times to the worship of Apollo. The
largest of these are Andros and Tinos, SjTa, Naxos, Paro, Milo, and Amurgo,
the remarkable volcanic island of Santorin being the most southerly of the
group. The Ionian islands — Corfu, Leucadia or St. Maura, Ythaka, Kepha-
lonia, Zante, and Cerigo — lie along the west and south coasts.

4. Relief. — The surface of Greece is everywliere mountainous,
even dowai to the bold headlands of the coast, and its scenery almost
everywhere presents striking views of sea and rugged heights. There
arfe no definite range? in the ]p:iasses of heights which cover tlie
country, unless it be in the Othrys Mountains, a branch of the
Pindus of Thessaly, which form jiart of the northern frontier running
out towards the Gulf of Volo ; or in the Taygetos (or Pentedactylon,
from its five fingers or peaks), and Farnon or Malevo, which run
south in the Morea, forming the promontories which terminate at
Matapan and Malea. Elsewhere irregular masses cover the land.

The highest point of all is Mount KioTia. (8240 ft. ), which stands near the
centre of Kumelia in the north. South-east of it is Liakura, the classic Par-
nassus, rising to nearly an equal elevation. In the Morea the highest point is
Mount St. Elias, at the head of the central promontory of the south coast ;
many other points of the ijeninsula are nearly as high. The plains of Boeotia,
between the head of the Gulf of Corinth and the Egripo channel, and of
Messenia in the south-west at the head of the Gulf of Koron, are the most
extensive.

5. Rivers. — The streams and mountain torrents of Greece
flowing down the steep valleys are necessarily short and unnavigable.
They also vary very greatly in volume from the time of the autumn
and -winter rains to the heat of summer.

The largest of them is the Aspropotamo (anc. Achelous), which crosses the
northern border from the slopes of the Pindus in Turkey, and reaches the sea
at the western corner of the opening into the Gulf of Patras. On the eastern
side of Eumelia the Mnvro Potamo (Kephissus) springs from near the base
of Parnassus, and flows eastward to feed Lake Top)oUas (Kopais), the largest
of the many mountain lakes of Greece (ten miles wide), which is drained to
the Talanta channel by subterranean passages. The Rvfia (Alpheus), flowing
to the Bay of Arcadia, is the largest stream of the Morea. Among the moun-
tains of the north-east of the Morea flows the torrent now calleil the Mairo

1 A corruption of Egi-ipo and ponte = bridge.

GREECE. 241

Nero, or Drako Nero, the Sttjx or Cocytus of the ancient Greeks, regarded by
them with superstitious awe, and believed to be poisonous. All around is
wild, naked, and solitary. The mountain walls of black, blue, or green slate
have a weird and desolate appearance.

6. Climate. — Snow lies for two or three months of winter on the moun-
tains of Greece, but is scarcely known in the deeper valleys and coast-lands.
The summer sky is cloudless and briglit, and the heat very great ; and at this
season the swampy valleys, such as that of Lake Topolias, become unhealthy
from the malarious vapours. The sirocco is occasionally felt in the south ;
north winds blow cold. lu general the climate is temperate and healthy.

7. People. — The inhabitants of Greece (1,700,000) are in the
main the descendants of the old Greeks — of tall, slim stature, with
aquiline nose, dark fiery eyes, and black hair. Devotedly attached
to their country, they are as fond of their independence as were
the old Highlanders of Scotland, and consequently are bitter enemies
of the Turks. They speak the modern Greek tongue, which closely
resembles the old.

A large admixture of Albanian mountaineers is found in the north of Greece.
Their language is distinctly related with Greek. Many Turks, and a good
number of English and Italians, are also resident.

8. Beligion and Education. — The majority of the Greeks
belong to the Orthodox Greek Church, the clergy of which, since
1833, owe nominal allegiance only to the Patriarch of Constanti-
nople, but are under the real authority of the Metropolitan of
Athens. A small proportion are Roman Catholics.

The freedom of Greece from the oppressive rule of the Turks
and its establishment as an independent kingdom is an event of
comparatively recent times. Law and order and industry have
scarcely yet been extended over the whole land, so that the borders
are still infested Avith brigands, who pass in and out from Turkey.

The Government, however, has given much attention to public education,
and schools have been established on the German system of conij)ulsory educa-
tion, but fully one-half of the adult population remain altogetlier illiterate.
A university was opened at Athens in 1837, and is attended by about 1200
students. There is another university at Corfu.

9. Grovernment. — According to the constitution, which was
framed by an asseml)ly in 1864, the executive power is vested in
the King and his responsible Ministry ; the legislature is a single
Chamber of Deputies, called the Boule, elected by the people, and
meets at Athens, the cajiital. Previous to this, the country liad
been divided for administralive pur|)oses into provinces or nomarchies,
which corres])ond, in their names at least, with the divisions of
ancient Greece. These are —

242 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

In Rumelia, or the mainland of northern Greece —

Attica and Boeotia (Athens), and Eubcca, with the Sporades,

in the east.
Phthiotis and Phocis, central.
Acarnania and Etolia, in the west.

In the Morea —

Argolis and Corinth, in the north-east.
Acliaia and Elis, in the north-west.
Arcadia, in the centre of the peninsula.
Messenia, in the south-west.
Laconia, in the south-east.

In Insular Greece —

The nomarchies of the Ionian Islands, Corfu, Kephalonia,
and IZante (IZakynthos), and of the Cyclades.

10. Products and Industries. — As may be understood from
the mountainous character of the country and its recent enfranchise-
ment, only about a third of the area of Greece is cultivable and not
a half of this available land has been tilled.

Most of the moiuitain sides have woods which shelter wolves and foxes and
wild boars, but in many parts the trees have been burned off', destroyed, or
cut down for shipbuilding or for their resin. Wheat is more cultivated than
any other grain, but barley is the staple food of the fioorer classes, especially
in the islands, and as the home supply is not sufficient, corn is imported from
south Prussia. The vineyards are very extensive, and are always increasing,
but the methods of preparing the Greek wines are still very rude. Mulberry
trees and silk-cultivation are also widespread, but the most important product
of Greece by far is its currants (a small grape ),^ which are grown all along the
coasts of the Peloi^onneslis. The honey of Mount Ili/mettus, south-east of Athens,
was famed in ancient times, and apiculture is at the present day so important
that the tax on bees forms a consideraljle part of the national revenue. Of
domestic animals sheep) and goats are the most numerous. The little horses are
hardy, and these, or mules, are tised by all travellers in the country, who must
carry their own necessaries with them on pack animals, for there are very few car-
riage roads and no inns. Though Greece is not poor in minerals, it has no mines
of importance. Iro7i ore is sent to Newcastle from the island of ^er2)ho in the
Cyclades, Paro has famous marhk, Xante yields jjetnileirm now as in the time
of Herodotus. At Athens most of the printing and jjroduction of the literature
of Greece takes place ; it has also a little silk and cotton weaving, but manu-
factures of this kind are insignificant in any part of the country. The Greeks
of the sea-coasts and of the islands are born seamen, fishers, and traders,
known as such all over the waters of the Mediterranean.

11. The chief centres of trade are the Pincns, the port of Athens, joined to
it by the only seven miles of railroad in the country, busy in supplying the
capital ; Putras, on the scnith coast of its gulf, which opens into that of
Corinth, where most of the currants of the Morea are shipped ; Kalamata, at
the head of the Gulf of Koron, in the south, exporting silk and figs ; Nauplia,
at the head of its gulf, on the east side of the peninsula ; and Syra or Her-

1 So c^led Irom the city of Corinth.

ROMANIA, 243

mopolis, the second town in importance in the kingdom, the central point of
the Cyclades, and an important station of several steamer lines. The little
navy of Greece has its head-quarters at the island of Pons, in the Gulf of

12. Athens (69,000), built on the margin of the olive and vine
covered plain, where it rises to the hill of Lykabettos, is almost
entirely a modern town, built since the liberation of the country in
1830, when it became the capital of the kingdom;^ but the
Acropolis, or Mars' Hill, the ruins of the Parthenon, of the temple
of Jupiter Olympus, and of the temple of Theseus, remain to mark
its ancient greatness. No other town in Greece is half so large.

6.— ROMANIA.

1. The well-marked division of the northern plain of the Lower
Danube between the Transylvanian Alps and the river, equivalent
to somewhat more than three-fourths of England and Wales in area
(50,170 sq. m.), was conquered by the Turks in the beginning of the
sixteenth century. Twice it passed under the control of the invad-
ing Russians, twice it was re-occupied by the Turks ; but the influ-
ence of the northern power gained for it a government by its own
native princes, and freedom from the oppression of the corrupt
Greek or Fanariot princes of Constantinople who had previously
farmed the land. The union of its two principalities, Walachia in
the south and Moldavia in the east, as the principality of Romania,
under one ruler, was granted by the Sultan in 1861, and till May
1877 the country paid tribute to the Porte, At that date Romania
declared its independence of Turkey, and its freedom was confirmed
by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. By this treaty it obtained the
district of the Dobruja south of the delta of the Danube, in exchange
for the portion of Bessarabia alienated from Russia by tlie Treaty of
Paris (1856), and now restored.

2. Relief. — Romania consists for the most part of a great tree-
less steppe-like plain, occupying nearly the whole of the northern
watershed of the Lower Danube ; behind this plain rise the wooded
Transylvanian Alps. Between the northern bend of the river to its
marshy delta and the Black Sea there rises the bare plateau called
the Dobruja, partly grass-covered, partly swampy, without tree
or bush. This famous old Ijattle-ground is crossed by Trajan's
double wall or ranii)art, built to keep the northern barbarians out of
the Roman provinces, which was a serviceable line of defence in
1854.

3. Rivers. — AH the rivers are tributaries of the Danulie, and

1 In place of Livadia, on the border of Lake Topolias, tlie capital under Turkish rule.

244 THE LONDON GEOGRArHY.

flow from the Carpathians and the Transylvanian Alps across the
level steppe to join its left bank. The chief are the Pruth, which
now forms the boundary towards Russia, the Sereth, and the Aluta.
By the Treaty of Paris of 1856 the supreme control of the naviga-
tion of the delta mouths of the Danube was placed in the hands of
an International Commission, wliich receives dues from passing
vessels, and expends these in maintaining the navigability of its
channels, especially of the chief or Sulina mouth. By the Treaty
of Berlin this Commission is maintained in its functions in complete
independence, below Galatz, of the territorial authorities. No
vessel of war is now permitted to navigate the Danube below the
Iron Gates, and all fortresses and fortifications on this part of the
river are to be razed.

4. People. — The greater part of the population (5,400,000) are
descendants of the amalgamated race formed by the intermarriage of
the Roman colonists with the original inhabitants of Dacia ; these
are the Romanians or Rumeni, in whose language three-fourths of
the words are Latin. They are strong, well-knit men, with black
hair, lively, but not very active. The mass of the people live in
the greatest poverty ; their huts are worse even than the cabins of
the Irish peasantry : a few thousand Boyars, nobles, or landed pro-
prietors, really form the nation. Large numbers of Jews an'd
Gyjisies live among the Romanians. Almost the entire population
belongs to the Orthodox Greek Church, but perfect religious equality
is secured by the Berlin Treaty.

5. Government. — Its constitution, voted by a popular as-
sembly in 1866, vests the executive authority in the reigning prince
and his council of ministers ; the legislative body consists of a
Senate and a Chamber of Deputies ; the seat of government is at
Bucharest in Walachia.

For administrative purposes Walachia is divided into eighteen, Moldavia
into thirteen, districts, each under a ]3refect or governor.

6. Products and Industries. — In this great pastoral and
agricultural plain, cattle-rearing and corn-growing (maize, wheat,
barley, rye) are naturally the chief and almost exclusive industries.
The peasant makes his own rough clothing and cap of sheejjskin ;
his waggon requires no iron work ; and the corn is trodden out by
horses ; all the imports are for the luxurious Boyars.

7. Bucharest, the capital (178,000), the entrepot of trade between Turkey
and Hungary, towards the south of the Walachian plain, is a thoroughly
oriental town, a great chaos of huts and palaces and courtyards, with large
gardens between. It is the seat of the Romanian university, and of the now
important literature of the country. Jassy (90,000), the chief town in Moldavia,
lies pictuiesquely on the slope of the hills, ten miles west of the river Pruth ;

BALKAN PENINSULA. 245

Galatz (80,000), the head-quarters of the Dannie Commission, below the
mouth of the Sereth, and Braila, a short distance above it, are the great
grain ports and depots of the plain.

The first railway in Romania was constructed in 1869, from Bucharest
south to Oiurgevo on the Danube ; now the capital is in railway communication
with the rest of Europe through Galatz anil INIoldavia. The district of the
Dobruja includes an important line of railway, which passes alongside of
the ancient Roman wall from Chernavoda on the Danube to the port of
Kustenje on the Black Sea.

III. SLAVONIC STATES.'
THE BALKAN PENINSULA.

1. In the Balkan^ peninsula, between the Adriatic and the BL^ck
Sea, we reach a part of Europe which has been, till recently, held sul)-
ject since the filteenth century by a people of Asiatic race, the warlike
Osmanli Turks, difFerintr in creed, in customs, and character in the
widest degree from all the other nations of this part of the world,
and incompetent to keep pace with their development in peaceful
industries. Gradually the power of this once dreaded foreign race,
numerically far inferior, has been losing its hold ; the territories
nearest the main body of European States have passed, from being
firmlj^ subject, to be tributary only in name, or virtually independent
of the Turk, " the sick man," who seems destined to be pushed out
of Europe by the way he came. The Balkan peninsula, liowever,
is but a small part of the empire of the Turks ; compared with the
Turkish dominions in Asia and Africa, this European portion is only
equivalent to about a twenty-fifth part of their extent ; its popula-
tion to about a seventh.

Although the large territory (153,360 scpiare miles) which lies
south of the borders of Austria and Romania, marked out by the
Save, the Middle and Lotoer Danube, extending to the frontier of
Greece on the south, has little remaining unity in its political con-
ditions, it will be convenient here to consider it first as one
geographical division of the Continent ; and afterwards to separate
it into its indi\T.dual states. -

1 Balkan, Turkish, = moimtiin.

Area in sq. miles. Population.

2 Turkey proppr, with Crete . . . (10,300 4,790,000

/ Eastern Roumelia. . 13,660 780,000

Tributary iHul-aria. . . . 24,(560 1,965,000
States. 1 Bosnia and Herzegovina (in

(, Austrian occupation) 23,350 1,158,000

T 1 7 t ( Servia .... 18,790 1,590,000

Independent I jj^„jg„gg,.^ . . . 3,600 286,000

153,360 10,569,000

Epirus and Thessaly (8000 sq. m., pop. 400,000), which are to be ceded to Greece in
accordance with the Treaty of Berlin, are included above in Turkey proper.

246 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

2. Extent and Configuration. — In area the division tinder
consideration may be compared to t\nce that of Great Britain ; it
extends about 400 miles across from north to south and 500 east to
west. It lies favourably between the branches of the Mediterranean,
and has harbours on the Adriatic and the Ionian Sea on the west,
on the ^Egean and the Sea of Marmora in the south, and on the
Black Sea in the east, from which the great natural highway of the
Danube leads into the land.

South of the Danube a gentle ascent of undulating well-cultivated pastoral
land, with dwarf oaks, leads up to the rounded heights of the Balkan,^ on
which beech and oak woods interchange with grass. The steep right bank of
the Danube along the north edge of this slope is cultivated and populous ;
between the northern bend of the river and the Black Sea, rises the bare
plateau called the Dohnija, partly grass-covered, partly swampy, without tree
or bush.

The long range of the Balkan cun'es round from the " Iron Gates " of the
Danube parallel with the river to Cape Emineh on the Black Sea coast. The
Koja Balkan (= chief mountains, 7830 feet), west of the Shipka Pass, near
the centre of the range, are the highest. Almost all the country west and
south of the Balkan is high and mountainous. Most of its ranges take the
direction of the western coast, and continue the ramifications of the eastern or
Jllyrian Mountains (the direct extension of the Julian Alps) down into
Greece, and enclose between them high grassy meadows, lying about 2000
feet, on an average, above the Adriatic. Tlie highest points of these ranges,
often with wooded slopes rising to naked white peaks and pyramids, are the
mountains called Dormitor in Herzegovina (8860 feet). Mount Kom on the
inner border of Montenegro (9350 feet), the Skhar Dagh (or Scardus) in
eastern Albania (about 8000 feet), and the Pindus summits, betsveen Thessaly
and Epirus, where the ranges run towards Greece. The coast range of Thessaly,
rising boldly from the ^gean, far exceeds the Pindus in the elevation of its
summits, which are the famous Oli/mpus (9750 feet), Ossa (Kissovo) (5250
feet), and Felirm (5130 feet). Between the steep southern slope of the
Balkan to the basin of Kezanlik and the valley of the Maritza, and the coasts
of the jEgean, rises the broad mass of heights called the Rhodojie, or Despoto
Dagh,^ with several granite summits reaching over 7000 feet. Seen from the
north this mass looks like a great plateau, with belts of oak and beech, fir and
larch, skirting its slopes. Where the systems of the Rhodope, the Balkans,
and the western heights run together, in the centre of the country, there
rises the highest summit of all, the liilo Dagh (8400 feet), covered with pine
forest, and clear of snow only in midsummer.

Towards the Mg&n.n the liigh crests run out into the remarkable peninsula
of Khalkis, with its three prongs, one of which is terminated by Mmmt Athos,
or the Holy HilP (6350 feet). Tlirough this arm of the peninsula Xerxes cut
a canal for his ships to escape the stormy gales which render the navigation
round the mountain dangerous. Opposite this the long peninsula of Gallipoli
also nins south between the narrow Dardanelles and the Gulf of Saros ; be-
tween these are the high islands of Thasn and Samothraki (where St. Paul
touched on his way to Macedonia), but the latter is politically included in the

1 The eastern part of the range is called Emineh Dagh by the Turks = "the moun-
tains which serve for a defence."

2 Despoto D.igh, Turkish = " monks' nionntains," from the numerous convents.

3 From the large number of Greek monasteries on it.

BALKAN PENINSULA. 247

Asiatic (li\isioii of the Turkish Archipelago. Far to the south of tlie ^gean,
however, the large island of vrete, or Candia (1.50 miles long), on which Mount
Ida rises to 8500 feet, belougs to European Turkey.

3. Rivers. — The torrents which descend to the Adriatic from the moun-
tains aud plateaus of the west are of little value, except for their mill-driving
powers, and for floating timber do^vn from the hills. The most considerable of
them is called the Boyaiut, the overflow of the large Skadar or Scutari lake
(25 miles long), near the middle of the Adriatic coast-land ; near its exit from
the lake the Boyana is joined by the Drin ; this river has its chief source in
Lake Okhrida (18 miles long), which occupies one of the plateaus of eastern
Albania, lying at an elevation of nearly 2300 feet above the sea, The most
southerly of the rivers which drain into the J3gean is the navigable Salamhrui,
which gathers the streams that descend from the Pindus to water the fertile
plain of Thessaly, and which escapes to the sea between the classic heights of
Olympus and Ossa (Kissovo), overlooking the Gulf of Salonica. Tlie Vardar,
from the Skhar Dagh, flowing south-east to the Gulf of Salonica, is a larger
stream ; but the Maritza, rising between the Balkans and the Rhodope,
watering the great valley of Thrace, and curving round the latter mass of
heights, is the most important river of the southern drainage. It is navigable,
excepting in summer, as far as Philippopolis, 170 miles above its mouth, The
great highway of the northern jilain, as before said, is the Danube.

4. Climate. — The climate of the Balkan Peninsuhx is on tho
whole a favourable one. It becomes less so in proportion as the
land rises to greater heights, and as it is exposed to the cold blasts
of the north-east wind from the Russian steppes,

The climate of the northern plain is especially a continental or excessive
one ; the severe winter covers tlie jilain with deep snow for four months,
when the Danube also is frozen ; spring begins in April, May is hot, July is
characterised by storms and flooded rivers, filled by the rains and the meltiiig
snows ; autumn being fine. South of the protecting barrier of the Balkans
the mjTtle survives the winter, and the orange, olive, and mulberry thrive,
The Albanian slope to the Adriatic is perfectly sheltered from the cold north
winds ; the summers there are unbearaljly hot, and cold weather lasts only
till March. Snow seldom falls in the plain of Thessaly, or in the lower
valley of the Maritza, and the climate of these districts round the iEgean is
specially agreeable, but the Bosporus has been frozen in exceptional winters.

5. People. — No part of the world embraces such a strange mix-
ture of antagonistic races — Asiatic, Greco-Latin, Slavonic, Semitic —
as well as of languages and creeds, as this division of Europe, Of
the 11,000,000 of people who inhabit this area, the Osmanli or
Turlcs constitute only about a sixth i)art (2,000,000). They live
in compact masses only in the south and oast of the country, as in
the plain of Thessaly, round parts of the coasts of the ^Egean, in
the Rhodope highland, about Adrianople in the valley of the Maritza,
and along the Black Sea coast-land between the Balkans and the
delta of the Danube.

After the Crimean war large numbers of the Totfirs of the Crimea, allied
in race to the Turks, came over the Black Sea to settle in the Dobruja,

248 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

south of the Danube mouths, whence they are extending westward. Tlie
Greeks (about 1,500,000) form the most important element of the popula-
tion in the south, and extend round the JDgean to Constantinople. The
western central highlands towards the Adriatic are occupied by the Albanians
(1,250,000), who are called Arnauts by the Turks, Skipetars by themselves;
they are of Greco-Latin origin, and are siipposed to be the descendants of the
ancient Illyrians. From the soutli side of the Danube up over the Balkans
to the limits of the Greek and Turkish districts on the coast lands of the
^gean, live tlie Bulgarians (about 2,500,000), a people of Finnish (Mongolian)
origin, who migrated hither in the seventh century, gradually becoming amal-
gamated with the Slavonic peoples whom they had conquered, adopting their
language and customs.

Lastly we come to the purely Slavonic division of the peoples of this
region (nearly 2 millions), the Servians, Bosnians, Herzegovinians, Croats, and
Montenegrins of the north-western highlands. Among the more important of
the minor elements of population found in Eurojiean Turkey are the
Circassians (Cherkesses), people of the Caucasus who crossed over into Turkey
in numbers after the conquest of their native mountains by Russia in 1864 ;
the Armenians, who are found as well-to-do traders in every town ; the
Gypsies, who, true to their nomad life and poverty, are found scattered among
the Bulgarians, living in tents or huts in summer, and digging themselves into
the ground in the cold winter ; and the scattered Jeios, most numerous north
of the Danube.

6. Religions. — It is to be noted that the religious divisions of
the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula do not correspond to those of
race. The Turks are not the only Mohammedans, for large numbers
of the subject races — of the Bulgarians, Albanians, and Servians
especially — to escape oppression, turned converts to the creed of their
rulers, and have since become fanatical followers of the Prophet ;
though the ties of nationality seem to remain stronger than those
of religion;

Among the Bosnians of the north-west, all the nobles have become faithful
adherents of Islam ; but there are nearly three Christians in this division of
Europe for every Mohammedan. The Orthodox Greek Church, under the
Patriarch of Constantinople, counts the greatest number of adherents among
the Greeks of the south, the Albanians, Bulgarians, and Shivs of the north-
west. The Arnienian Church, the Patriarch of which resides in Armenia, and
the United or Catholic Armenian, whicli recognises the authority of the Pope
of Rome, iiave also many adherents. Thus the Balkan Peninsula presents not
only contrasts between Turks and non-Turks, but also between Mohammedans
and Christians, and these again between Greeks and Catholics.

Though the majority of the population of Turkey is Christian, non-
Mohammedans long remained under the most cruel oppression, and have even
now obtained only the barest toleration under pressure from the Christian
States of Europe. Christians were excluded from all official positions ; they
had no redress for wrongs, for the word of a Christian had no weight against
that of a Turk ; the possession of land was also forbidden to them, and as
farmers they were obliged to pay a third of the harvest to the owTier of the
soil ; and such heavy taxes were exacted that it is scarcely surprising that the
flame of insurrection was continually breaking out here and there. The
European powers, held back by jealousy of one another, looked on inactively
at these iniquities. Russia alone, whether out of purely philanthropic

BALKAN PENINSULA. 249

motives or not, was disposefl to give effect to her sympathies with the
oppressed peoples allied to her iu race aud religion, and the resistance to these
efforts by England, who feared tlie presence of a great power at Constantinople
between the two most important sections of the British Empire, brought
about the Crimean war, in which Russian aims were for the time defeated.
At the conclusion of this war a scheme of Turkish governmental reforms of
the most liberal kind met the approval of the European powers ; this docu-
ment, however, remained absolutely a dead letter. In 1876, by mutual
agreement of the European Powers, it was proposed to the Turkish Govern-
ment that the reforms should be placed under the control of commissioners
appointed by the Powers. The rejection of these proposals by the Turkish
government brought about the Russo-Turkish campaign of 1877, in which all
the eastern region, except Constantinople itself, was occupied by Russian troops ;
and in the subsequent Congress of European Powers at Berlin the political
boundaries and relations of the country were gi'eatly altered.

7. Political Divisions.— Previous to the Russian invasion
of 1877-78, the greater part of the Balkan Peninsula formed
European Turkey with its tributary states. Several of these, in-
deed, had already gained freedom in a greater or less degree from
the Turkish rule. The treaty of Berlin in 1878, however, greatly
altered the political relations of the different parts of the country,
reducing the area under direct Turkish rule to about a third of the
whole, besides confirming the independence and extending the
limits of several of the formerly tributary states.

The independence of the state of Romania, in the great plain north of the
Danube, was recognised. South of the Danube a new principality of Pjulgaria
was formed, embracing the country from the river to the crests of the Balkan
range ; this is a tributary principality with a Christian ruler elected by the
people, the choice being confirmed by the Turkish Sultan, with the assent of
the great powers of Europe.

South of the Balkans a second tributary principality named Eastern
Roumelia was also formed. It extends between the Balkan and tlie Rhodope
mountains, and eastward to the Black Sea, embracing the whole of the upper
basin of the Maritza river. This province is jdaced under a Christian governor
appointed by the Porte with the consent of the Powers. The mountain
state of Servia was again promoted to the rank of an independent state, and
its limits were extended southward to emT)race the upper basin of the Morava
river. The freedom of Monicneip-o, in the western mountains, was also con-
firmed, and a considerable addition was made to its territory. The small
port of !<2)itrM, on the coast of the Adriatic south of the former termination
of the Dalmatian territory, was ceded to Austria, which power was also
charged with the occujjation and administration of the affairs of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, adjoining her territory of Slavonia, for an indefinite period.
Thus there remain under direct Turkish rule only the country called Rumili
or Roumelia, the old Roman or Byzantine land in the soutli, embracing the
greater i)arts of Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, and Epirus, besides Albania.
The Sultan, moreover, has been advised to cede southern Thessaly and Epirus
to the kingdom of Greece.

250 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

1.— SEEVIA.

8. The little mountainous country of Servia, between the
western Balkans and the Illyrian mountains, on each side of the
valley in which the Morava flows north to the Danube, is a relic of
the great Servian monarchy of the fourteenth century, which fell
before the Turkish advance. Its present area (nearly 19,000 square
miles) may be compared with that of Switzerland. Its long struggles
for independence gained it the right of self-government in 1829, but
it remained still tributary and nominally subject to Constantinople
till December 1877, when it proclaimed its independence of Turkey ;
its freedom, as we have seen, was confirmed by the Treaty of Berlin.

9. Its present rider is the descendant of a line of leaders who
have fought to throw off the yoke of Tiirkey. This prince, accord-
ing to the constitution, holds the executive power with his ministers,
and the legislative authority is vested in the " Soiijet " or Senate,
nominated by the prince, and in the National Assembly or
" Skuptchina."

10. The greater part of the comitry is mountainous and wooded ; it is full
of forests and liills, hedged fields, and fresh meadows, forming jiretty but never
very grand landscapes. The Servian mountaineers in general are lazy and hate
agricultural labour, so that nearly nine-tenths of the land is left under its
primitive woods and pastn.rcs ; agriculture aud cattle-rearing are unimportant,
but large droves of sioine are fed on the acorns in the woods, and are driven to
market in Hungary. The mineral treasures of Servia are considerable ; rjold,
copper, and zinc occur in the hills which reach towards the " Iron Gates " of
the Danube, and coal beds extend along the river. The only large place is
the capital, the fortress of Belgrad (28,000), on the Danube, wliich for three
and a half centuries was the central iioint of contest between the Austrians
and the Turks. It is an important j)lace in the transit trade between the
northern and southern countries.

2.— MONTENEGRO.

1 1 . The first part of the Balkan Peninsula to free itself from
Tixrkish bondage was the little principality which we know by its
Venetian name Montenegro ;^ with the additions made to its territory
by the treaty of 1878 it is not much larger than Devonshire, and
occupies the western mountain region from the range which culmi-
nates in Mount Kom, to the narrow strip of Dalmatian territory
which shuts it off from the harbours of the Adriatic.

12. Its reigning prince is a descendant of the prince bishop who liberated

1 The Turks call it Karadaqh, the Servians Czernagora, all three meaning black
mountains, from the Servian chief Czernoi, the black or the reViel, who took refuge here,
or from the characteristic dark forest covering of the mountain.

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA. 251

the country from the Turks in the end of the seventeenth century, since
which time it lias been virtually independent. The people (aliout 286,000)
are divided into forty tribes, and all the men are trained as soldiers. The
constitution, last modified in 1868, gives it the form of a limited monarchy,
the Hospodar or prince having the executive, a Senate the legislative, power.
The senate meets at the chief village of Cetinje. The territory ceded to
Montenegro by the Treaty of Berlin includes the small fortified towns of
Nikshich on the north and Pndgoritza on the south of the old territory,
besides the more important trading harbours of Antivari and Dulciyito on the
Adriatic coast. These latter, however, have a powerful Albanian element in
their population.

3.— BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA.

13. The nortli-.western moiintain region of the Balkan Peninsula
was embraced in the Roman province of Illyria, and suffered many
vicissitudes after the division of the empire. Previous to the seventh
century the portion of it known as Bosnia was governed by princes
of ■' .s own, called Bans, who became dependent on Hungary. Con-
quered afterwards by the Turks, it was annexed to the Ottoman
empire in 1 522. At the end of the sixteenth century the Turks also
mastered the southern portion of Croatia. As early as 1466 the
Herzegovina ^ south of Bosnia and Croatia, which had been known
as the dukedom of Saint Saba under the Venetian rule, also fell into
the hands of the advancing Turkish invaders, and after being the
battlefield of Christian and Mohammedan for niore than two cen-
turies, was finally annexed to the Turkish, empire by the Treaty of
Carlo witz in 1697.

These three conquered territories were formed into the Turkish
province of Bosnia, the hereditary chiefs being deprived of their
prerogatives and of most of their revenues. Since that time the
country has been the scene of almost constant disturbances and re-
bellions by the brave and hardy mountaineer:-. So unstable has been
the Turkish power in this territory, that the Congress of European
jiowers at Berlin in 1878 agreed to the occupation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina by the Austrian troops, and to their administration for
an undefined future period by the Austrian government.

14. The country is entirely covered with well-wooded mountain ranges,
with well-watered valleys between, on whicli gi'ain and fniits are produced in
great abundance. Game and fish abouml, an<l the country is celebrated for its
sheep, goats, swine, and honey bees. Though the country is rich in minerals,
from its disturbed condition these have hitherto been entirely neglected, nor
are there any good roads or any considerable manufactures in the land. The
population is for the most jxirt Slavonic (Bosnians, Croats, Morlaclis), and
their Bosnian language, somewhat dill'erent from the Servian, has been pre-
served pure, the Turkish never having passed into general use. In aiijjearance
the Bosnians are tall and strong, with fine expressive features and dignified
bearing.

1 That is the Herzog-thum or dukedom.

252 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

Tlieir to\vns are generally divided into three portions — the Grad, or citadel ;
the Varos, or walled town proper, often surrounded by walls and ditches ; and
the Maluda or Pulanhi, or suburbs, inhabited by the lowest classes.

15. Serai-Bosnu, or Sarayevo, is the largest town (21,000), and was for-
merly the capital of Bosnia and Turkish Croatia, and is the centre of trade in
the country. Travnik, north-west of it, is an important fortress ; and Banya-
luka,^ on the border of Turkish Croatia, is the most beautifully situated place
in the territory. Zvornik, on the boundary river Drina on the east, is almost
entirely a Servian town trading largely in timber. Mostar, on the Narenta,
is the chief town of Herzegovina, and has one of the finest bridges in all this
region, with high strong quadrangular towers at each end forming a single
arch over the river."^ Trehinye, in the southern comer of the country not far
from the port of Ragusa, is surrounded by old Servian fortifications.

EUROPEAN TURKEY.

4.— BULGARIA AND EASTERN ROUMELIA.

1. By the Treaty of Berlin two large territories have been re-
moved from under the direct authority of the Sultan of Turkey, to
be formed into tributary principalities enjoying the right of self-
government. These ai'e Bulgaria on the northern slope of the Bal-
kans to the Danube, and Eastern Roumelia on the southern descent
to the basin of the Maritza in Thrace.

2. The province of the Danube or Bulgaria, ancient Moesia, is a fertile
agricultural country, watered by the Isker, Osma, Yantra, and Lom, tribu-
taries of the Danube, growing maize and wheat, and able to export large
quantities of these by the port of Varna on the Black Sea. In rearing of herds
of cattle and sheep it is not so prosperous as Walachia on the other side of
the Danube. Buffaloes drag the native carts here as in Italy. The Bulgarian
peasants are thicker set than the Romanians, lean and muscular, wearing a
cubara or sheepskin cap in place of the fez. Though of Finnish origin, their
customs and language liave become entirely those of the Slavonic people whom
they conquered. Most of them belong to the Greek Catholic Church.

•3. The important towns of Bulgaria from west to east are, Widin, a busy
trading town on the Danube near the Servian frontier ; Sofia on a fine plain
beside the river Isker in the south-west, formerly capital of tlie Turkish pro-
vince ; Nicopolis, on the Danube at the month of the Osma ; Plevna, south-
west of it, memorable for its siege in 1877 ; Slstova, a trading town on the
Danube ; Tirnova, south of it, the residence of the Bulgarian kings before the
Turkish conquest ; Rustchuk, the most important trading and manufacturing
town on the Danube ; Shumla, a strong natural fortress ; and Varjia, the port
of the country on the Black Sea. The only railway as yet constructed in
Bulgaria unites the three last-named places.

4. The constitution of the newly-formed principality of Bulgaria was
determined by an assembly of notables at Tirnova, the old Bulgarian cajiital
in the centre of the territory. The new State pays tribute to the Porte, and
bears pail of the public debt of the empire ; but has a Christian government
and a militia of its own, and its religious liberty is guaranteed.

1 Banyaluka = Bath meadow.
2 The name Mostar is thus probably derived from Mostari = old bridge.

TUKKEY. 25 3

5. Eastern Romnelia is formed out of the proviuces of Slivuo and Pliilip-
popolis, with part of that of Adrianople, and embraces the njiper basin of tlie
Maritza and of its tributary tlie Tunja, exleudiuf; also eastward of the latter
to the coast of the Black Sea round the Gulf of Buruas. With the exception
of the portion of the Rhodope plateau which falls withiu it, the whole of this
is a charming country of undulating ridges covered with green vegetation.
Along the base of the steep slojies of the Balkan, on the north of it, lies the
rose-growing country, in which most of the famous attar of roses is made.

6. The population in this newly carved out principality is also for the
most part Bulgarian. The chief towns are — Fhilip2>0])olis,l on the Upper
Maritza, which begins to be navigable here for boats. This ancient town was
founded by Philip, father of Alexander the Great, and was taken in 1360 by
the Turks. Kezanlik, on the Tunja, at the base of the Balkan, and Slirno, or
Islimye, farther east, also close to the steejs face of the mountains on the north,
are both great centres of the manufacture and trade in attar of roses. Burgas,
on an inlet of the Black Sea coast, is the chief port of the new province.

7. Eastern Roumelia is now a self-legislating province under a Christian
governor-general appointed by the Porte with the consent of the great Euro-
pean powers, and has its own militia. The Turkish Government, however,
retains the right of occupying certain strategical positions •within it.

5.— TURKEY PROPER.

1. The remaining portions of the Balkan Peninsula — extending
south of the new boundaries of Montenegro, Servia, and Eastern
Roumelia to the ^Egean, and from the Black Sea and Sea of Marmora
to the Straits of Otranto — is still under direct Turkish authority.

2. Government. — Here the Sultan is ruler, and his will is absolute in
so far as it is not in opposition to the precepts of the Koran, the sacred book
of the Mohammedans. He acts through the Grand Vizier, who is head of the
temporal government and president of the state council of the Sublime Porte ;^
and through the Mufti, or Sheik-ul-Islam, the liead of the Church and chief
of the " Ulemas,'''' a body which includes the clergy and the chief functionaries
of the law, the interjireters of the Koran, on which all laws, civil and religious,
are based.

3. Divisions. — The whole Turkish Empire is divided into
vilayets or governments, each under a vali who represents the
Sultan, and each subdivided into Sanjulcs or provinces. Of these
divisions there are six on the mainland of European Turkey (Con-
stantinople, Adrianople, Salonica, Yanina, Skadar or Scutari, Novi-
hazar), and one insular, the island of Crete in the Mediterranean.
The older divisions of the country are, however, more generally
known. These are Thrace, the south-eastern region between the
Balkans and Rlujdope, across the valley of the Maritza ; Macedonia,

1 Turkish, Felihe ; Bulgarian, Plowdi.
2 So nanu'il in allusinn to the eastern custom of disiiensiiig justice at the gate — fnuu
the lofty gateway of the Seraglio or palace at Constantinople, opposite which the Grand
Vizier resides.

254 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY,

between the Eliodojie, the Skhar Dagh, and the ^gean ; Tliessahj,
east of the Pindus range in the south ; Epirus, on its western slopes ;
and Albania, the western mountain region south of Servia.

4. Products and Industries. — Turkey is a country of
great natural resources, but lew similarly gifted parts of the earth are
so much neglected. The greater part of the population, as may be
understood from the foregoing paragraphs, has no interest in the
cultivation of the land ; labour, capital, and roads are very deficient.

More than half the area is arable land or meadow, but little more is
cultivated than is necessary to supply the requirements of the people them-
selves. Yet the land yields so plentifully that every Turkish harbour
exports grain ; the olive and tobacco are specially jiroductive in Thessaly, and
olive oil is the staple product of the island of Crete ; the vine is grown and
wine is made almost everywhere in a rough way ; cotton is an important pro-
duct of the southern districts and of Crete. The forests give abundant
timber, and are the haunts, of the bear and wolf. The riches of the people
are chiefly in their cattle ; the horse is carefully reared, but is inferior to the
Arabian ; sheep give clothing for all the people, the wool of Macedonia and
Thrace being specially valued. Though iron, copper, lead, and salt are pre-
sent, scarcely any mining is carried on.

5. Turkey cannot be said to be without manufactures, though these are
of no great extent or importance. Wool is woven into rough cloth all over
the land, and the Turkish carpets are famous ; ropes for the Turkish ships
are made from native hemp ; silk-weaving flourishes in Constantinople and
Salonica ; guns are made and cannon founded in the Bosporus suburbs of
the capital. The trades of saddlers, swordsmiths, barbers, and bathmen are
restricted to Turks.

6. Roads and communication of all kinds are exceedingly deficient in
Turkey, so that the difficult transport of goods is maintained chiefly by jjack
animals ; and riding Tatars or couriers maintain a system of posts. It is
only since 1865 that any railways have been made in Turkey. There are
now nearly a thousand miles of railroad in operation, the cliief lines being
those from Constantinople through Adrianople and Philippopolis and the
upper valley of the Maritza ; from Salonica to Uskub at the base of the Skhar
Dagh ; and from Rustchuk on the Danube by the natural fortress of Sluunla
to the Black Sea port of Varna.

7. Constantinople, the capital (600,000), the ancient Byzantium
(Stamboul of the Turks), takes its name from the Emperor Con-
stantine, who made it the capital of the Roman Empire in the fourth
century. Secure and enchanting in position, commanding the
shores of Europe and Asia, and the traffic of two seas, its natural
facilities for trade raised it to its great eminence in the East.

The narrow arm of the Bosporus, the Golden Horn, bordering the pro-
montory on which the city jjroper, terminating in the serai or palace-
enclosure, is built, affords a safe and commodious harbour for the largest
vessels, and is visited by about 20,000 ships in the year. Across this,
bridges lead to the suburbs of Pera and Galata, the European or Frankish
quarter, with the palaces of the foreign ambassadors ; beyond which, along

EUEOPEAN EUSSIA. 255

the Bosporus, lie suburb after suburb to Bot/uHere, where the fortifications
begin which guard the outlet of the strait to the Black Sea.

Snlonicii or Sdanik, at the head of its gulf in the ^gean, is, after Constan-
tinople, the largest town and the most frequented port of Turkey, sending out
grain and wool, silk and tobacco. Adrianoplc ^ is the depot and trading-place
of the broad valley of Thrace. The railway north-west from Salonica leads to
Uskub, at the south-east base of the Skhar Dagh. Prisrendi or Prisren, at
the north-west base of that range in Albania, is one of the richest and busiest
towns of European Turkey ; nortli of it is Prishtina, the most important
town of old Servia or Dardania. In Epirus, near the borders of Greece,
Yanina is the chief place ; in Thessaly Trikhala and Larissa, the latter an
important trading town.

8. The island of Crete (3320 square miles) might he compared in length
to the distance from Loudon to York. Several groups of high mountains rise
along its length, culminating in the central Movnt Ida. Its climate is a very
"pleasant one ; olive woods cover many of the slopes, and vines and southern
fruits are abundant. Its staple product is olive oil. The language of both
Christians and Moslems in the island is modern Greek.

Megalo Kasiron, or Candia, on the north coast, a fortified town foimded by
the Saracens, is the largest jilace. Canea, near the western extremity, also
on the north coast, is the best port of the island. A little east of it is the
bay of Suda, in which tlie Turkisli Government has been constructing a Medi-
terranean naval station and arsenal since 1869.

6.— EUROPEAN RUSSIA.

1. We liave already come upon Slavonic peoples living within
the jjolitical limits of the German Empire, in greater numbers
within the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, as subjects of the Turks
in the north-west of the Balkan peninsula, and under independent
princes of their own race in the recently freed States of Servia and
Montenegro. In Russia alone, however, have the Slavonic peoples
raised themselves to the position of a great European power, incor-
porating other nationalities with their own.

2. Extent and Configuration. — It may give some idea of the
enormous extent of the teiritoryof European Russia (nearly 2 million
square miles) if it is remembered that it covers a space which is
more tlian e([uivalent to the united extent of all the other states of
Europe tliat we have been describing. If we measure its vast area
by that of England, we tiiid that it is nearly 40 times greater.

From the shores of the Arctic Sea on the north to those of the Black Sea
on the south the distance is 17(IU miles. From the western liorder where
Russia touches upon Scandinavia, the Baltic, Germany, Austria, and Ro-
mania, to the natural frontier of the Ural belt on the east, tlie gi'eat plain
has a width of about 1400 miles, or six times the distance between London
and Newcastle. Vast as this territory is, it forms little more tlian a fourth
of the area of the huge Em})ire commanded by Russia in Europe and Asia.

1 Founded by the emperor Hadrian.

256 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

3. The general features and climate of this vast region, which occupies the
body of Europe as the other states do its peninsular members, have already
been noticed in the general description of the continent (pp. 155-1(57). It may
suffice to recall here the general lowness of the country. Within its high
borders of the Caucasus range on the south and the Ural on the east, the only
part of its surface that attains a height of over a thousand feet is the little
group of the Valdai hills at the head of the Volga. The main divisions of its
landscape are the frozen, treeless tundras of its Arctic coast-lands ; the rock
and lake plateau of Finland ; the immense central forest region, the cultivated
parts of whicli supply Europe with grain ; and the treeless stejJj^es, which lie
across the south of the plain from the saline borders of the northern Caspian
towards Romania on tlie west. Wliile recalling also the magnificent system of
natural waterways that ramifies over the huge plain (Volga, Dnieper, etc. ), it is
important to remember the disadvantage which Russian commerce sutlers, in
comparison with that of peninsular Europe, in having its seas on every side
— the Arctic, the Baltic, the Black Sea coasts and those of the Caspian — closed
by ice, for a longer or shorter period, during its rigorous continental winter.

4. People. — The enormous extent of Riissia is more thinly-
peopled than almost any otl],er part of Europe ; on an average it has
only about 36 people to a square mile of surface. England in
comparison is more than ten times as well peopled ; France more
than five times. About four-fifths of the whole number of inhabit-
ants (74| millions) are of Slavonic race.

The dominant Russian division of the Slav peoples appears in three
main sections : the Greed Rnssians (34^ millions) of the centre and north of
the country ; the Little or Malo Bussums (14 millions) (also called Ruthens,
or Russniaks, or Red Russians) of the Ukraine i on the south-west, to whom
belong the Cossacks or Kazaks (= armed horsemen) of the lower Don region
in the south ; and the White Russians (3g millions) in the western provinces.
West of the last named, in the basin of the Vistula, live the Poles (4^ millions),
and on the borders of Romania, in the south-west, a small proportion of
Bulgarians. Allied in race to the Slavonic peoples are the blue-eyed and fair-
skinned Lithuanians (Litvani) with the kindred Letts and Shmudcs (Samogi-
tians) beside them, who are mixed wth Finnish blood (24 millions).

Most important in point of numbers among the non-Slav races included
in the political division of European Russia are the fair-haired Finnish
peoxiles ^ (over 4 millions), who occur in a western, or Baltic, and an eastern
division ; the former includes the Ests, Chudes, and Livs of the Baltic pro-
vinces, the Karelians, S'aomi, and Quccncs of Finland, and the Lapps (who
call themselves Sahmelads) farther north ; the latter, the Siryans, Permyaks,
and Votyaks towards the Ural, and the Cheremis and Mordvins of the middle
Volga basin.

Scarcely less numerous than the Finns are the peoples of TurMsh origin
within Russia. To these belong the Tatars of Kazan ; the Nogai Tatars of
the Crimea in the south, and the Kirgiz on the Caspian. The Baskirs, Chuvash,
and others, in the southern Ural, are tatarised Finns. The ludmucks may be
taken as the jiurest type of the Mongols ; they are short, swarthy, broad-
shouldered horsemen, black-haired and black-eyed, the eyes slanting down

1 Ukraine (Slav., a frontier country or march), a name first given by the Poles to the
frontier country towards the Tatars, afterwards to the fertile regions on both sides of
the middle Dnieper.

2 The name Finn is of foreign origin. The people call themselves Suomelaiset = lake
or fen people, in reference to their lake-studded country.

EUROPEAX RUSSIA. 257

towards tlie flat nose. In the tundra region of the Arctic shores dwell the
dwarfed Samoycd pagans, the original people of all the northern Asiatic plain,
now driven to the borders of the icy sea, living by hunting and by tiieir rein-
deer herds. Je.vjs (about two millions) are most numerous in Poland and in
the south-western provinces between that country and the Black Sea ; amongst
foreigners the most prominent place is held hy i\\& Germans (nearly a million)
of the Baltic provinces, and by the Sifcdes of Finland.

5. Religion. — Nearly 93 per cent of the peoj^le of Russia
are Christians, and of these by far the Lirger proportion belong to
the Eusso-Greek Church, the established one of the State, which
separated from the Byzantine Patriarchate in the sixteenth centuiy.
It differs from the Church of Rome in denying the spiritual supre-
macy of the Pope, in prohibiting the celibacy of the clergy, and in
authorising the study of the Scriptures in the vernacular tongue.

The Emperor is the defender of the Church, and executes the judgments
of its Synod, which takes the place of the former Patriarch. No member of
the Russo-Greek Church may renounce his creed, on pain of detention for life in
a convent. Among the minor religious bodies in Russia, the Roman Catholics,
Avho have their greatest number of adherents in Poland, come first ; the Jewish
traders of Poland and the south-western provinces, who are not permitted to
settle in Russia proper, next in numbers ; then the Protestants, who are
found chiefly in the Baltic provinces nearest to Germany ; Armenians, in
the south. Followers of the rites of Sfiamanisvi, the ancient belief of the
north Asiatic tribes, sacrificing animals to propitiate evil demons, and of
Lamaism, the corrupt Buddliism of Tibet, occur in smaller numbers along
the Asiatic border. These are the broad religious divisions of the country ;
hut it is not unusual to find towns which are as diversified in the religion
of their inhabitants as in the languages spoken in them. Astrakhan, for
example, has Greek, Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Armenian churches,
many Mohammedan mosques, and a Lama temple. On Fridays the Tatars go
to mosque ; on Saturday the black silk kaftans of the Jews appear ; on
Sunday the Greek " kolakolniks" or belfreys ring out.

6. Education. — From the clcse of the sixteenth century on-
ward till 1861, the greater portion of the inhabitants of Russia
were serfs, belonging either to the crown or to private individuals.
By imperial decree in that year, coming into force in 1863, serfdom
was abolished. Under these circumstances it is not surprising tluit
the masses of the people in Russia are without education. That pro-
gress is being made in this direction is shown by the fact that,
whereas in 1860 only two out of every hundred recruits for the
army could read and write, in 1870 eleven per cent were found
to have these acquirements.

Finland is in advance of all other parts of the empire in respect of educa-
tion ; it possesses a separate system ; but the rest of Euro]iean Russia is
now divided into educational districts, which correspond to tlie seats of the
Russian universities at Musrow (the oldest, 175.")), at Dorpal, and St. Peters-
lure/, in the Baltic provinces ; at Vilnu and Warsaw in the west ; at Kn'f,

258 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

Kharkof, and Odessa, in the south-west ; and at Kazan in the east ; and con-
siderable sums are devoted by the government to public instruction.

7. Russian became a written language only in the time of Peter the Great,
when the dialect of Great Russia obtained the supremacy, and was first sharply
distinguished from the old Slavic. It has a very rich vocabulary, and is spoken
most purely about Moscow. The Polish language is one of the most widely
spread branches of the Slavic, and surpasses all others in euphony and in
brevity. The Finnish language presents striking points of resemblance to
that of the Tatars ; it has a considerable literatiu'e, and the use of it is encour-
aged by the Russian government.

8. Government. — Russia is an absolute hereditary monarchy.
The administration of the empire is entrusted to four great councils,
which centre in the private Cabinet of the Emperor.

The first of these, the " Council of the Empire," has departments of legisla-
ture, civil administration, and finance ; the second, the "Directing Senate," is
the High Court of Justice of the empire, and sits partly at St. Petersburg,
partly at Moscow ; the third, the ''Holy Synod," superintends the religious
affairs of the empire ; and the fourth is the "Council of Ministers" (of foreign
affairs, war, navy, interior, public works, etc.) The grand-duchy of Finland
has a partly independent government, under a senate nominated by the
"Emperor Grand-Duke," and chosen — one half from the nobles of Finland,
half from the citizens and peasants. The government of Poland was abso-
lutely incorporated with that of Russia in 1868.

The old ill-built and purely Russian capital, Moscow (602,000), with its
Kremlin, or citadel (like the Acropolis of Athens or the Capitol of Rome),
may be compared to the heart of the country ; St. Petersburg (668,000), the
modern capital, a city of palaces and officials, on the Neva, protected by its
island fortress of Kronstadt, is like the eye of Russia, which mirrors itself
in and copies the outer world of western Europe.

9. Political Divisions. — For administrative purposes the
empire is divided into general governments or viceroyalties, govern-
ments (60 in European Russia), and districts. The most widely
recognised divisions of the country are, however, those which have
been previously indicated, viz. —

Great Russia (Muscovy) — All the central and northern regions
to the Arctic shores. Chief towns — Moscow, Tula.

Little Russia, or the Ukraine — In the south-west. Chief town —
Kiyef.

Eastern Russia. Chief towns — Astrakhan, Kazan, Samara, Saratof.

South Russia — Along the Black Sea. Chief towns — Odessa,
Nikolayef, Kishenef.

Western Ru-'^sia — Including VolhjTiia, Podolia, and other por-
tions of the former kingdom of Poland. Chief town — Vilna.

The Baltic Provinces — ^The coast-lands of the Gulfs of Finland
and Riga. • Chief towns — St. Petersburg, Revel, Riga.

The Grand-Duchy of Finland — In the north-west, next Scan-
dinavia. Chief towns — AViborg, Helsingfors, Abo.

Poland — In the west, next Germany. Chief town — Warsaw.

EUKOPEAN RUSSIA. 259

10. Products and Industries. — Excepting along the Tundra
belt on the Arctic coasts, in Finland, and in the saline Steppes of
the south-east, the cultivation of gram extends all over the great
Russian plains.

Rye and barley, oats and flax, are the chief crops in the north ; wlieat and
vines, hemp and tobacco, the products of ^le centre and the south. The
south central governments, extending from the Upper Oka to the Ukraine on
the Dnieper, may be regarded as the granary of Russia, for they produce a
third of all its corn supply. Russia is thus most important of all as a grain-
producing country : its forests extend over about 40 per cent of the surface —
pine, and fir, and birch in the north ; oak and elm and lime in the centre
and south ; and their timber is sent down the Niemen and Vistula to the
Baltic, and to Arkhangel in the ^Vllite Sea, in enormous quantities for the
supply of western Europe. In Russia itself the larger jirojjortion of the houses
are built of wood. The Steppes of the south are the great pastoral lands of
Russia, which possess more than 45 millions of sheep, most of them j-ielding
fine wool ; and fully 20 millions each of cattle and horses. Russian leather
is famous. Swine are also kept in very large numbers all over the land :
the export of bristles and brushes from Russia is very large. Reindeer form
the wealth of the Lapps and Samoyeds in the north ; camels of the Tatars in
the south-eastern Steppes. Hunting the bear, wolf, fox, and deer, and trap-
ping the sable in the forests for their skins, give employment to many : the
Caspian, as well as the Sea of Azov, the Black Sea, and the great rivers, are rich
mjish — tunny, sturgeon, salmon, anchovy. Most caviare is made at Astrakhan
on the Caspian. The great mining region of European Russia is the Ural belt,
which yields a greater profusion of metals — gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, and
platinum — than any other part of Europe. Coal is mined in the basin of the
Donetz, a tributary of the lower Don in the south, in the Vistula basin in
Poland, round Moscow, and in the Ural, but the yield is insignificant in com-
parison with that of Britain or Belgium. Tlie lakes round the north of the
Caspian depression (Lake Elton especially) yield salt in great quantity.

1 1 . Manufactvires. — Agricultural and pastoral industries em-
ploy about 76 per cent of the inhabitants of Russia, manufactures
only about 15 per cent ; and almost all the workers are peasants,
Avho turn to these occupations while the long winter holds the
land.

Most manufactures are clustered round St. Feterstmrf/ and Moscow, where
the largest cotton and silk factories are found. Flax-spinning and the manu-
facture of rough linen and hemp, and especially of sailcloth and ropes, is im-
portant and wide-spread, not only in the seaports, but in several of tlie inland
towns. Most important of all the metal industries are the ironworks of
Perm in the Ural region, of Petersburg, and of Poland. The imperial cannon-
foundry is at Petrozavodsk, on the west shore of Lake Onega.

12. Trade. — Towards western Europe Russia sends out raw
products, receiving back manufactured goods : towards Asia its
relations are exactly reversed. The great navigable rivers facilitate
traffic to the seaports in summer ; in Avinter all the coasis are
closed ; but just at that time the snow covering the land renders

260 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

the transport of goods over it in sledges an easy matter, so that
inland conimiinications are busiest at this season.

The roads of the empire are well maintained, and since the first little
railway was finished at Petersburg in 1838, twelve thousand miles of iron way
liave been extended over the European part of the empire. Trade with
Europe passes mainly through the ports of tlie Baltic — St. Petersburg, Kron-
stadt, Riga (103,000), and Revel; of the Black Sea, in the south — Odessa
(185,000), Taganrog (the emporium of the trade of the Don), Rostof, and
Berdiansk ; and through Arkhangel, on the White Sea in the north ; but
also to a large extent across the western land frontier through Germany and
Austria, mainly by two great highways of commerce which finite Petersburg
and Moscow with Warsaw (309,000). The great eastern highway to Siberia,
often crowded with endless caravans, passes from Moscow, through Kazan ou
the Volga, across the Ural at the fortified mining town of Eka.tennhurg : the
chief south-eastern routes cross the Volga at Samara, (51,000) and Saratof
(85,000), to pass by Orenburg to southern Asia. Through Astrakhan and
by the Casjiian, trade with Persia is maintained.

13. Within the country exchanges are effected at great annual
fairs, each of which draws to it a busy concourse from all sides.

The largest of these, the greatest fair in the world, is held at Nishni-
Novgorod, at the confluence of the Volga and tlie Oka, nominally from the
15th of July till the 15th of August, though its vast business cannot be
restricted within these limits. Merchants (Persians, Hindus, Chinese),
strangers, to the number of about 200,000, come from all parts of the world
to this fair, to which vast quantities of goods of every kind are brought — tea,
silks, skins and furs, prints, woollens, etc. The fair of Irbit, beyond Ekater-
inburg, ou the Asiatic side of the Ural in the government of Perm, for Siberian
produce chiefly, held in February and March, is the next in importance. Tlie
great wool fair and horse market held at Kharkof {1Q\,QQ0), in the Ukraine,
stands next ; about 80,000 sledges come over the snow to this winter fair.
Kishenef {XQIfiQQ), near the Dniester, in Bessarabia, nearest to the Romanian
plain (chiefly Jewish) is another great trading town of the Steppe region,
owning immense herds, and dealing largely in wheat and tallow.

14. European Russia has nineteen fortresses of the first rank, its great
arsenals being those of Petersburg, and its guarding fortress of the island of
Kronstadt ; of A'iV/(r27,000), on the Dnieper, in the Ukraine ; and Nikolayef,
the strongly fortified naval port of Russia on the Black Sea, at the mouth of the
Bug, not far from the great grain port of Odessa. The harbour of Sevastopol,
in the south of the Crimea, was formerly the great Russian fortress and
naval station in the Black Sea ; but it was destroyed by the British and
French in the memorable siege of 1854-55, and by the subsequent ti'eaty of
Paris its military works are not to be restored.

ASIA— GENERAL.

1. AsiA,^ the main mass of the great continent of the old world
(the East, the Levant, the Oriental or morning land, in contrast to
the Occidental or evening land of Europe in the west), is of surpass-
ing interest as the cradle of the human race, and of all religion,
wisdom, and civilisation. Its enormous area (17,210,000 square
miles), spreads out over nearly five times the extent of the great
western promontory of Europe, and forms a third of all the land of
the earth's surface.

Between Cape Romania, the terminal point of the Malay peninsula, whic''
nins south into the warm Indian Ocean, and Cape Chelyuskin, which juts
into the ice-covered Arctic Sea in the far north, there lies an overland journey
of 5300 miles ; and from the narrow water-line of the Suez Canal, joining the
Red Sea to the Mediterranean, and separating Asia from Africa, to where East
Cape, only 36 miles distant from the American shores, runs out to form
Bering Strait, and to divide the great Pacific Ocean from the Arctic Sea, one
might travel by land for 6700 miles, or for more than a quarter of the distance
round the globe.

2. Whilst the low-lying northern side of Asia next the Arctic
Sea is comparatively even in outline, the southern and eastern coasts,
towards the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, correspond remarkably to
the branching form of Europe.

Here, as there, three well-marked southern peninsulas appear — those of
Arabia, of Hindustan, and Farther India : here, also, the amount of dismem-
Ijerment increases towards the east. Arabia, like Spain, is most compact,
and has the fewest islands round its shores. Ceylon recalls Sicily, and
Farther India, like Greece, is the most broken of the three, with Malacca for
its Peloponessus, and the Great East Indian Archipelago for its Cyclades and
Sporades, with directions reversed : on the eastern front Kamtchatka, enclosing
the Sea of Okhotsk, resembles the larger Scandinavian peninsula, with the
smaller Baltic ; Japan, with its enclosed waters, the British Isles with their
North Sea. But the East and Yellow Seas of China, within the Corea, and
the South China Sea, enclosed by the great islands of the archipelago, have
no parallel on the European side.

3. Lowlands. — Asia is essentially the cont inent of great

^ Carl Ritter believes that the name Asia exteiiili'<i to the coiitiuciit from that of a
people living on tlie nortli side of the Caucasus, uiidm IMcilcniy i:ills tlie Axati. Others
derive it from a Hebrew or Assyrian root wliich signilics tlie "East, or the rising
sun."

262 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

mountains and table-lands. It is only in the npvtb-west that low^_
lands spread out very extensively. There the Turanian and
Siberian lowland, separated from the plains of Europe only by
the narrow belt of the Ural, extends from the shore of the Caspian
away north to merge into the ice-covering of the Arctic Sea. On
the west the plain has an enormous width, but farther east the
mountain region, approaching nearer the icy sea, narrows the low-
land till it becomes a comparatively small coast plain, sending
branches southward along the great rivers, especially along the val-
ley of the mighty Lena.

The surface of the great plain of northern Asia also exhibits widely
different landscapes. Farthest on the south-west, from the Caspian to
Bokhara or Turkistan, where the Sea of Aral and Lake Balkash appear as the
relics of a great Mediterranean, large tracts of the plain are occupied by
deserts of drift sand, such as the Turkoman Desert and the sand-waste of
Kizil Kum, between the Amu and the Syr Daria ; but where the rivers cross
these, and whenever their waters can be dra%vn off for irrigation, the dreary
expanse of the desert is relieved by the brilliant gi-een of rich vegetation, as
in the gardens round the cities of Samarkand, or of Khiva, which seem in
contrast tlie very image of Paradise. About the parallels of 48° to 50° N.
lat., the deserts give place gradually to the region of grassy steppes, where
rain is less scanty. The southern part of this region of the Asiatic plain is
known as the Kirghiz Stejjpe, occupied by the little, middle, and great
hordes of the nomadic Kirghiz, whose wealth is iu their flocks of broad-
tailed sheep and their camel droves. Herds of antelopes also gallop over these
plains. Northward the Steppe of IsJdm, on both sides of that tributary of
the Obi, is also a great pastoral country of Western Siberia ; and the Stej^pe
of Barabinsk, between the Irtish and Obi, with its endless lakes, yields
salt for the whole region. In the hot summer, clouds of midges hover over
the grazing herds, but winter brings a covering of hard frozen snow, over
which the sledge caravans pass on their way to the winter fairs. Gradually,
in about 55° N., the steppe begins to be covered with trees, and we enter
the forest zone, with its woods of pine, and fir, and birch, sheltering innumer-
able squirrels, martens, and sables, bears, foxes, and reindeer. Here the Rus-
sian and Samoyed hunters carry on their winter fur campaign. Approaching
the Arctic circle the trees thin out, and give place at last to tlie bare swampy
levels of the tundra region, over which winter holds sway during the gi-aater
part of the year. In the tundras the nomadic Samoyed hunts and fishes, and
hither, in the short summer, the reindeer come to crop the mosses, the only
vegetation that can ripen in the rigorous climate. So level are the tundras,
that along the coast in winter it would be difficult to tell where land ceased,
and the ice-covering of the Arctic Sea began, were it not for the line of drift
timber marking the shore. Here, also, the polar bear and Arctic fox roam
about, and the frozen soil is like a gi-eat graveyard of the mammoth, whose
curving tusks are regularly sought for by the Siberian ivory hunters.

The remaining lowlands of Asia occur isolated along the south and eastern
borders of the continent. Farthest west is the great plain of Mesopotamia,
once the seat of high civilisation, irrigated from the Euphrates and Tigi-is by
innumerable canals, and cultivated like a great garden, so as to sujiport a
large population round the cities of Nineveh and Babylon, but now apjiearing
as a great dry steppe, green with vegetation only iu the wet season. Over it
the hot winds are ever extending the sands of the Arabian desert, and nomadic
herdsmen and plundering Bedwins have taken the place of busy citizens.

ASIA — GENERAL. 263

The next extensive plain we reach is that of Hindustan, between the
Himalaya edge of the great Asiatic tahle-land and the Deccan plateau of
Southern India. In this there are two widely different regions. Immediately
east of the Indus, the plain which reaches from the Arabian Sea to the parallel
of 31° N. is almost entirely occupied by the scantily inhabited Indian desert,
with its strange succession of sandy ridges without a single stone, sometimes
rising as high as 200 feet above the valleys between them, called the " Thurr"
and the " Put" a region of hard level soil abruptly bordering on the former.
The eastern half of the Indian plain, in the basin of the Ganges, may be
compared to its miniature representative, the plain of Lombardy in Southern
Europe, for the broad alluvial lowland of the Ganges is at once the most
fertile, the most cultivated, and most densely peopled region of India.
The delta mouths of the Ganges, however, like those of the Po, have their
unhealthy swamps, the mxiddy mangrove-covered " Smidarbans."

Lastly, on the eastern side of the continent, we come to the wide alluvial
2)Iain of China, extending from the great wall on the north dowm to the lower
Yang-tse river, e\'ery corner of which is irrigated and cultivated to support the
enormous population of nearly two hundred millions of human beings that
crowd its surface.

4. Highlands. — The g reat mass of the Asiatic highlands
extends through the whole continent, from the IMediterranean on
the south-west roiind to Bering Strait on tlie north-east. Midway
nearly, the plains of north-western India and of Southern Turkistan
approaching one another, the highland is compressed to its narrowest,
so that two unequal portions of it, an eastern and a western, are
only united by the istlimus-like range of the Hindu-Ki'.sh, from the
opposite sides of which tributaries flow to the Indus and to the Oxus.

The mass which rises east of the Hindu-Kush is by far the grander. Its
southern border is marked bj^ the giant walls of the Himalaya, which reach
higher above the sea-level than any other mountains on the globe, and have the
highest peak of all. Mount Everest, 29,002 feet. South-eastward it runs out
into the fan-like ranges which form Farther India ; eastward it gives off the
Nan-ling and Pe-ling mountains of China ; north-eastward its edge is defined
by the Kinghan Mountains, and, continuing their direction, the Yahlonoi and
Stanovoi mountains extend away to Bering Strait. Towards the Siberian
lowlands its limits are formed by the mountains which enclose Lake Baikal, by
the Sayan Moxmtnins, the Altai, and the Tarhagntai and Alatan ranges
farther west ; and at the head of the Oxus the circuit is completed by the
great plateau land of the Pnmir Stepj^e, called by its inhabitants " Bam-i-
dunia," the roof of the world. Within the limits of this huge division of
the Asiatic highland three regions are broadly distinguished. There are (1)
the great tahle-l-and of Tibet, at an average elevation of about 13,000 feet,
marked out between the Himalaya ranges, wliich support it on the south, and
the Karakoram and Kueiilun, which form a similar if not so elevated buttress
to the plateau, on its nortliern or inner side. (2) The basin of the Taririi
river in Eastern Turkistan, and the central Gobi region of Mongolia, at an
average height of 3000 to 4000 feet above the sea. The western jiart of this
second region is very clearly defined in Eastern Turkistan, where tlie Knenlun
on the south, and the Thian Shan or Celestial Mountains descending into it on
the north, are united by the Pamir plateau on the west, to form a great bay of
mountains round Kashgar and Yarkand. (3) The third region embraces the
series of higher plateaus wliich rise towards the northern side of the mass,

264 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY,

between the inner slope of tlie Thian Shan, and the outer one of the Altai
and other ranges which stand along the Siberian border of tlie highland.

5. The division of the highland which rises west of the Hindu-Kush isth-
mus opens out first into the hroad plateau lands of Afglmnistan and Persia,
the outer edges of which also are very clearly defined. On the northern side
the ranges continuing the Hindu-Kush along the south of the Turkoman desert
run west to join the Elhurz range (Mount Demavend, 18,464 ft.), which falls
abruptly to the southern coast of the Caspian. Towards the Indian plain the
Sidainum range forms the edge of the plateau, and towards the Indian Ocean,
the Persian Gulf, and the plain of Mesopotamia, the parallel chains of South
Western Persia, the Kohrud, the Mountains of Pars and of Kurdistan,^ give a
distinct and well-marked limit. ^Vhere the northern and southern border
ranges of the Persian highland approach one another west of tlie Southern
Caspian, they form the mountain land of Armenia, with Ararat (16,916 ft.) for
its central point. Farther west the highland again opens out in the broad
plateaii of Asia Minor, whicli has the Taurus ranges for its southern buttress.
From the heights of Western Kurdistan also a line of height runs southward
along the coasts of SjTia to form the Lebanon ; and the continuations of its
double chain are the plateaus of Judma, and of Moah east and west of the
remarkable fissure of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, the deejoest hollow of the
earth's surface.

6. Besides the main mass of the Asiatic highland in its two great divisions
above sketched, several isolated highlands are noticed. One of these nearly
fills the desert land of Arabia, rising at once from the Red Sea coasts and
descending gradually towards the Mesopotamian plain. The highest part of
this plateau is in that part of its edge which faces the Gulf of Oman, where
the summit of Jehel Akhdar, the "green motmtain," is not far short of 10,000
feet in height. Another isolated highland is that of the Deccan in Soiithern
India, marked out between the Western and Eastern Ghats or "passes," by
which it is ascended from the Arabian sea-coast, or from that of the Bay of
Bengal; and by the Vindhya Mountains a\otig its northern edge, facing the
]3lain of the Ganges. A third important detached mass is that of the Sikhota
Alin or Tatar Mountains, and their soutliern prolongation, the Shan Alin,
and the high moiuitains which give its form to the peninsula of the Corea.
The valleys of the Amur and of the Liao-ho separate this mountam region
almost completely from the main mass of the Asiatic heights.

7. Lastly, we have to notice the chain of volcanic heights which forms so
many remarkable loops along the eastern or Pacific front of the continent from
Kamtchatka (Klyutcliev vol., 15,760 ft.) ; through the Kurile Islands to
Ja])an (Fusi Yama vol., 14,180 ft.) ; thence through the Liu-Kiu Islands to
Formosa (Mount Morrison, 10,800 ft.) ; and from that through the Philippines
to Borneo (Kini-Balu, 13,698 feet), Sumatra, and Java, which last has a greater
number of volcanic cones than are to be found on any land of similar extent
on the earth.

8. To obtain a general idea of the character of the great highland mass
of Central Asia, we may suppose ourselves to be travelling from the plains
of India northward to those of Siberia. From the cultivated plain of the
Ganges we sliould reach first the dreaded forest belt of the " Terai " along
the base of the mountains. Having passed its swamps, leaving the tropical
vegetation of tlie lower slopes of the Himalaya, we should find ourselves, at
a height of 4000 or 5000 feet, in forests of oaks, walnuts, and chestnuts, like
those of Southern Europe. Higher up the face of the Himalaya, from 8000 to
10,000 feet, this forest is replaced by rhododendrons, and above the latter

1 Sometimes collectively called by the old Greek name of Zagros.

ASIA GENERAL. 265

height to 12,000 feet by pine trees. Above 15,000 feet vegetation becomes
scanty, though plants have been gathered up to 19,000 feet above the sea.
Then follows the suowj' region, which gives its name the "abode of snow"^
to this higliest range in the world, and which sends down gi'eat glaciers, in
comparison with which those of the Alps are insignificant. The jjasses, always
difficult, lead through the snowy zone, the lowest of them being as high as the
most elevated of the Alpine passes of Europe. Having crossed the crest of the
snowy range, we would enter the bare region of Tibet, the highest plateau land
of the world, where the herdsman tends his flocks of long-haired shawl-wool
goats, his sheep and Yak oxen, and where grain can oidy be cultivated in the
deejoer valleys. This is also the country of the wild horse and of the great
wild sheep or Argali. Descending the northern edge of the Kuenlun from the
Tibetan plateau into the central basin of the Tarim, we should reach the Takla
Makan desert, which is a continuation of the sandy Gobi, with bordering steppe
land next the bases of the mountains on each side. Ascending the opposite
range of the Thian Shan, and entering Zungaria, we should find ourselves again
in a more favoured Alpine region, with cultivable valleys and woods reaching
up to tlie snow limit, and grassy Alps to which the Kirghiz resort for summer
pastures. Lastly, descending to the lowland, we should enter the pine forests
of the Siberian plain.

9. Hydrography. — The rivers of Asia flow oiitward from the
edges of the great highhmds of the interior to the Indian Ocean, the
Pacific, and the Arctic Seas ; but within the borders of the great
plateaus, and in tlie dry regions of the steppes and deserts, there is
an immense area from which no rivers escape to the ocean.

The greatest rivers are those which flow northward over the Siberian low-
lands to the Arctic Sea. The Ohi, 2700 miles in length, richest in fish of all
the rivers of Siberia, aflbrds a great summer thoroughfare for all western Siberia
through its main channel and that of its tributary the Irtish. The latter
gathers its head streams in the Zaisan Lake, 80 square miles in area, and
1500 feet above the sea, in a valley of the Altai. Its channel is twice flooded,
first when the snows of the plains melt in May, and again in July when the
mountains in the south send down their supj^lies, inundating the land ; the
plain then presents the appearance of a waste of waters, broken only by the
tree-tops which rise above its surface. At its mouth it freezes in October, and
the ice does not break up till May.

The Yenisei is a still larger river, ranked, by Russian geogi'aphers, after
the Mississippi. Its head waters, or rather those of its main branch the Angara,
collect in the great Lake Baikal,'^ 1280 feet above the sea, which is the greatest
fresh lake in Asia, 300 miles in length (London to Edinburgh), regularly traversed
in summer by steamboats, and from Novemlier till Aj)ril by sledges over its ice
covering. The Selenga, the main feeder of the Baikal, has an upper reservoir
in the Kos-gol, in the mountains south-west of Irkutsk, also a great ex]:)anse,
70 miles long and 25 wdde. Till quite recently tlie traflic on the Yenisei by
summer steamer and winter sledge was confined to Siberian interchange alone,
Vmt now the practicability of the navigation of the Kara Sea from western
Europe has been demonstrated, and tliis part of the north-east passage will,
doubtless, be the line of an immense summer trade in future, to bring the
abundant furs, flax, wheat, and hemp more speedily to market.

The Lena, rising in the mountains near Lake Baikal, is the great artery of
trade and communication in eastern Siberia ; it begins to be a navigable river

1 Sanskrit, Him, snow, dlaya, place. 2 Turkish, Bei-kul = Rich lake.

266 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

at no great distance from its sonrce, and between Kirensk, its point of com-
munication witli Irkutfjk, and Yakutsk at its great Icnee lower down, a con-
siderable traffic is maintained. At Yakutsk it is frozen over for more than 200
days in the year (October to May).

10. Coming round to the Pacific slope, the first great river we meet with
is the Amur, which the Tatars call " Karamuren," and tlie Mauchus " Sakhalin-
ula," both meaning " Black river," from its dark-browii colour, and the Chinese,
"Che-lung-kiang," or river of the black dragon. Formed by the confluence
of the Shilka and Argun at the northern extremity of the Kinghan range, and
joined below by the Sungari from Manchuria, the Amur is a great river,
destined to be of the utmost importance as the highway of Russian trade in
eastern Siberia. It is navigable by steamers up to Chita on the Ingoda, a
tributary of the Shilka, a distance of nearly 2500 miles by river.

The two great rivers of China, the Hoang-ho, or " Yellow river," and the
Yang-tse-Kiang, the " son of the ocean," have their head streams near one
another in the mountains of eastern Tibet, and after widely divergent courses
tend to meet again near their moutlis. The Jloang-ho, " the trouble of the
sons of Hona," is a wayward and turbulent river, which has changed its lower
course over the level plain of China no less than nine times witliin the period
of historical record. Its last change, accompanied by great calamities through
the bursting of its embankments and the Inirying of entire villages in mud,
took place from 1851 to 1853, when it broke through its northern banks and
took a course to the Gulf of Pe-chi-li, in place of its old channel which reached
the Yellow Sea about 600 miles north of the mouth of the Yang-tse. It is little
used for navigation, Chinese vessels being unable to stem its current, and in
its present condition it is unserviceable for steam traffic.

The Yang-tse, on the other hand, is the great commercial highway of
China. It emerges from the grand mountain gorges of Tibet at a distance of
about 1300 miles from its source, there making its way through narrow clefts
with precipitous walls of rock, so narrow in some places that boats passing up
or dovm keep to their O'wu side of the stream to avoid collision. The Tsi-tan
rapid at the mouth of the Metan gorge, -^ about 1200 miles from its mouth,
marks the limit of its navigation for larger vessels ; but the Chinese traders
ascend it for fully 1000 miles farther, tracking or towing the boats up the
perilous rapids by the united efforts of from fifty to two hundred men, who
earn their living partly in this way, partly by pillaging the many wrecks that
occur. The vast size and importance of the lower river may be estimated
when it is remembered that ocean steamers, those which bring the freight of
tea to England, can easily ascend to Hankow, 700 miles from the sea, to take
in cargo there.

Tlie Soyig-ht, the river of Tong-king, which rises in the Chinese province
of Y^un-nan, lias recently been explored by French travellers with a view to its
utilisation as a highway of trade.

11. Still farther south, approaching the slope to the Indian Ocean, we
come upon the Me-Khong, or Cambodia, the greatest river of Farther India,
which also has its sources in the mountains of Yun-nan, and which thence flows
south for 1700 miles through Siam and Cambodia to form its great delta of
Lower Cochin-China, now held by the French. In 1866-68 a French expedi-
tion explored a large part of this great river, which in many jilaces is narrowed
by rocks and by sandbanks to such an extent as to make it improbable that it
will ever become a great higliway of trade.

The Menam, or " mother of waters," the central river of Siam, the river of the
busy port of Bangkok, like another Nile, fertilises its banks by its annual overflow.

1 In 31^ N.

ASIA — GENERAL. 267

Coming round the Malay peninsula to the Indian Ocean, we first reach the
Saliven, a fine river, the mouth and lower course of which are included in
Britisli Burmah, and its neiglibour river the Irawadi. Both of these have their
head waters also in the mountains of Yuu-nan : the former is navigable for
400 miles above its seaport of Maulmain to where it Ijreaks by rapids through
a mountain gorge : the latter can be ascended without difficulty for nearly 600
miles to a defile through which it passes above the town of Bamo.

Next we come to the twin rivers Brahviaputra and Ganges, with their huge
delta at the head of the Gulf of Bengal. For a long time it was not known
which of the rivers of south-eastern Asia received the waters of the Sanpo,
the great river of the Tibetan plateau which flows eastward behind the ranges
of the Himalaya, and on which vessels of considerable size jiass and repass,
at an elevation of 13,000 feet above the sea : there is now, however, little doubt
that the Sanpo is the upi^er course of the Brahmainitra, and that it breaks
through tlie Himalayan chain, turning south in about 95° E., where it has the
name Dihong. Reaching the lowland of Assam it reverses its earlier direction,
turning west and south-west to join its waters to those of the Ganges on the
east of the delta. Though rapid, the lower Brahmaputra is navigable through-
out Assam to where it takes the name of the Dibong in issuing from the
mountains. The Ganges (Ganga), the sacred river of the Hindus, rises in a
snow-field of the southern face of the Himalaya, at an elevation of nearly
14,000 feet above the sea, rushing down as a torrent to the highest accessible
point on its banks (10,300 feet), where the temple of Gangotri is built. To
the Hindu a bath or a drink of the sacred water at this point has wonderful
atoning virtues, and those who cannot themselves make the pilgrimage hither
are supplied with flasks of the holy element bottled by the priests of Gangotri.
At Hard war, 1050 miles from the delta, the Gauges leaves the mountains,
and entering the gi-eat plain becomes at once a uavigalile river. At Allahabad
the Jumna, which has followed a parallel course from the mountains, adds its
strength, thence by Benares and Patna, it passes eastward to weave its many
mouths with those of the Brahmaputra, and to wage a battle twice daily with
the inflowing tide among the malarious islands of tlie Sundarbans. One of
tlie westerly delta branches, the Hugli, on which Calcutta stands, is the
most frequented highway to the sea.

The Indus, the gi-eat western river of India, has its source like the Brahma-
putra high up in the dreary tableland of Tibet, and not far from the sacred
Mansarawar Lakes, which lie between the heads of these two rivers at an
elevation of 14,500 feet above the sea. Its course between the Himalaya and
the Karakoram ranges is first north-west ; like the Brahmaputra it then turns
south to find its way by deep gorges to the Indian plain. At Attock, where
it is still 1000 feet above sea-level, and 950 miles from the sea, it receives the
Kahnl river, of nearly equal volume, and this is the limit point of its naviga-
tion, though it cannot be ascended during the floods from May till September.
Midway from Attock to the sea it is joined on the left by the Panjnad, which
brings to it the united waters of the Jelum, Chinah, Jiavi, Bias, and Satlej,
which make up the "five rivers" of north-western India that give its name
to the country of the Panjab. ^

From its shifting channels and sandbanks, and the arid nature of the
country through wjiich it flows, tlie Indus is of less value as a highway of trafiic
tlian most other rivers of equal magnitude ; and in winter or the season of
low water only one of its numerous delta outlets is available for passage to the
sea ; yet the Indus Steam Flotilla Cnin])any keejis up regular communications
between Kotri above the Delta and Multan in the Panjab.

1 Persian, panj, five, db, water or river.

268 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

The great rivers which embrace Mesopotamia, the Euphrates, and its twin
brother the Tigris, are perhaps destined to play an important part in history
again, as parts of a great higliway to India ; the former, from its source near
Mount Ararat in Armenia, flows first westward like the Indus through the
mountain ranges, to turn south into the lowland, after having approached to
within 100 miles of the Mediterranean. It is significant that just at this
point (at Bir, 1150 miles from the sea) the river becomes navigable for light
draught steamers and leads thence in a direct line to the head of the Persian
Gulf. The Tigris, the " arrowy," springing within the gi-eat bend of the upper
Euphrates, is a more rapid river, bringing down great quantities of mud ;
joining the Euplirates about 120 miles from the head of the Gulf, it forms
with it the deep tidal channel called the Shut el Arab, navigable for ships of
500 tons. At present these great highways stand almost idle.

12. If we turn now to look at tlie interior or continental
drainage area of Asia, the space from wliicli no rivers escape to the
sea, we find that it embraces both the wide dry region of the low-
land which surrounds the Caspian and the sea of Aral, and the
interior plateaus of both great di\dsions of the Asiatic highlands,
Tibet, Turkistan, and Mongolia in the east, and Persia and Arabia
west of the isthmus of the Hindu-Kush. To the lowland region
belong the great residual lakes of a former Mediterranean, the
Caspian, which we have already noticed in connection with Europe,
the Aral, and Lake Balkash, with many smaller salt-pools.

The Aral, the "sea of islands" (25,870 square miles), is a wider and
larger expanse than the Irish Sea, and we may comjiare a voyage across it in
one of the Russian steamers which now navigate it to one from Liverpool to
Dublin. But it is much shallower, and the gigantic reeds, 20 feet high, which
surround its shores are ever gaining upon its receding and brackish waters,
and forming new islands. Though it lies in the same latitude as southern
France, it has ice a foot thick over it in winter. Unlike the Casjiian, its level
is 157 feet above that of the ocean. Tlie rapid evaporation from its surface
is compensated by its feeders, the Syr Daria (or Jaxartes), and the Amu Darict,
(Oxus) from the Thian Shan and the Pamir edges of tlie great central high-
land.

Both of these rivers, the largest of those in the continental drainage system
of Asia, are now navigated by small Russian steamers, though both have a
rapid flow.

The curving Balkash Lake, 310 miles long, receiving seven streams from
the Ala Tan mountains which rise soutli of it, the cliief of these being the Hi,
is a still shallower expanse, the greatest depth found in it by the Russian
explorers being only 70 feet, and its waters are bitterly salt. Though in the
same latitude as the Aral, it has a more continental position, and it is also
much higher above sea-level, 780 feet, so that it is frozen over from November
till April. South of it, filling a high mountain valley of the Thian Shan and
Alatau ranges, at a height of about 5000 feet above tlie sea, lies a remarkable
expanse of brackish water called the Issyk-Kul or " warm lake," 120 miles long
from east to west, and more than ten times larger than the lake of Geneva.
It is very deep, and, perhaps mainly on that account, never freezes ; it has,
besides, another peculiarity, that of overflowing occasionally to the Chui river,
one of the many wliich terminate in the smaller salt-lakes of the lowland of
Turkistan.

ASIA GENERAL. 269

Within the continental drainage of the higldand of Asia the most im-
portant river is the Tarim,, ^\\\\ch gathers its waters from the sides of the
crescent of mountains that encircles Kashgar and Yarkand in high Eastern
Turkistan. Many of its head streams are employed in irrigating the cultivated
land round these cities, but the remainder escapes away eastward into the
desert to keep up the supply of Lake Lob, a great marshy expanse at a level
of about 2200 feet above the sea, which was re-dlscovered by a Russian explorer
in January 1877.

13. On each side of the vast central desert, the mountains of Tibet and of
north-western Mongolia form many isolated basins, each with its central lake
fed by the mountain streams. One of the largest of these, not far from the
sources of the Hoang-Ho and Yangtze, is the Koko-nar or "blue lake," 10,500
feet above the ocean, and about 200 miles in circumference. The Tengri-Nor,
called the Namcho or " sky lake," in the vicinity of Lassa, is another of these
large isolated basins.

14. Almost the only river of importance in the western highland region of
interior drainage is the Halmand, which flows south-westward from the
Hindu-Kush with varying volume, to fill the pools of tlie great expanse
called the Hamun Swamp or Seistan Lake on tlie borders of eastern Persia.
At ordinary seasons the Hamun, which reaches through a length of 70 miles,
is for the most part dry and grass-covered, its edges being marked only
by reed beds and clay cliffs. Lakes Urumiah and Van in the mountain
region between Armenia and Kurdistan, west of the southern Caspian, are the
largest lakes of the western division of the highland. The former, 85 miles
long (Portsmouth to Cherbourg), has water of such intense salinity that no fish
can live in it, and it lies at 4000 feet above the sea ; the latter, Lake Van,
5120 feet in elevation, is of somewhat smaller dimensions, and is but slightly
brackish. Saltest of all salt-lakes, perhaps, is that known as the Tvz Gol,
" salt-lake," the centre of the interior drainage of the plateau of Asia Minor,
60 miles long ; no fish can live in it ; birds avoid it, for their wings if they
bathe in it become covered with a stiff salt crust.

1 5. Climate. — Like Europe, Asia belongs for the most part to
the temperate zone ; only the southern promontories and islands
reach into the tropical belt ; only the broad northern border of the
Siberian lowland extends into the Arctic region.

This position of the continent in latitude, together with the
effect of its great highland barrier reaching across it from south-
west to north-east, exposing all its northern slope to cold atmo-
spheric currents from the polar region, and shutting it off from the
warm winds of the south, brings about a broad triple division in its
climates — •

(1) That of Siberia from the icy sea to the base of the moun-
tains ;

(2) That of the Asiatic liighlands ;

(3) That of India and the soutliern promontories.

Besides their contrast in temperature, these three divisions of
the continent are even more strongly distinguished in their supply
of moisture. During summer, or while the vast area of the con-
tinent is beneath the more direct influence of the sun approaching
the northern tropic, the winds are drawn towards the heated land

270 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

from all sides. Thus the peninsular region south-east of the
mountain belt combines heat with an abundant rain supply, brought
to it by the '^monsoon" or seasonal wind from the Indian Ocean
(S.W.), and from the Pacific (S.E.) ; so that Hindustan, Farther
India, Southern China, and the islands which lie beyond, are
characterised by luxuriant plant life. During summer, also, the
winds are drawn in from the thawing Arctic Ocean on the north,
from the Atlantic on the west, and the Pacific on the east, to the
northern slopes of the continent, and bring the moisture supply
which supports the vast forests of Siberia. The outer edges and
slopes of the central mountain region thus intercept the rainfall
which maintains the great rivers which flow from them north,
east, and south, to the sea ; but the plateau lands between these
encircling heights are screened by them from the rain-bearing winds,
and are consequently dry and bare.

Thus it is that all the inuer plateaus of Asia, the vast region of Mongolia,
of Eastern Turkistau, and Tibet, of Persia and Asia Minor on the west, present
landscapes of bare steppes and sandy deserts, with their accompanying dry
atmosphere, cloudless blue skies, and failing and treacherous periodical
streams that end in salt-lakes or evaporate in the sands. Hence also their
inhabitants, compelled to seek fresh pastures and watering-places with almost
every change of season, appear as restless nomads : hence also their inclina-
tion, so frequently illustrated in the history of the continent, to quit their
barren steppes at times, and sweep like a devastating flight of locusts over the
settled nations of the south and west.

16. One very prominent feature of the climate of Asia, which depends on
the vast extent of the continent, one which is more pronounced here than in
any other part of the world, just in proportion as the extent of land is
greater, is its excessive character. We have already noticed in speaking of
the climate of Europe how the extremes of daily and yearly temperature
grew wider and wider apart as we left the maritime climate of our islands and
advanced eastward towards the Russian steppes. Here in Asia the same diverg-
ence continues to increase towards tlie central regions of the great continent.
The Russian army advancing towards Khiva in the campaign of 1839-40 e.x-
perienced vicissitudes of temperature from a heat of over 100° F., to a cold in
which the thermometer sank to 45° below the zero point, and Khiva owed its
safety then to the climate of its surrounding deserts. At Yakutsk, in Eastern
Siberia, the culminating point of excessive climate in all tlie world is reached.
Tlie temperature tliere sinks to tlie lowest known point, many degrees below
the average of the polar ocean to northward of it, and the soil is permanently
frozen, as was proved by the sinking of a shaft, to a depth of 380 feet. From
October on through the winter till April, frost holds sway both day and night,
the average temperature of January being - 45° F. Two months later, the Lena
is free from ice ; the surface soil has thawed for three or four feet, and the
warmth of the short summer is such that grain will ripen in the shallow
stratum of soil above tlie frozen mass beneatli, the mean temperature of July
being 69° F., or as high as that of Paris. Here, then, at what may be called
the pole of excessive climate, the year .is divided into a long winter and a short
summer, with rapid change times between. Outward from this towards south
and east the extremes decrease, till in India, and all the maritime regions of
the south-east, the seasons are marked rather as the dry and the wet, accord-

ASIA GENERAL. 271

ing to the direction of the monsoon wind, than by clianges of temperature, and
in the islands of the East Indies, about the equator, the minimum line of
annual variation of temperature is reached. At Colombo, in Ceylon, for
example, in contrast to Yakutsk, the average temperature of each mouth of
the year remains very nearly the same, in January 80°, in July 81°.

17. ilany parts of Southern Asia are unhealthy. Intermittent fevers are
so common in the lower parts of India that mountain " sanitaria " have been
established for Europeans who can thus enjoy a temperate climate : the
" Sundarbans " of the Ganges delta are believed to be the very home of
cholera : yellow fever imported from the West Indies has spread, especially in
the Moluccas ; the plague which, at different periods from the sixth till the
seventeenth century, visited western Europe, made its devastating march
thither from China. Hence the strictest " quarantine " is maintained all along
the many trade routes of the south of the continent from port to port.

18. Products. — To Central Asia we owe most of the European grains and
tree fruits, oranges and lemons, peaches and apricots, the fig and olive, vines
and nut trees, besides hemp and flax, the garden rose, and many other culti-
vated flowering plants. From India the banana has spread out to all parts of
the tropical world, with rice and the sugar cane, indigo and several sorts of
cotton ; it is also the home of several palms, the coco and the j^iuang, which
gives the areca or lietel nut ; it has the largest poppy fields yielding opium,
giant bamboos, ebony, and teak the most durable of shipbuilding timbers.

China is the native country of the tea plant : the East India islands and
the Malay jieninsula of spices, cinnamon, black pepper, and cloves, and of the
large tree yielding the milky juice that hardens into " gutta percha."

The mountain region of Central Asia is the native land of the horse and the
ass, of the ox and buftalo, the sheep and goat, from which the domesticated
varieties appear to have derived their origin. Both varieties of the camel, the
Arabian and the Bactrian,^ the single and the double humped, are Asiatic.
The Yak ox, with its silky coat of long hair, is to the inhabitants of the high-
land of Tibet what the reindeer is to the tribes of the Siberian plain in the
far north, almost their sole wealth and support. The elephant, of a diff'erent
species from that of Africa, is a native of the tropical parts of Asia ; the lion
of Southern Asia is smaller than that of Africa : the tiger " is peculiar to the
south-eastern parts of the continent : bears are found in all parts, the white
bear in the extreme north, and other formidable species in the more temperate
parts, while those of tlie tropical region are harmless feeders on fruits and
honey. Dogs are used by some of the Siberian tribes as sledge-drawers, others
are fattened in China for food, but in all Mohammedan Asia the dog is an
unclean animal, and prowls about as the scavenger of tlie towns and villages.

Tropical Asia abounds in monkeys, the largest being the "orang outang,"
the " wild man of the woods " of Malacca and the south-eastern islands. Some are
tailed, others, such as the orang, are tailless, but none have 2)rehensile tails like
the American monkeys.

The domestic poultry of all parts of the world seems also to be derived
from the numerous gallinaceous birds of Asia ; the pheasant takes its name from
the Phasis river (the modern liion flowing to the Black Sea from the Caucasus),
from the banks of which it was brought at an early period into Greece ; the
splendid peacock is a native of the East Indies, as the exquisite birds of
paradise are of the south-eastern islands.

1 Bactria = modern Balkh.
- In India, according to official returns, from 15,000 to 20,000 people are lost by snake-
bites, (11- are tlie pnty of wild animals, chiefly tigers, or of the ci'ocudiles and ga vials of
tliii riveis, every year.

272 THE LONDON GEOGRArHY.

Siberia, the flora and faxina of which are almost limited to its fine woods
and fur-bearing animals, makes up for this deficiency by its mineral treasures ;
it is the great mining region of Asia, yielding gold, silver, and platinum, copper
and lead, coal, and graphite better known as black lead ; India has diamonds
and other precious stones ; China its fine porcelain clay or kaolin, besides vast
coal-fields ; the Steppes round the Caspian region are rich in salt ; the steamers
of the Caspian, in place of coal, now make use of the abundant naphtha or
petroleum from the " fire fields " of Baku, to which Gueber fire- worshippers of
Persia formerly made pilgrimages ; the Dead Sea also occasionally casts up large
masses of asphaltum or bitumen, whence its ancient name of Lacus Asphaltites.

19. Peoples. — In contrast to Europe, the greater part of
which is occupied by one race, Asia is peopled by races belonging
to four ethnographic groups — the Aryan^ and the Semitic in the
south-west, the Malay in the south-east, and the Tataric or Mon-
golian occupying all the rest of the Continent, and far exceeding the
others both in area and in numbers.

The Mongolian peoples may be divided into five branches —

(1.) The Eastern Mongolians, including the cultivated Japanese and
Chinese and Coreans, and the less advanced peoples of Farther India (the Indo-
Chinese, Siamese, Burmese, Aracanese, Cambodians, Laos, etc.)

(2.) The Soutlurn Mongolians or Tibetans.

(3.) The Central Mongolians, including the Mongolians proper of Mon-
golia, the Kalmucks of the Altai, the Buryates about Lake Baikal, and the
great branch of the Tunguses, who occupy Manchuria (Manchus), the Amur
basin and borders of the Sea of Okhotsk, and who also reach away north to
the Arctic Sea between the Yenisei and the Lena.

(4.) The Western Mo7igolians or Tatars, including the Tatars and Kirghiz
of south-west Siberia, the Turkmen on the eastern side of the Caspian the
Turks of eastern and western Turkistan, and the isolated Yakuts of the Lena
basin, who wandered to that northern region at some unkno\vn period.

(5.) The Northern Mongolians, embracing all the peoples of northern
Siberia (excepting the Tunguses and Yakuts) from the Samoyeds and Ostyaks
in the west, next the Ural, to the Yukahires, Chukchis, Koryaks, and Kamt-
chadales of the eastern promontory. The position of the Ainos of Yezo, the
Kurile Isles, and Saghalien has not yet been satisfactorily determined.

20. It is generally believed that in very early times the great southern
promontory of India was inhabited by tribes belonging to the same stock
as the people of Central Asia, the Mongolians. At an epoch which
cannot be accurately determined, but which is supposed to have been about
1600 years B.C., a colony of the Aryan or Indo-European race, fair-com-
plexioned people from the high plateau on the north-west, descended into the
great plain of Nortliurn India, and establishing themselves there by physical
force and higher culture, spread out and ditt'used themselves as the domi-
nant race over all the low country northward of the Vindhyan Mountains.
Thus was formed the nation we know as the Hindus (the dwellers by
the Indus river), who are still the most cultivated of the Asiatic Aryans.
Their influence extended feebly into the highland of Southern India ; hence
the majority of the inhabitants of the Deccan plateau remain distinct in
their short and dark outward form from the taller and fairer Hindus, and in
their languages, called the Dravidiau group, which have a relationship to those

1 Or Indo-European.

ASIA GENERAL. 273

of the Tatars of Central Asia. Within these broad lines, the peoples of India
of the present day difter quite as much among themselves in appearance as
do the nations of Europe.

Besides the Hindus, there belong to the Aryan peoples of Asia, the Tajiks '
of Persia, the Afghans, Baluchis, and Kurds of the Iranian highlands ; tlie
Armenians of the mountain region farther west which culminates in Ararat,
one of the oldest civilised peoples in the world ; and the Ossetes in the Cau-
casus. The Georgians or Grusiaus of the broad valley between the Armenian
mountains and the Caucasus ; and the tribes of that mountain range, the
Cherkesses or Circassians,^ Mingrelians, Lesghians, etc., form a distinct family,
supposed to represent the Iberians.

In later times a stream of the Slavonic branch of the Indo-European race
has flowed eastward across Southern Siberia to beyond Lake Baikal, and down
the banks of the great rivers of the northern lowland of Asia, as the dominant
power ; almost the whole of India also has passed under the control of our
section of the Germanic branch of the Aryan race (the British), who, however,
are in numbers only as one to three thousand of the native population.

21. To the Semitic race in Asia belong the greater part of the inhabitants
of Syria and Arabia, and most of those of the Mesopotamian plain ; all round
the borders of these regions the Semitic peoples are under the government of
the dominant Turks ; in the interior of Arabia, however, the Wahabees main-
tain their independence, and the Bed wins of the Syrian deserts owe no allegiance
to any foreign race.

22. The Malays of the south-eastern tropical peninsula and islands are a
brown-complexioned race, with long coarse black and shining hair, a large
mouth and short flat nose, with slight and well-formed limbs, but generally
below the English middle height. Divided into many tribes, they appear in
some jjarts as peaceable agriculturists, under their own chiefs or under foreign
masters, in others as shy savages, again as fishermen or traders, or as dreaded
pirates of the narrow seas. Their relations, the BaUiks of the smaller islands
(including the Bugis of Celebes), are somewhat larger in build and stronger in
frame than the Malays proper.

In the interior of many of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago there live
still, as remnants probably of an aboriginal race which once held the whole
region, certain negro-like tribes, to whom the Spaniards gave the name
negritos (the diminutive of negro), from their resemblance to the negroes of
African Guinea in the projection of the under part of the face, their woolly
hair, broad nostrils, and very dark complexion, and from their short stature.
In Western " New Guinea " these aborigines probably received their name
Papuas from the Malay word " Papoewah," which signifies curly or woolly.

23. Religion. — Asia, as we have seen, has given the rest of
the world most of its domesticated animals and cultivated plants ;
it has also been the centre in which the germs of religion and learn-
ing have been fostered, and whence these have spread outward.

The three monotheistic religions which have taken the widest hold on the
minds of men (Jewish, Christian, Mohammedan) arose among the Semitic
peoples of south-westeni Asia ; the purest of these has become the religion of
enlightened Europe, but in its native country it has been overshadowed by
Mohammedanism, which jirevails in all soutli-western Asia, in Asiatic Turkey

1 Tajiks = peasants, in contradistinction to the Tvrks, or warriors.
2 On the subjugation of the Caucasus region by the Russians in 18ti4, nearly half a
million of Circassians, or inliabitants of the north-western wing of the range, made a
simultaneous exodus to place themselves under Turkish rule in European Turkey.

274 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

and Arabia, in Persia and Turkistau, and which has penetrated deeply into
Hindustan ^ and among the Malays of tlie East Indies. Christianity appears
only here and there in islets, as among the Armenians and Georgians. The
fundamental article in the creed of tlie Mohammedan is — " There is no God
but God: and Mohammed is his prophet." He believes in an imnuitably
fixed destiny (fate), in eternal punishment for idolaters and unbelievers,
and a voluptuous paradise for the faithful ; and frequent ablutions, prayer five
times a day, a pilgrimage to the shrine of the prophet, fasts, abstention from
wine and the flesh of swine, and the giving of alms, are obligatory duties. The
Mohammedan's bible is the Koran : his weekly day of rest is Friday. Moham-
medan temples or mosques " are roofed with rounded cupolas and adorned with
slender minaret towers, from tlie galleries of whicli the call to prayer is given.
The priests are called Imam, the saints are Murahuts, the monks are Dervishes
or Fakirs. Two main sects divide the Mohammedans — the Sunnite sect, to
which the Turks and Tatars chiefly belong, recognises the Siinna, a collection
of traditional doctrines and laws siipplementary to the Koran ; the Shiahs or
sectarians (as they are called by the Sunnites) of Persia, are followers of Ali,
the son-in-law of Mohammed, who is endowed by some of them with more than
human attributes. The Wahabis, a more recent sect, now dominant through-
out the greater part of Central Arabia, may be considered as puritanical
reformers, who seek to purge away the innovations that have been introduced into
Islam in the course of time, and to return to the literal precepts of the Koran.

24. Tlie religion founded by Zoroaster of Bactria (the doctrine of the "Magi"
of the ancient world), with its scriptures called the Zend-avesta, is interesting
from its antiquity ; originally a pure monotheism, it passed afterwards into a
belief in a conflict between the powers of good and evil, light and darkness,
(Dualism), the former of which will, it is believed, iiltimately triumph. Thus
the symbol of light, the sun and fire, are venei'ated, and towards these the believer
is enjoined to turn during his devotions. Purity of thought, word, and deed
sum up the ethical code. Previous to its conquest by the Mohammedans, the
religion of Zoroaster prevailed over Persia, but about that date the greater
part of the inhabitants of that region became converts to Islam, others clung
to the old faitli, and, subjected to persecution, fled to the wilderness and to the
island of Ormuz. Their descendants are kno-\vn as the Guebres (Turkish
Ghiaour), wlio are scattered here and there over Persia at the present day. A
branch of them after many migrations found shelter in India in the sixteenth
century, and as the Parsees (people of Pars or Pars, or ancient Persia), now
form about 20 per cent of the population of the neighbourhood of Bombay.

25. In Hindustan, so far as Mohammedanism has not taken its place, the
Brahminic religion (in several sects) prevails, and from it, based on the same
philosophy, arose the religion of Biiddha, which spread over Farther India, Tibet,
China, and Japan, and which has far more numerous adherents than any other
faith in the world.

The Brahminical religion, a corrupted monotheism, has three principal gods,
Brahma the creator of the universe, Siva the destroyer, and Vishnu the
preserver. Its scriptures are the Vedas, probably the oldest literary docu-
ments in existence. The soul is believed to be identical iu nature with the
spirit whence it proceeds, and only tlie purified soul of the believer who under-
stands its true nature returns to eternal bliss ; the impure soul wanders or
transmigrates through animals and men again, till its purification is complete.
Good works, prayer, and fastings, and even self-tortures, are supposed to be
necessary acts of a pious life.

1 21 per cent of the inhabitants of British India are Mohammedans.
- Mesjid, a place of prayer.

ASIA GENERAL. 275

Four chief castes or classes of Hiudu society, with many subdivisions, are
distinguished and are kept apart by petty laws and penalties. These are —

(1.) The Brahmans, or sacerdotal class, who are said to have issued from the
mouth of Brahma at the moment of creation, and are treated with profound
respect.

(2.) Tlie Kshatriija or military class, to which the rulers for the most part
belong.

(3.) The Vaisya or mercantile class ; men of business, traders, farmers.

(4.) The Sudras or servile class, subject ^to the three foregoing, never to
improve or to reach the dignity of the higher castes.

Beneatli all come the Pariahs, the lowest class of the jiopulation in India,
outcasts, degraded and miserable.

The Hindu temples or pagodas are great pjTamidal buildings of hewu
stones of colossal dimensions, covered with the richest ornamentation, and with
very numerous figures of deities. To these are attached a class of Bayaderes ^
or dancing-girls (Devadasis), whose duty is to sing the praises of then- special
god at festivals, and dance before him.

26. About the sixth century before Christ, Buddha a prince of a kingdom
which lay on the borders of Oude and NejDal in northern India, after six
years of rigorous asceticism, began to preach his new gospel throughout northern
India, and continued his mission for forty years. In about 300 b.c. the faith
was carried by zealous missionaries over all j^arts of eastern Asia, and to
Ceylon, where it has since flourished. About 65 a.d. it was acknowledged by
the Chinese Emperor as a third religion, and from the fourth century a.d.
onward during six centuries a stream of Buddhist jjilgi-ims continued to flow
from China to India. The main element in the success of Buddhism, perhaps,
was the spirit of charity which it breathed in contrast to the exclusiveness of
caste, all the followers of Buddlia being released from its restrictions. The
adoration of the statues of the coutemijlating Buddha, the central object in the
temples, is the chief external ceremony of this religion ; but Buddha is not a
god, only the ideal of what man may become. There are no priests properly
so called, th'e Sramaiuis, ascetics or mendicants, being a religious order who
have entered on a course of greater austerity than other men, to the more
speedy attainment of the state of Nirvana, or complete abstraction.

In Tibet Buddhism has taken a somewhat diflerent form, known as Lamaism,
which has much in common \vith Roman Catholicism in its observances,
processions, rosaries, and patron saints. The Lama hierarchy has two popes,
the one the Dalai Lama, resident near L'assa, the other the Tesho or Bogdo
Lama, resident at Shigatze. Next in rank are the KiUiildus, who may be
called cardinals and archbishops, the third degree being that of the Kubilghans
or priests, who are exceedingly numerous.

27. In China, the religion of Buddha, now degenerate from its jirimitive
purity, and overladen witli absurd dogmas and image worship, keeps its jilace
along with the systems of philosophy of Confucius and oi Laoutze (Taouism)
which appear to have arisen almost contemporaneously with the former.
In Japan also Buddhism has been modihed by contact with the much older
faith in the gods or iiintuism,'^ the hierarchy of which is composed of the
Mikado or spiritual emperor, who is supposed to be descended from the great
sun goddess, and who as such unites in his j^erson all the attriliutes of the
deity, besides ecclesiastical judges, monks, and priests. The Sintu temples are
usually built on an eminence surrounded by groves, and have no idols ; but a
mirror is placed on the altar as an emblem of the purity required of the
adherents of Sintuism.

1 From Portuguese Baitodeira. , -.Stu "the god," and "sj/a" faith.

276 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

28. The tribes of Siberia and Central Mongolia, and the Kirghiz of the
steppes, remain in complete lieathendom. The Shamanism professed by some
of them is a belief in sorcery and the jiropitiation of evil demons by sacrifices and
frantic gestures ; its priests are self-appointed men or women, and when
officiating wear a long robe of elk skin hung with brass or iron beUs, perform-
ing the sacrifices of animals in a hut raised on an open space of the forest,
or on a hUl.

29. Unlike the fei-tile peninsulas of Europe on the west, and the pro-
montories of the south and east of Asia, all the central mass of the continent
from Arabia over the Caspian region northward into Siberia and eastward to
Mongolia, is a region characterised by pastoral steppe and bare desert.
Hence the nomadic character of so large a share of the population of these
regions. The Bedwin of the Arabian and Syrian deserts wanders from pasture
to pasture, carrying with him his black tent of woven goat's hair ; the restless
Kirghiz roam about the vast monotonous steppes that stretch north and east
of the Caspian, as do the Mongols with their camel droves over the steppes
north and south of the Gobi desert. In all this region the seats of settled and
more cultivated men appear only like islets in a wide sea. In Siberia also,
the settlements of Russian colonists, partly deported, partly vohmtary exiles,
begun in the sixteenth century, are only so many points in the midst of tlie
native tribes, most of whom are nomadic fur trappers in the forests, or fishers,
or o-\vners of reindeer herds, which migrate north and south according to the
season.

The south and east of the continent presents a remarkable contrast. There
China and Japan, India and Indo-China, present densely peopled and highly
cultivated lands, studded with great towns and venerable monuments of a
civilisation which dates from the most remote times, but which, in contrast to
the progressive advancement of Europe, seems to have reached a point beyond
which it cannot advance of its own inward vitality, one generation of men
followng another in the same stereotyped process.

The princes of India rode on elephants and lived in splendid palaces at
the time of Alexander the Great's invasion, and the people were then skilled
in the same arts they now possess, but all impulse to higher culture and pro-
gress beyond that point has come from without, and since the country began
to pass under British rule. The Chinese preceded Europeans in many
inventions — in printing and paper-making, in the discovery of the comi^ass,
in burning coal for fuel, in making porcelain, guns, and gunpowder, — but with
these the inventive power seems to have become exhausted, and though
foreigners have come and gone teaching new arts and sciences, the Chinese
hold tenaciously to the same beaten paths of ancient custom. The Japanese
alone have fully awakened, and this only in very recent years, and after
several centuries of rigid seclusion from the outer world, to the knowledge of
the superiority of western civilisation. As the result of this the most remarkable
and sweeping reforms have been made, and the whole spirit of that nation has
been rapidly transformed.

30. With the nomadic tribes of Central Asia patriarchal government is
associated. In the anciently civilised states of the south and east the ruler is
always an absolute monarch or despot. No other form of government than
this — except for village or tribal rule — has ever been known on the con-
tinent. The ancient Babylonian, AssjTian, and Persian empires, like those
of the Arabs, Mongols, and Turks, following them, were all desijotisms, the
rulers having frequently, as at the present day in China, Japan, and Tibet, the
double attributes of religious and political supremacy.

31. Two great progressive European powers, Riissia and Britain, now hold
sway over more than two-fifths of the vast extent of Asia, and most of the

RUSSIAN ASIA.

277

great political movements that have taken place on the contineut during this
and the past century have had their origin in the steady and almost continuous
enlargement of the authority of these powers. In the densely-peopled pro-
montory of India the British have been consolidating their empire and enlarg-
ing their influence south-eastward towards Burmah and inner China, and
north-westward to Afghanistan. The Russians in turn have been spreading
southward over the Caucasus and over the vast thinly-peopled steppes, in-
corporating the Khanates of the Oxus and Jaxartes region, and spreading
round the eastern side of the Casj^ian to tlie borders of Persia. A belt of
one to two hundred miles in width still separates the nearest points of approach
of British and Russian power in Asia, but the time seems not far distant when
the dominions of these two European States in Asia must become conter-
minous.

RUSSIAN ASIA.

The Caucasus.

1. The division of the Russian Empire named the Lieutenancy
of the Caucasus,^ reaching doA\Ti from the summits of the great natural
boundary range northward into the lowland of Russia, and south-
ward over the mountainous region of Georgia and Ai'menia, lies
partly within the geographical limits of Europe, partly in Asia.
We may gain an idea of its great extent if we note that it occupies
an area nearly as large as the kingdom of Sweden, reaching 800
miles from east to west, and about 500 from north to south.

2. Relief. — The main feature of the region is its great central range, ex-
tending in an almost direct line from the peninsula which separates the Black
Sea from the Sea of Azov in the west to Cape Apsheron, which projects into
the western shores of the Caspian. Like the PjTenees, but in strong contrast
to the Alps, the Caucasus is a single chain, so narrow that the same summits
may be seen from the steppes which reach out from its northern base, and
from the deep valleys which separate it from the heights of Armenia on the
south. It has thus no great valleys in the direction of its length. The spurs
descending from the main chain have deep gorges or troughs between. Tlie
culminating point is the Elbruz peak (18,526 ft.), towards the western end
of the chain ; the second, Mount Kashek, near the middle of it ; both rising
grandly from deep valleys. The two most important passes over it were called
in ancient times the Caucasian and Albanian gates. The former, now called

Area in sq. miles.

Population.

1 European Russia

1,884,850

65,990,000

Poland .

4y,lC0

6,528,000

Finland

144,230

1,968,600

Caucasus ....

179,520

5,628,300

Siberia ....

4,814,610

3,440,400

Central Asia

1,283,470

4,401,900

8,355,840

87,957,200

Caspian Sea

109,660

—

Sea of Aral

25,870
rtPiRE 8,551,370

—

Russian E

87,957,200

278 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

the Dariel Pass, lies close to the eastern base of the Kasbek, and is a narrow
cleft 8215 feet above the sea, available for carriages in the snmmer. The
latter skirts the eastern termination of the range on the shores of the Caspian.
Over the whole chain vegetation is vigorous, but more luxuriant on the
warmer southern slopes. The valleys opening in that direction are richly-
fertile, producing rice and cotton and silk, indigo, tobacco, and vines, and
luxuriant woods. The northern slopes, exposed to the keen winds of the
steppes, are characterised by bare pasture-lands and scattered fir- woods. At
an elevation of about 6700 feet trees disajipear, and the snow line is reached at
9000 to 9500 feet on the west, and 12,000 feet in the drier eastern region.

3. Rivers. — The two northern rivers descending from the Caucasus are
the Terek, which turns eastward to the Caspian, and the luiban, which makes
its way westward to the Black Sea near the Strait of Kertch. Beyond these,
on the low steppes, the Manitsh, a tributary of the Lower Don, forms the
greater part of the northern boundary of the territory.

The valleys immediately soutli of the Caucasus are occupied by the K^cr
(or Cyrus), flowing south-east along the mountain base to the Caspian, and by
the much smaller Rion flomng west to the Black Sea. Beyond these valleys
rise the irregular masses of the mountains of Armenia, forming a high basin in
which the large lake Gokcha, the " blue water " contrasting witli the green
mountains round it, lies at an elevation of 6340 feet above the sea ; and on
the southern border of the territory, the frontiers of Russia, Persia, and Asiatic
Turkey meet in the majestic dome of Mount Ararat (16,920 ft.), covered on its
upper three thousand feet with snow and glacier ice. Between Aj-arat and the
heights walling in tlie Gokcha the Aras (or Araxes) flows west to join the Kur,
near the Caspian, and forms the south-eastern boundary of the territory.
Towards the west, since the war of 1877, the Russian boundary of the Caucasus
territory has been extended southward to the Choruk river, which reaches the
Black Sea south of the port of Batum, so as to include wthin it also the high
volcanic plateau on which the almost impregnable fortress of Kars is built.

4. Inhabitants. — The peoples of the Caucasus region differ vastly in lan-
guage, dress, and customs, and they belong to at least four types of the human
family. The Indo-Europeans are represented by Russian and other colonists
(26 per cent). To the Iranians (19 per cent) belong the Armenians, Ossetes,
Tati, Kurds, and Persians. The " Caucasians " of Russian wi-iters, classed by
some ethnologists as Iberians, constitute 31 per cent of the total population,
and include the Grusinians or Georgians, the Lesghians, the Chechenzes, and
a variety of mountain tribes. Lastly, there are Mongols (25 per cent), repre-
sented by Tatars, Turks, and Calmucks. In addition to these, there are Jews,
Assyrians, and gypsies.

A long struggle for independence was maintained by these hardy moun-
taineers against the Russians. The capture of one of their most determined
chiefs in 1859 virtually completed the subjugation of the country, but it was
not till 1864 that Russian authority coidd be extended over the whole region ;
on the completion of the conquest nearly half a million of Cherkesses or
Western Caucasians made a simultaneoiis exodus from the districts adjoining
the Black Sea to seek shelter in European Turkey. German colonists, who
came hither from Wtirtemberg in 1812-15, and who have settled in various
districts, have done much for the improvement of the vineyards. In religion
the peoples within the territory are nearly equally divided between Christianity
and Mohammedanism. The Greek Church prevails, owing to the large number
of Russian colonists, but the Armenians form a powerful minority.

5. Divisions. — For administrative purposes the country has been divided
into the Government of Sfavrn^ml, the nearest to European Russia, in the
plains, and the territories of the Kuban, of the Terek, and of Daghestan, along

RUSSIAN ASIA. 279

the northern or Ciscaucasiau slopes of the range. On the southern or Trans-
caucasiau side the division is into the Governments of Baku, next the Cas-
pian ; Elizcchetpol and Erivan, between the Kur and Aras ; of Tijiis soutli of
the central part of the range ; and of Kutais in the valley of the Rion, sloping
to the Black Sea. There are besides on the southern side the military
district of Sukhum, and the "district of the Black Sea" along the south-
western maritune border of the Caucasus, and the newly-added territory,
including Kars and Batum, on the south-west.

6. Chief Towns. — Tijlifs (pop. 104,000), on the Kur, immediately south of
the Dariel Pass over the Caucasus, a fortified city, formerly the capital of the old
kingdom of Georgia, is now the seat of the Russian Governor-General. Here also
a Greek and an Armenian bishop reside, and the town is the great emporium of
all Transcaucasia, caiTying on a large trade with Persia. Stavropol or " cross
to^vn," on the main route from the Dariel Pass northward into Russia, is the
chief place in the Ciscaucasian territory. Derheiid, meanuig the " narrow pass,"
formerly the capital of Albania, is a busy seaport of the Caspian, named from
its position between the mountains and the sea. Baku, also on the Caspian,
on the south coast of the peninsula of Apsheron, at the point where the great
southern route along the base of the Caucasus meets that along the coast of the
Caspian, is famous for its petroleum wells, which give it an extensive com-
merce. SJieiiw.klia and Nucha, on the southern slope of the Eastern Caucasus,
are famous for their silk. Erivan, " the visible," in Armenia, in the valley
of the Aras, north of Ararat, is so named from the tradition that Noah, look-
ing from the mountain, saw tliis spot dry after the flood. Alexandrapol,
north-west of it, is a strong fortress, capable of accommodating 10,000 men ;
and Ka.rs, recently gained permanently by the Russians, is a no less formidable
fortress, which has been thrice besieged and taken by them (1828, 1855, and
1877). Poti, at the terminus of a railway from Tiflis, is the chief port of the
Caucasus region on the Black Sea. Batum, farther south, added in 1878, is
rising in value as a seaport.

Siberia.

1. All the immense nortliern region of Asia, from tlie Ural
Mountains to tlie Pacific, and from the northern slopes of the great
plateau of Central Asia to the low shores of the Arctic Sea, is
included in the Russian territory of Siberia. The extreme limits
east and west are more than 4000 miles apai't ; the most southerly
point of its frontier, at the Tiumen river which separates it from
Corea, and the most northerly, Cape Chelyuskin, which runs
out into the icy sea on the north, have a dili'erence of latitude of
more than 35°, and it would take nearly fifty-five islands as large
as Great Britain to make up an etiuivalent area to that of Siberia.

2. Physical Features. — All Western Siberia, nearest the Ural belt and
European Russia, is a vast plain rising almost imperceptibly from the shores
of the Arctic Ocean to the Kirghiz stejijies and the base of the Altai moun-
tains, which spring up from it like a wall, foruuug the northern buttress of the
great tableland of central Asia. Tlie nortliern border of this plain is occupied
by the marshy frozen tundras ; the l)road central belt is covered with /onw^, in
the cleared spaces of wliich the soil is fertile and well suited to agi'iculture ;
all the southern portion of it is occupied by treeless steppes which reach away
south towards the Caspian and Aral Seas.

280 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

Eastern Siberia, on the other hand, is more diversified in surface, and there
the plain is narrowed by the advancing mountains, to occupy only the border
of the Arctic Seas. The Altai chain, which reaches a height of 11,000 feet in
its summit of Bielukha, is prolonged eastward by the Sayan mountains, which
separate the Kos-gol lake in Mongolia fi-om the great Baikal in Siberia. Still
farther east the Yablonoi and Stanovoi mountains stretch out towards Bering
Strait, and from these moderately elevated ranges irregular tablelands extend
northward, filling almost the whole of the north-eastern region, and reaching
in several places to the very shores of the Arctic Ocean, In the long peninsula
of Kamtchatka, the volcanic belt of Eastern Asia begins, and its surface is
dotted over with groups of mountains, which culminate in the volcano of
Kliuchev, 15,760 feet above the sea.

3. The four great rivers of Siberia, the Obi, Yenisei, and Lena, entering
the Arctic Ocean, and the Amur, winding east to the Pacific, as well as the
great Siberian lake Baikal, have already been noticed.^

4. Climate. — Siberian climate is proverbially the most severe of any on
the globe. Round Yakutsk, on the Lena, to the north-east, the average
temperature of the year is about — 16° of our Fahrenheit scale, or 48° below the
freezing point. Here the range of temperature varies between — 58° in the
ilepth of winter, and 99° in the height of summer, but it freezes nearly every
night throughout the year, and the soil, which is congealed to a depth of
several hundred feet, only thaws at the surface for a time. Along the base of
the mountains on the south a less rigorous climate is experienced ; there the
winter sets in about November, when snow falls, which lies till the succeeding
March. At Tomsk, in south-western Siberia, the average temperature of the
year is about the freezing point, the extremes being 0° (or 32° below freezing
point) in January, and 65° in July.

5. Products. — Minerals are the most important products of Siberia.
Gold is found in many of the rivers, and though the diggings of the Altai
Mountains seem to have been nearly exhausted, the sujiply of gold is still
abundant on the mountains farther east. Lead, silver, iron, and copper, are
also given by the Altai mines ; coal is worked near Tomsk, and black lead
or graphite, obtained from the mountains west of Irkutsk, and from the lower
Yenisei district, has become important in commerce. Fur-hunting comes next
in value to mining — the sable and ermine (getting scarcer now every year),
elks and deer, bears, wolves, and foxes, are hunted for their skins in the forest
region. Even the Bengal tiger ranges into southern Siberia. The rivers
abound in fish, and " fossil ivory " is found all over northern Siberia, and ui
the islands beyond in the Arctic Sea ; the nortliern border of the con-
tinent, indeed, may be compared to a great graveyard of the Mammoth, the
whole tribe of these huge animals having been destroyed apparently by a
rapid refrigeration of the climate in a former period. Their dead bodies,
carried down by the great rivers to the Arctic shores, have become imbedded
there in the frozen soil, and so, preserved in ice, are found with flesh and skin
undecomposed. In the more favourable climate of the slopes of the mountains
in the south of Siberia, agriculture is capable of great development, and wheat,
rye, and barley, give full crops.

6. People. — The Russians, or their descendants, who have spread out
especially over the plains of south-western Siberia from central European
Russia towards Lake Baikal, and down the banks of the four great rivers
towards the Arctic Sea and the Pacific, now form by far the largest proportion
of the inhabitants of Siberia (2,800,000), and far exceed those of purely
Aijiatic origin. These " Siberiaks," or people who have Russian or Polish blood

1 See pp. 265, 260.

RUSSIAN ASIA. 281

ill their veins, have fair hair aud broad faces and prominent cheek-bones, and
are a frugal, energetic, and hospitable people, though cunning and addicted to
strong drinks. They are for the most part the descendants of exiles, of
wliom till recently about twelve thousand were sent every year to Siberia for
political or other offences. The place of banishment for Russian offenders has
now been transferred to the far distant island of Saglialien, in the Sea of Okhotsk.

The native 2)opulatious, Tatars, Mongols, Tunguses, Ostiaks, and Samoyeds,
whose distribution we have previously indicated, are either agriculturists,
nomadic cattle-breeders, or hunters and fishermen, and these classes are dis-
tinguished by law. Chinese are numerous on the south-eastern border.

In religion the majority of the Siberian inliabitants are Christians. Buddhists
and Shamanists come next in numbers, then Mohammedans and Jews. Ediica-
tion is as yet only thought of in the towns of the more purely Russian districts
of the south-west ; there, however, grammar schools and training colleges for
schoolmasters have been formed, and since 1878 a university has been estab-
lished at Tomsk.

7. Divisions, Trade, and Chief Towns. — All the land belongs to the
Russian Government, and it is leased out to village communities aud indi-
viduals. Tobolsk (18,000), below the confluence of the Ishim and Irtish rivers
(tributaries of the Obi), is the seat of Government of Western Siberia, which
is divided into the two governments of Tobolsk and Tomsk. Irkutsk (32,000),
on the Angara (the main tributary of the Yenisei), a short distance from its
outflow from Lake Baikal, is tlie fortified capital of Eastern Siberia, which is
divided into the six governments of Irkutsk, Yeniseisk, Yakutsk, Trans-
Baikal, Amur, and the Maritime Region next the Sea of Japan, ceded by
China in 1860, and to which the high forest-covered island of Saglialien or
Sakhalin (larger than Ireland) now entirely belongs.

8. Siberia ex|iorts metals, furs, and sometimes even wheat to Europe, of
its o\vn produce ; but the transit trade through the country from China to
Europe, although it has decreased since the opening of so many Cliinese sea-
ports to foreign commerce, is by far the more important. The great trade
route and the line along wliich the chief towns of Siberia lie, is that which
passes from the frontier of Mongolia at the trading depot of Kiakhta (protected
by the fort of Troitzkosavsk) near where the Selenga river crosses the boundary
south-east of Lake Baikal, through Irkutsk on the Angara, Krasnoyarsk on the
Yenisei, Tomsk in the Obi i)asin (the richest and most civilised town of Siberia,
pop. 26,000), and Tara on the Irtish, to Ekaterinburg, at the main passage of the
Ural belt into European Russia. Along this line the Cliinese brick tea, done up
in hide-covered boxes, is carried in a six montlis' journey to the great fairs of the
European provinces ; in summer by pony caravans and partly by water along
the rivers ; in winter more rapidly by sledges across the frozen Baikal and over
the snow. A great branch line of traflic from this one leads by the Lena
river, by boat when it is open or by sledge when it is frozen, to the great
market of north-eastern Siberia at Yakutsk, whither the furs trapped in all tlie
surrounding country, and the fossil ivory from the far north, are brought to be
sent to market by way of Irkutsk. In summer steamers now navigate the
Obi, Yenisei, and Amur, as well as lake Baikal, and a direct summer liighway
of trade has been opened between Europe and the two first-named rivers
through the Kara Sea, between 1875 and 1878, by the exertions of the Swedish
naturalist Nordenskiold. A great line of telegraph across Siberia (completed
1864 to 1867) has branches to Japan and Pekin, uniting these with the Euro-
pean system of communication. Batumi (14,000), in the upper Obi, is the
centre of the traffic of the mining region of the Altai.

On the Pacific coast the most important place now is the naval harbour of
Vladivostock in the south-west corner of the maritime region, on an inlet of the

282 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

Sea of Japan. Nikolci,yevsk, at the mouth of the Amur ; Okhotsk, from which the
great mediterranean sea of Okhotsk, ice-bound through the winter months, takes
its name ; and Petropaulovsk, on the south-east coast of Kamtcliatka, are the
other seaports of the Pacific margin of Siberia.

Russian CentrxVl Asia.

1. This division of the Russian Empire spreads out over the
vast steppe lands of inner Asia from the Irtish and tlie Ural rivers
on the north to the mountains bordering the great plateau of Asia
and the deserts along the eastern margin of the Caspian Sea. On
the south it embraces a great part of the formei'ly independent
Khanates of Turkistan, which have fallen one by one before the
northern invader. The progress of Russian conquest in this direc-
tion has already been sketched.'^

2. The northern jjortion of this region is that of the Kirghiz Steppe, a bare
stony region, almost everywhere deficient in water, with many salt-lakes and
desert patches. In winter its climate is excessively cold, and strong winds
whirl the snow about in clouds ; in summer the soil is baked with burning
heat. The gi-ound here is considered common property by the nomadic
Kirghiz : eacli occupies as much as his herds require, and yet is not a land-
owner. The Russians, who occupy the villages and fortified posts chiefly, are
few in niimber ; they have divided the coimtry iuto the provinces of Uralsk
in the west, Turgai, AkmoUnsk, and Semipalatinsk, the " seven castles," in
the east, each corresponding to a fortified capital of the same name.

3. The southern portion, now formed into the General Government of
Turkestan, reaches from the gi-eat salt -lake of Balkash southward up to the
crest of the Thian Shan range, and westward to the sea of Aral. The main
feature of the western half of this territory is the great uninhabited desert
called the Kizil Kum or " red sands," which spreads out over the lowland
between the Syr and Amn, or Jaxartes and Oxi.is rivers, which descend to the
Sea of Aral from the eastern heights. The eastern districts, on the other
hand, rise from the low-lying " seven streamland," south of the Balkash, over
the high ranges which cover the country north of the gi-eat snowy mass of
the Thian Shan. Between these forest-covered mountains are fine valleys
watered by the head streams of the Syr Daria, and of the streams which ter-
minate in Lake Balkash. These mountains also enclose the remarkable
Issik-kul or " warm lake," so called because its brackish waters never freeze,
which occasionally overflows to the Chui, a river which is ultimately lost in
the sandy stejipes between Balkash and the Aral.

4. The most important districts of Russian Turkistan are the valleys of
the Hi river, the chief of those which flow to Lake Balkash ; that of the Syr
Daria, called the Nariri in its upper course in the mountain region ; and
that of the Zerafshan, farther south.

The ujiper valley of the first-named formed the Chinese Zungarian province
of Hi previous to the outbreak of the Tungani insurrection in 1862. When
the Chinese authority within it had been destroyed, the Russians took posses-
sion of it, promising to restore it to the Chinese when they had re-established
their authority over the remainder of Zungaria and Eastern Turkistan. It

1 See page 79.

CHINESE ASIA. 283

has a mixed popiilation of Taranjis or descendants of penal colonists bauislied
hither by the Chinese a century ago ; but tliere are also Tunganis, Chinese,
and merchants from Bokhara and Tashkend in its mud-walled caj^ital of Kulja.
The Russian fort of Vernoye guards the entrance to the upper Ili valley.

The upper Narin valley, or Ferghana, constituted the chief part of the
former Khanate of Kokan, which was completely incorporated in the Russian
general government in 1875. It is a lovely and fertile basin, including a
nomadic population of Kara Kirghiz and Kipchaks and settled Usbegs ^ in the
toAvus and villages, some of which, however, are occupied almost exclusively
by Tajiks or primitive Persians. Kokan (pop. 50,000), the capital of this dis-
trict, lies in a beautiful valley south of the Syi\ On a northern tributary of the
Syr lies the city of Tashkend (86,000), the largest town of Russian Turkistan,
in a fertile plain surrounded by a wall of sun-dried bricks, 12 miles in circuit;
it is also the great trading town of this region, and the centre of several
great caravan routes. The valley of the third river, the Zerafshan, contains
the famous city of Samarkand (30,000), once the capital of Tamerlane's power-
ful empire. Its walls have six gates, and ^vithin are the tomb of Tamerlane
and many ruinous buildings which testify to its ancient sjjlendour.

5. The Sea of Aral, which may now be called a Russian lake, takes its
name, the " sea of islands," from the islets which are formed by the sands
drifting between the reed patches which grow oiit into its shallow waters.
West of it, as far as the Caspian shores, lies the remarkalile bare plateau called
the Ust Urt, about 300 miles mde. It rises to an elevation of about 600 feet
above this sea, and its edges are sharply marked by a steep wall-like descent,
almost all round, called the " Chink." After the successful Khivan campaign
of 1873, all this eastern border land of the Caspian, as far south as the Atrek
river and the Persian boundary, was formed into the Russian Transcas2nan
■province. The forts of Alexandrovsk on the nortliern jieniusula of Mangishlak,
of Krasnovodsk towards the south, and of (Jhikishliar at the moutli of the
Atrek river, are the only imi:)ortant points in this region. Ashurada island
in the south-eastern corner of the Caspian has been formed into a Russian
naval and trading station.

CHINESE ASIA.

Chinese Empire.

1. Extent. — To obtain an idea of the vast extent and import-
ance of the territories embraced within the limits of the Chinese
Empire, it may be remembered that these occupy an area very con-
siderably greater than that of Europe, and that their inhabitants
are more than twice as numerous as those of the British dominions
in all parts of the world. If we compared the extent of the Chinese
dominions with England alone we should find that they Avere nearly
eighty times as large.

2. Relief. — Occupying all the central and eastern portion of
the continent of Asia, their limits are for the most part very dis-

1 The Usbegs are a people of Turkisli race wlio at the close of the fifteenth century
invaded and conquered the small states into which Turkistan was then divided, an<I till
recently they have maintained their hold of these khanates. They are for the most
part settled agriculturists and traders.

284 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

tinctly marked out by great natural features. The boundary with
Russian Siberia on the north runs along the Amur river and the
crests of the Sayan and Altai mountains ; towards western Tiu'kistan
the alpine heights of the Thian Shan and the Pamir form the limit ;
the snow-clad Himalaya range separates China from the hot plains
of India in the south, and the mountains of Yun-nan continue the
natural frontier eastward again to the coasts of the Pacific.

3. Divisions. — Within these vnde exterior limits the empire
includes a number of countries, some of which are strongly con-
trasted with one another in their natural features and in the character
of their population. Along the eastern or maritime border, where
the rivers flowing dovm from the mountain region of the interior
have spread out in wide alluvial plains next the sea, lie China proper,
Manchuria, and Corea, filled with a teeming population of busy agri-
culturists and townsfolk. Within, on the high plateau of Central
Asia, the region of bare steppes and deserts, and the mountain skirts
round it, are the countries of Mongolia, Eastern Turkistan, and
Tibet, thinly peopled for the most part by nomadic pastoral tribes.
In this order we may take up the more particular description of
these divisions of the great Chinese Empire.^

China Proper — the " Central Flowery Land."

4. This main south-eastern division of the empire includes about
a third of its whole extent, reaching from the coast of the Pacific
inland for more than a thousand miles. The frontier on the northern
side next Mongolia is marked out by the Great JVall of China, the
most remarkable artificial bulwark in the world, which extends west-
ward continuously almost into the heart of the continent for a dis-
tance of 1500 miles, over mountain and valley, and across rivers and
ravines. It is a rampart of earth, 10 to 30 feet high, broad enough
at the top to admit of several horsemen passing abreast, and was for-
merly cased on the sides and top with bricks and stones, and was
flanked by numerous projections or towers, gates being left at inter-
vals for the passage of travellers and the collection of customs. Now
it has fallen in many places, and its gates are negligently guarded,

1 According to the most recent estimates the area and population of the divisions
are as follows : —

Area in sq. miles. Population.

China Proper 1,554,000 405,000,000

Manchuria 366,800 12,000,000

Corea 96,800 8,500,000

Mongolia 1,304,000 2,000,000

Tibet 652,000 6,000,000

Eastern Turkistan 432,000 ,580,000

Zungarla 156,200 600,000

4,561,800 434,680,000

cMkESE ASIA. 285

and northward of Pekin tlie growing Chinese population has spread
and settled the country to a considerable distance beyond its barrier.
Towards Tibet, on the west, the limits are formed by the high margin
of the great central plateau of Asia ; from this edge minor ranges
extend eastward towards the ocean, embracing between them the
valleys of the great rivers and the -wide alluvial plains which these
rivers have formed by the gradual process of wearing down the
higlilands and carrying their debris towards the sea.

5. Relief. — The mountains and hill ranges are known by a multitude of
local names, but two great groups are generally recognised. These are the
Pe-ling, or northern series of mountains which ramify eastward from the pla-
teau between the basins of the Hoang-ho and Yangtse rivers ; and the Xan-ling,
or southern series of mountains, which spread eastward over southern China
from the mountains of Yunnan and the edge of the plateau of Tibet, separating
the valley of the Yangtse from that of the Si-kiang or Canton river in the
soiith. The most important of the maritime lowlands of China is that kno%vn
as The Great Plain, which extends on both sides of the lower Hoang-ho in the
north-east of the country, between the great cities of Peking and Nanking,
over an area more than three times as extensive as England (200,000 square
miles). Sedulously irrigated or drained, and cultivated in every corner, the
great plain of China sujiports the densest agricultural population in the world.
Towards the interior extend fertile river valleys and hills, carefully terraced
.and tilled, or planted with timber trees. Still farther inland the highlands
become less peopled, and are covered with bamboo at the base up to pine woods
along their summits, till, on the western borders, in approaching the highlands
of Tibet, the country becomes rugged and uneven, the rivers and streams form
deep gorges and defiles, and the mountains reach up to the limit of perennial
snow.

6. Islands. — To China proper belongs the western half of the island which
we know by its Portugixese name of Fmnnosa, the "beautiful," but which the
Chinese call Tai-wan, or "Tower-Bay," from the name of its chief harbour.
This island, 240 miles long north to south, rises to a high central range
(Mount Morrison, 10,800 feet). All the central and eastern portion of it is
still in the hands of barbarous aboriginal and Malay tribes. The island of
Hai-nan, in the extreme south, about 180 miles long by 100 broad, has been
more completely subjugated by the Chinese, but in the mountainous interior
the submission of the aboriginal tribes is only partial.

7. Seas, Rivers, and Canals. — The semi- Mediterranean seas and gulfs
of the Pacific along the coast of China are distinguished by separate names.
Tn the north, between the Corea peninsula and the mainland of China, is tlie
Uoang Hai or Yellow Sea, 300 miles wide, named from the lemon colour of
its waters, filled with the alluvium brought down to it by the Hoang Ho, and
so shallow that its muddy bed is frequently furrowed by passing vessels.
Within or northward lie tlie Bay of Corea and the Gulfs of Pe-chi-U and
Llao-tong, the two last separated almost entirely from the outer China Sea by
the approaching promontories of Shan-tung and Liao-tong. South of the
Yellow Sea, between the maiidand and soutliern Japan, with the chain of tlie
buchu islands and Formosa, extends the wider Tung-hai or Eastern Sea ; .and
from this the Fo-kien Channel, between Formosa .and the coast of Cliina, 100
miles wide, leads into the great Mediterranean called the Nan-hai or South
Sea of China, which is almost completely shut in by Borneo and the Philippine
Islands. The coasts of the Yellow Sea bordering on the great plain are low

286 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

aud flat ; southward thence to the island of Hainan the shores of China rise
steej), and are dotted round with rocky islets.

8. The characteristics of the two great rivers of China proper, the Hoang-
ho, or Yellow River, and the Yang-tse-kiang, have been noticed in the general
description of the continent. Besides these may be noted the Pei-ho, which
gathers the waters of the northern jiortion of the great plain, and forms a high-
way of communication between the capital city of Peking and the port of
Tien-tsin, near its mouth ; the Min, the river of the province of Fokien, by
which the Bohea teas are Ijrought down to the port of Fu-chow ; and the
Si-kiang, the largest river of Southern China, one of the delta branches of
which forms the Chu-kiang, or river of the great port of Canton. The three
largest lakes of China lie immediately south of the course of the Yang-tze.
The Tiing-ting-hu, 70 miles long, and the Poyang-hu, nearly as large, are
expansions of the mouths of the chief southern tributaries of the Yang-tse in
Central China ; the third, the Tai-hu, lies south of the estuary.

9. Greatest of all the public works in China is the Grand Canal, which
traverses the great plain for a distance of 700 miles, passing from Tien-tsLn, on
the Pei-ho, in the north, across the course of the Hoang-ho to the lower course
of the Yang-tse, connecting a system of water communications which extended
from the capital to the chief parts of the empire. It is but the greatest
sample of the system of canals, great and small, which form a network over
all parts of the lowlands of China. During the present dynasty this great
work has been allowed to go to ruin in many places, and the Yellow River, in
finding a new course for itself, in 1851-53, completed the destruction of a
great part of it, so that now the portion northward of the Hoang-ho is dry
for ten months in the year.

10. Climate. — The climate of a country so extensive as China
proper, reaching through more than 20 degrees of latitude, must
vary to a great degree, for this reason alone. We have to remem-
ber, also, its variations of level, from the low plains skirting the
eastern seas, to the high mountain edges of the plateau of Central
Asia, on the western borders. In general the temperature is lower
than in the same latitudes in Europe.

Three zones may, however, be distinguished — a northern, central, and a
southern, differing both in their climate and vegetable productions. The belt
northward of the 35th parallel, or of the middle course of the Hoangho,
has an excessive or continental climate,^ with hot summers, and winters so
cold that ice a foot thick seals uji the rivers and canals, while cold biting
\vinds sweep do^vn from the steppes of Mongolia. The European grains aud
vegetables are the characteristic crojjs of this region.

The central zone, extending do^vn to the 27th or 28th parallel, has a
milder and more equable climate, the temperature averaging about 62° Fahr.,
and rising to a maximum of 110° in summer. It has two rainy and two dry
seasons in the year. This is the richest portion of China. Tea - and silk are
its great products ; rice is produced in enormous qiiantity in the lowlands,
which are imuidated from the great rivers. Wheat, cotton, the mulberry,

1 At Peking the meau temperature of the year is 55° Fahr. ; of summer, 81° ; and of
winter, 27°.

2 The tea-plant is an evergreen shrub, five or six feet high at full growth, indigenous
in China, Japan, and Upper Assam, and its cultivation succeeds best on the slopes of
the hills. It is grown in almost every part of China, but the districts which produce
the finest teas are limited chiefly to the maritime borders of China between the lower
Yang-tse and the Si-kiang.

CHINESE ASIA. 287

sugar-cane (imported from ludia in tlie eighth century), and bamboos, are
other important resources. Tlie eastern part of this zone is specially famed
for its silks and cottons ; the central is called the granary of China ; and the
■western mountains supi^ly most of the Chinese timber.

The southernmost belt has an almost tropical climate. Here the rainy season
lasts from April till October, wliile the south-west monsoon is blowing, and
di-eaded " typhoons," as the hurricanes of the South China Sea are named, are
of not infrequent occurrence from June till September.^ Here oranges, man-
goes and Imuauas, ground nuts, sweet potatoes and yams, besides rice, are the
staple fruits and vegetables, and in the interior provinces the best lauds are
given up to the cultivation of the opium poppy.

11. Minerals.— The mineral wealth of China is very great. The province
of Yunnan, in the south-western corner of the country, has perhaps the largest
gold workings in the world. Here, also, is obtained the famous 2^^-tung,
or white copper. Silver, lead, iron, tin, and ciunabar, are widely distri-
buted. Coal formations seem to extend almost all over the basin of the
Yang-tse, as well as in the provinces north of the lower Hoang-ho ; and
though it has been mined in a rude fashion, and used as fuel in China since
the thirteenth century, the vast supplies seem to be scarcely touched.
Southern Yunnan furnishes a variety of precious stones — rubies, amethysts,
sapphires, topazes, opals, besides malachite, and the steatite or soapstoue, in
which the Chinese carve figures of all sorts.

The much-prized Yu, or jade stone, comes from the valley of the Hoang-
ho ; lapis lazuli (for the preparation of ultramarine) is found in the mountains
of Che-kiang, near the centre of the east coast region. Large beds of porcelain
clay occur in this province also, and in its neighbouring one of Kiang-si.
Towards the north-western borders hot springs are numerous, and the fire-
wells or gas springs of the western province of Se-chuen are famous.

12. Thus, owing to its variety of landscape and character, and the
consequent diversity of its vegetable products, and to its rich endowment
with mineral wealth of all kinds, China proper is in a position to render
its people practically independent of the outer world. To this may be
attributed the disdain with which the Chinese have received the outer " bar-
barians," and the exclusiveness they still maintain in a great part of the
empire.

13. People. — The Chinese, as we have seen in the general description of
the continent, belong to tlie Mongolian race. Within China proper they are
essentially one people, more uniform in type than people in any other part of
the globe of equal extent, the differences, except in dialect, being scarcely
greater than are to be found between Englislimen of difl'erent counties.
Parchment-coloured skin, coarse black hair, high cheek-bones, and oblique
eyes, are characteristic throughoiit. There still remain, however, within
China proper, a few isolated remnants of aboriginal tribes, who resemble the
mountaineers of North-Eastern India much more than the Chinese. Such are
the wild Miautze and Yao tribes of the more inaccessible parts of the
Nan-ling or southern mountains, especially in tlie province of Kwang-si. The
Hahha and Punti of the neighbourhood of Canton, and tlie piratical Hnklos of
Folcien, are also strange tribes, sjieaking languages which are unintelligible to
the surrounding peoples. The mountains of the central parts of the island of
Hainan, also, are still occupied by savage Li, supposed to be related to the
Miautze, surrounded in the maritime plains by Cliinese.

1 Canton has a mean temperature of 70° ; in July and August the thermometer
frequently rises to 100° in the shade ; winter temperature averages 51* Fuhr. Ice some-
times forms, and snow has been known to fall overnight.

288 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

14. Religion and Education. — We have previoiisly referred to the
religions of China. Tliere are temples of Confucius in every great towni, and
twice a year, in spring and autimm, sacrifices of animals, fruit, and vi'ine, are
offered in honour of the sage. The majority of the Taouists, or followers of
Laoutze, imitate the Buddhists in their monastic life, and many of them live
as hermits in the mountain caves of the upper Yang-tse, or in the most
romantic spots of the mountains of China. The Grand Lama of Tibet is the
pope of the Buddhist Church, but the priests in China have no political
power, and are viewed with contempt by the literary and governing classes.
In Peking, however, several large monasteries of Tibetan and Mongolian
Buddhists are supported at the expense of the Government.

Besides these three national systems, Mohammedanism, supposed to have
been introduced by a Tatar tribe which was called in to the assistance of the
Chinese during the Tang dynasty, has numeroiis adherents in the northern and
western provinces. Tliey hold aloof from the Pagan Chinese, and have made
so many native converts, that in their frequent rebellions they have seriously
threatened the imperial power. The native Roman Catholics of China are said
to number more than a million, but Protestants are very few.

Standing in the way of all progress in China is the deep-rooted universal
superstition called Feng-shui, or Geonutncy, a form of divination, the professors
of which must be consulted in every proposed undertaking, to determine its
good or bad luck. Education, since it is the high road to official employment,
rank, and wealth, in China is eagerly sought by all classes. Competitive
examinations, held in the capital every three years, presided over by exami-
ners from Peking, sift out the most proficient candidates for public service ; but
as the Chinaman objects to be wiser than his forefathers, the subjects of
examinations are stereotyped classics, and of all modern discoveries in phy-
sical science and the arts he remains profoundly ignorant.

15. Just as the laws which used to prohibit the admission of foreigners
have gradually been broken do^vn, so those which hedged round the natives of
China, restricting them from emigration to other lands, have given way, and
now the " coolies " are free to embark in vessels which have been inspected by
the customs authorities. Numbei-s of Chinese have now formed busy communi-
ties in many of the ports of the Malay Peninsula, in Java and the Philippines,
as well as in Calcutta and other parts of India, and in Australia : across the
Pacific they have taken root in California, and a Chinese town has grown up
as part of the city of San Francisco. Most of these emigrants economise
abroad to return to spend their gains and die in their o\vn country.

16. Industries. — The skill of the Chinese in husbandry, their painstaking
irrigation, and manuring of the lowlands and terracing of the hills, has already
been noticed. Agriculture is held in higher estimation here than in any other
land in the world. Each new-year's day a grand state ceremony is performed
in its honour, the Emperor himself repairing to the sacred field and tracing a
furrow with the plough. As it was two thousand years ago, so it is at the
present day the custom of the Empress and her ladies every spring to set an
example to the people by lajang aside their ornaments and picking mulberry
leaves to feed the silkworms.

Before European manufactures had reached their higher development, fine
" Nankeen " calico was largely imported from China to Europe. " China ware,"
or porcelain, was first made by the Chinese, and so ignorant were the early
Portuguese traders of its value, that they called it "porcellana," believing it
perhaps to be made of shells ; the secret of its manufacture was not discovered
in Europe till the beginning of the eighteenth century. The decomposed
felspar or " Kau-ling " (Kaolin : also called Pe-tun-tz), occurs, as we have
noticed, in the maritime jirovinces of central Cliina ; and at King-te-chin in

CHINESE ASIA. 289

the province of Kiang-si, there are porcelain factories which were founded by
an emperor in 1004 a.d., and in which upwards of a million workmen find
constant employment. The Chinese also excel in carpentry ; paper-making
from the bamboo was invented among them as early as the second century B.C.
They are highly skilled in the use of metals ; bronze vases exist which date
from 1760 B.C., and the great bells on the towers of Peking, cast during the
Ming dynasty, are still perfect ; tlie sonorous (jong, metal alloy is as yet a
Chinese secret ; in their delicate embroideries, carvings in ivory, engravings on
wood and stone, lacquered wares, aiid rich silks and satins, they show astonish-
ing handicraft.

17. Trade. — For a long period, as we have previously noticed, the trade and
intercourse of Europeans with China was jealously restricted to the single port of
Canton, and it was not till after the war with Britain, which terminated iu 1842,
that the additional ports oiAmoy, Fa-chow, jVi)ig-po, and Shanghai, were thrown
open, and that the island of Hong-kong, at the mouth of the Canton river, was
ceded in perpetu4tyto Britain. With these five open ports British trade with
China assumed huge pi'oportions, and though the Chinese evaded the treaty
wherever practicable, no serious dispute arose till 1857. In, that year Canton
was stormed by the British and French forces, and next year tlie ports at the
mouth of the Pei-ho river in the nortli were taken, opening the way to Peking.
The treaty of Tien-tsin, which concluded this contest, obtained the right of
residence of British diplomatic agents at Peking, and opened to trade, in addi-
tion to the fi,ve ports already nametl, those of Kiung-cho^o in the. island of
Hainan ; Swatow, between Hong-kong and Amoy ; the river ports of Ohin-
kiang, Kiu-kiang and Hankow, on the Yaog-tse ; Teng-chow and Che-foo on
the coasts, of the northern promontory of Shantung, Tien-tsin itself, and the
trading town of Niu-chivang iu southern Manchuria. The ports of Tai-vxin,
the capital of Formosa island, and of Takau, south of it^ were also freed, but,
from their insecurity, foreign commerce with the island has now been transferred
to the river Tamsui and Ke-lung on the north side. By a convention made in
1876, the Chinese government consented to open three more towns to foreign
trade, namely Pakhoi in the southern province of Kwang-tung ; the seaport of
Wen-chow, between Ning-po and Foo-chow ; Woo-hoo on the lower Yaug-tse,
beyond Nanking ; and I-clmng on the upper Yang-tse, 360 miles farther inland
than Hankow, and nearly in the centre of China proper. At the same time
permission was granted for the residence of British agents at the far inland
town of Chung-king in the, province of Sze-chuan, on a northern tributary of the
Yang-tse caUed the Kialing. No European merchants, however, are. to be per-
mitted to traflac here until steam navigation shall have been extended to this
remote point.

The maritime intercourse of China Ls carried on mainly with Britain and
her colonies, in a much smaller extent witli tlie United States, Germany,
France, Denmark, Spain, and Holland. Tea and .s/7/i; are the staple exports, all
others being insignificant in comparison with tliese.^ Among imports, that of
opium from India rejireseiits by far the largest sum.- Cotton goods from
the manufacturing centres of Europe form the other great article of importation
to China. The taxation of foreign goods, passing into tlie country is, however,
exceedingly heavy, so much so as to stimulate smuggling and bribery of all
sorts.

A large overland traffic is also maintained with Russia. Great quantities
of the finest tea, made up into " bricks," as well as silk stuffs, pass north-
ward from central China, converging to the chief gate in the great wall, that of

1 Between 1870 and 1879, 178 million lbs. of tea were annually carried from China to
the United Kingdom. '■* About £8,000,000.

290 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

CJmnkia-kow or Kalgan north-west of Peking, whence the camel caravans take
their way northward across the dreary steppes of Mongolia to the Siberian fron-
tier at Kiakhta, from which depot the Russian traders convey the goods westward
to the great fairs in Europe. Recently endeavours have been made by the
British to open up an overland trade route tlirough Yunnan in south-western
China with Burmah and India. A vast internal traffic is carried on within
China itself by the imperial roads, of which there are said to be 20,000, as
well as by the numerous canals and rivers, which are crowded with junks and
boats. Recently a first attempt was made by Europeans to introduce railways
into the country, by constructing a short line from Shanghai to Woo-sung, but
half of this had no sooner been opened for traffic (in June 1876) than the
Chinese authorities interfered, purchased the line, and closed it.

18. Government. — The despotic form of government which prevails in
China dates back from the time of the first emperor, about 220 B.C., who built
the great wall to keep out the very Tatars whose descendants now occupy the
throne of China. The reigning monarch is absolutely supreme, spiritual as well
as temporal sovereign. His person is sacred, and when he is carried abroad,
the people return to their houses and bar the doors, for they may not look
upon him and live. He is high priest of the empire, and can alone perform
the gi-eat religious ceremonies, and he alone has the power of appointing those
officials or mandarins of all grades whose edicts, signed by his vermilion
pencil, pass into law. The administrative government comprises the central
division at Peking, where sits the great council consisting of four members or
ministers of state {Ta-hyo-si), chosen by the emperor (two of Tatar and two of
Chinese origin), besides two assistants from the gi-eat college, whose duty it is to
see that nothing is done which is contrary to the civil and religious laws of the
empire. In the second division are the governors of the eighteen provinces
into which China proper is divided, and of the three provinces of Manchuria ;
in the third division are the presidents of the vast regions of inner and outer
Mongolia, and of Tibet. Under the council are the six boards of government
(Liu-2joo)ioT: the administration of the civil service, finance, rites and ceremonies,
military aS'airs, public works, and criminal law. There is besides an inde-
pendent board of public censors who are privileged to present any remonstrance
to the sovereign, and attend the meetings of the government boards.

19. Each of the eighteen provinces (the names and positions of which will
be best learned from the Map) has a governor, who has a small military force
at his disposal, but does not command the forces of the province. When the
Mauchu Tatars conquered China,' they divided their army into four corps,
distinguished by white, red, blue, and yellow banners. Four more corps were
afterwards added, and afterwards eight similar corps of Mongols and eight of
Chinese. The chief commands are in the hands of high officers of tlie three
nationalities, the Manchu prevailing. Manchu garrisons hold all the cities and
ports, and are establislied along the frontiers. The standing Chinese army
acts mainly as a constabulary. Four ironclads built in England were received
by the Government in 1877 as the foundation of a navy.

20. Towns. — Peking, the capital, on the northern border of the great
plain, consists of two distinct cities, the older Chinese and the newer Tatar
or imperial town, forming together an irregular oblong surrounded by high
castellated walls about fifteen miles in circuit. The population probably
amounts to half a million. Marco Polo, who \'isited it in 1271, gives a
description of it which serves almost exactly at the present day, speaking
of its rectangular form, its wide straight streets, the incessant traffic main-
tained in its thoroughfares, and the closing of the gates at night to tlie sound

- See p. 5r

CHINESE ASIA. 291

of a bell. About eight miles north-west of the city lies the imperial park,
with lotus lakes and marble bridges, temples and pagodas, in the midst of
which the famous Summer Palace stood ; it was sacked by the allied (English
and French) troops in I860, and remains as they left it, a heap of ruins.

ifanking (450,000), formerly the capital, on the Yang-tse, is also surrounded
by walls, which have a length of eighteen miles and include much ojien ground
within. The city suffered greatly on its captxire by the Taiping rebels in 1853,
and then its famous porcelain tower, which was 261 feet high, was destroyed.
Like the capital, Nanking has wide streets and open spaces ; but other great
towns of China present almost uniformly the appearance of a great mass of
closely-packed red-tiled houses, with overlapping eaves excluding light and air,
and only allowing a maze of narrow alleys between. In tliese tlie only glimpse
of the sky or breath of fresher air can be got on the house-tops, which are
commonly decked with flowers set in pots, and furnislied with water jars in
case of lire. The uniform level of the roofs is only relieved by the imposing
official residences, pagodas, and temples, or in the southern provinces by the
lofty square towers of the pawnbroking houses. Nearly every town is walled.

Large to\\Tis might be enumerated by hundreds. At least fifty are known
to have a population of upwards of one hundred thousand, but all those in which
foreigners have as yet any special interest have already been named. The
number of foreigners resident in China is very small. In 1872 there were only
3660 in all, and more than half their number were living in the city of
Shanghai.

The British possession of Hong-kmig island, or "sweet waters," is about
eight miles long, and forms an irregular rocky ridge, with peaks rising to 1825
feet. On its north-west the European ca})ital town of Vutoria has arisen. It
is laid out in terraces on a steep slope, and has numerous fine stone buildings
and wharves, and is lighted with gas. Its commerce is not very large, but it
is important as the headquarters of the British naval and military establish-
ments in this part of the world. The population of Victoria exceeds 100,000,
and conqirises about 6000 Europeans and Armenians.

21. Kansu. — Though China proper, geographically considered, is contained
within the limits we have indicated, the jurisdiction of the uortli -western pro-
vince of Kansu reaches far beyond tlie limit of the gi-eat wall, over a wide
region of the Central Asiatic plateau, extending north-westward as far as the
borders of Eastern Turkistan and Zungaria, at the eastern termination of the
range of the Thian-shan. Enclosed between the high snow-capped range of
the Nan-shan mountains on the south, and of the Thian-shan on the north-
west, this region of the plateau has the general character of the steppes of
Mongolia and of the Gobi desert, afterwards described, of which it forms part.
It is important as embracing within it one of the great trade routes of Central
Asia. This passes from Lan-choiv, the capital of Inner Kansu, through the
Kia-yu gate of the great wall, by a ten days' journey across the desert, in
which herds of wild horses, asses, and mules are seen, to the fertile oasis of
Hami, at the southern base of the Thian-shan. Hami is an important trading
place, at which the wool of Turkistan is exchanged for the jiroducts of Central
Cliina. A continuation of this trade route northward leads over a pass of the
Thian-shan (8980 feet above the sea), whicli is easily crossed by carts, to the
oasis and town of Barkvl, at the northern base of the range. Southern Kansu,
along the base of the higli Nan-shan mountains, is desciibed as a most fertile
country, resembling the corresponding region at the base of tlie Himalaya
range, the hillsides being clothed with splendid rhododenih'ons. This is also
the native country of the medicinal rhubarb, whicli gi-ows in great perfection
in the lower valleys.

292 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

Manchuria.

This division of the Chinese Empire, the native country of its
imperial family, extends north-eastward of China proper, occupying
the wide basin which extends about 500 miles between the Kin-
ghan mountains, forming the edge of the great Asiatic plateau, on the
west, and the Shan Alin or Long White mountains, from their snows
on the north side, which divide off the peninsula of Corea on the
east. The boundary towards Siberia since 1860, when the whole of
Northern Mancliuria was ceded to Russia, has been the Amur river.
In the south the basin opens to the Gulf of Liao-tong and the Bay
of Corea within the Yellow Sea, the length of the country north to
south being about 800 miles.

22. Rivers. — The chief river of the country is the Sungari, about 1000
miles long, flowing from the Kinghan range east and north-east to join the
boundary river, the Amur. Tlie Ussuri, another considerable tributary from
the south, forms the boundary between Manchuria and the Russian maritime
province. It receives the overflow of tlie large lake Ilinka, 50 miles long,
which lies on the inward slope of the coast mountains at a height of about
2000 feet above the sea. The southern river of Manchuria is the Liao-lio, or
Sira-Muren, wliich flows also from the Kinghan slopes, but turns southward
to the Gulf of Liao-tong.

23. Landscape. — Forests cover the whole country in the north. In the
west great rolling prairies or gi'assy plains, on which large herds of cattle find
pasture, extend at the base of the Kinghan range, enclosing a bare salt steppe
called the desert of Korchin. Tlie Sungari valley is a fertile region, and the
southern portion, in the basin of the Liao-ho, resembles Northern China in its
irrigated fields of rice, and in its yield of sesame, hemp, and cotton, and of the
best tobacco of the empire. Here the climate is most favourable. Towards
the north the winters become exceedingly severe ; the frosts destroy the grass
in August ; in September snow begins to fall, and the soil is hard frozen from
October till April. Wild animals and birds are abundant, and the rivers are
well stocked with fish.

24. People. — The Manchus (of lighter complexion and heavier build, and
having less scanty beard tlian, though otherwise resembling, the Chinese) are
believed to belong to the gi-eat Mongul family of the Tunguses,^ and form the
most advanced and civilised branch of their stock. As early as tlie thirteenth
century they had become a powerful and warlike nation, distinguished by liigh
intellectual and physical qualities. During the wars of the fifteenth century,
when the Manchus overcame the Ming dynasty in Cliina, the greater part of the
population of the country seems to have been drawn ofl" southward into the
newly-conquered region. The Cliinese in turn have since swarmed into Man-
churia, so that they now form the bulk of the population here. The Manchu
language also has all but disappeared, and the trade and traflSc of the land is
in the liands of the Chinese. Those of the Tatars who remain in the outskirts
of the country living a nomadic tent-life still distinguish themselves as perse-
vering hunters, expert with the bow and arrow, and bold riders. Mohammed-
anism has spread widely among them, and the followers of this creed appear

1 See p. 272.

CHINESE ASIA. 293

to keep themselves aloof, occiipying chiefly the hilly country of the east, and
being a source of frequent trouble to the Chinese Government.

25. Division and Chief Towns. — Manchuria is divided into three pro-
vinces ; the southern called Hhinfi-king, or Liao-tong nearest China proper, and
sometimes considered as its most northerly Jivi.sion, the most populous and
agricultural, and the most completely Chinese portion of the land ; and the
two provinces of Tsitdh/ir, in the north-west, occupying the basin of Nonni
tributary of the Sungari, and of Girin or Kirin, between the river and the
Shan Alin mountains, in the north-east. The Chinese governor has his seat
at the walled city of Mulcden, on a tributary of the Liao-ho, near the centre of
Shing-king. This province is governed in the .same manner as tliose of China
proper, but the northern provinces are iinder military discipline. The town
of Tsitsihar, situated on the Nonni, the chief place in the north-western
province, is a Chinese penal settlement for the worst classes of criminals, pirates,
insurgents, members of secret societies, and robbers, under strict military
guardianship. Kirin, on the upper Sungari, the chief place in the province
named from it, is described as a great collection of huts surrounded by an
earth wall ; here most of the trading-vessels for the Amur are built.

The chief trading tovm and outlet of Manchuria is that of Niuchivang, to
■which reference has previously been made as one of the places thrown open to
foreign traffic by the treaty of Tien-tsin. It lies 25 miles south-west of Mukden
and 30 miles from the sea, on an unnavigable tributary of the Liao-ho. Its port
of Jinhoa, at the mouth of the Liao-ho, sends out grain, hemp, hides, and
indigo, but is closed by ice from November till March.

CoREA.l

26. The kingdotn which occupies the large peninsula of Corea
southward of Manchuria might almost be treated as a separate country,
since its dependence on China is now merely nominal. It is
rigorously closed to European intercourse, and our knowledge of it
is almost confined to the accounts given of it by the Jesuit mis-
sionaries, who found their way into it for a short time in the
seventeenth century. In extent, the peninsula is somewhat larger
than the island of Great Britain, having a length from north to
south of about 600 miles, and an average width of 150 miles.

27. Physical Features. — In the north, wliere it joins the mainland, the
high snowy range of the Shan Alin separates it from Manchuria, and north-
westward, between it and the southern Manchurian province of Shing-king,
where the land is lower and access more easy, a belt of neutral and uninhabited
territory, about 25 miles wide, extending from the high mountains south to
the bay of Corea, is jealously maintained as a barrier to intercourse.

All along tlie eastern or Pacific margin of the peninsula there extends a
cliain of liigh mountains witli an almost precipitous slof)e to the sea on this side,
forming the backbone of the peninsula, like the Apennines of Italy. One of
the peaks, measured by our hydrographers in coasting along, was found to be

1 From Korto (Knou-li of the Chinese), the fonnfler of a dynasty now extinct ; the
Corean name of the kiuKfiom is Tsio-nen; another Chinese name for the peuinsula is
Chaov,-sie.n= "the fresiiness of the nioruiug."

294 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

8114 feet above the sea ;^ another is 6310 feet, and several exceed 5000 feet.
The country slopes gradually from this eastern range westward towards low-
lands wliicli border the Yellow Sea, and while the high outer coast is free from
islands, the lower, inner, side is fringed with numbers of tliese. The largest
Corean island, however, is tlie mountainous one called Qveljjart, which rises
50 miles south of the extremity of the peninsula, and which has a length of
45 miles.

28. Rivers. — The chief rivers of the peninsula, which may be compared
generally with those of England in length, flow naturally from the high eastern
range towards the inner Yellow Sea, the longest from north to south being the
Ya-lu (or Ya-lu-ula, from Ula the Manchu word for river), the Ta-tong,
and the Salayee (called Han-kiang by the Chinese), which may be called the
Thames of Corea, since the capital town of SeyuP is on its banks. Another
important river, the Tiu-inin, occupies a valley in the extreme north-eastern
portion of the Corea, flowing northwards between the Shan Alin and the coast
range, and bending suddenly south-eastward through a gap to reach the Pacific
south of Possiette Bay, and to form the boundary at its mouth between the
Russian maritime province and the Corean territory. A smaller river, called
by the Chinese Tsin-kiang, drains the extremity of the peninsula southward
to the strait which separates it from Japan, reaching^the sea at the Japanese
port and colony of Fushan.

29. Climate. — Tlie climate of a country so varied in elevation must be
very diverse ; though the peninsula lies between more southerly latitudes than
Italy, its average annual temperature is not higher than that of the British
Isles, while the extremes of heat and cold in winter and summer are much
wider apart. The hot, moist, south-west monsoon blows in the summer half
of the year, but the temperature does not rise so high as in the corresponding
jiarts of the plain of China ; the northerly winds of winter bring frosts that
freeze the northern rivers Tiumen and Yalu so hard that horses and heavy
baggage cross them with perfect safety. Even in the extreme south the winter
cold seems to be excessive.-*

30. Products. — The northern and eastern mountain regions seem to be
forest-covered and thinly peopled, but the lowlands of the west yield rice,
besides buckwheat, barley, and millet, tobacco, hemp, and cotton. The
important product of the country in its traffic with China is, however, the
Qinseng plant, the root of which is highly esteemed by the wealthier Chinese
as a remedy for almost all diseases, and is regarded as possessing extraordinary
virtues. The royal tiger and panther are so numerous that their skins form
an important article of commerce with foreigners tlirough Chinese traders ;
stags, musk-deer, foxes, hares, and wolves, are abundant, and the skins of sables
from Corea form a prominent article in the tribute to the Emperor of China.
Ponies and large oxen are the domestic animals, sheep being almost unknown.
Whales and seals frequent the coasts in winter, and are taken by the Corean
fishers. Gold appears to be so abundant that it bears a much smaller value in
proportion to silver than it does with us ; lead, iron, and coal are also mined
and used witli skill.

31. People. — Belonging to the same Mongolian family the Coreans re-
semble the Chinese in feature, but have generally a darker complexion. Their
civilisation has been derived from that of China, and the Chinese language and
Confucian philosophy are studied by the " literati " of Corea. The ordinary

1 It was named by tliom Hien Fung, after the emperor who was reigning in Cliina
at the time ; this of course is not the Corean native name.

2 Also known as King-ki-tao, Kin-phii, Kjong, or Sayool.

3 A Japanese correspondent of one of the liome journals (January 1876) reports, that
in January the thermometer at i^ishau fell as low as 22° F.

CHINESE ASIA. 295

language of the Coreans, unlike that of the Chinese, seems to be based on a
distinct alphaljet, though a great number of Chinese characters are retained ;
Buddhism is the popular religion.

32. Government. — Since the time when the kingdom was established
under the auspices of a Chinese emperor (a.d. 1392), the kings of Corea have
received investiture at his hands on ascending the throne, but in course of time
this ceremony has become a mere formality, and the Chinese government has no
political control over that of Corea. The king is absolute ruler, temporal and
spiritual ; all the land is his, and he claims a tenth of all agricultural produce.
In other points the administration resembles that of China, and the country is
divided into eight well-defined provinces, subdivided into counties and districts.

33. Trade. — The King of Corea presents an annual tribute to the Emperor
of China, which is carried by a caravan of about 200 men, with horses and
waggons, that marches in the depth of winter across the frozen Yalu by Mukden
round to Peking, carrying valuable packages of ginseng, furs, and other native
produce. All legitimate external traffic is confined to dealings with Cliina, by
the merchants who accompany the yearly tribute, and with Japan, the latter
country having fi-ee ports and factories at Fushan, at the mouth of the Tsin-
kiang, the southern river of the peninsula, and Jinsen-ko, in the province of
Kaukintai ; but a large contraband trade is kept up by Chine-se junks from
Shan-tung, the nearest Chinese promontory to Corea.

Mongolia,

34. From the snowy crests of the Ala-shan mountains, along
wliich winds the great wall that shuts off China proper on the south,
and from the Kldngan mountains in the east, separating it from
Manchuria, the vast steppe land of Mongolia reaches away northward
a thousand miles to the base of the Altai mountains and westward
to the Thian-shan. If we compare its extent to Great Britain we
find that it occupies a space fifteen times as great.

In strong contrast to the people of China, the inhabitants of
this vast region build neither towns nor villages, have no houses or
settled abodes, cultivate no fields, Ijut dwell in "yurts" or tents,
and wander about with their herds between those districts of their
country wliicli are most favoured with water and pasture.

35. Physical Features. — Within its girdle of forest -covered and snow-
capped mountains, tlie tal)leland of Mongolia, 3000 tn 4000 feet above sea-
level, presents a border of grassy steppe lands enclosing the central and
characteristic feature of this region, the Gobi or Shamn^ desert, a tract of not
less than 2000 miles in length, with an average \vidth of 500 miles. The
aspect of the country in crossing the Gobi is that of low downs, the whole
being of a rocky or stony nature rather than sandy, though patches of sand do
occur every here and there. Wliat vegetation exists is comjiosed of weeds,
"scrub," and heath, there being scarcely any gi-ass, and only a dwarfed and
stunted tree here and tliere in the passes of the low rocky ranges, that cross
the desert at uncertain intervals in ])arallel lines from east to west. North-
ward towards Siberia the table-land becomes diversified with forest-covered hill
ranges, and valleys well clothed with grass.

1 Both of these tcnns, MonRol and Cliinese, mean desert : the Chinese also call this
region the JIan-hai or "dry sea."

296 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

36. Rivers and Lakes. — From the mountain belt surroiindiiig the central
desert a few streams descend towards it to terminate generally in small salt-
lakes. Along the northern borders towards the Altai, where the land becomes
more broken by mountains, and where the ranges, called the Tannu-ola and
Khangai, extend into the table-land from the north-west, a number of enclosed
high basins are formed, each wth its central lake ; such are tlie Ubsa Nor,
the Turgen and Kai-a lakes, the UKinigur, and others in the north-west of
Mongolia. From the northern niountalns of Mongolia also the Yenisei receives
its head .streams, the Ulu ke'in, and the Selenga flowing from the high lake
called the Kos-gol ; and the shallow Kerulen, flowing along the northern edge
of the plateau, feeds tlie Dalai Nor on the north-eastern border of Mongolia,
whence the Argun river flows to the Amur.

37. Climate. — The climate of the Mongolian plateau is excessive or con-
tinental in a very high degree. At all seasons of the year there is a great
daily variation of temperature, which, along with its deficient rainfall, accounts
for its barren cliaracter. In October large portions of the country are covered
with snow, bitterly cold north-east %vinds sweep over it, and in the depth
of winter the temperature scarcely rises above the freezing point ; ^ in summer
tlie midday temperature is correspondingly high. Whirlwinds of sand are
frequent in April.

38. People. — Tlie inhabitants of Mongolia, thinly scattered over its infer-
tile surftice, fall into three chief divisions — (1) The Kalkas of the northern side
of the plateau, and of the upper valleys of the streams which flow northward
towards the Siberian plain, who are types of the pure Mongol race, shown in
their high cheek bone», round flat faces, oblique eyes, scanty hair, and square
thick set figure. The Kalkas are purely nomadic and pastoral, hating a settled
life, and despising agricultiire : their wealth is in their flocks and herds, their
favourite domestic animal the horse, their habitation the " jiirt " or felt tent ;
(2) The Simiteh, who roam over the south-eastern region of the Gobi ; and (3)
The Ghakhars, Tumets, Ordos, Oluths, and Turguths, who occupy the plateau
south of the Gobi outside the great wall of China : this section lives in close inter-
course with the Chinese who have extended their agricultural colonies beyond
the great wall, and by frequent interman-iage with these have lost to a great ex-
tent the distinctive Mongol type, imitating the Chinese in dress and manners,
but not in industry, being for the most part rogues and thieves, who make the
passage through the southern region difficult for travellers.

The Mongols pay no tribute to China, but are liable to military service,
and the country is accordingly divided into banners or districts under the con-
trol of Mandarins of high rank. The Kalkas are also grouped under their
own hereditary princes, who claim descent from Genghiz Khan.^ The Chinese
have colonies in the small towns of northern Mongolia, at Urga, the
" camp " in the basin of the Selenga river, a town of tents, with a few Chinese
houses surrounded by a palisade ; and at Uliassutai, 500 miles west of it, a
.straggling to^vn of Chinese houses and " yurts." These places are also the
residences of the high civil governors of Mongolia. Kobdo, still farther west,
near the Kara lake, has a Chinese fort and trading to\vn surrounded by a
crowd of Mongol tents.

In religion the Mongols are Buddhists, and almost every third man among
them belongs to one or other of the lower grades of the Lama priesthood, who
exercise almost unlimited influence over their secular brethren, and are con-

1 At Uliassutai, 5736 feet above tlie sea, Mr. Ney Elias found that in November the
thermometer seldom rose to 20° F. even in the middle of the day.

2 The Khanates of the Kalkas tribes, in order from Zungaria west to Manchuria east,
are Kobdo, Tangnu Ulianghai, Zassaktu, Sannoin or Uliassutai, Tuchetu or Urga, and
Tsetsen.

CHINESE ASIA. 297

suited in every trivial affair of ordinary life. At Urga a Kutuktu, arcbbisliop
or cardinal, resides : this is tlie iieadquarters of Lamaism in Mongolia, and a
pilgrimage to tins place is considered only second to one made to L'assa in
Tibet.

39. Trade. — The Mongols are best kno^vn to Europeans along the
trade route which leads across the country in a direct line from the gate of
Kalgan in the great wall of China, nortli of Peking, by way of Urga to the
Russian frontier at the contiguous frontier trading stations of Maimatchin and
Kiakhta, near the Selenga river on tlie border of Siberia. On this route they
act as guards and camel drivers to tlie camel caravans which carry tea, silks,
porcelain, and rhubarb, 900 miles across the desert. At Maimatchin, wliich is
a thoroughly Chinese town in contrast to Paissian Kiakhta beside it, but on the
opposite side of the frontier line, a great trade is carried on, especially at the
winter fair in December, in exchanging teas and other southern produce for
furs, woollen cloths, and linens, brought thither by the Russians.

Another very important trade route, wliich is not yet frequented, but which,
from its more direct line, will probably become the great highway of trade
between China and Russia, is tliat which passes from Lan-chow, the capital of
Kansu, the innermost province of Cliina proper, through the great wall at
the gate of Kia-j-u, by way of the oases of Hami and Barkul, at the eastern
extremity of the Thian Shan range ; and thence northward across western
Mongolia to the Russian frontier at Zaisan, near the lake of that name, from
which the navigable Irtish river flows to join the Obi.

ZUNGARIA.

40. To the west of Mongolia, between the Altai on the north
and the Thian Shan on the south, and the Russian boundary of
central Asia on the west, lies the territory called Zungaria, formerly
the powerful kingdom of the Zungares (from Zun-gar = left-hand,
or left wing of the Mongols) which has been in the hands of the
Chinese, with interruptions, since 1759, when it was placed Under
military colonies of south-eastern Mongol tribes, and peopled in
jiart by exiles from China; The Chinese call it Thian-shan pe-lu,
the land north of the Thian Shan.

41. It is a region of high mountain basins enclosing lakes, and on the west
forms the upper valleys of the rivers which flow down to western Siberia
and the low steppes of central Asia. Here the lllack Irtish, flowing to the
Zaisan lake on the otlier side of tlie Russian boundary, and the //;' river, the
chief feeder of the Balkash salt-lake, take their rise. The valley of the latter
river, the most fertile and populous division of Zungaria, including the
town of Kulja, was occupied by the Russians during the disturbed period of
the Tungani rebellion in 1871.^ The Chinese lately recovered their hold
of the northern and central divisions of Zungaria, those called Tarhagatai and
Kiir-kara-usu ; they then, by a treaty-arrangement Avith the Russians, re-
gained possession of the remainder.^

The chief settlements in the country are those which lie along the trade
route that traverses the northern base Of the Thian Shan, passing westward
from Barkul in the extreme north of the province of Kansu, through the

1 See p. 79. 2 This treaty has not been ratified, 1880.

298 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

posts Gtichen and Manas to Kur-kara-usu, whence there are lines of com-
munication westward to the Hi valley, and northward over the mountains to
the Chinese frontier fort of Chwjutchak,^ and to the Russian border post of
Zaisan. By these lines a considerable caravan traffic is maintained with the
Russian central Asiatic provinces and with the eastern parts of European
Russia. Tea is brought from inner China by the above-mentioned route to
Chugutchak, and is carried thence by Kalmuck caravans of as many as
seventy camels, across the Kirghiz stejipes to the frontier markets near the
Ural.

Eastern Turkistan.

42. We now come to tl^e most westerly portion of the Chinese
empire, the Mohammedan rulers o,f which, claiming descent from
Genghiz Khan, were first subjugated in 1758 ; this is the large
territory known as Eastern Turkistan, or Chinese Tartary, which,
during its period of independence of Chinese rule from 1864 to
1877, attracted great attention both from the side of British India
and from that of the Russian provinces of western Turkistan. The
chief points in its recent history have already been indicated. "

■' 43. Landscape. — The Chinese name this region Tfiian-shan-nan-lu, the
country south of the Thian Shan. This range encloses it on the north ; west-
ward rises the high edge of the Pamir plateau, and on tlie south the Knen-lun
range extends away eastward to joi^i the Nan-shan on the borders of China,
forming a northward slope of the great Tibetan plateau comparable with that of
the Himalayan descent on the south. Eastern Turkistan tlius appears like a
huge bay closed by a barrier of the highest mountains of Asia, north, west,
and south, but opening out in the east to the wide steppe land of the interior
of the Asiatic plateau and towards the vast " dry sea " of the Gobi desert.
Though from its complete enclosure the country is almost rainless, there
extends round the base of the mountains a crescent of fertile laud, wliich is
watered by the streams descending from the mountain snows and glaciers,
many of wliich are exhausted of their supplies in filling a network of irrigation
canals. This cultivated border, which lies at a general elevation of about
4000 feet above the sea, is exceedingly rich in wheat fields and orchards, as
well as in cotton, flax, hemj), and other products. All the inner basin of the
country within the fertile crescent at the base of the mountains is, however,
of the same character as the Gobi of Mongolia of which it forms part, though
it is known more commonly as the Takla Makan desert.

44. Rivers. — The chief of the streams flowing from the mountains at the
head of the great bay of Eastern Turkistan are those named from the towns on
their banks, the Kashgar-Daria, the Yarkand-Daria, and the KliMan-Daria ;
these three unite eastward to form the Tnrim river, which takes its way through
the desert for 500 miles to terminate in tlie great marshes called the Kara Bnrun
and Lob Nor ^ near the borders of Kansu, in the very heart of the continent.

45. Climate. — The gi'eat features of the climate of Eastern Turkistan are
the extreme dryness of the atmosphere at all seasons, its insignificant rainfall,

1 The Kirghiz name : also called Tarhaqatai, from the range of mountains tiiat gives
its name to tlie northern division of Zimgaria, at the south base of which it lies ;
called Sin-ting-ching by the Chinese.

2 See p. 81.

3 The Lob Nor was revisited for the first time since the sur\'eys of the old Jesuit
missionaries, by the Russian explorer Prejevalsky in 1877.

CHINESE ASIA. 299

the dust clouds which frequently obscure its atmosphere, the periodical winds
of spring and autumn blowing down from the mountains towards the central
basin, the intensity of the sun's heat, and the great extremes of temjjcrature
from the calm frosty winter to the hot summer.

46. Towns. — From the seven cities which lie round the habitable crescent,
the country lias also been named Jciyshahr. In order, from south round to
east, these are Khotan or Ilchi, Yarkand, Yangi-hissar, Kashgar, Ush Turfan,
Aksii, and Kune Turfan, the farthest east. Of these, the fortilied capital of
Kashgar in the extreme west, and Yarkand, the great commercial city of eastern
Turkistan, 100 miles south-east of the capital, are the most impoitant. The
walls of the latter city form a p)arallelogram embracing a circuit of about
seven miles, entered by five gates ; it has not fewer than 160 mosques, and its
caravansarais are crowded with merchants from all parts of Asia. '

47. Trade Routes. — Communication wiyh north-western India is possible
l)y several higii and ditlicult mountain passes, the most frequented of which is
that named the Karakoram Pass (18,550 ft.), on the route from Leh on the
Indus to Ilchi, or to Yarkand ; across the high Pamir in the west trade is
caiTied on with tlie Oxus valley ; north-westward the Thian Hhan is crossed
on a route from Kashgar to Kokan and the valley of the Syr Daria, by the
difficult Terek Pass, and northward between Aksu and Kulja by the
Muza/rt Pass. In the bazaars of Yarkand are seen the silks and teas of
China which have come thither by the route through Kansu and along the
southern base of the Thian Shan ; cloths and sugar, which have come over
the north-western passes of the Thian Shan from European Russia ; and Man-
chester goods, which have found their way over the Western Himalaya.

Tibet,

48. Tlie remaining portioji of the Chinese Empire is as yet little
known, partly owdng to the natui^al difficulties of access to it, partly
to the jealousy of the Chinese government respecting the intrusion
of foreigners. It emhraces the great highland region which is
marked out by the high edges of the Kuen-lun and Kan-shan moun-
tains in the north and the Himalaya on the south, reaching west-
ward to the convergence of these ranges on the Pamir plateau, and
eastward to where the highland begins to break down on the inner
bonlers of China proper, The area embraced by this vast higldand,
which appears to have an average elevation of about 15,000 feet
above the sea, is nearly eight times the extent of Great Britain.

49. Physical Features. — The general aspect of the plateau, the northern
portion of wliich lias recently been penetrated by a Russian explorer, the
southern examined along several lines by "jiandits" travelling secretly in the
service of the British Indian Government, ajipears to be that of bai'e gi'assy
plains or wide basins, ofte^i enclosing large slieets of water, sometimes fresh,
but most frequently salt, separated and enclosed by ranges of gigantic snow-
clad mountains. In the uninhabited portions large herds of wild asses,
antelopes, and the great wild sheep,^ help to relieve the monotony of the land-

1 Tlio Ovh animnn, or Artrali, loii;,'-lefrf:('il, and stiiiitliiig as high as a calf, with
imiiiensi; linnis, "so lar;,'f Ui.-it tin.' fux is saiil to take uji liis ubude in their lioUuvvs when
detached and bluachiii'; on the barren niountaius of Tibet."

300 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

scape ; the wealth of the nomadic and thinly scattered inhabitants is in
their yaks, goats, and sheep, with which they move about from one pasture to
another. Winter covers the heights witli snow, and seals up the rivers, lakes,
and streams in hard enduring frost ; very slight summer rains fall in July and
August.

50. The north-eastern portion of this region immediately south of the Nan-
shan mountains, and adjoining the Chinese province of Kansu on the south-
west, surrounds the great lake called the Kuku-nor, and is known to the Chinese
as Sing-hai. This is the land of the Tangutuns, a race closely allied to the
Tibetans. They resemble gypsies in appearance, and live in black tents ; they
are distinct from the Mongols, and are as far beneath them as tlie Mongols are
below the Cliinese ; they prefer a nomadic to a settled life, and are chiefly
engaged in pastoral pursuits ; many of them, however, are notorious robbers.
Kakwn-or<, the "blue lake," fed by streams from the Nan-shan, is about 200 miles
in circumference, and lies at an elevation of 10,500 feet above the sea, sur-
rounded by mountains. An island near its south-western shore is inhabited
by hermit Lamas, whose only communication witli the shore is in winter over
the ice, there being no boats on the lake. A great marshy plain called the
Zaidam, about 150 miles in length, shuts off this district from tlie rest of Tibet.

51. The great features of Southern Tibet ^ are given by the high valleys of
the San-po, or Upper Brahmaputra, flowing east, and of the Indus, flowing
north-west, embracing between them the huge mass of the Himalaya, where
they turn south to descend to the plains of India. The valleys of the eastern
border of the great plateau, where forest-covered slopes and deep gorges take
the place of the grassy plains, also give rise to the great streams of south-
eastern Asia — the Irawadi, Salwen, and Mekong of Farther India, and the
Yang-tse and Hoang-ho of China. The largest of the series of lakes of Central
Tibet with wliich we are as yet acquainted is that named the Tengri-nor,
locally called the Nam-cho, or "sky lake," from its great altitude (15,190 feet
above the sea). This is a sjilendid sheet of water, about 50 miles in length by
20 in width, shut in on the south by a range of snowy jseaks, from which
glaciers depend. The Nam-cho is a sacred lake, and has several monasteries on
its banks and islands^ to which pilgiims repaid During the summer half of
the year, when it is not frozen over, the Namcho overflows north-westward, it
is said, to a much larger lake called the Chargid-cho, which has not yet been
reached by any Eurojieab. Another remarkable lake is that called tlie ralti,
or Yomdok-cho, which lies south of the San-po, and is ring-like in form,
enclosing a large central island. Springs, with temperatures varying from
130° to 180° Fahn, and geysers which eject their hot sulphurous waters, con-
trasting in the depth of winter with the hard frozen streams, are other natural
curiosities of the southern part of the plateau.

52. People. — 'The Tibetans are described as of middle stature, with long
dark hair, little beard, small slit-like eyes, high cheek bones, small nose, large
mouth, and thin lips ; pliant, like the Chinese, but strong, like the Tatars,
brave, and generous. It is to the exclusive policy of the Chinese government,
not to the Tibetans theniselves, that oxir ignorance of their country is mainly-
due. Lamaism weaves itself into every concern of life, and its very numerous
priests are the true rulers of the land ; so much is this the case that the few
towns of Tibet are simply great collections of temples and monasteries. The
Dalai Lama (or Lama Guru), the spiritual sovereign, at the head of a great
hierarchy, has his seat at L'assd, which is situated oli a level plain north of

1 Or Tubet ; properly Tu-po, the land of the Tu, a people who migrated hither in the
sixth century : the native name of the couutry is Bod-yul = the land of Bod : the
Chinese call it Si-tsang.

CHINESE ASIA. 301

the San-po, 11,700 feet above the sea. Tliis city, the centre of which is an
iinmeuse temple, resplendent with gold and gems, has a circuit of two and a
half miles. The monastery of Debang, near it, shelters no fewer than 7700
priests. Another great monastic town is that of Shigntze, on the southern side
of the San-po, about 200 miles south-west of L'assa, the residence of the
Tesho or Bogdo Lama, or Pan-chhen, who is theoretically equal in spiritual
authority to the Dplai, but is practically his inferior : its monasteries harbour
more than 3000 priests. About 500 miles east of L'assa, also, on a tributary
valley of the Upper Yang-tse, near the frontier of China Proper, stands the
great monastery of Lithang, famous for its gold-roofed temple, the residence
of about 3500 priests.

53. Government. — A Chinese viceroy resides in L'assa, and represents
the temporal authority of the Emperor. Chinese garrisons and forts are also
maintained at all the important points of the country. Central Tibet is
divided into the two provinces of Yu (or Wei), which has L'assa for its capital,
and Sang, in which Shiga tze is the chief town. Western Tibet, extending to
the state of Ladakh, which is under British protection, is included in the pro-
vince of Ari (or Nari) ; the eastern region, extending across the gorges of the
Upper Yang-tse, next China, is named the province of Kham. The interior
country northward of the central provinces has the general name of Hor}

54. Trade. — The chief place in the western province of Tibet is Gartokh,^
in the upper valley of the Indus, a summer camp of about 200 tents, chiefly
belonging to traders. A well-maintained high-road extends along the valley of
the San-po from L'assa to this point, and by this the Chinese oihcials keep up
communications for 800 miles along the plateau behind the Himalaya, post-
houses or tarjums being maintained at every stage of 20 to 60 miles. Yak
caravans, sometimes numbering 1000 animals, traverse this highway. Near
Gartokh are the chief gold-fields of Tibet. The most important is that of Thok
Jalung, at the great altitude of 16,300 feet above the sea. Here the tents of
the diggers in summer number about 300, but in winter, when the soil is more
easily worked, their number increases to about 6000. At that season the tents
are sunk in pits seven or eight feet beneath the surface, to avoid the strong
freezing winds which then blow over the bare highland.

In former times a considerable traffic and intercourse was maintained
between Tibet and the plains of India through the difficult passes and gorges
of the Himalaya ; since the Chinese conquest at the end of last century, the
passes are jealously guarded and closed to foreigners. European goods, how-
ever, reach Tibet by way of Ladakh in the west and through Nepal ;^ and by the
same routes, as well as farther east to the fairs of Assam, the Tibetans send
down gold dust and salt, musk, yak tails, and ponies.

Besides being the greatest place of pilgrimage in Central Asia, and partly
on this account, L'assa is a great trading centre. Here in December merchants
from all the surrounding countries congregate : silks, carpets, and porcelain,
but especially tea, are brought from China by way of the monastery of /./</(««</
and the trading town of Batknng, the brick tea being ferried across the Yang-
tse and its numerous parallel tributaries in large baskets covered with hides,
which float on the water. Musk comes from the country north-east of L'a.ssa;
gems and gold lace, sheep and horses, from Turkistan ; rice and tobacco,
corals, pearls, and spices, from India by way of Sikkim ; saffron from Kash-
mir in the west. The traders leave again in March before the summer rains
flood the rivers.

1 Also Khnr or Katclii.

2 Also called Car-ynr-yarati ; yarsa meaning " summer abode."

3 By tbe Kirong, Nilam-la and Tipta-la (passes).

302 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

JAPAN/

1. We now come to wliat is in many respects the most interest-
ing portion of Mongolian Asia, the Empire of Japan, remarkable
alike for the proud isolation which it so long maintained, and for
the extraordinary advances which it has made since its renewal of
intercourse witli the civilised world in recent years.

The islands comprising it have already been likened to the
British Isles in their position relative to the Continent, the Sea
of Japan and the Strait of Corea resembling our North Sea and
Strait of Dover. In their general extent of svirface the comparison
also holds good. Tlie three contiguous islands of Japan proper are
not much larger than Great Britain ; the northern possession of
Yezo is of nearly the same size as Ireland.^

Japan Proper (The Islands of Nipon, Shikoku, Kiushiu).

2. Relief. — The islands are unlike tlie British group, however, in being
for the most part of volcanic origin, forming part of the series of loop-like
chains which have risen round the eastern borders of the continent. They are
generally mountainous, the numerous ranges which cover their surface extend-
ing in directions parallel to the length of the group, giving varied and pic-
turesque landscapes of hill and valley ; their irregular coast-line is indented
with splendid natural harbours, such as the Bay of Yedo on the south-east
coast ; the beautiful " inland sea " of Japan, with its intricate channel be-
tween hundreds of islets, separates the island of Shikoku from the larger one
of Nipon, and the enclosed Suwo nada and Bugo Channel, divide the south-
western island of Kiushiu from both of these. Many of the mountains attain
heights of from 3000 to 8000 feet ; but two of the most prominent of all are
the now extinct volcanic cone of Fusi Yama, 14,177 feet, which rises snow-
capped west of the capital, and wliich is said to be one of tlie youngest moun-
tains of the world, having risen in the course of a few days about three cen-
turies before the Christian era ; and the smoking Asama-yariia, near the
centre of the island of Nipon.

3. Rivers. — From the moimtainous character of the long narrow islands
the rivers are generally impetuous, and of small economical importance, except

Area in square Population.

miles. (1876).

1 Islands of Japan proper (Nipon, Sliikokn, Kiushiu, etc.) I()!»,7(i5 34,022,760

Yezo, or Hokkaiilo, and siuall neighbouring islands 30,280 )_ ,jn „„»

Kurile Islands (Kunashir, Iturup, etc.) . . 6,725 )' '

Liu-kiu, or Loo-choo Islands .... 808 167,570

B(Uiin Islands ...... 32 70

Japanese Empire 146,610 34.338,400

2 The Japanese call their country Dai-nipon, or Great Nipon, the latter word being
formed from nitsu, " the sun," and pan, '' origin," so that Iv'ipon means the land of the
" vising sun," or the east. The Chinese sign meaning the " sun rising," is pronounced
Ji-poii, or Ji-pan. The name Nipon thus beeonifs Ji-pan in the Oantcjnese dialect,
with which European merchants became first lamillar. Hence the name Japan. The
addition of Koe = kingdom, gives Ji-pan-koe, the original of the name Zijiango, by which
the country was first known in the middle ages.

JAPAN. 303

for irrigation, and they do not exceed the average of our British streams in
size. Among the most important may be noted the Yodo-gawa, which Hows
from the fiddle-shaped Laks Biwa, the largest fresh-water expanse in Japan,
35 miles long, to the " inland sea ; " the broad and rapid Ten-rio-gav:a, or " river
of the heavenly dragon," which flows south from the central mountains of
Nipon ; and the Tone-gawa, which reaches the Bay of Yedo, and which is
crossed within the capital by the Nipon Bassi, or bridge of Japan, from
which, as a starting-point, all distances throughout the kingdom are
measured.

4. Climate. — Though the islands of Japan lie more than ten degrees
farther south than our islands, their average temperature is scarcely higher,
and the climate, as a whole, may be compared with that of South Britain.
Tlie extremes, however, are greater, summer beiug hotter, and winter colder
than in England, increasing to almost Siberian rigour in the north. June,
July, and August form the Satkasi, or rainiest period ; the autumn succeed-
ing is the pleasantest and most genial season of the year. Hurricanes, storms,
and fogs, are frequent in the seas round Japan, where warm and cold ocean
currents also bring about great dilierences of sea temi^erature.

5. Products. — The islands have a very beautiful flora, to which our
European gardens are indebted for many of their most ornamental plants.
The great feature of the vegetation is the intermixture in it of tropical gi-owths,
such as the bamboo, palms, tree-ferns, and bananas, with those of temperate
regions, the pine, oak, beach, chestnut and maple. Characteristic are the
paper mulberrj-, the vegetable wax tree, the camphor and lacquer trees. The
cultivated crops are of rice, maize, wheat, barley, tobacco, tea, and cotton.

Japan is also very rich iu minerals. Gold, sUver, and copper are especially
abundant in the north, and coal and iron beds seem to extend throughout the
group.

The animals of Japan resemble those of China. Cattle and horses are used
as beasts of burden ; swine are reared to be sent to China ; dogs and cats,
bees and silkworms, are met with iu all parts, and the seas jdeld abundance
of fish. In consequence of the dense population, and the almost universal
cultivation of the soil, wild animals scarcely exist in Japan.

6. People. — The population of the islands of Japan proper is considerably
denser than that of Britain. The complexion of the people varies from a yellow
brown to white among the upper classes ; the eyes are lengthened, narrow,
slightly oblique and deep-set, generally brown or black ; the hair black and
thick. Though proud and vindictive, the Japanese are described as friendly and
good-humoured, industrious and intelligent, manly and polite. Their language,
which occurs in many dialects, is related to those of Manchuria and Mongolia
on the continent, and many Chinese words have also become incorporated
with it. The native literature is abundant and various, but the whole circle
of Chinese Confucian literature has also been adopted. The philosoiihy of
Confucius is held by the literati of Japan, but tlie mass of the people are
divided between the ancient Sintuism, in which the great Sun go<ldess is wor-
shipped, and Buddhism, which was introduced in the sixth century a.d. In
education, as well as in matters of religion, enormous changes and advances
have been made in recent years.

7. Industries. — Agriculture is the chief occupation of the Japanese, and
they are excellent and careful farmers. In the mechanical arts also they excel,
esi)ecially in the use of metals ; in the manufacture of porcelain and glass-
lacquered wares, and silk fabrics. As early as the seventh century tlieyknew
how to make paper, and they enifjloy it for an immense variety of purj)oses,
and have long understood ]irintiiig from ty])es, and in colours. They have
even advanced to engineering, trigonometry, and astronomy. They possess good

304 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

native maps of their country, and their almanacs foretell the appearances of
eclipses of the sun and moon.

After the expulsion of the Portuguese, navigation and communication
with the outer world ceased for several centuries, though the Japanese had
previously been accustomed to sail in their ships to tlie Corea and China, and
even to Java. Now, the advance they have made in this respect may be best
realised from the fact that in 1878 a Japanese-built iron-clad war vessel,
navigated by Japanese officers, made a voyage to England by way of Singa-
pore, Aden, and the Suez Canal.

8. Government. — In former years there were two Emperors of Japan,
the Mikado, or spiritual ruler, tlie descendant of a long line of kings, and the
Sho-goon,^ or executive chief, the one reigning but not governing, the other
governing but not reigning. The Daimios, or territorial princes of Japan, also
ruled tlie provinces witli despotic authority, and were almost independent of
the Government. A great revolution has, however, taken place since the
reopening of the country to western influences. After a short war in 1869,
the now ruling sovereign overthrew the power of the daimios, reducing them
to the position of simple tenants of their vast hereditary possessions, and the
Government was centralised and remodelled on a partly European basis. The
Mikado remains theoretically an absolute monarch, but the work of adminis-
tration is carried on by a great council, over which he presides.

These changes necessitated also a redivision of the country for administra-
tive purposes. The old extensive divisions and provinces, named from the
great highways which passed through them, were broken up into seventy-two ^
ken, or departments, similar to those of France, each being placed under a
governor or prefect. In lieu of the bands of followers maintained by each oi
the daimios, the army of Japan now forms one body of imperial troops.

9. Trade. — Within the country there is a system of excellent Government
highroads, the milestones along which are numbered fi'om the bridge in the
capital city of Yedo or Tokio. Piailways have also been introduced in recent
years, the first line from Hiogo to Osaka having been opened for traffic in
1875 ; and telegraphs connect the chief ports with the Asiatic lines. By
treaties concluded since 1854 at various times, the ports of Yokohama (Kana-
gawa), on the Bay of Yedo ; Nagasaki, on the west coast of Kiushiu ; Hiogo
and Osakrt, on the " Inland Sea ; " Hakodate, on the southern extremity of
Yezo, in the north ; and the city of Yedo or Tokio itself, were opened to
foreign commerce. As yet the greater number of the interior departments of
the country are closed to foreigners.

Niigata, on the north-west coast of Nipon, is also an open port, but its
harbour is of little value ; and Shimoda, 84 miles south-west of Yedo, opened
to American trade in 1854, has also proved useless.

The trade of Japan is carried on mainly with Great Britain and the United
States of America, the great article of export to our country being silk, the
chief imports from it cotton and ivooUen goods. By far the larger propor-
tion of this trade is carried on at the port of Yokohama., on the west side of
the Bay of Yedo, which has taken the place of Kanagawa, since that place,
near it, was found to be difficult of access.

10. The temporal capital of Japan, and its most extensive city, is the wood-
built town of Yedo or Tokio (594,000), spreading over a large area in a broad
valley at the head of the Gulf of Yedo. Till recently the sacred Mikado .shut
himself up mysteriously in his palace at Miako or Kioto (230,000), an island
city near Lake Biwa, about 200 miles west of Tokio. This is the court town,

1 Called by the Chinese Tycoon or Great Prince.
2 Reduced in 1876 to sixty-four ken.

JAPAN. 305

the seat of the literature and science of Japan. Osaka (284,000), south-west
of it, on a land-locked bay of the Inland Sea, has been called the " Venice
of Japan," from its many canals and bridges, and is the favourite resort of
the fashionable, possessing sumptuous tea-houses, gardens, and theatres. Hiogo
is the port of Osaka, and of Kioto.

Shimonoseki, at the western narrows of the strait between Nipon and Kiu-
shiu, is a strongly-fortified native port, closed to foreigners, and is considered
tlie key to the Inland Sea of Japan.

Yezo.

1 1 . The northern island of Yezo, which we have compared to
Ireland in extent, is not considered as an integral part of Japan,
but rather as a dependency or colony, towards which the attention
of the Government was directed after the Russians began to extend
their dominion over the neighbouring shores of the continent.

It is in general mountainous and covered with forests similar in kind to
those of the south of Scotland — beech, ash, and pine, besides elm and maple,
and dwarf bamboo. Like the other islands of this chain, it is volcanic, and the
Ijay formed by its southern peninsula, next Nipon, is named Volcano Bay,
from the three fine volcanoes on its shores, two of which are in active eruption.
The Ishikari, flowing south-west, is the chief river of Yezo.

Tlie island appears to have great natural wealth of gold, silver, iron,
petroleum, and coal ; but its capabilities are undeveloped, roads and com-
munications being deficient as yet.

12. A warm ocean current sets from the south up the western side of the
island, while a cold stream from the Sea of Okhotsk flows along the eastern
shores. Thus the western borders enjoy a more favourable climate, the eastern
being often cold and foggy.

The Japanese colonists do not form more than about a fifth of the popula-
tion, and live in tillages along the southern coasts. Most of them engage in
the productive fisheries (salmon and herring), and in gathering large quantities
of seaweed and sea slugs (irico) for home consumption and export to China,
and return to their homes on the main island when the season is over. All
the interior is inhabited by the Ainos, a race which seems to have a wholly
difierent origin from the Mongolian stock. While these have beardless faces and
oblique eyes, the Ainos are distinguished by a profusion of black hair, which
mingles with the thick beards that fall almost to their waists, and their eyes
are large and round. These barbarians nuike garments from bark, and are
employed in the chase or in fisliing.

13. Hakodate, the most northerly port open to foreign trade, is situated on
tlie southern peninsula of the island of Yezo, on a bay of the strait of Sugaru,
which separates it from the northern coast of Nipon. It is the great resort of
the whaling ships of these seas. Matsunwye, forty miles south-west of it, is,
however, the chief centre of population in the island. Satsiqwro, on the west
near the coast, is a settlement formed under American superintendence, with
the object of utilising the gi'eat wealth of timber in the forests of Yezo.

306 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

KuRiLE Islands.
(Japanese Chi-Sima).

14. The Japanese had also settled on some parts of the southern
Kurile Islands, the volcanic chain which reaches from Yezo north-
eastward to the southern cape of Kamtchatka, and the south of the
island of Saghalien. In 1876 the Russian Government, desiring the
complete possession of the latter island, effected an exchange with
Japan, giving to it the northern Kuriles for southern Saghalien ;
and the few hundreds of Japanese who had settled there abandoned
it in favour of the Russians.

The Kurile chain, in which Yeterojo or Iturup, Urujp, Simusir, Onekotan,
and Paramusir, are the chief islands, is, like Yezo, mountainous and wooded,
and inhabited by Ainos, who maintain themselves by hunting and fishing, the
products of which they barter with Russian, American, and Japanese traders.

Liu-Kiu Islands.

On the opposite side of Japan from the Kurile chain another
long archipelago reaches southward in a curve towards Formosa.
This chain, called the Liu-hiu by the Japanese and Lu-chu by the
Chinese, has been tributary to Japan for more than seven centuries.
Since 1872, however, their native sovereign has been reduced to the
rank of a Governor of the islands as a province of Japan.

15. The chain forms four distinct groups — (1) Round the larger islands
of Tanega and Jokuno on the north ; (2) the Sanhok Islands or Liu-kiu
proper ; (3) the Sm-san or middle group ; (4) the San-nan or southern
islands, nearest to Formosa. The Great Liu-kiu island in the middle group
may be compared in size to the Isle of Man. They are hilly throughout
(Jokuno Island rises to 6345 feet), have a delightful climate, fertile soil, and
varied laudscai^e, with vegetation partly tropical. Birds are abundant, but
there are no native quadrupeds, though large numbers of cattle are kejit.

16. The inhabitants are of the same race as the Japanese, low in stature,
courteous, and advanced iu arts. Buddhism is the prevailiug religion.

Skdi or Shiuri, on the great Liu-kiu, is the capital of the province ; and
Nawa, south of it, is the port which is open to foreign commerce.

17. Japanese Colony in Corea. — In 1876 the Japanese Government
concluded a treaty witli long-closed Corea, by which closer relations were
established. It was stijtulated iu this agi-eement that Corea shoidd henceforth
be considered a free and independent state by Japan, and that the ancient
nominal tribute should cease ; that the Japanese and Corean Governments
would send ambassadors to each other's capital ; that trade should be permitted
between Japan and Corea at two ports to be named, and at whicli Japanese
consuls should reside ; and that the Jajjanese navy should have permission to
siirvey the dangerous coasts of Corea. The Japanese have had a trading settle-
ment for about 150 years at FusJian, on the south coast of Corea ; and this
was formally made an "open port" to their vessels by the treaty of 1876.
A number of merchant vessels now visit it, and a Japanese steamer runs once a
month to Corea. By an arrangement effected in 1879 two more Corean
ports have been opened to Japanese trade.

INDIA. 307

18. Bonin Islands. — As another evidence of the recently awakened
activity of the Japanese, may be noted their re-assumption (iu 1876) of the
control of the little group of the Bonin Islands out in the Pacific, which they
used as a penal station in the seventeenth century. The islet named Peel is
the only inhabited one, and is visited chiefly by American whalers at -the
harbour of Port Lloyd.

INDIAN ASIA.
India.

We have seen how the great central promontory of Southern
Asia has been the object of desire to conc|nering peojiles,^ during
all the period over wliich history reaches, and how, from the time
when Queen Elizabeth granted an exclusive charter to certain
merchants of London, trading to a few isolated factories on its
coasts, the country has been passing more and more completely
under our rule, till it has become " the pearl of the British crown."

1. On beginning to study its geography a little more particularly,
the first point about which we must endeavour to obtain a clear
conception is that of its great extent. From the line of the Himalaya
southward to its extreme cape on the Indian Ocean, India occupies
a space more than fifteen times as large as our island of Britain ; a
journey across it from north to south, or from east to west, would
require half a year if one travelled ten miles every day. The
Himalaya are as distant from Cape Comorin as Iceland is from
Spain.

2. The natural landward boundaries of this vast region are the range of
the Himalaya on the north, forming the steep southern edge of the ])lateau of
Tibet ; on the north-west tlie Sulainmn mountains, the edge of the plateau of
Afghanistan and Balucliistan, where it descends to the jilaius of the Indus ;
and on the east the heights of southern Assam, dividing the drainage to the
Brahmaputra from that of the valley of the Irawadi in Burma. From the
mouths of the Indus on the west, and of the Brahmajnitra and Ganges on the
east, the south-west coast ^ next the Arabian Sea, and the south-east ^ shores
of the Gulf of Bengal inclining towards the same point, meet at Cape Comorin.
The landward and seaward liorders have each nearly the same length of about
3000 nules, so that India is half a maritime, half a continental country.
It is remarkaVile also that just as the approaches to India from all parts of
inner Asia must be made by descending difficult mountain passes, so its
straight surf-beaten coasts, notwitlistanding their length, are deficient in good
harbours, and often dangerous to tliose attem])ting to land on them.

3. Relief. — The most prominent feature in the relief of India is the gi-eat
range of snowy peaks nametl the Himalaya, or " abode of snow," which rises on

1 To tlie Hindus theiiisi-lvcs, tlu' Mai'cdonians, Pathans, Mongols, and Portuguese.

- Or Mald.liar coast, from the southeni maritime district of tliat name.

3 Named the Coromanilcl coast in the south, from an ancient kingdom ; the Golconda
coast between the mouths of the Krishna and Mahanadi ; and the Orissa coast beyond
to the Ganges.

308 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

the edge of tlie Tibetan plateau, above the northern plains, stretching out in a
continuous chain for nearly 1800 miles. The mean height of this portion of
the borders of the Tibetan plateau, dehned very clearly by the channels of the
Indus and the Brahmaputra, is estimated at 20,000 feet ; the mean breadth
of its base is about 150 miles. Its summits rise to 29,000' feet, and most of
the difficult passes ascending from the valleys and gorges of the Indian side
are not lower than about 16,000 feet. In front of the ascent there are sub-
ordinate or sub-Himalayan ranges, and l)etween the last of these and the plains
of India there extends a broad strip of marshy land called the Terai, covered
with forest and jungle, crowded with wild animals, though so malarious as to
prevent its being inhabited by man. On the north-west the Sulaiman
mountains present a steep and forest-covered face, and reach up to an
elevation of 11,300 feet in their summit called the Takht-i-Sulaiman. Near
the north-west angle of the Panjab, where these mountains approach nearest
to the Himalaya, a group of hills called the Salt Range runs eastward
from the northern extremity ; it has received this (English) name because
where the Indus river breaks through it by a deep channel, beds of pure salt
are exposed to view.

4. Southward from the bases of the Himalaya and the Sulaiman mountains
the Great Plain of Northern India spreads out, reaching across the whole
breadth of Hindustan fi-om the Arabian Sea to the Gulf of Bengal. Its western
region has generally a dry and bare character, with a soil of clay and sand
almost without stones. Here are the fine steppe-like dnaM of the Panjab,
between the fertile borders of the rivers, affording boimdless grazing ground
for camels, cattle, Iniifaloes, sheep, and goats ; farther south the great Indian
desert or Thar, covered with a succession of wave-like sandy ridges, occupies
the greater part of Rajputana ; beyond this, alx)ut the lower Indus, come the
dusty plains of Sind, and, on the coast, the strange tract of country called the
Rann of Kachh, a level plain 150 miles in length, in which vegetation is totally
absent ; it forms during the greater part of the year a firm level plain of earth,
saturated with salt, on which the troops of horses and camels in passing make
scarcely any impression. So devoid of all landmarks is it that travellers and
caravans are sometimes lost. During the south-west monsoon, however, high
tides flow over it, and cover it with water to the depth of one to two feet.
The eastern wing of the great plain watered by the Ganges and Brahmaputra
and their many tributaries, is unlike the western, in having every^vhere a richly
fertile alluvial soil, in being everywhere highly cultivated, yielding great crops of
sugar-cane, cotton and indigo, rice and wheat, opium, tobacco, and hemp, and
supporting a dense population. At the head of the Gulf of Bengal this vring of
the plain terminates in the great group of marshy islands called the Sundar-
bans, which forms the vast delta of the Ganges. These are separated by a
multitude of narrow channels of brackish and salt water, and all are overgrown
by low woods and jungle, sheltering tigers, wild buffaloes, wild swine, deer,
and monkeys.

5. Southward of the great plain the land begins to rise again. The first
elevations reached in this direction are those of the long range of the Aravali
hills, which extends for 400 miles from north-east to south-west, marking the
edge of the western section of the great plain. It is bold and precipitous on
that side which falls towards the Indian desert, biit less so on the south-east ;
its average height is about 3000 feet. Mount Abu, its summit, being 3850 feet.
A prolongation of it south-westward forms the Peninsula of Giijrat, which pro-
jects into the Arabian Sea between the Rann of Kachh and the Gulf of Cambay.

1 Deoilhunga or Mount Everest, 29,002 feet ; K. 2, in the west, 28,865 feet ; Kan-
chanjanga, 28,156 feet ; Dhaulagiri, 26,826 feet ; Chumalari, 23,944 feet.

INDIA. .309

Behind the Aravali hills lie the Plateaus of Malwa and Bmulelklmnd,
extending over the country generally termed Central India ; these are fertile
table-lands of uneven surface elevated from 1500 to 2000 feet above the sea-
level, and traversed by a number of minor hill ridges. Their southern border
is marked by the range of the Vindhya mountains, wliich runs north-eastward
from near the head of the Gidf of Cambay for more than f)00 miles to near the
Ganges in its middle course. It does not rise niucli higher than tlie jilateau
behind it, the highest points being about 2300 feet above the sea, but it
descends by rugged slopes to the valley of the Narbada flowing along its
southern base. Beyond tliis valley, running parallel to the Vindhya for about
200 miles, is another east and west range named the Hatjiura hills, the highest
summits of which attain about 2000 feet. This range has a gentle ascent from
the Narbada, but its southern scar]) towards the Tapti river is abrupt.

6. The greater part of India south of the Satpura is occupied by the wide
table-land of the Decam. ^ The name ghat or glumt'^ was originally applied by
the natives to the passes in the outer slo})es of the ranges, which run parallel
with the two coasts of the southern portion of tlie gi-eat promontory of India
enclosing the Deccan, and which had to be ascended to reach the high interior
country from the coast ; but from this the name has been transferred to these
ranges or outer edges of the table-land themselves.

The Western Ghats, about 800 miles in length, clothed with magnificent
teak forests, form by far the boldest and most continuous escarpment of the
Deccan plateau, ascending abruptly from a low base generally at a distance of
about 30 miles from the sea ; beginning with a height of about 2000 feet immedi-
ately south of the Tapti river, their elevation increases southward to 4700 feet
at the sanitarium of Mahabaleshwar soutli of Bombay, and attains a maximum
of nearly 7000 feet, with grand and rugged outline, and precijjitous gi'anite
peaks, in the south ; there they unite with the gi-oup of tlie Nilgiri hills,
the central portion of which culminates in Mount Dodabetta, 8760 feet above
the sea. The Eastern Ghats differ from the western in being much lower, in
rising at a much greater distance from the coast of the Bay of Bengal, and with
a gentle slope, giving access by wide ojienings to the interior. Tlieir average
height is about 1500, the highest point, near Madras, only about 3000 feet,
above the sea. The Deccan jilateau between these supj)orting liuttresses has
thus a gradual eastward slope, and is characterised by undulating treeless
plains, ridges and isolated Hat-topped liills caiii)ed with basalt ; large i>ortions
of it are also covered with jungle, often overgrowing the ruins of former towns
and temples, but there is no extent of forest ; where cultivated it jields cotton,
wheat, and od seeds in abundance, and the date palm and palmyra are found
everywhere.

7. Between the Eastern Ghats and the sea lies the extensive maritime
plain generally named the (Jarnatii\^ reaching liack from tlie Coromandel coast
for about 50 miles. The soil of this plain jiroves abundantly fertile wlien it is
watered, but there are few streams, and a supjily of water for irrigation has to
be stored in reservoirs against the dry season. On tlie south this plain, turning
the base of the Eastern Ghats, leads into the remarkable Gap nf Coimhator, a
low passage between the west and east coasts, tlirough which a railway has
been carried uniting Madras with Beypur. Northward of this river the Nil-
giri mountains rise like a vast ]>reci]pice; southward the AnumalU moun-
tains also ascend abrujitly from tlie valley to the highest known summit of all

1 Sanscrit, Dakshiria="t\\& south."

2 Ghdt, a landing place, ford, or pass.

3 From the ancient Hindu kinpdoin "Carnata," in wliich the. Canara language was
spoken. This was the great theatre of the contests between France and Britain for
supremacy in India.

310 . THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY,

south India, 8835 feet above the sea. From tliis a range of high wooded heights
sometimes called the Cardamom mountains, from the aromatic pungent spice
yielded liy their forests, extends southward for 180 miles to terminate in a
hold headland a little above Cape Comorin.

8. Rivers. — The grand rivers of the system of northern India — the Ganges
and Indus descending from the Himalaya to water the great plain — have
already been noticed in the general description of the continent.^ It may give
an idea of the value of the Ganges and its navigable tributaries if it is noticed
that not fewer than 300,000 boatmen are believed to be occupied in its busy
traffic. Large sea-going ships ascend it by the Hvgli mouth to Chandra-
nagar, above Calcutta ; steamers of light draught go up to Cawnpur, and
thence a canal of 350 miles in length overcomes the difficulties of navigation
upward to Hard war, 1300 miles from the sea, where the river issues from the
sub-Himalayan ranges. Its great tributary the Jumna is navigable up to the
ancient city of Dehli, and, by canals which it supplies, for 200 miles beyond
that point. The fluctuations and changes, both in its channels and in the size
of these at different times of the year, are very great ; at Benares, for example,
the depth of the Ganges varies between 35 and 78 feet, and its breadth in like
proportion ; the rising begins in the end of May, and is at its height in
September. In July all lower Bengal near the rivers is inundated, so that the
villages protected by endoankments appear like islets in the wide expanse of
waters dotted with craft of every sort.

9. These great northern rivers are supplied by both the melting snows of the
Himalayas and by the rains can-ied to the mountain face by the south-west
monsoon during the summer half of the year. Thus from the melting snows
they begin to rise early in spring, and their depth is kept up by the succeed-
ing rains. The rivers which rise on the highlands of the southern or peninsu-
lar portion of India, are, however, dependent on the monsoon rains alone, and
thus show greater but less enduring fluctuations of level during the year. The
two rivers which drain westward to the Gulf of Cambay between the Malwa
plateau and the northern edge of the Deccan, are the Xarbada and the ToiM ;
the former, rising in the highest land of Central India, has a westerly course of
750 miles, flomng with rapidity over basalt rocks which at intervals bar its
jiassage, forming deep pools and waterfalls. It is thus of no considerable
value for navigation, and when it is swollen by the monsoon rains its current
descends with devastating velocity, carrying with it ujjrooted tree trunks and
other debris. The Tapti, separated from the former by the Satpura range,
has a similarly rocky bed and rapid fall, and is likewise subject to sudden and
tremendous floods, after which it subsides into a mere chain of pools.

10. The eastern drainage of southern India to the Gulf of Bengal has more
important streams. Nearest of these to the Ganges is the Mahanadi- draw-
ing its tributaries from the heights of central India, navigable by boats for
nearly 400 miles dirring the greater part of the year, but notorious for its destruc-
tive floods. It passes the line of the Eastern Ghats by a fine gorge 40 miles
in length, and thence flows quiet and deep to spread itself out in the wide
delta by which it emerges into the gulf.

Next southward is the Godavari, the greatest river of the Deccan, rising at
Nasik on the eastern slope of the Western Ghats, not very far from Bombay,
and flowing east for 900 miles. Reaching the line of the Eastern Ghats, it
is imprisoned for some twenty miles in a gorge, the scenery of which has been
justly compared with that of the Rhine : here it flows in a narrow deep
channel with a current that sometimes lashes itself into boiling whirlpools.
Escaping from this, the water spreads over the plain, and is dotted with islands,

1 See p. 2(57. 2 " Great river. "

INDIA. 311

many of which are ornamented by Hindu temples. Finally, it forms one
great stream between flat and highly cultivated banks, from which a network
of irrigating and navigable canals is drawn oft', before breaking into the numerous
channels of the large delta that it has pushed out into the sea.

Like the Godavari, its neighbour river the Krishna rises in the inward slope
of the Western Ghats, and descends the eastern edge of the plateau by a deep
channel to reach the alluvial plains of the Coromandel coast. Its course of
800 miles aflbrds scarcely any navigation, but some of its tributaries, passing
through iine teak forests, are iitilised for rafting dovvm the valuable timber.
Tlie Fcuiar, Palar, and tlie Kamri, are the other considerable rivers of this
slope. The last-named has its head stream in the highest part of the Western
Ghats nortli of the Nilgiri hills, and descends from the table-land to the
eastern plain Ijy two great falls, the upper 370, the lower 460 feet, in the
midst of magnificent scenery. In the plain it is navigable for small craft during
the rainy season, and is peculiarly adapted for irrigation. Its great delta,
enclosed by two main branches, called the Coleroon (the larger) and the Kaveri
or Cauveri, extends along the coast opposite the northern extremity of Ceylon
for 80 miles.

11. Climate. — The stages of climate and vegetation which succeed one an-
other in ascending up to the snows of the Himalaya have been already noticed.-'
In the plains at their base, as in all the rest of India, a hot, a rainy, and a cool
season of the year, are distinguished. Spring and the dry season last for four
months in the Ganges valley, till in May and June the heat becomes intolerable,
rising to over 100° F., long before which the great fan, called the jjM?ifo</;, must
be set agoing in every house. The terrible heat is interrui^ted occasionally by
thunderstorms from the north-west, wliich refresh the drooping vegetation. As
soon as the southern regions of the continent have thus become heated under the
northing sun, the monsoon winds are drawn in from the south-west. These begin
to be felt in south India in June, and reacli the northern plain somewhat later.
Masses of cloud are seen coming up from the Indian Ocean, becoming denser as
they near the land, over which they pass with strong gusts of wind, followed
by incessant thunder-claps ; lastly, the heavy rushing rain begins to be heard.
Dull days of incessant rain now set in, till the streams and rivers swell into
torrents ; then follows a pleasant pause, during which the sky is dappled with
clouds and all the fields show fresh gi-een herbage ; for a time the rains fall
only now and then, but, renewing their strength, the downpour reaches its
maximum in July, gradually decreasing thence onward till September, when
the south-west monsoon ceases and retires before its opponent wind from the
north-east, going out as it came, with a storm of thunder and lightning. The
north-east monsoon, which would perhaps be more accurately termed the north-
east trade-wind, now prevails, bringing with it dry cold air from the height
of central Asia, giving the cool season, during which the thermometer marks an
average of 65° to 70° F. over all the northern plains and tlie west coast of
Peninsular India. This lasts from November till the middle of February, when
the heat and drought again begin to be oppressive. The north-east monsoon
is not, however, a dry wind in all parts of India. On the Coromandel coast,
about Madras, which it reaches after passing over the wide Gulf of Bengal,
gathering vapour from it, it corresponds to tlie south-west winds of the
western side of the promontory, bringing rain to this coast from October till
the end of Decenilier.

Thus two great periods, a wet and a dry, divide the year in almost all
parts of India, and it is for this reason that the storage of water for irrigation and
against the dry season becomes of such vital importance to the agi'iculture and to

1 See pp. 264, 205.

312 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

the subsistence of the people of India. Hence the multitude of irrigation
canals and reservoirs (tanks formed by bunds or dams) which have been con-
structed over the whole land.

The quantity of rain received by different parts of the land is very various
and fluctuating ; thus the wall of the Western Ghats, rearing itself up in
opposition to the direction of the south-west monsoon, is deluged with rain,
while the east coast receives hardly any from this direction, and at times its
expected supplies fail altogether, the immediate result being a famine from the
corresponding failure of the crops. The great Indian desert is almost rainless.

12. Products. — The variety and numbers of the vegetable products of India
are so great that we can only note a few of them. The forests of the
southern mountains of India along the Western and Eastern Ghats, and the
lower slopes of the Himalaya, are ricli in timber woods, especially the durable
teak. The sal valued for its timber, and the bamboo, grow abundantly, especially
along the base of the great northern range ; higher up are inexhaustible
forests of the chestnut, maple, walnut, oak, and the graceful deodar. The
spreading banyan or Indian fig, and the shady mango, are found near every
village, the branches of the former being covered usually with monkeys, birds,
and enormous bats ; the batuma and the sugar-cane flourish under cultivation
in all parts ; the finest scented sandal-ioood grows in Mysor ; the palmyra,
the date-palm, and areca or betel palm, are the commonest of their tribe ; the
bread-fruit flourishes on the coast of Malabar.

Rice, millet, maize, and wheat, are the great grain crops ; indigo, opium,
tobacco, oil seeds, flax, and henqi, are cultivated for export ; pepper and carda-
moins are natural products of the west coast ; the cultivation of tea in north-
eastern India is rapiidly increasing ; coffee is largely grovm in the Nilgiris.
Innumerable sweet-scented flowers deck the fields and gardens.

13. The animal world of India is not less interesting. In some of the
jungles the elephant lives free, and, when domesticated, is the most patient and
docile of creatures ; the camel or dromedary and wild ass belong to the dry
region of the north-west ; the rhinoceros and buffalo, tigers, bears, wolves, wild
boars, and monkeys, inhabit the forests and jungles ; the lion is now limited to
the north-west, appearing only in Rajputana and Gujrat. Beer of many species,
as well as the bison and 7iilgai, are abundant in the hills and forests. The
yak inhabits the heights of the Himalaya ; the goat is the characteristic animal
of the high valleys beyond Kashmir ; the humped ox abounds in the plains.
The birds of India, except the peacock, are less brilliant in plumage than those
of many other parts of the tropics ; parrots, vultures, cranes, flamingoes, and
pheasants, are the commonest. Crocodiles infest the river channels, and sharks
lie in wait at their mouths ; serpents, large and small, are very nimierous,
the most dreaded being that called by the Portuguese the cobra di capello, or
" hooded snake."

14. Almost all the metals and minerals are represented in India, but of
the useful metals, excepting iron, the quantity is not known to be large. Coal
exists in many parts, especially in the north-east — at Bardwan, near Calcutta,
and in Assam. Gold is found in Mysor, and in the sands of many streams ;
copper near Dehli and elsewhere ; salt is obtained in large quantity from the
mines in the north-west of the Panjab, and by evaporation from the coast
lagoons all round India, and from salt-lakes in Rajputana ; most of the
precious gems, including diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds, are found,
some abundantly, some rarely, though the supply of the once famous diamonds
of Golconda ^ seems to have ceased.

1 The diamonds obtained in the mines in various parts of the Nizam's dominion
were only cut and polished at Golconda, near Haidarabad.

INDIA. 313

15. Peoples. — The broad division of the peoples of India, into
a northern group of aryanised nations, occuppng the great plains
and the northern seaboard on each side, and the nnaryanised
inhabitants of the Deccan plateau in southern India, has already been
indicated.^ This division also corresponds to that of the languages
of India, separating those related to the Sanscrit, the language
of the Aryan conquerors of the north, from the Dravidian of the
south.

Between these there occur rude native tribes, of which the Bheels and
Gonds are the most important, occupying the Vindhya mountains, the Malwa
plateau, and the peninsula of Gujrat, which can neitlier be classed with one
nor other of the above great groups, and who are thought to be the original
inhabitants of central India ; within the larger gi-oups more than sixty distinct
nationalities are recognised. To the aryanised group belong the Bengali and
the Assatnese in the north-east ; the Hindus proper of the Ganges plain and
the vigorous Rajput tribes dominant in the north-west, the dark and forbidding
Jats, also of the north-west, the sect of the Sikhs in the Panjab (the best cavalry
soldiers in Asia), the MahraUas, north-west of the Deccan, and the Konkanese,
along the coast south of Bombay. In the southern or Deccan group of peoples
the most prominent are the Tamilians, whose language is spoken all over the
lowland of the Carnatic ; the Teluc/u, northward of the former, and the Tuluva,
the original inhabitants of Kanara, beneath the Western Ghats.

16. Amidst such a variety of peoples, every stage, from the oldest and
highest oriental civilisation down, to barbarism, nearly approaching the lowest
forms of savage life, is represented. The Bengali, though intellectually perhaps
highest and most advanced in the arts, are weak and cringing ; in contrast to
these the mountaineers of the north-west are manly and energetic, the Mahrattas
bold and industrious, the Gonds cruel and revengeful barbarians, resembling
the African negroes, armed still with bows and arrows. In those parts of
India which have passed directly under British rule, great efforts have been
made to establish a national system of secular education, and to bring this
within the reach of the lower classes. A sum of nearly a million pounds
sterling is annually devoted to this end. There are well-appointed universities
in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, and to these about seventy colleges in
different parts of India are affiliated.

17. Industries. — Agriculture employs by far the larger proportion of the
people of India ; but the Hindu is not a skilled cultivator like the Chinese ;
he is almost always extremely poor ; his rude plough is drawn by oxen or by
buffaloes ; the harvest is reaped with the sickle. Rice is the most extensive crop,
and gives two harvests, one in August, another in December. Cotton is native
of all parts of India, and large areas in the upper Ganges valley are occupied
by its croj), and jntc, formerly used only for the " gunny bags," in which almost
all other jiroducts of India are packed for sliiinnent, is now grown largely
for export, to be manufactured into carpets in Eurojje ; silk is also an
important product of the Ganges valley.

The textile manufactures of India were famous in long past centuries through-
out the civilised world ; such were the gold brocades of Dehli, brouglit thence
to imperial Rome, the muslins of Dacca, made for tlie Mongol Court, and the
pattern-coloured cloths of Kalikot (calico), the shawls of Kashmir, and the
silks and carpets; of Multan. All these home-made faltrics, liowever, have
declined before the jiroducts of the great factories at home, which are now

1 See p. 272.

314 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

largely introduced into the country. In Indian architecture, also, it is remark-
able that tlie oldest examples are the finest.

18. Trade. — The internal trade of India is very large, and is now facili-
tated by nearly 9000 miles of railway. Between Bengal and the western
couutries grain is exchanged for salt and other products ; the iiilgrims stream-
ing to the holy city of Benares, and to the great fair of Hardwar from all parts
of India, give occasion for extensive commerce, exchanging the diamonds from the
south for shawls from the north. In the north-west corner of the Panjab, at
the bridge of Attock over the Indus, and at Peshawar, the trade routes from
all parts of India — road and rail from Calcutta, tlie navigation of the Indus
from Bombay, and the route from Central India — converge to jiass to Kabul
and Persia, and northward to Bokhara. By these lines the English cotton
cloths, crockery, and hardwares, indigo, sugar, spices, tea, and pearls, pass
northward towards Turkistan ; northward by Leh and the Karakoram Pass
trade communications are maintained with Yarkand : and, by the difficult
Himalayan passes, with Tibet. As yet no direct trade route exists between
Assam and China on the north-east. By sea in the south a busy coasting
trade is maintained ; corn, sugar, oil, silk, and many other products of Bengal,
are exchanged for the products of the Coromandel coast, for the sandalwood
and pepper of Malabar, and for the teak timber of Bombay. The exports
from India to Britain have now reached an annual value of ujjwards of
£30,000,000, the stajile articles brought home thence being raw cotton,
jute, rice, liuseed, flax, tea. and hides, for which cotton manufactured goods
and iron wares are returned. A great traflEic is also maintained with Ceylon,
the Straits Settlement, and Singaj^ore, and with China, in which country
the greater part of the opium grown in Bengal finds a market.

19. Government. — In a political point of view India consists
of — (1) Territories under the immediate government of Great
Britain, occupying about two-thirds of its area ; (2) States under
the rule of native princes subordinate in their general policy to
British direction ; (3) of a few independent native states, lying
chiefly along the slope of the Himalaya ; and (4) of a few small
possessions remaining to France and Portugal.^

1 GENERAL VIEW OF THE DIVISIONS OF INDIA.

A. BRITISH INDIA.
I. Bengal Presidency.

Area in sq. m. Population.

1. Lower Bengal, under direct rule { . . 156,200 60,602,897

tributary states ) . . 37,988 2,323,440

2. Assam, under direct rule .... 45,302 4,162,019

3. North-west Provinces,^ under direct rule ) . 105,395 42,001,436

tributary states f . 5,125 657,013

4. Panjab, under direct rule ) . . . . 104,975 17,611,498

tributary states i . . . . 103,899 5,410,409

5. Centra? Provinces, imder direct rule ) . . 84,208 8,201,519

tributary states f . . 28,834 1,049,710

6. British Burma, under direct rule . . . 88,556 2,747,148

7. Territories under the Governor-General of \ ,, ^-.w „ „,„ ,„„

7)irfia OVJmir, Berar, Mvsor, Coorg) ) ^^''*' <,»4<,iw

II. Madras Presidency, under direct rule \ . . 13^,856 31,672,613

tributary states ) . . 9,818 3,289,392

III. Bombay Presidency, under direct rule I . . 124,102 16,349,206

tributary states ) . . 60,789 6,786,873

Carryforward . . 1,145,794 210,617,275
2 Including Oudh.

INDIA. 315

The home government of the British Indian Empire is entrusted to a
Secretary of State for India, who is aided by a council of fifteen members
composed cliiefly of men wlio have resided for a loug period in India. The
local and executive government iu India itself is vested in a viceroy or
governor-general resident at Calcutta, acting under the orders of the Secretary
of State, and iu his council, consisting of sLx members who preside over the
departments of foreign aflairs, iinance, the interior, military administration,
and public works. Lieutenant-governors and commissioners of the various
provinces are appointed by the Governor-General. The general administration
is conducted by Europeans belonging to the covenanted civil service, which is
recruited from the successful candidates at competitive examinations, and by
Europeans and natives of the uucovenauted service appointed by the authorities
in India.

The administration of the native states, of which there are between 400
and 500, is generally vested in a hereditary despotic prince or rajah,-' controlled
to some extent bya British resident. The European army iu India numbers about
65,000 men ; the native army, under British oflicers, 125,000 men. The com-
bined armies of the native princes of India amount to about 315,000 men in all.

20. Revenue. — The main source of public revenue in India is the land-
tax,' which yields two-fifths of the whole receipts. The rest is derived chiefly
from the opium monoi^oly, and from the tax on salt. The cultivation of opium
is prohibited except for the purpose of selling the juice to the Government at
a fixed price. In Bengal it is prepared at the Government factories of PoAna
and Gha.zipur, and then sent to Calcutta for export to China ; in Bombay it is
manufactured in the native states of Malwa and Gujrat, and passes, after

Area iu sq. m. Population.

Brought forward . . 1,145,704 210,(317,275
IV. States under Native Pkinces.

1. Kajputaiia 131,000 10,193,000

2. Central India and Bundelldiand . . 74,850 8,362,000

3. Baroda 8,000 2,000,225

4. Haidarahad 90,000 9,000,000

5. Manipur 7,600 126,000

Total British dominions > 899,341 191,095,445
„ tributary states j 557,903 49,203,053

A. 1,457,244 240,298,500

B. INDEPENDENT STATES.

1. Himalayan States. Area in s(i. m. Population.

Nepal 56,750 3,000,000

Bhutan 13,600 200,000

Tribes N. of Assam . . . 20,000 100,000

2. Tribes S. of Assam 18,000 130,000

Total B. 108,350 3,430,000

C. FOREIGN POSSESSIONS.

1. French Possessions (Pondiohery, Chandra- )

nagar, Karikal, Malie, Yanan) f

2. Portuguese Possessions (Goa, Damlun, Diu) .

Total C.

1 Rajah = king ; Maharajah = great king.

2 Collected in some parts from wealtliy land-farmers, caMed Zeminda.rs ; in others
direct from the ryots, or small cultivators ; or from village cmnmunilies regarded as
separate municiiJalities.

316 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY,

paying duty, to Bombay. The largest branch of expenditure is that for the
army, the maintenance of which requires about fifteen millions sterling every
year.

21. Bengal Presidency. — By far the largest and most
populous division, of India is that of the Bengal Presidency, which
reaches across the whole breadth of the great northern plain from
Assam to the Panjab, and thence southward over British Burma. ■'•
It also includes the Central Provinces, with Mysor and Coorg in
the south of the Deccan.

Its richest jirovince, the Lieutenant-Governorship of Lower Bengal, extends
over the fertile plain of the Ganges from its delta back to the base of the
Himalaya, eastward to the Garo and Tipperah hills south of Assam, and
westward to where the Gogi-a joins the Ganges. The tributary states attached
to this province are those of Sikkim on the slojie of the Himalaya between Nepal
and Bhutan, of Ktich Behar and Tipperah Hills on the north-west, and of Chutia
(or Chota) Nagpur and the Ori-ssa Mehals extending south-west along the
Gulf of Bengal. Within it are the cities of Calcutta (pop. 795,000), the capital
of British India, on the left bank of the Hugli or western delta branch of
the Ganges, a modern town built since 1700 on the site of a small native
village called Kali Kutta,|the " village of the goddess Kali," whence the name
of the jiresent to\vn ; the town of Howrah on the opposite side of the river,
where the great railroad terminates ; Mursliedabad, once a place of great
wealth and splendour ; Dacca, formerly celebrated for its fine " flowing water "
muslins, 150 miles north-east of Calcutta ; Bhagalpur and Patna, on the
right bank of the Ganges on the west of the province. Cuttack, at the head
of the delta of the Mahanadi, is the chief town on the south-west maritime
border of the province ; C'h ittagong, the chief seaport on the east of the
Ganges delta. The mountainous forest slope of Sikkim on the north has
the hill station and sanitarium of Darjiling (7168 feet above the sea),
where the delightful climate resembles that of England in temperature.
In the province of Assam the chief places are Gauhati and Goalpara on the
Brahmaputra, and Si/lhet on a tributary of the river south of the Garo hills,

22. Since 1877 tlie territory of the Lieutenant-Governorship of the Korth-
west Provinces has been increased greatly by the addition of the former pro-
vince of Oudh,' so that it now embraces all the upper basin of the Ganges
and Jumna rivers in the great \>\a.h\. Its great towns are Benares, the " most
holy city " of the Hindus, on the left bank of the Ganges ; AllaJuibad, the
" abode of Allah," at the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna ; the great
military station and commercial town of Caicnpur on the right bank of the
Ganges, terribly memorable for the massacre of English women and children
here during the mutiny of 1857 ; Luckmno, the principal to\\Ti in Oudh, also
memorable in the history of the insurrection, where the British garrison
held out till they were reinforced by General Haveloek, and relieved by Sir
Colin Campbell ; Agra,^ the residence of the Mogul emperors from 1504 till

1 British Burma belongs geographically to Farther India, under which division it is
described (see p. 323).

2 The annexation of Oudh in 1S56 was one of the causes of the Sepoy insurrection
in 1857. Till lately it constituted a separate chief-cominissionership.

3 Near Agra are several of the finest specimens of Indian architecture : such are the
Taj Mehal, a splendid mausoleum of white marble built by tlie Emperor Shah Jahan,
and in which lie, is buried ; the tomb of the Emperor Akbar at Secundra, north of the
city ; and the Moti Masjid, or " Pearl Mosque," in the Fort.

INDIA. 317

1607 on tlie right bank of the Jumna ; the trading towns of Farrahhahad
near the Ganges, and Bareli north of it, with Shahjuhaiqjur between ; and
Mirat (Meerut) midway between the Ganges and Jumna.

23. The Lieutenant-Governorship of the PanjaJj reaches .from the Jumna
to the Sulaimau moimtains on the north-western boundary of India Its great
cities are those of Dehli, on the right bank of the Junina, the " Rome of India,"
in all that relates to ancient gi-andeur, over the ruins of which the fifth
Mogul Emperor, Shah Jahan, founded the great modern town ; Lahor on
the Ravi, the meeting-point of the great railway lines of north-west India ;
Amritsar, near it, the religious metropolis of the Sikhs, containing the " pool of
immortality," on an islet in which stands the chief temple ; Attack, a fortress
at the great crossing-place of the Indus ; and Peshawar, in the extreme north-
western corner of India on the main route into Afghanistan ; the trading and
manufacturing towai of Multan near the Chinab, in the south, and Dcra
Ismail and Dcra Ghazi-Khan, near the right bank of the Indus.

The great tributary .state of the Panjab province is that of Kashmir, a
territory much larger than our island of Great Britain, reaching from the jilain
of the Panjab northward over the western Himalaya ranges to the borders of
Tibet ; it has splendid and sublime scenery, huge forest- covered mountains,
deep gorges and valleys filled with rich and varied vegetation. Its climate
has four seasons like those of Europe, winter covering the gi-ound with snow ;
its people include races of: Hindu and Tatar type the latter existing especially
to the north-east ; its goats, yaks, and wild sheejj yield the wool from which
the famous shawls of Kashmir are made ; and. its rosefields give the finest
aMar. The beautiful " Vale of Kashmir " within it is an expansion of the
valley of the upper Jhilam river, and is an oval plain about 50 miles long and
10 miles wide, within which roses are cultivated for distillation. Here also
is Srinagar, the largest town in the state. The districts of Baltistau and
Ladak, between the Karakoram range and the Himalaya, are included in this
ten-itory, their chief to\vns being Iskardoh and Leh on the upper Indus.

24. Tlie Chief Commissioner ship of the Central Provinces, formed into a
separate division of British India as lately as 1861, extends over the northern
area of the Deccan plateau mainly between the upper Narbada and Tapti and
the upper Mahanadi and Godavari. Alternating in hill and valley, wood-
land and cultivation, the general aspect of this province is gi-ateful to eyes
fatigued by the sameness of the dusty Indian plains. Its capital town is ^Vrt^-
pu.r, on the stream called the Nag, a tributary of the Godavari, a large
trading place celebrated for its clotli fabrics. A railway, following the line of
the Puma, a tributary of the Tapti, unites it with the main line between
Bombay and Calcutta.

25. Under the Governor-General of India are the territories of (1) Ajmir,
an isolated tract lying along the Aravali hills in the nndst of Rajputana ; (2)
Berar, a valuable province lying west of Nagpur between the Wardha tribu-
tary of the Godavari and the Tapti, with the town oi Ainraoti on the railway
l)etween Bombay and Nagjiur, and the walled town of Jilichjmr ; (3) Mysor,
an extensive country in the interior of the southern apex of India, between the
Eastern and Western Ghats and the Nilgiri hills, consisting for the most
part of elevated undulating table-land watered by the upper Kaveri, with
hero and there remarkable isolated granite rock masses called droogs, generally
crowned by fortresses ; M)js(tr, the present capital town, lies a short distance
south of Scringnpatam, the former capital, famous for its siege and capture by
the British in 1799, after which tliis territory fell into our hands ; Bangalor,
north-east of Mysor, is the gi-eat military station of this territory ; (4) (Jom-<j,
a rugged mountain district between Mysor and tlie Malabar coast.

318 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

26. Madras Presidency — The Madras Presidency reaches
from Ganjam south of Cuttack and the delta of the Mahanadi to
the Malabar coast, embracing the maritime plains round the south
of the promontory of India.

The most important native states attached to it are those of Travankor, in
the extreme south-west, and Cochin, north of it, beneath the Ghats. Madras
(400,000), the only large city of the Presidency, extends along the immediate
coast of the Gulf of Bengal for nine miles, and consists of the European
quarter, which has gro\\Ti up round Fort St. George, built in 1639 on the first
territory acquired by the British in India, and the " pettah " or native town. Its
roadstead is good, but communication between ships and the shore through the
hea\'y surf is generally difHcult, and in the months of November and Decem-
ber, when the north-east monsoon is at its height, almost impossible. The
other important coast towns and trading places are : — Vizaga2)atam and
Masidipatam, north of Madras ; Cuddalor, Tranquehar, jVegapatam, and
Tuticodn, south of it, on the Coromandel coast and Gulf of Mauaar ; Trevan-
drum, Cochin, Calicut, Cananor, Bey pur (the terminus of the railway from
Madras) and Mangalor, on the Malabar coast ; Vellar, a fortified town on
the Palar, and on the railway west of Madras ; Tanjor and Trichinopoli, on
the Kaveri river; Madura, remarkable for its pagodas, and TinnevelU, in
the south, are the important towns of the interior of the Presidency ; Arcot,
on the Palar, west of Madras, is the scene of Clive's famous Adctory in 1751.

27. Bombay Presidency. — The Presidency of Bombay, the
smallest, reaches along the western borders of India from Mj-sor to
Sind/ in the plain of the Lower Indus.

Its capital, Bombay" (645,000), on the south corner of its island, is by
far the most important outlet of India, and the gi-eat emporium of its trade
OTth Europe. From it railways have been made to bring to it the traffic of
Gujrat in the north, Calcutta and the great to^\^ls of the Ganges valley in the
east, Nagpur in the Central Provinces, and Madras in the south-east. After
Madras it is the oldest British possession in India, having been ceded to
Charles II. in 1661 as part of the dowry of his queen, Catherine of Portugal.

The other great to^\^ls of the Presidency are Puna, south-east of
Bombay, the former Mahratta capital, and now the great military station of
the Deccan, 1800 feet above the sea ; Xasik, a sacred city of the Hindus,
north-east of the capital ; Surat, on the Tajjti, near its mouth, the site of the
first English factory in the Mogul dominions ; Ahnmdabad, farther north, is
an ancient walled city, connected by rail \vith Bombay ; Karachi, the great
port of Sind, almost at the western extremity of India ; and Haidarabad,
the walled capital of Sind, near the head of the delta of the Indus. The
most important of the many native states attached to the Bombay Presidency
are those situated in Gujrat and Kachh (Cutch), especially the Kathiawar
group.

28. Tributary Native States. — The largest gi-oup of Native States
which remain separate from the Presidencies, but which are under the superin-
tendence of agents appointed by the British Viceroy, is that of the immense
thinly-peojiled tract of Rajputana, which lies south of the Panjab, between

1 From the Indus or Sindhu = " sea."

2 The native name is Mambai, from a temple to the goddess Mamba. The Portu-
guese made of this Bom Bahia = good bay or port, in reference to its excellent liarbour
and anchorage, whence our name Bombay.

INDIA. 319

Sind on the west and Central India, including the Great Indian Desert and
the Aravali range, excepting the portion of it wliich is occupied by Ajmir.
This group comprises no fewer than nineteen separate states. Tlie most im-
portant towns of this region are Jaijnir, a walled modern city in the east, the
residence of the British political agent ; Judhpur, the capital of the largest of
the Rajput states ; and Bikanir, in the midst of the great desolate plain of
the Thar.

The separate states of the Central India Agency, extending over the
plateau of Malwa, between Rajputana and the Central Provinces, are also
exceedingly numerous. The British agent for this group resides at Indor,
in the Vindhya mountains. Tlie largest of them is that of Gwaliar, the
territory belonging to the Sindia family, in several detached portions in the
valleys of the Chambal, Tapti, and Narbada. Its capital town of the same
name, which has one of the most celebrated hiU forts of India, was scaled by
the British in 1779 and again in 1858, and is now occupied by their troops.
Ujein, north of Indor iu the same territory, was one of the sacred cities of the
Hindus, and the first meridian of their geographers. Blwpal, a Mohanmiedau
state in the Vindhya range, is also important. The Bundelkhaml grouiJ of
states, in the eastern portion of Central India, and the Bhagalkhand or
Rewa group, rising in the plateaus above the valley of the Ganges, form minor
agencies of Central India.

Baroda is an important native state, between the lower Narbada and the
Mahi river, which enters the head of tlie Gulf of Cambay, and its capital of
the same name, a large and well-built city on the northern railway from
Bombay.

The native state of Haidarahad, more extensive than Great Britain, occu-
l">ies the central area of the Deccan plateau, and is governed by a potentate
called the Nizam or " Regulator," a title assumed by the Viceroy of the
Deccan wlien lie made himself independent of the Mogul Empire on its disso-
lution iu the early part of last century. The city of Haidarahad, the Nizam's
capital, and the seat of the British Resident, is a finely-placed fortified city,
near the centre of the territory. The ruins of Golconda, containing the tombs
of the kings who ruled over the Deccan in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, lie seven miles west, and tlie British military cantonments of Sikan-
drabad six miles north of Haidarabad. Auranrjahad, in the north-western
corner of tlie territory, contains tlie palace of Aurangzebe, and the mausoleum
built by him after the model of the Taj Mahal of Agi'a.

Manipihr is a rugged mountainous country south of Assam, and on the
borders of Burmah, inhabited by a number of wild, warlike triljes. The capital
town of tlie same name is on an upper tributary of the Irawadi, and is the
residence of the rajah and of a British political agent.

29. Independent States. — Most important of the temtories within the
geogra])hical limits of India which still retain tlieir iiidepciiileiice of Britain is
the Himalayan state of Ncjxd, which reaches along the face of the mountains
Irom where the Gogra tributary of the Ganges takes its rise, to Sikkim in the east,
reaching down from the snowy crests and passes into Tibet to the uninhabited
jungle of the Terai, which separates it from tlie British jirovinccs. It occupies
a space nearly as large as England, but its surface of mountain and valley is
naturally characterised by the widest extremes in climate and vegetation. Its
inhabitants V)elong to various races and tribes, and almost every valley and
village is ])ractically independent of the others. In the middle of last century,
however, tlie tribe of the Ghoorka,s, Hinduised Tatars, gained the ascendency,
and, invading Tibet, drew down on themselves a large Tibetan army, after
which Nepal became a Chinese dependency. The incursions on British
territory by the Nepalese gave occasion for the British invasion of 1815,

320 THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

after which a peace was ratified by which the i>araiiioiuit power of
Britain was recognised, and an Englisli Resident was placed at Khatmandu,
the capital. Besides tliis Resident, however, no Englishmen are allowed to
enter the country for its ex{)loration, and our Government has little influ-
ence iu the country. The existing relations between Nepal and China are
obscure, but it is said that an embassy is sent every five years with presents
to the Court of Peking.

Bhutan, on the slope of the Himalaya, east of Sikkiin and north of the
valley of Assam, is also an almost unknown region. Its small Buddhist popu-
lation, divided between idle priests and wretched cultivators, is under a " Deb
Rajah " or temporal sovereign, and a "Dhurm Rajah " or spiritual ruler. The
chief town apj^ears to be that of Punakha, on a northern tributary of the
Brahmaputra.

Even less is known of tlie wild tribes who occupy the Himalayan slope
east of Bhutan. The peojiles of Assam are descendants of the Tatar people
who conquered that part of India, and held it against the great Mogul till the
whole province was taken possession of by the British. They are partly Hindu,
jiartly Mohammedan, but many wild indigenous tribes still inhabit the inac-
cessible jungle- covered hills between Assam and Burmah, some of them black
undersizeil and naked savages, living in huts coustructed on scaffolds, and
armed ■with bows and arrows and other rude weapons.

30. Foreign Possessions. — The towns and small territorial possessions
still retained by the French iu India are with one exception on the coasts of
the Gulf of Bengal. Pondiddry, on the Coromandel coast, 86 nules south of
Madras, first occupied by the Erench in 1672, and finally restored to them by
the English in 1815, is the capital of their possessions in India. Chmidra-
nagar, ou the Hugli, 17 miles from Calcutta, was also twice taken by the
British, and restored iu 1816 ; it trades with Calcutta. Yanan is at the
mouth of the Godavari ; Karikal, on the estuary of the Kaveri, in the
south ; and Make, the only French settlement on the Malabar coast, lies
north of Calicut.

The Portuguese hold a large territory at Goa, in the middle of the west
coast, which was conquered by Albuquerque in 1503 ; its old capital has
fallen to decay ; the newer one of Panjim or New Goa is the seat of govern-
ment of the Portuguese Indian possessions, and lies on one of the best natural
harbours of this side of India. Dariulun lies south of Surat, at the entrance to
the Gulf of Cambay, and has a small fortified port. Dili, also a seaport, is
on an islet at the extreme south of the peninsula of Gujrat, aud was acquired
iu 1515.

Ceylon.^

1. The great pear-shaped and mountainous island of Ceylon,
depending from India, 265 miles long from north to south, may
be compared with Ireland in extent. It is separated from the
mainland by Palk Strait and the Gulf of Manaar, but almost united
to it between these waters by the singular natural barrier called
Adam^s Bridge j' which only allows the passage of ships by two
narrow channels.^

1 Native Singhali, ancient Taprohane.
2 The Mohammedans believe that when Adam was driven out of the paradise of
Ceylon he left it by this chain of sandbanks.

3 The Pambam and PMmesivararn channels.

CEYLON. 321

The surface consists of a low iiiaritiiiie belt, fringed witli palm-covered
islets and coastal lagoons, encircling an interior table-land, the elevation of
wliich has given it the climate and varied vegetation wliich make the island
the most delightful of the east — " the jewel of the eastern seas." The lower
ranges present verdant slopes ; luxuriant forests, overhung by creepers, cover
the higlier hills ; tree-ferns and gigantic rhododendrons next appear, and the
innermost peaks shoot up bare and rocky in fantastic forms. Between
the peaks deep gorges, opening to wider valleys, radiate outward. The highest
summits are those of Pedrotallagalla, 8280 feet, and Adani's Peak, 7420 feet.

2. The north-east monsoon blows from November till February ; the
south-west, from April till September, with calms and variable winds between.
Both monsoons bring raiii, which falls on that side of the island which faces
the wnd for the time, leaving the other, or leeward side, dry. On the one
side the rivers are then flooded, while on the other the tanks filled during the
last rains have to be resorted to for irrigating the land, and vice verscl.
Beyond this, a diflFereuce in seasons is scarcely noticeable, the climate being iu
general very healthy, and the temperature remaining nearly constant through-
out the year.

3. Among the rich and varied products of the vegetable kingdom in this
island the most valuable are coffee, introduced from Arabia, and grown in the
plantations which extend along the hill slopes, between 1000 and 2500 feet
above the sea ; cinnavion, the bark of a species of laurel ; and the coco-nut
2)ahii, which flourishes all round the south'and west coasts, yielding fruit, oil,
and the useful fibre called " coir." Tobacco, indigo, and cotton are also
gi-own in all parts, and the forests have many trees whose timber is of great
value. The animals resemble those of India ; the tiger aud lion are absent,
however, thougli elephants abound. The gems of the islands, especially
sapphires, have l)een celebrated from time immemorial. A celebrated pearl-
fishery is carried on in the Gulf of Manaar, aud the best divers remain
eighty-seven seconds under water.

4. Tlie people of Ceylon, numbering about 2^ millions, consist of the
Sutgludese, the most numerous, the descendants of those colonists from the
Valley of the Gauges who first settled on the island about five centuries before
the Cliristian era, delicate in limbs and features, false and cowardly ; the
Tamils, who have come across from the mainland of Southern India in large
numbers, and who now form the greater part of the inhabitants of the north
of the island ; the Moormen, Mohammedans of Arab descent it is believed, who
are met with everywhere as active traders ; and the remarkable tribes of the
Veddahs, outcasts, believed to be the descendants of the aborigines of Ceylon,
living in the woods and remote parts of the eastern side of the island in a
state of complete barbarism, scarcely removed from the beasts of the forest.
Only 4800 British are resident .in Ceylon.

Buddhism is the prevailing religion of the island. A mark five feet long
iu the rock of Adam's Peak is revered as the sacred footprint of Buddha, and
a piece of ivory, supjiosed to be his sacred tooth, is guarded with jealous care,
and preserved iu an elegant shrine at Kandy.

5. Ceylon (which fell under our rule in 1815) is a British colony under a
Governor, who is independent of the Viceroy of India. Its trade is mainly
carried on with Britain and with India, exporting coffee, cocoa-nut oil, and
cinnamon, and receiving manufactured goods. Colomlto (100,240) ^ on the
west coast, is the well-fortified capital and seat of government, and by far the
largest town. It has a large share of the commerce, though its port is small,
and large vessels must lie ort' in the roads. Kandi/ (the " hill "), the former

1 Properly Corumbu = " the harbour."
Y

322 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

capital, is high in the monntainous interior of the island. Trincamali is the
chief port of the nortli-east coast, and has a fine landlocked harbour ; but
the secure port of Galle, or Point de Galle, at the south-west extrenuty of the
island, has become of very gi-eat importance as the central station and depot
of the great lines of steam communication in connection ^\^th the Suez Canal,
Bombay, Calcutta, Singajiore, China, Japan, and Australia.

6. The Laccadive Islands,^ the higher peaks of coral atolls,
form a cluster about 150 miles off the Malabar coast, are inhabited
by a people of Arab origin called " Moplays," and are tributary to
Madras. The Maldive ^ coral chain, south of the former, extends for
a distance of nearly 500 miles. Its palm-covered islets are partly
inhabited also by Mohammedans, whose sultan pays tribute to the
Governor of Ceylon. Fishing for the " cowTie " shells, which circu-
late as money in many parts of the coasts of the Mediterranean and
in Africa, gives employment to the islanders. The Chagos Archi-
pelago, south of the equator, a continuation of this chain, belongs to
Britain, but is considered as a dependency of the Mauritius.

FARTHER INDIA.

1. The south-eastern peninsula of Asia, extending south from
China and Assam, between the Indian Ocean and the China Sea,
occupies a space nearly ten times as large as our island of Great
Britain. It is formed by long ranges reaching south from the great
table-lands of Central Asia, the broad valleys Ijetween which are
watered by its four great rivers, the Irawadi, the Salwen, the
Menam, and Me-khong ; almost the whole of it lies within the
trojiical zone, and in its hot moist climate vegetation flourishes
with extraordinary luxuriance. Its peoples, excepting the Malays
of the long southern peninsula, belong to the Mongolian family, and
their languages have much in common with those of China and
Tibet. Buddhism is the prevailing religion of the peninsula
except among the Malays, who are chiefly Mohammedans. The
despotic empires and kingdoms between which the greater part of
Farther India is divided are still far beneath the empire of China
in ci\dlisation, and include within their limits many tribes scarcely
removed from complete barbarism.

We shall take up their description in the order given in the note.3

1 Lakara Divha, or hundred thousand islands.

2 Mai = a thousand ; tliousand isles ; or from Malaya-Divha = the islands of Malaya-
vari, or Malabar. Area. Population.

3 British Burman provinces . . . 88,556 2,747,160

Bumian Empire 201,700 4,000,000

Siam 2-11,000 5,750,000

Annam 170,000 21,000,000

French Cochin China .... 22,960 1,600,000

Cambodia .32,400 890,000

Independent Malacca States . . . :!1,500 300,000

British Straits Settlements . . . 1,445 350,100

Farther India . . 829,561 36,637,250

BUEMAH. 323

British Bcrmah.

2. The conqTiest of the eastern coast-lands of the Gnlf of Bengal by the
British in the Biirman wars of 1826 and 1852 has already lieen noticed.^
The northern division of British Burmah, called Arakan, occupies the nar-
row slope between the crest of the Yonm mounlo.ins, which shut in the
valley of tlie Irawadi, and the low coast of the Gulf of Bengal, which is
broken by many creeks, and fringed by islands, the cliief of which are those
of Ramri and Cheduba. Much of the low country is still covered with jungle,
and the climate there is unhealthy ; but the ordinary products of India are
growii in abundance, and large parts of the marsliy land are specially suited
for the cultivation of rice, which is the staple export of the province. Its
people are partly Hindus and Mohammedans, partly the aboriginal Burmese
tribe called the Mags. Arakan, the old capital, lies fifty miles from the sea
on the north. Akyah, on one of the coast islands, is the most important town
and seaport of the division.

3. The central division of Pegu, formerly the richest and most fertile
pro^^nce of the Burman empire, was annexed after the war of 1852. It lies
on each side of the lower Irawadi, and comprises the vast delta of the river,
which covers a space of about ten thousand square miles, with its network
of small channels. Rice is the great jiroduct of this alluvial region. The
higher grounds round it have the finest teak forests in the world, which give
the most valuable shipbuilding timber of the Indies. I'egu, the old capital of
the province, lies inland, but Rangoon (98,800), on an eastern branch of the
delta of the Irawadi, is by far the largest town and trading port of the province.
Proiiie on the left bank of the Irawadi, in the interior, and Bassein, on a
western branch of the delta, are also imi^ortant places. Tlie majority of the
inhabitants are Burmese, but a strange tribe called the Karens, who have a
tradition of their migi-ation from far north, live in the wilder parts of the north-
east of Pegu.

4. Tlie southern division of British Burmah is that of Tenasserim, which
includes the province of Martaban. It extends along the forest-covered
western slope of the northern part of the Malay Peninsula from the lower
Salwen river to the Isthmus of Krah. Its coasts, imlike those of Arakan, are
bold and rocky and fringed with islands. The interior is a wilderness of
thickly wooded hills with long valleys running north and south between the
parallel ranges, in which wild animals, the elephant, rhinoceros, and tiger,
esi)ecially, are very abundant ; coal and iron seem to be widely spread through
the country. The chief to\vn and seaport is that of Muulmain, at the mouth of
the Salwen, from which great quantities of teak timber are sent out ; opposite
it is the smaller town of Martuhan, the first place that fell into the hands of
the British in 1852, which gives its name to the wide gulf between Tenasserim
and Pegu. Amherst, a little farther south, is also a timber port. Tavoy and
MerguA, the latter at the mouth of the Tenasserim river, towards the south of
the division, are the other considerable trading towns. The innumerable islets
of the Mergui archipelago off the coast are famed for their edible birds' nests,
which form a gi'eat article of commerce.

Over all the coasts of British Burmah the wet season (May to October)
brought by the south-west monsoon, alternates with the dry season, or that
during which the north-east wind blows.

1 See i>. 8L'.

324 THE LONDON GEOGEArHY.

BUEMAH.

5. The Empire of Burmah is now confined to the north-western
interior area of the peninsula, and borders northward on the Chinese
province of Yunnan and the Patkoi range, which separates it from
Assam ; from Arakan, on the western seaboard, it is separated by
the Yoma range ; and on the south it is bounded by the British
province of Pegu and by the kingdom of Siam. It thus includes all
the central and upper basin of the river Irawadi, and it is along
the valley of that ri\'er that the greater part of the population and
the most settled portion of the state extend. Eastward, Burmah
embraces the central portion of the corresponding valley of the
Salwen ; and a semi-independent region, occupied by a number of
ti'ibes called the Burmese Shans, extends still farther eastward
across the upper valley of the Me-khong river. In area the Burrnan
territory is more than twice as large as Great Britain.

6. Climate and Products. — In general tlie country rises gradually from
the lowlands of its wide valleys in tlie south up to a wild mountain region in
the north. In the beginning of May the heat in southern Burmah exceeds
100° Fahr. ; in the latter part of that montli the south-west monsoon sets in,
bringing the rainy season, which lasts till September, and during which the
temperature averages about 82° Fahr. Along the valleys, rice, the chief crpp,
with maize, wlieat, sugar-cane, tobacco, cotton, and indigo are cultivated : else-
where the forests are rich in all kinds of timber, especially the valuable teak.
Bxirmah has also great mineral wealth : alluvial gold in the rivers, silver in the
mountains of the east, much coal and iron, copper and lead, petroleum, amber
and jade, sajiphires, and other precious stones. The elephant abounds in all
the forests, as well as the rhinoceros, tiger, leopard, and wild pig. Domestic
animals are the ox, buffalo, and horse ; white elephants are pampered as the
insignia of royalty.

7. People. — The Burmans proper of the Irawadi valley are well jiropor-
tioned and active people, though of small stature, light browii in colour, with
straight black hair, which they bind in a knot on the top of the head. In
knowledge and industry they are lower than the Hindus or the Chinese.
Society is divided among them into seven classes — the royal family, public
officers, priests, merchants, cultivators, and the outcasts, who are generally
condemned criminals. The government is a pure despotism, the life and pro-
perty of every subject being at the mercy of the sovereign. With the Bur-
mans, the Telaings or Moans, descendants of the ancient Peguans, have become
incorporated ; but wild Khyens and other tribes live in the western mountain
border. The Shans, a peaceful and industrious race, are probably the most
numerous of the peoples of Farther India ; according to their own traditions,
they are the remnant of the inhabitants of a once powerful Shan emph'e, which
had its chief seat in southern Yunnan ; this great empire is now represented
by the one independent state of Siam, all the other divisions or petty states
into which it has fallen are tributary either to China, Burmah, Anuam, or Siam,
according as they lie nearest those countries. The language of the Shans
is the same as that of Siam, with Variations only in dialect. Some parts
of the mountains reaching south into the country of the Burmese Shans are
still occupied by wild tribes, who are looked upon as the aborigines of

siAM. 325

this region, who have been gradually driven to these less accessible districts.
Such are the Laos, described as a small, ill-formed, ngly peojde, with flat noses
and low brows, who keep all strangers out of their fastnesses.

The religion of Burmah and of the Shan states is Buddhism, which has been
preserved here in its greatest strictness of observance. Temjiles, pagodas, and
monasteries are in great numbers thi'oughout the land.

8. Trade. — Since the loss of the richest maritime provinces to Britain, the
trade of Bui-mah is inconsiderable ; the chief trade route of the country is
naturally the river Irawadi, which is now regularly navigated by a British
steam flotilla company. At the head of its navigation is the town of Bamo,
at which three overland caravan routes from Yunnan converge, and which is
consequently an important mart of exchange ; the journey over these difficult
mountain routes, however, requires six weeks.

9. Towns. — The banks of the Irawadi in Burmah proper are dotted with
towns ; at the great bend of the river, in the centre of the country, there is a
cluster of cities, several in ruins, which have at various times been the capitals
of the empire. Here are the ruins of Ava, which gave its name to the kingdom
after the fourteenth century; and Amarapura, which was the cajiital before
1819; when Ava, which had again been made capital, was destroyed by earth-
quake in 1839, the seat of government was removed to Mutshobo, on the oppo-
site side of the river ; Anally, Mandalay, north of Amarapura, became the
capital city, and thither was transferred the imperial residence, with its manifold
roof and sacred hti, or umbrella, at the top of all. This town has an enclosing
wall and ditch, beyond which extend regularly planned suburbs ; it glitters witli
gilded pagodas. Lower down the Irawadi, on its left bank, lie the ruins of
Pagan, which was the capital from tlie ninth till the thirteenth century,
remarkable for its architectural remains, which have given rise to the Burnian
proverb, " numberless as the temples of Pagan."

SIAM. '

1. The central region of Farther India is occupied by the
interesting Kingdom of Siam, wliich extends northward to an uncer-
tain limit with Bunnah in the country of the Shans, and southward,
round the shores of its gulf, to include the greater part of the long
!Malay peninsula. Westwards its limits are conterminous along the
liills with those of the British Burman provinces, and eastward the
Siamese territory reaches to the hills of inner Annam. The extent
of the country is at least three and a half times that of Great
Britain.

2. Tlie most important district by far is the wide valley of the Menam
river, which has been called tlie " Nile of Siam," since it overflows its banks
from JTine till November, and since tlie success or failure of the great rice
crop along its banks depends on the regularity and amount of the fertilising
overflow. Tliis is also the great liighway of the country, and round it are
the most settled and advanced districts of Siam. The extensive north-eastern
region in the central basin of the Me-khong river is inhabited by tribes of Laos
of the same family as the Slums of Burmah, darker in complexion than the
Siamese projier, and slender in figure, and generally dependent on hunting for

•■' 1 Native Thai or Muang-thai, tlie kingdom of the free. Our name Siam is said to
be from the Malay Sayarn = "dark coloured."

326 THE LONDOX GEOGRAPHY.

their subsistence. These Laotian tribes or little principalities send tribute to
the capital city of Bangkok, in Siani jtroper, every three years, but are other-
wise left under tlieir ov,ii patriarchal rulers. The portion of the south-westeru
peninsula which is embraced within the kingdom of Siam is also very loosely
connected with its government : the Sultans of the Malayan states (Patani,
Quedah, Kalantan, and Tringanu) pay only a nominal triennial tribute, sending
a golden or silver tree or flower as au emblem of their dependence.

3. Climate. — The tropical climate of Siam is divided into the hotter wet
season, wliQe the south-west wind is blowing, and the cooler dry, during the
northerly monsoon. Large areas of the land are covered with dense forests,
which yield teak and the perfumed eagle wood in abundance. Here, as in
Burmah, the white elephant is an object of veneration. Tlie mineral treasures
of the country are very gi-eat both in metals and gems ; rice, however, is the
great product and export of Siam.

4. People. — The Siamese projier form about a third of the population of
the kingdom within its nominal limits ; they are well-proportioned people,
shorter generally than the Chinese, but taller than the Malays, with olive-
coloured skin and black hair, which they shave so as to leave a tiift on the top
of the head, sujiposed to resemble the lotus flower, which is a sacred object to
all Buddhists. The Laos form another third ; and the Chinese and Malays
divide the remaining numbers nearly between them. All the trade of the
country is in the hands of the Chinese, for the Siamese are idle and lacking
in enterprise ; the slight, dark, well-formed Malays of the peninsula are iu
liart civilised and settled agriculturists, j^art "men of the sea," sea gypsies,
or pirates, scouring the coasts in their armed pralius.

5. Government. — A number of classes are recognised in Siamese society,
from the nobles and soldiers downward to the slaves.^ The political power
rests with the first-named class, and the highest authority is vested in two
kings, one paramount, who is regarded •with most reverential awe, and the
second subordinate. The royalty is hereditary, but does not necessarily pass
to the eldest son. For administrative purjjoses, the country is divided into
forty-one provinces, each under a governor.

6. The prevailing religion is Buddhism, and the pagodas in their strange
forms with their manifold roofs are tlie prominent buildings in all tlie towns.
There is comparatively little industry iu the country, mainly owing to the
existing serfdom, unwilling labour being forced from the lower classes during a
certain period of every year by the higher nobles or o\vners of the land ; and
nearly the whole of trade, as we have noticed, is in the hands of the Chinese.
About the court, however, considerable literary activity jirevails ; an almanack
is issued annually, and it may be taken as evidence of the capacity of the
Siamese that their late king was master of Sanscrit, of English, Latin, and
French, and an excellent astronomer.

7. Chief Towns. — The capital and metropolis of Siam, and the centre of its
trade, is the city of Bangkok (600,000), which lies on both sides of the Menam,
about 20 miles above its mouth. Here are the royal palaces, with hundreds
of pagodas, surrounded by bamboo houses built on piles ; all the river also is
covered with floating boathouses. The former capital, named Ayuthia, lay
about 45 miles farther up the river ; it was founded in 1350, which date marks
the beginning of authentic Siamese history, and was destroyed iu a war with
Burmali in 1766. Shan-ta-hun, on the west of the gulf of Siam, south-east of
tlie capital, is a trading town.

1 Called if Ao, in contrast to the Then or free men. These are either prisoners of
war, debtors wlio are working out their owings, or the very poor, who have sold them-
selves for a livelihood.

ANNAM. 327

In the tributary regions of the Laos the most important centre of popula-
tion appears to be the towTi of Luang Phrabang, on the central Me-khong, the
capital of the most northerly of these principalities. In the Malay peninsula,
Snngora, near the centre of its east coast, south of the coast island of Tanta-
lani, is a place of considerable traffic. Quedah, on the west coast, Patani,
Kaldntan, and Tringunu, on the east, are the capitals of the Malay states which
were subjected in 1821.

ANN AM.

1. The kingdom of Annam,^ reaching over more than twice the
extent of Great Britain, includes the two main divisions of Tong-
King- the wide alluvial basin of the Song-Ka river next to China, and
Ujjper Gochin China, consisting of the narrow eastern maritime slope
of the peninsula of Farther India to the China Sea, as well as a
portion of the little known interior country behind the mountains
towards Cambodia.

2. Northern Tcmg-King is mountainous and inhabited by various hill tribes,
among whom are the Khas, who are said to be the aboriginal jieople, and who
are lighter in colour and of bigger build than the yellow brown Annamese, who
are generally small and spare in stature, with mongol tj^ie of feature and long
brown hair. The Song-Ka fertilises a large area of the centre, and the marshy
coast-lands south of its mouth give large quantities of rice. The fisheries of
these coasts are very extensive, supplying not only the immediate wants of
the people, but those of southern China also. This division of Annam has
a climate resembling that of China in its extremes of oppressive summer heat
and severe winter cold. Fearful tyjihoons occasionally bring great destruction,
especially to the fishing population. A wall marks the boundary of Cochin
China.

3. The narrow maritime division of JJ'p'per Cochin China has a good and
pleasant climate separated into the dry and wet seasons, the former occun-ing with
the south-west monsoon, which brings rain to the interior country behind the
mountains, the latter with the north-east monsoon, carrying with it the vapours
of the China Sea. Besides Ceylon this is the only important cinnamon jield-
ing country, and this spice forms the chief article in the tribute sent to China.
A small territory in the south of Ainiam, called Tsiun-po or Champa, is inhabited
by a people who resemble the Malays rather than the Annamese ; its gieat pro-
duct is the eagle-wood,'* which difl'uses a very pleasant odoiu' in burning, and
which is accordingly in request in all the temples of eastern Asia. Besides these
di\isions, Annam embraces also a wide district behind the mountains, westward
towards Cambodia, the forests of which are occupied by the almost independent
barbarous tribes called the Mo'i or Lo'i, who are apparently of the same stock
as the Chami)as, and are supposed to be aboriginal.

4. Previous to the Mongol occupation of China in the thirteenth century
Annam, or the southern country, formed part of that empire, and its ruler
still acknowledges tlie Emperor of China as his sujierior, tliough his vassalage
is only nominal. The government is a hereditary military despotism, seven
mandarins of the first rank forming the supreme administrative body ; mandarins
of the second rank act as viceroys of Tong-Kiug and Cambodian Annam, and

1 Or An-nan = the southern country. 2 = " The Royal City of the East."

3 Or Aloes-wooJ.

328 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

each of tlie provinces into which the country is divided is under a military
governor. Every man between the ages of 18 and 60 years is liable to
military service. Confucianism and Buddhism are widespread, but the belief
iu various patron saints appears to be the popular superstition. Christianity,
introduced by the Portuguese Jesuits in the seventeenth century, has also taken
root. Thougli tlie language ditfers entirely from that of China, the Chinese
characters are employed.

5. The country ajjjiears to be deficient in arts and manufactures, but as
shipbuilders the Annamese excel. A considerable trade is maintained with
China ; but tliis is mainly in the hands of resident Chinese traders, thougli the
king of Annam himself is said to be the chief merchant ; rice, sugar, raw silk,
cinnamon, cardamoms, betelnuts, ivory, and gums, are the largest exports. Hve,
tlie capital city, lies near the middle of the coast of Cochin China, and was
strongly fortified liy the French engineers, to whose aid the former sovereign
mainly owed the extension of his kingdom in the beginning of this century.
Hanoi, the chief town of Toug-King, lies on the Song-Ka river about 100 miles
above its mouth, near Kcsho, and is a busy trading place. By treaties con-
cluded with France in 1874 and 1876, Ilai-Phong, the port of Hanoi, and
Quinhon (Kwi Nhon), in Cochinchina, were opened to the trade of the world.
It is anticipated that an important trade route may be opened along the
Song-Ka river to Yunnan and southern China.

LOWER COCHIN CHINA.

1. The support given to the ruler of Annam by Louis XVI. in
the latter part of last century was to be repaid by a cession of
territory to France, but the troubles which followed his acquisition
of Tong-King, and of the greater part of Cambodia on the south, pre-
vented the fulfilment of this scheme. His successors from 1819
onward persecuted the French missionaries, and thus gave occasion
for a French expedition against Annam in 1857. After Saigon, the
chief fort at the mouth of the IMe-khong river, had been blockaded for
two years, a peace was concluded in 1863, by which the provinces
of Lower Cochin China ^ were ceded to France. In 1867 three
western j)rovinces voluntarily submitted to French authority.

2. The French possession is a wide plain extending on both sides of the
great delta of the Mc-khong (short for Menam-Khong), and cut through by its
innumerable channels. Its excessive moisture, combined with the great heat,
brings about wonderful fertility in vegetation and iu animal and insect life,
but at the same time makes the country extremely imhealthy. Three belts
are recognised ; first the mangrove-covered swamps nexi; tlie sea ; then a
reed-covered and marshy plain, and lastly a somewhat higher forest-covered
zone. The variety of produce is very great ; rice is produced in enormous
quantity, wth cotton, tobacco, ground nuts (arachis), sugar cane, maize, indigo,
teak, and many other fine timlier woods, gums and fruits ; yet the spices of the
islands are not found here.

3. The inhaliitants are chiefly Annamese ; but Chinese, Cambodians, and
Malays are largely intermixed ; the Europeans are only a few hundreds in
number. The country is divided into six provinces which are subdivided into
]>refectures and cantons. Saigon, the capital, near the site of a former extensive

1 Nam-ky = the southern district.

CAMBODIA. . 329

Chinese settlement, is situated centrally on one of the smaller navigable branches
of the Me-khong delta, about 40 miles from the sea. It is a modern town with
numerous European buildings, including a citadel and marine storehouses.
Mytho, Bienhoa, and Vinhlong, also on a branch of the delta, are rather great
bastioned citadels on the marshes, than towns in the ordinary sense. Tlie
twelve islets of the Pulo Condor grouj), about 80 miles south-east of the delta
in the China Sea, also belong to France.

CAMBODIA.'

1 . One of tlie consequences of the French occupation of Lower
Cochin China was the release of the remaining portion of the once
great kingdom of Cambodia from its dependence on Annam and
Siam, and its formation into separate kingdoms under the protec-
tion of France. It lies between Siam, Annam, and French Cochin
China, on three inland sides, the south or south-western side extend-
ing to the Gulf of Siam ; and it occupies a space somewhat larger
than Ireland.

2. All the eastern portion of it is an alluvial plain through which the
great Me-khong river takes its way, overflowing its banks during the five
rainy months of the year, brought by the southerly monsoon. From the
abundance of its rice supply this used to be considered the great granary of
Annam, Westward the country rises somewhat higher and is densely forest-
covered ; from this direction the Me-khong is joined by the overflow of the
TciU-Sap or Bien-hoa lake, an expanse upwards of one hundred miles in lengtli,
whicli lies partly in Siam partly in Cambodia, and along the shores of wliich
many families settle in the dry season to take the fish with which it abounds.

3. The original inhabitants of Cambodia were the Mul and Lo'i, whom we
have noticed as occurring iu a part of Annam, a branch of the Chamjias, and who
apjjear to be related both to the Malays and the peoples of southern India.
The joopulation, however, is now a very nuxed one of representatives of all the
surrounding coiintries. Udong, the former capital, lies near tlie centre of the
country, and is a walled town ; Panom-yeng, at the confluence of the river from
the Tale Sap with the Me-khong, is tlie present capital of Cambodia, and is in-
habited chiefly by Cliinese, wliose boats line the river banks, and who carry on
an extensive traffic. This meeting-point of tlie river highways is also connected
by canal with the only port of Cambodia, that of Kamj)xd.

MALACCA. =^

1. The southern portion of tlie Malay Peninsula, excepting the
British possessions, which we shall afterwards notice, remains in the
hands of tlie Malays, wlio have here occupied the maritime districts,
driving the aboriginal tribes into tlie interior.

This independent region, occupying a space about as large as Ireland, is a
land of green forest and jungle, full of wild animals, such as elephants, tapirs,
tigers, and large apes, crocodiles, and snakes ; its climate is one of excessive

1 This appears to bo tlip Malay name : the native one is Srok-Khmer.
'■i Probably from Ma/i«-^?!A.-a = Great Island.

330 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY,

moisture, for the rains are carried over it by both monsoon winds, from the
China Sea on the north-east, and from the Indian Ocean on the south-west.
Fine timber and canes, sago, peppers, and gutta-percha are among its rich
vegetable products, and its mineral wealth is so gi-eat that the name Ophir was
given to one of its eastern mountains by the early European settlers. The
most important of the Malay states in this region are tliose of Perak and
Salangore on the western slope of the peninsula, and of Pahang and Johore
on the side next the China Sea, each under its native sultan. The Malays,
whose characteristics we have previously described, seem to have overrun these
regions after the twelfth century, arriving hither by way of Sumatra. They
were converted to Mohammedanism in the thirteenth century, but are not
strict in its observance, though Arabic is their sacred language. The black
tribes whom they have pressed into the interior forests are cnlled by them
orang-utan, " men of the woods," or arang-bitkit, meaning mountaineers.

BRITISH STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

2. Penang, or Prince of Wales Island, and the strip of the east coast of
the Malay peninsula opposite it, called Welksley 2}'>'ovince, form the most
northerly of the "Straits Settlements," or the British possessions on the great
highway of trade between the Indian Ocean and the seas of China. The island
was taken by the East India Comjiany in 1785 from the Sultan of Quedah.
The mainland province was acquired in 1800. The province derives its name
from the fine betel nut or Penang jjalm ; and both districts are exceedingly
productive in timber and spices, as well as in cultivated sugar and indigo.
The population is chiefly Malay and Chinese, the chief European settlement
being that of George Town, on the west coast of Penang Island.

3. Binding, a strip of territory on the west coast between Penang and
Malacca, together with the adjacent islands of Pancore, has recently been
ceded to Great Britain ; the area of this new acquisition may be compared
with the Isle of Wight. There are a few fishing villages along the coast, but it
has hitherto been chiefly used as a pirates' haunt.

4. Malacai, on the narrower ]mrt of the strait, a territory about as large
as Berkshire, was ceded to Britain by the Dutch in 1825. It exports large
quantities of tapioca (manioc or cassava starch) and sago, and has valuable tin
mines. Its chief town and j)ort of the same name dates back from the time
of Albuquerque (1509), but its former commercial importance has greatly
declined.

5. Singajmrc Island,^ named fi'om its "city of the lion " at the southern
extremity of the peninsula, was bought from the Malay sultau of Johore in
1819, and has become the great depot of British trade Ln the south China seas.
The city is well laid out and divided into European, Chinese, and Malay
quarters, and is strongly fortified.

EAST INDIA ISLANDS.'

1. The islands which form the East Indian Archipelago stretch
round in a wide curve enclosing the China Sea, from the Straits of
Malacca to the Channel of Formosa. Besides the larger Sunda

1 Native, Ujong Tanna, or Land's End.

Area in square miles. Population.

2 Sunda Islands and Moluccas 656,000 27,300,000

Philippines and Sulu Islands 114,000 7,500,000

EAST INDIA ISLANDS. 331

Islands — Sumatra, Java, Burneo (itself nearly as large as Britain
and France together), Celebes, Mindanao, and Luzon in the Philijj-
pine group — there are countless smaller islands grouped round these,
all enclosing sheltered seas. These facilities of safe navigation and
the regularity of the monsoon winds have brought about an essen-
tially maritime condition of life. Swift-sailing proas and towns of
boats on the estuaries of the rivers are characteristic of this region.
Excepting the tropical forest lands of Brazil, there is no other part
of the earth in which vegetation attains equal luxuriance, or in which
animal life is more exuljerant. The great curve formed by the islands
circling round Borneo is also a belt of great volcanic activity. On
most of the islands volcanic cones have been thro"^\^l up. Many of
these are constantly active ; and earthquakes are of very frequent
occurrence. The naturalist Wallace has shown that the archipelago
is remarkably divided into an Asiatic and an Australian region.

Shallow seas lie between Farther India, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and the
Philippines, showing that these islands are joined by a submarine plateau witli
tlie continent, and must have become separated in comparatively recent times
from the mainland. The elephant and tapir of Borneo and Sumatra are the
same as the Indian species ; the wild ox of Java also occurs on the continent ;
and some of the long-armed aj)es are common to the Malay peninsula and the
islands. But none of these animals could have swum over the wide arras of
the sea which now separate the islands from the continent, so that their pre-
sence shows clearly that the islands and the mainland must have been one
continuous tract in former times. But along a line jiassing through the
strait which separates the islands of Bali and Lombok, east of Java, and
thence through tlie Strait of Macassar, between Borneo and Celebes, through
the Sulu Sea, and between the Philippines and the Moluccas to the south of
them, a deejier trough of the sea shuts off all the eastern islands ; and these
as evidently belong to the Ai'stralian region. Axistralia lias neither apes nor
tigers, deer nor oxen nor elephants, nor indeed any of the quadrupeds which are
found in the Indian area. Instead of these it has marsuiJial or pouched ani-
mals, such as the opossum and kangaroo. In place of pheasants and wood-
peckers it has brush-turkeys and cockatoos. On crossing the narrow strait
from Bali to Lombok this complete contrast of animal life is at once observ-
able ; and between Borneo and Celebes the difference is equally striking, the
monkeys which abound in the forests of the former island giving place to the
prehensile-tailed oj)ossums in the latter.

Tlie zoological dividing line indicated above also corresp(mds very nearly
with the limit to which the Indo-Malay races have spread eastward. In
Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and the Philijjpines, as well as in Celebes, the Malays
now occupy the coast lands, and have driven the aboriginal Negroid tribes
into the interior mountains and forests. In the islands eastward of these,
however, the Papuan races remain in jiossession.

2. In a political point of view, the greater part of the southern
or main group of islands are Dutch colonial possessions divided into
a number of provinces or residencies. The rich island of Java has
become the most important and the most completely developed of
these possessions.

332 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

The Philippine group, in the north, is for the most part under
Spanish authority. The British hold Labuan Island on the north-
west coast of Borneo ; the Portuguese have still a small territory in
the eastern island of Timor ; and there remain under independent
native rulers the kingdom of Achin on the north of Sumatra, and
the kingdoms of Sarawak and Bruni in northern Borneo.

3. Sumatra. — Tlie great island of Sniaatra, lying opjiosite our settle-
ments iu the Strait of Malacca, is larger tliau Britain ancl Ireland together.
It e.xteuds fully a thousand miles from north-west to south-east, lying diago-
nally and e([ually across the equator. Mountains and high plateaus traverse it
throughout its length on the western border, reaching a height of 12,140 feet
in Mount Indrapura, a little north of the equator. Mount Ophir or Telaman
Peak (9940 feet) and IVIerapi are also prominent siuumits. The larger rivers
flow down eastward through the wide alluvial forest-covered plains. Rice,
maize, cocoa-nuts, sago-palms, sugar-cane, cotton, and tobacco, and all sorts
of tropical fruits, are among its vegetable products, but black pepper is its
staple export, with rice and camphor.

Malay Mohammedans, and tribes which are probably aboriginal, form
the greater part of the population, which reaches nearly four millions. The
Dutch claim all tlie territory south of the third jiarallel of north latitude, and
this area is directly or indirectly under their rule, though the number of
resident Europeans is very small, and large parts of the interior of the island
are as yet unexplored. In the north the warlike Achinese are still independ-
ent, notwithstanding loug-continued efforts at their subjugation by the Dutch,
though some of the coast districts have been occupied by their troops.-^ The
Dutch territory is divided into the five provinces of, the West Coast (which
also includes the islands of Babi, Nias, the Batu and Mantawi groups, lying
off it), Bencoolen, the district of Lampong iu the south, Palembang, and the
East Coast Residency.

On the west coast the chief ports and towns are Padang, the cajiital
of the west coast government, lying right and left of a small river of its
name, founded in 1660, when the Portuguese were driven from a neighbouring
factory ; TapanuU northward, and the pejiper port of Bencoolen southward.
Palembang, on the Musi rivei', fifty miles up from its mouth., and Siak,
towards the north-e;ist, are the chief places of Dutch trade in the eastern
region of Sumatra.

4. Off the north-east coast of Sumatra, filling the mouth of the Strait of
Malacca, south of our island of Singapore, lies the Rioii Archipeldijo, a richly
fertile group, now formed into a Dutch Residency. They carry on a large
trade in pepper and timber with the people of the surrounding seas, through
their capital town and seaport of Riou, on an islet off the south coast of the
largest island, named Biutang. This is also the residence of the Sultan of
Riou, now a dependent of the Dutch Government. The island of Linga, imme-
diately south of the equator, oft' the east coast of Sumatra ; the Tumbelan
group of islets, midway between Singapore and the coast of Borneo ; the
Anamba Islands, farther north, and the Xatuna Islands, in the China Sea, are
also under the control of the Dutch Resident of Riou.

5. Farther south tliau the Riou Archipelago, separated by a strait from
the east coast of Sumatra, opposite Palembang, Lies the large, thickly-forested
island of Banca, 130 miles long, and beyond, naidway across the Sunda Sea to

1 1877. Samalangan and Merdu.

EAST INDIA ISLANDS. 333

Borneo, the smaller island of BillUon. Both of these Residencies are famous
for their tin mines, which have been worked since 1709 for the Dutch Govern-
ment, cliiefly by Chinese miners. They yield about 10,000 tons of metal
every year.

6. Java. — This most valuable of the islands extends through a distance
of more than 600 miles, from Sunda Strait, which separates it from Sumatra,
on the west, to Bali Strait, in the east ; but at some points its north and
south coasts are only 50 miles apart, and its area is not quite so large as that
of England. Througliout its length it is traversed by a chain of higli moim-
tains, nearly 40 of which are volcanic cones, some extinct, others emitting
smoke, and still others subject to fierce eruptions. Mount Semeroe, the
highest of all, reaches 12,150 feet.

Java is the most fertile and productive, and the most populous island in
all the tropical region of the globe. The hot region, or that which lies
beneath an elevation of 2000 feet, embraces the greater portion of the island,
and is admirably suited to the cultivation of rice, maize, indigo, sugar-cane,
cloves, pepper, and vanilla. The temperate region extends up the mountain
slopes, and over the plateau of Western Java, between elevations of about
2000 and 4000 feet, and is the best gi-ound for coftee and tea jalantations, besides
having a delightful climate, well suited to Europeans. The cool regions above
4500 feet are restricted to the slopes of the volcanic cones. The. rains are
brought by the westerly monsoon from November tLU March ; easterly winds
bringing di'y weathei rbr the rest of the year.

It is mainly due to the energy of the Netherlands Trading Company that
the cultivation and resources of the island have been so highly developed, and
that its population has become so great. The native Javanese are of Malay
race, in general a quiet, industrious people. Mohammedanism was introduced
in the fifteenth century, and has taken root all over the island, to the almost
total exclusion of the former Brahminical religion, the monuments of which,
temples and statues, are found deeply hidden in the forests. Chinese have
settled here in large numbers, as well as Arabs and Hindus ; but the whole
18i millions of people in the island are under the control of only twenty-
eight tliousand Europeans. Though two states are still nominally under
native Sultans, the whole island belongs to the Dutch, and is under a mild
despotic government ; it is divided out into 23 Residencies, inchiding the
island of Madura, oft' its north-east coast ; a system of compulsory labour on
the part of the natives is enforced by native officials or " Regents," act-
ing under the Dutch governors. Batavla, towards the western extremity of
the north coast of Java, is the capital of all the Dutch Pkst Indies, as well as
of this island, and is a great seaport and trading place, connected by tele-
graph line with Singapore. Jianltiiii, nearer the Strait of Sunda, was the first
settlement of tlie Dutch, made in 1602 ; but is now of little importance. It is
supposed that the variety of domestic fowl, great in soul if little in body,
was brouglit from this place.

Samarcmg is a great port, near the middle of the north coast, and has its
European, Chinese, Malay, and Arab quarters. A railway across the island
unites Samarang with Djokjokarta, near tlie south coast, passing by way of
Harakarta, the most consideralile place in the centre of the island, in the
midst of a highly cultivated district. Surabaya, on the strait which separates
Madura i'rom the main island, and Proholingo, farther east, are the chief
outlets of the eastern part of the island.

7. Borneo. — The immense island of Borneo,^ after Australia, Greenland,

1 The Portuguese form of the name of Bruni or Brunei, a couiitiy on the westc^ru
coast of the island.

334 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY,

and New Guinea, the largest piece of isolated land on the globe, lies centrally
in the East Indian Archipelago, between the China Sea on the north-west, the
Sunda Sea on the south, and Macassar Strait leading to the Sulu and Mindoro
seas on the east. It stretches out more than 800 mUes from north to south,
and is more than 600 miles wide from east to west. Not much is yet known
of its interior regions, but chains of mountains seem to traverse its length from
north-east to south-west in the direction of the island of Palawan, northward
of it, while, from its central region, other ridges extend east and south-east
towards the eastern angles, enclosing wide lowlands, which, if the sea-level
were raised, would become gulfs like these of the adjacent island of Celebes.
Mount Kini, £alu, or the "Chinese widow" (13,670 feet), in the extreme
northern corner of the island, is the highest point known as yet. Its chief
rivers are the Kapuas, or river of Pontianak, flowing south-west from the
central mountains ; the Murong, or river of Banjermassin, flowing south to
the Sunda Sea ; and the Koctci, flowing eastward to the Strait of
Macassar.

Magnificent forests of iron wood, teak, and the gutta percha tree, and
many others, besides palms and canes, cover the land ; here the ourang-outaug
builds his nest of branches, and though the elephant is wanting, there are
tapirs and Avild swine, deer and buffaloes, in abundance.

The human inhabitants, estimated at nearly two millions in number, are
for the most part DyaJcs, a taller and more muscular people than the Malays,
though evidently of the same race, in a great number of small tribes. They
are partly enslaved by the Malays in the maritime districts ; partly free
pirates ; partly barbarian nomads, in the interior mountain region. There are
besides these many Mohammedan Malays ; large numbers of Chinese colonists,
living on the coasts as traders, or enqiloyed in the mines ; and on the east,
a mimber of colonists from Celebes.

The greater part of the island is nominally under Dutch rule, the independ-
ent native kingdoms of Sarawak and Bruui and the territory of Sabah being
confined to the north and north-western districts.

8. The Dutch portion, which comprises a number of tributary native
kingdoms and rajahships, is divided into the two residencies of the iccst coast,
and of the south anul cast coasts.

Pontianak, near the mouth of the Kapuas, is the capital of a native
kingdom of its name, and a busy port, and the seat of the Dutch Resident of
the west coast di\-ision. Dependent on Pontianak is the state of Landak, in
which was found the gi'eat diamond of the Rajah of Matan, the largest known
(weighing 367 carats). Farther north than Landak is the territory of Mon-
trado, which has many gold mines.

Banjermassin corresponds to Pontianak in its position near the mouth of
the chief river of the southern watershed, and in being the capital of the
residency of the south and east. The chief trading place of the south coast,
however, is the seaport of Tahomiiau, southward of Banjermassin.

Samarinda, on the Koetei river, is the most important place on the eastern
side of Borneo.

9. Sarawak, a native kingdom along the southern shores of the Bight of
Datii, on the west coast, is of interest as having been governed for twenty
years, fronr 1841 onward, by the adventuroxis Sir James Brooke or Rajah
Brooke, who did much to civilise the country, and to abolish piracy in the
neighbouring seas.

The independent ]\ralay kingdom of Bruni, from which our name of the
island is derived, occupies all the north-western slope to the China Sea, and its
sultan resides in a town of the same name on the coast of a wide northern bay.
Opposite this bay is the islet of Labnan, which was taken possession of by

EAST INDIA ISLANDS. 335

Britain in 1846, on account of its valuable coal beds, and from its convenient
position as a naval station in the South China Sea.

10. Siihah. — A territory in the extreme north of the island of Borneo, with
a thinly scattered population, lately ceded by the sultans of Bruni and Sulu to
an English Company, who pay a yearly subsidy. The greater part of the
interior is covered with virgin forest, and is mountainous. There is a plain
near the coast from 15 to 20 miles wide. The climate and soil is favourable
to the production of coffee, cocoa, tapioca, and tobacco. Sago is largely grown.
Coal has been found near the sea-shore. There is a capital harbour at San-
dukau in the north-east.

11. Celebes. — The strangely shaped island of Celebes, running out in four
great arms, corresponding to four mountain ranges which extend from a
central nucleus, embracing wide gulfs of the sea, is somewhat larger in area
than England and Wales, though no part of it is more than 70 miles from the
sea. It is also rich in all the products of this luxuriantly fertile region, but
its surface is less forest- covered, more available for pasturing herds of wild

. buffalo, of domesticated cattle, and of the best horses of all the archipelago. Its
trade with Singapore and China is mainly in cotton, bii'ds' nests, tortoise-shell,
tobacco, and sago. Gold, tin, copper, iron, and coal, are known in the south.

It is more populous, in proj^ortiou to its area, than Borneo ; in the central
interior region the little-known tribes of the Turayas seem to be akin to the
Dyaks of Borneo. The coast peoples, called Bugis, of lighter yellow-brown
colour, have evidently settled here from other parts.

Celebes is claimed entirely by the Dutch, and is divided by them into the
Residencies of Macassar (or Mangkassar), which embraces the southern penin-
sulas, and extends also over the island of Sumbawa, with part of Floris in the
lesser Sunda chain ; of Menado, which reaches over the northern peninsulas,
and includes besides the Saugir and Talaut islets, which reach out towards
Mindanao on the east of the Sulu Sea. A third division, extending round the
eastern gulf of Tomori, falls within the Residency which has its head-quarters
in the Moluccas.

Macassar, or Vlaardingen, on the western coast of the southern peninsula,
facing the Sunda Sea, is the chief place in Celebes and the depot of trade with
Java and Singapore. Menado, the capital of the northern Residency, lies near
the northern extremity of the island. The Saugir islands witliin its govern-
ment are renuirkable for their volcanoes. Mount Aboe, in the Great Sangii",
has frequently caused great devastation by its violent erujations.

12. Lesser Sunda Islands. — The chaiu of the Lesser Sunda Islands,
which stretches east in the line of Java, the islands of Bali and Lombok, both
mountainous and volcanic, the latter containing a peak which is one of the
highest points of all the archipelago, form a separate Residency. The cajiital is
the seaport of AnipamuiL on the strait between tlie islands.

13. Next to Lombok is the island of S'ambawa, nearly as large as
Wales, forming a dependency of tlie Residency of Macassar. It is a very
fertile forest-covered island, yielding abundance of teak and tamarinds, and
has on its northern coast the great volcano of Tambora (9040 feet), which
destroyed 12,000 people in its great eruption of 1815. Its inhabitants are
Malay Mohammedans, only nominally subject to the representative of the
Dutch Government, who lives at Bimu, on the north coast.

14. Farther on we come to tlie long island of Floris, or Mangerasi, and
Sicmba or the Sandalwood Island, south of it, and from that by the chain of
smaller islands, of which Lomblem, Pantar, and Omhai are the chief, to the
great island of Timor, the largest of the Lesser Sunda chain, inhabited
chiefly by Papuans or negritos. All these, excepting the western part of
Floris and the eastern third of Timor, which forms the only remaining

336 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

possession of Portugal in all the archipelago, are grouped iinder the Residency
of Timor, the capital of wliich is the tine port of Koepaiuj at the south-western
extremity of that island. Dehli, a seaport on the north coast of Timor, is
the chief point from which the Portuguese exercise some authority over the
native rajahs of their part of Timor.

15. Moluccas. — The most easterly groups of islands belonging to the
Dutch are collectively named the Moluccas, and are portioned out into three
Presidencies.

(1 ) The first of these, named from its central island of Ambayna, embraces
the larger island of Buru, west of it, and the western portion of Ccram. (2)
The second, called the Residency of Bcmda, includes the eastern half of
Ceram, and reaches over tlie central group of the Banda islets to the Kei
islands and Aru, south of New Guinea, and to Timor Laut and the South-
western Archipelctgo between that island and Timor. (3) Tlie third, named
the Residency of Ternate, includes the large northern island of Halmahera or
Gilolo, between Celebes and New Guinea, and reaches westward round the
Gulf of Tomori in Celebes, and eastward to embrace Waijaunne, Batanta,
SalicaMif, and Misol, near New Guinea, as well as the western peninsula of
that great islan<l, which we shall afterwards have to notice in the Australian
region. The Moluccas proper are the small islands clustering round Ternate,
west of Halmahera, which has the Dutch port of Orange, and is the most im-
portant central point of all this region of the archipelago. But the name
Moluccas, or Spice Islands, has spread out from these to embrace all the islands
which yield the beautiful nutmeg tree, resembling our pear tree, with deep
green glossy leaves, giving the nut and its covering 7)iace, and the small ever-
green which gives the aromatic flower buds called cloves.^

16. Philippine Islands. — The northern apex of the region of the East
Indian Archij)elago is formed by the great gi'oup of the Philippine Islands,
whicli, we may remember, were discovered by Magellan during his great voyage
of circumnavigation. They include ujjwards of a thousand separate pieces of
laud, but the two islands of Luzon in the north of the group, and of Alindanao
in the soutli of it, are by far the largest. Each of them is considerably larger
than Ireland. Between these there are seven islands of considerable dimen-
sions. These are Mindoro, Palawan, Panay, jVegros, C'ebic, Leyte, and
Sumar. Still smaller are the central islands of Mashate and Bojol.

The islands generally present magnificent mountain scenery, and have
many volcanic cones. That oi Albay, in the south of Luzon, is 8500 feet in
height, and constantly emits smoke and steam. Great forests of ebony, iron
wood, cedar, and sapan wood, clothe most of them, and the variety of their
fruits is immense. Rice, sugar, tobacco, hemp, cacao, and coffee, are the chief
cultivated products. It is remarkable that all the larger beasts of prey are
\inknown, though birds of brilliant plumage and reptiles abound.

Three seasons are recognised — the cool and dry season, beginning in Novem-
ber, when the north-east monsoon sets in ; then the secar, or period of heat
and drought, beginning in March and continuing till May, when the heat is
almost iinbearable ; and the rainy season, beginning with the south-west
monsoon in June, and lasting till September or October.

The people of the islands, besides the comparatively few Spaniards and
Chinese settlers, fall into two divisions, first the aboriginal Abetas or Etas,
called Negritos by the Spaniards, ♦Ijlack-browna in colour, with woolly hair and
regular features, living in independent tribes in the interior, whither they have
been pressed by the second, those of Malay origin, who now occupy the
maritime districts, the best known of whom are the Tagalas and Bisayas.

1 From Freufh c/om = a nail.

MOHAMMEDAN ASIA. 337

Some have adopted Christianity, and others are Mohammedans, but the
majority are idolaters, or have no form of religion. The islands are divided by
the Spanish into provinces of several classes under military commandants and
political governors. Manila, on the west coast of Luzon, famous for its cigars,
called cheroots, is the capital of the Spanish Philippines, and carries on an
extensive trade, sending out sugar, hemp, tobacco, cigars, and coffee, as far as
Britain westward and the United States eastward. Yloilo, on the island of
Panay, is the second seaport of the group, the outlet of the best hemp-growing
district ; CebQ,, on tlie island of its name, on which Magellan was killed ; Ztnn-
hvanga, on the south-west peninsula of Mindanao ; and Sual, north of Manila,
on the west coast of Luzon, are also considerable seaports of the group.

17. The ISulu Ishmds, extending between Mindanao and the north of
Borneo, consisting of the three groups of Basilan, Sulu proper or Solo, and
the Tawi-Tawi islands, are now only in part under the Sultan of Sulu, for the
Spaniards occupied some of them in 1876, and incorporated them with their
colony of the Philippines. The Sultan of Sulu, whose possessions have thus
been restricted, claims the southern portion of the island of Palawan.

18. Farthest north of all the East Indian islands lie the five Bashee Islets,
which were discovered by Dampier in 1687, and of which the Spaniards took
possession in 1783. They maintain a small establishment on Grafton Island.

MOHAMMEDAN ASIA.

Baluchistan and Afghanistan.^

1, The eastern half of the great plateau of Iran or Persia,
marked out by the mountain chains which run west and south
from the great Hindu Kush range, and covered for the most part
Avith bare infertile deserts and narrow valleys and gorges, is occupied
by the Afghans and Baluchis. It is a rugged and poor country,
devoid of what we should call roaxls, inhabited by tribes who are
brave, but ignorant, suspicious, and irascible, most of whom are
fanatical Mohammedans, disliking the presence of Europeans both as
foreigners and Christians. In the political geography of Asia, how-
ever, this is a region of great interest and importance, as it lies
now between the two great modern powers of the continent, Britain
in India and Russia in Central Asia, whose influence is ever ex-
panding. Its two great passes, the Kliaibar to Kabul in Afghanistan,
and the Bolan pass to Quetta in Baluchistan, may be called the
north-western gates of India.

Baluchistan. 2

2. Physical Features. — The prominent features of Baluchistan, a terri-
tory somewhat larger than Great Britain, are the llala and Kurkleki mountains,
which extend northward from Karachi on the west of tlie delta of the Indus to the
Bolan pass, marking the edge of the plateau above the plains of Shide ; and
the ranges which run parallel to the shores of the Arabian Sea on the south,

Area in sq. miles. Population.
1 Balucliistan .... lOH.SOO 350,000

xVf'ghanistan .... 278,<>00 6,145,(100

2 The country of the Bahuthis, whose name is derived from Belus, King of Baby-
lonia, the Nimrod of Scripture.

338 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

descending by pastoral terraces to tlie low-lying coast desert of Makran.
Within these borders, on the plateau, bare hill ridges and sandy deserts extend
over all the interior towards the frontiers of Afghanistan and Persia. The
plateau has no rivers, but in the rainy season torrents rusli down the mountain
gorges. Winter on the highland is cold and rude, the summer very hot ; the
low coast desert of Makran then becomes one of tlie hottest districts on earth.
One fertile and pleasant district, however, is included within the limits of
Baluchistan ; it is that of Kachhi-Gandava, which reaches down from the plateau
on the north-east, to include the well-watered slopes of the mountains and part
of the plain of the Indus at their base.

3. People. — The few inhabitants are the Bahichis, who are possibly
of Semitic origin, and who are said to have migrated from the neighbourhood
of Aleppo, and the Brahui tribes, now the dominant race, who seem to be of
Mongol descent, their short round figures and fiat features differing entirely
from those of the Bahichis, and their language having much in common with
that of the people of the Deccan. Both are robust and active, inferior to the
Afghans in appearance, but equal in figliting power.

4. Division and Chief Towns. — The divisions of the country generally
recognised are tliose of Kalat, Sarawan, Shawl or Quetta, and Kaclihi-Gandava
on tiie uorth-east ; Jhalawan, Luz, and Makran in the south. The Khan of
Kalat, whose mud-walled caiiital in tlie mountains of Kurkleki, 7000 feet above
the sea, was stormed by the British in 1839, is the principal chieftain and the
nominal ruler of Baluchistan, maintained and subsidised by Great Britain.
In winter he descends to reside at Gandava, in the Indus plain. Sonmiani,
north-west of Karaclii, is the seaport of the province of Luz.

5. In 1877, as a guarantee for the maintenance of communications with
Baluchistan, the British re-occupied the small town of Qiictta or Shawl, near
the north-eastern corner of Baluchistan, which they held for a time in 1842.
It is a mud-walled place, 5540 feet above the sea, and about 20 miles north-
west of the head of the Bolan Pass, wliich is a naiTow and wild gorge about
51 miles in length, walled in by precipitous rocks, and infested by freebooters.
In 1839 a column of the British army took six days to traverse it. A railway
has been constructed to its foot.

AFGHANISTAN.

6. The mountainous country reaching from Bahichistan north-
ward to the Oxus river and the low-lying Turkoman desert beyond
the Hindu-Kush ; and from the frontier of Persia on the west to the
skirt of the Panjab, to Kafiristan, and the Pamir plateau on the east,
takes its name from the Afghan tribes who form the greater part of
its population. It extends about 500 miles each way, and includes
a greater area than that of France.

7. Physical Features. — Four-fifths of its surface are covered with moun-
tains and valleys, which liave a general direction west and south-west from the
huge central knot of the Pamir towards the more level deserts of the interior
of the plateau of Iran. Along the nortliern border extends the vast alpine
range of the Hindu-Kush^ (over 20,000 feet in elevation), which bears this
name for nearly 400 miles, from the Panur to the Haji-kak Pass (12,190
feet) between Kabul and Baniian. Beyond this pass the range is continued west-
ward, and is called t\w Koh-i-Baba, a snow-clad range 18,000 feet in elevation,

3 More accurately Hindu-Koh.

AFGHANISTAN. 339

wliich is prolonged still westward by the Safid Koh, and by other mountains
which form the northern edge of the plateau of Iran, ultimately joining the
Elburz range south of the Casjiian. On the eastern side, next India, the high
SidaiTnan Moxtntains mark the edge of the highland, and the apjiroaches to it
from India are by four passes round or across this range ; by the Khaibar Pass
(3375 feet), round its northern extremity and up the valley of the Kabul river to
the Khurd Kabul Pass, ten miles from the city, where General Elphinstone's
army was destroyed in 1841 ; by the Shutargardan Pass (10,900 feet) at the
head of the Kurram valley ; by the Gomul Pass, across the centre of it ; or
by the Bolan Pass, through northern Baluchistan, turning its southern
extremity. Between the Hindu-Kush and the Sulaiman ranges many high
masses run out south-westward, enclosing between them many well-watered
and fertile valleys, as well as high, cold, treeless, pastoral table-lands, which
merge in the south-west into the bare deserts of Baluchistan and eastern Persia.

8. As a whole this country of mountain and valley is well watered. The
Kabul river flows eastward between the base of the Hindu-Kush and the
Safid Koh, as the northern mass of the Sulaiman mountains is named, to join
the Indus at Attock. Rafts descend it to Jalalabad, and it is probably
navigable for boats as it approaches the Indus. From the opposite side of the
Koh-i-baba the Hari-rud (or Heri river) runs westward past Herat, and turns
northward through the marginal heights of the plateau to descend into the
Turkoman desert in the north, and there to be drawn off in irrigating canals.
Its north and south course forms the boundary with Persia. The valleys,
between the interior chains which ramify south-westward over the country,
supply the head streams of the variable Halmand, which fills the lagoons of the
great Seistan swamp or Hamun in the centre of the plateau, terminating its
course there. It is swollen out by the melting snows of the mountains m May
and June, but shrinks at other seasons to a narrow channel. The northern
river, the Oxnis, receives a number of small tributaries from the northward
slope of the Hindu-Kush, near its head in the Pamir, but farther west, where
it enters the low-lying desert, the streams flowing north towards it fail to reach
its channel, being drawn otf altogether in canals for irrigation in this dry
region. Such are the Delias, which terminates in the district round Balkh,
on the border of the desert ; the Nari, or Sangalak, which becomes similarly
spent in the vicinity of Andkhui, and the larger clear and rapid stream of the
JUiirgh-ab, which is exhausted in fertilising the oasis of Marv.

9. Climate. — The climate of a region so diversified in elevation is natu-
rally very various ; the heights are very cold ; the deep valleys very hot. As
a whole the climate is dry, cool, and bracing, and its brave and strong
people testify to its healthiness ; the year is divided distinctly into seasons of
spring, summer, autumn, and winter, the last beginning in December, when
the streets of Kabul are blockaded with snow, and all business is at an end for
three months. Kabul enjoys a moderately warm summer, but at Jalalabad,
in the same valley lower down, the heat of June becomes intolerable.

10. Products. — The aspect of the thinly-peopled country is generally
bare and rugged ; only some of the valleys and lower mountain slopes are
terraced and cultivated. In the mountain forests the pine, oak, cyju'ess, and
walnut are characteristic trees, and many of the Euroj)ean fruits grow wild.
The rose, jasmin, and hyacinth, adorn the gardens. Among wild animals the
lion is occasionally seen, but the leopard is common, as well as wolves,
hyenas, jackals, and foxes, bears in the forests, wild sheep in the eastern
mountains, and antelopes in the plains. The horses of Afghanistan are excel-
lent, and are brought in numbers to India. Broad-tailed sheep appear in
large droves ; goats and dogs are also plentiful. Some of the rivers have
alluvial gold, and copper and iron are abundant in the north and east.

340 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

11. People. — Though the whole country within the limits we have been
describing is called Afghanistan, it is very far from being a united state, and
the allegiance owed to tlie frequently deposed Ameer.s of Kabul is of the lightest
and most fluctuating kind ; its limits include many tribes which are more or
le.ss independent of one another, and often at war, uniting or allying them-
selves it may be against a foreign enemy. Along the borders next tlie Panjab
the Pathan ^ tribes claim absolute independence, and are under no rule whatever
except that of their own chiefs ; tliey have always been a source of disquietude
to the British Government, frequently closing the passes to trade, and no
fewer than twenty-eight expeditions have been undertaken against tliem. The
most important of these border tribes are the Yusufzais, who hold the hills
north and west of Peshawar ; the Afridis, in several clans on the eastern
slopes of the Satid Koh south-west of Peshawar ; and the Waziris, the
robbers of the Gomul Pass and other parts of the central Sulaiman range.
North of the Kabul valley the Kafirs'^ occupy the slopes of the
Hindu-Kush. These are line mountaineers, with fair complexion and blue
eyes ; gross idolaters, professing a sort of Hinduism, but remarkable for their
truthfulness and good faith. The Afghans j^roper, who are finely-built, long-
bearded men, \vith Caucasian features, style themselves Beni Israel, or sons of
Israel, claiming descent from Saul, and taking their name from his grandson
Afghana ; but tlie theory of their Hebrew origin, based on this tradition, is
doubted, for their language has no relationship to any of the Semitic dialects,
but is clearly a mendier of the great Aryan family. Perhaps the most power-
ful of the central Afghan clans is that of the Ghilzais, occupying the highlands
north of Kandahar (others are the Durani, Kakars, and Povindahs). The
Hazarahs,^ inhabiting the wild highlands of the uortli of Afghanistan, are
again a widely different race ; they are of Tatar or Mongol descent, pastoral
in occupation. Beyond the Hindu-Kush, towards the Oxus, the provinces of
Turkistan included within the boundary (Wakhan, Badakshan, Kuuduz, and
Balkh) yield obedience to the Ameer only when he can back his demands by
force. Besides the Afghan tribes, Persians, or Tajiks, are nmuerous in the
west, Hindus in tlie east.

12. Divisions. — The great divisions of the country are those of Kabul,
in the centre ; Herat, on the west in the valley of the Hari-rud ; Seistan,
round the head of the Hamun Swamp (now almost entirely within the
Persian boundary) in the south-west ; Damaun, or "the skirt," in the east
along the base of the Sulaiman range. In 1S73 it was agi-eed by the Cabinets
of London and St. Petersburg that the northern fi-ontier of Afghanistan should
be considered to be the Oxus river from the Sii'i-kul (lake) in the Pamir
plateau as far as the post of Khoja Sala, where the route from Balkli to Bok-
hara crosses the river, and that it should be marked farther westward by a
line drawn across the desert from Khoja Sala to the Persian fi-ontier near
Sarakhs on the lower Hari-rud. The limit thus indicated includes, within
Afghanistan, a number of small states grouped as the j)rovince of Afghan
Turkistan ; but these states, as we have seen, are only slightly connected
with the government of Kabul.

13. Government. — The history of Afghanistan, as we have seen, has ever
been that of disorders, factions, and usurpations. In recent times the
central state of Kabul had been increasing in power. Balkh, in the north,

■i The term Pathan, by which the Afghan tribes are known to the natives of India,
is a corrupted form of Pulvhtun or Pushtaneh, a name conferred, it is said, on a leader
named Kish, by Mohammed liimself, when he made a pilgrimage to Medina to examine
into the new religion, which was subsequently adopted by the greater number of his
countrymen. 2 Or infidels, also known as Kohistani (" mountaineers").

3 So named from the Persian word Ilazar, signifying a thousand, in reference to
the multitude of their tribes.

AFGHAN TUKKISTAN. 341

was added to it by conquest in 1850; Kandahar, on the sonth-west, was
joined to it in 1854 ; Herat, on the west, the scene of frequent disputes with
Persia, was finally taken possession of hy the Afghans of Kabul in 1863 ; and
when Dost Mohammed, the father of Shir Ali, died in that year, the British
Government recognised the latter as ruler of Afglianistan. Soon afterwards,
however, two usurpers in succession ruled at Kabul, Shir Ali being exiled
meanwhile to Turkistan. With the aid of his son Shir Ali regained his
throne ; but the recognition given to his predecessors by the Indian Govern-
ment, the British arbitration which gave Seistan to Persia, and the British
occupation of Quetta, had alienated his good-will, and in 1878 a British
ambassador was refused admittance to his territory ; in November of that year
war was declared, and the invasion of Afghanistan iindertaken by the British.
The result of this expedition was a Treaty, concluded in 1879, called the
Treaty of Gandamak, by which the British Indian frontier was advanced to
the head of the Khaibar Pass, the summit of the Shutargardan Pass at the
head of the Kurrara Valley, and to the Khojak Pass at the head of the Pishin
Valley north of Quetta. Towards the end of 1879, in consequence of the
murder of the first English resident under the new treaty, a punitory expedi-
tion advanced into the country, and occupied the towns of Kabul and Kanda-
har. Shir Ali had in the meantime been succeeded by his son Yakub Khan,
on whose resignation (October 1879) Abdurrhaman, until then an exile in
Kussian Turkistan, was recognised as Ameer.

14. Trade. — The industries of Afghanistan, besides the little agriculture
of the valleys, are chiefly the weaving of coarse woollen cloths and the manu-
facture of weapons. Caravans passing through from India bring shawls,
cottons and muslins, turbans and silks, besides sugar and spices ; to India they
take ponies, furs, and fresh and dried fruits ; European wares reach Afghanistan
both by India and through Turkistan from the north. Some rich Afghar
merchants possess thousands of camels.

15. Chief Towns. — The chief towns of Afghanistan are Kabul in the
north-east, 6400 feet above the sea, in the most fertile part of all the country,
surrounded by orchards and gardens. Ghazni, 85 miles south-west, standing
on a rock 280 feet above the adjacent plain, and 7730 feet above the sea, pro-
tected by walls and towers, is a notable fortress, which was stormed by the
British in 1839, and again taken in 1842. Before the twelfth century it was
the capital of the great empire of the Ghiznevide kings.^ KandaJmr, in the
upper basin of the Halmand, is a populous town, the great mart of trafiSc
between Persia and India, 3490 feet above the sea. It is at present occupied by
a strong British garrison. Herat, in the north-west, is a well-fortified town.
Bamian lies beyond the Haji-kak Pass, which is a very important one, as it is
the only one in the high ranges north of Kabul that would be practicable
for artillery. It is remarkable for its extensive architectural remains and
cave dwellings, artificial excavations of ancient date, which are still occupied.

Afghan Turkistan.

16. Badakshan. — The most easterly of the small states north of the
Hindu-Kush range included within Afghan Turkistan is that of Badakslum.
It lies for the most part in the deeji valley of the Kokclia river, a tributary of
the Oxus. This valley is so fertile that it sends out rice and wheat to the
surrounding countries, and pastures large numbers of horses, cattle, and famous
camels. Within this territory also the beautiful lapis lazuli, sapi)hires, and
rubies are found. Its chief centres of population are Jlrm, a cluster of ham-
lets in the valley of the Kokcha, and Faizahad on the Oxus.

17. Tributary to it is the province of Wakha.it, higher up the valley of the

' Sec p. 31.

342 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

Oxiis, on the south-western border of the Great Pamir steppe, inhabited by the
Wakhis, an intelligent and good-looking race, fond of arms and sport, whose
" Mir" or chief resides at Kila Panja in the valley. A considerable transit
trade passes along the ujiper Oxus valley through Badakshau and Wakhan,
between Eastern and Western Turkistan over the Pamir routes. The easiest
approach to this region from India is that by the Chitral valley and over the
Baroghil Pass at its head.

18. Kimduz. — Next to Badakshan westward lies Kunduz, formerly an
independent Khanate, now tributary to Afghanistan, like the former. Its
valley is also richly productive of grain and fruits. The Mir or Khan oi this
territory, and with him the ruling i>art of the population, are Uzbegs, a Mon-
golian race ; the rest of the people are Tajiks. The capital, Kunduz, near
the tributary of the Oxus, of the same name, is a small mud-built place in the
midst of gardens.

19. Balkh. — Beyond Kunduz we reach the more extensive state of Balkli
(or Bactria), reaching from the Koh-i-baba range down its northern slope to
the Oxus. Here we are approaching the borders of the great Turkoman desert,
and the low country becomes bare and stony, though the upper valleys are
well watered and fertile. The natives of Balkh are Uzbegs of the Shiah sect
of Mohammedans. The capital of the same name, situated where the waters
of the Dehas river from the Koh-i-baba are spread out and spent in irrigating
canals just before reaching the Oxus, is a riiinous place, but has had a gi-eat
history. It is still called by the orientals Uem-ul-Bilad, or the " mother of
cities ; " in the beginning of the period of the middle ages it was the great
centre of Mohammedan civilisation in Central Asia, and was then an immense
city, fully thirty miles in circuit. It was the birthplace of Zoroaster, and the
ca])ital of the Greek kingdom of Bactria, founded by the successors of Alex-
ander the Great.

20. Andkhui. — About 75 miles west of the niinous Balkh lies Andklwi,
also in the terminal oasis of a mountain stream, the centre of another small
territory which long formed an independent Khanate, inhabited by Turkomans,
Usbegs, and Taujiks.

21. Maimana. — Lastly, south-westward of Andkhui we come to the small
state of Maimana. The most direct route from Herat to Samarkand and
Bokhara passes through it by a difficult passage over the Murghab river. It
has a warlike Uzbeg population, partly settled in villages, partly nomadic, who
have long maintained a sturdy independence.

INDEPENDENT TURKISTAN.

1. Between the southern borders of the Eussian conquests in
Turkistan and the limits which have been recognised as the western
frontier of Afghanistan, there still remains a belt of territory which
is independent of either of the great powers which have been
gradually approaching one another in this region of Asia. The
nearest points of Eussian and Afghan territory are now, however,
only about 100 miles apart.

Khanate of Khiva
,, of Bokhara
,, Karategin .

Turkoman country .

Area in sq. miles.

22,3-20

83,980

8,315

79,725

Population.
700,000
230,000
100,000
450,000

194,340

3,280,000

INDEPENDENT TURKISTAN. 343

Khiva.

2. Tlie north-western portion of this independent belt is occupied hj the
diminished khanate of Khiva. Here the only inhabited and fertile district is
that which lies along the left bank of the lower Amu or Oxus where it
approaches the Sea of Ai-al. This has been rendered fruitful by the energy of
the people in irrigating the land by canals drawn from the river, so that it
yields corn, fruits, and silk in abundance. Its settled inhabitants are Uzbegs,
the dominant people of this region, besides Turkomans, Kirghiz, and Persians,
who are subjects of the despotic Khan, who, however, acknowledges himself a
vassal of Russia. The trade of the country is carried on by camel caravans of
from one to two thousand animals, which cross the steppes to Orenburg or
Astrakhan, or take the shorter way to Krasnovodsk, on the Caspian, whence
goods are shipped. The capital city of Khiva, on one of the main canals
drawn from the Amu, is a place of from three to four thousand mud-built
houses, surrounded by a wall, and containing a citadel shut off from the rest
of the town. Russians only are free to trade in Khiva, and the navigation of
the Amu is now free to their vessels alone.

Bokhara.

3. Adjoining Khiva on the east, and reaching south to the Oxus, is the
once powerful khanate of Bokhara, which, though politically inferior to Afghan-
istan, is recognised as spiritually supreme by the surrounding Mohammedan
states. Excepting along the banks of the Oxus, and where the Zarafshan
river, drawn off in canals, enters the land on the north, there is little culti-
vable or inhabited land, almost all the remaining area being covered with sandy
steppes, in which wells become of the utmost value. In the districts which
are reached by water, however, cotton and silk, corn and fruits, are grown ;
large numbers of cattle and broad-tailed sheep are also reared ; and trade is
busily cairied on bj- large camel-caravans passing to Astrakhan by way of
Khiva, to Siberia northward, and eastward to China.

The dominant people here also are the active and intelligent Uzbegs ; but
there are also found Afghans and Arabs, Jews, Nogais or Russian Tatars,
Kirghiz, Tajiks, Hindus, and Turkomans. The prevailing religion is Moham-
medanism, and the " Mir," besides being a military despot, is supreme in
religious matters also.

Bokhara, the capital, the foundation of which is ascribed to Alexander the
Great, stands in the fertile region gained by the division of the Zarafshan
river into a multitude of irrigating canals, before it reaches the Oxus. Its
walls, four miles in circuit, have eleven gates. Within, its bazaars are
enlivened by the many varied costumes of the many different peoples who
come hither to trade. Karshi, south-east of the capital, is also a great
trading place ; and the main southern routes into Afghanistan cross the Oxus
at Karki to Maimana, and at Kilif into Balkh.

The mountainous pastoral district of Karaterjin, on the western slope of
the Pamir Steppe, formerly an independent territory, passed under the pro-
tection of the ruler of Bokhara at the time when Russia took possession of
Kokaj^.

Turkoman Territory.

4. The remainder of the independent zone, between the Oxus and the
northern frontier of Persia, reaching west to the Trans-Caspian province, is
occupied, for the most jiart, by the great waste called the Kara Kum, or

344 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

" black sands." Round the borders of this sandy desert live the Turkomans,
generall}' nomadic, hut occasionally occupying themselves with a little agri-
culture, on the banks of the streams which tlow down from the Persian and
Afghan highlands to be spent in the desert. They are Tatars, and own no
government ; are warlike and rude, menacing each traveller and caravan.
Their most powerful tribe is that called the Tekke, who occupy a number of
strongholds along the Persian frontier from Kizil Arvat to the ancient town
of Marv, in the oasis formed by the Murghab, which is the most important
centre of population in the Turkoman teiTitory.

PERSIA.!

1. Tlie kingdom oi Persia or Iran occupies the plateau lands which
rise between the Caspian and the Persian Gulf of the Indian Ocean.
It is separated eastward, from Afghanistan and Baluchistan, by an
artificial frontier drawn nortliward from the coast of the Indian
Ocean, past the Hamun swamp, to the river Hari-rud, which loses
itself in the sands of the Turkoman desert in the nortli ; and west-
ward, from Mesopotamia, by a line drawn from the Shat-el-Arab, or
the united water channel of the Euphrates and Tigris, at the head
of the Persian Gulf, northward, across the mountains of Kurdistan,
to Mount Ararat. In extent Persia measures nearly five times the
area of the British Isles ; but its population does not exceed that of
Ireland alone.

2. Relief and Landscape.— The only lowlands of Persia are the narrow
and arid belt of coast which skirts the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean in
the south, and that whicli lies along the southern margin of the Caspian,
which is covered with vegetation, and has a damp and relaxing climate.
Between these the plateau rises to a general elevation of 2000 to 3000 feet
above the sea, its northern margin, next the Caspiian, being marked out by the
range of the Elburz mountains, which culminate in the highest summit of the
country (Mount Damavand, volcano, 18,469 ft.), and its southern by the
parallel ranges of the Kohrud Mountains, and the chains of Kurdistan,
Farsistan, and Laristau, which run fi'om north-west to south-east on this side
of the plateau. These ranges have been as yet little explored ; some parts of
them rise perhaps to a greater general height than the Elburz range, and some
of their summits, seen from long distances, never lose their snowy caps. The
high plains which stretch out between the northern and southern mountain
ranges, occupying tlie interior of the plateau, are for the most part barren and
sandy wastes, scored and streaked with patches of green oases, cultivation
being only possible by artificial irrigation. The mountain valleys and ravines
are much more fertile, and afford bright and jjicturesque prospects.

3. Rivers and Lakes. — The rivers flowing down the outer slopes of the
plateau are few and of no value at all for navigation. The Kizil Uzen and
Atrek are the largest of those which flow to the Caspian from Persia ; the
Karun and Karkhah, the largest streams which flow down the south-\\Msteni
slopes to the Euphrates, in the Mesopotamian plain. The north-eastern
boundary river, the Hari-rud, coming from the mountains of Afghanistan,
loses itself in the desert sands almost as soon as it has descended from the
plateau. In the north-western corner of the country, between the mountain

1 Area, 636,000 square miles ; population, 7,000,000.

PERSIA. 345

called the Seliend Koh, wliich rises south of the to^vn of Tabriz, and the
mountains of Kurdistan, lies the high basin of the lake of Urumiah or Urmia,
the surface of which is nearly 4000 feet above the sea. It is nearly as exten-
sive as Lancashire, and its waters are so salt that no fish can live in them. The
large lakes of Niris and of Shiraz lie within the folds of the south-western
mountains of Farsistan ; and, on the eastern border, partly in Persia partly in
Baluchistan and Afghanistan, is the great expanse called the Hamuu, which
extends from north to south for a length of about 180 miles. This basin,
which appears to have been at one time covered, as a great lake or swamp,
by the water brought to it by the Halmand river from the mountains of
Afghanistan, is now a grass-covered level, defined in outline by clay-clifts and
reeds, a few pools of water appearing only at the mouths of the streams which
formerly filled it.

For irrigation the plains of central Persia are dependent on the uncertain
streams which flow down inward from the surrounding mountains, and
which are led off by " kanats" or underground canals, or by surface channels,
to water the fields. When rain or snow are deficient on the mountains, there
is a scarcity of water in the plains ; and, when both are wanting, a famine is
the result.

4. Climate. — The climate of Persia is of the excessive type, the tempera-
ture of the plateau region ranging from a few degrees above the zero point of
the thermometer to as high as 112° F. ; the prevailing winds there are, from
the north-west, the cooler dry wind ; and from the south-east, the rain-bearing
wind of Persia. What the younger Cyrus is reported to have said regarding
the climate, " that people perish with cold at one extremity while they are
suflbcated with heat at the other," is true of the country.

In the Dushtistan, as the lowland along the Persian Gulf is called, the
heat of autumn is excessive, winter and spring delightfully fresh, and the cold
never intense. In the arid region of the eastern interior of the plateau the
heat of summer is most oppressive ; the winter cold and piercing. The Caspian
.slope, and the lowland along its shores, on the contrary, have a warm rather
than hot summer and a mild winter, with frequent and heavy rains.

5. People and Religion. — The inhabitants of Persia are divisible into
two chief classes, the settled agriculturists, merchants, and artisans, and the
nomadic or pastoral tribes. Tlie former class is chiefly composed of the Taujiks,
the descendants of the ancient Persian race, with an admixture of Turkish,
Arab, Armenian, and other foreign blood. These, from being long a subject
race, have lost much of their independence of character, and are often servile
and cunning. To the nomadic or pastoral tribes belong the Turkomans of the
northern borders, the Kurds, Luurs, and Arabs of the south-west, each tribe
living under its hereditary chief. Besides these a number of separate com-
munities are to be found, such as that of the Nestorian ^ Christians of the
mountains of Kurdistan, at present a poor and illiterate people ; of Jews,
Gypsies, and of Negroes from the Zanzibar coast of Africa.

The greater part of the people of Persia are Mohammedans, and chiefly of
the Shiah sect, and their priesthood has many orders. Among the Shiahs a
pilgrimage to the shrine of the Imam Reza, at Mash-had, in the north-east of
Pei-sia, is more essential than one to Mecca or Medina. The chief exceptions
are the Armenians and Nestorian Christians before mentioned, and the few
Guebres or Parsees remaining in Karnian and Fars, and retaining their purity
of race and religious faith. As a rule, the rich and middle classes of Persia,
despite abilities, are sensuous and dissijjated, while the poorer classes have

1 Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, was deposerl liy tlie Council of Ephesus in
i31 A.D. His sect, repressed iu the Uumau empire, found shelter iu I'ersia.

346 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

barely sufficient sustenance. The famine of 1870 destroyed upwards of half a
million of lives. In comparison with other countries of Asia, education is
advanced among the upper classes of Persia. In the colleges Persian and
Arabian literature are studied, and the sciences, largely mixed with astrology,
are nominally taught.

6. Products, Trade, and Manufactures. — Where the diy soil of
Persia is supjilied with water by irrigation, it is exceedingly fertile ; the wheat
it yields is as fine as any in the world ; cotton, rice, sugar-cane, and tobacco,
are other large crops. The wines of Shiraz are celebrated in Eastern poetry ;
mulberries are extensively cultivated, and silk is an important product. With
the exception of salt from Lake Urmia, and the salt incrustations of the
desert shores of the plateau, the mineral products are insignificant ; yet the
beautiful turquoise stone is found in the Elburz mountains of Persia.

The horse and camel are the chief domestic animals, — the former larger
and handsomer, though less fleet, than that of Arabia, is celebrated as the
finest in the east. Immense herds of sheep and of goats, whose soft hair is
woven into fine fabrics, are pastured on the mountain slopes of the south-west.
Wild animals, among them the lion and leopard, wolves, tigers, cats, jackals,
and boars, are most numerous in the northern forests of the Elburz Caspian
slope. The rivers flowing to the Caspian are rich in fish, especially the stur-
geon, quantities of which are exported to Eussia.

The manufactures of Persia are famous, though limited in extent, and
include hand-made carpets, silk stuffs, shawls, fine arms, and sword cutlery.
Trade is of little importance, and is carried on by means of caravans which
come from the interior of Asia, and through the towns of Karman and Yezd,
Shiraz, and Isfahan, in the south ; and from the route by Mash-had and Sabza-
ivar from the east to Tehran, and thence to Tabriz, in the north-western
corner of the country, where the greater part of the exchanges of goods are
effected. Tabriz is the emporium for the productions not only of Persia, but
of northern India, Samarkand and Bokhara, Kabul and Baluchistan. Euro-
Ijean merchandise, chiefly cotton cloths, come by way of Constantinople and
Trebizond to Tabriz, to be distributed thence by the returning caravans over
the east. The trade- of the Cas^jian at the Persian port of Ayizuli (the port of
Easht and of Tehran), and Barfrush, and at their own naval and trading
station on the islet of Ashurada, in the south-east angle of the Caspian, is
monopolised by the Eussians. The maritime trade of the southern coast at
the ports of Bushire, and Gomhroon, or Bandar Abbas, on the Strait of
Hormuz, is carried on mainly by British vessels and Arab dhows.

Though the roads or tracks through Persia are utterly neglected, a system
of telegraph lines has recently been established by Europeans, and the first
jjostal service, also conducted by Europeans, was opened in January 1877.
By it mails are now carried from Julf'a, the Armenian suburb of Isfahan, to
Tehran, Tabriz, and the port of Easht on the Caspian.

7. Government. — The Government of Persia, like that of Turkey, is
based on the precepts of the Koran. The " Shah-in-Shah," or king of kings,
is absolute ruler, and master of the lives of his subjects, as far as his will is
not opposed to the accepted doctrines of Islam. He is regarded as the vice-
regent of the prophet.

Under him the government is carried on by a ministry in seven depart-
ments — the grand vizier being the chief member of the executive, and directing
the foreign policy of the government ; the provinces into which the country is
divided are placed each under a Beglerbeg, or civil and military governor,
usually a member of the royal family. The revenue of the districts within
the province are taken partly in kind, as rice, wheat, silk, etc., collected
by a Hakim or lieutenant-governor ; in the towns the citizens elect a Ket

ASIATIC TURKEY. 347

Khodah, or chief magistrate. An army of about 30,000 men is maintained ;
and a reserve force, three times as numerous, is allowed to engage in agricul-
ture and other pursuits.

Notwithstanding its ancient civilisation, and the contact of Europeans,
almost the same barbarism prevails in Persia as in other Mohammedan countries.
The oppressive taxation of the labouring classes, the insecurity of property,
internal disorders, and the closing in of Russian and British influence round it,
have destroyed the jjower of the kingdom. The army cannot even restrain the
marauding propensities of the wandering tribes within the Persian frontier.

8. Divisions and Chief Towns. — The divisions of tlie country are : —
The three Caspian provinces of Ghilan, Mazandaran, and Astrabad, in the
north ; Irak Ajemi, Kliorassan, and Seistan, in tlie central plains ; Adarbaijan,
Ardalan, Luristan, Khuzistan or Arabistan, Farsistan, and Karmon, extending
over the parallel mountain ranges of the west and south-west ; and Makran,
sloping to the coast of the Indian Ocean on the south. Tabriz, Kasvin, Isfa-
han, and Shiraz, have in turn been the capital cities of Persia. At present
Tehran, on a broad plain at the south-west base of Mount Daniavand, is the
seat of government. Black mud walls and ill-paved thoroughfares are the rule
in Persian towns, the windowed or terraced fronts of the houses being built
for the inner courts, not for the world without. Handsome mosques and solid
caravanserais there may be, but everything is irregular, and ruins and new
buildings are side by side, and dirt and discomfort everywhere.

About forty miles north-east of Sliiraz are tlie marvellous ruins of Perse-
polis, the ancient capital, once " tlie glory of the East," to the embellishment of
which Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes contributed; it was destroyed by Alex-
ander the Great in his march of conquest.

ASIATIC TURKEY.^

1. General Description. — This large territory, the whole
western extremity of Asia, is very irregular in contour and relief,
and may be compared in extent to about fourteen times the area of
England and Wales. It has a very long coast-line, being bounded
on the north by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, west by
the -^gsean and Mediterranean Seas, and the Red Sea, whilst its
south-eastern angle occupies a considerable portion of the shores of
the Persian Gulf. Its remaining boundaries on the east and south
are formed by the long ranges of mountains that serve to separate
it from Persia, and by the Syrian Desert, which gives a very inde-
finite limit to the empire in the direction of Central Arabia. The
chief jihysical divisions are Asia Minor, Armenia, and Kurdistan on
the noilh ; Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Syria and Palestine, the
Hejaz," and Yemen, on the south.'' These are the names in common
use amongst Europeans, but they are not officially recognised in the
country. This land, the early home of the human race, and the
scene of so many great events in the very dawn of history, has been
now for a long period slowly but surely falling to decay under a
weak and corrupt government.

1 Area, 720,000 square miles ; population, 16,150,000.
2 Hejaz = Land of pilgrimage, the Holy Land of Mohaniiuedans.

348 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

2. Islands. — The islands belonging to Turkey are cliiefly situated in tlie
^goean, and are collectively known as the Archipelago of the White Sea,
Jezireh Bahr-i-Sefid. The principal islands are Thasos, with a popuhition of
6000 souls ; like all the islands, cluefly Greek ; it has a barren soil, but the
liills are covered with fir timber. Samothrace, witli an area of about 30 square
miles, and a population of about 2000. Imbros, population 3000, noted for
its abundance of game. Lemnos, area 150 square miles, population 12,000,
exports corn, grapes, and figs. Tenedos, a small island close to Besika Bay,
and near the mouth of the Dardanelles, population 5000, exports a famous red
wine. Mitylcne, the birthplace of Barbarossa, population 60,000, fertile soil ;
olive groves clothe the shores, and pine forests the mountains. Chios, area
400 square miles, population 65,000, exports mastic, silk cocoons, olive oil,
and wine. Samos, a tributary beyship under a Christian Prince.' Icaria,
population 8000, chiefly charcoal-burners. Patmos, a barren island with a
population of 4000, famous as the place of St. John's banishment, and the
scene of the Apocalyptic vision. Cos, area 150 square miles, population
16,000, is a fertile and picturesque island, producing corn, oil, wine, and silk.
Rhodes, area 420 square miles, population 40,000 ; contains the chief town of
the vilayet of the islands, with a good port ; is healthy and fertile, and ex-
]>orts honey, wax, oil, figs, and grapes ; was the place of residence of the
order of the Knights of St. John. Here also stood the celebrated Colossus of
Rliodes. Cyprus, a rich and fertile island situated at the eastern end of the
Mediterranean, has an area of 3701 square miles, and a isopulation of 180,000,
two-thirds of whom are Christians and speak Greek. It is traversed by two
distinct mountain ranges, one parallel to the north coast, the other to the
south. From neglect, want of drainage and tillage, it is covered in many
places with fever-breeding marshes. It is historically famous for its copper and
other minerals, and contains many ruined towns. Nicosia, in the centre of the
island, is the capital. The other places worth naming are Larnaca and Limasol
on the south coast ; Pajjlio on the west, Kyrenia on the north, and Famagusta
on the east. It suffers from occasional drought, has no harbours, and, with,
great agricultural capabilities and mineral and forestal riches, has but little
commerce. Under the convention of 1878 it is administered by the British
Government.

3. Relief. — The surface may be readily divided into three
sections, the first on the north, including Asia Minor, Armenia, and
Kurdistan, being everywhere mountainous ; the second to the south,
including Mesopotamia, Babylonia, and part of Arabia, an almost
uninterrupted plain. The third, to the west, including Syria,
Palestine, the Hejaz, and Yemen, a long range of sea-bordering hills
and mountains.

The whole of the first section is one great plateau of varjing elevation,
buttressed north and south by considerable mountain ranges, and culminating
in the great peak of Ararat, 16,916 feet above sea-level. Rising from the
shores of the Black Sea, the long north range, clothed with forests of valuable
hard wood, commences on the east at an elevation of 9000 feet, and gradually
declines westward in average elevation to 3000 feet, but rises in peaks south
of the sea of Marmara to 5941 (Mount Olympus) and 5393 feet (Mount Ida).
Towards the ^Egrean coast the plateau has been very much broken into by the
rivers which enter this sea, but spurs run out to the coast in steep bluffs of

1 See page 355.

ASIATIC TURKEY. 349

2000 and 3000 feet. On the south the Taurus range may he said to terminate
in a blutt' headland at the south-western extremity of the peninsula. Rising
almost immediately to a height of 5695 feet in the Baba Dagh, it serves as the
waterixarting for the south coast drainage as far east as the meridian of Tarsus ;
separating the short streams that fall into the Mediterranean from the conti-
nental or lake drainage of the plateau, and reaching in the Bulghar Dagh a
height of 11,390 feet. Here it throws off the range of the Anti-Taurus to
the north-east, and here also is found the famous pass called now Gulek
Boghaz, the Cilician Oates of ancient history. From this point its continuation
eastward appears to be very much broken and interrupted until it reaches the
Akhyr Dagh north of Marash, when it again resumes its character as a great
rauge, and reaches the Euphrates at the great bend south-west of Kharput.
South of Marash the twin chain of Amanus runs off to the south-west, and
under the names of Durdun Dagh and Alma Dagh (Cilician and Syrian
Amanus), embraces the plain and gulf of Iskenderun (Issus). The SjTian
branch, reaching the Nahr-el-Ahsy (Orontes) at Antioch, becomes the northern
head of the sea-bordering ranges wliich forms our third section. Crossing the
Euphrates, and proceeding eastwards under the local names of Alindshi Dagh,
Khandush Dagh, and Erdosh Dagh, the prolongation of the Taurus range
forms the waterparting between the Murad-chai, and the streams feeding Lake
Van and the upjier Tigris, and reaches the ridge, which forms this part of the
Turco-Persian boundary, near the recently ceded valley of Kotur. Starting
from the knot of mountains which occupies the great bend of the Euphrates
in E. long. 39°, and running in a south-easterly direction, the ridge of Karajah
Dagh (Mons Masius) separates tlie tributaries of the upper Tigris from those
of the Khabur ; at Mardin this range bends a little more easterly, and under
the name of Jebel Tur reaches the Tigris about 70 miles above Mosul. Cross-
ing the river, and stdl proceeding in the same easterly direction, it ultimately
reaches the boundary range at the peak of Rowandiz, 10,120 feet.

Between this latter range and the eastern prolongation of the Taurus
Mountains south of Lake Van, lie the range of Jebel Judi, and the confused
mass of the mountains of Julamerik in the centre of the Kurdish country, the
home country of the Carduchi of Xenophon.

The Anti-Taurus, leaving the main range as already mentioned near the
Cilician Gates, forms the waterparting between the Kizil Innak and the
Euphrates as far as Eghin, where it crosses the latter river and becomes the
southern limit of the plains of Erzingian and Erzrum, culminating in the
Bingol Dagh 11,550 feet. Thence under the names of Kasbel Dagh, Sherian
Dagh, and Aghri Dagh, it reaches and forms part of the new boundary with
Russia, and then joins the Persian boundary on Mount Ararat.^

Tlie whole of the plateau of Asia Minor bears evidence of volcanic action,
but the south-western portion is covered with volcanic cones, and it is here that
we find lakes of salt and brackislr water with no outlet to the sea, surrounded
by marshes more or less salt, and abounding in traces of volcanic action.

The second section comprises the plains of Mesopotanua, Babylonia,
and part of Arabia, which appear to rise gradually from the sea-level in the
Euphrates valley, to a height of over 2000 feet on their western edge. The
only hills worthy of mention in this great pastoral country are those which,
running in a continuous line in a south-west and north-east direction, bisect
the great plain. Commencing in the Anti-Lebanon Range at Jebel-esh-Sheikh
(Mount Hermon), and passing just northward of Palmyra, they are locally

1 At the western extremity of the Anti-Taurus Range stands the loftiest peak of
the peninsula of Asia Minor, tlie great conical Arjish Dagh or Argivus, an exhausted
volcano, 12,600 feet (Chihachef; 13,100 according to Tozer) ; on tlie north and north-
east slopes are extensive glaciers.

350 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

known as Jebel Ruak, Jebel Amur, Jebel Bisshari, JeLel Abdularis, and Jebel
Siujar ; under tlie last name the Tigris at Mosul is reached, and tlie direction
and character of the range changes. Turning south-eastwards it now becomes
the skirt of the mountain country, and reaches the boundary range under the
name of Kara Dagh. South of the Kara Dagh, the Hamrin Hills connect the
boundary range, Pusht-i-Koh, with the Tigris above Tekrit, but they are of
mean elevation and are unimportant.

The third section consists of two longitudinal belts, one with a slight
westerly trend bordering the Mediterranean, and the other with an easterly
trend bordering the Red Sea. Commencing on the north at Antioch, where
our first section terminates, we find the Jebel Nusarieh rising abruptly and
presenting a bold front to the sea, sinking at the entering in of Hamath, near
Horns on the Nahr el Ahsy, but rising again immediately in Mount Lebanon
to more than 10,000 feet ; after crossing the Nahr el Kasimiyeh (Leontes),
and leaving a deep chasm where the waters break through to the sea, the
rounded hills and little ridges of Galilee carry on the mountainous belt to the
Merj-ibn-Amir or plain of the Kishon ; this plain rises very little above sea-
level, and aflbrds easy access to the country behind. South of this plain is
Jebel Kurniul (Carmel), and with slight interruption tlie mountains of
Ephraim and the plateau-like hill country of Judaea lead on to Jebel Mugrah,
at the end of this mountainous belt, where it descends abruptly into the desert
of Et Tih. At the eastern base of this irregular mountain mass, and sepa-
rating it from the western edge of the great Arabian plain, lies the remarkable
depression of the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea — a physical curiosity perfectly
unique, the surface level of the waters being 1292 feet below the level of the
Mediterranean. This longitudinal valley is continued north by the valley of
the Nahr el Ahsy, and south by the broad Wady el Arabah, which rises with
a gentle ascent to the eastern arm of the Red Sea at Akabah. East of this
long depression lies, in the north the Anti-Libanus, culminating in Jebel esh
Sheikh (Mount Hermon) 9383 feet, and in the south the Jebel esh Sherah,
culminating in Jebel Harun (Mount Hor) 4000 feet. Between these extremi-
ties there are no very distinct ranges, the mountains of Gilead and Moab end
in steep precipices on the edge of the Jordan Valley, and the volcanic group
of Jebel Hauran, and the peculiar basaltic tract of El Lejah, stand out con-
spicuously from the great plain.

The mountains which border the eastern shore of the Red Sea are of much
greater elevation than the portion of the longitudinal belt just described.
Near Medina, on the parallel of 25°, Jebel Shomer leaves the coast range at
a right angle, and runs across the peninsula of Arabia forming the northern
boundary of Nejd or the Highland ; near Mecca, on the parallel of 21°, the
coast range appears to culminate in a point said to be nearly 14,000 feet
high, and here the Aared or Tamarieh Mountains, running across the penin-
sula parallel to Jebel Shomer, pass south of Er Riad, and form the southern
boundary of the Nejd. Throughout Yemen the range averages 6000 feet, but
little is definitely known. Probably there are many points of great elevation
in this division.

4. Rivers. — The most important rivers of Turkey in Asia are the Eu-
phrates and Tigris, the former being navigable for river steamers for 1100 miles,
and the latter for more than 600 miles. The Euphrates, "the great river,"
is formed by the junction of two streams, the Kara Su ^ or Frat and the
Murad Chai.^ The first rises amongst the mountains of Armenia, in the
plateau of Erzrum ; the latter in the high valley of Alashkert, near Bayazid.
After the union of these waters the great river breaks through the Taurus

1 Su, Chai, and Irmak = river.

ASIATIC TURKEY. 351

chain, and descends by a deep and perilously navigable defile to Birejik.
Hence it flows through an alluvial valley, cultivated in a few j)laces as far as
Ana ; from this point to Hit there is no cultivation, but here the corn country —
the only country in the world where corn is indigenous — is entered, which
continues all the way to the Shat el Arab. The only tributary of any import-
ance is the Khabur, which falls in on the left bank after a course of nearly
200 miles. The whole length of this great river, to its junction with the
Tigris at Kuruah, is 1600 miles.

The Tigris rises on the southern side of the Taurus chain near Kharput,
and crossing the plateau of Diarbekr and bursting through the mountain
barrier that supports that plateau on the south, enters the plain a few miles
south of Mosul. It approaches to within twenty miles of the Euphrates at
Bagdad, and after making a wide sweep to the east joins that river at
Kurnah, and the united rivers — under the name of Shat el Arab — flow for
120 miles in a broad full stream, with fiat marshy banks, to the Persian Gulf
at Fao.

The principal tributaries of the Tigi-is fall in on the left bank. They are
the Sert, the Greater and Lesser Zab, and the Di3'aleh. Rising on the flanks
of the Zagros Mountains, they drain the whole of Turkish Kurdistan.

The head waters of the Aras (Araxes), a tributary of the Caspian Sea, come
within Turkish territory ; rising in the Bingol Dagh south of Erzrum, it passes
through the portion of Armenia recently ceded to Russia, and for great part of
its course serves as the boimdary between Russia and Persia. Of the rivers form-
ing the Turkish portion of the Black Sea basin, the most easterly is the Chomk
Su, which rises in the hills to the south-east of Baiburt, and falls into the sea
near Batum ; its lower course is through that part of Lazistan which
has been transferred to Russia by the Berlin Treaty. West of Trebizond is
the Korshut Su, whieli, rising on the plateau of Guniush Khana, falls into the
sea near Tireboli. The Kizil Irmak (Halys) and the Yeshil Irmak (Iris), the
largest rivers of the peninsula of Asia Minor, both rise in the Gemin-Beli-
Dagh at the northern extremity of the Anti-Taurus range. The Kizil, after a
winding course of about 700 miles through picturesque valleys, breaks through
the defile of Kara Tepe, and enters the sea by a deltoid mouth. The Yeshil
has a much straighter east and west course, but turns abruptly north to de-
scend the maritime slope, and, forming a delta at its mouth, enters the sea by
several channels. The next stream is the Soghanly Su, which falls into the
sea east of Eregli. Then comes the Sakaria (Sangarius), a fine stream with
its source in the uplands of Angora. It is formed by the union of the Engiir
Su with the Said Chai. It has a tortuous course of 300 miles, and enters the
sea forty miles west of Eregli.

The streams flowing into the Sea of Marmara are the Adyrnus, the Sukurlu,
and the Khoja Chai (Granicus). The tributaries to tlie ^gsan are numerous
and of great historical interest. Just south of the Dardanelles and north of
Besika Bay is the Mendere Su — the famous Scamander — which rises in Mount
Ida and flows through the plain of Troy. The Gediz or Sarabat Chai (Hermus)
has a length of about 200 miles ; traversing first a dreary volcanic region,
it runs through the pleasant fertile valley of Kassaba, and falls into the Bay
of Smyrna. The Kutchuk ^ Mendere (Cayster) rises in the Boz Dagh (Tmolus),
has a length of seventy miles, and i)assiug through a splendid valley it enters
the sea near the ruins of Ephesus. The Buyuk - Mendere rises near the group
of brackish lakes that occupies tlie south-western portion of the plateau, and
after a course of nearly 250 miles waters the fine plain of Aidin, and falls
into the sea near the ancient port of Miletus. All these rivers bring down

1 Kutchuk = little. 2 Buyuk = great.

352 THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

large quantities of silt, and the ancient ports at their mouths are now choked
up, and, in some cases, lie miles behind the present coast-line.

The rivers that fall into the Mediterranean from the southern slopes of the
Taurus are numerous, hut not important. The Gijk Su (Calycadnus) has a
course of more than 100 nnles, and enters the sea in the Gulf of Tarsus. The
Sihun Chai (Carus) and Jihun (Pyramus) both rise on the Hanks of the Anti-
Taurus and run through the Taurus range in deep and precijiitous channels,
afterwards meandering through a perfect sea of verdure, in the rich alluvial
plain of Adana, they enter the sea between Tarsus and Iskenderun.

The rivers draining into the Eastern Mediterranean are the Nahr-el-Ahsy
(Orontes) and Nahr-el-Litany (Leontes), which rise in the splendid upland vale
of El Bukaa (Coele Syria), and run in opposite directions at the back of the
Lebanon range. The former passes through Antioch, and falls into the sea
near its port of Suedia (Seleucia) ; the latter reaches the sea, through a chasm
in the range, near Sur (Tyre). The only other river of importance here is the
Jordan, which, rising in several springs on the flanks of Mount Hermon, and
passing through the lakes Bahr^-el-Huleh (Merom) and Bahr Tubariyeh (Gen-
nesareth), plunges down through the great depression called El Ghor in a
tortuous course of nearly 200 miles, and ends in the Bahr Lvit (Dead Sea).
The Abana and Pharjjar, the rivers of Damascus, deserve mention in this
connection. Rising on the slopes of Anti-Libanus and Hermon, they flow
dovvTi and irrigate by innumerable artificial channels the rich and fertile plain,
producing a verdant paradise of fruit and flowers around that Old World
city.

The Turkish provinces, Hejaz and Yemen, on the eastern shores of the
Red Sea, are destitute of rivers. The coast is bordered by a barren sandy
plain of varying width, called the " Tehamah " or " low country."

5. Lakes. — Lake Van, the largest, has an extreme length of 80 miles by
a breadth of 30 miles, and lies in a hollow in the mountains at an altitude of
more than 5000 feet above sea-level. It has no outlet and few tributaries, its
waters are salt but clear and blue like the sea, it contains shoals of fish and
abounds with waterfowl, ice forms on its surface in winter, but it has a delight-
ful climate. It is navigated by barges of rude construction. Tuz GiJl,^ the
largest of the group of salt lakes on the plateau of Asia Minor, is 45 miles
long by 10 broad, with extensive salt marshes on its western edge. Beishehr
Gol about 20 miles long by 5 broad, the twin lake of Egerdir about 30 miles
by 6, and the Buldur 17 miles by 4, are the principal lakes of a picturesque
group that occupies the south-western edge of the plateau. Lake Isnik
(Ascania), on whose shores the arbutus grows luxuriantly, and the lakes of
Manias and Abullonia, lie just south of the Sea of Marmara. Bahr Tubariyeh
(Galilee or Tiberias), a basin of volcanic origin, lies at the head of the Jordan
Valley, is 13 miles long by 7h broad, and 653 feet below the level of the
Mediterranean. Bahr Lut (Dead Sea), the most remarkable sheet of water in
the Old World, is hemmed in by cliffs 1500 and 2000 feet in height, rising
almost perpendicularly from its shores. It is 1292 feet below the Mediter-
ranean, the deepest lake-basin in the world, is 46 miles long by 9| broad,
receives several considerable tributaries, but has no outlet ; is intensely salt
and contains springs of bitumen, for which reason it was named Lacus
Asphaltites. The water is nauseous to the taste and smell, and so buoyant that
the human body will not sink in it. Sulphur and rock salt, lava and pumice
abound along its shores, and its aspect is dead, barren, and desolate. Bahr
Nedjef is a large fresh- water sea, situated about 20 miles from the right bank
of the Euphrates, south of Hillah, is 40 miles long by about 10 broad, and is

1 Bahr = lake or sea. - Gol — lake.

ASIATIC TUEKEY. 353

surrounded by red sandstone cliffs. On its banks stauds' Meshed Ali, one of
the holy cities of the Sliiah sect of Mohammedans.

6. Climate. — The climate of Turkey in Asia is as varied as the physical
features. The great plateau on the north has a distinctly coutineutal climate,
rigorous severe winters with intense scorching heat in summer ; iu the
eastern part of the plateau region the mountains are covered with snow for
two-thirds of the year, and some of the principal ranges are capped with per-
petual snow ; here the peasants build their dwellings underground to escape
the severity of the seasons. Towards the west the winters are not quite so
severe, but the variations of temperature are excessive. The valleys and
plains in the whole of this high region are generally very fertile, producing
fruits in abundance, the olive, mulberry, and other trees, and the vine. The
northern slopes facing the Black Sea are humid, enjoying more or less rain all
through the year ; they are covered with forests of ash, elm, poplar, larch, beech,
box, and pine, or are cultivated wherever a patch of level ground is to be
found. The valleys which open out into the iEgseau Sea are exceedingly fertile
and have a genial climate ; the summers are hot, and severe cold is occasionally
felt when the winds blow down from the plateau through the valleys. The
rains on the southern slopes facing the Mediterranean fall only iu winter and
spring, and this coast during great part of the year is excessively hot ; the hills
are covered with virgin forests, and the coast plains at the eastern end firoduce
oranges, lemons, grapes, cotton, corn, and an endless variety of flowers. The
slopes from this mountain region that face the great Mesopotamian plain have
a less rigorous climate ; the summers are, however, hot and sultry, aud violent
storms of wind and snow frequently sweep down from the plateau. The great
I)lains are scorched aud bare in summer, but the winters are mild, and over the
greater part of the desert, which is broken up by oases and possesses a salubrious
climate, there are many pools of rain-water, even although there are no
streams, and pasturage for camels and sheep is found over large areas. The desert
wind called Samiel ^ blows outward in all directions in the summer mouths.
The peculiar disease called " Bagdad date-mark " and " Aleppo button " is
common to all the cities on the borders of the desert ; it attacks visitors and
residents alike, and lasts a period of twelve months, but does not appear to be
dangerous. Truffles are found plentifully in the sands of the western desert.
Along the Syrian shore of the Mediterranean the winters are mild and the
summers oppressive. Along the higher slopes, especially in the Lebanon, where
some of the hills rise above the snow-line, the ^'/inters are bracing and the
summers mild and balmy; there are two rainy seasons, "the former and the
latter rains." Towards the desert the country is parched and all vegetation
scorched up by the intense dry summer heat. On the Red Sea coast the
Tehamah or coast plain is hot, dry, and barren, except towards the south,
where it is reached by summer rains and affords good pasturage. The Jebel or
mountain region is cooler and well watered, producing an abundant vegetation.
7. People and Religion. — The country is very thinly peopled, there
being only about twenty-two souls to a s([uare mile of surface. Of the total
population of about 16,000,000 less than one-half are of Turkish or Tatar
origin, and probably not one-fourth are of real Ottoman blood. Neaily
5,000,000 of the Tatar peoples are settled iu Asia Minor, about 1,000,000
in Armenia and Kurdistan, probably 500,000 in Mesopotamia and Babylonia,
and another 500,000 in Syria, Palestine, the Ilejaz, and Yemen. The
agricultural Turks are moral and temperate, and physically a fine race, but
the official Turks are debased and corrupt. The Armenians, about
800,000, are chiefly settled in the plateau country round Lake Van, but as

1 Samiel = poison wind.

354 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

the bankers and usurers of the empire they are to be found in considerable
numbers in all the cities and towns. The Kurds, the ancient Carduchi,
famous horsemen, are still wild and warlike ; they are a pastoral people,
occupjing the mountain valleys and glens on the Turco-Persiaii frontier south
of Lake Van ; they number about 1,600,000, and are a terror to their more
peaceful neighbours. The Arabs, the old Semitic people, number more than
5,000,000, and still wander with their countless flocks of sheep and camels
over the great plain as they have done since the dawn of history. They are
great traders in horses and in wool, and are but nominally under the Turkish
Government, recognising only the authority of their sheikhs. The Greeks
chiefly occupy the islands of the Archipelago and the towns on the Asiatic
shores of the iEgsean, but as merchants and handicraftsmen they are to be
found scattered all over Asia Minor; they number about 1,000,000, and are
the best educated and most civilised of all the races in the empire. There
are some' 30,000 Circassians, rough and fierce mountaineers, distributed in
small settlements throughoiit Asia Minor and Armenia, immigrants from the
Caucasus, who preferred Turkish rule to Russian. These, together with a few
Lazis on the Black Sea coast, and some 200,000 Jews, Gypsies, and Negroes,
scattered over the country, complete the motley group of antagonistic races
that constitute this decaying empire.

The dominant religion is Mohammedanism of the Sunnite sect ; some
13,000,000 of the population profess this religion, but less than one-half
of these are Turks ; about 3,000,000 are nominally Christians, including
Greeks, Armenians, Europeans, and (about 500,000) Syrians. The members
of the various Christian sects, Greek and Latin, Catholic and Protestant, are
as adverse to each other as to the Mohammedan, and all help in their several
ways to prevent the fusion of the peoples into a nation.

8. Products. — The mineral wealth is great ; coal and ironstone are found
together in considerable quantities ; rich mines of copper exist in the moun-
tains on the south of the Black Sea, and in the Taurus near Diarbekr lead
and silver is found at intervals along a line connecting Angora, Sivas, and
Trebizond, in the north, and in the eastern Taurus in the south ; gi-een, black,
and white marble, and the finest quality of granite is to be had in many parts
of the mountain section. With a fertile arable soil and a suitable climate,
nearly every agricultural product flourishes. Oats, barley, and wheat
are produced in great abundance. Almost all kinds of garden produce
and orchard fruits abound, grajjes and oranges are to be had all round the
Mediterranean coast, as well as the choicest tobacco, opium, valonea and
madder. The mulberry is everywhere cultivated for feeding the silkworms,
and cotton is grown in most of the western valleys. Vast groves of boxwood
and other valuable trees clothe the seaward slopes of the hills. Dates are
produced for export in the Babylonian plain, where wheat is indigenous.
Petroleum and bitumen springs are found in the Euphrates Valley. Angora
is famous for its flocks of goats, which produce the mohair of commerce, and
enormous quantities of wool come from the countless flocks of sheep tended
by the wandering Bedouin and Kurd sliepherds. There are at present no
manufactures worth mention. One industry, however, should not be omitted,
the sponge fisheries of the Mediterranean, which are a source of great wealth.
There are no roads worthy the name throughout the country, and this renders
transport so difllcult, and the cost so high, that, except near the sea and the
great waterways, the industries are stifled, and there is little or no commerce.
There are three lines of railway, but they are comparatively short and unim-
portant, situated close to the western shores of Anatolia.

9. Divisions and Chief Towns. — Turkey in Asia is divided into twenty-
two provinces, nineteen being first-class pashaliks or vilayets, and three second

AEABIA.

355

class pashaliks or mutessarifliks ; they are sulxlivided according to their size
into from two to seven counties or sanjaks, which are again subdivided into
districts or kazas. The f(jllowing is a hst of the vilayets and mutessarifliks,
with the names and population of their cliief towns : —

Vilayets.

Chief ToATOs.

Vilayets.

Chief Towns.

Khudavendi

Ma'mret el

giar .

. Brusa (60,000), Kuta-

Aziz- .

Arabkir, Kharput.

hia (60,000).

Diarbekr

Diarbekr (11,000), Ma-

Aidin

Smyrna (150,000), Ma-

latia.

nissa (60,000), Aidin.

Bagdad .

Bagdad (67,000).

Jezireh Bahr

Basra

Basra (40,000).

i-Sefidi

Rhodes (15,000).

Mosul

Mosul (75,000).

Kastamuni

Kastamuni (40,000),

Aleppo (Ha-

Sinope.

leb) . .

Aleppo (75,000), Mer-

Angora . .

Angora (40,000), Kai-

ash, Urfa.

sarieh.

Syria . .

Damascus (150,000),

Konia

Konia (.30,000), Adalia.

Beirut (80,000), Ha-

Adaua .

Adaua (25,000).

ma, Akka (Acre), Ta-

Sivas . .

Sivas (15,000), Ama-

rabulus (Tripoli), La-

sia, Divi-iki.

takieli.

Trebizond .

Trebizond (50,000),

Lebanon-

Deir-el-Kamr (2,700).

Samsun.

Jerusalem 2

Jerusalem (16,000).

Erzrum . .

Erzrum (55,000), Er-

Hejaz^ .

Mecca (30,000), Me-

zinjan, Bavezid.

dina.

Van . .

Van (15,000), Mush.

Yemen .

Sana (15,000).

Ismid, locally situated in Asia Minor, is a sanjak of the special vilayet of
Constantinople.

Samos, an island of the Archipelago, is by the Convention of 1828-9
autonomous under a Christian prince paying tribute to the Porte. It has an
area of 212 square miles, and a population of 35,000 Greeks, and is one of the
most fertile of the whole grouj:); it exports corn, grapes, oil, valonea, and mus-
catel wiue.

Cyprus, under the Convention of 1878, is administered by the British
Government. (See p. 348. )

The principal ports of Asiatic Turkey are Trebizond and Sinope on the
Black Sea, Smyrna on the ^goean, Mersina and Alexandretta on tlie Gulf of
Iskanderun ; Beyrut, a prosperous town, the port of Damascus, at the head
of the only good road in the country ; Jafl'a, the port of Jerusalem, Jedda and
Hodeida on the Red Sea coast ; and Basra on the Shat el Aral), at the outlet
of the great water-highways that thread the vast plains of Bal)ylonia and
Mesopotamia. Within the limits of Asiatic Turkey are situated the holy
cities of Jew, Christian, and Mohammedan — Jerusalem, containing the site of
the Jewish temple and of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ ; Mecca, the birth-
place of Mohammed ; and Medina, llie place of his death.

AEABIA.

1. General Description. — The peninsula of Arabia ia
bounded west by the lied Sea, east by the Persian Gulf, south by

1 Islands of the White Sea= the Archipelago.
2 These are the mutessarifliks. By an iuternatioual arrangement the Lebanon is
administered by a Christian governor.

3 The Hejaz is also called the principality of Mecca.

356 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY,

the Arabian Sea, and north by the great Syro-Babylonian plain. That
part of Arabia which is at present independent of Turkey embraces
all the interior and the south and east coasts, between the Bahrein
Islands and Aden. About two-thirds of this area consists of cultivable
land, and one-third of irreclaimable desert. It is divisible politi-
cally into three sections — Nejd in the north, Oman in the south-
east, and Hadramaut in the south. The northern Sultanate of
Nejd is bounded on all sides by a strip of desert of varying width
and sterility, but always interrupted at intervals by oases or slight
depressions in its generally uniform surface, where a well or spring,
surrounded by a few herbs and bushes, a little grass, and occasion-
ally date-palms, enables the Bedwin to find the needful supply of
fodder for his camels, and to lead the caravans of merchants or
pilgrims across the trackless waste. The northern desert, or
Nefud,^ extends from the oasis of Teyma, on the borders of the
Turkish province of Hejaz, across by the oasis of Jauf, to the
border of El Hasa, on the Persian Gulf : it is stony and gravelly,
but mixed witli reddish sand, which is heaped into ridges from 200
to 300 feet high, like a sea of red-hot waves. It is absolutely bare,
save in the spring of the year, when it is thinly sprinkled with
grass and herbs. In some parts a small herbaceous plant, called
samh, grows wild, which produces a reddish farinaceous seed, and
yields the Bedwin his staple food supply. Over this desert the
simoom^ blows during the summer heats at uncertain intervals.
There is no sand or dust in the atmosphere during the short
period that the wdnd lasts ; but the whole horizon becomes dark, as
the stifling blast, with the heat as of red-hot iron, passes over. To
the west, along the borders of Hejaz, the desert is yet more irregular,
and presses in towards the central highland between the mountain
ridges in long finger-like projections : it cuts off the maritime j)ro-
vinces from all political influence with Nejd. The Duhna^ bounds
the settled country to the east and south, and is the main sand
waste of Arabia ; between Nejd and the Persian Gulf it has been
several times crossed by European travellers ; but towards the
south it appears to be untracked ; an impenetrable waste of loose
reddish sand, without water or vegetation of any kind, extending
south of the tropic line for a distance of 300 or 400 miles. These
deserts lie on a plateau of some 1000 feet altitude, and are
surrounded by a girdle of mountains which rise on the eastern
side to an average height of 1400 feet, and on the western side to
considerably greater elevations. In the northern desert lies the
remarkable oasis of Jauf, some 60 miles long by 10 or 12 broad,
containing numerous villages. Each house stands in its own orchard,
1 Nefud = sand-passes. 2 Simoom = poison blast. 3 Dahua = red desert.

ARABIA. 357

wliere the fig and tlie vine, the apricot and peach, and the choicest
dates are cultivated, and where the fruits are not surpassed by the
famous gardens of Damascus. It has a good dry climate, and
healthy and vigorous inhabitants. The NejcV is the central plateau,
and is a compact, settled district, bounded by ridges of hard rocks,
and culminating in a crescent-shaped mountain range, called Jebel
Toweyk," the backbone of Central Arabia north of the tropic. This
mountain has a mean elevation of 3000 feet, with peaks of superior
height, is composed chiefly of chalk, but has a few granite crests on
its south-eastern edge, where iron ore is abundant. It is cut up by
a perfect maze of valleys, which become roaring torrents during the
rains, but are dry at all other times ; but everywhere, at all seasons,
water is to be obtained at a depth of twelve to fifteen feet beneath
the smiace. In these valleys the people plant their towns and
villages, for the shade and vegetation they afford. North of Nejd,
and separated from it by a narrow arm of the Xefud about twenty
miles broad, lies the secondary plateau of Jebel Simmer ; two ranges
of mountains, Jebel Aja and Jebel Selma, cross this plateau in a
S.W. to N.E. direction. Jebel Aja, composed largely of granite, is
the northern rim of the whole table-land, and is probably almost as
high as Jebel Toweyk to the south.

Nejd and Shamer have a dry, bracing atmosphere and healthy
climate. The southern part of Nejd, near the tropic, is less salu-
brious, but is the more fertile, being damper and hotter. Dates of
excellent quality and of several varieties are here produced in
abundance, and are the main source of landed Arab wealth. Corn,
maize, millet, melons, pomegranates, and peaches, grapes, figs,
oranges, and citrons are also grown. A little cotton is cultivated,
and lentils in the south. Eock salt is found in the west. Camels
and sheep, horses, and humped oxen are numerous. Wild boars,
gazelles, partridges, quails, and pigeons are also to be found. The
celebrated Arabian horses are tended with the greatest care, and
none of the best breeds are allowed to leave the country. Oman, at
the extreme south-eastern end of the peninsula, is a country about as
large as England and Wales. It is filled with a plateau-like group
of mountains, the dominating feature being a range called Jebel
Akhdar,^ which stretches from Ras Mesandum on the north, to Ras
el Hadd on the south. This mountain gives rise to numercnis small
streams on its seaward slope, which run at intervals underground, and
almost all of them disappear entirely before reaching the coast. Oman
is the richest district of Arabia, both in agricultural products and in
mineral treasures. Along the seaboard there are two seasons, each

1 Nejd = up country, or hill country.
2 Jebel Toweyk = the twisted mountain. 3 Jebel Aklidar = green mountain. ,

358 THE LONDON GEOGKAPIIY.

lasting about six months. The hot season is most oppressive, the
land becomes scorched, and the towns like ovens. During the rainy
season the N.W. monsoon blows with great force. On the hills it
is comparatively cool all the year round. The chief products are
coco-nuts, dates, mangoes, corn, maize, coffee, sugar-cane, apricots
and peaches, cotton and indigo. Lead and copper are mined ; but
skill and energy and good government are wanting to develop the
mineral resources of the country. Hadramaut is a country of which
very little is now known ; it was once famous for frankincense and
myrrh : it occupies the shores of the Arabian Sea from Oman on
the east to Yemen on the west, and consists apparently of a con-
fused mass of hills, composed of limestone, sandstone, slate, quartz,
and gneiss, culminating in heights of 6000 feet within 100 miles of
the coast. Beyond this there appear to be extensive plains sloping
down inland to the great desert. It is occupied by independent
Bedwin chiefs ; produces wheat and barle}^, dates and lemons,
sheeji, goats, and camels. Its chief port is Makalla. The chief
islands round the coast are, the Bahr el Benat, formerly known as
the East India Company's Islands, lying off the north or Pirate
coast. The Kurian Miirian Islands, lying off the south coast, barren
and rocky, belong to the British Government. Perim Island, a for-
tified rock which commands the entrance to the Red Sea, is also
British.

2. People and Religion. — Tlie people of central Arabia may be divided
into two classes — the Arabs, or settled inhabitants of the towns and villages,
and the Bedwins, or wanderers, occupying the open pastures of the great
Arabian plain and the numerous small oases in the desert. The genuine
Arab is nature's gentleman, noble and handsome, of well-developed stature
and healthy complexion, and is distinguished by a great respect for authority
and love of commercial enter2>rise. He is by birth and education a Moham-
medan of the severest type ; but scei^ticism and unbelief are as rife here as
in Christian countries, although not openly professed. The Bedwin, although
of the same race, has descended to the lowest depth of moral and mental
degradation; he is the same wild herdsman that he was 2000 years ago.
He ajipears to be naturally and by inheritance a sun-worshipper, but for
convenience he adopts Mohammedanism, and in the neighbourhood of the
settlements conforms outwardly to its laws. Negroes are numerous,
both slave and free, all over Arabia, but in Nejd especially they form a con-
siderable portion of the town population. There are about 1,000,000 settled
inhabitants and 75,000 nomades in Nejd and its dependencies ; whilst Jebel
Shamer has about 274,000 settled inhabitants and 166,000 nomades. The
language of the settled inhabitants of these central districts' is the jaure and
elegant Arabic of the Koran.

The inhabitants of Oman are very mixed, consisting of Arabs, Banians,
Baluchis, Negroes, Abyssinians, Somalis, and Persians. They number about
1,750,000, and are tolerant in religious matters ; the majority outwardly
profess Mohammedanism.

1 Jebel Shamer is at present (1880) independent of Nejd.

ARABIA.. 359

3. Governments, Divisions, and Chief Towns.— The sultanate of
Nejtl (and its subordinate sultanate of Jebel Slionier ^} eniLraces all the settled
part of central Arabia, and commands the greater part of the Bedwin tribes.
The form of government i.s a well-organised despotism ; the Sultan and
his ministers are of the Wahabi sect. This sect, named from its founder,
seeks to retain the Islamism of the Koran to the letter ; and tlie result is, as
usual, intolerance, aggression, fanaticism, and espionage, which hinders all
social progress and clips the wings of commerce. There are nine province,
in Nejd and five in Shomer. Riadh, the capital city (lat. 24° 38' 34" N.,
long. 46° 41' 48" E. ), contains a population of about 30,000, and has a Jamia,
or house of prayer, capable of holding 4000 peoj^le ; it is surrounded by
strong walls in good repair, about 30 feet high, and defended by a trench
and embankment. It stands in the midst of fruit gardens. Hayel, the chief
town of Jebel Shamer, is surrounded by a wall about 20 feet high, with
bastion towers and large folding gates at intervals ; it contains a population
of 20,000, and many large gardens and open spaces, together with an immense
palace and pleasure-grounds, are included within the walls. It has a large
trade in horses and camels, and is a station on the Persian Haj or pilgrim
route between Bagdad and Mecca. The other towns of importance are
'Eyoon, Toweym, Bereydah, Oneyzah, and Teynia.

Oman is divided into eight provinces, each enjoying almost the indepen-
dence of a tributary state ; the central government is weak. The chief towns
are Mascat, the capital, a large and tolerably clean commercial city, with a
population of 40,000, surrounded by old Portuguese fortifications, with a small
but good harbour, open, however, to the fury of the N.W. monsoon. Matrah,
three miles north-west, and almost a suburb now of Mascat, has also a good
harbour, and a population of about 30,000. Barka, Sohar, and Sharja are
seaport towns, with harbours and considerable trade ; Nezwah and Bereymah
are important inland towns.

Aden, on the north coast of the gulf of that name, between Yemen and
Hadramaut, is a British possession and free port, on a volcanic peninsula,
five miles long by three broad. It has a population of 29,730 ; is absolutely
naked and barren ; great reservoirs for rain-water have been constructed
by the British, and the fortifications erected by them have rendered the place
impregnable. Jebel Hasan, a sister promontory on the w'estern side of Aden
harbour, and about four miles distant, is also British. A large territory
around Aden is occupied by tribes who are in the pay of the British
Government.

AFKICA— GENEEAL.

1. Africa forms the vast soutli-western peninsula of the Old
World continent, tacked on to Asia by the narrow isthmus of Suez,
and surrounded on all other sides by the sea — the Mediterranean
on the north, the Atlantic on the west, the Indian Ocean and its
gulf the Red Sea on the east. From Eas el Kerun, its most northerly
point on the Mediterranean coast, to Cape Agulhas or " The Needles,"
the boundary mark between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, in the
farthest south, its length is about 5000 miles. From Cape Verd
pointing into the Atlantic on the west, to Cape Guardafui (Girdifo,
or Ras Assir) in the east, it reaches about 4600 miles. Its area,
of nearly twelve millions of square miles, is more than three times
that of Europe,

2. No other part of the land on the surface of the globe is so
rounded and compact, and on that account so difficult of access, as
Africa. The contrast between the broken Eurojaean shores and the
massive African coasts of the Mediterranean was observed by the
earliest geographers ; the same continuous unbroken margin extends
all round the sixteen thousand miles of its shore line. The islands
which are considered as belonging to it, such as the Canaries, the
Cape Verd Islands, Ascension, and St, Helena, lie out in the ocean
far from its shores, and Madagascar is separated from it by 300 miles
of deep sea,

3, Relief. — Guarded by its inhospitable shores, large areas of
the interior of the continent are as yet altogether unknown, and it
is only during the present centuiy that the tracks of travellers
across it have become sufficiently numerous to enable us to form
any general conception of its inward form and character. As a
whole the continent may be regarded as a vast plateau, bordered
round by maritime ranges which form the seaward edges of the
interior table-lands.

If we begin in the extreme north-eastern comer where Africa joins on to
Asia, we find the land rising immediately west of Suez, at the southern end of the
ship canal, to a height of 2600 feet, named Jehd Attaka ; from this we may
follow a chain of heights rising abruptly all along the western shores of the
Red Sea till we reach the high edge of the Abyssinian highland, 7000 to 8000
feet above the sea, over which the British expedition marched to Magdala

AFRICA

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Stanfords Grog' EslahT

Lo.i.lon I'ublish.'.l l,v i;.lwiu<l Sinlili.i-d 5.'. ('liHniii;C

AFRICA GENERAL. 361

in 1868. Farther on southward we reach that part of the margin of the
plateau on which the snow-capped Kenm (18,000 feet) and Kilbna-njaro
(18,700 feet) rise between the Indian Ocean and the great lakes ; then
the Livingstone Mountains (11,000 feet), which wall in Lake Nyassa ; and
in the farthest south the Drakenberg rauges, which rise steep and wall-like
facing the Indian Ocean, and leading round to the terraces which form
the Cape Colony. Turning the high Cape of Good Hope to the Atlantic
margin, the same terraced ascents from the sea-coast to the borders of the
interior plateau present themselves all along the western side of the continent
from the Cape Colony to the head of the Bight of Biafi'a. Round the Guinea
coast also, beyond the low delta of the Niger, as far as Cape Verd, the plateau
edge slopes up immediately from tlie sea, and has received the general name
of the Kong Mountains in this part. In Marocco the bordering maritime
heights are taken up again by the Atlas Range (Miltsin, 11,400 feet), and are
continued along the Mediterranean by the plateau of Barhary, by the ranges
called the Jebel es Soda, or Black Mountains of Tripoli, and by the heights of
Barca farther east, bringing us again to the delta of the Nile.

4. Within the border of maritime heights wliich we have been tracing, all
southern Africa may be regarded as a vast plateau at a general elevation of
about 3000 feet above the sea. Two of the most prominent interior ranges
which rise from tliis portion of the plateau are those called the Mushinga
Mountains, which seem to have an east and west direction, separating the
wide basins of the Congo and the Zambezi rivers, and the mountains to the
westward of Lakes Albert and Victoria Nyanza and Tanganyika, which form
the western edge of the great plateau of eastern equatorial Africa, the centre
of which is occupied by Unyamwezi, and slope dowu towards the broad vale
of the central Congo.

Northern Africa, between the higher southern plateau and the mountains
of Barbary on the Mediterranean coast, appears to be generally lower, or at
an average elevation of from 1000 to 1.500 feet above the sea, though the
plateau formation remains the same. The prominent lines of heights known
within it are those which extend from the Marrah Mountains of Darfur,
between the Nile basin and that of Lake Chad, north-westward through the
mountain land of Tihesti, in the centre of North Africa, to the series of
plateaus occupied by the Tuarej tribes south of the plateau of Barbary. A
remarkable volcanic belt is traced through the Bight of Biafra in the line of
the islands oi Annobon, St. Thomas, Princes, and Fernando I'o (10,190 feet),
to the high Cameroons Mountains (13,760 feet) on the coast of the mainland,
and thence inland on the same abrupt line to Mounts Alantika and Mendif,
midway to Lake Chad iu the interior.

5. It results from the general ))lateau form of the continent that its low-
lands are confined almost exclusively to the narrow fringes of the coast, and
to the alluvial flats which have been pushed out seaward l)y one or two of its
rivers, such as tlie delta of the Nile on tlie Mediterranean coast, that of the
Zambezi on the margin of the Indian Ocean, or of tlie Ogowe and Niger
towards the Atlantic. Elsewhere lowlands occur only as hollows sunk or
bedded within the lower plateaus of the north African region ; of these the
most remarkable is the hollow which lies south of the plateau of Barbary in
Tunis, separated from the head of the Gulf of Gabes only by a narrow belt of
rock, and containing within it several lagoons or salt-marshes, called "shott"
or "shores" by the Berbers, wliicli lie dejjressed a few feet below the level of
the Mediterranean. Within tlie limestone plateau of the Liliyan Desert, be-
tween Barca and the Nile valley, there also occur a number of isolated hollows
of small extent, tlie beds of some of which have been found to be nearly 100
feet beneath sea-level.

,362 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

6. Rivers. — The poverty of Africa in flowing waters was also
noticed in the earliest times, and has contributed as much to its long
seclusion as the harbourless character of its coasts.

Over almost all the wide northern region of Africa, for reasons which we
shall understand when we come to look at its climate, tliere is scarcely any
permanently flowing river excepting the Nile, wliich, however, draws its sup-
plies from more favoured regions far in the south. The streams of the Bar-
bary plateau in Marocco and Algeria are mere torrents, filled to excess during
the winter rains, and dwindling down to a thread of water in the dry summer.
Beyond the plateau, o^-er all the vast area of the Sahara, there is no constantly
running stream, though the surface is furrowed by deeply cut "wadis," or
water channels, which rapidly drain off any shower that may fall, and quickly
dry again.

The streams of the Cape Colony, at the other extremity of the continent,
have the same character as those of the Barbary plateau, finding their way to
the sea through deep-cut gorges or " kloofs," flooding after the winter rains,
and dmudling down almost to drjniess after fair weather. Inland from the
Cape Colony lies the Kalahara Desert, corresponding to the Sahara in the north,
and furrowed like it by periodically filled channels.

The broad central belt of Africa on each side of the equatorial region is,
however, well supplied with moisture, and here, accordingly, we find great
lakes and large, flowing rivers.

7. The best known of the four great rivers of Africa, the Nile, has its
highest great reservoir in the Victoria Nyanza, an exjianse of fresh water
occupying an area as large as Scotland, and crossed by the equator. From
this it overflows by the Eipon Falls 12 feet high and flows north-westward,
descending by the Karuma and Murchison Falls to where it joins the Albert
Nyanza, which has been described as a great backwater of the river, shut in
by the high blue mountains of Ulegga. Issuing from the Albert Nyanza the
river is navigable for nearly 100 miles, to near the bend of Dufli, where it is
again interrupted by cataracts. After passing the EgjiDtian station of Lado,
aliout 5° N., the river again becomes navigable, and flows nortliward through
a level marshy country with many loojis and branches. At Lake No (in 9°
30' N.) it is joined by the group of tributaries from the west, which gather to
form the broad river called the Bahr el Ghazal, the first great tributary of the
Nile. Below this it bends due east to where the Sobat river joins it from the
highlands in the east, and then turns north for 500 miles to the town of Khar-
tum, being known along this portion of its course as the Bahr-el-Abiad, or
White River. At Khartum the BcJir-el-Azrek, or Blue Nile, joins it from the
higli Lake Tzana on the Abyssinian plateau. Near Berber, 200 miles north--
east of Khartum, the Nile receives its last tributary, the Athara, which rises
as the Takazze, or "the Terrible," in the gorges of the Abyssinian highland.
From this point the Nile forms a great bend through Nubia, interrupted by
several cataracts, and then flows quietly northward through the desert to
its delta on the Mediterranean, receiving no supplies from rain or affluent
streams for 1200 miles, and diminishing greatly in volume from evaporation as
it passes on through the dry country. The Nile is easily navigated from the
delta upward to the first or Assuan Cataract in 24° N. lat., but the toilsome
ascent of that rapid by boat requires more than a day. The second, or Wadi
Haifa Cataract, in 22'' N., is the head of the free upward navigation of the
river for larger vessels. The Nile varies in volume greatly during the year,
but it is only in the lowlands of the delta that this is of great importance, for
the fertility of that alluvial plain, and the annual success or failure of the
crops over it, depend in great measure on the extent of the fertilising inunda-

AFRICA GENERAL. 363

tion from the river. At Cairo the rising begins in mid June, and when it
has swelled to a height of 16 cubits in August, the "khaleeg," or dam near
Cairo, is cut, allowing the river waters to fill the system of canals which
ramifies over the delta. The maximum rise is generally reached in October,
after which the flood begins to fall, ami the lowest Nile occurs in May.

8. The great river of West Africa, the iYi(/e?-— discovered by Muugo Park
— rises on the inner side of Mount Loma, one of the summits of the range
which marks the edge of the plateau in this part of Africa, and fiows, as the
Joliba, north-east to Tmibuktu on the border of the Sahara Desert, then turn-
ing east and south-east and changing its native name to Quorra, reaches the
Gulf of Guinea through a great delta. In its south-eastern coiirse it is joined
from the east by the Binue, nearly as large as the Quorra at the confluence, a
tributary which seems to rise in the moimtains midway between the Came-
roons and Lake Chad, though its sources are yet unknown. The Niger is the
great highway of the Western Sudan, and is now regularly navigated by
British trading steamers from the Atlantic to the towns which lie along its
banks above the confluence of the Binue ; the latter river, though it has been
navigated for several hundreds of miles upward, is still closed to European
tratfic from the jealousy of the tribes on its banks.

9. The Senegal and the Gambia, reaching the Atlantic north and south of
Cape Verd, are important navigable rivers, the former in possession of the
French, the latter dotted with British factories along its banks.

10. Just south of the equator, on the West African coast, the Ogowe river
has pushed out a large mangrove-covered delta into the sea. The exploration
of this river upward has been progressing in quite recent years. About seventy
miles above the head of the delta the main stream — more than a mile wide —
is formed by two branches, one from the east named the Orembavolo or
Okanda, the other from the south-east named the Orembawango or Ngvnie ;
both of these upper streams are soon interrupted by falls and rapids, but a
regular trattic is now maintained along the lower river to the French, British,
and Hamburg trading stations on its banks.

11. Some way farther south we come to the mouth of the greatest of
African rivers, the Congo or Zaire, which pours out such a flood of water into
the Atlantic that the sea surface for many miles out is kept perfectly fresh.

It is only since the journey of the explorer Stanley in 1877 that the enor-
mous proportions of this African river have been realised. We now know that
this river has its great lake reservoirs like the Nile. The southermost of these
is Lake Bangiveolo, first exjdored by Livingstone, a vast expanse of shallow
water, 3700 feet above the sea, which shrinks or expands with the seasons,
and is fed by tlie Ghamheze and other rivers of small importance. Issuing
thence northward as the Limpula, the river traverses Lake Moero, and passing
from that through a tremendous gorge, as the Lvvwa, it soon afterwards is
joined by the Lukuga from the eastward.- This is the drain of Lake Tan-
ganyika, first discovered by Cameron, and quite recently traced for a consider-
able distance by Keith Johnston's more fortunate comjianion, Mr. Thomson,
who has thus definitely solved one of the great ju-oblems in African geography.
The Tanganyika, a hike nearly 400 miles long and 25 broad, occupies a
comparatively narrow mountain-walled trench, like that of the Nyassa, farther
south. It lies about 2700 feet above the sea, is very deep, rises a few feet
during the rainy season, and has fresh water. The Malagarazi river, froni
tlie east, is the largest river that flows to it. It rises on the plateau of
Unyaniwezi.

12. Tlie Imvwa, in its onward course, i-eceives a great tributary named
the Liialaha from a lake chain on the south-west. Overfiowiiig from Lake
Lanji or Kamatoudo, the river, now called the Lualaba, flows in a northerly

364 THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

direction in the heart of the continent, receiving the Lomami from the south-
west. On approaching the equator it forms a series of cataracts, and then
swerves to north-west and west. Between long. 26° and 17° E. it has an
iminterrupted flow of 1400 miles, receiving magnificent affluents from the
south, Imt on nearuig the mountains which rise on the western margin of
the continent it passes through them by a long series of cataracts and rapids,
which terminate in the Yellala Falls 140 miles from the sea. At 60 miles
from the sea the ^\idth and strength of the river are so great, that it
requires half- an -hour to cross it in a good boat, with ten strong Kroomen
paddling.

13. South of the Congo the Coanza is the most important river of the west
African coast, as it aifords a navigable way 120 mUes up from the sea to where
rapids interrupt its course. This part of it is now regularly traversed by
steamers. The Nourse or Cunene, remarkable for the number of its crocodiles,
is narrow and shallow, and quite umiavigable. The Orange, the boundary
river of the Cape Colony, formed by the Vacd and the Nu Gariep, from the
inner slope of the Drakenberg range, is also a torrential river, shut in by
precipitous walls, with many rapids, besides the great falls of Aughrabies mid-
way in its course.

14. O^jposite the basin of the Orange, on the eastern side, we come to the
Limpopn, the second river in size of those which flow to the Indian Ocean
from Africa. This is also a shallow and variable river, navigable only for
about 60 miles up from the ocean by small vessels.

15. Farther north is the Zambezi, the chief river of east Aft-ica. This great
stream has one of its sources in the little lake Dilulo, which lies on a ridge
west of the Mushinga mountains, that sei:)arates the drainage of the Congo and
Zambezi basins. From Dilolo the course of the Leeba, as the upper river is
named, is south-eastward to where it is joined by the Leeambye from the
Mushinga range on the north-east. The united river then flows south and
eastward through the fertile Barotse valley till it reaches 25° E. longitude,
near which meridian it leaps down 100 feet by the magnificent Victoria Falls,
called by the natives mosioatunya, or " smoke sounding," into a narrow
zigzag gorge an the basalt rocks. Thence the river flows north-eastward
with impetuous current, and afterwards turns east, receiving the Loangwa
from the north, besides other large tributaries. At the Kebrabasa, rapids,
and in the Lupata gorge, where the river passes the margin of the plateau
to descend to the maritinie slope, its channel is again considerably lowered.
Below this it winds south-east, and on the coast it forms a great delta which
reaches out 80 miles between the farthest apart of the channels into which
the river divides. It becomes navigable at the Portuguese settlement of Tete,
260 miles from the sea. A few nnles above the apex of the delta it
receives the Shire river, the outflow of the great JVyassa Lake. The Nyassa
fills out a narrow trench more than 300 mUes long from north to south, walled
in by the high mountains of the Livingstone range, which rise almost precipi-
tously to the height of 11,000 and 12,000 feet on its eastern shores. The
Shfre flowing south from it is interrupted in its course to the Zambezi by the
Murchison Cataracts, but below these its channel is freely navigable for 100
miles to the great river.

16. The notable rivers of the east African slope northward of the Zambesi
are the Rovutna, almost an unna\igable river ; the Lvfiji which has yet to be
explored ; the Kingani and W-^«OTi reaching the coast opposite Zanzibar island ;
the Riifu from Kilima-njaro ; the Dana from the snow-clad mountain Kenia ;
and the Juha river which reaches the sea just at the equator from the
mountains south of Abyssinia : in attempting to navigate this river the
unfortunate explorer Baron Von der Deckeu was killed in 1865.

AFRICA GENERAL. 365

17. There remain to be noticed two rivers and lakes of the inland or con-
tinental drainage of Africa which correspond remarkably with one another in
their cliaracteristics. The northern of these is the ,'^hari river, and lake Chad
which it supijlies. The Chad is a great variable and shallow expanse of fresli
water on the southern border of the Sahara, at an elevation of about 800
feet above the sea. In the dry season it has an area of about 10,000 square
miles, and then presents the appearance of an immense swamp, overgi'own
along the margins with reeds and papyri in thickets haunted by hundreds of
hippopotami, and clouds of wild-fowl. After the rains, however, it spreads
out to a much larger area, and then sometimes overflows by a broad channel to
a second depression called the Plain of Bodele, which lies 300 miles north-east
of it. The southern is the Tioge river and its lake Ngami, on the border
of the Kalahara desert in Central South Africa, 2800 feet in elevation.
Tlie Ngami is generally about 300 square miles in area, but expands and
contracts like the Chad willi the ram and the dry season, overflowing lilce
the former also at seasons of flood by the Zouga channel to a number of
wide "pans" or depressions south-east of it. Sometimes it happens that
these pans discharge their surplus water into the Shasha, a tributary of the
Limpopo, and Lake Ngami lies thus on the slope which drains into the
Indian Ocean.

18. Climate. — Africa is the most completely tropical quarter of the world.
If we look at the map it will be observed that only its northern and southern
extremities lie beyond the lines between which the sun may pass vertically
over the land, so that great heat is the chief characteristic of its climate ; this,
however, is reduced by the general elevation of the continent. Drought is
the other great feature over all the immense area of northern Africa ; there
north-easterly winds prevail, and these coming from cooler to warmer lati-
tudes and passing over the gi-eat continent of Asia, take up the moisture
as they pass, and give the laud its generally dry and barren aspect. In the
far south also the corresponding south-easterly trade-winds are the most
frequent, and these expending the moisture they have gathered from the
Indian Ocean on the high outer margin of the continent, leave all the interior
of South Africa deficient in ramfall, and in parts almost as barren and dry
as the Sahara in the north. The central region of the continent on each side
of the equator is, however, well supplied with rainfall, for the winds are drawn
in thitlier from tlie ocean on both sides to that part of it which for the time
lies beneath the heat of the vertical sun, and there tlie combined heat and
moisture have raised up a covering of richly luxuriant vegetation, and
forests which may be compared with those of the East Indies. On the
northern and southern borders of the continent —in the maritime districts
along the Mediterranean, and of the Cape Colony in the south — the rain
supply comes in winter, but within the tropics the rains are obedient to the
apparent movements of the vertical sun, and thus swing gradually north and
south over the central regions of Africa, to and fro across the equator towards
each tropic during the year. The landscape of the continent thus presents a
regular gradation from habitable lands on each extrennty north and south to
bare dry deserts, and from these through pastoral grass lands to the broad
equatorial belt, of which humid climate and luxuriant forest growth are
characteristic.

All the low coast-lands of Africa are haunted by fevers which are most
malignant in the coast-lands on each side of the equatorial region, where the
spreading mangrove, sending down roots from its branches, forms a dense
thicket along the sea margin, and about the mouths of the rivers causing
stagnant lagoons within the coast-line, and gathering there a great accumula-
tion of decaying vegetable matter which forms a foetid black mud ; behind

366 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

this low coast region, however, the high plateau lands of the interior have
almost everywhere a healthy climate.

19. Products. — The vegetation of Africa is rather peculiar than varied.
Corresponding to the dry climate of the extremities of the continent are the
cactus-like spurge-plants, aloes, heaths, and bulbs. The date-palm, and, in a
less degree, the domn palm, are the mainstays of the inhaVntaiits of the dry
Sahara region. In the Atlantic maritime region of equatorial Africa the oil-
palm flourislies, and gives rise to the greater part of the trade of that region ;
there also the remarkable tree which j-ields the shea bxdter is found ; gum-yield-
ing acacias are cliaracteristic African trees ; the cojml gum-tree is abun-
dant in the eastern and western equatorial coasts, where the indiarubber-yield-
ing Landolphiu creepers have recently become of great commercial importance.
Ebony, rosewood, and African teak are among the trees of the central forests.
Africa is also the home of the gigantic baobab, the hollow trunk of which
often serves as a water cistern. Coffee is probably native to the region south
of Abyssinia ; but it is of the greatest commercial value in Liberia.

20. Hoofed animals are more numerous in Africa than in any other region
of the world. Here are the wild elephant, whose ivory is a staple article of
barter in all parts of the continent, several species of rhinoceros, hippopotami,
the zebra, and other horse-like animals, and the stately giraffe, but especi-
ally great herds of antelopes of many kinds. Lurking in wait for these
are lions and panthers, jackals and hyenas, and other carnivorous animals.
The fauna is also rich in apes, among which, peculiar to the continent, are the
chimpanzee and man-like gorilla. Madagascar has its peculiar ape-like lemurs,
nocturnal in habits. Ostriches are found almost all over the continent,
and in the Cape Colony are now farmed and herded like cattle or sheep.
Numbers of birds of passage make Africa their winter quarters. Crocodiles
abound in almost all the rivers. The plague of central and southern Africa is
the Tsetse fly, an insect resembling, and scarcely larger than, our common
house fly, the bite of which is fatal to horses, and sometimes to cattle, though it
is perfectly harmless to man or to wild animals. It appears to infest certain
areas within definite limits, and also to follow the herds of game about in their
migrations, but as yet the laws wliich control its apj^earance are not known.

21. The great mineral treasure of the Sahara region in the north is its
salt. Gold is found in the rivers of West Africa. The gold coin formerly
current in Britain took its name from the metal brought from the Guinea
coast, from which it was first coined in the reign of Charles II. The gold of
Sofala long ago drew the Portuguese to that part of South-East Africa, and
now the goldfields of the neighbouring Transvaal region are becoming of great
importance. Iron abounds in Algeria. Copper is the great nuneral resource
of the western districts of the Cape Colony, and the copper country of Katanga
in central South Africa has long been famous in native reports. The dia-
mond-fields, discovered in 1867 on the northern borders of the Cape Colony,.
have brought about great changes in that part of the continent.

22. Peoples. — The whole number of people within the Afri-
can continent can only be vaguely estimated, but probably exceeds
two hundred millions. Owing to the vast extent of the regions
within it which are scarcely habitable from the extreme dryness,
the population of Africa is much less dense than that of Europe or
of Asia, but it is in a corresponding degree greater than that of
America, or of thinly-peopled Australia.

The density of the population is regulated naturally by the character of

AFRICA GENERAL. 367

the landscape. In the fertile extremities lie the well-peopled states of Bar-
bary and Egypt in the north, and of the Cape Colony in the south. Within
these come the sparsely-inhabited regions of the Sahara and of the Kalahara,
and after tliat the well-peopled central area of the continent from the Sudan
to the valley of the Zambezi.

We have already (p. 148) noticed the chief groujis of the African peoples.
The Hamitic family, emigrants from South-Western Asia in remote antiquity,
formerly occupied the whole of the lower and middle Nile valley, and the
north-eastern maritime region of Africa, nearly as far as the equator, and were
the Egjirtians and Numidians of history. The Semitic peoples, probably of
the same family, who followed them from Asia within historical times, have
spread all over the northern and eastern region of the continent, carrying
Mohammedanism with them on tlieir way, and as Arab ivory and slave traders
are even to this day extending their journeys into the heart of the continent.
Members of the Aryan family have settled as yet in considerable numbers
only in the northern and southern extremities of the continent (Algeria and
Cape Colony), and are found elsewhere only at the trading ports around the
coasts. The Negroes, or " black " men, native to Central Africa, are marked
generally by their black woolly hair, i^rotruding lips, and flattened nose ; they
are fond of ornament, and, above all, of dancing ; they live for the moment,
and are careless and improvident, passing quickly from one mood to another,
from the most exuberant joy to melancholy or anger. The yellow Hottentots of
the south-eastern corner of Africa have now become in great part a mixed or
mulatto people, speaking the Dutch of the Cape. Lowest of all in African
humanity are the wandering Bushmen of the Kalahara deserts, living in holes
and caves like wild animals, without dwelling or property, or any domestic
animal, save, it may be, a miserable dog.

23. Some negro tribes have remained almost at the same stage as the Bush-
men, living on game or fish, and occasionally also on their fellow-men, but the
most of the negroes seem to be half nomads, joining a little cultivation of the
soil to their huntsmen's life. In the Soudan, negro life reaches its highest
stage. There we find them as agriculturists and cloth-weaver.s, and traders in
busy market-towns, exchanging the ivory and ostrich feathers and grain of their
productive country for the salt mined in the Sahara.

24. Religion. — The Copts, a small remnant of the ancient Egyptians,
ascribe their conversion to the Ajaostle Mark, and are Christians. Their
highest dignitary is a patriarch of Alexandria, and they are exceedingly strict in
their religious observances. The Abyssinians are also nominally Coptic Chris-
tians, and their abuna (father or patriarch) is consecrated at Alexandria, but
their whole religion consists in the performance of empty and unintelligible
ceremonies. Throughout the rest of nortliern Africa, and along the eastern
coast, as we have noticed, the Arabs have spread Mohaniniedanism far and
wide, so that perhaps a quarter of all the inhabitants of the continent have
received this religion. Even at Lagos, on the West African coast, there may
be seen followers of Mohammed, who, having made the long pilgrimage across
tlie continent and the Red Sea to Mecca, have become entitled to the green
turbans they wear.

At the present day the remarkable negro people called the Fellattah,
or Fulbe, converted to Mohammedanism in the mid<lle of the eighteenth
century, are spreading their i'aith in Central Africa by force, as the first
followers of the iiro])het were wont to do, by carrying on religious wars
with tlie surrounding pagans ; they have formed great emjiires in the western
Soudan, some of which are still increasing in extent and power.

The mass of the peoples of South and Central Africa can scarcely be said
to have any religion. They do not adore the sun, or any other object or idol,

368 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

but their belief is in malign spirits, and in charms or " fetishes," which are
mainly of use to coiinteract their evil designs.

25. Government. — British rule has now extended over a large part of the
promontory of Southern Africa. In the north the French rule Algeria and
the colonies on the Senegal. The Egyptian (Turkish) dominion has s^jread
south along the Nile valley nearly to the equator. On the east coast the Arab
Sultan of Zanzibar holds nominal sway from his island over a long stretch of
the coast-land ; and both' in the Atlantic and on the Indian Ocean the Portuguese
have large possessions.

Within the vast remaining area of the continent the power of govern-
ment, where any jn-evails among the native tribes, is most frequently that of
a simple barbarous despotism. The captives of war, or the victims of frequent
man-hunting expeditious, are sold as slaves. In some states, such as Dahomey,
wholesale murder is one of the chief features of all state ceremonies. The
despotism appears to be limited in some cases by a sort of aristocracy
formed of the head men of villages or tribes, who are consulted on important
affairs by calling them together in a " palaver," or native pai-liament. Slavery
is everywhere an institution of native gi-owth, not introduced from abroad, so
that it may be fairly said that one-half of the inhabitants of the continent are
the slaves of the other half. A vigilant blockade of the coasts by British
vessels has now all but suppressed the export of slaves, but this does not affect
the native slave traffic in the interior, and it is evident that slavery will not
cease till the Africans can be raised to such a point of civilisation that they
will abandon this traffic of themselves.

THE BAEBAEY STATES.

1. Previous to the eleventh century, when the great Arab immi-
gration took place, the Hamitic people, knowai as the Berbers,
probably from the Greek and Eoman term Barbari, occupied the
southern coast-lands of the Mediterranean from Egypt westward to
the Atlantic, and from them the countries into which this region is
now divided are still known collectively as the Barbary States.^

2. If we look at the map we cannot fail to notice how sharply
defined from the southern region is the mountainous district which
occupies the western half of the coast- land washed by the Mediter-
ranean, extending from the Gulf of Gabes and Cape Bon, which
points towards Sicily, to Cape Ghir on the Atlantic coast in the
west. This island-like mass, rising between the sea and the wastes
of the desert beyond, is called by the Arabs Maghreb or " the west,"
and comprises the chief portions of the empire of Marocco, the
French possession of Algeria, and the Turkish regency of Tunis.

3. This highland is formed in the west by the Atlas range, which extends
in a curve from Cape Deir, projecting into the Mediterranean, round to Cape
Ghir on the Atlantic. The Atlas attains its highest points in Jebel Miltsin

Area in sq. miles. Population.

1 Marocco 313,600 6,370,000

AlL'cria 257,500 2,870,000

Tunis 44,900 2,100,000

Tripoli, with Fezzau and Barca . 399,000 1,010,000

THE BAEBARY STATES, 369

(11,400 feet), and Jchd Ayashin (12,000 feet), and descends gradually by
terraces to plains along the Atlantic coast-land, except in the north, where a
branch range skirts the Mediterranean coast, running out to close the narrow
Strait of Gibraltar, and to form the steep northern face called the Riff.

Farther east in Algeria and in Tunis the highland takes the form of a broad
high plateau, enclosed between mountain ranges on the seaward and inner
sides. The land rising from the Mediterranean up over the coast hills to the
outer bordering range is called the Tell country, and is the most fertile and
valuable part of those two states. Beyond the maritime ranges, the summits
of which reach an elevation of about 6000 feet, monotonous bare table-lands, at
a general height of about 3800 feet above the sea, are reached. This enclosed
belt extends all the way from the inner side of the Atlas to the mountains of
Tunis in the east, and is dotted over witli a long series of brackish lakes or salt
marshes called "sebkhas." The herds in this region are watered at the stag-
nant pools, which remain in the hollows of the rocks after the winter rains ;
and these are called Ghedir, or traitor, by the Arabs, since no dependence can
be placed on their supply.

On the soiithern side of these bare plateaus there rises another bordering
chain of heights, extending all along the inner edge of the highland from Tunis
to Marocco, where it forms a parallel inner range to the southern portion of
the Atlas. One of the gi-oups of this range is that of the Aures mountains in
Eastern Algeria, which has the highest summit in this region. Mount Sheliah
(7570 feet). From the summit of this moiintain a grand panorama opens out
over the wide plateau, with its glistening " sebkhas " on the north, to the sum-
mits of many mountains east and west, and down southward over the pale-col-
oured broken declivities of the mountains to the distant lowlands of the Sahara.

4. Tlie three states of this region also claim as within their limits a
considerable part of the Sahara region, which lies southward behind the
mountains. To this the southern border range descends almost abruptly.
In the east, immediately at the base of the mountains, lie the depressed
marshes and quicksands, which extend inland from the head of the Gulf
of Gabes for a distance of 240 miles. The largest of these is the Shoit
Kebir, the ancient " Palus Tritonis ; " the farthest inland is named the
Melghir, and its surface is 49 feet beneath the level of the Mediterranean.
A rocky ban-ier, only about ten miles wide, separates this chain of depres-
sions from the Mediterranean, and a scheme for cutting through this
obstacle and allowing the sea-water to flow in over them has recently
been considered by the French Government. Were this done, a great
pond about as extensive as Lake Ontario might be formed, and the
evaporation from its surface would perhaps tend to restore fertility to the
waste lands round it, but it would be too shallow for the purposes of naviga-
tion. Farther west, the region of the Sahara embraced wthin the boundaries
of Algeria and Marocco is not uuiforndy desert, and lies at elevations of from
500 to 2000 feet above the sea. Its general character may be understood from
the native names for those parts of it which present corresponding features : —
(1) The inhabited portions are named "tiafi ; " these are oases round clusters
of wells, to which all living things are drawn for shelter from the sun and the
hot winds, under the palms or fruit-trees which grow luxuriantly wherever
there is water. (2) "Kifar" is the name given to the bare plain-country,
which, when moistened by the winter rains, changes its bare and sandy asj)ect
for a time, and becomes covered with s])ring herbs ; hither the nomadic shep-
herds, who have been camped round the oases during the summer, come in
spring to pasture their flocks. (3) " Falat " is the name given to the vast
stretches of sterile and naked country covered with ridges of blown sand like
solid sea-waves. All these three are intermixed, and from the bordering chain

370 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

of mountains on the north numberless torrents descend through a network of
deep ravines to be quickly di-ied up in the lowland.

MAROCCO.

5. The most westerly of the Barbary States, called Marocco, or
by the Arabs Maghreb-el-aksa, "the far west," reaches from the
Riff coast of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic on the oiiter side
of the Strait of Gibraltar, southward over the Atlas range to the
desert beyond, covering an area somewhat larger than that of
France.

It has thus two slopes, the one north-westward to the plains
which border the Atlantic and to the Mediterranean, the other
south-eastward to the desert. These present a great contrast in
landscape and in climate. The winter rains of the northern slope
last for nearly five months (October to February), but on the southern
only for one. The Atlantic coast slopes are thus fertile and habit-
able country, capable of producing large crops of barley and millet,
as well as orchard fruits ; the southern little better than desert, in
which the date-palm is the main support of life ; while between
there is a broad belt of bare mountain steppes and rocky heights.

On its northern slope the Miiluya flows down along the eastern side of the
Atlas to the Mediterranean, and the Sebu, Bu JRegreg, Um-el-Rhea, and
Tensift, to the Atlantic. Fed both by the winter rains and in summer by the
melting snows of the Atlas range, most of these streams keep up a constant
flow, giving an unfailing supjjly of water to the lowlands. The streams of the
southern slope, on the other hand, are torrents which gather towards the great
Wadi Draa, a channel longer than that of the Rhine, which skirts the southern
border of Marocco, and is only filled with water after the mnter rains, j)resent-
ing a dry bed at other seasons.

6. People. — In Marocco the Berbers still far outnumber the Arabs, though
the latter have taken possession of the most fertile maritime region of the
country from the Strait to the Tensift river. The Arabs or Moors, descend-
ants chiefly of those who overran Spain in the eighth century, and were driven
thence in the fifteenth, are essentially townsmen and traders ; the Berbers,
occupying four-iifths of the land, live chiefly in tents, or tent villages, called
Divars, and support themselves by husbandry. Their language, called the
Tamasirht and Shellah, is spoken all across North Africa. Slim sinewy forms
and sharply-cut features, black fiery eyes, and black hair, are characteristic
both of Arab aud Berber. Jews form a large and important section of the
population ; they are chiefly the descendants of those who were expelled from
Spain and Portugal in the end of the fifteenth century, and are browbeaten
and desjjised. There are also a small number of Negroes in Marocco.

7. Government.— The highest ruling class in Marocco is that of the
Shirfa Arabs, who claim descent from Mohammed. To this class the Emperor
or Sultan of Marocco belongs, aud he is widely regarded as the lawful caliph
or spiritual chief of Islam. His government, so far as it extends, is absolute
and despotic ; but fully two-thirds of the country on the Atlas range and.
beyond it is virtually independent of his authority and in the hands of Berber
mountain chiefs. The divisions of the country generally recognised are those

THE BARBAEY STATES. 371

of Fez and Marocco proper on the north-western slope, of Sxi.s between the
Atlas and the Sahara border range south of it, and the district of the Wadi
Draa in the Maroccan Sahara.

8. Chief Towns. — The Sultan keeps court alternately at the cities of
Marocco, Fez, and Mequinez. The city of Marocco (50,000) is situated on the
Tensift, near the base of the Great Atlas, and is surrounded by immense
gardens and orchards. It is walled round and flanked by ruinous turrets ;
the streets leading from the chief gates are wide, but in other parts of the city
are narrow and filthy. The pride of the city is the Kutubia or mosque of
the booksellers, which has a minaret of 220 feet in height. Fez is a larger
city in the north, finely placed between two hills on a small tributary of the
Sebu, and enclosed by a turreted wall. Mequinez, the third imperial city,
lies farther west. The most important outlets of the country are Tangier,
near the outer entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar ; the double city of Rabat-
Scdeh, at the mouth of the Bu-Regreg, once the resort of the Corsairs, who
were the terror of all the neighbouring seas ; Azamor or Mazccgan at the
mouth of the Um-el-Rhea ; and Mogador, the port of the city of Marocco.

In the Maroccan Sahara the centres of population occur in the wadies or
water channels, which drain the southern slope. Most important of these is
the town of Ahuam, in the oasis of Tafilet, east of the Upper Draa.

9. Trade. — There is no native industry in Marocco properly so-called
beyond that of leather-making all over tlie country, and of the manufacture of
the red caps which are named from the imperial town of Fez. An active traffic
is maintained in importing European goods, such as cottons, trinkets, gunpowder
and arms, glass, sugar, etc., and in sending these by caravans into the interior
of Africa by way of the Sahara. Tliese caravans form great movable markets :
on their way across the desert they take loads of salt, which, with the other
articles, are exchanged in the Sudan for gold-dust, ostrich feathers, gums, and
slaves, to be brought to Marocco.

ALGERIA.

10. Thougli far superior to France itself in extent, the territory
of Alf^eria, extending between Marocco and Tunis, and over the
table-lands into the Sahara, has a comparatively small extent of
ground capable of su2:)porting a close population.

11. Climate. — Its arable and cultivable districts are almost restricted to tlie
Tell country or the Mediterranean slope. There also the climate is uniform
and resembles that of south Italy or Spain, four seasons, succeeding each otlier
gently, being distinguishable. But in the Sahara region south of the border
range the variations of temperature are excessive, and the summer heat very
oppressive.

In the middle of September the beneficent autumn and ■winter rains
begin, and the whole land is speedily covered with the richest vegetation.
Then also the streams which flow northward to the Mediterranean fill out into
torrents. The largest of these by far is the Slieliff, which springs in the inner
side of the southern mountain range, and finds its way across the plateaux and
between the northern hills to the Mediterranean.

12. Products. — Tlie vegetation of the Tell country bears a striking resem-
blance to that of the Mediterranean borders of Europe : here, as there, flourish
the olive, laurel, orange, and citron, the oak, cedar, and pine, the almond and
fig-tree, myrtle, aloe, and oleander, and the valuable cork-tree.

Among the products of the upland region of Algeria which have been turaed

372 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

to useful account are tlie " halfa " and esparto grass, wLicli are now largely
used in England for paper-making ; a dwarf palm has also been found to be
useful in the manufacture of a sort of vegetable hair for the Paris market.
Wheat and durra, and j)otatoes introduced by the French, are now cultivated
to a considerable extent, and the vine succeeds admirably on the mountain
slopes up to an altitude of 3000 feet.

Few countries are richer in iron than Algeria : its productive miue of
Mokta-el-Hadid, near Bona, yields about 400,000 tons a year. Lead, copper,
zinc, antimony, and cinnabar, are also widely distributed.

13. People. — The population of Algeria is a much less numerous cue than
that of Marocco, consisting mainly of the same elements. But the Berbers or
Kabyles, as they are named here, are now far fewer than the Arabs, and have
been driven back almost exclusively to the higher table-lands. The Kabyles
are of settled habits and good agriculturists, but passionately fond of their
native land, and brave in warfare ; they have ever remained the implacable foes
of the Arabs, though both are Mohammedans in religion. The Arabs on the
other liand are divided, as in Marocco, into the Moors, who dwell in towns,
and the Bedouins, who lead a nomadic jiastoral life, and whose whole nature
seems to rebel against civilisation and sedentary habits.

Of the large number of Europeans now introduced into the country, about
a half are French, the rest Italians, Spaniards, and Anglo-Maltese, with a
few Germans ; but the plan of colonising the country with European settlers
has not proved successful.

14. Government and Chief Towns. — Algeria is divided into three
departments corresponding to its chief towns, of Algiers in the centre, Oran in
the west, and Constantine in the east. Each of these is subdivided iuto
civil and military districts.

Algiers, the seat of government, is magnificently situated on a bay of
the Mediterranean, the modern or European town is built with broad streets
along the shore, the old or Arab town above with crooked joassages and high
bare walled hoxises, with narrow gratings for windows. The summit of the hill
is occupied by the Kasbah, the ancient fortress of the Deys of Algiers. Con-
stantine, one of the ancient cities of Numidia, named after the Roman Emperor
Constantine the Great, lies on a rocky plateau of the northern border range.
The harbours of Oran and Mostaganem lie west of Algiers, those of Dellys,
Philip2}evillc, La Calle, and Bona, on the east towards the Tunisian coast.

Algiers and Oran, as well as Constantine and PhilipiJeville, have been
united by railways.

15. Among the achievements of the French since their occupation of
Algeria may be noted the drainiug of a large marshy lake called the Hallula,
not far from the city of Algiers, by which 34,000 acres of excellent cotton-
growing land have been recovered. Extensive plantations of eucalyptus, or
blue gum, have also contributed much to the amelioration of large districts.
Over in the bare central plateau, and in the Sahara region also, large tracts
have been reclaimed by the sinking of artesian wells, from which an abundant
supply of water is obtained for irrigation, though the water of some of them
proves to be saline and undriukable.

TUNIS.

16. The most easterly and smallest of the three states of the
western Berber region scarcely differs at all from the others in its
physical aspect, or in the elements of which its population is com-

THE BARBAEY STATES. 373

posed. It reaches south like these, over the highhmd region of tlie
eastern terminations of the Barbary plateau, into the northern
Sahara, but it has the advantage of an eastern as well as a northern
coast-line, and its shores are extended by the gulfs of Tunis, Ham-
maniet, and Cabes. In area it is about a fourth part larger than
Scotland, and it is of great interest as containing the ruins of ancient
Carthage, and as corresponding to the Africa of the Romans.

17. Products and Industries. — Little agricultxire is carried on in Tunis,
though many parts of the land are capable of tillage : olive groves are charac-
teristic of the northern or more hilly districts ; date plantations give their
name to the " Belad-el-Jerid," as the southern lowlands are called. Cattle
are reared in large numbers, and the native manufactures of silks, " burnous "
mantles, red caps, woollen goods, leather, and pottery, are very considerable.

18. People. — The same antipathy as in Algeria, between the Berbers and
the Arabs, prevails also in Tunis. The Moors or town Arabs marry solely
among themselves ; the Berbers are kept apart, and are here sorely ojjpressed ;
the Jews of Tunis also live to themselves. Here we find also a mixed race,
the offsjiring of Turks and Moors, called Kulugli.

19. Government and Chief Towns. — From 1595 onward Tunis has
been under the sovereignty of Turkey ; but by Firman of October 1871 the
Sultan gave up his aucient riglit of tribute. Its " Bey " or regent, however,
still receives investiture from Constantinople, and may neither make war nor
treaties of any kind, nor cede any part of his territory, ■without the consent of
the Sultan. Under the Bey the country is divided into eighteen provinces,
each ruled by a governor aj^ijointed by him.

The political capital is the walled city of Tunis, which lies along the
shallow islet of its gulf, called the Bahira ; its narrow streets are thronged
with varied and jjicturesque crowds. Through its port of Goletta, connected
\vith it by a short railway, it carries on an extensive commerce with Marseilles
and Genoa and the Levant ports. About two miles north-west is the Bardo,
a little town surrounding the palaces of the Bey. The site of famous Carthage
is thirteen miles north-east of Tunis on Cape Carthage.

The spiritual capital of Tunis is the city of Kairwan, which lies about
seventy-five miles soutli of the jjolitical capital in a barren plain. This is one
of the sacred cities of Islam, and neither Jew nor Christian is allowed to
reside within its walls.

Besides the Goletta of Tunis, the chief ports are Biserta on the north coast,
and tiusa, Monastir, Mchdia, and Sfax, on the east, the last-named being the
chief town and outlet of the south of the country, united by telegraph with the
capital.

20. Coral is found abundantly all along tlie coast of Tunis, and the tunny
fish is captured in gi'eat numbers during its migrations along the shores in
May or June by means of great trajis composed of barriers of nets called
" tonnaras."

TRIPOLI.'

21, The country of Tripoli, which forms a vilayet or province
of the Ottoman Empire, reaches along the Mediterranean coasts
between Tunis and Egypt, from the Gulf of Cabes round that of

J Tripolis, the "three cities" referring to the ancient Carthaginian towns of
Sabrata, Oea, and Leptis Magna, along the 8yrtcs, or the Gulfs of Cabes and Siilra.

374 THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

Sidra, to the plateau of Barca in tlie east. Inland it extends south-
ward into the desert to near the northern tropic, thus occupying a
space nearly four times as large as Great Britain.

22. Relief. — Its sandy cocasts are generally level or undulating, but the
land rises, beyond fertile valleys, to a range called the Glmrian and the
Jebel es Soda or Black Mountains (2800 feet), behind which a great bare and
stony waterless plateau or " hammada " extends away to the south. Beyond
the hammada the land descends again to the oasis land of Fezzan. The
eastern region of Barca, ancient Cyrenaica,^ projecting into the Meiliterranean
is a rocky table-land with steep slopes to the sea.

23. Products. — Excepting on the outward slopes and valleys of the
mountains, the whole land partakes of the character of the Sahara in climate,
and in its landscape of bare grey desert, and cloudless blue sky : the fertile
valleys, supplied with water by periodically flowing streams from the hills,
yield grain and finiits, tobacco, cotton, silk, and saffron, in abundance, and the
southern ones have extensive plantations of the date-palm.

24. Inhabitants and Government. — The people are chiefly Berber
tribes, mixed with Arabs in the maritime region and with negro Tehus in the
south, and are Mohammedan in religion, the few Turks holding the oflices of
Government. The Governor of the vilayet resides at the capital town of
Tripoli on the west ; a subordinate governor rules tlie great southern province
of Fezzan from the oasis city of Miirzuk. Since 1879 the eastern region forms
a detached province, named from its chief to^vn of Bengliazi, and is directly
dependent uj^on Constantinople. Formerly it was placed under the Governor
of Tripoli.

25. Chief Towns and Trade. — Tripoli, the capital, standing on a low
rocky tongue of land on the coast in the western part of the territory, is the
great mart of trade in the products of the Sudan brought hither by the main
caravan route across the desert fi-om Bornu, and at the same time supplies the
interior with European goods. The trade in ostrich feathers is the most im-
portant of all. The direct route to the Sudan from Tripoli leads south
across the Ghuriau hills, and over the hammada beyond, down into the cluster
of garden-like oases ot Fezzan. Murzuk, in one of these, is inhabited mainly
by traders. Another important route is that which leads to the trading to%\7i
of Ghadames on the border of the Algerian Sahara. Benghazi, on the nortli-
west coast of the plateau laud of Barca, is the second port of the province, and
is the o\itlet of an important caravan route to Wadai in the Soudan.

SAHAEA.2

1. All the immense region of northern Africa between the Nile
valley and the Atlantic is characterised generally by deficiency of
rainfall, and consequently by deficiency of vegetation ; and we
know it by the Arabic word Siira or Zahrali, lueaning " desert,"
modified into the form Sahara. This desert belt of the continent
reaches southward from the inner slopes of the plateau of Barbary
and the coast of the Mediterranean in Tripoli for an average
distance of 1200 miles, to where its sands give place gradually to

1 Or PentapoKs, from the " five cities " of Hesperides or Berenice (now Benghazi),
Barca, Tauchira, Cyrene, and Apollonia, founded by Greek colonists.

2 Area 3,550,000 square miles. Population estimated at nearly 5,000,000. Of this
total, 1,164,000 sq. m. with 2,000,000 inhabitants, are included in Barbary.

SAHARA. 375

pastoral grassy country', and then to the fertile and well-watered
lands of the Sudan. The desert region thus eniljraces a vast area,
which may be compared to twelve times that of France.

2. Physical Features. — Sand heaps or " dunes " are so universal on the
northern borders of tlie Sahara that till recently the whole region was generally
pictured as a huge sea of sand. These dunes form a great belt of more than
2000 miles in length, and from 200 to 300 miles wide, reaching from the coasts
of the Syrtes away to the Senegal river and the Atlantic coast. Now that
European travellers have passed this great northern barrier, the interior of the
desert is found to have a very diversified surface, and to consist in great part
of table-lands, which are called "hammada" where they are strewn with sharp
stones, and " serir " where they are covered with small pebbles. In contrast
to these are low-lying plains or depressions between the plateaus, generally
termed "hofra" or "jut," but the only true depressions beneath the sea-level
yet known in North Africa are those of the marshes to the south of the
plateau in Tunis, and some spots of small extent in the Libyan Desert.

An important feature of the Sahara is that of its " oases," ^ or green habit-
able spots formed wherever water is i^resent, even if it be brackish or saline.
This fact shows that the aridity of the Sahara is not due to any peculiarity of
its soil, but simply to the deficiency of moisture over the greater part of its
area. The oases are found either at the termination of the periodically filled
water channels which descend from the higher grounds, as along the inner
base of the plateau of Barlaary, or in the centres of the depressions, where
the scanty moisture supply filters do\\ii to the lowest central j^oint of the
basin, as in the oases of the Libyan Desert.

3. Within the enormous area of the Sahara there is no permanently
flowing stream. Among its greater water channels or " wadys " are the
Draa, whicli turns along the southern border of Marocco from the inner
mountain ranges to the Atlantic. Two of the most extensive channels formed
by the agency of water within the Sahara are those called the Igharghar and
Wad)/ Mia, which have their origin in the plateaux between 23° and 24° N.,
and which extend directly northward for 750 miles, to terminate in the chain
of salt-marshes south of Tunis. In many cases, though these deeply furrowed
channels appear dry, water is obtainable by digging do\\7i into them, showing
that it filters along under ground. Dry lake beds, called "sebkhas," are also
characteristic of the Sahara ; sometimes the dried mud within them has con-
tracted into regular hexagonal figures ; at others they show a clear sheet of
salt.

4. Climate. — The Sahara falls within the line marking an average annual
temperature of over 80°, but the gi-eat feature of its climate, as of all bare
desert coinitries, is that of the excessive difierence of temperature between day
and night. In the intense heat of mid-day the sand and rock surface has been
found to rise to a temperature of nearly 200° F., but the absence of moisture
in the air favours rapid radiation from the bare surface, so that at night the
thermometer not unfrerpiently marks below the freezing point.

The northern border is sprinkled by winter showers in some parts of the
highlands between October and March, but in the lowlands rain is all but mi-
known, and twenty years may pass without a drop falling. The tropical
showers, drawn in from the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Guinea, which water
the Sudan so abundantly, reach into the Sahara region only in the months of
August and September, as far as some of the central hilly regions. We have
already noticed that the north-east is the prevailing dry wind of the Saliara.

1 Probably from the Coptic ouahe, meaning "inhabited place."

376 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

Hot \vinfls blowng outward seem to make a tour of the northern part of the
continent during the year, occurring as the Khamsin, or fifty days (April till
June), in Egypt ; as the Sirocco of Algeria and south Italy (in July) ; as the
Shuine of Marocco (in August and September) ; and as the llarmattan, charged
with dust, on the Atlantic and Guinea coasts (in December, January, and
February).

5. Products. — The tree of the desert region is the date-palm, which finds
a favourite habitat in its arid soil and dry climate, and which is the main-
stay of the inhabitants of the Sahara : rice, maize, and barley are grown in
some of the oases, where a few acacias and ferns appear. A thorny evergreen
shrub serves as fodder for the camels in passing through some of the dreary
regions between. A few gazelles and antelopes, hares and foxes, the ostrich,
vulture, and raven, are almost the only animals of tlie desert. Salt is the great
mineral product of the Sahara ; in some districts, such as that of Taodeni, mid-
way between Timbuktu and Marocco, and in Biltna, on the route from Bornu
to Tripoli, it is regularly mined.

6. People. — The thinly-scattered inhabitants of the Sahara fall into three
main divisions — (1) The Moorish (Arab) and Berber tribes of the western
region, chiefly nomadic herdsmen and robbers, though settled under sultans in
some parts of the south-west ; (2) the Tuareg of the central Sahara, a Berber
peoj)le, tall and handsome, the horse-guards of the caravans in their passage
across the desert, wearing a shawl, called the " litham," wound round face and
head as a protection against the blown sands of the desert ; (3) the Tibbris, a
pastoral people inhabiting the eastern portion of the desert, believed to be
nearly allied in race to the negroes of the south.

7. Among the many more or less definitely known countries and kingdoms
within the vast area of the Sahara, are those of Tiris on the Atlantic margin,
a desert covmtry held by the nomadic tribes of the Uled Delim : Aderer, south-
east of it, where the Yaya-ben-Othman Moors are dominant ; this is a hilly
country, possessing considerable herds of camels, sheep, and oxen, and great
mines of rock-salt near its chief town of Shingeti; the countries of the Asgar
and Ahaggar Tuaregs, in the plateaus which rise beyond the sand-belt south
of the Algerian Sahara ; the oasis land of Tidikclt, in the north-west of the
Tuareg region, wliere from 300 to 400 little oasis-states form an indej)eudent
confederation of republics ; the hilly kingdom oi Air or Asbeti, near the centre
of the Sahara in the Tuareg division, ruled over by a sultan, who resides at
Agades ; and the Tibbu sultanate, which occupies the mountainous country
of Tu or Tibesti, towards the east of the Sahara, with the capital town of
Bardai. This last kingdom is occupied by the Reshade tribe of the Tibbus,
a fierce, treacherous people, fanatical in their adherence to Mohammedanism.
Here in Tibesti occurs the highest known point of all the Sahara region, the
broad-backed Mount Tarso, from which the peak of Tusidde rises to an esti-
mated height of 7900 feet. From the slojies of these mountains, valleys and
torrent-beds filled with bright green acacias reach down on all sides to the
surrounding desert ; here also the date-palm is the chief resource of the
inhabitants.

8. Trade. — The great caravan routes and lines of communication across
tlie Sahara take generally a north and soutli direction, from the fertile countries
of the Sudan on the south to the nearest ports of the Mediterranean. In the
west an important route unites Timbuktu on the Niger with Tafilet in southern
Marocco. Several routes from Marocco, Algeria, and Tunis, centre in the busy
markets of the oasis land of Tidikelt, and pass thence also to Timbuktu ; along
this line two great caravans are despatched every year to the south. Farther
east lies the route from Ghat on the east of the Tuareg i:)lateau, through Asben
to Sokoto in the Sudan ; and still farther east the greatest thoroughfare of

EGYPT. 377

the Sahara, the track which leads from Tripoli, through Murzuk in Fezzan, by
the salt-mines of Bilma to the countries round Lake Chad.

The commerce of the Sahara consists mainly in the transport of ostrich
feathers, slaves, gold dust, and ivory from tlie Sudan northward to the
Mediterranean ports, and the conveyance thence back across the desert,
of manufactured goods, such as cottons, cutlery, and trinkets of all sorts,
to the negro countries in the south. It is estimated that fully 10,000
slaves pass northward by the ]\Iurzuk route from Bornu every year, and this
traffic has continued so long, and is accompanied by such hardships, that the
route might be followed with no other guide than the bleached skeletons of
those who have fallen during the terrible march. The salt of the Sahara beds
also gives rise to considerable independent traffic. From Bilma, for example,
the salt-blocks are carried by camel caravans, sometimes of 1000 animals, to
the Sudan, to be exchanged there for grain.

EGYPTIAN DOMINION.'

1. From its ancient limits in tlie Delta and along the banks of
the Lower Nile, crowded with monuments of art in long past ages,
the territory of Egypt has been enormously extended in recent
years, till its ruler, nominally a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, has
become the most powerful sovereign in all Africa. It is impossible
to estimate the area subject to Egypt with accuracy, since its
Ijoundary in the western desert towards the Sahara is undefined,
and in the south the Egyptian troops are still extending their con-
quests towards the equatorial lakes. The western limit, however,
is now generally regarded as embracing the Libyan desert as far as
the oasis of Siwah on the borders of Tripoli ; and the eastern
reaches to the Red Sea coast, and the head of the Gulf of Akaba,
including the peninsula of Sinai. From the Mediterranean on the
north, Egyptian territory now extends southward over the greater
part of the Nile valley as far as the Albert Nyanza. From Darfur
on the west it extends across to the base of the mountains of
Abyssinia, and round the north of that country to the southern
shores of the Gulf of Aden, and inland thence to Harar. If we
compare the Egyptian dominion with our island of Great Britain in
extent, we find it nearly ten times as large.

2. Within the area thus sketched out we may distinguish three divisions —
(1) The northern, or Egypt proper, where the narrow green strip of the Nile
banks and its woudrously fertile delta are shut in on both sides by the arid
plateaus and mountains of the Libyan and Arabian deserts. (2) Nubia,
the middle region, stretching south from about the northern trojiic to the

Pop. Area in sq. miles.
1 Egj'pt proper, with the Libyan and Arabian deserts . 304,000 5,600,000

Nuiiia H:t5,000 1,000,000

Egj-ptian Sudan (with Dar Fur and Kordofan) . . 4i!l,000 10,800,000

l.lS.'i.OOO 17.400.000

378 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

base of the mountains of Abyssinia, and presenting in its landscape a
gradual transition from the arid sands of the desert to the grassy steppe lands
which are characteristic of the greater part of its surface, and to more luxuriant
vegetation on tlie south. (3) The Egyptian Sudan, a well-watered region,
becoming more and more fertile and productive still towards the south, till it
enters tlie equatorial belt, in which a vegetation of tall forest trees becomes
general.

3. Climate. — Tliese divisions naturally correspond to the climates which
have given them their varying landscapes. The excessive heat and drought
of the Sahara prevail in Lower Egypt. Though the coast of the Nile delta
receives a few winter showers, there is only an average of tliirteen rainy days
in the year at Cairo in the apex of the delta ; and a little farther south rain
becomes almost unknown, though heavy dews partly supply its deficiency,
and the great heat of summer is tempered by northerly winds which theu lilow
up the Nile valley. The dry region extends southward to where the Nile
receives its last tributary, the Atbara. This is the limit to which the tropical
rains extend, and as from this point southward these rains become of longer
and longer duration, the landscape gradually changes again from bare sunburnt
steppe to ricli evergreen tropical vegetation. In the region of the Albert
Nyanza rain falls in every month of the year exce]>t January and February.

4. Products. — The cultivable land of Lower Egyjit ^ in the delta and along
the banks of the Nile represents only about a twentieth part of the area of
this di\'ision, and is dependent for its fertility on the inundations of the river
alone. Far and wide over the level delta in harvest time, there wave fields of
wheat and rice, sugar-cane, cotton, and indigo. Other parts are rich pasture-
lands, dotted with herds of cattle, asses, sheep, and goats. Trees have now
been planted along the roads, and are in some parts .set in thick plantations.
Above the delta the most productive district of Lower Egypt is that of Fayum,
lying west of the river valley rouud a lake called the Birket el Kerun
(ancient Lake Moeris), which is fed by a canal from the river. Here, besides
grain and forests, there are large jDlantatious of roses cultivated for the valu-
able " attar."

Beyond the river valley, iu the deserts, groves of date-palms here and there
are the ornaments of the landscape. Far ujj the Nile past the desert belt iu
Nubia the baobab and the deleb j^alm become common near the river, while
at a greater distance from it the acacias are the commonest trees of the steppe
bush. Higher up still the river banks become closed with dense walls of
reeds, and floating islands of matted sod obstruct the navigation ; inland
grassy steppes reaching away to the horizon become more thickly covered with
trees, and the land becomes park-like.

Durra or millet, with coarse tall grass, is the cultivated grain of all the
southern tropical region. Here crocodiles and hippopotami abound in tlie
rivers, rhinoceroses in the jungle, the girafl'e and the elephant in the park-like
lands — the last giving the ivory which is now the gi-eat object of trade in all
this region.

5. People. — The great mass of the people in Lower Egj^pt are known as
Fellaheen or " ploughers," and are the descendants of the old Egyptians and
of the Arab invaders of the land. Portions of the Egyptians as well as of their
conquerors, however, remain unmixed. The former are the Copts, the clerks of
Egypt, who profess Christianity ; the pure Arabs are represented mainly by the
Bedouins, but some of these have exchanged then- nomadic life for a settled one

1 The cultivable land of Lower Egypt amounts to about 11,800 square miles in all.
Of this 6000 square miles are in the delta, 5200 square miles along the river banks as
far as the First Cataract, and round the lake of Fayum.

EGYPT. 379

in houses. Tlie Arabs are mainly emi^loyed in escorting trading caravans, and
as breeders of cattle, sheep, and camels. Jews are held in gi-eat contenii)t in
Egypt by the Mohammedans. The Gypsies also have diminished in numbers,
and are now only met with at fairs and markets as conjurors or fortune-tellers.
The EurojJeaas in Lower Egj^jt, who are natives principally of Greece, Italy,
France, England, and Germany, nearly monopolise the commerce and naviga-
tion of the country.

The inhabitants of the Nubian deserts and of the northern regions of the
Egyptian Soudan are mainly nomadic Arabs. Such are the Aljabdeh and the
Bishariu, who stride across the plains with erect and graceful figure, armed
witli spear and buckler, or are mounted on trotting dromedaries ; and the
Baggara Arabs, who reach soutli along the left bank of the Nile to near the
tenth parallel. The Hammej tribes, on the opposite side of the river towards
the base of the Abyssinian highland, seem to occupy a middle place between
the Arabs and the Negi'oes of this jiart of Africa. Immediately south of the
tenth parallel along the Nile banks we come upon the fierce jet-black Nefjro
tribe of the Shilooks ; beyond these the whole of the Upper Nile basin is
occupied by Negro tribes, among whom the Nuehrs, the Dinka, Bongo, and
the cannibal Nyam-Nyams, on the south-western border of the Nile basin,
are the most prominent.

6. Government. — We have already^ traced the rise of the dynasty of
Mehemet Ali in Egj^it. The title given him and his successors was the
Turkish one of "Vali" or Viceroy, but the late ruler contrived to restrict
very considerably the sovereign rights of Turkey. In 1866 he obtained
the Arabic title of K/iedlv or "King" of Egypt ; and in 1873 the right of
concluding treaties with foreign powers and of maintaining an army ; so that
he was practically an absolute sovereign. An annual tribute of £720,000 is
paid to the Porte. The administration of Egypt is carried on by a Council
of State of four military and four civil dignitaries appointed by the Khediv.
The army, raised by conscription, amounts to about 20,000 men, besides several
regiments' of Negro troops in the Sudan.

7. Divisions and Chief Towns. — Egypt proper, which extends up the
course of the river as far as the second cataract at Wadi Haifa (22° N.), is
divided into tlie three districts called " Masr el Bahri " or Lower Egypt, " El
Wustani " or Middle Egy^it, and " El Said " or Upper Egji^t, and these are sub-
divided into several administrative provinces.

Cairo''' (327,000), tlie capital of Egypt, and the greatest city in all Afi-ica,
lies on the left bank of the river, a short way above the apex of the delta,
and is about two miles in length by one in breadth, surrounded by a wall aiul
commanded by a citadel. It forms a sea of houses, witli narrow crooked
streets, over which the slim tapering minarets and cajjolas of the hundreds of
mosques rise like a forest. A crowd of people of all nations moves through its
streets and bazaars in chaotic confusion and with continual din. Railways
lead to Alexandria (166,000), the gi-eat seaport and emporium of the com-
merce of Egypt, close to the site of the ancient city founded liy Alexander the
(Jreat, and to Damietta, on the eastern l)ranch of tlie Nile. Tanta and liosetia
are also important towns of the delta.

A railway also leads across the northern corner of the Arabian desert to
the ancient port of >^iiez, at tlie head of the chief northern gulf of the Red Sea,
and this was formerly a main liidc in the great overland route from Eurojie to
India. In 1869, however, the great enterprise of the cutting of tlie Suez
ship-canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea was complete<l, and now
aljout 1500 great ships jjass through this cliannel every year. Port Said, a

1 P. 85. 2 Properly El Kaheiruh, the " victorious ; " founded 969.

380 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

flourisliing modern to\vii, stands where the breakwaters guard the Mediterranean
entrance to the canal. Midway it passes Ismailia, also a new town, the head-
quarters of the Canal Company ; and after the wider expanse of water which
tills the basin of the former " Intter lakes " has been crossed, it opens into the
Red Sea at Suez, nearly a hnndred miles south of Port Said.

Going lip the Nile from Cairo the first objects that attract attention are
the great pyramids of Gizeh and the ruins of Memphis. From lieni Sue/,
the first town of importance above Cairo, a branch railway leads west to
Medinet el Fayum, in the fertile basin which surrounds tlie ancient Moeris
lake. At Slut, in Upper Egypt, the present terminus of the Nile railroad is
reached ; and from Keneh, still higher up, a route, four days' journey long,
leads eastward across the Arabian desert to the small port of Kosseir on the
Red Sea. At Assuan, near the northern tropical line, the first cataracts of
the Nile in ascending are formed between granite hills. These are passed
with difficulty in the season of low-water, and at the second cataract of
Wadi Haifa (22° N.) the free navigation of the river upward is ended.

8. In Nubia the provinces of Dongola and Berber stand in direct connection
with tlie Government of Egypt proper. From Wadi Haifa the head of the free
navigation, a Nubian railroad is now (1880) being constructed along the river
bank to the chief town of this division called El Ordeh or Dongola (19° N.),
whence the river is again navigable upward to the important station of El
Dabheh; here the chief caravan route to Darfurgoes off to the south-west from
the great bend of the Nile. The town of Berber on the riglit bank, not far
below the confluence of the Atbara, is a collection of mud huts surrounded by
tall acacias and palms, and is the starting-point of a frequented caravan route
which leads by a fortnight's march across the Nubian desert to the Red Sea
port of Simkin.

9. Farther south, approaching the Egyptian Sudan, we come to the
province of Khartum (extending on both sides of the Nile), with which those of
Senaar and Fazokl on the basin of the Blue Nile, and of Bahr-el-Abiad
(including both banks of the main river as far south as the confluence of the
Sobat), are associated in Government. Klmrtum, close to the confluence of the
Blue and Wliite Niles, is the largest town of all the soiithern Egyptian
dominion, and the great centre of traffic, as it is the converging point of many
river and caravan routes. It is also the residence of the Governor-General
of the Egyptian Sudan, and has a motley population of Turks, Greeks,
Jews, Egyjitians, Nubians, Abyssinians, and Negroes. A regiment of the
warlike Shiluks of the upper Nile is maintained here to enforce the payment
of tribute among the Arab tribes of the provinces. The town of Senaar on
the Blue Nile, which has given its name to the surrounding province, was
formerly a great and populous place. Its vicinity is called the " granary of
the Sudan," and sends down great supplies of durra to Khartum. Famaka,
the chief place in the province of Fazokl, is at the limit of the Egyptian
territory on the Blue Nile, near the border of Abyssinia. Egyptian jjower in
the province of Bahr-el-Abiad centres at the military town of Fashoda, where a
garrison of 800 men is maintained as a post of observation against attack from
the warlike Shiluks. On the Sobat the military station of Nasser, 190 miles
up the river, serves a like purpose in the country of tlie Nuehr tribes.

10. Kordofan, on the west of the province of Bahr-el-Abiad, has been
under the rule of Egypt since the e.xpedition made by Mehemet Ali in 1821.
This country presents generally the aspect of wide undulating plains covered
with high brown grass, with here and there groups of mimosas and solitary
baobabs. Water is so scarce at most seasons that it has to be stored carefully
in reservoirs, and the herds must be kept in the neighbourhood of the wells.
The town of FjI Obeidh, its capital, built of circular houses of roughly

EGYPT. 381

kneaded mud-bricks, is iu the centre of a vast plain. Beyond Kordofan west-
ward we approach Dar Fur, an extensive country spreading out round the
central nucleus of the MaiTah mountains ; this region was conquered for
Egypt in 1875, its former Arab Sultan being slain in the campaign. From
the central mountains, numerous channels of i^eriodically tilled streams
radiate outward, but the country is generally unfruitful and dry. In the rainy
season, which lasts from June till September, however, it becomes clothed with
the richest pasture. Its inhabitants, who chiefly congregate in the more
favoured central mountain region, are African negroes, and Arabs who form
the dominant race, and who are the actual holders of the land. All are
Mohammedans. Fusher, the capital town on the lake of Tendelti, lies on the
north-east slope of the Marrah mountains. In' 1876 the Egyjitian garrisons
of Dar Fur numbered about 10,000 men.

11. Passing up the Nile valley from the confluence of the Sobat, we reach
the Egyptian military station of Shainhi (7° N.), and then that of Bohr.
Near latitude 5° N. on the left bank of the river is the military station of
Lado, now the chief seat of the Egyptian Government of the Upper Nile
fcgion, having taken the place of Gomlokoro, higher up on the river,
formerly the most important station in this region, but abandoned from its
unhealthiness. Higher still the Egyptians have stations at Rigaf, Dvfii, and
Fatiko, near the Albert Nyanza, and at Foweira in the country of Unyoro,
between the Albert and the Victoria Lakes. All the country westward of the
Upper Nile, draining to it by the great grouj) of rivers which imite in the
Bahr-el-Ghazal, is dotted over with the " seribas," or collecting depots of
Egyiitian ivory traders, who buy in the tusks collected by the native Negroes.

12. The general government of the eastern Egyptian Sudan, and of the
Pi,ed Sea coast, was formed in 1871, and subsequently extended. It embraces
the province of Taka, whicli extends from the Atbara river eastward to the
northern corner of the Abyssinian highland ; that of Suakin, on each side of
its central port along the Red Sea coast, and of Massoioah, which reaches farther
south along the maritime region past the north-eastern base of the mountains
of Abyssinia. The mud-walled towai of Kasala, on the Khor-el-Gash, a
periodically flowing tributary of the Atbara, is the chief place in the pi-ovince
of Taka, and is joined to the port of Suakin by an important caravan route.
The port of Massmvah, from which its province is named, stands opposite the
Dahlak gi'oup of islands, famous for their pearl-fisheries. At various times it
had been made the starting-point of Turkish expeditions against Abyssinia,
and was finally handed over to Egypt in 1866. It is naturally the main out-
let of Abyssinia to the sea, and twice a year caravans reach it, and return to
that country. Its trade is in the hands of Banyans, or Indian merchants.

Gradually the Egyptians have been closing round the great tal)le-land of
Abyssinia, isolating it more and more comi^letely from tlie outer world. Since
1872 the frontier countries of Bogos, Mensa, Takue, and Marea, at the northern
apex of the table-land, have been taken possession of. The Egyptians have
also been extending their dominion along the coasts of the Red Sea south of
Massowah. They now claim all the low-lying Afar, or Danakil country,
between the Abyssinian liigldands and the Red Sea, and in 1873 tlie town of
Berherah, on the south coast of the Gulf of Adi-n, was occupied by the troops
of tlie Kliediv. This is by far the most important market and outlet of the
Somali country, and holds a great annual fair, visited by upwards of 20,000
])eojjle from all jiarts of the surrounding countries, and from India. In
1875 the harbour of Zeila, at the entrance to the Bay of Tajurrah, the
farthest inlet of the Gulf of Aden, was made over to the Egyi)tian Govern-
ment by tlie Porte, and later in the same year the troops of the Khedlv
marched inland thence, and occupied Ilarar, which previously formed a little

382 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

kingdom by itself under an Amir. Harar is essentially a commercial town,
exporting slaves who have been gathered to this point from tlie surround-
ing hill countries of southern Abyssinia, besides ivory, coffee, toljacco, woven
cloths and mules, by caravans which leave every year for the great fair at
Berberah. On Assab Bay, on the Danakil coast of the Red Sea, and on
territory claimed by Egypt, the Italians have recently established a factory.

ABYSSINIA.i

1. Between, the Egyptian Sndan and the hot lowland called
the Afar, or Danakil country, skirting the southern part of the Red
Sea, and between 10° and 16° N. latitude, rises the lofty wedge-
sliaped highland of Abyssinia, a land diifering as much in its phy-
sical configuration as in its inhalntants from all the parts of Africa
in the same zone. Confined by the encroaching power of Egypt
in west, east, and north, almost exclusively to the highland region,
the area of Abyssinian territory amounts now to only about three
times that of England.

2. Physical Features. — As the Abyssinian highland forms only a more
marked promontory of the great table-land which skirts the eastern side of the
continent, it has no definite physical limit in the south, and on the north
its heights pass into those wliich skirt the Red Sea margin away to the
borders of the Nile delta. Towards the north-west it descends by a well-
marked, but more gradual, slope to the grassy jilaius of Senaar. Towards
the east its edge rises steejily from the low levels to an average height
of 7000 or 8000 feet. All the Abyssinian tributaries of the Nile flow west-
ward, and no river breaks through the eastern wall. The highest summits
of the plateau occur irregularly over it. The chief Alpine knot is that
of the mountain of Semyen, round which the Takazze river, or Upper
Atbara, flows in a deej) ravine ; and here the \ieak of licis Daahan rises to
15,160 feet above the sea, and is always snow-cajiped above a height of
13,000 feet. Towards the western side of the plateaii lies the beautiful lake
Tzana, or Demhea, 40 miles long, the reservoir of the Blue Nile. Its sur-
face is at an elevation of 6100 feet above the sea, and from its south-eastern
corner the river, escaping by a narrow opening, curves roiuid to south and
west, ultimately to turn north-west through Senaar to the White Nile.

3. Climate. — Tliree regions of different level, climate, and character of
landscape, one above another, are distinguished in the Abyssinian high-
land : —

(1.) The Kollas, or lower skirt of the plateau, between elevations of 3000
to 5000 feet, with a warm climate, characterised by luxm-iant vegeta-
tion of gum-yielding acacias, cotton, indigo, the ebony tree, baobabs,
tamarind, sugar-cane, coffee, and bananas, and abounding in the larger
wild animals of Africa.

(2.) The Waina-Degas, between heights of 5000 and 9000 feet, with a
climate like that of Italy or Spain, in which corn and fruits thrive,
everywhere capable of cultivation.

1 Arabic, Habesh, signifying mixture or confusion, referring to the diversity of its
inlial)itants in race, or to tlieir frequent turmoils. To the peoples of the surrounding
lowlands the highland is known as El-Mokddah. Area 158,000 square miles. Popula-
tion about 3,000,000.

ABYSSINIA. 383

(3.) The Degas, the highest belt, between 9000 and 14,000 feet, with cool
climate, falling to below the freezing point at the higher elevations,
affording pasture to herds of oxen, goats, and long-woolled sheep, but
with little forest g^o^vth, and generally meagre vegetation.

In the lower belts the rainy season lasts from April till September ; on
the higher plateau the rains begin in July and continue till October ; and
farther south a second rainy period appears in the beginning of the year.

4. People. — The low-lying skirts of the plateau are but thinly inhabited,
but the rest of the country seems to be well peoi^led, though we have no accu-
rate knowledge of the number of its inhabitants. Several distinct peoples are
found on the plateau. The Ahijssinians proper show their Semitic origin
and their relationship to the Arabs in their bro^vn colour, becoming almost
white in the north ; in their curved noses, animated oval eyes and symmetrical
figure. They are generally brave, active, and adroit.

Falaslias, who retain many Jewish characteristics, are frequent in the
northern uplands ; dark Gallas in the south. The Wito fishers, hunters of
hippopotami round the Dembea lake, are a remarkable people, distinct in
type of feature, and despised by the Abyssinians.

By far the larger number of people jirofess a debased form of Christianity,
the abuna of the Abyssinian church being consecrated at Alexandria by the
superior coptic patriarch : the whole country also swarms Avith priests and
monks. The Mohammedans and Jews stand higher here than the Christians
in point of morality and cliaracter ; the former are the traders of the country,
the latter, unlike their brethren in Europe, are for the most part agi'iculturists.
As warfare and brigandage are rife in the plateau almost constantly, cultivation
has made but little progress ; the herds remain the chief wealth of the land.

5. Government and Divisions. — From time immemorial a king or nerjus
who associates himself with the religious traditions of the country by claiming
descent from Solomon, and bearing the title " king of kings " as absolute ruler
over the lives and property of his subjects, has nominally ruled Abyssinia,
but the history of the country, as we have seen, presents a continued series of
internal and external wars — now a cnisade against the Moliammedans of the
plains, now an invasion from that quarter, or a rebellion of one or other of
the native princes, who claims the sovereignty of the country. The three
great divisions of the country are those of Tigre in the north, of Amhara
central, and of Shoa in the south, including within themselves many provinces,
principalities, and clans. Shoa has once more been compelled to acknowledge
the supremacy of the Negus, and to pay tribute.

6. Chief Towns. — The ancient capital of Ethiopia is Gondar, on the slope
of the mountains which descend to the fertile plain of Dembea, round the
north of the lake. It is divided into a Cliristian and a Mohammedan quarter,
and has for its most interesting feature the ruin of a magnificent towered
castle or palace, built for the kings of Ethiopia by Indian architects under
the direction of the early Portuguese settlers. As the ruler is generally
carrjing on a war with one or other rebellious prince or chief in .some part of
his dominions, his residence is most frequently at one or other of the many
military camps throughout the country. Adovxi., which lies on the plateau
north of the Takazze at a height of 6270 feet above the sea, is the present capital
of the northern division of Tigre, and is a great market-town : Axum, a few
miles west of it, was the former cai)ital, and possesses many interesting monu-
ments and ruins, besides that of a cathedral built by the Portuguese.

Ankober is the capital of Shoa, the southern division ; but for a gi-eat part
of the year the king of tliis country resides at the military camp of Angolala,
west of Ankober, or at Lichi.

384 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

The mountain fortress of Magdala, stormed by the British in 1868, rises
near the soutli-eastern corner of the central division of the country in 11°
south latitude.

7. Trade. — The small external trade of Abyssinia finds its way to the sea
chiefly by the caravans, which go annually to the port of Massowah on the Red
Sea, now in the hands of the Egyptians. A considerable traffic is carried on
between the lowlands of the Afar country ; salt from the lake beds there,
formed into little uniform blocks, is carried up the steep eastern edge of the
plateau to the great salt-markets of Adigerat and Sokota, and these blocks
pass as a money currency all over the country. The chief outlet route on the
north-west, towards Sennaar, is that which })asses down from Gondar to the
district of Galabat, between the Blue Nile and the Atbara, which has recently
been annexed to Egyptian territory. Its capital, Metemmeh, is in all respects
an Abyssinian town, and is the great market for the wax, cotfee, cotton, gums,
and hides of western Abyssinia.

SUDAN.

1. The name Sudan, or tlie " land of the blacks," was early-
applied by the Arab geographers ^ to designate generally the coun-
tries of negro-land beyond the sonthern borders of the great Sahara.
It is now understood to embrace all the vast regions of northern
central Africa south of the 15th or 16th parallel of latitude, reach-
ing from the Atlantic coasts eastward to the Nile valley, and south
to about the 5th j^arallel. As yet only its margins along the
Atlantic in Upper Guinea are well known to Europeans. Great
spaces of the interior country are as yet unexplored, and for the
rest our information is confined to the lines through it which have
been traced by several adventurous travellers.

2. Physical Features. — The great natural features of the Sudan with
which we are acquainted are the mountains of Futa Jallon in the west, from
which the Senegal and the Gambia rivers descend to the Atlantic, and on the
inner side of which the Joliba or Niger takes its rise ; the Kong ^fountains,
forming the edge of the plateau withi:i the line of the coast of Upper Guinea ;
the valley of the Niger, enclosing the groups of the Hombori mountains
within its northern bend ; its tributary the Binue, from the east ; the vol-
canic Cameroons peaks at the liQad of the Gulf of Guinea, and Mounts Alantika
and Mendif farther inland. Then the remarkable basin of Lake Chad,
receiving the Shari river from the south, and the group of the Marrah Moun-
tains in Darfur, descending eastward to the broad valley of the Nile.

3. Climate and Landscape. — The whole of this gi-eat belt is charac-
terised by tropical heat, but this is accompanied by an abundant supply of
moisture, and the vegetation thus called up over it tends to reduce the daily
variations of temperature. The tropical rains have nearly the same period
over the whole of its extent, beginning in June or July, when the sun in its
apparent movement northward has heated the land and drawn in the sea-
winds laden with moistme to water it, and to tiU out the rivers and lakes ;
and the rains cease soon after the sun has passed on its way south again in
September or October. But their amount and duration decrease in regular

1 Ibn-Haukai uses this term in 943.

SUDAN. 385

gradation from the coasts of the Gulf of Guinea inland, becoming less and
less, till, at about the 15th iiarallel, they occur only in scanty showers, and
the aspect of the land gradually merges into that of the bare desert.

In place of waterless desert with dried-up river beds and scanty vegetation,
and vdde uninhabitable wastes, the Sudan presents a picture of diversified, well-
peopled, fertile, and cultivated lands, and varied plant and animal life, with
many populous and settled nations and countries, and European colonies, some
of which have reached a certain degree of civilisation and jirogress in the arts.

We may now look more particularly at the divisions and countries of the
Sudan, beginning with the maritime portions, with which we are best
acquainted.

SENEGAMBIA.

4. Senegambia is the rather clumsy name given by geographers
to the maritime region of the western Sudan, watered by the Senegal
and Gambia rivers ; and generally understood to embrace the country
from the former river southward to the promontory of Sierra Leone.

Three European powers — France, Portugal, and Britain — have settlements
here : —

(1.) The largest are the possessions of France, which extend all along
the left bank of the lower Senegal river, and along the coast past Cape Verde
to near the Gambia. The seat of Government of French West Africa is at
St. Louis, on the mouth of the Senegal, but the chief commercial town is that
of Dakar, on the peninsula of Cape Verde, guarded by the islet fortress of
Goree. Farther south the French have several smaller isolated possessions ;
on the banks of the Cazamance River, with Carahane for the chief station
there ; on the Rio Nunez ; on the Pdo Pongo, and on the Melacoree River,
north of Sierra Leone.

(2. ) The Portuguese nominally claim a large extent of coast-land between
the Rio San Pedro (13" 7' N. ) and Cape Verga north of the Eio Pongo, but
the teiTitories actually in their possession are very small, and are chiefly the
factories of Bissao, at the mouth of the river Geba ; those of CacJieo and
Farim, on the San Domingo river, the next northward ; and the jDort of Zin-
guichor, on the Cazamance, adjoining the French settlements. They also
hold the islets of Bulama and Gallinhas, the inmost of those in the Bissagos
Archipelago. The farthest French port inland is, at KifM, within a hundi'ed
miles of the Upper Niger, to which it is proposed to construct a railway.

(3.) The greater part of the Gambia river, which is navigable for 300
miles up from the sea, is in the hands of tlie British, who have the import-
ant little colony of Bathurst, at the mouth of the river, and several stations
higher up. Sierra, Leone, the "lion hill," three days' voyage soiitli of the
Gambia, forms part of the same colony. The peninsula rises up to hills of
2500 feet in elevation, covered with rich trojiical vegetation, and tlie capital of
the colony, named Freetoion, is on its slope. First founded in 1787 as a civilis-
ing settlement by English philantlu'opists. Sierra Leone became a refuge for
slaves captured by our vessels along the coast, and the descendants of these
freed negi'oes form the bulk of its population. Sherhoro island, 50 miles
south of Sierra Leone, also forms part of tlie British colony.

5. The inhabitants of all this region of Senegambia, excepting the
Europeans of Sierra Leone peninsula and the few traders wlio live in the
towns and " factories," as the trading stations are called, are native negro
tribes, chiefly those named the Mandingoes and Jolojj's, all black and veil-

386 THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

formed people. Here also are found representatives of the remarkable people
called variously the Fulbe or Fellatah, a much more advanced family, differing
from the true negro in their red -brown colour, their finer features, slim figures,
and less woolly hah', whom we shall afterwards meet with farther inland.
They are the zealous propagators of Mohammedanism in tlie Soudan.

6. The trade of the Senegal is chiefly in the gums yielded by the acacia
forests which cover the country north of the river ; farther south the foreign
factories are the deiiots of palm-oil, from which the gi-eater part of our soap
is made at home, and of ground nuts, hides, and wax, which the interior
lands give abundantly, and which are sent down the rivers to the coast.
Ginger, pe^jper, arrowroot, coffee, rice, and many other valuable tropical
products, are also capable of cultivation here ; and cotton can be sent home
in large quantities from Senegambia whenever its price is high elsewhere.

LIBERIA.

7. Going south along the coast we come to the negro Republic
of Liberia, the history of which we have sketched in a former chap-
ter. It reaches for nearly 400 miles along the Grain Coast (named
from the grains of the Meleguetta pepper, which it yields abun-
dantly), and inland to the mountain edge of the plateau.

Here the climate is dangerous to Europeans, though not unfavourable to
the indigenous negro population. Of all the many plants which cover it
with luxuriant vegetation, the oil-palm is the most valuable, aud its bunches
of red and yellow fruit often have a thousand oil-yielding plmns in each, the
bunch weighing in some cases half a hundredweight ; dye woods, ebony, the
copal, and other gum trees, besides coffee, sugar, and cacao, also flourish
here, and iron and copper are not wanting. The woods abound in apes
and lizards, though the larger wild animals are now rarely met with. The
civilised negroes of the Republic number about 18,000 ; the uncivilised about
700,000. The aboriginal people of that part of Liberia which lies on each
side of Cape Palmas are the robust Kroos, who have been introduced as
labourers in all parts of the West African coast, and who are employed as
sailors on every vessel trading along these coasts, where labour in the tropi-
cal sun is too severe for a white crew.

Ifonrovia, the capital and seat of government of the legislative assembly
of the Republic, is situated on the rising ground of the coast, within the
shelter of Cape Mesurado, which forms a breakwater against the incessant roll
of the high surf from the Atlantic. It resembles a small town of the southern
States of North America. Its trade is carried on chiefly with England,
Holland, Hamburg, and the United States.

GOLD COAST.

8. Passing by the Ivory Coast, affording ivory no longer, where
the French formerly held the forts of Assinie and Grand Bassam,
we come to the Gold Coast of Guinea, which is now entirely in the
hands of the British, and forms a colony of the Crown.

It consists of an outer margin of plain, on the coast of which a roaring surf
continually breaks, reaching east and west for about 300 miles, bounded land-
ward by hills covered with primeval forest. It is rich in the oil-palm and oil-

GOLD COAST. 387

yielding ground nut, but the climate is exceedingly dangerous to Europeans,
All attempts to introduce cattle and horses have failed, owing to the presence
of the poisonous tsetse fly. Tlie natives here are of various negro tribes
among whom tlie Fantis are prominent.

The chief British station is that of Ciqie Coast Ccistle, named from its
great church-like fort on the water's edge beside the iilthy native town, above
whicli the European residences peep out from among the woods. Elmina,
" the mine," about midway in the length of the coast, was the earliest Euro-
pean settlement here, and is still one of the largest towns. It was founded by
the Portuguese before the discovery of America in 1481, was taken from them
by the Dutch, and ultimately passed with the other possessions of Holland on
this coast, by purchase, to Britain in 1873.

9. Behind the Gold Coast lies the country of the warlike negro people
called the Ashantees, the greater jiart of whose country consists of forest
jungle. Their absolute king used to reside at Goomassie, which was a large city
before it was destroyed by the British in the expedition of 1872.

The river Volta, the most important after the Niger on this part of the
African coast-land, forms the western limit of the Ashantee country, but both
of its banks near its mouth are embraced in the colony of the Gold Coast. It
appears to be navigable for 200 miles upward, and will doubtless become an
important highway of trade.

10. West of the Volta we come, to the negro kingdom of Dahomey, notori-
ous for its sanguinary rites and barbaric customs. Its great outlet on the
coast is the port of Whydah, 70 nules north of which lies the capital town of
Abomey, a walled town, the residence of the despot, guarded by his Amazons.

A little farther on is the town of Lagos, belonging to Britain ; it is
the most considerable seaport of all this part of West Africa, in regular com-
munication with Liverpool by steamers, which carry home cargoes of jialm-oil
and cotton, of which there is an uufaiUug supply.

11. Next we reach the dead levels of the Niger delta, the twenty-two chief
channels of which are separated by mangi-ove-covered swamps. The na\'igation
of the Niger, the establishment of which cost many lives from fevers, and
attacks by tlie natives on its banks, is now regularly carried on by six or seven
steamers of light draught, which ascend from the Atlantic to the factories at
the confluence of the Binue, and even higher up the main river, exchanging
European goods for ivory, palm-oil, and " shea " butter, derived from the olive-
like seeds of a tree of the genus Bassia. These vessels, however, require to be
well armed. The town of Aho, at the head of the Delta, is in the very centre
of the oil region ; Onitsha and Iddah are important native towns higlier up
the river, and ojiposite that of LjUegbe, at the mouth of the Binue, stands
Lukoja, which was for seven years the place of residence of a British consul
(1857 onward), and which since 1865 has been an important mission station,
under the management of the negro Bishop Cro\vther. Lulcoja is also the
great depot and trading store of the Liverpool merchants who traffic on the
river. The large Mohammedan town of Egcja, a day's steaming higher up
than Lukoja, in the Haussa kingdom of Gando, is the present limit of tlie
European trade on the Niger. Beyond the Niger delta are the estuaries of
the Old CalaJnir and Cameroons rivers. These liave been called the " oil
rivers" of West Africa, from the enormous supply brought down them to the
coast. Here the European traders live in hulks anchored in the river, which
serve as shops, where all kinds of European goods are bartered for the oil,
which is melted down and stored ready for shipment in sheds on the shore.

388 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

INLAND COUNTRIES OF THE SUDAN.i

12. The most westerly of the interior countries of the Sudan is the well-
peopled hilly land in which the Senegal and Gambia, and many other of the
rivers which flow down through Senegamlna, take their rise. This is named
Futa-Jallun; it has Timbo for its chief town and is the centre of Moham-
medanism in this region. Inland from Liberia and Sierra Leone lie the almost
unknoT\Ti countries of the Mandingo negi'oes.

The kingdom of Bambarra, first made kno^vn by the traveller Mungo Park,
appears to stretch across the Upper Niger over a wide area ; its capital, named
Sec/o, is a great square town surroimded by walls, with two-storeyed fliat-
roofed houses, situated on the bank of the river. A little lower down is the
great trading to^vn of Scmsandig, whither European gootls are brought by cara-
vans all the way across the great desert from Marocco.

Across all the central basin of the Niger, and far eastward beyond its
tributary the Binue, into the uiikno^vn region of Central Africa, extend the
states which have been formed by the Haussa peoples, a branch of the Fulahs,
the most intelligent of all the races of the Sudan and the most zealous pro-
pagators of Mohammedanism. The most westerly of these great Haussa states
is that of Massiiut, extending across the Niger below the kingdom of Bam-
barra, including the great towns of Hamda Alldhi, its cajntal, Ymvaru, and
the better known city of Timbuktu, the great emporium of traffic across the
desert, aU near the great river.

Beyond Massina the Haussa state of Gando reaches along the river to the
confluence of the Biime, with many large trading towns on the Niger, such as
Mabba and £gga, some of which are now visited by European trading
steamers ; and the capital city of Gando on a western tributary. East of
Gando stretches the kindred state of Sokoto, with its capital of the same name,
reaching over an extent about equal to that of the British Isles. To this state
belongs the pro\'iuce of Adamawa or Fumbina, which lies beyond the Upper
Binue. Another subjugated province of Sokoto in the south takes its name
from the great city of Yakoba, north of the Binue, which the traveller Eohlfs
describes as having walls three and a half hours' walk in cii'cuit, including
great gardens.

•In the basin surrounding Lake Chad lie the kingdoms of Bornu and
Baghinni. The former is described as a lovely and fruitful land, presenting a
remarkable examptle of uegi-o civilisation, possessing a well-organised administra-
tion, a court and government, with all its dignities and offices. Its dominant race
of inhabitants are the Kanuri, and Mohammedanism has long been adopted.
The whole policy of the state is, however, based on slavery, and the tratfic in
human beings flourishes vigorously. Kuka, the capital of Bornu, on the
western shores of the Chad, is one of the greatest markets of all Central Africa,
second only to that of Kano in Sokoto, and morning and evening its streets
are so crowded with cattle, camels, sheep, and poultry, as scarcely to leave
room for the bustling population. Immediately outside the gates a gi-eat

English sq. miles. Population.

1 Massina 64,400 4,500,000

Gando 78,500 5,500,000

SolMto with Adamawa 178,200 12,570,000

Bornu with Kanem 79,200 5,100,000

Bagliinui 70,800 1,500,000

Wadai 171,000 2,600,000

642,100 31.770,000

GUINEA. 389

horse auction is held, for the horses of Bomu are famed throughout all the
Sudan.

At the time of the visit of Dr. Nachtigal to these regions in 1872 the king-
dom of Baghirmi had been invaded, and its capital tow-n of Maseua had been
captured by the Sultan of the neiglibouring state of Wadai, so that at present
it appears to be tributary to that kingdom. The warlike people of Wadai
seem to be far behind those of Bornu in arts and industries ; the present
Sultan rules at his capital of Aheshr with relentless severity, and death is the
punishment inflicted for almost all crimes.

The farthest eastern states of the Sudan, Dar Fur and Kordofan, have
fallen, as we have seen, before the advancing power of Egj'pt, and have now
been incorporated as parts of that dominion.

LOWER GUINEA.

1. By Lower Guinea is generally understood the maritime
coast-land of West Africa, extending for about 1500 miles in a
north to soutli direction, from the head of the Bight of Biafra to
Cape Frio.

At the northern part of this coast, out from the high peaks of the Camer-
oons, which stand on a peninsula of the mainland, are four volcanic islands in
line. The largest of these, Fernamlo Po, belonging to Sjiain, rising to a height
of 10,190 feet in its perfectly conical summit, is wooded all over, so that its
harbour of Clarence Cove is one of the most picturesque points in West Africa.
It used to be a place of banishment for political oftenders from Spain, but it is
mainly inhabited by the tribe of the Aniyo, or " Boobies," as they are called
by sailors. Prince'' s Island, also compared to a volcanic garden, and St. Thomas
beyond it, vni\\ its lofty peak rising to 7005 feet above the sea, belong to
Portugal ; but the rugged little island of Annobon, the last of the chain, is
a Spanish possession.

2. Near the equator, on the coast of Lower Guinea, the Spaniards have
small possessions in the beautiful Corisco Bay and on the adjoining promon-
tory of San JiWLU ; the French hold the inlet of the Gaboon, and claim the
delta lands and mouths of the Ogowe river, where they have several trading
stations. The chief negro tribe of this part of Western Africa is that named
the Fans, a fine race, skilled in the art of forging their weapons and poisoned
aiTOws, who are avowedly cannibals, though this practice has fallen into abey-
ance where they have come in contact with European influence.

3. Beyond the low mangrove-covered coasts above the Ogowe delta, we
reach a hilly thickly-wooded shore, in which oil-palms, gum-trees, copper,
ivory, coffee, and cotton, besides mandioca and bananas, are in great abund-
ance. This well-jieopled maritime region is divided into the native states of
Loanyo, Angoy, and Kakowjo, the first-named being the most powerful.

4. These states are bounded on the south by the great barrier of the wide
and rapid river the Congo or Zaire, Avhich forms a great line of division across
West Africa, and the coastlands south of its line contrast strongly with those
which lie north of it. In place of the lagoons and mangrove-covered swamps,
backed by dense evergreen humid forest, wliich we have left to the northward,
level sandy bays ai>pear along the shores south of the great river, and the
forest vegetation retreats away from the coast, so tliat only long stretches of
coarse grass, with here and there a tall cactus-like euphorbia, or a gigantic soli-
tary baobab, are seen from the ocean.

390 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

Behind the coast plain, however, the land rises in terraces, each of which
upwards is accompanied by a marked change of vegetation, from larger shady
trees and broad-leaved grasses on the first, to the second in which creepers
monopolise the vegetation, clasping round the biggest trees with a mass of
foliage and flower, up to the third, where great plains are covered with gi-
gantic grasses. Each of these succeeding changes of level also corresponds to a
change of climate, from the hot dry coast-land up to the cooler and moister air
of the interior. The foreign factories at the mouth of the Congo are gathered
on a strip of sandy coast called Banana, on the northern side of the estuary ;
about 45 miles up the factories of Punta da Lenha stand alongside the deep
bank ; Bomma or Embomma, 60 miles up, is the highest foreign station, and
was formerly a great slave mart.

5. Long ago all the country for a great distance south of the river was
subject to the king of Congo, from whose dominion the river is named ;
his capital of Ambassi became the centre from which the early Jesuit mis-
sionaries spread cultivation and iudiistry far and wide. Here they built the
cathedral and monasteries of San Salvador, the ruins of which still exist, and
by their influence gained great power and extent of territory for the king of
Congo. On their expulsion, however, the kingdom gradually dwindled dowii,
till its territory now inchides little more than the neighbourhood of the capital,
though its king still controls several of the chief trade routes to the interior,
and levies toll on the passing ivory caravans.

PORTUGUESE WEST AFRICA.

6. The Portuguese claim in right of priority of discovery all the
maritime country between lat. 5° 12' S. (north of the mouth of the
Congo) and Cape Frio, in 18° 30' S., but their actual occupation
does not extend north of 8° S.

Portuguese West Africa is termed the Province of Angola, and is divided
from north to south into the four provinces of Ambriz, Loanda or Angola
proper, Benguela, and Mossamedes, each corresponding to its chief town of the
same name.

These are again subdivided into districts under military governors, the
whole being under command of a governor-general, who resides at Loanda.
The government is, however, utterly corrupt, and reduces itself to a system of
taxing and plundering the native population by ill-paid ofiicials, so that the
development of the resources of this splendid country have hitherto been
checked. There is not yet one good road iu all the country.

7. People. — The natives of the northern parts of the country, speaking the
language called Bunda, retain some part of the education which they received
from the zealous missionaries of former times. Many of them can read and
write fairly in Portuguese, but south of the Coanza river a number of distinct
languages and tribes, some warlike and savage, others undersized and miser-
able creatures, live in a barbarous condition as nomadic hunters and cattle-
o^vners, armed with " assegais " or spears, and knob-sticks. The elephant is
not now met with in any part of the maritime region, but the country abounds
in antelopes, zebras, and wild buffaloes, and hyaenas, jackals, and leopards
infest some districts. The large dog-faced monkey is also very abundant.

8. Products. — Since the cessation of the slave trade, which was the great
traSic pf this coast in former times, the exports of ivory brought down by the
.slave gangs from the interior has also decreased, but the ground nut is now
largely cultivated for its oil jiroduct ; coffee grows wild ; cotton is cultivated

EASTEKN AFRICA. 391

in patches all over the land ; gum copal is abundant ; and palm oil is brought
down the Coanza river in considerable quantity. Iron lias been smelted from
time immemorial in the district of Cazengo, a little north of the Coanza, and
copper appears in small quantity in many parts.

9. Chief Towns. — St. Paid de Loanda, the capital of the colony, on a
fine bay, is mainly a European town, with large houses roofed with tiles, and
with open verandahs to admit the cool sea breeze. Benguela, formerly one of
the great slave ports whence thousands were sent to Brazil and Cuba, is also a
large place on tlie coast ; Mossamedes, farthest south, is a pretty tovfn of
stone houses, commanded by a fort ; but Ambriz, the northern port, is a ruin-
ous and neglected place.

The inland frontier of the Portuguese territory is altogether indefinite, but
the farthest of their settlements in the interior is that of Cassange, on the
main route to the great interior kingdom of Ulunda, and it lies about 350 miles
east of Loanda.

EASTERN AFRICA.
SOMALI AND GALLAS.

1. Two great branclies of tlie African peoples occupy a large
portion of eastern Africa, soutli and eastward of Abyssinia. These
are the Somali and the Gallas, peoples as closely related to one
another in their Hamitic origin as they are inimically disposed
towards each other. Both are very distinct from the negi^oes.

2. The Somali country may be described as the great eastern promontory
of Africa, which terminates at Cape Guardafui, its inner boundary being
marked by a line drawn from the hea^ of the Gulf of Tajurrah southward by
the eastern side of Harar to meet the Juba river, which forms the natural
boundary of the Somali and Galla countries in the south.

3. As yet the Somali country has only been seen by Europeans in a few
short excursions from its northern coast. The greater part of it in that
direction apjiears to form a table-land, which falls by steep edges to the Gulf
of Aden, now approaching the coast in riigged cliifs, now retreating and
leaving a wider maritime plain. Inland, the plateau appears to reach away
south in vast grassy prairies, where gazelles, zebras, and antelopes roam about
in vast herds, and where the ostrich, giratte, and elephant are also abundant.
The central country of Somali laud, named Ogcuien, is famed all over the
coast as a grazing land, in which there are great herds of camels, ponies, cows,
and fat-tailed sheep. Gums and myrrh esjiecially, with frankincense and
aloes, appear to be very abundant over all this region.

4. The Somali of tlie present day are not so purely a Hamitic people as
the Gallas, for the Arab migi-ations into their laud, which began about the
fifteenth century, and continued during several centuries later, have left a
strong impress. Their language is thus a mixture of the Arabic and Galla
tongues, the latter predominating, and tlie Somali have become fanatical
Mohammedans. Tall, slight, and agile, and slightly darker than Arabs, their
lips and noses are almost Grecian, but their hair is woolly like a negro's.
Their tribes are very numerous.

5. The immense country of the 0(dlas reaches from the south of Abj'ssinia
(latitude 10° N.) to 3° or 4° south of the equator in the maritime region of East
Africa, or for a distance of 900 miles from north to south. On the east it is

392 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

conterminous with Somali land, and westward it appears to reach well
into the gi-eat basin of the Ui)per Nile, though the limit of the Gallas in this
direction is still quite unknown. Their country remains also unexplored, but
ai)pears to forna for the most part a southward continuation of the great
plateau land of Abyssinia, and of the praii'ie-like country wliich reaches along
the maritime base of the highlands.

6. The Gallas are a fine tall and well-formed race, with lively eyes and
deep brown complexion, but ajipear to differ very considerably in their
characteristics in different parts of the gi'eat region they occupy. Those who
live in the southern borders of Abyssinia are brave warriors and intelligent
traders. Some are Mohammedans, some profess the Christianity of Abyssinia,
but all the southern Gallas are heathen.

7. South-west of the Gallas tlie wide plateau country which stretches
between the snowy mountains of Kenia and "Kilima-njaro and the eastern
borders of the Victoria Nyanza is occupied by kindred Hamitic tribes called
Wa-Kioavi siniiWa- Masai. These are warlike nomads, who are known and
feared along the maritime region as the ijlunderers of the Arab caravans, which
make their way inland towards the lake region from the east coast strongly
armed. The more settled peojjles of the countries near the coast are obliged
to be continually on the alert to guard their cattle against the frequent raids
of these marauders.

Sultanate of Zanzibar.

8. The long intercourse and residence of Arab colonists all
along the eastern coast from the Juba river, southward for nearly
a thousand miles to Cape Delgado, has given rise to a mixed race
of people inhabiting this maritime belt, called the Sivahili, who
speak a language which has a strong intermixture of Arabic. They
have also become zealous Mohammedans, and as they are the great
traders of eastern Africa, their language has spread far and wide
in the interior, so that there is now no other which is understood
over so large an area of the continent. The Swahili coast also
corresponds for the most part to the dominion of Zanzibar, the
history of which we have previously sketched.

9. The island of Zanzibar, which forms a central point of the
Sultanate, 6° south of the equator, is about fifty-five miles long, and
is separated from the mainland by a channel thirty miles in width.

The land rises in the interior to about 400 feet, and is very fertile through-
out, its country houses, the seats of the dominant Arabs, aj^iaearing between
groves of coco-palms and mangos, the fields being covered 'with crops of rice
and sugar-cane, or manioc and miUet. The people here, numbering fi'om
300,000 to 400,000, are the Arab o\vners of the soil, many half caste, Comoro
islanders, and natives of India (chiefly Banyans or Indian merchants) and
Lascar seamen, with African slaves. The climate is exceedingly hot, averaging
from 70" to 90°. In December, January, and February, the north-east
monsoon brings dry weather : duriiig the rest of the year the winds are from
south-east chiefly, and March, AiJriTaud May are the months of the heaviest
rains. The white houses of Zanzibar town, on the western side of the island,
facing the continent, have a fine ajapearance from the sea, but the town has
narrow and dirty streets. It is the staple place of trade on the east African

ZANZIBAR. 393

coast, and carries on a busy commerce iu ivory, cloves, pepper, hides, and
cotton goods ; till recently it was also a great slave mart. Wlieu tlie north-
east monsoon blows across from India and Arabia its population is largely
increased by the arrival of traders.

10. On the mainland of Africa the dominion of the Sultan of
Zanzibar does not extend to any considerable distance into the
interior, and even on the coast belt, towards the Somali and Galla
lands in the north, his power is practically confined to the neigh-
bourhood of the places which are garrisoned by Arab troops.

The most northerly settlement which acknowledges his rule is. that of the
coral islet of Wars/ieikh on the Somali coast. A little farther south the grain
port of Makdeshu or Magadoxa belongs to him, as do the neighbouring coast
to^vns of Merka and Brava, all north of the mouth of the Juba. The histori-
cal Arab settlement of Melinde, a little north of the estuary of the Sabaki river,
which flows do\vn from Mount Kenia, where Vasco de Gama landed in 1498
after doubling the Cape of Good Hope, and where he obtained the pilot who
steered his ship across to India, is still a considerable place, though ruinous.
A gi'eat gi'ain market held here in autumn draws together a large concourse.

Mombasa, on a coast islet a little farther south, is the most important
town on the Swaheli coast, and the starting-point of several important trade
routes to the interior. Here are the ruins of the Portuguese town and of the
ancient fort they built, besides a considerable native town which traffics in
ivory and gum, copal, corn, hides, and slaves. Opposite is the important
mission station of Frerc Town, and a little way inland that of Rihe.

The town of Pangani, at the mouth of the Rufu river, coming do\vn from
Mount Kilima-njaro, is also a considerable trading-place and starting-point of
caravans for the interior. Saadani, and especially Bagamoyo, opposite the
island of Zanzibar, have become historically noted as the points from which
the earliest explorers of the lake region of East Africa set out on their inland
travels. At Dar-es- Salaam, farther south, the Sultan of Zanzibar has exten-
sive coco-nut and maize plantations, worked by about 300 slaves, and here the
oil-palm has been successfully introduced. Gum-copal is also abundant in
this neighbourhood, and india-rubber yielded by a species of vine has recently
become an important article of trade.

Beyond Dar-es-Salaam we reach the delta of the Lufiji river, the course
of which is as yet almost unknown. The two Kihvas (Kiviuja and Kisiwani),
the termini of main routes to the Nyassa, are the most important coast-towns
in the south of the Sultan's dominions. Both have been tUl recently notorious
in the slave traffic of East Africa, wliicli has all but depopulated an extensive
region of the country behind these former seats of export. Lindi and Mikin-
dani Bays, north of the mouth of the Rovuma, are also important starting-
points for the Nyassa country. At the village of Tungue, immediately south
of Cape Delgado, the Sultan's dominions touch the possessions of Portugal.

11. In all Eastern and Central Africa south of the Sudan, the place of
the camel of the Sahara or of the ox-waggon of the Cajie Colony is taken by
porters or imgazi, who march along in Indian file, carrying on their heads the
bales of cloth or of beads which serve as the medium of exchange for ivory
and other inland products tliat are brought back to the coast. This is a
necessity solely on account of the little tsetse fly, the bite of which is fatal to
cattle and horses, and against which no remedy or preventive has yet been
discovered.

The most frequented of the many caravan routes to the interior are those

394 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

which lead in several parallel lines from the coast-towns of Bagamoyo and
Saadaui, opposite the island of Zanzibar, nj) through the countries of Usagara
and the dry plains of Ugogo, to converge at the Arab settlement of Tabora
( Unyanyenihe) in Unyamuesi, at a distance of nearly 500 miles from the coast.
From Tabora several routes lead northward to the countries of Karague and
Uganda, surrounding the great Victoria Nyanza ; but the main line passes on
westward to the Arab station of Kav:ele, in the country of Ujiji, on the shores
of Lake Tanganyika. Ferrying across the wide lake, the Arabs have extended
their trade routes still farther west into the central country of Manjoiema, and
have an important trading station at Nyanrjwe, on the great Lualaba or Congo
river, in the heart of Africa, fully a thousand miles west of Zanzibar.

Portuguese East Africa.

12. All the coast-land of South-east Africa, from near Cape
Delgado for 1400 miles southward to Delagoa Bay, is claimed by
the Portuguese, but the points actually occupied hj them are few
and isolated, and their Government and trading relations are even
in a more backward condition than on the west coast. The posses-
sion as a whole is named the Province of Mozambique, and is placed
under a governor appointed by the Crown of Portugal, who has
almost unlimited authority in the management of the settlements.
He is aided by a small military force composed chiefly of Portuguese
convicts.

13. The province is divided into nine districts, which we may follow in
order from north to south : —

(1) The first is that named from Cape Delgado, which includes the long
coast chain of the twenty-eight Querimba islands south of it, only four of
which are inhabited. One of them contains Ibo, the small capital to^vn of the
district, opposite which a trade route leads into the interior.

(2) Next comes the district of Mozambique proper. The capital of the
province stands on a small coral islet close to the mainland, in front of a fine
bay, and its white houses form narrow streets. An old convent serves as the
Government house, but the Portuguese here are very few, and chiefly convicts.
Indian Banyans or merchants caiTy on most of the trade in vessels manned by
Arab seamen. At Messuril, at the head of the bay, a great fair is held in
autumn, to which the Waiyau negroes of the interior come in caravans of
about 3000 men, bringing ivory, gum-copal, and hides, to exchange for manu-
factured goods.

(3) The third district is that of Angosha or Angoxa, and includes the chain
of islands of that name along the coast, as well as the Primeira chain.

(4) The more important district of Quilimane reaches south to the Luabo
or chief mouth of the Zambesi, and extends inland to its tributary the Shire
river. Quilima'iie, the capital of this district, lies twelve miles from the sea,
on what may be called the most northerly delta branch of the Zambezi, though
the channel connecting this branch with the river is now dry and choked wth
vegetation at most times 'of the year. A few traders in ground nuts and wax,
and in ivory when it can be had, have factories here.

(5) The fifth district is that of Sena, extending across the Lower Zambezi,
round the ruinous village of this name, which lies on the southern bank of the
river, about 120 miles from its mouth. It is now a ruinous place, having

POETUGUESE EAST ATRICA. 395

fi'equently been attacked by the Lanileens or Zulus of the cotintry southwani
of the river, and is qiiite neglected by the Portuguese authorities.

(6) The district round Tete, 260 miles up stream, formerly exported grain,
coffee, sugar, oil, indigo, besides gold-dust and ivory ; but the lucrative slave-
trade took the place of agriculture and mining, and the natives of the sur-
rounding country were captured and sent down the river in such numbers that
the Portuguese found they had no hands left to labour or to fight for them,
and were obliged to abandon the settlement. The village has now only about
thirty Euroj^eau houses.

(7) The district of Sofala, extending along the coast south of the delta of
the Zambezi round the bay of that name, was reno\vned in ancient times for its
wealth of gold and ivory, and the gold-fields of Manica, which are sujiposed to
lie about 130 miles north-west of the port of Sofala, were at one time worked
on a large scale by the Portuguese ; but the warlike Kafirs froni the south
have now occupied all the interior country, and have apparently obliterated all
knowledge of their exact position.

(8) Next we come to Inhumbaiie, the chief town and port of the eighth
district, which is a more considerable place, carrying on an important trade
in the usual products. A large church and a mosque are pronuuent in the
buildings of the town, which lies at the head of a deep bay, environed by coco-
palms. Here the Portuguese authority is restricted to the immediate neigh-
bourhood of the town, for since the advance of the Zulu Kafirs over the in-
terior country they are neither feared nor respected in this part of their
nominal dominions.

(9) Lastly, in the south we reach the district surrounding Delagoa Bay,
with its capital of Lo^irenzo Marcpiez. Here the Portuguese rule is even more
curtailed, and does not extend beyond the range of the rusty cannon of their
fort. For some years the possession of the bay was in dispute between Eng-
land and Portugal, for though it is unhealthy its spacious harbour seems to
form the natural outlet of the Transvaal region. In 1875 the question was
submitted to the President of the French P>,epublic for arbitration, and it was
decided in favour of Portugal that the southern limit of their ten'itory is the
line of 26" 30' S. lat., and the Usutu or Maputa River, and that it extends
about twenty-five miles inland to the range of liills called Lobombo.

14. Witliin the Portuguese East African coast-land lies the great Lake
Nyassa, which was discovered by Dr. Livingstone in 1859. On a promontory
of its southern shores the mission station of Livinostonia was established in
1876, and at the same time, the first steam vessel placed on any African lake,
was launched on its waters.

A second mission station named Blantyre has since been founded in the
hilly country south of the lake, between the Shire River and the enclosed
basin of Lake Shirwa. More recently still (1878) a company of merchants of
Glasgow has placed a trading steamer on the Lower Zandjezi to keejj up com-
munications between the coast and the cataracts of the Shire, past which a
road is being constructed to the navigalile jiortion of the upper river. The
Portuguese at first imposed almost prohibitory dues on British goods passing
into the Zambezi, biit now a favourable commercial treaty has been concluded
with them, and it may be anticipateil that British intercourse and commerce
will become extensive in this part of East Africa.

396 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

SOUTH AFRICA.'

1. In South Africa the British are dominant. From the limits
of the former Dutch colony round the Cape of Good Hope in the
south-western corner of the continent, their intiuence has been gra-
dually spreading northward, till at the present time it may be said
that all the land from Cape Frio, where the Portuguese West
Afiican j^ossessions terminate, to the Limpopo river and Delagoa
Bay, on the east, acknowledges the British authority.

The Cape Colony propier and Natal are the older possessions ;
more recently the Transvaal region and all the western region of
Namaqua and Damara Lands have been added to the South African
dominion. Within the space indicated the Orange Free State is
the only country Avhich has a settled government independent of
Great Britain.

Cape Colony.

2. The Cape Colony occupies the extremity of the continent,
from the Orange River west and south to the Atlantic and Indian
Oceans, its landward frontier on the eastern side being marked by
the Kei river and the crest of the Drakenberg mountains. It
extends over an area nearly four times as large as that of England.

3. Physical Features. — The siirface of the country generally is high.
From the seaboard to the interior it rises step by step in a series of well-
defined terraces and mountain edges, which run in an east to west direction, or
parallel to the coast and to each other. The outer or maritime ranges have
many names in their different parts, the most prominent of which perhaps are
those called the Langebergen and Outeniqiui mountains, next the sea in the
south, and the Zioartelxrgen farther inland. These outer slopes are the most
habitable parts of the colony, and are occupied by villages, corn farms, and
vineyards, orchards, and tobacco plantations. Beyond the Zwartebergen lie
wide undulating plains called the Great Karroo. Throughout this tract, for a
distance of nearly 200 miles, farms are few, for water is scarce, and the water
channels which furrow its surface are dry excepting after thunder-storms, or
furnish only a few brackish pools. The land here is treeless ; in some parts
stunted bushes are thinly scattered, and at most times of the year the pros^ject
is arid and dreary. Yet after rain, as if by enchantment, the whole plain is
covered with a lovely green vegetation, vnfk flowers of every hue. This part
of the colony is divided into great sheep " runs," and is the main wool-yield-
ing area.

English sq. miles. Population.

1 Cape Colony (with Basutolancl and Kafraria) . 223,360 1,250,000

Griqualaud West 17,500 45,300

Natal 18,260 356,500

Transvaal 114,000 315,000

Namaqua and Damara Lands 175,000 140,000

British South Africa . . 548,120 2,107,800

CAPE COLONY. 397

On the inner border of the Karroo the Roggeveld and Nieuvxvehl moun-
tains present a bold escarpment of flat-tojiped hills, and reach east to join the
Sneeuiobergen, in which Compassberg, the highest summit of the Cape Colony,
reaches a height of about 8000 feet ; beyond this the lieights unite with the
great escarpment of the Drakenbergen, which faces the Indian Ocean. The line
of heights just traced forms the central water-parting of the Cape Colony ;
southward the water channels drain from it to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans,
passing the outer ranges of mountains by rugged deejD-cut gorges called
" kloofs." Towards the north the periodical streams find their way in deeply
sunk channels across the dry jtlains of Bushmanland to join the Orange river.
The south-western peninsula of the colony, which terminates in the famous
Cape of Good Hope, is one of the most remarkable features of this region, for
within it the massive walls of Table Mountain rise to a height of, 3582 feet,
and nowhere else in the colony is there a landscape combining such gi'and
mountain and woodland scenery.

In general the streams of the Cajie Colony resemble those of Algeria at
the opposite extremity of the continent, becoming furious torrents after rain,
but dwindling down almost to drjiiess at other seasons. Not one of them is
of any considerable value for navigation. The largest, the Orange River, is a
finer river above, immediately after the confluence of its upper tributaries the
Vaal and the Nu-Gariep, which receive more constant supplies from the Draken-
berg range, than it is lower down in its westward course to the Atlantic. But
it is obstructed by rapids and falls, and its mouth is blocked up by a sand-
bank, so that it is of no value as a commercial highway. All along the north
of the colony its channel is hemmed in by precipitous walls of rock, between
which it descends in formidable cataracts. The drains which it receives fi-ora
the Cape Colony are only filled with an evanescent supply, after a heavy
tliunder-shower may have fallen on the thirsty plains through which they
pass. Of these the channel named the Hartebeeste is the longest.

Among the rivers which flow outward directly to the Atlantic, the
Olifants^ Paver of the west is the most important ; in times of flood it over-
flows its banks like the Nile, depositing on these a rich sediment of mud which
it has carried down from the Karroo, and over these inundated tracts heavy
grain crops are grown. The Breede, the most westerly of the streams which
flow due south, aff'ords a very short navigable reach ; the Gauritz and Gamtoos
farther east, are at times rapid and dangerous torrents ; and the Great Fish
River, in the south-east, is also nearly a periodical stream, seldom flowing at
all in winter, but rising as much as 30 feet in a few hours after summer
thunder-showers. Round towards the eastena slope to the Indian Ocean the
streams have a more constant flow, q,nd become serviceable for irrigation and
motive power.

4. Climate. — The Cape Colony is not a hot country; the gi-eatest heat
of summer does not exceed that of similar days in the warmer parts of
Europe, and in winter the thermometer falls below the freezing-point. A clear
buoyant dry atmosphere is characteristic, and the seasons are distinguished as
in Europe, though of course at opposite times — January falling in mid-summer,
July in mid-winter. Round the coast-lands of the south and east the amount
of rainfall is about the same as the average in England, and the amount
increases northward towards Natal ; but in the interior and towards the west
tlie quantity gradually decreases, till on the plains which slope to the Orange
River, the yearly fall does not exceed nine inches altogetlier ; and on the coast-
land about the mouth of the Orange River, rain is almost unknovvn. The dis-

1 Or " Elephant's" river ; spelt Olip/iants on maps to distinguish it from a tributaiy
of the Gauritz which bears the same name.

398 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

tribution of the rainfall on the two sides of the colony, however, is remarkably
contrasted in season. Over the south-western maritime region the rain is
brought by the westerly winds which prevail in luinter (April to October) ;
the easterly seaboard, on the contrary, has its rains in the summer months
(September to April). In the inland district summer thunder-storms are at
times fearfully gi-and, and are accompanied by short hea'vy downpours. Snow
lies for three or fovu- months on the highest inland ranges.

5. Products. — In the natural flora of the Cape Colony the heaths have a
world-wide fame, as well as the bulbous jilants and orchids which cover the
ground in September and October with a sheet of gaudy blossom. Not a few
plants of cactus-like form are remarkable for their singular appearance.
Thorns and prickles are also characteristic of many South Afiican plants, and
form a natural provision for dispersing the seed-vessels ; some trees, such as
the " dornboorn," have spikes which have been compared to ox horns.

Wheat is one of the main cultivated products, and it is grown in many
districts, along with maize, oats, kafir-corn, and barley. The grapes of Con-
stantia, on the peninsula of the Cape of Good Hope, are *aid to be the finest
in the world.

Though the elephant, rhinoceros, and giraflFe, lions and leopards, were
common in the Cape Colony at the time of its earliest settlement, these larger
animals have now been driven far north into the interior beyond the frontier ;
but herds of antelopes, quaggas, and blaauboks still migrate south of the
Orange Elver, and the hyaenas and jackals keep their place. Since the
migration of the larger wild animals, sheep and goats have multiplied in an
extraordinary degree, so that in 1875 there were found to be about twelve
millions of sheep in the colony, and the wool they yield in immense quantity
has become the staple export. Draught oxen, dragging the great canvas-
covered waggons, are still the chief means of conveyance in the colony, wher-
ever railways have not been constructed. A newer and remarkable industry of
the colony is that of ostrich-farming, the birds being fenced in and stabled
like sheep or horses, to be plucked of their valuable feathers when these come
to maturity; their eggs are also hatched in artificial nests warmed by hot water.

The only important mineral district of the colony as yet is that of Little
Namaqua-land in the north-west, near the lower Orange Eiver, where the copper
mine of Ookiep is one of the richest in the world, and Ls now simk so deep
that the miners take twenty minutes to ascend from the bottom to the open
air. The diamond-fields, to which we shall afterwards refer, lie beyond the
border of the colony proper.

6. People. — The colony is as yet but sparsely peopled, there being a
square mile of territory to each five or %\x individuals. The Europeans are
now the most numerous section of the population, and are mainly British and
Dutch : part are also German and French (the descendants of Huguenot
emigrants), and there are a few Portuguese. The Dutch, or the descendants
of the earlier colonists, are still more numerous in the western districts ;
the English prevail in numbers in the east. The former retain their language,
but English has been the official language since 1822.

There are now very few pure Hottentots \vithin the limits of the colony,
though these were the only inhabitants of all its central and western regions
at the time of its discovery. Those who still live south of the Orange River
are of pale yellow-brown colour, generally below the average size, light-hearted
and indolent.

The Kafirs form by far the largest share of the native population in the
eastern districts. They are altogether ditt'erent from the Hottentots ; tall,
dark brown in colour, active and well made, inclined to a pastoral life and to
warfare, but not to agi-iculture. Many thousands of them within the colony

KAFEARIA. 399

can no longer be called savages, and having been brought under the influence
of European civilisation, wear clothes, and understand English or Dutch.

There are also a considerable number of negroes, descendants of slaves,
introduced in earlier days chiefly from Mozambique, and not a few Malays in
the seaports, originally brought from the Dutch possessions in the East Indies,
and still adhering to Mohammedanism.

7. Government. — The Government of the Cape Colony is entirely
European, the head of the administration being a governor appointed by the
Queen. He is also commander-in-chief of the troops, and is invested with
powers beyond the limits of the colony projier. Since 1854 the legislative
power has been entrusted to a Parliament formed on the British model, consist-
ing of an Upper and Lower House.

8. Divisions and Chief Towns. — For the purposes of electing repre-
sentatives for the Parliament, the colony is now divided into seven provinces
and thirty-two divisions. The metropolis of the colony, the seat of Govern-
ment, and the great commercial entrepot, is Caiie Tmon (45,000), which spreads
out between the skirts of Table Mountain and the shores of Table Bay.
Scarcely anything remains now to indicate that it was founded by the
Dutch : gas-lighting, gardens, tramways, and railway termini, are not want-
ing to give it all the air of a European to^v^l. Of the two railways which
start from Cape Town, the longest is that which leads to Worcester amidst
the outer mountains, and which is to be extended across the Great Karroo ;
the other leads to the Wynherg or vineyard hill, where the rich vines of Con-
stantia are grown. The second town of the colony is Pmt Elizcibeth on Algoa
Bay in the east, a bustling seaport full of warehouses and stores. Huge
waggons bring down the wool and hides from the interior farms for shipment
here, and return inland with merchandise for the villages. Lines of railway
have also been made to unite Port Elizabeth with Graho.instoivn, the chief
place in the interior north-east of it, and with Ch-aaf Jieinet, in the farming
country on the east of the Great Karroo. King William^s Toivn is the chief
place in the fertile territory formerly known as British Kafraria, and is the
chief town on the eastern border. It carries on a considerable trade through its
port of East London.

Kafraria.

9. The country eastward of the Cape Colony proper, along the
slope from the Drakenberg range to the Indian Ocean, as far as the
southern border of the colony of Natal, is named Kafraria or
Kajirlaiid.

The name is perhaps a misleading one, inasmuch as this district has no
more special claim to be called the land of the Kafirs than any other portion
of the wide region of Eastern Africa which they inhabit ; but it is along this
maritime slope that the European colonists, spreading gradually eastward,
have come most directly into contact with these people, called still by the Arab
name of Kafirs or infidels. The Kei river bounds this territory in the south,
and the Bashse and »S'<. John's are its other chief streams. It is a fertile
and well-watered country, wooded towards the mountains, and possessing
luxuriant pasture-lands, adapted either for agriculture or for cattle-rearing.

10. The districts which are now under the control of British magistrates
are those of the Fingo Kafirs east of the Kei River ; the district of the
Tanxhukis north-westward of the former ; the district named the Idutywa
Reserve east of the Fingos, the country of the Pondomise Kafirs in the upper
basin of the St. John's River ; that of the Amapo7ido Kafirs, who occupy each

400 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

side of the lower St. John's River, and Nmnansland in the north, next Natal,
occupied chiefly by a division of the Griquas ^ (half-caste Hottentots). Since
the rebellion of 1877 the district of the Galeka Kafirs, adjoining the Kei
River on the south of this region, has been incorporated as an integral part
of the Cape Colony.

11. Basutoland, a district which embraces the mountains and valleys
which lie round the sources of the Orange River, was proclaimed British
territory in 1868, and was added to the Cape Colony as a magistracy in 1871.
Its inhabitants, the Basutos, are a branch of the gi'eat Bechuana group of
Kafirs, superior to most of tlie other nations in intelligence and industrj-, but
less warlike, and of smaller physical powers. Nevertheless, this district is
now (1880) in rebellion against the British authoi'ities.

NATAL.

12. By the addition of the districts of Basutoland and of
Kafraria to Cape Colony this has been made conterminoi;s on the
south-Avest with the colony of Natal, which, somewhat larger in
area than the half of Scotland, reaches down from the Drakenberg
edge to the Indian Ocean lietween the Tugela river on the north,
and the Umtamfuna on the south.

13. The country is covered for the most part by ramifications of wooded
mountains and hills, which slope do'wn like the finger of a hand from the
higher cliff-like edge of the Drakenberg, 10,000 feet in altitude. Between
these, many full and constant streams flow do^vn to the sea across a broad
belt of grass land, which separates the mountain spurs from the yellow sands
and bold headlands of the coast.

14. Though by position Natal is a semi-troi)ical country, its climate is
healthy and agi-eeable, the heat of summer is not intense, and the winters are
delightful. Rain falls in all mouths, but in greatest quantity in the summer.
Its pastoral lowlands are well stocked with cattle, sheep, and horses ; a
large number of sugar estates are in active operation ; coffee, wheat, oats, and
maize, are also cultivated to a considerable extent.

15. Its inhabitants are mainly Kafirs, natives of the soil, and refugees from
the neighbouring countries, especially from Zululand on the north. The
indolence of these natives has led to the introduction of Hindu " coolies " to
work on the sugar plantations ; the English are comparatively very few in
numbers, as are also the Dutch and Germans.

16. Nearly half of the European settlers are gathered in the two towns of
the colony, the seaport of Durban or Port Natal, and Pietennaritzburg, the
seat of Government, sixty miles inland by road. A good portion of the coast
produce of Natal finds its way inland by waggons over the rough mountain
tracks across the Drakenberg range into the Orange Free State and the
Transvaal, which countries lie up on the interior plateau, and by the same ways
large quantities of wool, ostrich feathers, and ivory come down to be shipped
at Durban.

ORANGE FEEE STATE.

17. The Orange Free State, the history of which has been
sketched in a former chapter, is reached by long rough waggon

1 See p. 403.

THE TRANSVAAL. 401

routes, either from Port Elizalieth or through NataL In the south
and south-east its limits are formed by the upper Orange River, and
by the crest of the Drakenberg ; on the north-west and north the
Vaal tributary embraces it and forms its boundary. Its area is
about a fourth larger than that of Ireland.

18. The country consists of gi-eat undulating grassy plains, at a general
elevation of about 4000 feet above the sea, and is dotted here and there with
little "kopjes" or rocky hills in the south-east, though in the northern
portion there is scarcely a break in the level horizon. Its jilains are thus
admirably adapted for raising sheep and cattle ; pastoral farming is the main
indjistry of the country, and wool is its chief exjjort.

19. Owing to its elevation, the climate is well suited to Europeans, being
cold in winter and very di-y in summer. In the hot season violent thunder-
storms occasionally break over it. The population is as yet a^^very scanty
one, not so much as two to a square mile over the extent of the country, and
uearly equally divided between Europeans, chiefly of Dutch descent, and
native Bechuana Kafirs.

20. The Government is republican, executive power resting in an elected
President, the legislature being vested in a "Volksraad" or Council of the
people, chosen for four years. This Council meets at Bloemfontein, the capital
of the state, a small place on the Modder River, a tributary of the Vaal.
Education is well advanced, and the constitutional Church of the state is the
Protestant Dutch Reformed, but a branch of the Anglican Church of South
Africa is also represented hj a bishop and a large clerical staff.

THE TRANSVAAL.

21. This new British possession extends, as its name implies,
beyond the Vaal River, which forms its southern boundary, away
northward for more than 300 miles, to where the upper Limfopo
River curves round from south-west. On the east it reaches past
the Drakenberg range to the Lobombo hills, which separate it from
the Portuguese territory round Delagoa Bay. Farther south the
crest of the Drakenberg forms its limit towards Zululand and Natal.
Its area is not far short of that of Great Britain and Ireland to-
gether.

22. Physical Features. — The land generally is a plateau about 3000
feet in average elevation above the sea, sujiported on the east by the high
buttress of the Drakenberg range, and reaching westward towards the desert
region of the Kalahara. Within it, however, two ridges of small relative
height extend across from west to east. These are (1) the Magalies or Kaslian
mountains, which form the edge of a higher portion of the plateau called the
*' Hooge Veldt " or high field, in the south ; and (2) the Waterherg, Hangklip,
Makcqxins, and other small ranges, in the north.

Three classes of country, distinguished iu their general character, are
recognised. These are (1) the " 7/(x»yc Veldt" with bracing climate, most of
which is in the south, occupied for the most part by grazing-farms ; (2) the
" Banken Veldt,'''' or those portions which lie along the sloi)es of the Hooge
Veldt or along the Drakenljerg, consisting of broken hilly country, intersected
by deep ravines or " kloofs," picturesque in sceuery, and well watered and

402 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

wooded with small trees, well adapted also for grazing or for cultivation where
the siirface is uot too hilly ; (3) the "Bush Veldt," including all the land on
the north and east, covered as yet for the most i^art with Mimosa groves and
thorn thickets, sub-tropical in climate.

23. The two main rivers are the Ky Gariep or Vcuil iu the south, and the
Limpopo or Crocodile River, which includes all the noi-thern and central region
in its drainage basin. The Nyl Strom and the Olifaut are the chief tributaries
of the Limpopo in the Transvaal territory. None of these are of any value for
navigation, for though they gain considerable depth in the rainy season they
sink to show sandbanks and rapids iu the dry weather.

24. Climate. — The territory reaches northward to beyond the tropical
line, and would have a sub-trojjical climate over its whole extent were it not
for its great general elevation, which gives all the south a mild temperature
well suited to Europeans. Fevers are prevalent in the Lower Limpojio valley
in the north.

25. Products and Industries. — Pastoral pursuits are characteristic of
the country ; sheej), cattle, and goats thrive well almost everywhere, but
horses require to be removed to the higher hills in summer, as they are very
liable to disease here as iu many other parts of Africa. The tsetse fly is also
the scourge of some districts of the back country, so that a "saulted" horse,
or one which has been bitten and has recovered, takes a high value, as it can
afterwards pass scatheless. Wild animals are very numerous still, though
hunting has done much towards the inner and northern borders. Lions, ele-
phants, giraffes, ostriches, and all kinds of autelojies and zebras, are still
abundant there. The Transvaal is becoming celebrated for its mineral wealth,
especially for its gold, which seems to be abundant all over the northern
region.

26. People. — The greater part of the iuhabitauts are Bechuana and
Basuto, Zulu and Makatee Kafirs, most of them still nearly barbarous, though
many are employed as domestics and as field-labourers. The European pojra-
lation (about 40,000) is mainly composed of "Boers," or farmers of Dutch
extraction, the smaller share of British and Germans. These are for the most
part Protestants belonging to the Dutch Reformed Church and to the Church
of England.

27. Government and Chief Towns. — We have already sketched the
main jjoints in the history of the Transvaal — the migration thither of the
Boers from the Cape Colony, the early prosperity and later ruinous condition
of the republic they founded, and its final annexation by the British. The
colony is now placed under a British Lieutenant-Governor resident at Pretoria,
the seat of Government, situated on the northern base of the Magaliesbergen,
near the centre of the teri'itory. For administration and election of members
for the Legislative Council the country is divided into thirteen districts, which
correspond to the chief \illages, for there are no to%vns projierly so called as
yet. These are Zoutpansberg and Waterburg in the north ; Lydenburg and
the gold-fields, Middelburg, Pretoria, Rustenburg, and Marico iu the midland
region ; Utrecht, Wakkerstroom, Heidelberg, Potchefstroom, and Bloemhof iu
the south. The largest village or small town is that of Potcliefstroom or Mooi
River 'Dovp, in the south of the state.

At present most of the external traffic of the Transvaal passes by the
waggon tracks dowu the difficult passes of the Drakenberg to Natal. The
construction of a railway by way of Lydenburg east to Delagoa Bay has
long been in contemj^latiou, as this line a];)pears to be the natural outlet of the
country.

THE KAFIR KIXGDOMS. 403

Griqualand West, or the Diajiond-Fields.

28. The territory of Griqualand West was so named from its Laving
been occupied by a section of the Griquas or " Bastards," balf-caste Hotten-
tots who migrated with the Boers from the Cape Colony in the early part of
this century. It embraces au area of about 17,000 scjuare miles of the inner
plateau, and is a bare and uninviting region, except along the banks of the
Orange and Vaal rivers, which join witliin it, and which are wooded and
jiicturesque. Its climate is healthy, with cold Ijracing winters and dry dusty
summers, interrupted by occasional heavy thunder showers. Were it not for
the valuable diamond-mines which were discovered here in 1867, Griqualand
would not have attracted attention or have been annexed to the British
Crown. Now some of the mines which were most j^roductive at first have
been exhausted, and the motley population which gathered here from all
parts of the world to the diggings has become reduced and more settled ; in
Kimberley, the capital, brick and stone houses are taking the place of the
canvas and wooden shelters which at first served the purposes of the miners.

THE KAFIR KINGDOMS.

29. A broad distinction is to be drawn within the Kafii' area
of 'South-east Africa, between the coast Kafirs, who extend in many-
tribes round the maritime region from the Great Fish River to the
Zambezi, and the Kafirs of the plateau (Bechuanas and Basutos
chiefly). The former are generally spirited and warlike, the latter
of milder and more passive temperament.

About the beginning of this century, the Zulus, a clan of the coast
Kafirs, changing their former patriarchal life, began to imitate the military
system of the Europeans, and to organise themselves into severely-disciplined
bands. Soon all Kafirlaud, ft-oni the Limpopo southward to the borders of
the Cape Colony, fell under their sway, and it was with these wan-iors that
the Boers had to fight when they first nugrated into Natal. A number of
their bands marched out northward conquering all before them, and, as we
shall presently notice, the leaders of these armies founded a numljer of exten-
sive kingdoms over the wide country which lies south of the great curve of the
Zambezi, most of which remain to the present day as strong military despotisms.

30. Zululand, or the home country of the Zulu Kafirs, comprises that
portion of the maritime slope of South-east Africa which lies between the
Tugela river (the nortlieru boundary stream of Natal) and the Portuguese ter-
I'itory about Delagoa Bay. Until 1879 it was under the rule of the warlike
chief Cetywayo,^ and was well peopled. All the men of adult age were under
military organisation, and the fighting strength of the tribe was estimated at
from 35,000 to 40,000 men. The presence of this strong military organi-
sation on the immediate frontier, and tlie threatening attitude of its chief,
was one of the main causes which made it imperative tliat the Transvaal
should be placed under a stronger rule than that of the Boers. The British
have, however, quite broken up this military power, and the country is now
divided into districts governed by local chiefs, all under British supervision.

31. The Gasa Country, which stretches north from Delagoa Bay to the
lower Zambezi, inland from Sofala and Inliambane, is under the Zulu chief
Umzila, who is sole ruler of all this vast territory excepting tlie few points
along the coast to which the Portuguese authority has now been limited.

1 Pronounced " Ketchwayo."

404 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

32. Inland from this extends the kingdom of the Matehele Kafirs, which is
also a complete military despotism. This jiortion of the land rises higher than
the Gasa country, attaining elevations of 4500 feet in the picturesque granite
hills called the Matnppo and Maslwna ranges. Lo Benguela, the king of this
country, resides at the " kraal " or village called Gibhe Klaik or Gubuluwayo
on the southern slope of the Matoppo hills.

33. A Basuto or plateau-Kafir tribe, called the Makololo, also adopted the
military system of government, and made a march of cont^uest northward in
the early part of this century through the Transvaal to the middle valley of
the Zambezi. Enslaving the Barotse natives of the river valley, they formed a
powerful kingdom, which stretched south and north across the Zambezi.
Intrigues and dissension for the succession to the chief authority, however,
gave ojiportunity for the Barotse to rise against their conquerors, and reveng-
ing themselves for their years of servitude, they destroyed the Makololo com-
pletely.

The Kalahara Desert.

34. The Kalahara represents the area of the interior of South Africa which
is most deficient in moisture supply, and reaches away north from the Orange
River as far as to about the 20th parallel of south latitude. The gradation from
the fertile grassy plains of the Transvaal and Orange Free State to the desert is
a very gradual one, like that from the Soudan to the Sahara in the north.
The Kalahara has no naming water, and is for the most part a dry sandy
region, but it is not devoid altogether of vegetation, consisting of tufty grass,
and creeping jalants, with deeply-buried bulbous roots, excepting in the centre.
The Bushmen or Saan are the nomads of the Kalahara. They are of low
stature, thin, and wiry ; they never try to cultivate the land, and have no
homes, but chase the antelope herds from place to place, lj"ing in wait for
them with bow and poisoned arrows.

Namaqua and Damara Laxd.

35. West of the Kalahara the extensive countries of the Namaqua Hotten-
tots and of the Damara Kafirs reach over the hilly border lands of the con-
tinent down to the arid shores of this part of the Atlantic.

Namaqualand is in general a dreary region, with scanty vegetation of
grasses and prickly shrubs, furrowed by water channels which flow only for a
short time after the scanty showers. The coast-land is sandy and waterless,
overhung by an almost constant haze.

Damaraland, farther north, is a little more favoured in aspect in its hill
slopes, but is also deprived of any permanently flowing waters. Cattle and
ostriches seem, however, to be numerous, and considerable deposits of copper
have been found.

36. The people of Damaraland are distinguished as the Ova Herero, or
Cattle Damaras, a tribe which migrated hither probably from the Zambesi
valley ; and the HovciucUn, a black or negro-like people, sujiposed to be
aboriginal, who had previously been enslaveil by the Namacjuas, and who have
adopted the Hottentot language. A few Bushmen, Griquas, and Europeans,
chiefly members of the Rhenish mission, are found here also.

37. The only highway or regular track into Namaqua Laud from the
Atlantic leads from Angra Pequena Bay, formerly visited by guano ships, to
the mission station of Bethany on the plateau. From Walfish Bay (or the
Whale-fishers' Bay) tracks also lead inland to the mission stations of Wind-
hoek and Barmen in Damaraland.

MADAGASCAR. 405

North of Damaraland a number of tribes resembling the Damaras in fea-
tures, and classed together as the Ovampos, occupy tlie fertile tract of country
which lies south of the Cuuene river, or of the Portuguese province of Mossa-
medes.

THE ISLANDS ROUND AFRICA.

Madagascar.

1. The islands in the seas round Africa, excepting those small
fragments which lie close to its shores, do not belong distinctly to
the continent as the British Isles do to Europe, or Java and Sumatra
to Asia. The great island of Madagascar, for example, should
rather be considered as a small separate continent than a part of
Africa, for its human inhabitants are altogether distinct in race,
and many of its animals are peculiar to it.

2. Physical Features. — The island of Madagascar extends nearly a
thousand miles from north to south ; it occupies a space larger than France,
and is separated from the mainland by the broad and deep channel of Mozam-
bique, which is 240 miles wide at its narrowest point.

The great physical feature of the island is the enormous plateau-like mass,
averaging 3000 to 4000 feet in elevation, which begins at its northern extre-
mity and reaches almost throughout its length, leaving wide plains only on the
south and west. Along the shore, especially towards the east, there extends a
marshy fever-haunted belt, beyond which the land rises in wooded terraces to
the healthy grassy plateaus of the interior.

The central districts of the island have been the scene of volcanic pheno-
mena on a large scale, and there the Ankarat Hills occupy a space some 600
square miles in extent, with lava-covered peaks, attaining elevations of 8900
feet above the sea, and presenting many hundreds of extinct volcanic craters.

The south-western and the eastern slopes of the island are remarkably con-
trasted in aspect. The lauds facing the Indian Ocean, and the direction of the
jirevailing trade wind, are very fertile, owing to the frequent rains which water
them ; but the leeward or western side is poorly covered with vegetation, and
is but thinly inhabited, except along the courses of the few streams.

3. Products. — Characteristic of the landscape of Madagascar is the
" Ti-aveller's Tree," the leaf stalks of which contain, it may be, a quart of pure
water, even in the driest weather. Among minerals, silver, coi^per, iron, coal,
and salt are found. The fauna of Madagascar is a peculiar one, lemurs or
timid nocturnal half-apes, and insect-feeding animals predominating. There are
none of the larger wild animals which are so common on the continent of
Africa.

4. People. — The Malagesses, as the inhabitants are called, are also in no
way connected with the natives of Africa. They form part of the Malay
family, and follow the same customs as those of the East Indian arcliipelago,
showing also the same tj'i>e of features and using an allied language. They
are divided into three chief tribes — tlie Betsiviasara/MS east, the Sahdavas
west, and Hovas central, the last being the dominant branch. From very early
times the Arabs have visitetl and had colonies on the nortli coast, and with
them came the slave trade, so that in this part of the island there is a con-
siderable admixture of Arab, Swaheli, and negro peoples. Indian traders also
frequent the ports. Cattle-herding and agi-iculture are the main industries of

40 G THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

the island ; silk aud woollen weaving are also carried on ; and beautifully
dyed cloths are made from the fibre of the palm.

5. Government and Chief Towns. — Madagascar forms an independent
kingdom under the rule of a Hova dynasty. Christian missionaries have long
been labouring in the island, and although the last queen but one was a zeal-
ous heathen, her successor in 1869 abolished all the old rites, committed the
idols of the whole nation to the flames, and was subsequently baptized.

The capital, Antanmuirivo, lies on a high plateau near the centre of the
island. Tamatave, the chief seaport on the east coast, is the only other
native place of much importance.

6. The French have several settlements on the northern coasts, which are
under their government, seated in the Comoro Isles. On the north-west coast
they have the island of Nossi Bd, the harbour of which has the little town of
Helle\ille ; the bay of Bali farther south, the Minou islets, and Antomhnk
bay on the extreme nortli of Madagascar, are also theirs ; and on the east
coast they hold the more important possession of the island of Ste. Marie, or
Nossi Burra, which has the fortified port of St. Louis.

Comoro Islands.

7. The Comoro islands, four in number, high and volcanic, lie in the
northern part of the Mozambique channel between IMadagascar and the main-
land. They are inhabited by Arab tribes chiefly, who are under a sultan
resident in the Great Comoro. Mayotta island, however, belongs to France.
The islands carry on a brisk trade mth Zanzibar, Mozambique, and the ports
of Madagascar.

8. Almost due north of Madagascar lie the twin coral groups of the
Amirante and Seychelles islets, both British possessions. These are richly
covered wth palms and date trees, and have excellent harbours.

Mascarenhas Isles.

9. The IVIascarenhas Isles, far out at sea east of Madagascar, comprise
the French island of Bourbon, or lidmion, and the two British, of Mauritius
and Rodriguez. The first has been a French colony since 1649, aud consists
(jf two very high groups of volcanic mountains separated by a plain. It is
extremely fertile, producing large quantities of coffee, sugar, and spices, for
ex}:iort by its capital and chief port of <S7. Denis. Mauritius, called He de
France before it was ceded by the French in 1814, is also famous for the
beauty of its landscape, and for its products like those of Bourbon, aud its
valuable woods. Port Louis and Mahebourg, or Grand Port, are its chief
towns.

SOCOTRA.

10. Opposite Cape Guardafui, the eastmost apex of Africa, lies the island
of Socotra, about as large as our county of Cornwall, rising by terraces to a
consideralile height in the interior. The greater part of the surface is pastoral
table-land within unfertile borders. The aloe plant and the dragon's-blood gum
tree are its chief commercial products. It has a small Arab population, under
a governor appointed by tlie Sultan of Keshin, on the opposite south coast of
Arabia. In 1876 the British political agent at. Aden visited Keshin and
Socotra, and concluded a treaty by which the Sultan agreed never to cede the

ISLANDS EOUND AFEICA. 407

island to any foreign power, and never to allow any settlement on it withont
the consent of the British Government.

Madeira.

11. On the same parallel as central Marocco, 360 miles out in the
Atlantic, lies the Portuguese islet of Madeira, "the wood," a little larger
than the Isle of Man, with its satellites of Porto Santo and the rocky
Desertas. It is famous for its delightful climate, its vintage, and its pic-
tm-esque beauty. Besides its rich fruits, the sugar-cane is now largely culti-
vated and exported from Funchal, its town and port, which is in regular
commimicatiou with Ijiverpool and Lisbon.

Canary Islands.

12. In about 15° N. lat., at no great distance from the shores of Africa, is
situated the Spanish Canary groiq), the " Fortunate Islands " of the Ancients,
also reno^Mied for their fine climate. The seven large islands forming it lie
in an eastern and western division, the former having Lanzarote, Fuerteventiira,
and Gran Canaria ; the latter, Tenerift'e, Gomera, Palma, and Ferro, whence
longitude used to be reckoned. They are all of volcanic origin and high, the
largest and tallest peak^being that of Tenerifa (12,180 feet). The Si^aniards
look upon the Canaries as belonging strictly to the mother country, but the
population is a mixed one, descended from the intermixture of the Spaniards
and the native Guanchos, a brave but peaceful shepherd people. Agriculture,
cattle-breeding, and the cultivation of the cochineal insect, are the industries of
the islands. The most important towns are Las Palnms on Gran Canaria,
St. Christohal and Orotava on Teneriffe.

Cape Verd Islands.

13. Farther south, due west of Cape Verd, lie the fourteen islands named
from it, also of volcanic origin. Nine are inhabited, principally by negroes
and mulattos. Santiago, the largest and most fertile of the grouji, rises to a
height of 7380 feet, and has the chief town. St. Vincent islet is the chief
jioint of the group, both from its excellent harbour, at which a gi'eat coaling
depot has been formed for the Atlantic steamers, and as a station of the Anglo-
Brazilian telegi-aph line. Its aspect is that of a volcanic crater, and it is
utterly barren, presenting gray, brown, and reddish-coloured slopes.

St. Helena and Ascension.

14. We have already noticed the line of volcanic islands which reaches
into the Gulf of Guinea. If we prolong their direction out towards the centre
of the Atlantic, we reach the solitary islet of St. Helena, which rises as a huge
dark mass of rock abruptly from the ocean, reaching a height of 2700 feet in
Diana's Peak. Numerous brooks water it, and plantations of firs and chin-
chona trees cover some parts of it. Its climate is healthy and mild. A gover-
nor ap2:)ointed liy the British Crown commands its garrison of about 200 men,
and about 700 ships call at its port of James Town every year. Ascension,
far north-eastward of it, and equally solitary, is a bare volcanic islet, retained
by Britain mainly as a station at which sliips may touch for stores. In 1871
it had only 27 permanent inliabitants.

AMEEICA.

1. The Great Western Continent, or the "New World," the
second in point of magnitude of the great divisions of the hind on
the globe, reaches north and south between the Atlantic and Pacihc
Oceans, almost from the one polar region of the earth to the other.
It stretches from 80° N. to 55° S. lat., or has a length of more than
9000 miles. Its western or Pacific shores are remarkably continu-
ous, but on the other side the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of
Mexico running in from the Atlantic deeply indent its eastern
margin, separating it into two vast penmsulas, called North and
South America, joined by the long narrow belt of Central America,
the narrowest part of which, the Isthmus of Panama, is only 48
miles broad. In area it is second only to Asia, including about
16,000,000 square miles, or more than four times the extent of
Europe, the northern portion having about 9 millions, the southern
7 millions of square miles.

2. Relief. — The leading features of this continent, distinguish-
ing it from the other great masses of land on the surface of the
globe, are given to it by an immense mountain chain, by far the
longest and of the greatest general elevation of any on the globe,
though many summits of the Himalaya attain greater altitudes.
This great range rises from the waters of the Antarctic Ocean, and
keeping close to the Pacific coast, traverses the entire continent fronj
the Strait of Magellan in the south to Bering Strait in the north.
The slopes of the plains eastward towards the Atlantic and the
direction of flow of the great rivers are thus determined ; and the
presence of this vast barrier, by interrupting the flow of the great
aerial currents, also controls, in a large degree, the conditions of cli-
mate and landscape, of animal and vegetable life over the continent.

The southern portion of this great range, called the Andes, is the most
remarkable on the globe for its continuity of height. The Patagonian and
Chilian Andes reach from Tierra del Fuego and the Strait of Magellan, north-
ward to about the Tropic of Capricorn as a single chain, rising in Aconcagua
(22,422 feet) to the summit of all the continent. Farther north the chain
divides into stupendous ridges or Cordilleras, enclosing between them the wide
and lofty plateaus of Bolivia and Per&, which lie at an elevation of more

NORTH AMERICA

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AMERICA. 409

than 12,000 feet atove the sea. Still farther on, the outer and inner Cordil-
leras draw closer together in Ecuador, or the equatorial country, and north-
ward of this they break into three distinct ranges, one running north-east-
ward and bending along the coast of Venezuela to form the high island of
Trinidad at its extremity, the second pointing northward to terminate at Cape
Gallinas, and the third passing north-westward to form the Isthmus of Panama.

Tlie lowest summit level between the oceans on each side of the Isthmus
of Panama is 285 feet, to the west of the lake of Nicaragua it is only 240 feet,
and on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, 630 feet. Throughout the rest of Central
America there extends a series of table-lands with volcanic cones rising over
them, gradually increasing in elevation as the distance between the seas increases,
till the great wedge-like Plateau of Mexico is reached, the average elevation of
of which is not less than 7000 or 8000 feet. Here the volcanic peak of Popo-
catepetl (17,783 feet), S.E. of the city of Mexico, is the second-highest summit
of all Northern America.

Tlie mass of elevated land, which reaches along the western border of North
America from the plateau of Mexico to the Frozen Ocean, presents three dis-
tinct mountain ranges. The first is the Goast Iia,7igc of the Pacific, extending
from the peninsula of California continuously as far as Vancouver's Island,
which is traversed by its prolongation. From this point northward it is in-
terrupted by the broken coast-line and archipelagoes of British Columbia, but
it again strikes the coast farther north, where the active volcano of Mount St.
Elias (19,500 feet) and Afount Fairiccathcr are its principal summits. It is
this chain also which bends round westward to form the Alaska peninsula
and the line of the Aleutian Islands reaching towards Asia.

The next range inward is that of the Sierra Nevada of California, which is
a direct continuation of the western Cordillera of the plateau of Mexico.
Between latitudes 36° and 37° this chain has its summit in Mount Whitney
(14,898 feet). It stretches continuously northward from the Sierra Nevada,
through Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, where a part of it is
named the Cascade Range, and passes, with decreasing elevation, across Alaska
Territory, to terminate in Prince of Wales Peninsula, on Bering Strait.

The third system is that of the PMcky Mountains. It forms the inner
buttress of the wide table-land of the " Great Basin " which separates it from
the Sierra Nevada, and corresponds to the eastern Cordilleras of the plateau
of Mexico. From one mountain svimmit in Colorado twenty-five peaks, each
of which is more than 14,000 feet in elevation, can be counted, and that
called Blanco, Peak reaches 14,464 feet. The highest part of the Rocky
Mountain range, however, is found in British Columbia, north of the 50th
parallel, where Mount Hooker attains the gi'eat height of 16,760 feet (?).
Northward this range also diminishes in elevation, but terminates in blutf
heights on the shores of the Arctic Ocean.

3. Great lowlands occupy the central region of the American continent.
In North America these central plains reach, in almost unbroken continuity,
from the shores of the Arctic Sea to the Gulf of Mexico, the highest elevation
of all being the "Height of land," in wliich the Mississippi river has its
sources, and which are nowhere more than about 1500 feet above the sea. In
South America also vast levels extend from the i)lains of the Orinoco in the north
across the Amazon basin southward, over the plains of La Plata, into Patagonia.

4. Towards the east the continent again rises ; but the heights of the
Atlantic border are far inferior in elevation to those of the Pacific side of
America. In North America, the high broken coast of Labrador rises from
the Atlantic, and farther south the folded Alleghany ridges attain a height of
6707 feet in their summit, Black Dome Mountain. Beyond the peninsula of
Florida, the high chain of the West India Islands leads across to South

410 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

America, where iheplateavs ofGuayana and of Brazil correspond to the eastern
heights of the northern division of the continent. Here the Montcs Pyreneos,
in the heart of Brazil, attain a height of 9500 feet, and with the Peak of
Katiaiossu (8900 feet), on the coast range to the south of Rio de Janeiro, are
probably the highest points in eastern South America.

5. Rivers and Lakes. — The great lines of mountains on the western side
of the continent divert by iar the greater part of the drainage eastward to
the Atlantic. The four great rivers of North America — tlie Mackenzie flowing
to the Arctic Sea, the Nelson to Hudson Bay, the <S7. Lawrence to its Gulf in
the Atlantic, and the great Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico — are all east of
the Pacific heights. In South America, the Orinoco, the vast Amazon, and
the Paran/i, flow also to the Atlantic.

In North America only three considerable rivers — the TuJcon, in Alaska,
the Columbia, and the Colorado, find their way over the western plateau and
through the gorges of the mountains to the Pacific ; but from South America
not one large stream flows to that ocean.

All the region of North America on the poleward side of the 40th parallel
of latitude is characterised by great lakes, which are more numerous an<l
extensive than those of any other lake region of the globe. Here the basin of
the St. LawTence contains Lake Siiperior, the greatest of all fresh lakes on the
earth, occupjing a space larger than Ireland (32,000 square miles), besides
Huron and Michigan scarcely less extensive, Erie and Onto/rio. Farther
north, in the basins of the Nelson and Mackenzie, are the noble expanse of
Wimiipeff and Deer Lake, Athahascn, the Great Slave and Great Bear Lakes.
But all the rest of the lowland of America is singularly devoid of large lakes.
The jilateau region of the western border bears only two lakes of importance :
the one, the Great Salt Lake, 4200 feet above the sea, in the midst of the
broadest part of the plateau of North America, between the Rocky Mountains
and the Sierra Nevada; the other. Lake Titicaca, Ijing at an elevation of
12,550 feet, in the Bolivian table-land in South America. In the plateau of
Central America, the largest lake is that of Nicaragua, nearly equal to
Ontario in extent, and only 131 feet above the level of the sea.

6. Climate and Landscape. — If we look at the general chart showing
the direction of the prevailing winds, it is noticed that the two great trade-
wind currents sweeping over the Atlantic from north-east and from south-
east, converge towards the equatorial region on apj^roaching the coasts of
America between the tropics. Ha\dng gathered much vapour in their passage
over the sea, these winds bring copious rain-showers to all the region of the
land which lies opposite their path. Thus the huge river Amazon is fed, and
the moist, hot climate of tlie Atlantic slopes of tropical America has
produced over these a dense humid forest growth. All the region of tlie
Amazon basin, of the West India Islands, of Florida, and the coast-lands of
the Gulf of ^Mexico, present this richly wooded landscape. The coast-lands of
this luxuriantly beautiful region, especially those of the mediterranean within
the West Indies, are haunted, however, by the deadly yellow fever. Looking
again at the chart of the winds, we see that the great trade-wind currents of
the Pacific Ocean seem to draw away from the coast of America ;' the north-
east wind from the region about the Californian peninsula in North America ;
the south-east from the central portion of the Pacific coast-land of South
America, along the base of the Andes. Drawing their siipplying currents of
air from over the land, and blowing from cooler; to warmer latitudes, these
winds absorb all moisture, and give no rain supply. Thus, all the region of
southern California, and of the great basin within it, appears bare and dry,
like the Sahara, in its desert landscapes ; and tlnxs, also, the coast-lands of
South America in northern Chile and Peru are rainless and bairen, showing

AMERICA. 411

only a skirt of yellow, sandy waste, excepting where streams descend to cross
it from the heights of the Andes. Between these two extremes, where the
climate graduates from that of the hot and damp equatorial region to
the droughts of the western seaboard, all the central lowlands of America in
the temperate zone have landscapes in which grasses are the ijredominaut
covering of the soil. There are the vast rolling prairies of the basin of the
Mississippi, in North America, reaching from near the Gulf of Mexico away
to the great lake region of the north; and the corresponding "pampas," or
level gi-ass-covered plains of the La Plata basin, in South America, reaching
south from the tropical line, between the South Brazilian plateaus and the
base of the Andes, far away south, into Patagonia. Over these, in contrast to
the equable climate of the equatorial forest region, the variations of tempera-
ture between hot summer and cold winter begin to be very considerable.

Referring again to the wind chart, it is observed that the great currents of
westerly winds, blowing across the Pacific, strike the coasts of the continent
between British Columbia and Alaska in North America, and in Chile in
South America. These winds, like the trade-wiuds of the Atlantic, have been
moving across the wide expanse of the sea, and gathering moisture from it as
they went. On meeting the opposing coasts, this store is released in copious
rain showers over the land. Thus, in British Columbia and in southern Chile
we come again to regions in which rain is abundant, and with this copious
watering, woodland scenery again prevails. Over all that portion of North
America which is reached by the moist westerly winds, from British Columbia
across to Canada and Labrador, pine forests are the characteristic covering
of the land. In southern Chile also the mountain sides facing the damp
westerly current are clothed with forest trees.

The apex of South America lies well within the temperate zone, but North
America, in the same latitudes, is still a broad continental region, which passes
northward across the Arctic Circle to the shores of the icy sea. Here in the
rigorous climate of the margins of the polar ocean the trees become stunted
and small, ami at last give place, as in Siberia, to barren mossy wastes and
frozen swamps, coiTesponding to the " tundras " of the Asiatic border of the
Siberian seas. Here, in the short summer, the surface soil thaws into mud and
marsh, and clouds of mosquitoes till the air ; in winter snows cover the land,
and the lakes are hard frozen for half the year, and the thermometer falls far
below the zero point. Farthest north of all we reach the barren islands of the
Arctic Archipelago, the rocky points showing dark above the covering of snow
and the ice-covered sea round them, and the huge island of Greenland covered
over all its extent, excepting a narrow fringe of its western coast, by one vast
sheet of glacier ice.

7. Plants and Animals. — Tlie polar bear haunts the arctic region of
Old and New Worlds alike, ami in the northern forest region, where pine
and birch are the characteristic trees, the bear and otlier fur-yielding animals
are pursued for their skins. Yet the pines, oaks, birches, and willows of the
American forests are not the same as those which cover the plains and
mountains of Siberia. The prairie region is the home of deer, and of the
bison, called the buffalo in the United States ; an interesting species of sheep,
called the Bighorn, equal in size to the argali of Tibet, is indigenous to the
crags of the Rocky Mountain region of the west, and the great grisly bear, the
most formidable animal of tlie Now World, is found chietiy among these
mountains, and on the table-lands westward of them.

The flora of the moist tropical region of America resembles that of tropi-
cal Africa and Asia in its palms ; no palm forests of such extent as those
of South America exist in any other part of the world. In these woodlands
the jaguar, the only very formidable beast of prey in South America, except

"412 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

the puma, has its home ; here also the great tapir, peccaries, aud the sloth,
anteaters, and armadillos, are found. The opossums of America were the first
known of marsupial or pouched quadrui^eds. Monkeys are rpiite as numerous
in the warm parts of the New World as in those of the Old, and are of many-
species : there are uo gi-eat apes resembling those of Africa or of the East
Indies ; but it is characteristic of all the American monkeys that they have
long tails, and many of them use these appendages to swing from branch to
branch, a peculiarity found in none of the monkeys of the Old World.

The waters of the South American tropical region bear the splendid
Victoria rcc/ia, the most magnificent of the water-lilies, and the forests there
are bound together by " lianas " or twining creepers, so that many parts of
them are impenetrable, and animals find their way between by narrow paths
kept open by constant use. Up in the Cordilleras of the Andes the " chin-
chona " trees yield the celebrated Peravian bark or "quinine," and farther
south, on the mountain slopes, the " araucaria " is a representative of the pines.
The llama and its congeners, the alpaca and vicuna, most nearly allied to the
camels of the old world, inhabit the high Andes of Peru and Chile. The tree-
less plains or pampas of South America have in general a grassy vegetation,
and there the nandu, or American ostrich, is seen in troops ; here also the
puma, or American lion, is now most numerous, though it ranges over all the
continent between Patagonia and tlie United States in the north. Towards
the Strait of Magellan, in Chile, the forest vegetation again assumes a cha-
racter more like that which we are accustomed to in Europe, and the woods
are composed in gi'eat part of a peculiar species of beech. The birds of
America that may be specially noted are the eagles and vultures, among which
is the great condor- of the Andes, the turkeys, the jjarrots of the tropical
forests, the humming-birds, and the strange great-beaked toucans peculiar to
the continent.

Among the numerous serpents of the continent are the great boas and the
venomous rattlesnakes ; alligators abound in the rivers to beyond the tropical
lines. The lakes and rivers abound in fish, of which many belong to the
salmon family, and the cod-fisheries of the Banks of Ne^vfoundland are un-
equalled anywhere in the world in productiveness.

Maize is the only cultivated grain of American origin ; the other useful
gi'ains, with the sugar-cane, the banana and plantain, cofi"ee, cotton, flax, and
many other plants, now widely cidtivated, have been introduced into America
by Europeans. Tobacco, however, is a native product of America, as are the
potato, the arrow-root and tajjioca, cocoa, vanilla, and pimento, or Jamaica
pepper, and the yerba-mate, or tea of Paraguay. The most important mineral
product of North America is its gold, wliich is found on laotli sides of the
Rocky Mountain liighlands on the west, and on the south-east slopes of the
Alleghanies. Rich silver veins are also found in the western region of North
America ; copper, iron, and lead, are also widely spread. No part of the earth
appears to have greater stores of coal than eastern North America, and beside
these also petroleum has been found in great abundance.

In South America the chain of the Andes is so rich in metals, silver and
copper especially, that its name is sujiposed by some to have liad its origin in
the Inca word anta, which signifies minerals. Perhaps no country is richer
in precious stoues than Brazil.

8. People. — The population of the American continent is believed to
amount now to about ninety-eight millions. We have noticed in the former
chapters how the older inhabitants of the continent have been supplauted,
especially in the northern division, by the tide of emigrants from Europe, and
the African slaves they brought. At the present day the aboriginal American
Indians are believed to number about fifteen millions ; they are far more

AMERICA. 418

numeroiis in South America than in the north. It is generally believed that
all the aborigines of America, from Alaska in the far north to Patagonia and
Tierra del Fuego, are of one race. Their tj-pe of nature approaches more
nearly to the Mongolian than to any other : moderately tall and robust in
figure, their soft satin-like skin varies in colour from yellow to olive-brown
or copper colour ; the nose is large and often aquiline, the cheek-bones strong
and projecting ; the eyes small, black, and deep set, with corner turned upward
towards the temple ; the forehead low and broad, the hair black and coarse
and straight. Along with this apparent unity of race, the most wonderful
diversities of speech are found ; it is said that from four to five hundred
difi"erent languages are spoken by the difi'erent sections and tribes of the
American Indians. In mental attributes, earnestness and bravery, the native
Americans rank far higher than the Papuans and Malays of the East Indies,
higher also than the African negi'oes ; we have already seen what a high point
of civilisation the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peni had reached long
before any European knew of the existence of America.

If the American continent was originally peopled, and its ancient civilisa-
tion derived, from Asia, as has been supposed by some, this must have taken
place at a period far more remote than that of the oldest existing culture in
the Old World. The only family in America which presents any distinct
resemblance to the people of Asia of the present day is that of the short, broad-
shouldered seal-hunters, the Eskimos, who are spread all round the Arctic
coasts of America, from the Asiatic side of Bering Strait to Greenland. These
little people are decidedly Mongolian in form, with flat nose, projecting
cheek-bones, oblique eyes, and brown skin, thus presenting marked contrast
to the American Indians.

By far the larger proportion of the inhabitants of America at the present
day, however, have either themselves crossed over the Atlantic from Europe,
or are the descendants of those who have migrated thence since the date of
Columbus's great discovery. We have seen in tlie historical chapters how the
Spaniards, landing first in the West India Islands, spread their conquests across
to the mainland in Mexico, do^vn the coast of the Pacific to Peni and Chile,
and by the great inlet of the La Plata over the vast Argentine plain in the
south. All round these coasts Spanish blood now prevails ; there also half-caste
Spanish and Indian people are very numerous, and by these the true Indian
natives are being pressed more and more into the heart of the continent. All
round the coast-lands of Brazil the Portuguese element is dominant. In Lower
Canada, and in Louisiana about the mouth of the Mississijipi, people of French
extraction are still the most numerous ; but the stronger north European
people, the British and the Germans, now hold by far the largest share of the
North American continent.

9. Religion and Education. — The native American Indians were, and
are, of very various hal)its and stages of advancement. Most are nomadic
hunters ; many tribes are fishers ; some cultivate the soil, and live in settled
habitations, and were agriculturists before the arrival of the Europeans.
Their condition also ranged from that of savages up to the stage of those who
built the grand Temple of the Sun at Cuzco. At present most of the Indian
tribes, especially the ^' Indios hravos," or wild Indians of the South and
Central American forests, remain heathens. Many, however, have been
brought to a certain extent imder the influence of civilisation. The majority
of the inhabitants of America, however, being of European descent, are Chris-
tians, Protestantism prevails in the United States, as in all the possessions of
Protestant powers ; and the Protestant lands of America enjoy the most perfect
religious freedom. Tlie State does not interfere in any way with the Church,
and thus hundreds of independent sects, the most remarkable of which is that of

414 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

the Jlornious, are found in this part of the continent. In all South and Central
America, and in Mexico, the Roman Catholic religion prevails, and there the
tendency is, as far as possible, to be exclusive. In Brazil, for example,
though religious bodies other than Roman Catholics' are tolerated, they are
not permitted to build any place of worship which resembles a church. In
point of education and general advancement, as in religious free<lom, the Pro-
testant lands of America stand very far higher than the Roman Catholic ; and
the lauds of the continent in temperate climates, both South and North, far
above those in which the hot, languid, tropical climate enervates mind and body.
In the United States and Canada, for example, about 86,000 miles of railway
have been built, but the railway lines yet made in South America, all to-
gether, do not extend to nearly a twelfth part of that length.

10. Government. — The whole of America is now more or less com-
pletely under the government of European races, excepting only the negro
state of the island of Haiti, and the aboriginal Araucania in the south of Chile.
America is essentially the continent of Republics. European colonies, when
they threw off the ties of the mother country, almost without exception
formed themselves into free states. An example was first set Vjy the United
States of North America (1776), when the North European popidation rebelled
against restriction in trade and unwelcome taxes. The name of Washington,
famous in this period of American history, is jireserved in the capital city of
the Union. Following this the Spanish colonists, led by Simon Bolivar, also
began to break the bonds which bound them to the home country (1810-
25), and to form the fifteen Creole^ Republics — Mexico, Guatemala, Hon-
duras, San Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, in Central America ; Ven-
ezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, the Argentine Republic,
Uruguay, and Paraguay, in South America. Portuguese Brazil alone of the
South American colonies formed itself into a constitutional monarchy under a
branch of the royal family of Portugal. The Canadian Dominion and New-
foundland alone remain British possessions in the mainland of North America.

GREENLAND.

1 . The great island of Greenland, lying north-east of the main-
land of America, just touches the Arctic Circle at its southern islet
of Cape Farewell, and reaches away northward into the icy region
round the Pole. Its limits in that direction have not yet been dis-
covered, and as yet only the outlines of its rugged coasts as far as
the 80th parallel have been determined. Within these outlines the
known extent of Greenland is about 737,000 square miles, or more
than nine times that of Great Britain. Its eastern coast, facing the
open Arctic sea and the Iceland channel for a distance of about
1500 miles, is swept by the great ice-bearing Greenland cui-rent
from the Polar basin, and is thus almost impossible of approach.
The longer western shores, on the contrary, those next Davis Strait
and Baffin Bay, facing America, have their rigorous climate softened
in some degree by the influence of a warm stream from the Atlantic,

1 The whites of Spanish descent born in America are termed Creoles.

GREENLAND. 415

which passes north towards the narrow channel of Smith Sound,
rendering them habitable as far north as Baffin Bay.

2. But few regions of the earth are less adapted for habitation by man.
Snow falls in every month except that of July, and the average temperature
of the west coast is 10° below the freezing point. The name Greenland,
indeed, is as inappropriate to this laud of desolation as that of " HvidsEerk," or
" White Shirt," given it by its discoverer, is apt in describing the vast ice-
field which covers it over from sea to sea. This greatest of suow-tields in the
world is named the " inland-ice " l)y the Danes ; from it gi-eat glaciers flow
down between the bleak mountain-walls of the innumerable fiords that indent
the coast-line, to break off where they reach the sea in huge icebergs, many of
which are carried by the ocean currents, or drifted by the mnds, far south
into the Atlantic.

3. The western coast-line from Cape Farewell northward for about a
thousand miles has a few small isolated Danish colonies and settlements of
Eskimo fishers scattered along its length. Here the Danes claim an extent of
about 34,000 square miles of the coast lands, and their colonies are divided into
Southern and Northern Inspectorates. Most of the settlements were founded
by Moravian missionaries. Those in the Southern Inspectorate are Frederiks-
thal, the nearest to Cape Farewell ; then Lichtenau and Juliaueshaab, where
there are the most numerous remains of the old Icelandic colonies ; Frederik-
shaab ; Lichtenfels ; Godthaab, the earliest of the modern Greenland colonies
(lat. 64° 10' N.), the residence of the Governor of South Greenland ; New
Herruhut ; Zukkertoppen (named from a remarkable " sugar-loaf " mountain
near it) ; and Holsteinborg.

In the Northern Inspectorate come the settlements of Egedesminde (the
" memory of Egede " the missionary) ; Christianshaab and Jakol)sha\T2, on the
shores of the bay formed by the island of Disco ; Godhavn, on Disco Island
the residence of the Governor of North Greenland ; and Upernavik (lat. 72°
50' N. ), the most northerly permanent settlement in the world. In all,
the Danish colonies of Greenland have about 9500 inhabitants, of whom about
300 are Danish settlers, the rest Eskimo. Outside the Danish territory
there are probably not more than 500 Eskimos, living along the coast north
of Upernavik.

4. The vegetation of even the most favoured spots of the South Greenland
coast is scanty in the extreme, consisting of mosses and lichens, and a few
dwarf birches and willows creeping along the ground, and never reaching a
greater length of stem than three or four feet. The products exported to
Denmark are chiefly sealskins, whale and seal oil, eider down, and " cryolite,"
a mineral found near Frederikshaab, in South Greenland, fi-om which the
metal aluminium is obtained.

5. During the long wnter the Greenland colonists are shut ofl' from com-
munication with Europe by the ice which closes the fiords ; but in summer,
besides the regular vessels frona Denmark, the colonies are frequently touched
at by the British whaling vessels. These ships, most of whicli belong to the
Scottish ports of Dundee and Peterhead, have auxiliary steam ])Ower, and
pass u]) along the western coast of Greenland in early summer, taking advan-
tage of every " lane " and " lead " in the ice which then covers the sea, and
keeping a constant look-out from the "crow's nest" at tlie mast head for the
spout of the whale, till the " north water " of Baffin Bay is readied ; then
they cross over to the American side, and return along it southward to the
Atlantic again when summer has ended.

416 THE LONDOX GEOGRAPHY.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA.^

1. The British dominions in Xorth America occupy all the
immense area of the northern half of the continent, excepting Green-
land, and the Alaska territory which belongs to the United States.
They thns reach across from the Pacific Ocean and the boi;ndary of
the Alaska territory on the west to the Atlantic ; and from the
49th parallel of latitude and the line of the St. Lawrence north-
ward to the farthest known lands of Arctic America in the Icy Sea.
British North America, then, extends over a space which is nearly
as large as all Europe.

Its main divisions, which we shall take up in order, are (1) the
Dominion of Canada, and (2) Newfoundland.

By an Act of Parliament which came into force in 1867, the
formerly separate British provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and Ne^o
Brunswick, were joined under one constitution, and assumed the title
of the " Dominion of Canada." In 1869 the right of government
of the vast fur-hunting grounds of Kupert's Land and of the Hudson
Bay Territory was purchased from the Hudson Bay Company, and
were placed under the government of the Dominion of Canada, and
re-named the North-West Territory. The Comj^any, however, con-
tinues its trading operations without restriction, and retains a small
space round each of its stations. The Lieutenant-Governorship of
Manitoba, in the basin of the Red River, was formed out of a small
part of this territory in 1870.

In the following year British Columbia and Vancouver Island,
on the Pacific slope of the continent, also joined the Dominion, and
Prince Edward Island was added in 1873, so that the Dominion of
Canada now includes the whole of the British North American pos-
sessions, excepting Neicfoundland.

The constitution of the Dominion of Canada is similar to that

Area in sq. miles.

Population.

1 Dominion of Canada, provinces of, Ontario .

107,780

1,623,601

Quebec

193,355

1,195,475

New Brunswick

27,322

286,313

Nova Scotia

21,731

387,584

Manitoba .

13,967

12,228

Prince Edward Island

2,173

94,004

British Columbia

356,000

45,739

North-West Territory

2,483,000
3,205,344

33,149

3,178,096

Newfoundland

42,734

161,374

British North Americas

3,248,078

3,839,470

2 Excepting the Bernuxda Islands, the West Indian and Central American possessions.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA. 41 7

of Great Britain. The executive power is exercised by a Gover-
nor-General appointed by the Crown, the legislative authority is a
Senate, nominated by the Executive, and a House of Commons
elected by the people. Each province, however, under its Lieuten-
ant-Governor, has a separate Parliament, and administers its own
internal affairs.

CANADA PROPER.

2. Canada proper, the territory ceded to Britain by France in
1763, occupies the northern watershed of the great river St. Law-
rence from the shores of Lake Sujserior down to the Strait of Belle-
isle, and also the country south of tlie St. LawTence between the
United States boundary marked out by the 45th parallel of lati-
tude and by the coast of Chaleur Bay, which opens into the Gulf of
St. Lawrence. Canada reaches for about 1300 miles from west to
east, and embraces an area more than five times larger than that of
England.

3. Rivers and Lakes. — Its great physical feature is its noble river, the
St. Lawrence. During the gi-eater part of the year this river is navigable for
the largest vessels for nearly 600 miles up from the sea to Montreal. Above
that place the channel is obstructed by falls and rapids, but the ujiward navi-
gation is continued by canals, which unite Montreal with Kingston, on the
wide expanse of Lake Ontario, where many steamers are busily employed in
constant traffic. Another canal carries the navigation from Lake Ontario past
the stupendous falls of Niagara (160 feet high) to Lake Erie ; from that the
channels named the Detroit and St. Clair lead up to the still grander expanses
of Huron and Michigan ; finally, ascending the St. Mary River, we reach Lake
Superior, the greatest of all fresh-water lakes, occupying a space as large as
Ireland. Along this magnificent waterway (1291 miles from Chicago to
Montreal) vessels of 1500 tons now l)ring the grain and otlier produce of the
Western United States for consumption in Europe. The Saguenay, the St.
Maurice, and the Ottawa are the great aflluents of the St. Lawi-ence from the
north ; the Richelieu, from Lake Champlain, which lies within the boundary
of the United States, is the chief trilmtary from the southward.

4. Climate. — The climate of Canada passes between the extremes of
great heat in summer and severe winter cold, with short intervals between
these seasons. Yet the long winter has generally a cloudless sky and clear
bracing air. The climate of the eastern region becomes more rigorous as it
approaches the borders of Labrador, along the coasts of which the icy current
from Baffin Bay flows southward ; the estuary of the St. Lawrence remains
blocked by ice for aliout five months ; towards the west the climate becomes
much milder, and on the shores of Lake Ontario the sledging time of winter
lasts for only as many weeks as it does months on the shores of the Lower
St. Lawrence ; while tlie summer is so hot that maize ripens in the open, to-
gether with gi'apes, melons, nectarines, apricots, and tomatoes.

5. Products. — At the time of its first .settlement by Europeans, Canada
was covered witli unbroken forests, and thougli mucli land has been cleared
by the axe, the woods of pine, maple, beech, and oak still form the
great natural wealth of the land. The cleared districts have an exceedingly

418 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

fertile soil, on which abundant crops of the same kinds of grain and vegetables
as we have in England are raised.

Round Lake Superior the country is exceedingly rich in coi^per ; iron,
coal, lead, gi'anite, and marble are also found in Canada ; and the petroleum
wells of some districts are remarkably productive. The fisheries also of the
Gulf of St. La^vTence, and its neighbouring waters, are among the most valu-
able in the world.

6. Divisions and People. — Canada proper consists of two divisions,
formerly called Upper and Lower Canada, which were imited in government
previous to 1867, when, on the formation of the "Dominion," they were dis-
associated, and became provinces of the new federation under the names of
Ontario and Quebec.

The province of Ontario lies between Lake Superior and the Ottawa river,
fronting on the Upper St. Lawrence and the Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, and
Superior. It is the most important part of British North America, and is
thickly settled on the south, along the river and the lake shores, by a popn-
lation which is mainly of British descent, with a considerable infusion of
Germans and Dutch. The northern and north-western parts are still forest-
covered.

The province of Quebec occupies both sides of the St. Lawrence from the
Ottawa river to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The river valley itself is very
fertile, but the country north-east of the Saguenay is almost incapable of
cultivation from the severity of the climate there. The inhabitants of this
province are in great part descendants of the original French settlers ; they
are called habitans ; many of them speak a corrupt French dialect and keep
np peculiar manners and customs, and they are Roman Catholics in religion.
Besides these there remain a few Indians — Chippeways, Mohawks, or Iro-
quois — some of them settled in the villages, others still nomadic himters.

7. Industries. — The chief industries of Canada are those of agriculture,
stock-raising and dairy-farming, "lumbering" or timber trade and forestry,
shipbuilding, fisheries, and miaiag. An extensive trade is maintained with
the United States and England, the exports being timber, fish, and furs,
with dairy produce and live stock ; meat also is now brought in quantities
to England. When the St. Lawrence is closed in winter, the outlet of trade
is by railway from Montreal to Portland in the State of Maine.

8. Chief Towns. — The capital and seat of government of the Canadian
Dominion is at Ottawa, on the right bank of the river of that name, 87 miles
above its confluence with the St. LawTence, and close to where the river rushes
over the splendid cataract called the Chaudiere Falls. Montreal, however, is
the largest city of Canada (120,000). It has extensive trade and manufactures,
and from it the magnificent Victoria tubular bridge carries the Grand Trunk
Railway of Canada across the St. Lawrence, which is here two miles wide.
Quebec, the capital of the lower province, is the gi-eat shipping place for the
Lower St. Lawrence, and is a picturesque old town, with walls and fortifica-
tions. Near it are the memorable Plains of Abraham. Toronto, on the north-
west shore of Lake Ontario, is the local capital of the western provinces and
the educational centre of the Domiuion, possessing a university and numerous
schools. Three Rivers is a flourishing town at the mouth of the St. Maurice,
about midway between Montreal and Quebec.

NEW BRUNSWICK.

9. The province of New Brunswick, a territory about half the
extent of England, lies between the province of Quebec and the

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA. 419

State of Maine, and has an eastern coast-line to the Giilf of St.
Lawrence and a southern to the Bay of Fimdy, which runs in from
the Atlantic to form the peninsula of Nova Scotia.

10. Its highlands and valleys are more completely covered with forest
than any other part of British America. Its most considerable rivers are the
St. John, which enters from the northern part of the State of Maine and flows
south to the Bay of Fundy ; and the Ristigouche, which forms the boundary
between Quebec and New Brunswick, flowing east to Chaleur Bay. The
climate is a rigorous one, like that of Quebec.

11. The people of New Brunswick are partly Acadiaus, or descendants of
old French settlers, Anglo-Americans, and British, besides a few remaining
Indians. Lumbering, farming, fishing, and shipbuilding are the characteristic
industries here, as in Eastern Canada. Fredericton, on the St. John River, is
the seat of local government of the province and the university town ; but St.
John, at the mouth of the river, is the commercial capital.

NOVA SCOTIA.

12. The peninsula of Nova Scotia, nearly severed from New
Brunswick by the Bay of Fundy, and Gcqje Breton Island, separated
from the latter on its north side by the narrow Gut of Canso, form
another province of the Dominion. They may be compared in
joint area to Scotland south of the line of the Forth and Clyde, and
have, like it, a much broken coast-line ; the island of Cape Breton
especially being nearly divided by the long Gulf of Bras d'Or.

13. The province is a most important one, especially on account of its
mineral wealth ; both divisions of it have extensive coal mines ; iron and
gypsum are also very abundant. Coming within the influence of the warm
Gulf Stream, the climate of Nova Scotia is milder and more equable than
that of the inland provinces. Its cod, mackerel, and salmon fisheries rank
next in value to those of Newfoundland.

14. The people are of various origin, French, English, Irish, Scotch, and
Anglo-American, there being also a few Indians and negroes, the descendants
of escaped slaves.

The capital, Halifax, on the south-east or Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia,
possesses a splendid harbour, and is the chief British naval station in Nortli
America. It carries on a large business also in coal and shipbuilding.
Sydney, the chief place in Cape Breton Island, has also a good harl)Our.

15. The Magdalen Islands, a small group near the centre of the Gulf of
St. Lawrence, are inhabited by about 2000 fishers. Sable Island, 90 miles
out in the Atlantic from the coast of Nova Scotia, is formed of sand-hills, and
rises on a dangerous bank, which has been the scene of many shipwrecks.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

16. This island, which is about the same size as our English
county of Norfolk, lies in the wide soiithern bay of the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, and is separated from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
by Northumberland Strait.

420 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

It was formerly called St. John, but its name was changed in honour of
Edward, Duke of Kent, who was commander-in-chief of the British forces in
America at the end of the eighteenth century.

17. Its coasts present cliffs of red sandstone, and are deeply indented.
Large portions of its surface have been cleared of their original forests, and
its fertile soil yields far more grain and vegetables than its inhabitants require.
Its fisheries are also very profitable. People of Scotch descent are most
numerous. Charlotte Town, its little capital, is a busy trading place.

NORTH-WEST TERRITORY.

18. By this name is now imderstood all the vast region of
North America through which the trading stations of the Hudson
Bay Company are scattered. It extends from the boundary of the
United States away north to the Arctic Ocean, and from the inner
watershed of Labrador westward to the heights of the Rocky
Mountains, and its area is nearly thirty times that of Great Britain.

19. The greater part of this huge territory is occupied by prairies and inter-
minable forests, which reach away north to the limit of tree-growth, when the
landscape changes to that of a monotonous stony or mossy waste of frozen soil,
resembling that of the Siberian Tundras. This arctic belt is named the
" Barren Grounds," in contrast to the more southerly region, where fur-bearing
animals — foxes, wolves, beavers, bears, and otters — moose and rein-deer, besides
an immense variety of wild fowl, are found in the forests and prairies.

20. The North-west Territory is also eminently characterised by great
rivers and lakes and swamps. Its gi-eatest river is the Mackenzie, whose
chief tributaries, the Athabasca, Peace, and Liard, flow down to it from the
Rocky Mountains. Its channel also expands in the great lakes of Athabasca,
the Great Slave and Great Bear Lakes. The Mackenzie and its lakes are
closed by ice for more than half the year (October till June). The Back or
Great Fish Paver drains the north-eastern country to the Arctic Ocean,
but almost the whole of the southern region, formerly known as Rupert's
Land (a name given in honour of Prince Rupert, one of the founders of the
Company in 1670), lies in the basins of the rivers which fall into Hudson Bay.
Largest of these is the Nelson, the head streams of which are the Saskat-
chewan rivers, which flow down fi'om the Rocky Mountains to form Lake
Winnipeg, from which the Nelson issues.

The Churchill is also an important river of the Hudson Bay drainage,
carrying to it the surplus waters of the Woolaston and Deer Lakes. These
gi-eat rivers and lakes, with their many tributaries, form a network of high-
ways throughout this vast territory, and long journeys are accomplished by
their means by the traders, who carry their bark canoes from one stream to
another by the " portages " at the points where they approach one another
most closely.

21. The thinly-scattered population of the north-west territory consists of
the European servants of the Fur Company, of half-breeds, and of Indians
belonging to a multitude of small tribes, those of the Chippeways, Blackfeet,
and Crees being the most considerable. The Company has upwards of a hun-
dred stations or " forts " dotted over the wide region, and used as depots for
collecting the furs trapped in its neighbourhood. The most important of
these is Fort York, on a marshy site near the west coast of Hudson Bay, sur-
rounded with forests of stunted pine. The Comiiany's ships reach this place

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA. 421

from England in August, when the sea is free of ice, bringing stores and pro-
visions for the forts, and they load with furs, and leave again for home in
September, when the ice begins to close the bay again.

MANITOBA.

22. This small province (about a third of the size of England)
was formerly known as the Red River Settlement, a colony which
was begun in 1811. It is a section of the southern fertile belt of
the North-west Territory immediately adjoining the boundary of the
United States, and includes part of the lower basin of the Assini-
boine and of the Red River, which flows from the United States
northward to Lake Winnipeg. It is a prairie country with a rich
soil, and its pastures are admirably adapted for sheep and cattle
rearing, which are its chief industries. The severe winter season,
however, lasts for five months.

23. Its seat of government is at Winnipeg (Fort Garry), near the conflu-
ence of the Red River and the Assiniboine, and the Lieutenant-Governor of
Manitoba has also charge of the North-west Territory. The early settlers of
the Red River Settlement were from the Scottish Highlands, who were after-
wards joined by Canadians and half-breed hunters from the North-west Terri-
tory and Canada. The gi-eater part of the population at the present day is
half-breed and Indian. That section of the Canadian Pacific Railway which
extends from Lake Superior to Manitoba now being nearly completed, will no
doubt lead to a considerable inflow of settlers.

BRITISH COLUMBIA.

24. Until the year 1858 all the western region of the present
Canadian Dominion, extending from the crest of the Rocky Moun-
tains over the high ranges and plateaus down to the Pacific coast,
and from the frontiers of the United States in 49° to latitude 60°
N., including also the large island surveyed in 1762 by Captain
Vancouver, was held by the Hudson Bay Company under lease
from the British Crown. In that year the two colonies of British
Columbia, or the mainland region, and of Vancouver Island were
formed. These two were amalgamated into one colony in 1867,
and, as avc have seen, the colony of British Columbia and Vancouver
joined the Canadian Dominion in 1871.

25. British Columbia is a region of great extent, nearly as large as France.
Most of it lies on tlie high broken plateau that stretches between the Rocky
Mountains and the Cascade and Coast ranges. The coast-line is indented witli
deep " fiords," like those of Norway, and the interior is traversed by the deep
ravines in which the Frascr river and its tributary the Thom2)son, as well as
the Skeena or ,Sim])S07i and Stikinc rivers, find their way down to tlie Western
Ocean. Its mountain ranges and slopes are covered with jiine forest, affording
magnificent timber ; between the ranges on the ))lateau there are wide grassy
])rairies. The climate, though milder than that of Canada in the lower valleys,

422 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

is severe in the higher levels ; frost and suow reign there for half the year, and
the summer climate is very variable.

Vancouver Island is about 300 miles long, and is formed by a high pine-
covered mountain ridge descending by the walls of hords and inlets to the
rocky coast. The gi'oup called the Queen Charlotte Islands also belongs to
the province.

26. The colony owes its importance mainly to the discovery of gold along
the banks of the Frazer river, and to the extensive coal mines of Vancouver
Island. Its population, however, is still very small ; there are only about
10,500 Europeans; the majority consists of aboriginal Indians (32,000) in a
nundier of tribes, the Selish and Loucheux being the largest.

Victoria, on the south-east coast of Vancouver Island, is the chief town
of the colony, and the seaport of the island. Netv WestTiiinstcr, on tlie
Eraser river, about fifteen miles from its mouth, is the most considerable
place on the mainland. The Frazer is navigable to this point for large vessels,
and smaller river steamers can jiass upward for 158 miles to Fort Hope.

NEWFOUNDLAND.

27. The island of Newfoundland forms a British province, dis-
tinct as yet from the Dominion of Canada, and its government
extends over the mainland coast strip of Labrador.

Newfoundland, so named from its having been re-discovered by
Cabot in 1497, is separated from the mainland of Labrador by the
difficult passage called the Strait of Belle-Isle, which is only ten miles
wide at its narrowest point. It encloses the Gulf of St. LawTence
on the east, and its remaining coasts are washed by the Atlantic.
Its area is about a fourth larger than that of Scotland, and, like that
country, its coasts have many deep bays and inlets.

28. Its surface is covered vvith lakes and ponds, rounded hills called
'' tolts," swamps, bare mossy tracts, and woods of pine and birch ; and its
climate is rigorous and severe, especially along the north and east coasts, owing
to the quantity of ice which is brought down by the Labrador current fi'Oiu
the Greenland seas, and the dense fogs which rise when the cold current meets
the warm Gulf Stream from the south. In the interior, however, the climate
is more favourable to agriculture, and the fertile valley of the Grand River
affords accommodation for a hundred thousand settlers.

29. The cod-fisheries on the vast submarme bank, 400 miles long, which
extends south-east from the island, are the greatest and most important in the
world. They constitute the wealth and give employment to almost all the
inhabitants, who live for the most part along the south-east coast. St. John's,
on the coast of the south-eastern peninsula, is the capital, the port and com-
mercial town of the island. The British Atlantic telegraph cable touches
American land first at " Heart's Content " in Trinity Bay, one of the inlets
which divides off the south-eastern peninsula, and is carried across the south
of the island to Placentia Bay, and thence across the Gulf of St. Lawrence to
tlie mainland.

30. The Labrador coast is one of the most desolate regions of the world,
but affords good harbours, so that the valuable seal, whale, and salmon and
herring fisheries of its seas can be busily prosecuted in the summer months.
The few permanent stations on its rocky coast are occupied by people who,
when they are not occupied in the fishery, employ themselves in the capture

ALASKA. 423

of fur animals during the long -winter. The greater part of the permanent in-
habitants are Eskimos, among whom the Moravians keep up the mission
settlements of Hopedale, Zoar, Nain, Okak, Hebron, and Ramah.

31. The island of Anticosti (a political dependency of Quebec) has no
inhabitants save the keepers of its lighthouse, for its 3150 square miles of
surface present only rocky hills and swamps. Oil' the south coast of New-
foundland the islets of St. Pierre and 31iquelon-Lancjlade belong to France,
and are well peopled by fishers.

32. Tlie arctic coasts of America, and the archipelago of islands
which extends beyond closely packed round by thick ice-floes that
fill the straits and channels between them, are of no value or in-
terest excepting that each point along their shores has been the
scene of the hardiest exploits of the voyagers who discovered them
during the long-continued attempts to find a navigable north-west
passage to the Pacific. The sole human inhabitants of the southern
parts of this dreary region are a few wandering families of Eskimo,
who live in huts of snow-blocks, travel about in sledges drawn by
dogs, live on the flesh of the seal, and clothe themselves with its
skin.

ALASKA.

1. The great promontory of western Arctic America nearest
Asia, marked oft' by the 1 4 1 st meridian of west longitude, as well
as a part of the coast-land extending southward along the Pacific to
about the parallel of 54° N., with its dependent islands, was for-
merly the hunting-ground of a Russian fur company. In 1867,
however, this great region, which extends over an area about ten
times as large as England, was sold to the United States, and has
since been kno^wai as the Alaska Territory.

2. It is for the most part a forest country, excepting along the bare
frozen lands next the Arctic Sea, and is valuable chiefly for its fur animals and
for the sea-otters of its coasts. The gi-eat river Yukon, rising in the moun-
tains of the north part of British Columbia, passes through the midst of it.

3. Its inhabitants include only about 300 whites (Americans and Rus-
sians), most of whom live in the settlement of Sitka or New Archangel, on
the west coast of the island of Baranov, one of the southern coast grouj).
Inuit or Eskimo, Aleutian Islanders and American Indians, form the rest of
the scanty population.

4. The long chain of the Aleutian Islands extends the line of the Alaska
peninsula roimd the south of Bering Sea towards the coast of Kamtcliatka.
These islands are about sixty in number, and are all of volcanic formation,
craggy and desolate, their rigorous climate forbidding the growth of any larger
vegetation than stunted bushes, grass, and lichens. Reindeer and foxes are
plentiful, however, and the seas round them abound in seals, sea-otters, and
fish. Their inhabitants, who are very few in numbers, are of Kamtchatkian
origin. The largest islands are Unalashka, Umnak, Atcha, and Atta, the last
being neareet to Asia.

424 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

UNITED STATES.^

1. Extent. — The republic of the United States is by far the
most populous, wealthy, and progressive country of all the New
World. It occupies the most valuable portion of the North Ameri-
can continent, the whole of it (with the exception of the territory of
Alaska) lying within the temperate zone, between Canada on the
north and Mexico on the south, and reaching across from the
Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Its boimdary towards the Canadian
Dominion passes through the Haro or northern channel of the Strait
of San Juan de Fuca, south of Vancouver Island, and thence along
the 49th parallel of latitude to Lake Superior ; then midway
through the centre of the great lakes to the St. Lawrence, and down
that river to the 45th parallel, and an irregular boundary which
separates New Brunswick from the States of New York and Maine,
terminating at Passamaquoddy Bay. In the south the Mexican
frontier rims from the Pacific coast, northward of the peninsula of
California, to the Eio Grande del Norte, which it follows to the Gulf
of Mexico. From Atlantic to Pacific, the breadth of the United
States is not less than 2500 miles ; and from north to south the
country extends through 24 degrees of latitude, or nearly 1700
miles. Its area may be best compared with that of Europe itself,
or to fifty times that of England and Wales.

2. Physical Features. — The surface of the United States
naturally divides itself into four great regions — viz. the Atlantic
highland and plain in the east, the central Mississippi valley, the
western highland, and the Pacific slope.

3. (1.) The Atlantic section includes the curving ridges of the Alleghany
Afountains, which extend fi-oni the St. Lawrence south-westward towards the
Gulf of Mexico. Their highest point is iu the seaward ridge called the Blue
Mountains, near the centre of the length of the chain. Black Dome Moun-
tain, the summit, is 6707 feet high. The gi-adual slope from the Alleghanies
to the sea is named the Atlantic plain ; it varies in width from being a mere
strip of coast in the north to a breadth of 300 miles in the south. The drain-
age of this division is mainly into the Atlantic Ocean, its most imjjortaut
rivers being the Hudson, which reaches the sea at New York ; the Delcnvare,
flowing into the bay of its name past Philadelphia ; the Susquehanna and
Potomac, entering the spacious inlet of Chesapeake Bay ; the Eoayioke, Cape
Fear River, Santee, Savannah, and AUamalia.

Though wholly in the temperate zone, this section has a variety of climate,
colder on the north and warmer towards the south ; its winters colder than
those of the Pacific slopes of the continent in the same latitudes. Its natural

Area in sq. miles. Population.

1 United States, main division (1880) . . 3,002,852 49,000,000

Alaska teiTitory 577,390 27,500

3,580,242 49,027,600

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 425

resources and wealth lie mainly in its mines of iron and coal, in its timber-
yielding woods, its fertile soil, its navigable rivers, water power, and generally
advantageous situation for commerce. It has thus become the seat of the
greatest manufacturing industry of the States, and is likewise busy in agricul-
ture and commerce.

4. (2.) The central region is an immense valley or basin, reaching from
the long western slope of the Alleghanies across to the eastern base of the
Rocky Mountains, and occupjing fully half the area of the United States. In
general it has a gradual slope from the " Height of Land," along the northern
boundary of the States next the British Possessions, to where it merges in the
low shores of the Gulf of Mexico in the south. Much of it is undulating and
some parts are hilly, especially where the Washita and Ozark hills run out
eastward from the western highland towards the Mississippi.

The Mississippi-Missouri, one of the greatest rivers in the world, drains
this broad central basin southward to the Gulf of Mexico. The main tribu-
tary, the Missouri, rises in, and receives its tributaries from, the Rocky Moun-
tains, and has a course of nearly 3000 miles before it joins the Mississippi.
The latter more voluminous river has a shorter course from a cluster of small
lakes not far west of Lake Superior. The great affluent of the united river
from the east is the Ohio; and from the west the Arkansas and Red River
are the largest of those which flow to it from the Rocky Mountain slope. The
Mississippi itself is navigable for 1200 miles upward from the sea to the Falls
of St. Anthony in 45° N., but each of its main tributaries also affords a water-
way for commerce. Several large rivers also find their way south independ-
ently to the Gulf of Mexico. The most important of these are the Ajtpala-
chicola and Mobile, east of the Mississippi ; and the Brazos and Colorado,
with the boundary river, the Rio Grande del Norte, westward of it. The
climate of the northern portions of the Mississippi basin is excessive — the
summers being hot and sultry, the winters cold with heavy snows ; but
towards the Gulf of Mexico the climate becomes semi-tropical, and the winters
mild and jileasant.

Rich natural prairie land is characteristic of all the central basin of the
Mississijipi, so that its great industry, now that it has been occupied by
civilised men, is that of agiiculture. In the north wheat and maize are the
chief crops ; in the southern region, cotton, tobacco, and sugar are the charac-
teristic products of the lowlands, indeed this is the greatest cotton-growing
region in the world. The northern region is also to some ex'tent forest-covered,
and it is rich in valuable minerals, so that here, as in the Atlantic slope,
manufactures are rapidly extending.

Towards the base of the Rocky Mountains, in the west, a belt of dry
country, deficient in rainfall, is reached. Much of it in the spaces between
the rivers is sterile, and the southern portion of it has been named the
"American Desert."

5. (3.) The western highland includes the grand range of the Rocky
Mountains and the Sierra Nevada and Cascade chain, with the bi-oad jjlateau
region which extends between them.

The Rocky Mountains form the great water-parting of the United States.
Towards tlie east, as we have seen, they send off great tributaries to the Mis-
sissippi. Towards the west the two great rivers wliich descend to the Pacific
from tliese heights are the Oregon or Columbia, on the north, flowing across
the plateau and down through the Cascade range witli rapid current ; and the
Colorado, which has cut for itself a most remarkable "canon," or narrow
gorge in the plateau, through which it rushes, several thousand feet beneath
the general level of the country, to the head of the Gulf of California.

These two rivers thus mark out a northern and a southern basin in the

426 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

plateau region of tlie western highland : a third division between these two is
known as the " Great Basin of Utah,'' and has the Great Salt Lake for its
central point. All this highland region within the enclosing mountains is
characterised by drought and sterility, so that the most of it is valueless for
agriculture ; but, as if in compensation for this, it is exceedingly rich in mines
of sUver and gold, so that mining is the great occupation of its inhabitants.

6. (4.) The Pacific slope descends to the ocean from the crests of the
Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges over the lower elevations and coast hills,
which enclose between them the great valley of California, with its port of San
Francisco, and the valleys of Oregon. The slope averages 150 nules in width.
Vast forests cover the outer slopes of the mountains ; the great Wellingtonia
pines of the Sierra Nevada are the hugest trees in the world. Gold, silver, and
(juicksilver are abundant in California, and the rich sod of the coast valley
yields heavy crops of grain and vegetables. There raining, agriculture, and
forestry are the leading industries of this division, with the outward commerce
that rises from these, and which is facilitated by the neighbourhood of the sea.

The climate here differs from that of the coiTesponding Atlantic slope in
being generally milder and in being divided into two seasons, the rainy winter
and the dry summer.

7. People. — We have sketched the early history of the United States in
a former chapter, and have shown how its Atlantic borders were peopled by
settlers from almost every country of Western Europe. It was not, however,
till after peace had been established between England and the independent
States in 1815 that immigi'ation to this part of America began to flow on a
great scale. The famines of the following years gave the first impulse to
immigi'ation from Germany, and from that time onward an uninterrupted
stream of population has kejit on flowing into the United States. The numbers
of emigrants from all parts of Europe in the ten years previous to 1830 was
150,000 : in the ten years between 1860 and 1870 the numbers had risen to
nearly 4^ millions. Though the pojiulation thus increased mainly by addi-
tions from many nations, the greater number of the earlier colonists and a
gi'eat part of those who arrived later were British, so that the English language
and English customs became those of the new country. Perhaps mainly
through the influence of climate, however, an American type of men has been
developed in the United States fi'om the European stock, possessing character-
istics of feature and mode of thought which enable it to be clearly distin-
guished from the British. We have also already touched upon the history of
African slavery in the United States, as well as of those events which led to its
aliolition throughout the country, and to the amendment of the original con-
stitution, by which all former slaves were admitted to the privileges of citizen-
ship. Out of the whole population in 1870, 33 J millions were white men and
nearly 5 millions " men of colour," or people of African origin. The Indian
aborigines within the limits of the States had at that date been reduced to
384,000, and all the remnants of their tribes are now completely under the
control of the government of the United States. Though the nundiers of these
Indian aliorigines have been very greatly diminished by the long-continued con-
flicts with the ever-advancing tide of white men, it is to be remembered that
even at the time of the discovery of the northern portion of the continent they
were by no means a numerous race. In recent years there has been a very
considerable immigration of Chinese to the Pacific slope of the United States.
In 1875 their numbers had reached 148,000.

8. Religion and Education. — As the constitution of the United States
grants perfect equality to all creeds and religions, nearly all the sects and
denominations existing in Europe are represented ; the most numerous bodies,
however, are those of the dissenters from the Church of England, the Method-

UNITED STATES OF AMEEICA. 427

ists, Baptists, and Cougregationalists. Education is general, and every effort
is made by Government to promote it ; yet, owug to tlie recent existence of
slavery, and the constant influx of n\inibers of uneducated emigi-ants, a large
proportion of i^eople ignorant of the tirst rudiments of knowledge still exists.
There are 130 colleges for training in general knowledge or particular pro-
fessions, the oldest of all being the Harvard University of Cambridge in
Massachusetts, which dates ft'om the year 1636.

9. Government. — By the constitution of the Republic of the United
States the government of the nation is entrusted to three separate authorities ;
the executive power, vested in a President elected for a period of four years,
aided in his administration by a Cabinet of ministers ; the legislative, resting
in a Congi'ess, consisting of a Senate and House of Representatives ; and the
judicial, the supreme court, for the administration of civil and criminal law,
holding annual session at Washington.

In 1873 the territory of the United States was divided for military jrar-
poses into eleven departments, but the standing army is limited to 25,000,
and is scattered in small detachments over the country, but chiefly round
the districts inhabited by the aboriginal Indians. The naval force includes
24 ironclads, and the navy yards lie along the Atlantic coast.

10. Division. — The political division of the country is into 38 States, 8
organised Territories, and an Indian Territory ; the District of Columbia,
which surrounds the capital city of Washington, and the separate Temtory
of Alaska. Each of the States has a separate constitution, which is of the same
form in all of them, a governor and senate administering their internal affairs.
Each returns two senators and a number of representatives to the Congress
of the Union proportioned to the population at the latest census. The organised
Territories are those portions of the far western region which have not yet
advanced to the grade of States ; they are represented in Congress, however,
by one delegate from each. The immense extent of land within the boundary
of the United States which is not yet inhabited or cultivated is held to be
national property, at the disposal of the Congress ; this public domain is sm--
veyed and divided for the purposes of sale into " townships " of six miles
square, which are again subdivided into " sections."

These States and Territories may be more conveniently classified according
to their geograj^hical position into four groups, corresponding to the four
natural divisions of the country previously described — viz. the Atlantic States,
the Central States, the States and Territories of the western highland, and the
States and Territories of the Pacific coast.

11. {\) The Atlantic States. — This group maybe conveniently
divided into three sections, as follows : —

r Maine.

j New Hampshire.

Vermont.

Massachusetts.

Rhode Island.

Connecticut.
( New York.

New Jersey,

B. The Middle Atlantic States \ i.,*^""!''^ vania.

Maryland.

Delaware.

(District of Columbia.)

A. The New England States

428 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY,

G. The South Atlantic States

( Virginia.

I West Virginia,

J North Carolina.

South Carolina.

Georgia.

Florida,

12. Some physical features are common to the whole group of the Atlantic

States. Nearly throughout its extent we find first a level sandy plain, extend-
ing from the seaboard into the interior ; then farther inland a rolling hilly
belt called the middle region, which in turn rises into the long ridges of the
Alleghany system of mountains. There are, however, marked differences
between the divisions of the group. In the first place, the great difference of
latitude between the extremities of the group north and south introduces a
wide variation of climate. The northern di\'ision, or that of the New England
States, belongs to the colder part of the temperate zone, the southern to its
warmer belt. The ice formed during the hard winter in Maine and its sur-
rounding States is very acceptable in the warm winterless southern States of
Carolina and Florida ; cotton, rice, and oranges, which will not gi'ow ui the
New England States, flourish in the southern division. In the New England
division the forests and the rapid streams, giving abimdant water-power, have
made "lumbering" and shipbuilding the characteristic industries of that
section ; the coal and iron of the Middle States again, and their easy com-
munication through fine harbours on the Atlantic, and by river and canal and
railway with the western interior, have rendered mining, manufacturing, and
commerce the great occupation of that division ; while the warm climate and
wde coast plains of the southern division give it pre-eminent advantages for
agriculture, so that the cultivation of cotton, tobacco, and rice has become its
distinctive industry.

13. The Atlantic States, being the oldest settled and most densely peopled
region of the country, include the greater number of the large cities of the
United States. Boston, on Massachusetts Bay, named in honour of some of
the Pilgrim Fathers, who came from Boston in Lincolnshire, is the great
city of the New England division. It ranks second in foreign commerce,
and is specially distinguished as the literary metropolis, and for its great
public libraries and schools. The manufacturing towm of Providence, in the
State of Rhode Island, is the second place in importance in the New England
division.

The Middle Atlantic States, however, are those in which commerce and
manufactures have raised the greatest centres of population. Foremost of
these is iVcw York, the great business emporium of the New World, second
only in commercial importance to London. It lies at the mouth of the
Hudson, on the narrow island of Manhattan. Round its magnificent harbour
of New York Bay, enclosed between Long and Staten Islands, the suburbs of
Brooklyn, Jersey City, and Uobokcn have risen into great cities. Two-thirds
of the imports brought into the United States enter here. Broadway, in
New York, is a grand street of miles in length, lined with great hotels and
splendid buildings of marble and iron ; and the Central Park is one of the finest
of pleasure-gardens. Philadelphia, on the Delaware River in Pennsylvania,
comes next to New York in population, and its manufactures exceed those of
any other town of the United States in value. Baltimore, in Maryland, on
Chesapeake Bay, is a great commercial city and seaport. The small district
of Columbia, on the Potomac River, enclosed within the State of Maryland, is
a political territory surrounding the city of Washington, the capital of the

UNITED STATES OF AMEBIC A. 429

United States, where the public buildings are situated in which all the public
business of the government — legislative, executive, and judicial — is couducted.
Besides these four great centres of population in the Middle Atlantic States,
we may note the manufacturing town of Ncivark, in New Jersey ; Pittsburgh
and Alleghany, the centres of the coal-mining region of Pennsylvania, with
the most extensive ironworks, foundries, and glassworks in the United States ;
Buffalo, on Lake Erie, in New York State, where the great canal from the
lake to the Hudson River begins ; Albany, also in the State of New York, at
the head of the navigation of the Hudson River, where the canal to Lake Erie
terminates ; and Rochester, in the same state, possessing the most extensive
fruit and ornamental tree nurseries in the world.

The Southern Atlantic States, being more purely agricultural, have few
very large towns. Of these Richmond, in Virginia, at the head of the tide-
water of the James River, is the most important, containing extensive tobacco
factories and warehouses. Cliarleston, on the coast of South Carolina, is the
chief port of this division.

14. (2.) The Central Group of States naturally falls into two
divisions ; that of the North Central States, and that of the South
Central or Gulf States, as follows : —

Kentucky,

Ohio.

Indiana.

Michigan,

Illinois.

Wisconsin.

Missouri,

Iowa.

Minnesota.

Alabama.

Mississippi.

Louisiana.

Arkansas.

Tennessee.

North Central States

South Central States ^

15. The whole region embraced by this group of States has the general
character of level or undulating land, at no veiy considerable elevation above
the sea, except where it approaches the Alleghany mountain system, and forms
a wide plateau of moderate elevation. The northern division is rich in natural
advantages of fertile soil, great deposits of valualjle minerals, extensive forests,
and ready means of communication, either by the gi'eat lakes which form their
boundary on the north, or by the vast rivers Mississippi and Ohio and their
great affluents. Agriculture and gi-azing, nranufacturing, miuing, and lumber-
ing are thus widely-spread industries of the North Central States, and they
export enormous (luantities of wlieat, flour, pork, and bacon, beef, cheese, salt,
wool, coi)per, and timl)er. In tlie soutliern division the warmer and moister
climate and the extreme fertility of the soil render it admirably adapted for
the growth of cotton, rice, and sugar-cane, so that the cultivation of these
staples has become characteristic of the Gulf States. Mining and manufactur-
ing, though of secondary importance, are also being developed.

16. The three great towns of the Noi-th Central States are those of St. Loiois

430 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY,

on the Mississippi, a little south of the confluence of the Missouri ; Chicago
in niinois, on the shore of Lake Michigan, a city whose rapid growth in popu-
lation and commercial importance is iinparalleled ; and Cincinnati, a great
and prosperous commercial city on the Ohio.

Louisville in Kentucky, Cleveland on Lake Erie in the State of Ohio,
Milwaukee a great wheat market in Wisconsin, and Detroit in Michigan, with
the best harbour of any on the great lakes, are other places of importance in
this division.

The metropolis of the Gulf States is Neio Orleans in Louisiana, on the
left bank of the Mississippi, near its mouth. It is the greatest cotton market
in all the world.

17. (3.) The third group embraces the States and Territories
which extend from the plains west of the Mississippi across the
Eocky Mountains to the plateau lands beyond. They may be
divided, according to natural featui-es, as follows : —

The States and Territories op the
Plains.

( Texas.
Indian Territory.
Kansas.
Nebraska.
^ Dakota Territory,
r Colorado.
The States and Territories of the J New Mexico Territorj'.
Rocky Mountain Region. 1 Wyoming „

t Montana „

18. The region embraced by the States lying along the plains at the
eastern base of the Rocky Mountains may be described generally as undulat-
ing, treeless, and grass-covered, sloj)ing very gradually from the mountains
towards the basin of the Mississippi. These enormous grass plains afford rich
pastiirage, so that cattle-gi'azing is the leading industry. Texas especially
possesses immense wealth of cattle and horses. The Rocky Mountain region,
rising high above sea-level, has a cool and remarkably dry climate ; its valleys
also aff'ord fine pastures ; but the rich mines of gold, silver, copper, lead, and
coal in the mountains themselves make mining the great occupation of this
division. The scenery of this mountain region, its giant peaks and deep
gorges, is perhaps the finest in the world. In the basin of the Yellowstone,
an iipper tributary of the Missouri, so many natural wonders are presented,
that a section of the mountain region has been set apart by the Congress of
the United States in perpetuity as a " national park." Within its inclosure
are innumerable boiling springs and geysers, many grand waterfalls, deep
canons or gorges, beautiful lakes, and high mountain peaks.

19. (4.) The fourth group of States and Territories embraces the
region which extends from the west of the Rocky Mountains to the
shores of the Pacific.

MEXICO. 431

( California.
I Nevada.
I Oregon.
Pacific States and Territories. -{ Washington Territory.

I Idaho „

I Utah „

L Arizona „

20. Tlie greater part of this group occupies the broad high plateau at an
elevation of from 4000 to 8000 feet above the sea, which is supported between
the Rocky Mountain ranges and the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains
along the Pacific side. It has two strongly-contrasted natural divisions : that
of the dry, almost rainless, plateau lands, most of which present an aspect of
complete barrenness or desert covered with sage-brush ; and of the well-watered
Pacific slope with its forest-covered hills. The region is, perhaps, the richest
in metals of any in the globe, abounding in gold, silver, quicksilver, coal, and
many other valuable ndnerals. The forests of the outer mountain sloj^es afford
inexhaustible supplies of timber. The most wealthy and populous of the
States of this region is that of California, for it has not only immense mineral
wealth, but the fertile soil of its valleys is most favourable to agriculture, and
to the production of gi-ains and fruits both of the temperate and semi-tropical
zones, while its sea front and fine harbours give easy outlet for its products
and command of the traffic across the Pacific. Its chief city and seaport of
San Francisco is the commercial emporium of the whole western coast of
North America, as well as the chief manufacturing city of the Pacific coast.
It carries on a very large trade with China and Japan, India, Australia, the
Sandwich Isles, and other parts of the Pacific.

MEXICO.^

1. Mexico includes the south-western portion of North America,
where the continent is narrowed between the gulf that reaches in
from the Atlantic, and the opposite shores of the Pacific. On the
north its frontier along the Rio Grande and across to the head of
the peninsula of California is conterminous with that of the United
States ; in the south its boundary touches the State of Guatemala
in the Central American isthmus. Mexico possesses an extent of
territory which is more than eight times larger than Great Britain.

2. Relief. — The form of the country is given by the great mountain
ranges of the western side of North America, the prolongations southward of
the chains of the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains. These ranges ap-
proach one another in Mexico, supjiorting between tliem a huge wedge-shaped
mass of heights and plateaus, which may well be compared with the highland
of Abyssinia in Africa. Mexico has thus a rapid slope Vjoth to the Pacific and
to the Atlantic, and the interior of the country lies at elevations of from 4000
to 8000 feet above the level of the sea. Towards the south a band of colossal
volcanic peaks extends diagonally across it. The mountains named Orizaba,

Area. Po]iul;ition.

1 Mexico 742,000 9,400,000

432 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY,

Citlaltepetl, Iztaccihuatl, and Popocatepetl, with the remarkable dome of
.lorullo, formed by an enqition in 1759, and the cones of Colima and Ceboruco,
being the chief summits.

3. Rivers. — From their rapid fall the rivers of such a mountainous
region could never be of value for transport or communication. The Rio
Grande, the boundary river, is only navigable for 60 miles up from the Gulf
of Mexico, and the largest interior river — the Santiago, flowing west to the
Pacific — is barred across by many waterfalls, though its upper course expands
to form Lake Chap6,la, the largest sheet of water in Mexico, fully 50 miles
in length.

4. Climate and Landscape. — The Tropic of Cancer passes centrally
through Mexico, so that it lies just on the border of the torrid zone. The
climate, however, is governed to a far greater extent by elevation than by
position in latitude, and distinct climates are recognised at different stages,
just as in the plateau of Abyssinia. The low coast-land and the maritime
region below an elevation of 2000 feet, called the Ticrra Caliente, presents
all the characteristics of troi)ical lands, and there the indigo, cotton, sugar-
cane, bananas, and other fruits of the equatorial zone are found. The decay
of the rank vegetation along the low coasts here produces the malaria that
gives rise to the dangerous yellow fever, which is the scourge of these shores
in summer. Above an elevation of 2000 feet, and up the slopes of the moun-
tains to a height of about 5000 feet, a climate is found in which the landscape
takes the aspect of that of the temperate zone, and oaks and cypresses become
the characteristic trees, and maize and the cereals known in Europe are culti-
vated. This stage is known as the Tierra Tcm2)hida. Here the deadly
fevers of the coast belt are unknown. Still higher, above 5000 feet, a cool
region is reached, which is known as the Tierra Fria. This includes the
summit of the table-land and the pine-covered slopes of the mountains up to
the height at which some of the peaks are capped with perennial snows. Much
of this high table-land is valuable only for pasture ; towards the north and
north-east, where the plateau is wider, the landscape becomes bare and dry,
and salt lakes like those of the plateau region of the western United States
appear. Deeply-cut " caiions " or " barrancas," gorges with steep walls fur-
rowed out by the mountain torrents, are characteristic of the plateau.

5. Mexico is very rich in gold, silver, quicksilver, and other metals, and
the soil is generally fertile, so that mining and agriculture are the leading
occupations ; but from the frequently disturbed political condition of the
country, and its debased social condition, every sort of industry has fallen to
the lowest stage, and artificial communications in roads and railways are veiy
deficient. Metals, vanilla, sarsaparilla, coffee, sugar, cotton, cochineal, and
jala]i, are the most important articles of export.

6. Inhabitants and Religion. — The population of Mexico consists
mainly of the indigenous Indian race, and of the dominant Spaniards or their
descendants. Spaniards born in Europe are now very few in number, but
the government of the country is in the hands of the " Creoles," or people
of Spanish descent born in Mexico. They number about a million and a half.
Of the remaining mass of the population about half is of mixed race, half of
jiure Indian blood. The Roman Catholic is the religion of the country, but
with the masses of the i)eople this is a mere name, and education is at the
lowest ebb.

7. By the present constitution Mexico is a federative republic of twenty-
six States, a Federal District, and two Territories, bound together imder a
supreme government, but each permitted to manage its own local affairs. A
Congress consisting of a House of Representatives from the States and a
Senate, holds the legislative power, and the executive is in the hands of a

CENTRAL AMERICA. 433

President elected by the Congress for a term of four years. The laws, how-
ever, are not well enforced.

8. The capital city of Mexico is very picturesquely situated in a high
open valley near the centre of the plateau, at an elevation of nearly 7500 feet
above the sea, and near the border of a large lake. The majestic peak of
Popocatepetl rises at the southern side of the plain. The city has sj)lendid
buildings, including a great cathedral and eighty chm-ches. Some of its
streets and squares are wide and spacious, but other quarters have narrow and
tilthy lanes, the city itself representing the wealth and decay of the State.
Puebla, east of the cajjital, among the mountains, is the second town and the
most industrious place in Mexico. Guadalajara, north-west, is also a city
of magnificent palaces and churches. Vera Cruz, founded by Cortes, is the
only port of the coimtry on the Gulf side and the great outlet of Mexico to
the Atlantic. It has a dangerous, unhealthy, and exposed roadstead, but most
of the external traffic of Mexico passes through it. Acapulco, the chief port
on the Pacific coast, on the other hand, possesses a fine harboui". Mazatlan
is also an important outlet of the couutiy on the Pacific side.

CENTRAL AMERICAN STATES. ^

1. The portion of the narrower belt of land joining North and
South America that is occupied by the Central American States
reaches from the southern borders of Mexico, south of the peninsula
of Yucatan, to the beginning of the Isthmus of Panama, which forms
part of the United States of Colombia. The width of this section
of the continent varies from 70 to about 300 miles, and its extent is
somewhat greater than twice that of Great Britain.

2. Relief. — Its coast-lines differ ^remarkably in configuration. That
towards the Caribbean Sea on the east is deeply invaded by the Bay of
Honduras, and reaches out seaward in submarine banks from its low shores ;
that towards the Pacific, on the other hand, is comparatively straight, and
falls steeply to the deep ocean. Instead of a continuous mountain range we
have here a series of table-lands attaining their greatest width in the northern
State of Guatemala, and interrupted by deep intervening valleys, and flanked
by rows of commanding volcanoes, such as those of Agua and Fucgo (13,980
feet). In no other pai-t of the world excepting the East Indies are volcanoes
more numerous and violent in their eruptions.

3. Rivers and Lakes. — These States have the advantage of excellent
harbours on both seas, and a few of tlieir rivers, such as Dulce and Motagua
flowing into the Bay of Honduras, and the San Juati falling into the Carib-
bean Sea, are to some extent navigable. The last is the overflow of the large
Lake of Nicaragua, which has an extent of more than 6000 square miles, and
which is deep enough to be navigable by large vessels.

Ai-ea.

Population.

1 Republic of Guatemala .

46,770

1,200,000

,, Honduras .

46,520

350,000

„ Sau Salvador

7,230

482,000

„ Nicaragua .

51,660

.•100,000

,, Costa Rica .

19,950

185,000

Colony of British Honduras .

7,560

25,000

Central American States

179,690

2,542,000

434 THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

4. Climate and Landscape. — The whole country is \vithin the torrid
zone, but the elevations of its plateau give it a temperate climate in many
portions. As it lies across the jiath of the prevailing easterly trade winds
which sweep from the Atlantic over the Caribbean Sea, bringing an abundant
sujjply of moisture, Central America is copiously watered, especially on that
side of it which faces the direction of these winds. Thus it comes about that
all the eastern slope to the Caribbean Sea is densely forest-covered ; so
densely that many parts of it have remained to the present day closed to
civilisation, and are inhabited only by wandering Indian tribes, while the
more open and cultivable lands on the Pacific side have been settled by
Europeans or their descendants.

5. Products. — The Central American States derive importance first
from their geographical position on the isthmus between the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans, and next from the abundance of their natural products, their
wealth of fine timbers, such as mahogany, cedar, and dyewoods, the valuable
balsams, sarsaparilla, and intliarubber obtained in their forests, and the culti-
vated coffee, cacao, indigo, and cochineal.

6. People. — -Almost eveiywhere in Central America the aborigines, the
so-called Indians, are by far the most numerous element of population ; though
divided into various tribes, they have the common features of a copper-
bro^vn colour, robust and muscular figure, straight black hair, and high cheek-
bones. The "WTiites or Creoles, descendants chiefly of the Spanish invaders,
constitute only a small though dominant section of the inhabitants ; besides
these the Mestizos or haK-castes form a considerable element. Negroes,
descendants of those introduced, are in very limited nximbers.

7. The history of the five Central American Republics has already been
sketched.^ (1.) Guatemala, the most northerly, may be compared in extent
to Ireland. Its capital, situated on a green plain 4500 feet above the sea, and
40 mUes inland from the Pacific coast, takes the name Nueva Guatemala
since the former capital westward of it was destroyed by earthquakes in 1773.
Izabal, on the Atlantic, and San Jos6, on the Pacific, are the two outlet ports
of the coimtry.

(2.) Honduras reaches across the isthmus from its bay on the Caribbean
Sea to the Gulf of Fonseca on the Pacific side, and is for the most part forest-
covered. Its small capital of Comayagua lies near the centre of the State.
Omoa and Trujillo are its chief ports on the Atlantic side.

(3.) San Salvador, the smallest of the republics, extends along the Pacific
side south-west of Honduras, and may be compared to Wales in area. Its
capital of Nuevo Salvador, so named because the older city near it has been
repeatedly destroyed by earthquake, is near the centre of the State, and is
joined by a good road to the jDort of Lihertad.

(4.) Nicaragim is also still in great part a wild forest country. Its
most valuable belt is that which extends along the valley of the San Juan
river, and round the shores of lakes Nicaragiia and Managua. The seat of
government is now at Managua, a small town on the southern border of the
lake of its name, and on the slope of an active volcano. Grcytown or San
Juan del Norte, at the mouth of the river San Juan, was formerly a magni-
ficent port, and is still the chief outlet of Nicaragua to the Atlantic.

(5.) Costa Rica (rich coast) is the most flourishing and cultivated of the
Central American States. Its capital, San Jose, on the central heights of
the isthmus, 4500 feet above the sea, is united by road to Punta Arenas, in
the Gulf of Nicoya, on the Pacific, and by railway to the port of Limon, on
the Caribbean Sea.

8. British Honduras or Belize, a territory extending between Guatemala
and the coast of the Bay of Honduras, is valuable mainly from the mahogany

1 See p. 95.

WEST INDIES. 435

and logwood of its forests, M'hich are floated down by the rivers to the sea,
and shipped in large quantities.

9. Among the many schemes planned for connecting the Atlantic with
the Pacific by a ship canal across the Central American isthmus, there is
one which would take advantage of the lake of Nicaragua and its outflowing
river, San Juan. The lake itself stands at an elevation of only 131 feet above
the sea, and the lowest pass between it and the Pacific coast is not more than
109 feet above^the level of the lake waters. The San Juan is interrupted by
rapids, but these could be passed by locks and canals.

WEST INDIES.

1. The West India Islands form a long archipelago that
reaches in a curve from between Florida and Yucatan round to
near the Venezuelan shores of South America. Their line thus
constitutes a broken barrier separating the open Atlantic from the
mediterranean Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. The
islands differ very considerably in size — from that of Cuba, which
is larger than Ireland, down to the smallest rock, and they also
exhibit great diversity in elevation and aspect.

2. Divisions. — Three chief divisions are recognised in the archij^elago.
First stand the Gi'ecder Antilles, including Cuba, Hayti, Puerto Rico, and
Jamaica, which are large islands with diversified surface, reaching up to
heights of over 8000 or 9000 feet ; second, the low, flat, coralline group of
the Baliamas or Lucayas, lying outside of the former, towards the Atlantic ;
and third, the chain of the Lesser Antilles, a series of volcanic mountain tops,
stretching from the most easterly of the Greater Antilles to near the coasts of
South America.

3. Climate. — Though they lie almost exclusively within the torrid
zone, the climate of the West India Islands is modified by the influence of
the surrounding seas, by elevation in many of them, and by the prevailing
trade-wind which blows over them. The northern islands, including Cuba
and Hayti, have a rainy season dui'ing the smi'mer months. Jamaica and
the southern islands, on the other hand, have a double rainy season — in
summer, and again towards the end of the year. Yellow fever is the scourge
of the coasts of the islands during the rain, and the group is exiDosed to occa-
sional hiu-ricanes of furious strength that are most frequent in the months of
August and September.

4. Products. — The wann climate and copious rains render the West
Indies admirably suited to the growth of sugar-cane, tobacco, and tropical
fruits. Hence the staple articles of commercial produce are sugar, rum,
and molasses ; cotton, coffee, and cacao ; indigo and dyes ; spices, oranges,
bananas, pine-apples, and many other fine fruits, besides valuable hardwoods.

5. Population. — The inlialjitants of the archipelago, numbering nearly
four and a half millions, are of three great classes. The most numerous class,
comprising about three-fourths of all, is that of the Negroes inijiorted from
Africa, some of whom are still in a state of slavery in tlie Spanish islands ;
next come Eunrpeuns, or their descendants, from various nations ; and tliird,
MiilcMoes, or people of mixed European and negro blood.

6. We have touched upon the chief points in the history of the conquest
and occupation of the rich West India Islands by the maritime jjowers of

436

THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

Europe in a former chapter. At the present time the islands are held as

I. The
Greater
Antilles

follows :

Square miles

( Cuba (a Spanish colony) .... 45,883

„ I Hayti (a Negi-o republic) . . 9,230
•' I San Domingo (a Spanish Creole

republic) 20,600

I Puerto Rico (Spanish) 3,530

I Jamaica (a British colony) .... 4,193

LCaymans (British) 225

II. The Bahamas (including the Turks) . . . 5,613

r r British .... 64
Virgin Islands •< Danish (Santa Cruz, etc.) 138

(Spanish ....
Anguilla (British)

St. Martin j l'^^^^' ..'.'.'.'.
St. Bartholomew (French) .
Saba and St. Eustatius (Dutch)
St. Christopher or St. Kitts (British)

Nevis (British)

Antigua with Barbuda (British)

Montsen-at (British)

Guadeloupe (French)

Marie-Galante (French) ....

Dominica (British)

Martinique (French)

St. Lucia (British)

St. Vincent (British)

Grenada (British)

Barbadoes (British)

Tobago (British)

Los Roques, etc. (Venezuelan)
V CuraQao, Buen Ayi-e, Oruba (Dutch)

200

170

618

291

380

237

147

166

114

405

Populatimi.

1,400,000

550,000

250,000

658,000

558,000

2,400

39,200

6,400

37,600

3,500

4,000

3,500

8,700

2,400

4,000

24,200

11,700

35,700

8,700

159,600

18,000

27,200

161,800

35,500

35,700

42,300

177,600

18,600

(uninhabited)

34,900

Total

92,821

4,313,400

Spanish: 49,479 square miles; 2,061,500 inhabitants. British: 11,567
square miles ; 1,027,200 inhabitants. French: 1281 square miles ; 344,500
inhabitants. Dutch: 436 square miles; 42,600 inhabitants. Danish: 138
square miles ; 37,600 inhabitants. Independent : 29,920 square miles ;
800,000 inhabitants.

7. Cioba, the largest and most important of the West India Islands, lies
midway between Florida and Yucatan. It is about 750 miles in length,
though only 70 miles in average width. A high cross range, called the
Sierra Maestra, or the Copper Mountains, gives its form to the south-eastern
portion of the island, where it is broadest, and from that a central ridge
extends tlirough the length of Cuba, forming the water-parting of its streams.
Much of the island is covered with dense timber forests, and the low coast-
lands are fringed with lagoons. The cultivated tracts produce sugar, tobacco,
coffee, cotton, and indigo in gi'eat abundance. Cuba yields more sugar than
any other country, and its tobacco is renowned all over the world.

Havana, its capital, on the north coast, is by far the most important city
and the finest port of the West Indies, and it is the greatest sugar market in

COLOMBIA. 4:67

the world. Matamas, a seaport 55 miles east of Havana, Santiago de
Cvha in the south-east, and Puerto FrinciiK in the eastern interior, are the
other important to^vns of Cuba.

8. Hayti or San Domingo, between Cuba and Puerto Rico, is a moun-
tainous forest island, and may be compared to Scotland in extent ; its Idghest
point reaches the great elevation of 9695 feet. The turbulent history of
this rich island has already been noticed ; owing to this its productions and
the industries to which they might give rise remain undeveloped.

The negro Republic of Hayti, occupying the western half of the island,
has its capital at Port au Prhuc, at the head of a bay of the west coast ;
the eastern Republic of San Dmningo has Santo Domingo for its capital.

9. Puerto Rico, the second Spanish island, has a length east to west of
about 100 miles, and in contrast to its western neighbours is highly cultivated
and covered with " Estancias" or cattle farms, and plantations of sugar, tobacco,
and coffee. Its capital and port of outlet is San Juan on the north-east coast.

10. Jamaica, the most important by far of the British West India
islands, lies south-east of Cuba, and has a length of about 140 miles. The wooded
range of the Blue Mountains traverses it from east to west, rising to a height
of 7335 feet, and giving the island a variety of climate from that of tropical
coast-lands to temperate and cool stages above in the mountains.

It contributes to commerce large quantities of rum and molasses, great
quantities of pimento or allspice, besides coffee, dyewoods, and mahogany. It
is placed under a Governor appointed by the crown, who is assisted by a
House of Assembly chosen by the freeholders of the island.

S'panisli Tovru the seat of government. Port Royal, and Kingston the com-
mercial capital and largest town, lie on the shores of an inlet of the south coast.

11. The Lesser Antilles are subdivided naturally into two main groups —
those of the Windward Islands, or the chain extending from the Virgin Islands
to Trinidad which lies farther out towards the direction from which the pre-
vailing trade- wind blows ; and the Leeward Islands off the coast of Venezuela.
The island of St. Thomas, in the Virgin group, forms a most important
station for the great lines of steam communication between Europe and the
West Indies. Guadeloupe is the most important of the French islands.
Barbados, with the capital of Bridgetotvn, is the most populous of the
southern Windward Islands, .and its ei^iscopal see embraces the whole group.
Trinidad, remarkable for its pitch lakes, is the largest of the Windward chain.

12. The low-lying Baha.mas number several hundreds of separate islands,
but only a few are inhabited. They yield dyewood, and salt and turtles.
Nassau, on Providence Island, is their capital. The Bermudas islands, an
isolated group out in the Atlantic, 650 miles north-east of the nearest of
the Bahamas, do not naturally fonn part of the West Indian Ai'chipelago, but
are generally classed with that group. The gi-oup belongs to Britain, and
consists of about 400 coral reefs and rocks, with five small islets, which are
fortified to form a useful naval station and penal settlement.

SOUTH AMERICA.
UNITED STATES OF COLOMBIA.^

1. The Republic of Colombia, formerly known as New Granada,
occupies the north-western corner of the mainland of South

Area, sq. m. Pdjiulatiou.
1 Colombia . . . 320,700 3,000,000

438 THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

America, including also the narrowest portion of the Central
American isthmus. The Caribbean Sea washes its shores in the
north ; the Pacific, its western coasts. The States of Ecuador and
Venezuela lie south and east of its territory. In extent we may
compare Colombia to nearly four Great Britains.

2. Relief. — The geueral features of the relief of Colombia are given by
the three great ranges of the Northern Andes, which traverse it from south to
north. The central of these Cordilleras reaches a height of over 18,000 feet in
the peak of Tolima. Between the eastern and central ranges lies the valley
of the Mugdalena, the chief river of the State, and between the central and
western heights, that of the Cauca, the largest tributary of the former river.

3. Climate and Products.— These varied natural features give great
diversities of climate to the tropical region, the mass of table-lands which lie
along the eastern heights having a cool and healthy climate well suited to the
white race. Towards the east vast grass plains, affording pasture to large
herds of cattle, reach away into the basin of the Orinoco. Most of the metals
— gold, silver, copper, lead, iron — occur in Colombia, but from the deficiency
of highways the resources of the country are as yet to a large extent unde-
veloped, and less than a tenth of the area is cultivated. Tobacco, quinine,
coffee, hides, indiarubber, and cotton, are the staple exports.

4. People and Government. — The inhabitants are composed of the
descendants of the Spanish colonists, who are dominant, and aboriginal Indians
called "Chibchas," most of whom are christianised, and speak the Spanish
language. A small number of tribes still, however, maintain a savage mode of
life.

The government is republican, the executive authority being vested in a
President, the legislative^ in |,an elected Congress ; but each of the nine States
into which the country is divided has its own local legislature.

5. Chief Towns. — The capital and seat of government is at Bogota, which
stands on a plateau of the Eastern Andes at an elevation of 8700 feet above
the sea, beside the stream of its name that tumbles down to the Magdalena
by the magnificent fall of Tequendama. A railroad has been planned to join
Bogota with Honda, the farthest point to which the Magdalena river is i\a.\\-
gable by steamers. BaranquiUa, and its i^ort of SaraniUa, at the mouth of
the river, is the chief outlet of the mainland. The foreign trade of Colombia,
however, is carried on chiefly by the Isthmus ports of Panarad on the Pacific,
and Colo^i or Aspinwall on the Atlantic side, the termini of the railroad that
joins the two oceans, and which has been in operation since 1855.

ECUADOR.'

6. The Republic of Ecuador (or Equator) embraces that portion
of western South America which reaches across the Andes from the
Pacific into the basin of the Amazon, directly under the equinoctial
line. It lies between the States of Colombia on the north of it,
and Peru southward, and reaches from the ocean eastward to the
frontier of Brazil.

Area, sq. m. Population.
1 Ecuador .... 248,400 1,146,000

VENEZUELA. 439

7. Physical Features. — The great features of Ecuador are given by the
enormous mass of the Andes, risuig near the Pacific coast. Here tlie range
forms the high, cool table-laud of Quito, along the edges of which tlie dome-
shaped CJiimborazo (20,700 feet), Ilinissa, Pichincha, Antisana, Cayamhc,
the cone of Cotopaxi (19,500 feet), and other giants of the Andes rise in two
parallel chains. Level tracts, called "paromas" or "punas," covered with scanty
sun-dried grasses, are characteristic of the high plateau, but all the long inner
slope of the country to the Amazon basin is covered vfith forests and enclosed
savannahs.

8. The rivers of the steep slope of Ecuador to the Pacific are comparatively
small and short, the Guayaquil, Esmeralda, and Mira, being the most con-
siderable, the first affording more than 100 miles of navigation. The inward
slope, on the contrary, is watered by some of the great feeders . of the Upper
Amazon, the Japura, Putumayo, and Napo being the largest.

9. Products. — Little is known as yet of the resources of Ecuador in re-
gard to the precious metals which are so abundant in other parts of the
Andean region. The product of the country which is, as yet, of greatest
importance to the outer world is its cacao or cocoa, which is abundant in the
low-lying or hot regions of Ecuador. Quinine bark is also an important pro-
duct of the equatorial forests along the Andes.

10. People. — The inhabitants of Ecuador consist of descendants of the
Spanish conquerors, " Mestizos " or half-breeds, and aboriginal Indians. The
more civilised and the greater number of the population are found living in
the high mountain valleys ; almost the whole of the eastern forest slope to the
Amazon basin is occupied only by scattered Indian tribes.

--J'll. Government. — The President of the Republic of Ecuador is elected
for four years ; the Congress, also elected by universal suflrage, has the legis-
lative power. The priesthood, however, possess a far stronger influence, and
exercise a much greater control over the affairs of the State, in Ecuador than
in any other part of South America. For administrative purposes the country
is divided into ten provinces.

12. Chief Towns. — The capital is the city of Quito, grandly situated on
the table-land at an elevation of 9500 feet above the sea, and commanding
splendid views of the snow-clad cones of the Andes from its great square.
Almost all the foreign commerce of Ecuador passes by its port of Guayaquil
at the mouth of its navigable river. Cuenca and Loja are important places
in the southern table-lands.

13. The archipelago of the Galdpagos or Turtle Islands, nearly imder the
equator, and 600 miles out in the Pacific, belongs to Ecuador. The islands
are of volcanic origin, and present only dreary wastes of extinct cones and
craters, and they are quite uninhabited. They are chiefly interesting on
account of their remarkable indigenous rejitiles and birds, most of which are
unknown in any other part of the world. A remarkable kind of turtle and
the gigantic tortoise found here have given their name to the group.

VENEZUELA.!

14. Tlie States of Venezuela (or Little Venice) reach along the
northern border of the continent from Colombia on the -west to the
British colony of Guayana or Guiana on the east, having a coast-line
of between 300 and 400 miles on the Caribbean Sea, from the

Area, sq. m. Popiilation.
1 Venezuela . . . 440,000 1,800,000

440 THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

mouth of the Orinoco to the gulf and lake of Maracaybo. Inland
the frontier touches northern Brazil. In extent the territory of
Venezuela may be comjiared to twice that of France, or to nearly five
times the area of Great Britain.

15. Relief. — There are two distinct highland regions — first, a divergent
Cordillera of the Andes in the north-west, which culminates in the Sierra
Nevada dc Merida (15,027 feet), and which is continued as a steep coast
range along the length of the shores of the Caribbean Sea ; and, second, a great
mass of forest-covered hills and mountains forming Venezuelan Guayana in
the south-east.

16. Rivers. — The great river of Venezuela, the Orinoco, curves round the
southern mountainous region, receiving large tributaries from its slopes,
ultimately forming a great delta on the Atlantic coast, south of the British
island of Trinidad. The na%ngation of this noble river is uninterrupted from
the sea upward beyond Venezuelan territory ; the Meta, the largest western
tributary, has lieen ascended by steamboat to within 60 miles of Bogota in
Colombia. A most remarkable natural canal, named the Oasiquiare, a
broad na^iga])le channel, unites the Uj)per Orinoco with the Rio Negro, a
tributary of the Amazons. Another remarkable feature of the hydrography
of Venezuela is the fine lake of Maracaybo, the largest lake of South America,
united by a narrow channel to its sea gulf. The earliest Spanish exj^lorers
found houses built on wooden piles at the entrance to Lake Maracaybo. These
reminded them of Venice, and originated the name Venezuela, which has ex-
tended to the whole region.

17. Landscape and Products. — The northern slopes of the coast range
are entirely forest- covered, aud shelter sugar and cacao plantations in their
hollows, but southward begin the broad open grass plains or " llanos," that
reach away south to the Orinoco, covering the gi'eater part of the country.
Beyond the Orinoco rise the wooded ridges of Venezuelan Guayana. The
cattle, horses, and sheep, reared upon the vast expanse of the " llanos " form
the wealth of Venezuela ; but cofl'ee, cacao, cotton, sugar, indigo, and tobacco,
gi'0\vn on the northern plantations, are exported in large quantity, as well as
dyewoods from the forests. Copper is mined at Aroa in north-western
Venezuela.

18. People and Government. — The present population of Venezuela is,
for the most part, a Mulatto one, derived from the intermixture of the
Spaniards and their African slaves with the native Indian element. Pure
Indians live in the hilly forest region of the south-east. The government of
the Republic is designed on the model of that of the United States of North
America ; but the States and Territories of Venezuela, of which there are
twenty-four, are permitted greater independence in their local government.

19. Chief Towns. — The capital city of Caracas is delightfully situated
in a valley of the northern coast range, at an elevation of 2900 feet above
the Caribbean Sea, and twelve miles from its port of La Guayra. Valencia,
and Barquisimeto are the largest places in the northern interior, and Mara-
caybo, near the outlet of the great lake, comes fourth in importance. Puerto
Cabello, west of La Guayra, and opposite the large inland to^vn of Valencia, to
which it is united by road, is the chief port of the richest portion of Vene-
zuela. A line of railway, 70 miles in length, the only one as yet existing in
Venezuela, was opened in 1877, between the port of Tucacas, west of Puerto
Cabello, and the mines of Arod.

Five lines of steamers maintain regular communication between Venezuela
and the ports of Europe.

GUAYANA. 441

GUAYANA.^

20. The region of South America called Giiayana extends from
the east of Venezuela and the north of Brazil to the coasts of the
Atlantic, We have seen that a large portion of it is included in
the Orinoco basin of Venezuela ; Brazil also claims its southern portion
in the Amazon basin ; but the name is now more generally limited
to the region which is drained northward to the ocean by the
rivers Essequibo, Corentyn, and Maroni or Marowyne, and which
is di^'ided into the three colonial possessions of British, Dutch, and
French Guayana.

21. From the low, marshy coasts of the Atlantic, the inlaud regions of
Guayana rise between the river valleys in hills densely covered with exu-
berant forest vegetation. Its woods and rivers are peopled by abundance
of wild animals similar to those of Brazil, along with birds, reptiles, and
fishes of the most varied and remarkable description.

The few European settlers live at their jjlantations, which lie near the
mouths of the rivers or on the fertile lowlands of the coast ; and in recent
years numbers of Indian and Chinese coolies have been introduced as
labourers, the negroes of the colonies being now all free men. The interior
woodlands are left, as yet, to a few Indian tribes, most of them Caribs, who,
however, appear to be rapidly decreasing in numbers.

22. The staple cultivated product of the plantations of Guayana is sugar,
large quantities of which, with rum and molasses, are exported. The cultiva-
tion of coffee and cotton has greatly declined, but there is a large trade in the
fine forest timber.

23. British Guayana, the western possession, occupies almost the whole
basin of the Essequibo river, besides those of the Demerara and Berbice, the
Corentyn forming the boundary towards Dutch Guayana. It is by far the
most flourishing, agriculturally and commercially, of the three colonies.
Oeorgetotvn, its capital, on the Demerara, is well built of wooden houses and
is intersected by canals. J}feii: Amsterdam is a small place on the Berbice.

24. Dutch Guayana, in the middle, reaches across from the Corentyn to
the Marowyne, which divides it from French Guayana. The Surinam is the
most important interior river of the colony, anil on it, at a distance of ten
miles from the sea, lies the capital town of Paramaribo, with wide straight
streets planted with orange trees.

25. French Guayana, reaching from the Maroivyne to the Oyapok, the
boundary river towards Brazil, has been used rather as a penal settlement
than as a commercial colony, so that the greater part of the European popula-
tion consists of deported convicts and of the military guard in charge of
them. The capital town of Cayenne, on the river of its name, is a wretched
little place, dreaded on account of its deadly climate. A species of capsicum,
which grows here, gives the well-known Cayenne pepper.

Area. Population.

1 British Guavana . . 85,420 240,000

Dutcli Guavana . . 46,100 68,500

French Guayana . . 46,850 36,800

442 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

BRAZIL.!

26. The enormous territory of the empire of Brazil very nearly
equals that included within the boundary of the United States of
North America, or is not far short of Europe in extent. The
empire itseK is by far the most important of the divisions of South
America in area and population, as well as in prosperity and stabi-
lity. It holds the Atlantic coast from Guayana in the north, for
about 4000 miles, to the borders of Uruguay in the south, and
reaches inland for nearly 2500 miles, its inner boundaries touching
those of every one of the other States of the continent excepting
Chile.

27. Relief. — This vast territory presents two contrasted regions. First,
the wide, low-lying, and hiiniid forest plain of the Amazon river in the north ;
second, the uplands in the south, which are traversed by ratliating hills and
mountain ridges, and which present wide grass plains between woods and
bush-covered country. The highest mountain ranges of Brazil rise in the centre
of the south-eastern uplands, where the Monies Pyreneos rise to 9500 feet, but
the coast range or Serra do Mar, to the south of the beautiful gulf of Rio de
Janeiro, hardly j-ield to these, for within it the Itatiaiossu is scarcely 600 feet
lower, wliilst the Organ Mountains, at the back of Rio, has summits which
reach up to 7500 feet.

28. Rivers. — To the rivers of Brazil belongs the huge Amazon, called
the " Mediterranean of South America," whose great tributaries traverse
all the northern lowland from the slopes of the Andes to the Atlantic. Its
great feeders from southward are the Jurua, Purus, Madeira, Tapajos, and
Xingu, all of them rivers of the first magnitude. From the north there come
to it the Japura and the Rio Negro, which is joined by the remarkable
channel of the Casiquiare to the basin of the Orinoco. The Tocantins, with
its great tributary the Araguaya, ilows northward through Brazil to the Gulf
of Para, close to the mouth of the Amazon. The Po/ranahyba and Sao Francisco
are the great rivers which flow from the uplands directly to the Atlantic. The
Pa/rand and the Paraguay, the rivers which join to reach the sea by the
La Plata Gulf, both take their rise in Brazilian territory.

29. Products.^ — In richness and variety of vegetable products, favoured
in their growth by its tropical climate and copious rains and rivers, Brazil
surpasses almost all other parts of the world. The forests supply useful
timber in great profusion, as well as dyewoods and gums, such as the
valuable indiarubber ; the coco, sago, and wax palms, nuts, and fruit trees
of many kinds, and the medicinal chinchona abound ; and under cultivation
flourish the coiTee-plant, sugar-cane, cotton, rice, manioc, and banana. The
cultivated districts are, however, as yet yery small in comparison with the vast
regions which remain in a state of nature.

The mineral products of Brazil are scarcely less celebrated. Gold is found
in many parts, especially in the mountains round the head of the basin of
the Sao Francisco river ; quicksilver, copper, iron, and salt are also abundant ;
and probably no region of the world is richer in precious stones, including
diamonds, emeralds, riibies, topazes, beryls, and garnets.

Area. Population.

1 Brazil . . 3,219,000 11,100,000

BEAZIL. 443

The jagxiar, puma, and tapir are the larger wild animals of the forests ;
the capivari, or river hog, is abxmdant along the streams ; the rivers teem
with alligators and fish ; the rhea, or American ostrich, toucans and parrots,
and the lively humming-lDirds, are among the multitude of the feathered
inhabitants of the woods and grassy plains.

30. People. — The inhabitants of Brazil, as of other parts of South
America, present three gi-eat elements— that of the aboriginal Indians, that of
the European conquerors and colonists and their descendants, and that of
the Africans introduced as slaves. Besides these we find large mimbers of
half-castes, who have sprung from the intermixture of these three elements.
The ahoriginal Indians are now, for the most part, foimd in countless small
tribes and families in the forests and plains of the wild interior region, the
most numerous being the tribes forming jiart of the Great Tupi or Guarani
group. The most imf)ortant section of the European element is that of the
Brazilians, the descendants of the Portuguese settlers. The number of pure
white people is, however, very small in proportion to those who have some
mixture of Indian or African blood, and the Brazilians themselves have deve-
lojjed into a number of more or less distinct physical tj'pes in the widely
separated provinces of the empire. Formerly about one-half of the entire
population of Brazil was formed of negro slaves, the numbers having been
maintained by continuous shipments from West Africa ; but the importation
was made illegal in 1855, and since 1871 gradual emancipation of the slaves
has been in operation, so that there are now (1879) only about a million
and a half of slaves in Brazil.

The Roman Catholic is the established religion of Brazil, and though all
other religions are tolerated, no churches or temj)les are permitted excepting
the Roman Catholic. The Legislature has made great efforts to spread edu-
cation in the more civilised jsortions of the empire, but schools are still in
a very backward state.

31. Industries. — The staple production of Brazil for export is cofi"ee.
The empire supplies three-fourths of all the coffee iised in the world. In
sugar-growing Brazil is only second to Cuba. Large numbers of people are
employed in forestry and in mining, but agriculture and stock-raising, and
tending cattle, horses, and mules upon the vast grass plains of southern
BrazQ, employ a very considerable section of the inhabitants.

32. Government. — The succession to the crown of Brazil is hereditary.
The constitution of the emj)ire establishes four powers — the legislative senate
and chamber of deputies ; the judicial ; and the executive and moderating
powers, both of which are vested in the sovereign. The empire is divided
into twenty-one provinces, at the head of each of which is a president ap-
pointed by the central government. Each province has also its local parlia-
ment.

33. Chief Towns. — The capital city of Jiio de Janeiro, the largest in
South America (230,000), extends along the shores of a land-locked giilf of the
Atlantic, which is sm-romided by the most romantic mountain scenery and the
richest green vegetation. Its harbour, guarded by Island Fort, is one of the finest
in the world, and through it a vast commerce is maintained with all seas.
Next in importance is the city and seaport of JBahia, finely placed on an
inlet of the Atlantic, the oldest city of Brazil. Pcmambuco, also called
Recife from a reef of rock which forms the natural breakwater of its harbour,
is the third city. Maranhao, on an island of the north coast ; Para, the
great indiarubber port, on the east banlv of the great estuary of the Tocantins ;
Rio Grande and Sao Faulo, with its port of Santos, are the other notable
places along the Atlantic. In tlie interior the princi})al towns are Ouro Preto,
in the gold-mining region, and Diamantina, the centre of the diamond fields.

444 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

CuyaM, iu the far west of interior Brazil, is important, as being at the head
of the regular navigation into Brazil by way of the Parana and Paraguay
rivers.

34. Peru ranks first in extent of the States of South America
which lie along the Andes and the Pacific seaboard of the conti-
nent. The territory of the Republic lies southward of that of
Ecuador, its inland boundaries east and south being conterminous
with those of Brazil and Bolivia. The coast-line belonging to it
measures about 1600 miles, and the area embraced by its boundaries
may be compared to ten times that of England.

35. Physical Features. — No part of the world presents more varied
physical features, from arid desert to the grandest mountains, and again to
the dense forests with brimming rivers, or more diverse climates correspond-
ing to these features. The "costa," or low hot maritime belt of Peni, being
almost deprived of rainfall by the barrier of the Andes, is a bare sand desert,
fertilised only where it is crossed by the streams descending to it from the
heights. All the mountain slope ascending to the high plateaus of the
Andes, up which narrow mule-paths lead through deep ravines and along the
edges of vast precii)ices, is named the " Sierra." The high plains of the
Andes reached by these difficult approaches are cold, bleak, monotonous
wastes called "punas." Above these the summit mountains of the Andes
lift their rugged sides up to the region of perennial snows. Beyond the
punas the descent of the continental or inward slojie of the mountain
region leads into the boundless wooillands of the Amazon basin, where copi-
ous rains fill out the tributaries of the vast river, and whence flow its great
head streams the Ucmjali and the Maranon.

36. Products.- — Peru is most famous for its extraordinary mineral wealth.
Silver is its chief metal, the most productive mines being found' in the
rigorous climate of the higher punas. Quicksilver is also very abundant.
Copper seems to be present in all parts of the mountain region along with
iron. The Repiiblic also possesses great wealth in its dejiosits of guano and
nitre in the maritime belt. The richest guano beds formerly worked for
export were those of the Chincha Islands, near the coast, about 100 miles
south of Lima ; but great stores have recently been discovered in the districts
which lie along the shores north of the Bolivian boundary river Loa. The
camel-like guanaco roams in great herds on the punas and along the slopes
of the Andes ; and the llama or alpaca, the domesticated variety of the same
animal, yields costly wool, besides milk and flesh food, and sei'ves also as a
beast of burden.

37. People. — A large proportion of the inhabitants of Peru at the present
time consists of the descendants of the aboriginal Incas of the plateau, Indians
of the Quichua and Aymara tribes, which, ne.xt to the Guarani, are the most
widely diffused in South America. The other gi-eat element is that of the
half-bred peoples, the "Cholos" and "Zambos," who have arisen from the
intermi.xture of Spanish with Indians and negroes. Wild Indians, of a dif-
ferent race from those of the highlands, occupy the still undisturbed forests
of the eastei-n intei'ior ; the other minor elements are small proportions of

Area in sq. m. Population.

1 Peru . . 432,500 3,000,000

BOLIVIA. 445

Europeans, negroes, and Cliinese, imported as labourers. The State religion
is the Roman Catholic, and education, such as it is, rests in their hands. The
public exercise of any other religion is interdicted by law.

38. Government. — The executive power is entrusted to a President,
elected for four years, and is exercised througli a Cabinet. of five ministers,
who hold office at his i>leasure. For administrative purposes the Ref)ublic is
divided into twenty-one departments. The State derives a very large revenue
chiefly from the sale of guano ; and of late years, while the Internal conflicts
and revolutions that have retarded the progress of the country have been less
frequent, attention has been directed to the development of the mineral re-
sources of the country, and the improvement of the rude means of communi-
cation. To this eud a system of railways, uniting the seaports with the high
plateau region, has been begun, and several lines have now been completed.
The present war with Chile, waged for the sake of a disputed boundary, has,
however, almost exhausted the resources of the countries concerned.

39. Chief Towns.— The capital city of Lima (102,000), founded by
Pizarro in 1534, who also began its magnificent cathedral, lies at the foot of
the coast range of the Cordilleras, on both banks of the stream called the
Rimac. Its flat-roofed houses of sun-dried clay would be changed into
masses of mud if any considerable shower of rain should fall, but the coast
belt in which it lies is rainless ; earthquakes, however, have desolated it re-
deatedly. Six miles distant is its fortified seaport of Callao (34,000), com-
manding the best harbour of Peni, through which the chief share of the guano,
nitre, metals, sugar, and alpaca wool is exjjorted. Cuzco, the historical city
of Peni, the ancient residence of the Inca sovereigns, stands at an elevation of
nearly 11,400 feet above the sea, on the plateau, about 400 miles south-east
of Lima. Pasco, famed for its silver mines, 13,670 feet above the sea, lies
north-east of Lima, on the plateau. On the south the largest jjlace is A7X-
qiiipa, a flourishing city, lying about 30 miles from the Pacific, and carrying
on a considerable trade tlirough its port of Islay. Arica and Iquiquc are
important outlets of the guano and nitre fields, on the south coast. Truxillo,
300 miles north of Lima, is the chief port of northern Peru.

BOLIVIA. 1

40. Bolivia, the most centrally-placed State of South America,
equal in extent to Peru, embraces in its western region the highest
plateau and ranges of the system of the Andes. On this side its
boundary is for the most part conterminous with that of Peru, only
a small portion of the bare coast-land of the Pacific, about 1 80 miles
in length, between the river Loa and the frontier of Chile, being
left to it as an outlet to the sea. Its eastern slope spreads out
into the basins of the Amazon and La Plata, and there it touches
upon Brazil and the Argentine Republic.

41. Physical Features. — As in Peru, the various regions of Bolivia differ
very widely in elevation, climate, and landscape. Here also the cold bare
grass-lands of the plateau, at elevations of 11,000 feet above the sea, are
kno-svn as the " pimas ; " over these the giant peaks of the Andes, such as
Illimani and Sorata, or the volcano of Sahama, rise to heights of more than

Area in sq. m. Population.
1 Bolivia . . . 500,900 l',000,000

446 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

22,000 feet. The slopes and cultivable districts of the lower mountains, be-
tween 5000 and 11,000 feet, are termed the " Valle, " and possess a genial
temperate clmiate. Lower down on the eastern or interior slope, the rich
warm forest region below 5000 feet is known as the " Yungas;" but this
name does not include the western lowland along the Pacific, which, as in
Peru, is an inhospitable tract of shifting sands, hot, rainless, and barren. As
in Peru also, the great rivers are those of the eastern slope ; these include the
upj)er waters of the great river Madeira, formed by the iinion of the Beni,
Mamore, and Guajjore, which joins the Amazon ; and the head streams of the
Pilcomayo, one of the main feeders of the Paraguay river, which itself flows
for some distance along the eastern boundary, separating Bolivia from inner
Brazil.

The southern half of the great continental lake of Titicaca is also in Boli-
via, and is overflowed in its territory by the Desaguadero to form the salt lake
of the Pampa AulJagas, 200 miles south.

42. Products. — Bolivia, like Perii, is richly metallic ; the mountain of
Potosi, on the high plateau, is said to have yielded silver to the value of 130
millions sterling. The punas support great herds of the llama, and its varie-
ties, the alpaca and vicuiia, and the chinchilla, noted for its fur, lives in the
mountains. The chinchona tree grows on the higher slopes, and the lowlands
of the interior slope jield all the tropical products of Brazil, The opposite
desert lowland of the Pacific coast has its value also in the rich silver mines of
Caracoles, and in extensive nitre beds.

43. People. — The Indians of Bolivia are in three gi-eat divisions : — 1st,
the civilised Quichua and Aymara Indians of the plateau ; 2d, the semi-civilised
Chiquitos and Moxos Indians of the inner descent of the Andes ; and 3d, the
wild Indians of the low-lying forests beyond in the east, who belong for the
most i)art to the Guarani family. The strength of the population, however,
lies in the mixed races — the half-caste descendants of Spaniards and Indians,
called " Cholos" ; the " Mulattoes," with Spanish and Negro blood ; and the
" Zarabos," descendants of Negroes and Indians. Except in the towns, the
Quichua language prevails over the Spanish. The Indians of the camja, as
distinguished from those of the to'wns, are almost exclusively agriculturists or
"arrieros," — that is, herdsmen or drivers of the llama, sheep, or goats. The
feasts of the Ptoman Catholic calendar are scrupidously observed.

44. Government. — The Republic is governed by a President, elected for
four years, and by a Congress of two chambers, chosen by universal sufirage.
As in the other Spanish Republics, the history of Bolivia has been marked by
an almost incessant round of purposeless revolutions and civil strifes. The
country is divided for administrative pu.rposes into nine departments.

45. Chief Towns. — The present political capital of Bolivia is Sucre or
Chuquisaca, situated at an elevation of about 9250 feet on the high plateau
which divides the waters flowing to the Rio Madeira from those which turn
south-east to the Paraguay. It is named from General Sucre, who won the
great battle of independence at Ayacucho in southern Peru in 1824. Oruro
and Fotosl — the latter a decayed city — both at great elevations on the Andes
plateau, are in the vicinity of the once famous silver-mines. La Paz, south-east
of Lake Titicaca, is the largest city of Bolivia, and its great trading centre,
Cochahaniha, at the head of the Rio Mamore, is the second town in population.
The chief outlets for the quinine, hides, and metals exi^orted, lie through
southern Peru to its seajiorts, the only harbour belonging to Bolivia being the
insignificant one of Cobija, south of the river Loa. This can never become
important, as the steep descent of the Andes, practicable only for mules, and
the arid desert of Atacama, sejiarate it from the sources of supply.

CHILE. 447

CHILE.i

46. The State of Chile, the most prosperous and advanced of
the South American Republics, occupies a long narrow strip of
territory between the coast of the Andes and the Pacific in the
south-west of the continent. It reaches from the southern boundary
of the coast-land of Bolivia in lat. 24° S.^ to the archipelago of
Chiloe, through a distance of about 1300 miles, rising inland to the
summits of the Andes, Avhich here form a single chain at a distance
of about 100 miles from the ocean, and having southern Bolivia,
the Argentine Republic, and Patagonia, on its eastern frontier. Its
area may be compared to that of the British Isles taken together.

47. Physical Features. — The range of the Ancles, visible from the sea
all along the coast of Chile, towers up iu a series of volcanic cones and snow-
clad peaks ; the loftiest summit, that of Aconcagua, being probably the
highest point of all the South American continent. Numbers of streams
descend fi-om the range, and have furrowed deejD valleys across the width of
the coimtry. The most considerable of these are the Maypu near the centre
of Chile, and the Maule and Biohio in the south, both of which are to some
extent navigable. Earthquakes are very frequent in Chile.

48. Climate and Products. — This long strip of maritime country pre-
sents remarkable gradations of climate from north to south. Nearest the
Bolivian maritime region the coast-land of Atacama is a hot, rainless, sandy
desert without sign of vegetation. Coming southward, we gradually jiass
into a temperate climate which enjoys a moderate rainfall. This central belt
is thus the most valuable and the most productive agricultural region of Chile.
Farther south we pass into the latitudes in which the westerly winds blowing
towards the mountains from over the wide Pacific bring with them such
quantities of moisture that the rainfall is excessive ; here, in southern Chile,
iu consequence of the abundant moisture, the mountain slopes are densely
covered ■with evergi-een forest.

As if iu compensation for its aridity, the northern desert region in Ata-
cama is exceedingly rich in minerals and metals, supjilj-ing copper especially
iu great quantities. Wlieat, maize, and fruits known in Europe are cultivated
in aljundance in central Chile, and enormous herds of cattle and horses are
grazed upon the extensive pasture lands along the valleys.

49. People. — The iuhaljitants of northern and central Chile are, for the
most part, descendants of the intermixed Spaniards and native Indians, pure
Eiu'opean blood remaining only in the best families ; but in the extreme
south the ijopulatiou becomes almost exclusively Indian. Here live the Arau-
caniaus, whom the Spaniards were never able to conquer, though their country
is now nominally jiart of the Republic. More generally enlightened, peacefid,
and industrious than the inhabitants of the other Soutli American Republics,
the ChUenos enjoy a much gi-eater share of prosperity. The Roman Catholic
Church here, as in other parts of the continent, exercises a powerful influence,
but in this case it is generally beneficial.

50. Government. — The President of the Republic of Chile is elected for

Area in sq. ni. Population.

1 Chile . . . 124,000 2.350,000

2 At present (Dec. 1880), but in consequence of her military success, she claims the
whole Bolivian coast region, includiuj; Cobija.

448 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

five years. A Senate and Chamber of Deputies control the legislature. Chile
is divided into eighteen provinces, and claims a territory on the Straits of
Magellan, besides the island of Jiian j Fernandez in the Pacific. It has
gained the reputation of being the most orderly and best governed of all the
South American Republics.

51. Chief Towns. — Santiago, the capital, in the centre of Chile, is a fine,
well-built, and clean city, on an island plateau enjoying a delightful climate
amid the magnificent scenery of the Andes. It is joined by railway with
Valparaiso, the chief seaport of Chile, and the centre of its foreign trade.
The other seaports of note are Caldera, the port of the inland mining town
of Copiapo, remarkable for the frequency of the slight earthquakes which
shake it ; and Coquimbo in northern Chile ; besides Concepcion, Talcahiiano,
and Valdivia in the south. The most frequented pass over the Andes east-
ward is that of La Cumhre, or Uspallata, between Valparaiso and Mendoza in
the Argentine Republic, the summit of whicli is 12,800 feet above the sea.

AEGENTINE KEPUBLIC'

52. After Brazil tlie Argentine Republic is the largest State of
South America. Its territory reaches from the basin of the Pilco-
mayo river, on the borders of Bolivia, southward for 1200 miles to
the Rio Negro, which separates it from Patagonia ; and from the
sloije of the Andes on the west to the Uruguay river in the east.
Its area may be compared to ten times that of Great Britain.

53. Physical Features. — Excepting on the north-west, where the
spurs of the Andes reach down into the State, the surface of the Ai-geutine
Republic presents vast monotonous and level plains, broken only by the
detached ridges of Cordova and San Luis in the western interior. In the
north, the jjortion of the region called the Gran Chaco, within the frontier, is
jiartly forest-covered, but all the central and soiithern region presents only
vast treeless plains or " pamjias," covered at most seasons wth coarse gi'ass,
which is green in the winter months, but which dries up in summer so as to
give an aspect of aridity to the plains. Some portions of the interior, called
"Salinas," are barren and white throughoiit the year.

The gi'eat watercourse of the country is the Parana, formed by the union
of the Upper Parana and Paraguay rivers near the north-eastern corner of the
State. This is a noble river, in all parts of its course through Argentine terri-
tory scarcely ever less than a mile in width, and in some places spreading out
in lateral channels, or " riachos," to a breadth of ten miles.

The Pilcomayo, which forms part of the northern boundary, may be said
to be unknown as yet, no explorer having traversed its whole length ; the
Vcnncjo, the next river southward, has of late years become a regularly
navigated highway from the Paraguay up to the north-eastern provinces ; the
Salado, farther south, flowing directly to tlie ParanA, is also an important
river ; but the remaining streams which tend eastward to the Parana have
not strength of water sufficient to resist evaporation in crossing the dry plains,
and terminate for the most part in marshes and salt lakes.

54. Climate. — The seasons in this region of South America begin to be
marked out, like those of Europe, but of course in opposite months — the
shortest day of winter occurring in June, the longest day of summer in Decem-

Area in sq. m. Population.

1 Ai-gentine Repulilic (exchuling Patagonia) 828,000 1,813,000

ARGEXTINE RErUBLIC. 449

ber. The climate is pleasant and healthj', and the rainfall is small. Stormy
south-west winds, called " pamperos," sweep over the plains at times, and
raise great clouds of dust, which fly across the plains.

55. Products. — The north-western provinces of the Argentine Republic,
crossed by the lower ramifications of the Andes, are rich in metals, including
gold, sOver, nickel, copjjer, tin, lead, and iron, as well as in several kinds of
marble, jasper, aud precious stones. On the Rio Vermejo i^etroleum wells
have recently been discovered ; but the development of tliese treasures has
hitherto been greatly retarded liy the want of proper means of transport.

European grains and fruits, including the vine, have been successfully
introduced, and are cultivated to some extent in most parts of the Republic.
The great wealth of the State, however, lies in its countless herds of cattle
aud horses and flocks of sheep, which are pastured on the " pampas," and
which multiply there very rapidly. The rearing and tending of these herds
is the great and characteristic industry of the country ; tliese also yield the
enormous quantities of liides, horns, and salted beef, which form the staple
export of the Argentine Republic.

56. People. — The European element is much stronger in the Argentine
Republic than in any other part of South America. The aboriginal Indians
of tlie plains were comparatively few in numbers ; and being of nomadic habits,
they shifted their ground before the advance of the foreigner, and have now
been driven to tlie outer borders of the State, where their freqiient raids are a
source of constant anxiety to the settlers. Besides people of Spanish descent,
the European population of the Republic has been made x\y> largely of immi-
grant Italians, English, French, Americans, Swiss, and Germans. The typical
inhabitants of the " camp," or country, as distinguished from the citizens of
the Argentine State, are the semi-barbarian cattle-breeders and horse-breakers,
called the "gauchos," who may be said to live on horseback, who are expert
in the use of the " lasso " and " bolas," and who are ever ready to take a
side in any fresh revolution.

57. Government. — The constitution of the group of States formerly
called the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata dates from 1853, and vests
the executive power in a President elected by the representatives of the four-
teen i^rovinces for a term of six years. A National Congress wields the legis-
lative authority. Notwithstanding many political troubles, the Republic is
making rapid advances in social and political life. Already it possesses a
fairly developed railway system ; trade with Europe and other parts of the
world has become very extensive ; and jmlilic instruction is well cared for,

58. Chief Towns. — The capital, Buenos Ayres (178,000), on the level
plain of the southern shore of the inlet of the Rio de la Plata, is the only large
city of the Republic. It is laid out most regularly in square blocks, and has a
number of fine public buildings. Its site is, however, a very disadvantageous
one for commerce, since the sea opposite it is so shallow and exposed that large
vessels are obliged to anchor twelve miles out from the city. Cordova, nearly
in the centre of the State, is the second town, and the seat of the chief obser-
vatory of the Republic. Rosario, on the right bank of the Parana, more
than 200 miles up from the La Plata inlet, is a substantially built town, and a
great outlet of the animal produce of the interior plains, transport toward it
being facilitated l)y a railway to the central town of Cordova. Tucuman
and Salta in the north-western mountain region, and Mcndoza at the
eastern base of the Andes, where they are crossed to enter Chile, with Cor-
ricntes on the Parana, are the other important places of the Republic.

450 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

PAEAGUAY.i

59. The small country of Paraguay is the only one of the South
American RejDublics th.at has no sea-coast. It has been called the
" Mesopotamia " of the continent, since it lies between the great
river Parana and its large tributary the Paraguay. These rivers
embrace the country east, south, and west. On the north its limit
with Brazil is marked by the river Ajxi, a tributary of the Para-
guay, and by the heights of Maracaju from the head of the Apa to
where the Parana forms its great waterfall of Guayra, near lat. 24"
S. In area Paraguay may be compared with England and Wales.

60. Physical Features. — A range of heights, about 2000 feet in
elevation at the most, forming part of the gi'cat table-land of Brazil, stretches
southward through the midst of the country, separating the tributaries of the
Parana from those of the Paraguay. The western slope of this central chain
of heights presents a landscape of wide grassy plains fringed and patched with
wood, and this is the portion of the country which has been occupied by the
more civilised inliabitants. Most of the eastern slope, on the other hand, is
covered with dense forests, which have scarcely been penetrated as yet by
Europeans, and this side of the country remains in the hands of small tribes
of aboriginal Indians. All the south-western angle of the country, where the
Parana and Paraguay rivers approach one another till they luiite, is occupied
by very extensive marshes, the largest of which is named " Necmhucu,"
which means " the endless."

61. Products. — The forests of Paraguay are noted for their splendid
timber trees ; but the most imjiortant natural product of all is the tea called
the "ycrba mate," made from the diied leaves of a species of holly that grows
along the central heights. Tobacco and mandioca are cultivated in small
quantities all over the western half of the country. No minerals of workable
valuK have yet been discovered.

62. People. — The inhabitants of the western half of Paraguay show
every gradation and intermixture of people of Sjiauish descent with the aborigi-
nal Guarani Indians. Spanish is the language of the capital, but in the camp
Guarani only is understood. Previous to the disastrous six years' war between
Paraguay and the united strength of Brazil and the Argentine Republic, the
population amounted to perhaps a million and a half, but this is now reduced
to perhaps 300,000, the men of Paraguay having been almost exterminated in
the long contest.

63. Government. — The present constitution of Paraguay dates only
from the termination of the great war. It vests the control of the Republic
in a Senate and Chamber of Deputies, with a President ; but since 1870 an
almost continual round of revolutions has further drained the shattered
resources of the country, and brought it into a state of complete ruin.

64. Asuncion, the capital, the only large town of Paraguay, lies on
the summit of the steep bank of a lagoon formed on the eastern side of the
Paraguay river, and presents a ruinous aspect, a number of fine public build-
ings being left in the unfinished state in which they stood at the commence-
ment of the great war. Its trade is mainly in the yerba tea, which is sent

Area in sq. m. Population (lS7t5).
1 Paraguay . . 92,000 300,000.

URUGUAY. 451

down the river packed in hides in considerable quantities for use in the lower
provinces of the La Plata. Villa Rica, in the centre of the southern half of
the country, and Conccpcion, on the Paraguay above Asuncion, are the only
considerable places besides the capital. The ruined fortress of Ilumaita, on
the Paraguay, near its confluence with the Parana, is remarkable as having
•withstood a siege of several j-ears against the united forces of Brazilians and
Argentines.

URUGUAY, OR BANDA ORIENTAL.i

65. Uruguay, or the Banda Oriental (the " eastern side "), as it
is more commonly called, occupies the side of the inlet of the Rio
de La Plata opposite to the Argentine Republic, and is shut oft" from
that Republic on the west Ijy the large river Uruguay. In area it
may be compared to twice the extent of Ireland.

66. Physical Features, — In the north, where it touches Brazil, spurs
and offshoots of the great plateau reach southward across the boundary, but
all the west and south of the country is characterised by undulating grassy
plains. Besides its harbours on the inlet "of La Plata, and along its Atlantic
coast, the communications of the country are aided greatly by the Uruguay
river, which is navigable for large vessels from its mouth upwards to the
rapids called the Salto Grande, in lat. 31° S. The most imjiortant interior
river is the Rio Negro, which joins the Uruguay after draining the greater
part of the central region.

67. Products. — The wealth of Uruguay is in its splendid pastiu-es,
which support immense herds of cattle, horses, and sheep. " Estancias," or
cattle-farms, are dotted at intervals all over the land, the site of each house
being marked in the open plain by its clump of ombu trees planted for their
shade.

68. People and Government. — The number of inhabitants in the
open country is necessarily very small ; a fourth of the whole population is
found in the capital. The constitution of the Republic dates from 1831, and
the country has enjoyed comparative prosperity, though it has not escaped the
curse of frequent revolutions.

69. Monte Video, the capital, on a promontory which reaches into
the wide inlet of La Plata near its opening into the' Atlantic, is a finely built
and busy city, carrying on an extensive commerce ■with all parts of the
world in exporting hides, tallow, and salted beef, and in inqiorting manufac-
tured cotton and iron goods. Fray Bentos and Paysand'd, on the Uruguay
river, have become important centres of the manufacture of extract of meat
and of tinned provisions.

PATAGONIA AND TIERRA DEL FUEGO.2

70. All the vast extent of territory from the Rio Negro, which
is recognised as the southern boundary of the Argentine Republic,
southward to the Strait of Magellan, is known to Europeans as
Patagonia. In area we may compare it to four times Great Britain.

Area in sq. in. Population.

1 Uruguay 70,100 450,000

2 Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego . 351,000 24,000 2

452 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

71. Physical Features. — Towards the Pacific the temtory of Pata-
gonia is bordered by tlie southern Andes, which rise from the steep fiord-cut
coast in a chain of high pealcs. Many of these, besides the highest summits,
named Minchinmadiva and Corcovado, are volcanoes. Towards the Atlantic
the long eastward slope of Patagonia, as far as it has yet been explored, pre-
sents a succession of bare plains, in parts gi-ass- covered like the Argentine
pampas, in part strewn with shingle. Several rivers, besides the Jlio Negro,
the largest of which are the Oliiqiat and the Santa Cruz, fiow across the eastern
slope to the Atlantic in deep canoiis or gorges, which they have cut for them-
selves. The climate of southern Patagonia becomes very severe ; the streams
there are frozen over till September, and the winter winds blow over the bare
l^lains, driving clouds of snow and sand with great violence.

72. People. — The numbers of the Patagouian Indians can only be ap-
j^roximately estimated, but they are very few in comparison with the vast
extent of country over which they wander. The TekuclcJies, or southern
Patagonian Indians, are tall, fine jieople, nomadic himters of the guauaco and
ostrich. The north-west of Patagonia is occuined by the Manzanas, a less
nomadic peojile, possessing flocks of cattle and sheep, and allied in language
and ajopearance to the Araucanians of southern Chile, on the opposite slope of
the Andes.

73. Patagonia is claimed both by Chile and by the Argentine Republic.
The former country holds an important peninsiila, which forms part of the
northern shore of the Strait of Magellan, and there the Chilian settlement
named Punta Arenas is maintained as a penal settlement and place of call
for passing steamships. The Argentines keep up a small military colony at
the mouth of the river Santa Cruz in rejiresentation of their claims.

74. Tierra del Fuego and its surrounding archipelago of islands, reaching
south to that of Cape Horn, are as yet little known. They are all high and
mountainous, covered with thick woods, and their climate appears to be a
succession of storms, thick mists, and drenching rains.

The Fuegians are of the same race as the Patagonian Indians, but are com-
paratively diminutive in stature, and seem to form one of the lowest sections
of the human family. Clad in skins, they support themselves by fishing and
hunting with bow and arrows.

FALKLAND ISLANDS.

75. The Falkland Islands, which lie at a distance of from 200 to 300
miles east of the Strait of Magellan, are under a British Governor. The
islands, of which East and West Falkland are the chief, are larger than Devon
and Cornwall. They have a large and desolate aspect, and are entirely tree-
less. They are well adapted, however, for cattle, horses, and slieep, which
feed on the tall " tussac " grass that grows round their margins. They possess
excellent harbours, and their coasts teem with fish, penguin, and seals. About
800 British and Argentines form their population, the seat of government
being at Stanley Harbour, in East Falkland.

Al'STHALASIA

StunrTn^iJ O-ec^ ^Sstai'

Lon.lnn Publish.'d bv K.hv:u,l Slautbnl r.r.AhaiiiiiirLoss. Fch.lG. IflQO.

AUSTRALASIA.

AUSTRALIA.' . '

1. The name Australia, hi its widest sense, groups together the
continent or island of tliis name with New Zealand, Tasmania, and
the smaller islands about these, all of which lie in the region
between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, south-east of the great
continent of Asia. The mainland of Australia lies across the Tropic
of Capricorn, so that the northern half of it falls within the torrid
zone, the southern in the south temperate region. The open
Indian Ocean washes its shores on the west and south ; the branch
of the Indian Ocean called the Arafura Sea, leading to Torres Strait,
separates Australia from the lesser Sunda Islands and from New
Guinea ; on the east is the wide Pacific Ocean. Its coast-line, like
that of Africa, is little indented, the deepest inlets being the Gulf of
Carpentaria in the north and Spencer Gulf in the south. The islands
round the Australian mainland are also few ; besides the Tasmanian
group, separated by Bass Strait on the south-east, the only large
island close to Australia is that named Melville, off the north coast.
The most remarkable feature of the outline of Australia is the Great
Barrier Reef, the longest coral belt in the world, which skirts the
north-eastern coast for a length of more than 1200 miles at a dis-
tance of from 20 to 150 miles from the mainland ; on this reef the
swell of the Pacific breaks continually, forming a long line of white
foam, while the sea within the barrier is calm and still. The
extreme points of Australia are Cape York, which runs out to form
Torres Strait in the north ; Cape Howe at the south-eastern, and
Cape Leeuioin at the south-western angle. The circimiference of the
mainland may be taken at about 8000 miles ; the length from east

Colonies. Area in sq. m. Population. 2

1 New South Wales 309,000 (;<14,000

Victoria S;),000 880,000

Queensland . (Hi!*, 000 211,000

South Australia 904,000 2.02,000

West Australia 976,000 28,000

Mainland of Australia . . . 2,947,000 2,065,000

2 Excluding aborigines.

454 THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

to west being about 2400, the width 2000 miles at most. Australia
is about two-thirds of the extent of Europe.

2. Relief. — The surface of Australia in general lies at a small elevation
only above the sea. This is especially the case in the wide central region of
the continent ; towards the margin, on several sides, greater elevations are
found. The only mountainous portion, however, is a belt of about 150 miles
in width, which skirts the eastern and south-eastern border next the Pacific
Ocean. This belt includes, in the south-east, the range called the Australian
Alps, known also as the Bowen Mountains and the Muniong or Warragong
Mountains, the summit of which range, named Mount Kosciusko, 7176 feet
above the sea, is the highest point in Australia ; the Dividing Range along the
eastern margin reaches northward to form the long peninsula that terminates
in Cape York. The western coast-laud next the Indian Ocean also rises above
the level of the interior in the ranges of the Darling, Hcrschcl, and Victoria
hills. The highest known point of this belt is Mount William, jnear the
south-west corner of Australia, which reaches 3600 feet above the sea. Between
these outer heights the only considerable elevations that are yet known are
those of the Flinde7-s Range (3000 feet) in South Australia, and of the plateau
of North Australia west of the Gulf of Carpentaria.

3. Rivers and Salt Lakes. — The only large river system of Australia is
that of the Murray, the affluents of which — the Darling, Lachlan, and
Murrumhidgee — drain the long inward slope of the eastern highland belt, to
the south coast. The tributaries of the Murray are perennial, but the lower
river, in its course through the dry plains, has an uncertain flow, failing
altogether in some seasons, and becoming a chain of stagnant pools. The only
considerable rivers of the continent that carry water to the sea throughout the
year are those which fall into the Gulf of Carpentaria ; two of these, at least,
aiford a short extent of navigable stream upward from the sea, but elsewhere
Australia is viithout any internal water communication.

Inland salt lakes forms a characteristic feature of the continent. The most
remarkable group of these is that which lies north of Spencer Gulf in South
Australia, where the fluctuating saline marshes called lakes Eyre, Torrcns,
and Gairdncr, each exceed 100 miles in length. Lake Amadcus, more recently
discovered in the heart of Australia, is a great saline dejiression similar to
these. Numbers of smaller salt lakes occur in Western Australia, and many
large lagoons fringe the sea margin of Victoria in the south-east.

4. Climate and Landscape. — The climate of Australia, tropical and sub-
tropical, corresponds to that of Northern or Southern Africa in its dryness.
The situation of the continent across the southern tropic corresponds very
closely with that of the Sahara region of North Africa on the opposite one.
Both lie within a belt over which the great trade-vnnd currents are advancing
from colder to warmer latitudes, taking up moisture, rather than parting with
it, as they advance. The system of this wind is modified m Australia, how-
ever, to a greater extent by the land and sea breezes which blow round its
margins ; but here, as in the Sahara, long periods of drought are characteristic
of the climate. The slopes of the eastern mountain ranges, facing the winds
from the Pacific and condensing upon themselves the moisture from the ocean,
are by far the most fertile portions of Australia ; the whole of the interior
region may be said to be almost rainless. Thus entering from the Pacific side
of the continent, we should pass from the cultivated fields and rich grass plains
of the eastern hill slopes and plateaus into the uniform steppes of the interior,
where the soU is bare and saline, and covered with thickets and scrub of a
bushy Eucalyptus or prickly Acacia, often quite impenetrable. In the
Australian spring time the interior jilains assume their freshest aspect, but in

NEW SOUTH WALES. 455

Slimmer they become dreary wastes ; their little water-channels, or "creel's,"
dry lip, and animals, as well as men, are content to search for pools of brackish
water. The trees and shrubs which are found in Australia are almost all
evergreens, so that there is little variation in the landscape from winter to
summer except in the drying of the gi-asses to yellow hay after the summer
droughts. The characteristic trees of the more favoured outer margins of
Australia are the eucalypti, or " gum trees," which acquire large dimensions
on the eastern maritime sloi^e'.

Notwithstanding its dryness, the climate of Australia is extremely salu-
brious, and excei)ting the northern tropical coast-lauds, the country is every-
where well suited for European settlement.

5. Animals. — The fauna of Australia is distinct from that of any other
region of the globe, and is characterised by the low organisation of its indige-
nous animals. Almost all the mammals — kangaroos, bandicoots, opossums —
belong to the marsupial type, that is, are furnished with a natural pouch in
which to carry their young. The " dingo," or wild dog, is almost the only
carnivorous animal of the continent, and there are no indigenous hoofed
animals. The birds of Australia stand unrivalled in their variety of form and
beauty of plumage. The rivers witliin the tropics harbour formidable croco-
diles, lizards and snakes are numerous, and fishes are found in endless variety
on all parts of the Australian coasts.

6. Products. — Though, as we have seen, Australia possessed no native
sheep, those introduced by the European settlers have thriven and multij)lied
in an extraordinary degree on its pastures, so that Australia has become one
of the foremost wool-producing regions of the world. It vies also with Cali-
fornia and the western United States in the abundance of its precious metals
and minerals, especially of gold, besides silver, tin, copjier, lead, iron, and coal.
The most favoured and fertile region of the continent, the hill belt next the
Pacific margin, is also the richest in metals.

7. People. — The aborigines of Australia belonging to the group of tribes
called the Oceanic Negroes rank lowest of all in the human family. Once
more numerous, they offered active resistance to the advance of the wliite men,
and they still make exjiloration dangerous in some parts of trojiical Northern
Australia. Elsewhere they are now few and feeble, and are rapidly decreasing
in numbers. Perpetual wanderers, they have resisted all eflbrts to draw them
to civilisation. Their numbers are now approximately estimated at about
55,000, by far the larger proportion being found now in Northern Queensland.
The bulk of the population of the continent is of Eurojiean origin, most being
descendants of emigrants from the British Isles. Chinese have become colo-
nists in considerable numbers ; and Polynesian Kanakas, from the New Hebrides
chiefly, have been introduced as labourers in some parts of tropical Queensland
where the heat is too great for Europeans.

8. The history of the discovery and colonisation of Australia by
the British has already been sketched, so that here we need only
look at the separate colonies as they have now developed them-
selves, beginning with the oldest or mother colony of

NEW SOUTH WALES.

This colony includes the south-eastern region of Australia from
the Pacific coast inland to the 141st meridian, which separates it
from South Australia. On the north a boundary drawn inland from

45 G THE LONDON GEOGEAPHY.

Point Danger, and then along the 29th parallel of latitude to meet
the South Australian frontier, separates New South Wales from
Queensland ; on the south the Llurray River, and a line drawn
from its source to Cape Howe at the S.E. corner of the continent,
divides it from Victoria. In extent the colony is about five times
larger than England and Wales.

9. Physical Features. — The portion of tlie eastern meantime heights in-
cluded in New South Wales takes the name of the Mnniong Range or Aus-
tralian Alps in the south. Here the summit, called Mount Kosciusko, reaches
a height of 7176 feet. Farther north the chief sections of the mountains are
named the Blue Mountains, the Liverpool B.cmge, and the New England
liange, which runs into Queensland. These heights form a short seaward
watershed, and a long gi-adual slope towards the far interior. The Shoalharen,
HaivJcesbtci'y, and Hunter are the chief of the streams which drain the outer
descent to the Pacific ; the Darling, Lachlan, and Murriimbidgce take their
rise on the inner slope, and flow over the plains south-westward to join the
boundary river Murray. Lake George, in the midst of moimtains, 2130
feet above the sea-level, is the most important lake of the colony. Its water
is brackish, and occasionally the lake dries up, and sheep wander over its bed.
The well-watered maritime valleys and the hill region above form the agri-
cultural section of the colony, where European gi-ains and fruits are culti-
vated in aljundance. The wide grass plains of the long interior slope, called
the " Riverina," form tlie pastoral lands of New South Wales, and are divided
off into large sheep " runs," which vary in size, but some of which extend over
areas of from 30,000 to 70,000 acres.

10. Minerals. — The most productive gold mines of New South Wales are
gi'ouped between the New England and Liverpool Ranges in the nortji, and
between the sources of the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers in the south.
Those which yield copper, silver, lead, tiu, mercury, and iron, are widely distri-
buted in the mountain region, but the chief source of supply of coal is in
the neighbourhood of Newcastle, in the lower basin of the Hiuiter River.

11. People. — The population of New South Wales has now become a
settled one, and occupations are regular and constant. Public instruction has
made great progress ; a university was established at Sydney in 1851, and
has a staff of six professors. Religious freedom was granted by charter as
early as 1836.

12. Government. — Responsible government was gi-anted to the colony in
1855, and a Legislative Council, the members of which hold their appointments
for life, was nominated by the Governor. A Legislative Assembly is chosen
every three years by universal suffrage.

13. Chief Towns. — The capital, Sydney (188,000), on the southern shore
of the splendid harbour, Port Jackson, is now a fine English town, united by
several railway lines to the interior; its commerce extends to all parts of the
world, and it sends out gi-eat qu^tities of wool, gold, coal, tallow, cop2:)er,
and grain. The other imjiortant towns are Paramatta, 15 miles from Sydney ;
Bathtcrst, the chief interior town, west of Sydney ; iSfe^vcastle, the great coal
port, on the coast, at the mouth of the Hunter ; Maitland, on the same river,
20 ndles above its mouth, and in a district known, on account of its fertility,
as the "granary of New South Wales ;" Goullmrn, the chief place in the
southern gold-mining district ; and Deniliquin, the centre of the pastoral dis-
trict of the "Riverina," between the Darling and the Murray.

13a. Norfolk Island, 16 square miles in area, which lies out in the

YICTORIA. 457

Pacific at a distance of 900 miles east of Sydney, belongs to New South Wales.
It is famous for its pine trees. Formerly it was a penal settlement, and after-
wards some of the inhabitants of Pitcaim Island (q.v.) were transferred to
it, and remained here for a time.

VICTORIA.

14. The colony of Victoria may be compared to Great Britain
in area. It occupies the south-eastern corner of Australia, marked
out by the Murray River and the boundary of South Australia
along the 141st meridian.

15. Physical Features and Products. — Tlie high chain of the Dividing
Range and Bowen Mountains or Australian Alps, as it is variously called,
passing centrally through the colony, gives it a northern inward watershed to
the Mu7Tuy, and a southern slope to the ocean, down which there flow many
streams, the most notable of them being the Yarra- Yarra, on which the
capital stands. The extensive basin of Port Philli]) is the most important
of the many inlets and lagoons which fringe the Victorian coast. The colony
is eminently a pastoral one, possessing great stretches of rich succulent grass
country ; but since the discovery of gold, agriculture has made rapid advances.
Trees are most abundant in the south-eastern valleys of the Australian Alps,
in the district named Gippsland. The colony takes the first place as a gold-
yielding region, but other metals are not found in any considerable quantities.
The manufactures are varied, and they are encouraged by bounties and a pro-
tective tariff.

16. People and Government. — The population of Victoria now con-
siderably outnumbers that of its parent colony of New South Wales, and the
inhabitants are distinguished by gi-eat energy, health, and prosjierity. Chinese
are more numerous here than in any of the other Aiistralian colonies, but the
aboriginal blacks have almost disappeared from within its borders. Schools are
well supjported by the State, and general education is nowhere more advanced.
With the other colonies of Australia, Victoria received responsible government
in 1855. The executive rests in the hands of the Governor appointed by the
Crown, the legislative with a Parliament of two Chambers.

17. Chief Towns.— The capital, Melbourne (256,000), on the inlet of
the sea called Port Phillip, has became the largest city of Australia, and is
in every way a fine European town, with straight wide streets and noble
public buildings. Railways extend from it in all directions, and its manufac-
tures are now very extensive. Gcclong, also on Port Phillip, 45 miles south-
west of Melbourne, rivals it in foreign trade. Ballartit, nearly 100 miles
west of Melbourne, in the midst of one of the first discovered gold-fields, is
the largest interior town. Sundhurst, formerly known as Bendigo, 100 miles
N.N.W. of Melbourne, is the greatest mining centre of the colony.

QUEENSLAND.

18. This third section of the old colony of New South Wales
occupies all the north-east of Australia from the 29th parallel, where
it touches New South Wales, northward to Cape York, reachint>
westward to the boundary of South Australia and the shores of the

458 THE LONDON GEOGKAPHY.

Gulf of Carj^entaria. The vast area is nearly eight times larger than
that of Great Britain.

19. Physical Features and Products. — Here, as in New South Wales,
the maritime range of hills divides the colony into a narrow coast descent
and a long interior slope. The principal streams draining to the Pacific are
the Brisbane, Burnett, Fitzroy, and Burdekin. The interior has two water-
sheds— a north-western towards the Gnlf of Carpentaria, and a south-western
towards the salt lakes of South Australia and the Murray River. The Mitchell,
Flinders, and Leichhardt are the chief rivers of the gulf drainage ; the Barcoo
or Cooper Creek and the Warrego, the largest of those which flow south-west-
ward. Much of the Pacific border in Queensland has a hot, moist climate,
well suited to the cultivation of sugar, cotton, indigo, and maize, and the outer
mountain slojtes are rich in woods. Up in the hill region wide areas of pastoral
"do%vns" appear, and on these heights the climate is more temperate. The
long interior slope passes gradually into the dry climate of the arid steppes of
Central Australia, where the rivers fail to resist the rapid evaporation, and
where rain is almost unkuo\vn.

The metallic wealth of Queensland is very great. In recent years very
productive gold-fields have been found in the north ; copper, tin, iron, and
mercury are also widely distributed.

20. People and Government. — As yet the young colony has gathered
only a small population in 2iroportion to its vast area, and the greater number
of settlers are found at present in the south-east next to New South Wales. The
aborigines are still rather numerous in Northern Queensland. A few Chinese
have settled in the colony, and Polynesians have been introduced as labourers
on the sugar plantations.

The Government is on the same plan as in the other colonies.

21. Chief Towns. — The capital town of Brisbane lies close to Moreton
Bay, which was first settled as a convict station in 1823. It has now grown
into a flourishing town, and is the centre of the trade of the colony, extending
its communications by railways inland, and exporting wool, cotton, sugar,
timber, and preserved meats.

Jjjswich, 25 miles west of Brisbane, is generally looked upon as the second
town of the colony. Maryborough, on the Mary river, 25 miles above its
mouth, is an important shipping port. Gympie, higher up on the same river,
has productive gold mines.

Rockhampton, on the Fitzroy River, near the Tropic of Capricorn, ranks
next to Brisbane in population, but is being rapidly outstretched by Cooktown,
the shipping port for tlie Palmer river gold fields. The most northerly settle-
ment of Australia is the station of Somerset on Cajie York, the point of com-
munication witli New Guinea across Torres Strait. Port Parker, on the Gulf
of Carpentaria, is rapidly rising into importance.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

22. The name South Australia was given to the settlement
formed on the south coast of the continent in 1836, long before
Victoria had been divided off as a separate colony from New South
Wales. It has extended now to embrace all the vast central section
of the continent from the great Australian Bight in the south to the
coasts of tlie Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north ;

WEST AUSTEALIA. 459

but as tlie greater part of tliis enormous territory is northward of
Victoria, and even of New South Wales within its Liter boundaries,
the name has become a misleading one. The nominal boundaries
of this colony include a space more than ten times greater than
our island of Britain.

23. Physical Features and Products. — Much of this vast area
remains unexplored ; but there is little doubt that by far the larger part
of it is occupied by the dry bare steppes of interior Australia, which can
never become of much value as habitable land.

The most valuable and important part of the colony lies along the Flinders
Range of mountains, which extend from the eastern side of Spencer Gulf north-
ward towards the salt basins of Lakes Torrens and Eyre. A large proportion
of the laud along these hill slo2:)es has been already settled for cultivation,
and here wheat and fruits of all European sorts, including the vine, grow in
abundance. Large areas of pastoral land surround this hill country, and the
hills themselves are rich in veins of copper, besides gold, silver, and bismuth.
The long line of telegraph, which has been carried all across South Australia,
leads through interchanging grass-land, bush, salt lagoons, and sandy desert,
over the Macdonuel range of hills, in the centre of the continent, to the
northern territory of the colony, a region which is as yet quite undeveloped,
but which seems to be adequate to the cultivation of all tropical products.

24. People and Government. — South Australia, having never been a
penal settlement, has come less under direct British control than the other
Australian colonies. Its administi'ation has been a \vise and economical one.
The executive is in the hands of the Governor and a council of five ministers :
the Legislative Council serves for twelve years ; the members of the House of
Assembly are nominated for three years. The elements of population other
than British are very small, excepting the German. The few remaining abori-
gines are well cared for. Perfect equality is given to all denominations, and
there is no State aid to any religious body.

25. Chief Towns. — The capital city oi Adelaide, the only important town
of the colony, is built on the eastern coast-land of the Gulf of St. Vincent,
eight miles from its seaport, and six from Glcnclg, a favourite watering-place
and mail station. A railway has been carried inland from it for more than
120 miles. Wallaroo, on Spencer Gulf, is the port of the copper mines of
Moonta and Kadina, on York peninsula. Other mining towns are Kapunda
and Kooriiuja (with the Burra Burra mine), to the north of Adelaide. The
chief settlement in the Northern Territory is that of Palmerston, at the
entrance of the inlet of Port Darwin, on the north coast, where the over-
land telegraph terminates.

WEST AUSTEALIA.

26. The colony of Western Australia includes all that part of
the continent which lies west of the 129th meridian, so that it
includes an area eleven times as large as Britain. Little, how-
ever, is yet known of this region beyond its coast-line and along
one or two tracks of explorers, who have crossed the dry sterile
wastes which fill most of the interior.

27. The most important district, and that which has been occupied by the
colonists, lies along the maritime slope of the hills on the south-west, where

460 THP: LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

a few small rivers descend to tlie Indian Ocean ; but the colony is not a pros-
l)erous one, partly on account of its natural disadvantages, jjartly because it
was made the chief penal settlement, after deportation to the other Australian
colonies had ceased.

28. Its chief town of Perth lies on the left bank of the Swan River, which
formerly gave its name to the whole territory. Its port on the coast is Fre-
mantle. Albany, on King George's Sound, is the coaling station of the mail
steamers.

TASMANIA.!

29. The island which was first called Van Diemen's Laud, and
afterwards, from its discoverer, Tasmania, is somewhat smaller than
Ireland, being about 150 miles wide each way. It is separated
from Victoria and the mainland of Australia by Bass Strait, which
can be crossed in a day's .steamer passage.

30. Physical Features. — Its bold coasts are indented with bays and
inlets, which form fine harbours. Inward the island rises to elevated downs,
suri'ounded by high mountain ranges, some of which present a wild and stem
aspect. • The highest point of the island, named Cradle Mount, is 5069
feet high, but there are a number of summits which exceed 4000 feet in
elevation. Streams and lalces are numerous in the mountain valleys, the
largest rivers being the Tainar, which flows northward, and the Deriocnt,
which descends south-eastward to the inlet upon which the capital town is
placed.

31. Climate and Vegetation. — ^The climate may be said to resemble
that of England, though the summer heat is occasionally greater than is ex-
perienced here, esiiecially when the island is reached at times by a blast of
hot air from the deserts of Australia. The Avinter cold forms thin ice on the
lowlands, and then the higher ranges are snow-clad. The western side of the
island, exposed to the prevailing westerly winds fi-om the southern ocean, is
very wet, but the eastern has a rainfall that does not exceed that of the east
coast of England. Tracts of forest, containing trees of great size, such as the
durable thorn jnne, myrtle wood, and blue gum, cover large parts of the island,
and elegant tree ferns, besides a great variety of smaller ferns, fill the glens.
Where the island is cultivated, its hedged fields and orchards' beside the
villages remind one of England. The native animals of the island are to a
great extent similar to those of the mainland of Australia. Iron, tin, and
coal are widely distributed.

32. People and Government. — The inhabitants of Tasmania are almost
exclusively of British origin. The aborigines, who resembled the Australians
in their customs and mode of life, though they were of shorter stature, stronger
jihysique, and darker comjilexion, have now become extinct. Agricultural
rather than pastoral industries employ the colonists of Tasmania ; a large
number are employed in the South Sea whale fisheries. Education is com-
pulsory on all ; religion is imfettered. The colony became independent of
New South Wales in 1825, and thirty years later received responsible govern-
ment, like the other Australian colonies.

33. Chief Towns. — Tlie two important towns of Tasmania are Hohart
Town, the capital, on the right bank of the estuary of the Derwent, in the

Area in sq. m. Population.

1 Tasmania .... 26,200 110,000

NEW ZEALAND. 4G1

south-east, and Laiinccston, on the Tamar, near the north coast. These two
outlets of the island rival one another in trade, which is promoted by railway,
and excellent roads through the island. Wool, timber, hops, oil, and fruits,
are the leading exports.

NEW ZEALAND. 1

1. At a distance of about 1200 miles soiitli-east of the main-
land of Australia lie the islands of New Zealand. They are nearly
at the antipodes of ovir islands of Britain, or a line drawn through
the centre of the globe from England would come out n6ar them on
the other side of the world. The group consists of two large
islands, a northern and a southern, and of several smaller ones, of
which Stewart Island, to the south, is the most important. The
extent of the islands together is somewhat less than that of the
United Kingdom.

2. Physical Features. — The Kortli, Island (once called New Ulster,
and by the natives Te ika a Mai;i, or " the bird of the Maui ") is of less compact
form than the southern, and runs out in long peninsulas. Nor is it so
generally elevated as the southern, though it contains high summits. Parallel
ranges, of which that named RuaJiinc is the chief, extend along its maritime
borders on the south-east, and attain heights of over 2600 feet. In the centre
of the island rises a volcanic grouj), in which are Mount FMapchu, 9195 feet,
and the active volcano of Ngaurahoe, between it and Tongariro, 7000 feet.
On a western promontory Mount Egmont stands alone, its conical snow-clad
summit having an elevation of 8270 feet.

The South Island (formerly known as New Munster, or Middle Island, or
by its native name of Te wahi Punamu, " the place of greenstone "), sejiarated
from the northern by Cook Strait, is almost covered by the high range called
the Southern Alps, which rises to greatest height on the western side of the
island, following its whole length, forming high-walled iiords on the western
coast, and reaching down in spurs eastward to the maritime plains. The highest
point among the many peaks of this magnificent glacier and snow-clad range
is Moimt Cook, 13,200 feet high, near the centre of the chain ; Mount Frank-
lin, on the north of it, is 10,000 feet, and Mount Aspiring, towards the south,
9940 feet high. The Tasman glacier, depending from Mount Cook, is larger
than any of those found in the Svriss,-Alps. Almost the only level district in
the South Islautl is the Plain of Canterbury, which reaches along the eastern
maritime border for about 100 miles, having an average width inland to the
base of the mountains of 20 nules. Stewart Island, in the extreme south,
which may be compared to an English county in size, is also mountainous.

Both islands have many rivers and lakes. The Northern Island has a large
central lake named Tau2)o, 36 miles long, from wliich the Waikato river flows
to the west coast ; the Wanganui, flowing southward to Cook Strait, is the
other important river of tlie North Island. Hot-water lakes and geysers, far
surpassing those of Icehuul in size, abound in the central volcanic group. The
South Island has a series of fine rivers on its eastern slojie, such as the Wairau
in the north, the Waitaki and the Clutha in the south. Its steep western water-
Area in sq. m. Population.
1 New Zealand .... 104,280 477,000

462 THE LONDON GEOGRAPHY.

shed has only small streams, though these are very numeroiis. In the southern
mountain region of the South Island there are many alpine lakes of great depth.

3. Climate and Products. — In general the climate of New Zealand
resembles that of the British Isles. The North Island has a warmer and more
equable, the South a cooler and more variable, climate, rough and bracing.
The western sides of both islands receive by far the larger share of rainfall.
Forests of lofty pines and other evergreen trees, tree ferns, and vegetation
matted together by the rope-like " smilax," occupy a large share of the North
and some parts of the South Island. Other parts are overgrown with ferns
breast high, and others are well adapted for pasture.

Though New Zealand has no indigenous quadmpeds, the plains of the
South Island are now so well stocked with sheep that wool has become one
of the leading exports of the colony. The northern and eastern districts of
the South Island are those best adapted for agi'iculture, and the cultivation of
wheat, oats, and barley.

New Zealand is very rich in minerals ; both in the North and South
Islands gold-mining has become a settled and productive industry. Silver,
ii'on, copper, and tin are also found, though not yet extensively worked. Coal
of good quality abounds, and the petroleum is eqiial to that of America.

4. People and Government. — At the time of their first exploration by
Captain Cook the islands were all peopled by the Maoris, a race presenting
far higher physical and mental development than any other in all this Oceanic
region. During the progress of the British colonisation and occupation of the
islands, the contests with the Maoris have been long-continued and severe,
and throughout their wars the natives have sho'wn themselves brave and skil-
ful. Their numbers are now reduced to about 44,000, the greater part of
them living peaceably in the North Island ; and the European colonial popu-
lation is now six or seven times as numerous.

A Governor appointed by the Crown holds the executive power, and is
aided by five ministers. The legislative body consists of a Council nominated
by the Governor, and of an elected House of Representatives which includes
several Maori members.

A system of railways connecting the chief places in the islands was begun
by Government in 1872.

5. Chief Towns. — The parliament of New Zealand meets now at the
small town of Wellington on the south coast of the North Island. This
meeting-point was found more convenient than Auckland, the largest town of
the colony, which lies on the narrow isthmus that leads to the long north-
western peninsula of the North Island, between Hauraki Gulf and the harbour
of Manukau. Napier, on Hawke Bay, and Keio Plyinouth, at the foot of
Mount Egmont, are the only other remarkable to^\^ls of the North Island.

Dunedin, at the head of the inlet called the Harbour of Otago, on the east
coast, is the most considerable town of the South Island. Chrisichurch is the
main centre of population on Canterbury Plain, rich in wheat, meat, and
wool, with Lyttelton for its principal port. Nelson, at the bottom of Blind
Bay, near the northern extremity of the island, is the oxitlet of the richest
mining district. Hokitika is the most important to\vn on the west coast.

5a. The Chatham Islands (628 sq. m.), 450 miles to the east of New Zea-
land, are hilly, and supply whalers \vith provisions. They are inhabited,
which the Auckland Islands and Cccmpbcll, far to the south, are not.

POLYNESIA. 463

POLYNESIA.^

1. The name Polynesia, or the "many islands," is usually
employed to include all those numerous islands and groui^s of islets
in the -sWde Pacific, which are not included within the Australian
or the East Indian Archipelagoes ; but these remnants of former con-
tinents have been more conveniently classed under three subdivisions,
viz. — Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.

2. Melanesia includes the largest islands, New Guinea, Admir-
alty Islands, New Britain, Solomon Island, New Hebrides, Santa
Cruz Islands, New Caledonia, Loyalty Islands, and the Fiji Islands.

3. Physical Features.— Nearly all these islands rise to a considerable
elevation ; several amongst them are of volcanic origin, and many are almost
encircled by coral reefs. The climate combines heat and moisture in a high
degree, so that luxuriant green vegetation apjjears on almost every one of
them. Most highly prized amongst the forest trees are those which yield
sandal-wood. The coco-palm, bread-fruit tree, yam, sweet potato, and sugar-
cane, are amongst the most important food plants.

Mammals ai-e scarce, being limited to the wild j)ig, marsupials, bats, mice,
and an anteater ; but this paucity is in some measure compensated by a
great variety of birds of most gorgeous and beautiful plumage, including birds-
of-paradise, confined to New Guinea and the neighbouring islands. The
fauna grows poorer as we proceed eastward, and in the Viti Islands the only
indigenous mammals are mice and bats. Our European domesticated animals
have been successfully introduced.

4. People.- — The bulk of the i^opulation consists of dark-coloured
Papuans,^ with frizzly hair, intermixed, in the west with Malays, in the east
with light-coloured PoljTiesians. The Papuans keep dogs, pigs, and fowls,
and cultivate the soil ; but although their islands contain gold and copper,
they were, until recently, unacquainted with the use of metals, and made use
of stone implements.

5. Nc\v Guinea, the largest island in all Poljaiesia, has an area equal to
more than thrice that of Great Britain. A lofty range of mountains, named
at the west end Chcm-Jes Louis Mountains, and at the east end Owen Stanley
Range, traverses the island from north-west to south-east, attaining an eleva-
tion of over 13,000 feet. The northern coast is foi'the most part hills, but
to the south of the spinal range, in the direction of Torres Strait, there spreads
out a vast alluvial plain, traversed by the Fly and other rivers, covered with
dense primeval forests, and fringed with mangrove swami)S. Tlie soil is ex-
ceedingly fertile, but the cultivated area small. The natives live in small
villages, " kampongs," under headmen, who, however, exercise very little
authority. Trade is limited to a few raw products, bartered by the natives
with Malay traders.

1 Melanesia

I New Guinea
Other Islands .

•D, 1 ■ ( Sandwich Islands

^"^y"'^^'^--i Other Islands .
Micronesia ....

Area.

Poinilation.

312,000 square

miles

500,000

56,300

007,000

,G,<500 ,,

58,000

3,800

130,000

1,400

85,000

380,100

1,380,000

2 From the Malay word Pap'Ciwah =■ irizziy hair; MeteTicsians =" dark-coloured
islanders," as contrasted with the light-coloured Polynesians or Mahori.

464 THE LONDOX GEOGRAPHY.

6. Ncio Britain includes a gi-oup of islands of volcanic formation, the in-
habitants of whicli are cannibals. The Solomon Islands consist of a double
row of mountainous volcanic islands, with an active volcano in Guadalcanal.
The Neio Hebrides have five active volcanoes. New Caledonia, a long high
island, stretching 200 miles from north-west to south-east, and almost en-
circled by a coral reef, belongs to France, and is used as a penal settlement.
Nickel, gold, and copper are found ; coffee, cotton, tobacco, indigo, and sugar-
cane are cultivated.

7. The most easterly group is tliat of the Viti or Fiji Islands. These
were annexed to the British Empire in 1874. They lie about 2000 miles
east of Australia, and consist of the two large and high islands of Fiti and
Vanua, which together form an area somewhat greater than that of Wales,
and of about 300 smaller islands. Levuka, on a small island adjoining Viti,
is the chief i^lace in the group, exporting coco-nut oil and cotton.

8. Micronesia includes the small islands north of the ecj^uator,
between 130°E. long, and 180° : Marshall Islands, Gilbert or Kings-
mill Islands, Caroline Islands, Pelew Islands, and the Mariannes or
Ladrone Islands.

9. These widespread islands, like those of Polynesia, are naturally divided
into two classes — the mountainous islands, which are always volcanic, and the
low coral islands. The latter are generally circular in form, consisting often
of a low reef, which encloses a lagoon connected with the ocean by one or
more openings. Such are termed atolls. Most of the volcanic islands are
also surrounded by coral formations at greater or less distances from the island,
which in that case are termed harrier reefs.

10. The Marshall and Gilbert Islands are, without exception, flat coral
islands or atolls. The fruit of the pandang and coco-nuts, together with fish
and turtles, form the staple of food. The remaining islands of the group be-
long to Spain. Ponapc, a thickly-wooded basaltic island in the Caroline
archipelago, is remarkable on account of huge stone structures of unknown
origin. Guam or Guahan, one of the Mariannes, is the largest island of all
Micronesia, though only 198 sq. m. in extent. Several active volcanoes are
met with in this group.

11. Polynesia includes all the remaining islands of the Pacific
from the Tonga or Friendly Islands eastward to Easter Island, and
north-eastward to the Sandwich Islands.

Here, as in Micronesia, we distinguish between low coral islands and lofty
volcanic islands, generally encircled by coral reefs. The products are similar
to those of Micronesia, and become less varied in proportion as we travel east-
ward. The only indigenous terrestrial mammals are mice, a bat, and perhajjs
the dog and ^\g.

12. People. — The brown Polynesians, or Mahori,^ have struck all ob-
servers by their physical beauty, cheerfulness, and peaceable disposition.
Their island life has made them, for the most part, a seafaring race, and they
display great skill ami boldness in canoeing. Tliough warlike, they offer no
human sacrifices like their neighbours the Melanesians, and cannibalism

1 Derived from the Maoris of New Zealand, who are of the same race.

POLYNESIA. 465

occurs but rarely amongst them. When first discovered they had no written
language, were unacquainted with metals, and had not learnt to make jiottery.
But in carving their canoes and weapons, and in the manufacture of bark
cloth and mats, they exhibited considerable taste. On all the islands they
have decreased greatly in numbers as they have gradually come more closely
in contact with the white race.

13. The Tanga or Friendly Islands are all of coral formation, with the
exception of several active volcanoes. The Samoa or Navigator's Islands,
on the other hand, are all lofty. They are fertile, producing cotton, coffee,
maize, coco-nuts, and other produce for exportation.

14. The Society Islands, lofty, fertile, and volcanic, out in the centre of
the South Pacific, belong to France. The largest island, Tahiti (7339 feet)
has acquired celebrity from the extreme beauty of its mountain valleys and
cascades. Papeete, the capital, carries on a brisk trade in coco-nuts and
mother-of-pearl, chiefly procui-ed from the archipelago of low coral islands to
the east, kno^vn as Tuamotu ("cloud of islands") or Paumoiu. Among the
scattered islands to the south of these low islands, that named Pitcairn is of
interest as having been the refuge of the mutineers of the ship " Bounty," who
formed a European colony there in the latter part of last century, which still
survives. Still farther east, a mere speck in the ocean, lies Easter Island,
noteworthy on account of its remarkable remains of some prehistoric people.

The Marquesas Islands, lofty and of volcanic origin, to the north of Tua-
motu, also belong to France.

15. Among those north of the equator the Hawaii or Sandivich Islands
are by far the most important. There are eight larger islands in the group
including Hawaii proper, the largest island in the open Pacific, which rises to
a height of 13,760 feet in its towering volcanic summit, named Maana Loa;
and which also contains the great crater of Kilauea, the floor of which re-
sembles a lake of fire. The natives of the Sandwich Islands have been brought
to considerable advancement in civilisation by their long intercourse with
Europeans, of whom there are considerable numbers settled in the group.
They have adopted a monarchical form of government, united by an elected
assembly, and, with the aid of the American missionaries, their language has
been reduced to written forms. The commerce of the group in sugar, rice,
coff'ee, " pula " or vegetable silk, wool, and sandal-wood, now extends to all
parts of the Pacific.

Eonololu, the capital of the group, on the island of Oahu, is the largest
town of aU Polynesia, and is regularly built in streets and squares.

INDEX.

Aalst or Alost, 217

Aar river, 209

Aared mountains, 350

Aargau, 211

Ababdeh Arabs, 379

Abana river, 352

Abbaside Haroun-al Raschid,

30
Abd-el-Kader, 92
Abeshr, 389
Abetas, 336
Abkhasians, 278
Abo, 258, 387
Aboe mountain (vol.), 335
Abomey, 387
Aboukir Bay, 74
Abraham, Plains of, 418
Abruzzi, the, 237
Absolute height, 125
Abu mountain, 308
Abuam, 371
Abu-Bekr, his wars, 29
Abullonia lake, 352
Abyssinia, 87, 360, 382
Abyssinians, 358, 367, 383
Acacia forests, 386
Acadians, 419
Acapulco, 433
Achin, 56, 332
AehjT Dagh mountain, 349
Aconcagua mountain, 408,

447
Acre (Akka), 355
Acropolis, the, 243
Actium, battle of, 25
Adalia, 355
Adamawa, 388
Adam's Bridge, 320
Adam's Peak, 321
Adana Plain, 352
Adarbaijan, 347
Adda river, 233
Adelaide, 459
Adelberg, 206
Aden, 87, 359

gulf of, 377
Aderer, 376
Adige river, 233
Adigerat, 384
Admiralty Islands, 462
Adowa, 383
Adria, old port of, 233

Adrianople, 253, 255
Peace of, 78

Adriatic Sea, 156

AdjTnus river, 351

iEgean Sea, 156, 239
islands of, 348

^giiia, gulf uf, 240
Island, 240

iEgri, 21

Afar, 381, 382

Afghanistan, 83, 264, 337

Afghans, 273, 340

Afghan Turkistan, 340, 341

Africa, Central States of, 93

Africa, early voyages to, and
settlements in, 42, 44,
49, 73
animals of, 366
climate of, 3ti5
diamond fields of, 366
Eastern, v. Eastern Af-
rica, 391
extent of, 360
falls of, 362
fevers of, 365
government of, 368
hydrology of, 365
islands round, 405
kloofs and wadis of, 362
lakes of, 362

mangrove swamps of, 365
mineral wealth of, 366
m(}untains of, 360
mountain ranges of, 128
"oil rivers" of, 387
lH-(i]ile of, 148, 366
priiducts of, 366
Portuguese East, 394
Portuguese possessions

in, ,s,s, i)0
religion in, 367
relief of, 360
rivers of, 362
salt marshes in, 361
slavery in, 368
South, V. South Africa,

396
Spanish possessions in,

90
volcanic belts in, 361
Afridis, 340
Agades, 376

Aghri Dagh, mountain, 349

Agincourt, battle of, 41

Agra, 316, 319

Agram, 204, 208

Agua mountain (vol.), 433

Agulhas, Cape, 360

Ahaggar Tuarejs, 376

Ahmadabad, 318

Aidin, 351, 355

Ainos, the, 272, 305

Aix, 97

Peace of, 67

Ajmir, 317

Akaba, gulf of, 377

Akmolinsk, 282

Akyab, 323

Aland Islands, 156

Alantika, mount, 361, 384

Alaric, sacking of Home by,
27

Alaska peninsula, 70, 97, 409,
423, 424

Ala Tau mountains, 263, 268

Albania, 159, 249

Albanian Gate (Pass), 277

Albanians, 241, 248

Albany, 429, 460

Albay (vol.), 336

Albert Lake, 93, 381

Albert Nyanza, 362, 378, 381
Albuquerque, his voyages

49, 50
Aleiii>o, 355

Aleutian Islands, 409, 423
Alexander, Pope, 23, 50
Alexaudreita, 355
Alexuiidria, 22, 25, 28, 379
Ale\androp(jl, 279
Alexandre ivsk, 283
Allionn or Alliiim, 20
Alfonso I. of Portugal, 34
Alfred the Great, 32
Algeria, 25, 92, 368, 371
Algiers, 31, 372
Algoa Bay, 399
Alicante, 229, 230
Alindshi Dagh, mountain, .349
Al-Jezireh, 31
Allahabad, 316
Alleghany UKuintains, 40!), 424

city, 429
Allen lough, 173

468

INDEX.

Alma Dagh mountain, 349

Alinagro, 53

Aliiioliades, 34

Aloe plant, 406

Aloes, wood, 326, 327

Alost or Aalst, 217

Alpaca wool, 444

Alps, the European, 158, 202,

208, 218, 233
Alsace, 77, 201
Altai mountains, 263, 280

valley, 265
Altamaha river, 424
Altona, 197
Alto Peru, 94
Amadeus lake, 454
Amager Island, 188
Amanus Chain, 349
Amapondo Kafirs, 399
Amarapura, 325
Amasia, 355

Amazon river, 410, 439, 442
Amazons of Dahomey, 387
Ambassi, 390
Amboyna Island, 336
Ambriz, 90, 390, 391
Ameland, 212
America —

animals of, 411

climate of, 410

early notices of, 33, 43,
44, 49, 50, 52, 63, 68,
72, 96

education in, 413

extent of, 408

government of, 414

lakes of, 410

landscape of, 410

minerals of, 412

peoples of, 148, 412

plants of, 411

relief of, 128, 408

religion of, 413

rivers of, 410
Amherst, 323
Amhara, 383
Amiens, peace of, 74

town, 221
Amir Yakoob Khan, 81
Amoy, 289
Ampanam, 335
Amritsar, 317
Amstel river, 212
Amsterdam, 212, 214
Amu river, 282, 343
Amu Daria river, 79, 268
Amur river, 265, 266, 280,

281
Amur valley, 264
Anam, 65, 82
Anamalli mountains, 309
Ananiba Islands, 332
Ancona, 237, 238
Andalusia, 21, 229
Andes mountains, 408, 438,

444, 447, 448
Andkhui, 339, 342
Andorra, 231
Angara river, 265
Angers, 222

Angles, their [descent on

Britain, 30
Anglesey, isle of, 169
Anglo-Saxon heptarchy, 30
Angola, 90, 390
Angolala, 383
Angora goats, 354, 355
Angosha, 394
Angoxa, 394
Angoy, 389

Angra Pequena Bay, 404
Anguilla Island, 436
Anhalt Duchy, 198
Anholt Island, 188
Animals, distribution of, 143
Aniyo, 389

Ankarat Hills (vol.), 405
Ankober, 383
Annam, 322, 327
Annamese, 327
Annobom, 90
Annobon Island, 361, 389
Anson, Lord George, 70
Antananarivo, 406
Antarctic circle, 121
Antarctic region, search in,

71
Anticosti Island, 423
Antigua Island, 436
AntiUes, Greatand Lesser, 435
Antioch, 36, 352
Antisana mountain, 439
Anti-Taurus, 349
Antivari, 251
Antombuk Bay, 406
Antwerp, 217
Anzali, 346
Apa river, 450
Apache, 96

Aphelion, position of, 117
Appalachieola river, 425
Apennines, mountains, 159,

233
Appenzell, 211
Apsheron Cape, 155
Apulia, 237
Arabia, 355
Arabian Empire, 33
Arabistan, 347
Arabkir, 355
Arabs, 28, 345, 354, 358, 370,

372, 378, 379
Aracan, 82
Aracanese, 272
Arachis hypogcea, 390
Arafura Sea, 453
Araguara river, 442
Aragon, 34, 229
Arakan, 323
Aral lake, 268
Aral, Sea of, 283
Aras river, 278, 351
Ararat, Mount, 264, 278, 348

349
Araucarians, 447
Aravari Hills, 308
Araxes river, 278, 351
Arbela, battle of, 22
Arcadia, bay of, 240
Archangel, 162, 260

Arehen, 197

Arcot, 69, 318

Arctic Circle, 120

An-tic discoveries, 50, 54, 56,
101

Arctos, the bear, 104

Ardalan, 347

Ardenn(^s mountains, 159, 215

Arenas Gordas, 225

Arequiija, 445

Argitus mountain, 349

jirgali (sheep), 299

Argentine Republic, 448

-iVrgun river, 266

Ari, province of, 301

Arica, 445

Arjish Dagh mountain, 349

Arkansas river, 425

Armada, the Spanish, 48, 55

Armagh, 179

Armenia, 347

Armenia, mountains of, 264,
278

Armenia, Russian, 351

Armenians, 204, 248, 257, 273,
278, 353

Arnauts, 248

Arno river, 233

Aroi, 440

Arran, isle of, 169

Arro Island, 188

Arta, gulf of, 239

Artaxerxes, 22

Aim Islands, 336

iVryan race, 147, 164, 272, 367

Asama Yama Mountain, 302

Ascania, lake, 352

Ascension Island, 407

Asgar, 376

Ashantee, 387

expedition to, 91

Ashantees, 90, 387

Ashurada Island, 283, 346

Asia —

animals of, 262, 271
area of, 261
boundaries of, 261
British power in, 276
Chinese, 283
civilisation in, 276
climate of, 268
features of, 270
food plants of, 271
forest zone of, 262
highlands of, 263
hydrology of, 265, 268
lowlands of, 261
Minor, 347
Mohammedan, 337
mountain ranges, 128
peninsulas of, 261
peoples of, 272
poultry of, 271
products of, 271
province of, formed, 25
religion in, 273
rivers of, 265
Russian central, 79, 282
Russian power in, 276
Tundi-a region of, 262

INDEX.

469

Asia, vegetation of, 264, 271
volcanic heights of, 264
Asiatic Turlcey, 347
Aspinwal], 438
Aspiring, mountain, 461
Aspropotamo river, 240
Assab Bay, 382
Assam, 82, 316, 320
Assamese, 313
Assaye, battle of, 82
Assiniboine river, 420
Assinie, 386
Assuan, 105, 380
Assuan Cataract, 362
Astrabad, 347
Astrakhan, 257, 258, 260
Asturian Mountains, 225
Astronomical day, 114
Asturias, 31, 228
Asuncion, 450
Atacama, 447
Atahualpa, 53
Atbara river, 362, 378, 382
Athabasca, lake, 410, 420

river, 420
Athens, 241, 243
Athos, Mount, 246
Atlantic plain, 424
Atlas range, 361, 368
Atmospheric currents, 133
"Atolls," 462
Atrek river, 79, 283, 344
Attar of roses, 317, 378
Attila, king of the Huns, 27
Attock, 314, 317
Auckland, 462
Aughrabies Falls, 364
Augustus, Emperor, 25
Aurangabad, 319
Aures Mountains, 369
Aurungzeb, 57
Ausbarg, 199
Austerlitz, battle of, 75
Australia, 63, 64, 71, 98, 453
Austral Company, 62
Austral Islands, 462
Austria, 205

Austria and Hungary, 201
Auvergne mountains, 159,

218
Ava, 325
Avares, 278
Aves Islands, 436
Avon river, 172
Awe, Loch, 172
Axum, 383
Ayashin, Jebel, 369
Aymara Indians, 440
Ayuthia, 326
Azamor, 371
Azores, the, 52, 231, 232
Aztecs, 52

Baba Daoh, Mount, 340
Baber, the conqueror, 46
Babylon, 21
Babylonia, 347, 348
Back river, 420
Bactria, 342

Bactrian camel, 271

Badajos, 228

Badakshan, 341

Baden, 200

Baden-Baden, 201

Bailin, 63

Baffin Bay, 63

Baffin Strait, 414

Bagaraoro, 393

Bagdad, 30, 355

Baggara Arabs, 379

Baghirmi, 388

Baliia, 443

Bahamas, 435, 436, 437

Bahr-el-Abiad river, 362, 380

Bahr-el-Ahsy river, 352

Bahr-el-Azrek river, 362

Bahr-el-Benat Islands, 358

Bahr-el-Ghazal river, 362

Bahr-el-Huleh lake, 352

Bahr-el-Litany river, 352

Bahr Lftt, 352

Bahr Nedjef lake, 352

Bahr Tubarivah lake, 352

Baikal lake, 263, 265, 266, 280

Baker, Sir Samuel, 86, 93

Baku, 278, 279

Bakony Wald mountains, 202

Bala lake, 172

Balaton lake, 202

Balboa or Vaseo Nunez, 49

Baldwin, Count of Flanders,

36
Balearic Islands, 229, 230
Bali Bay, 406
Bali Island, 335
Balkan Mountains, 159, 246,

253
Balkan Peninsula, 245
Balkash lake, 268
Balkh, 84, 339, 341, 342
Ballarat, 457
Baltic provinces, 258
Baltic Sea, 156, 182, 183
Baltimore, 428
Baltistan, 317
Baluchis, 273, 338, 358
Baluchistan, 83, 264, 337
Baluchistan, 23, 83, 84, 264,

337
Bambarra, 388
Bainian, 341
" Bam-i-dunia," 263
Baiiio, 325
liaiiia Island, 333
liandar Abbas, 346
Banda Oriental. See Uruguay,

94, 451
Bangalor, 317
Baiigcniiassin, 334
Bangkcik, 206, 326
liankiMi Vi;ldt, 401
liai.gw(Mplii, Lake, 363
Banana (l-'actory), 390
Banians, 358
Bann livcr, 173
Banndckliurn, battle of, 35
Bantam, 333
Bantus, 148
Banya luka, 252

Banyans, 381

Barabinsk Steppe, 262

Baranov Island, 423

Baranquilla, 438

Barbadoes, 56, 436, 437

BarViary States, 361, 368

Barbarossa, the pirate, 47, 48

Barbuda Island, 436

Bardai, 376

Bardo, 373

Barfrush, 346

Barca, 361, 368, 374

Barcelona, 24, 230

Barcoo Creek, 458

Barentz, William, 56

Barka, 359

Barmen, 404

Barmaul, 281

Barnsley, 178

Baroda, 319

Baroghil Pass, 342

Barometer, 126

Barotse, 364, 404

Barquisimeto, 440

" Barren Grounds," 420

Barrier reefs, 463

Barrow river, 173

Barth, Heinrich, 93

"Base-line," 106

Basel, 210, 211

Bashee river, 399

Bashkirs, 256

Basilicata, 237

Basques or Vascones, 31, 220,

227
Basra, 355
Bass, Dr., 99
Bass Strait, 453, 460
Bassein, 323
" Bastards," 403
Basutoland, 400
Basutos, 89, 400, 402, 403
Bataks, 273
Batanta Island, 336
Batavi, 212
Batavia, 333
Batavians (Dutch), 212
Bath, 179

Bathurst f Africa), 385
Bathurst (Australia), 456
Batum, 278, 279, 351
Bavaria, 199
Bavarian Palatinate, 200
Bayezid, 355

Bechuanas, 89, 400, 402, 403
Bedwins, 87, 273, 276, 366,

358, 372, 378
" Beggars of the Sea," 56
Beirut, 355

Beishehr Giil Lake, 352
Belfast, 179
Belfast Lough, 173
Bclga-, Gallic, 216
Brl};i-ad, 250
Belgium, 215
Belize, 433, 435
Belisarius, his African cani-

j>aign, 28
Belle Isle, Strait of, 422
Belt, Great, 188

470

INDEX.

Belt, Little, 188

Benares, 316

Bencoolen, 332

Bendigo, 457

Bengali, 313

Bengal, Lower, 316

Benghazi, 374

Benguela, 90, 390, 391

Beni river, 440

Ben Nevis, 169

Ben Stack, 169

Ben Wyvi8, 169

Berar, 317

Berberah, 881

Berbers, 92, 368, 370, 372, 373,

374, 376, 380
Berbice, river, 441
Berdiansk, 260
Bergamo, 238
Bergen, 186
Bergen-op-Zoom, 214
Bereydah, 359
Bereymah, 359
Bering, Vitus, 66, 70, 97
Bering Island, 70
Bering's Straits, 70
Berlin, 197
Berlin, Treaty of, 1878, 80,

243, 244, 249, 251, 252, 351
Bermudas Islands, 437
Bern, 210, 211
Besangon, 222
Bessarabia, 79, 243, 260
Bethany, 404
Betsimasarakas, 405
Beveland, 212
Beyerland, 212
Beyinir, 318
Bej'rout, 355
Bhagalpur, 316
Bheels, 313
Bhopal, 319
Bhutan, 320
Biafra, Bight of, 389
Bias river, 267
Biel or Bienne, 209
Bielukha, mountain, 280
Bien-hoa, Lake, 329
Bienne or Biel, 209
Bight of Biafra, 361
Biharia Mountains, 202
Bilbao, 230
Billiton Island, 333
Bilma salt mines, 378
Bima, 335

Bingol Dagh, mountain, 349
Bintang Island, 332
Binue river, 363, 384, 387
Biobio river, 447
Bir, 268

Birket el Kerun, lake, 378
Bisayas, 336

Biscay, Bay of, 156, 218^
Biscaya, 228
Biserta, 373
Bisharin Arabs, 379
Bismarck, Count von, 78
Bissagos Archipelago, 385
Bissao, 385
Biwa, Lake, 303

Black Dome Mountain, 409,

424
Blackfeet Indians, 420
Black Forest Mountains, 158
Black Mountains, 170, 361,

374
Black Sea, 156, 255
Black Sea district, 279
Blackwater river, 173
Blanca Peak, 409
Blantyre (Africa), 395
Blnemhof, 402
Blnenifontein, 401
Blm- Mc.niitains, 424, 456
Blue Nile river, 362, 382
Blue Stack Mountains, 171
Boccacio, 235
Bodele, plain of, 364
Boers, 88, 402
Breotia, plains of, 240
Bogos, 381
Bogota, 438
Bohemia, 207
Bohmerwald Mountains, 159,

202
Bohr, 381
Bois-le-Duc, 214
Bokhara, 79, 342, 343
Bokhara Pass, 842
Bolan Pass, 84, 337, 338, 839
Bolivar, 94
Bolivia, 94, 408, 445
Bologna, 235, 237
Bolsena Lake, 223
Bombay, 318
Bomma, 390
Bona, 372

Bonaire or Buen Ayre, 436
Bonaparte, Jerome, 75
Bonaparte, Joseph, 75
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 76
Bongos, 379

Bonifacio, Strait of, 234
Bonin Islands, 302
" Boobies," 389
Bora wind, 203, 234
Bordeaux, 161, 220, 222
Borneo Island, 333
Bornholm Island, 188, 189
Boruu, 93, 388
Bosnia, 159, 207, 245, 249
Bosnia and Herzegovina, 251
Bosnians, 248, 251
Bosporous Straits, 156, 247
Boston, 428
Botany Bay, 71, 73
Bothnia, Gulf of, 182
Boulogne, 222
Bourbon Island, 54, 64, 406
Bourtanger Moor, 213
Bo wen Mountains, 454
Boyana river, 247
Boyars, 244
Boyukdere, 255
Bozen, 207
Brabant, 215, 218
Bracciano Lake, 233
Bradford, 178
Bragan(;a, 232
Brahmaputra river, 267, 300

Brahminism, 274
Brahui tribes, 338
Braila, 245

Brazil, 73, 95, 409, 442
Brazos river, 425
Brecknock Beacon, 170
Breede river, 397
Breezes, land and sea, 133
Bregenz, 207
Bremen, 196, 198
Brenner Pass, 207
Breslau, 197
Brest, 222
Briagon, 222
Brick tea, 281
Bridgetown, 437
Brie plain, 157
Brienz, 209
Brindisi, 238
Brisbane river, 458

town, 458
Bristol, 178
British Isles, 167

foreign possessions of, 63,
182, 358, 359, 406, 452
British Burmah, 322, 328
British Columbia, 98, 416,

421
British Guayana, 441
British Honduras, 433, 435
British Kafraria, 89
British North America, 97,

169, 175, 416
Browne, the traveller, 73
Bruce, James, 73
Bruce, Robert, 35
Bruges, 216, 217
Brugge, 217
Bruni, 332, 384
Briinn, 207
Brunswick, 198
Brussels, 216, 217
Brava, 393
Bucharest, 244
Buco\ina, 204
Buda-Pesth, 208
Buddha, 274, 275
Buddhism, 274, 275
Buen AjTe, 436
Buenos A\Tes, 449
Buffalo City. ^^9
Bugis, 273
Bugo Channel, 302
Bukovina, 207
Bulama Islet, 385
Bulder Lake, 362
Bulgaria, 245, 249, 252
Bulgarians, 204, 248, 256
Bulghar Dagh Mountain, 349
Bundelkhand, 309, 319
Bunker's Hill, battle of, 72
Burdekin river, 458
Bu Regi-eg river, 370
Burgas, 253
Burgos, 230
Burgundy, 220
Buriates, 272
Burmah, 65, 82, 324
Burmah, British, 322, 323
Bmmese, 272, 323

INDEX.

471

Burmese Rhans, 324
Burnett river, 458
Burra Burra, 459
Burton, Captain, 93
Bushire, 340

Bnshmanland, Plains of, 397
Bushmen, 307, 404
Bush VeWt, 402
Buyuk Mendere River, 351
Bylot, Captain, 03
Byron, Captain, 71
Byzantine or Greek Empire,

27,31
Byzantium, 21

Cabes, Gulf of, 373
Cabols, The, 44, 50, 442
Cabul, see Kabul, 339
Cabul River, 207
Cacheo, 385
Cadiz, 20, 230
Cadiz Bay, 225
Cagliari Bay, 234
Caillie, the"traveller, 93
Cairo, 31, 378, 379
Calcutta, 09, 315, 316
Caldera, 448
California, 53, 97, 426
Calabria, 237
Calais, 222
Calicut, 318
Callao, 445

Calycadnus River, 352
Cambodia, 82, 322, 329
Cambodia River, 266
Cambodians, 272
Cambrai, 221
Cambrian Mountains, 170
Cameron, Lieutenant, 93, 365
Cameroons Mountains, 301,

384
Cameroons River, 387
Campagna, 233, 237
Campbell, 462
Campidano Plain, 234
Campine, 216
Camjisle Hills, 170
Canada, 72, 98, 416, 417
Canary Islands, 20, 229, 407
Cancer, Tropic of, 119
Candia Island, 86, 247, 255
Canea, 255
Cannes, 222
Canso, Gut of, 419
Cantabrian Mountains, 159

255
Cantcm, 80, 286, 287
Capaniip, Cape, 234
Cape Breton Island, 419
Cape Coast Castle, 387
Cape Colony,'-73, 88, 396
Cape Fear River, 424
Cape of Good Hope, 397
Cape Town, 399
Cape de Verd Islands, 42, 01,

407
Cape Diamond, 89
Cape Gold Fields, 89

Cape St. Vincent, battle of, 74

Capet, Hugh, 34

Cajirera, Isle of, 234

Capri, Isle of, 234

Capricorn, Tropic of, 120

Carabane, 385

Caracas, 94, 440

Caracoles mines, 446

Cardamom Mountains, 310

Cardiff, 178

Cardinal jjoints, 2

Carduchi, the, 349, 354

Caribs, 52, 441

Carinthia, 206

Carlingford Lough, 173

Carlovingian dynasty, 30

Carlowitz, Treaty of, 251

Carlsruhe, 200

Carmel, Mount, 350

Carnatic Plain, the, 309

Carniola, 206

Carnsore Point, 169

Carn Tual, 171

Carolinas, 54, 464

Caroline Islands, 462

Carpathian Mountains, 159
202

Carpentaria, Gulf of, 453

Carpini's account of the Ta-
tars, 38

Carse, 171

Cartagena, 24, 230

Carteret, Captain, 71

Carthage, 20, 21, 24, 27, 37

Cartier, Jacques, 52

Carso, 206

Carus River, 352

Cascade Range, 409, 425

Casiquiare River, 440, 442

Caspian Sea, 156

Cassange, 391

Cassel, 197

Castes in India, 275

Castile, 34, 228

Castilian family, 227

Castillia del Oro, 50

Catalonia, 229

Cathay or China, early dis-
coveries, 57

Cattaro, 208

Cattle Damaras, 404

Cau(;a River, 438

Caucasia, Cis and Trans, 258

Caucasian Gate (Pass), 277

Caucasians, 257, 278

Caucasus, Lieutenancy of the,
277

Caucasus Mountains, 155,
159, 277

Caucasus (Russian), 277

Cawnjiur, 316

Cayambe Mountiiin, 439

Cayenne, 441

Cayster River, 351

Cazamance River, 385

Cazengi), 391

Ceboruco Mountain, 432

Cebu Island, 336
Town, 337

Celebes Island, 335

Celestial Mountains, 203

Celtic people, 105, 220

Cenis, Mont, 238

Central Africa, States of, 93

Central American States, 95,
433

Central Asia, Russian con-
quests in, 79, 282

Ceram Island, 330

Cetinje, 251

Cetywayo, 403

Ceuta, 230

Cevennes Mountains, 159, 218

Ceylon, 320

Ceylon ceded, 83

Chad, Lake, 93, 365, 384

Chagos Archipelago, 322

Chakhars, 296

Chalons-sur-Marne, 221

Cliambeze River, 303

Chamouuy, Valley of, 158

Champa, 327

Champagne, 157, 220

Champlain, Lake, 417

Chandranagar, 320

Channel Islands, 169

Chapala Lake, 432

Chargut-cho Lake, 300

Charlemagne, 30, 31, 34

Charleroi, 210, 217

Charles Louis mountains, 403

Charles V. of Germany, 40, 47

Charles X. of Sweden, 58

Charlestown, 429

Charles's Wain, 5

Charlotte Town, 420

Chart, Mercator's, 111

Chatham Islands, 402

Charybdis, 238

Che-foo, 289

Chelyuskin, Cape, 201, 276

Chemnitz, 198

Cherbourg, 222

Cherkesses, 248, 273, 27S

Chernavoda, 245

Cheviot Hills, 170

Chibchas, 438

Chicago, 430

Chikishtiar, 283

Chile, 447

Chilenos, 447

Chili, 94

Chiltern Hills, 170

Chimborazo, mountain, 439

China, 26, 37, 80, 81, 203, 272,
270, 284

Chinab river, 207

Chiucha Islands, 444

Chinese Empire, 283

Chios Island, 348

Cliiiijicways, 41S, 420

Clii(|uitos Indians, 440

ChiUal Valley, 342

Chittagtmg, 316

Cliolos, 444, 440

Clinruk river, 278, 351

Chota Niii,'pur, 310

Clirislcliurch, 402

Christiania, 182, 1S3, 186

Christianshaab, 415

472

INDEX.

Chui river, 268, 282

Chukchees, 272

Chu-kiang river, 286

Chupat river, 452

Cliuquisaca, 446

Churchill river, 420

Chutia Nagpur, 316

Cilician Gates, 349

Cilician Mountains, 22

Cimbri and Teutones, wars
with Rome, 25

Cimbrian Peninsula, 188

Cimmerians' Territories, 102

Cincinnati, 430

Circassians, 248, 273

Circumnavigation of the
globe, early, 51, 55, 56, 70

Cis-Caucasia, 258

Cis-Lfitluui Mcmarchy, 201

Citlattcpi'tl Mciuntain, 432

Ciudail Hcidrigo, 76, 228

Civilisation, effect of climate
on, 144

Clapperton's Travels, 93

Clarence Cove, 389

Cleopatra, Queen, 25

Climate, causes which deter-
mine, 130

Climate, continental, 132

Climate, maritime, 132

Clive, Lord, 68, 69

Clutha river, 461

Clyde river, 172

Clyde, valley of, 171

Coanza river, 364

Coast range, 409

Cobija, 446

Cochabamba, 446

Cochin, 318

Cochin China, 65, 82, 266,
322, 327, 328

Coele Syria, 352

Cognac, 221

Coimbator, gap of, 309

Colima mountain, 432

Cologne, 197 .

Colombo, 321

Colon, 438

Colorado river, 410, 425

Columbia river, 410, 425

Columbia, United States of,
94, 437

Columbus, Christopher, 43,
49, 102

Comanche, 96

Comayagna, 434

Comeragh mountains, 171

Comino, 239

Como lake, 162, 233, 238

Comoro Islands, 406

Compass, the, 2

Compassberg mountains, 397

Concepcion, 448, 451

" Cone" projection. 111

Confederate States of Amer-
ica, 97

" Confederation of the Rhine,"
75

Confucius, 275

Congo river, 90, 363, 389, 394

Conrad, king of Germany, 31
Constantia, 398
Constantine, 25, 92
Constantine, province of, 372
Constantinople, 21, 36, 253
Constanz, lake, 162, 203, 209
Continents, 123
Cook, Captain, 71
Cook, Mount, 461
Cook Strait, 461
Cooktown, 458
Coolies, Chinese, 288
Coomassie, 91, 387
Cooper Creek, 458
Coorg, 316, 317
Copenhagen, 74, 75, 190
Copernicus, 112
Copiapo, 448
Copts, 367, 878
Coquimbo, 448
Corcovado (vol.), 452
Cordilleras Mountains, 408,

438
Cordova, 230
Cordova (S. America), 448,

449
Corea, 264, 294, 306
Coreans, 272
Corentyn river, 441
Corfu Island, 240
Corinth, gulf of, 239
Corinth, Isthmus of, 239
Corisco Bay, 389
Cork, 173, 179
Corniola, 206
Cornwall, 20
Coromandel Coast, 307
Corrientes, 449
Corsairs, 371
Corsica Island, 218
Cortes, Herman, 52
Cor\'inus, king of Hungary,

40
Corvo, Mount, 233
Cos Island, 348
Cossacks, 47, 64, 256
Costa, region of Peru, 444
Costa Rica, 95, 433, 434
Cote-d'Or mountains, 218
Cotopaxi mountain, 439
Cotswold Hills, 170
Cotton in Algiers, 372
Courtrai, 217
Coventry, 178
Cowrie shells, 322
Cracow, 32, 204, 207
Cradle Mount, 460
Crecy, battle of; 41
Crees, 420
Creoles, 95, 414, 432
Crete Island, 245, 247, 255
Crimea, 21, 260
Crimean War, 79
Croagh Patrick mountains,

171
Croatia, 208, 251
Croats, 204, 248, 251
Crocodile river, 396, 401, 402
Cromarty, plain of, 171
Crossfell hill, 170

Crowther, Bishop, his mission

station, 387
Crusades, religious wars of,

33, 36
Cryolite, 415
Cuba, 52, 95, 436
Cuenca, 439
Cuilgach Mount, 171
Cunaxa, battle of, 22
Cunene river, 364
Curasao Island, 436
Currents, atmospheric, 133
Currents, oceanic, 136
Cutch, 318
Cuttack, 316
Cuyaba, 444
Cuzco, 53, 445
Cyclades Island, 240
Cyprus, 182, 348, 355
Cyrus, 21, 22
Cyrus river, 278
Cyrenaica, 374
Cyrene, 21
Czechs, 194, 203
Czernowitz, 204, 207

Dacca, 316

Dacia, 244

Daghestan, 278

Dahomey, 90, 387

Dakar, 385

Dalmatia, 202, 204, 208

Damara Kafirs, 404

Damaraland, 404

Damaras, Cattle, 404

Damascus, 355

Damaun, 320, 340

Damavand mount, 264, 344

Damietta, 379

Danakil, 381, 382

Danes, invasion of Britain by,

34
Danes, conquest of, by Otho,

31
Danger Point, 456
Daniia desert, 356
Danish Asiatic Company, 66
Danish Greenland, 188
Dante, 235
Dantzic, 197

Danube, province of the, 252
Danube river, 161, 202, 244,

245, 247
Dardanelles Straits, 156, 246
Dardania, 255
Dar Fur, 86, 377, 380, 389
Daria river, 298
Dariel Pass, 278
Darius III., 22
Darjiling, 316
Darling hills, 454
Darling river, 454, 456
Dars-es-Salaam, 393
Dartmoor Heights, 170
Davis, Captain John, 55
Davis Strait, 414
Day, astronomical, 114
Day, lunar, 135
Day and night, 118

INDEX.

473

Day, sidereal, 115

solar, 115
Dead Sea, 352
Dead Sea valley, 350
Decean, 263, 264, 309
Decken, Baron Von der, 364
Dee river, 172
Deer lake, 410, 420
Dehas river, 339, 342
Dehli, 336

Delagoa Bay, 395, 396
Delaware river, 424
Delgado, cape, 394
Delhi, 82, 317
Dellys, 372
Delos, Island of, 240
Demavend mount, 264, 344
Dembea, lake, 382

plain, 383
Demerara river, 441
Deniliquin, 456
Denmark, 188
Denmark and Scandinavia,

32, 41
Depths, measurement of, 126
Derbend, 279
Derby, 178
Derg Lough, 173
Derryveagh mountains, 171
De Ruyter, 60
Derwent river, 172
Derwent river, Tasmania, 460
Desaguadero river, 446
Deschenev, his voyage, 64
Desertas Islet, 407
Despoto Dagh mountains, 246
Detroit, 430
Devonport, 179
Diamantina, 443
Diamonds, Cape, 89, 366
Diamond fields, 89, 403
Diana's Peak, 407
Diaz, Bartholomew, 44
Diaz, Juan, 50
Dibong river, 267
Dijon, 221
Dilolo, lake, 364
Dinging, 330
Dinkas, 379

Direction and distance, 1
Disco Island, 415
Distance and direction, 1
Distribution of animals, 143
Distribution of laud and sea,

122
Diu, 320

Dividing Range, 454, 456
Divriki, 355
Diyaleh river, 351
" Djetysliahr," rise of, 81
Djokjokarta, 333
Dnieper river, 161, 256
Dniester river, 161, 202
Doabs of the Panjab, 300
Dobruja, 164, 243, 24(5
Dodabetta mountain, 309
Dogger Bank, 167, 214
Dominican re]mV)Iic, 95
Dominica Island, 436.
Dom JoSo, 75

Dom Pedro, 95

Don river, 161

Donai, 221

Dongola, 380

Doore field, 160

Dordogne river, 219

Doria, Teodosio, 39

Dormitor mountains, 246

Dorpat, 258

Dorrecht, 214

Dost Mohammed, S3, 341

Dover Strait, 167

Draa Wady, 375

Dragon's Blood, 406

Dral<e, Francis, 55

Drakenberg mountains, 361,

396, 397, 400
Drave river, 202, 206
Dra vidian group of languages,

273
Drenthe, 215
Dresden, 198
Drin river, 247
Dublin, 179
Dublin Bay, 173
Duero river, 161, 226
Dufli, 381
Dulce river, 433
Dulcigno, 251
Du Midi Canal, 219
Diina river, 162
Duncansby Head, 168
Dundalk Bay, 173
Dundee, 179
Dunedin, 462
Dunes, 189
Dunkerque, 222
Dunnet Head, 168
Durani, 340
Durban, 400

Durdun Dagh mountain, 349
Durra or millet, 378
Dushtistan, 345
Dvina river, 162
Dyaks, 334

Eagle wood, 326, 32^

East Cape, 261

East India Company, found-
ing of, 56

East India Company's Is-
lands, 358

East India Islands, 330

East London (Cape Colony),
399

Easter Islands, 465

Eastern Africa, 392

Roumelia, 245, 249, 252
Sea, 258
Turkistan, 298

Ebro river, 161, 226

Ebro, valley of, 225

Ecbatana, 21

Ecuador, 94, 438

Edinburgh, 179

Edrisi, the geographer, 38

Edward the Confessor, 34

Egbert founds the kingdom
of England, 32

Eged^, Hans, his voyage, 70

Egedesminde, 415

Egerdir Lake, 352

Egga, 387

Egmont, Mount, 461

Egypt, 25, 85, 86

Egypt proper, 377, 379

Egyptian Dominion, 377

Egyptian Sondan, 377, 378 .

Egyptians, 367

Eifel mountains, 159

Einsiedeln, 210

Elba, Isle of, 234

Elbe river, 161, 194, 197, 202,
207

El Bukcia Vale, 352

Elburz range, 160, 264, 277,
339 344

El Dabbeh, 380

El Dorado, 48

Elevation and heat, 131

El Ghor, 352

"El Hasa," 86

Elizabeth, reign of, 48

ElLzabetpol, 279

Ellice Islands, 462

Elmina, 387

El Obeidh, 380

El Sejah, 350

Elysian fields, 102

Embomma, 390

Einolia, 236

Emineh, Cape, 246

" Empress of India," 83

Engadin, 209

England. See British Isles

English Channel, 155, 168

Enns, 205

Ephesus, 351

Ephraim, Mountains of, 350

Ejiirus, 249, 255

Equator, 107

Equatorial regions, 121

Equinox, 119

Eratostlienes, the astrono-
mer, 25, 105

Erdosh Dagh mountain, 349

Erfurt, 197

Ericht, Loch, 172

Erie, Lake, 410

Erik the Red, 33

Erivan, 279

Erne, Lough, 173

Erne river, 173

Erris Head, 169

Erz Gebirgc mountains, 158

Erz mountains, 202

Erzingiau Plain, 349

Ei'zinjan, 355

Erzrum, 349, 355

Escaut river, 215

Eskimos or Skrellings, 41,
149, 413, 423

Esparto grass, 372

Esmeralda river, 439

Essecjuibo river, 441

" Estancias," 451

Estlionians, 256

Estreda, Sierra da, 225

Estremadura, 228

474

INDEX.

Etas, 336

Etna, Mount, 160, 233

Etruscans, 21, 235

Etsch river, 233

Et Tih Desert, 350

Euboea Island, 240

Eucaljrjitns in Algiers, 372

in Australia, 454
Euclid, the mathematician,

25
Euphrates river, 262, 268,

349, 350
Eurasia, 155
Europe, 155
European Russia, 205
Euscara, 227
Euxine, 166
Evaporation, 139
Everest, Mount, 126, 263
Exmoor Heights, 170
Ej-re, Lake, 454, 459
Eyoon, 359

Fair Head, 171

Fairweather, Mount, 409

Falashas, 383

Faliko, 381

Falkland Islands, 71, 452

Falster Island, 188

Famagusta, 348

Famaka, 380

Families of mankind, 147

Fans, 389

Fantees, 90

Fantis, 387

Farewell, Cape, 414

Farim, 385

Faroe Islands, 32, 188, 191

Fars, Mountains of, 264

Farsistan, 347

mountains, 344
Fasher, 381
Fashoda, 380
Fatimide dynasty, 34
Fatimides, 31
Fayum, 378
Fazokl, 380
Fellaheen, 378
Fellatah, 367, 386
Fen district, 170
Feng-shui superstition in

China, 288
Fernandez, Juan, 56
Fernando-Po, 90, 361, 389
Ferro Island, 407
Fez, 30, 371
Fezzan, 368, 374
Fichtel Gebirge mountains,

158
Fiji Islands, 100, 462, 464
Fingo Katirs, 399
Finland, 157, 182, 267, 268
Finland gulf, 156
Finland lakes, 162
Finns, 35, 165, 185, 256
Finsteraarhorn mountain, 200
Fish River, Great, 307
Fitzroy river, 458
Fiume, Port, 208
Flanders, 218

Flemings, 213, 216
Flin.lers Range, 454, 459
Flinders river, 468
Florence, 235, 237, 238
Florida, 96
Floris Island, 336
Fohn Wind, 164
Fo-kien Canal, 285
FontaiiifVili'an, 220

forest, 219
Formosa Island, 285
Fort Garry, 421

Ho]ie, 422

York, 420
Fortunate Island, 407
Foucault mountain, 113
Foweira, 381
Foyle river, 173
France, 60, 74, 78, 217

foreign possessions of, 92,
320, 322, 828, 389, 406,
463
Francis I. of France, 52
Franconia, 200
Frankfort, 197
Frankfort - on - the - Main,

Treaty of, 78
Frankincense, 358, 391
Frankish Empire, 31
Franklin, Mount, 461
Franklin, Sir John, 99
Franks, the, 26
Fraser river, 421
Fray Bentos, 451
Frederick the Great, 67
Frederieton, 419
Fredcrii-k William, 59
Fre(U-iik;-;liaali, 415
Frederiksthal, 415
Freemantle, 460
Freeto^vn, 385
Freiberg, 198
Freiburg, 200
Frere Town, 393
Fribourg, 211
Friedland, battle of, 75
Friendly Islands, 466
Friesland, 215
Frieslanders, 213
Frigid zones, 121
Frio, Cape, 389, 396
Frisii, 212

Frobisher, Martin, 55
Fu-chow, 286, 289
Fuca, Juan de, 66
Fuegians, 452
Fuego Volcano, 433
Fuerteventura Island, 407
Fulahs, 93
Fulattahs, 93
Fulbe, the, 367, 386
Fiunbina, 388
Funchal, 407
Fundy, bay of, 419
Ftinen, 188
Fushan, 295, 306
Fusi Yama (vol.), 264, 302
Futa Jallon mountains, 384,

388
Fyeu Island, 188

Gabes, Gulf of, 369,
Gaboon, 90, 389
Gaddir, 20
Gairdner lake, 454
Galacia, 31

Galni)ag(>» Islands, 439
Galata, 254
Galatia, 204
Galatz, 244, 245
Giddhnjipig, 160
Galt-ka, .v.»
Gak'ka Kafirs, 400
Galicia, 207, 227, 228
Galilee, hills, of, 350

lake of, 352
Gallas, 88, 383, 391
Galle, 322
Gallegos, 227
Gallic Belgse, 216
Gallic Sea, 156
Gallinas Cape, 409
Gallinhas Islet, 385
Gallipoli, jilain of, 246
Galty mountains, 171
Galwav Bay, 173
Gania,"Vasco de, 44, 393
Gambia river, 363, 384, 385
Gamtoos river, 397
Gand, 216

Gandamak, treaty of, 341
Gandava, 338
Gando, 387, 388
Ganges river, 263, 267, 318
Gangotri, temple of, 267
Garda lake, 162, 233
Garrone river, 161, 219
Gartokh, 301
Gasa country, 403
Gastein, treaty of, 77
Gata, Sierra de, 225
Gateshead, 178
"Gauchos," 449
Gauhati, 316
Gaul, conquest by Julius

Csesar, 25
Gaul, Transalpine, conquest

of, 25
Gauritz river, 397
Geba river, 385
Gediz river, 351
Gedrosia, 23
Geelong, 457
Gelderland, 214
Genargentu, Mount, 234
Geneva, 210, 211

lake, 162, 209
Genghiz Khan, 37, 296
Gennesareth lake, 352
Genoa, 237, 238
Genoa, gulf of, 156, 235
Geogi'aphy, definition of, 1

historical, 19
Geomancy in Cliina, 288
George, lake, 456
George III., 71
Georgetown, 441
Georgians, 257, 273, 278
German Empire, 193
Gerona Pass, 228, 230
Geubres, the, 274, 345

INDEX.

475

Ghadames, 374

Ghats of India, Eastern and

Western, 204, 309
Ghazni, 31, 341
Ghent, 216, 217
Ghiaour, the, 274
Ghiblielines, 35
Ghilan, 347
Ghilzais, 340
Ghiznevides dynasty, 31, 33,

341
Ghoorkas, 319
Ghurian range, 374
Giant Hills, 159
Giant's Causeway, 171
Gibbe Klaik, 404
Gibraltar, 156, 182, 225, 231,

369
Gijon, 230
Gilbert Islands, 464
Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 55
Gilead mountains, 350
Gilolo Island, 386
Ginseng root, 294
Gippsland, 457
Girin, 293

Gironde river, 161, 219
Gizeh PjTamid, 380
Glarus, 209, 211
Glasgow, 179
Glenelg, 459
Glen More, 169
Globe, artificial, 109

axis, 118

circumference and dia-
meter of, 107

distance from sun, 115

distribution of heat over,
117

early ideas concerning,
112

early speculations, 101

eclipse of, 119

equinox, 119

form and dimensions of,
101

in aphelion, 117

in perihelion, 117

its path round the sun,
117

orbit, 119

proper movements of the,
112

true form, 106, 107

rotation of, 112

revolution of, 112
Globular projection, 110
Glonmien river, 184
Goa, 49, 320
Goalpara, 316
Gobi region, 263, 295
Godalming, 177
Godavari river, 310
Godfrey de Bouillon, 36
Godhavn, 415
Godthaab, 415
Gartz, 206
Gokcha lake, 278
Gok Su river, 352
Golconda, 319

Golcnnda Coast, 307

Gold Coast, 90, 386

Golden Horn, 253

Goletta, 373

Golfe du Lion, 218

Gombroon, 346

Gomera Island, 407

Gomul Pass, 339

Gondar, 383

Gondokoro, 381

Gonds, 313

Goree Islet,*3S5

Gordon, Colonel, 86

Gorizia, 206

Gota river, 184

Goteborg, 187

Gotha, 198

Gothland Island, 182

Goths, the, 26, 235

Goulburn, 456

Government, forms of, 152

Gozo Island, 182, 239

Graaf Reinet, 399

Graohts of Holland, 211

Gradisca, 206

Grahamstown, 399

Grain Coast, 91, 386

Grampians, 169

Granada, 34, 230

Gran Canaria Island, 407

Gran Chaco, 448

Grand Bassam, 386

Grand Lama of Tibet, 65

Granicus river, 22, 351

Gran Sasso d'ltalia mountain,

232
Grant, Captain, 93
Gratz, 204, 206
Graubiinden, 211 '
Gravitation, law of, 112
Great Bear Lake, 410, 420
Great Barrier Reef, 453
Great Belt, 188
Great Fish River, 397, 420
Great Karoo Plains, 396
Great St. Bernard Pass,

207
Great Salt Lake, 410
Great Slave Lake, 410, 420
Greater Antilles, 435
Gredos, Sierra de, 225
Greece, 21, 24, 27, 31, 35, 69,

84, 240
Greenland, 32, 41, 66, 70, 414

Danish, 188
Grenada Island, 430
(ircytown, 434
Gri(iualan(l West, 89, 403
Griciuas, 8S, 400, 403
GrisiiMS, 211
(injiilngen, 213, 214
Gnnind nut, 390
Gnisians, 273

Gua(lal(|uivir, river, 161, 226
Guadalui"', SieiTa de, 225
Guadanuma, Sierra de, 225
Guadalaviar river, 226
Guadeloupe Island, 436, 437
Guadiana river, 161, 226
Guam, 464

Guanchos, 407
Guai)ore river, 446
Guaraui Indians, 443, 446
Guardafui, Cape, 360, 391
Guardalajara, 433
Guarini, 444
Guatemala, 95, 433, 434
Guayana or Guiana, 56, 409,

441, 450
Guayaquil river, 439

town, 439
Gueber fire-worshippers, 272
Guelphs, 35
Guernsey, 169
Guiana or Guayana, 56
Guinea, Gpld Coast of, 386

gold of, 366

Gulf of, 90

Lower, 389
Gujrat, 84, 308, 318
Gulek Boghaz Pass, 349
Gulf Stream, 136, 138, 183
Gustav-us Adolplius, 58
Gwaliar, 319
Gympie, 458
Gypsies, 166, 204, 248, 345, 379

Haaelem, 213, 214
Hadramaut, 356, 358
Hague, The, 214
Haidarabad, 318, 319
Hainaut, 218
Hai-nan Island, 285, 289
Hai-phong, 328
Haji-kak Pass, 338, 341
Hakha tribe, 287
Hakodate, 304, 305
Hala Mountains, 337
Haifa fibre, 372 "
Halifax, 419
Hallein, 206
Hallstatt, 206
Hallula, Lake, 372
Halmahera Island, 336
Halmand river, 269, 339
Halys river, 351
Hamath river, 350
Hamburg, 161, 196, 198
Hauida AlUhi, 388
Hamilear, 21
Hamitic family, 367
Hanmiam(^t, gulf of, 373
Ilammej trilies, 379
Hamrin Hills, 350
Hamum swamp,-269, 339, 340,

345
Hangklip Mountains, 401
Hankow, 266, 289
Hannibal, 24
Hanno, 20
Hanoi, 327
Hanover, 197
Hanse Towns, 198
Hapsbui-g, House of, 41, 67,

201
Harar, 377, 381
Harbours, their effect on

enterprise, 125
Hardauger Field mountains,

160

476

INDEX.

Hartlt Slountains, 159
Harrlwar, 314
Hari-rnfl river, 339, 344

valley, 340
"Harmattan" wind, 376
Harold, death of, 35
Hartebeeste Channel, 397
Hartz Mountains, 158
Hastings, battle of, 35
Hastings, Warren, 69
Haussa kingdom, 387, 388
Havana, 436
Havelock, 84
Havre, 222
Hawaii, 72
Hawaiian Islands, 462, 463,

465
Hawkesbury river, 456
Hawkins, Sir John, 55
Hayel, 359

Haj-ti Island, 95, 436, 437
Hazarahs, 340
Heame, 72
Heat, distribution of, 131

radiation of, 133
Hebrides, Inner, 169

Outer, 169
Heckla, 160, 192
Heidelberg, 200
(Africa), 402
Heights, measurement of, 126
Heilbronn, 200
Hejaz, 86, 347, 348, 352, 355
Helder, 212, 214
Hellas, 239
Hellenes, 239
Hellespont, 22, 156
Heligoland, islet of, 182
Helsingfors, 258
Hemisphere, 107
Hennegau, 217
Henry, Prince, the Navigator,

42
Heraclius, his victories, 28
Herat, 84, 341, 342, 346
Herculaneun;, 233
Hercules' Pillars, 21
Heri river, 339
Hermannstadt, 208
Hermon, Mount, 349 350,

352
Hermopolis, 242
Hermus river, 351
Herodotus, 21
Herrnhut, New, 415
Herschel Hills, 454
Herzegovina, 159, 207, 245,

249, 251. See also Bothnia
Herzegovinians, 248
Hesse - Darmstadt, Grand

Duchy, 198
Himalaya Mountains, 126,

263, 264, 307
Himiloo, 20

Himmelsberg mountain, 189
Himyarides of Yemen, 28
Hinka, Lake, 292
Hindu-kush Mountains, 263,

338
Hindu society, castes in, 275

Hindus, the, 272, 313
Hiogo, 304
Hisjiania Citerior, 24

Ulterior, 24
Hispaniola, 95
Historical geography, 19
Hoang Hai Sea, 285
Hoang-ho river, 266, 286
Hobart Town, 460
Hodeida, 355
Hokitika, 462
Hokkaido Island, 302
Hoklos tribe, 287
Holland, 55, 83, 157

or the Netherlands,
56, 61, 212

foreign possessions of, 64,
83, 214
Holstein, 77
Holsteinborg, 415
Holy Hill, 246
Hombori Mountains, 384
Honda, 438
Honduras, 95, 433, 434

British, 433, 435
Hong-Kong Island, 289, 291
Honololu, 465
Hooge Veldt, 401
Hooker, Mount, 409
Hor, Mount, 301, 350
Hore, Mount, 360
Horizon, the, 1
Hormuz, Strait of, 346
Hottentots, 148, 367, 398
Houquain, 404
Houtman, 56
Hovas, 405
Howe, Cape, 453
Howrah, 316
Hudson Bay Company, 64, 98,

420, 421
Hudson, Hendrik, his voy-
ages, 62
Hudson Bay Territory, 416
Hudson river, 424
Hue, 327

Hugli river, 267, 310
Huguenots, 47, 59
Hull, 178
Humaita, 451
Humber river, 172
Hungary, 31, 40, 158, 208
Huns, 26, 204
Hunter river, 456
Huron, Lake, 410
Huss, John, 41
Hussars, Hungarian, 40
Hussite Wars, 41
" Hvidsserk," or Greenland,

discovered, 32
Hyder Ali, 69
Hyperboreans, 21
Hyphasis river, 22

Iberian Peninsula, 224
Iberians, Old Celtic, 227
Ibn Batuta, his travels, 39
Ibo, 394

learia Island, 348
Iceland, 32, 188, 191

Ida, Mount, 160, 255, 348

Iddah, 387

Idutywa Reserve, 399

Igbegbe, 387

Igharghar Wady, 375

He de France, 406

Hi river, 79, 268, 282

Ilinessa mountain, 439

niimani mountain, 445

Illyria, 251

Illyrian Mountains, 246

lUjTians, ancient, 248

Imbros Island, 348

Imeritans, 257

Incas, 53, 444, 445

Independent Turkistan, 342

India, 22, 40, 84, 272, 275,
307
Bengal Presidency, 316
Bombay Presidency, 318
Central Agency, 319
Central Provinces of, 316
Madras Presidency, 318
North-west Provinces of,

317
French possessions in,

815
independent states of,

319
Portuguese possessions

in, 315
tributary native states of,
318

Indians, American, 412

" Indios bravos," 413

Indo-European family, 147

Indrapura mountain, 332

Indus river, 22, 267, 300,
310

Inhambane, 395

Inn river, 206, 209

Innsbruck, 207

Interlaken, 216

Intra, 238

Ionian Islands, 239, 240

Ionian Sea, 156

Ipsus, battle of, 23

Ipswich, 458

Iquique, 445

Irawadi river, 267, 300, 322

Irak Ajemi, 347

Iran. See Persia, 344

Irbit, 260

Ireland. See British Isles,
169

Irene, her plains, 30

Iris river, 351

Irish Sea, 168

Irkutsk, 281

"Iron Gates " of the Danube,
157, 161, 208, 244, 246

Iroquois, 418

Ischl, 206

Iseo lake, 233

Isfahan, 346, 347

Ishikari river, 305

Ishim steppe, 202

Iskender, 22

Iskanderun, gulf of, 22, 349

Isker river, 252

INDEX.

477

Islamism, spread of, 30

Islay, isle of, 169, 445

Islimye, 258

Ismail djiiasty, 46

Isiiiailia, 380

Isuik lake, 352

Issus, 22, 28, 349

Issyk-kul lake, 268, 282

Istria, 202, 206

Italy, 232

Itatiaiossu, 410, 442

Ivan IV. "Tlie Terrible," 47

IviQa Island, 225

Ivory, African, 90

,, caravans, 390

,, Coast, 386
Izabel, 434
Iztaccihuatl mountain, 432

Jaffa, 355

Jagellon dynasty, 41

Jaipur, 319

Jalalabad, 339

Jamaica Island, 436, 437

James Town, 407

Japan, 39, 81, 302

Japura river, 439, 442

Jassy, 66, 244

Jats, 313

Jauf, Oasis of, 356

Java Island, 333

Jaxartes river, 268, 282

Jebel Abdularis mountain,

350
Jebel A.ja range, 357
Jebel Akhdar, 264
Jebel-al-Tarik, 182
Jebel Amur mountain, 350
Jebel Ataka, 360
Jebel Bisshari mountain, 350
Jebel -esh- Sheikh mountain,

349, 350
Jebel- esh -Sherah mountain,

350
Jebel es Soda Mountains, 361,

374
Jebel Harftn mountain, 350
Jebel Hassan, 359
Jebel Judi mountain, 349
Jebel Jvurinul mountain, 350
Jelicl Miltsiii mountain, 368
Jebel Mu^'iah mountain, 350
Jcbcl N'us.u'ich mountain, 350
Jebel Riiak mountain, 350
Jebel fSeliiia range, 357
Jebel Sinjar mountain, 350
Jebel Sliomer plateau, 350,

357, 358, 359
Jebel Toweyk mountain, 357
Jeliel Tur mountain, 349
Jedda, 355
Jelum river, 267
Jerez, 229, 230
Jersey, 169
Jerua river, 442
Jerusalem, 25, 28, 29, 33, 36,

355
Jews, 166, 204, 248, 257
Jhalawan, 338
Jihun river, 352

Jinhoa, 295

Jinsen-Ko, 295

Joan of Arc, 41

Jodhpur, 319

John o' Groat's House, 168

Johore, 330

Jokulls of Iceland, 192

Jokuno Island, 306

Joliba river, 363, 384

Joloffs, 385

Jones, Paul, 72

Jordan river, 352

valley, 350
Jorullo mountain, 432
Jostedals Brae, 160
Juan Fernandez, 448
Juba river, 364
Jucar river, 226
Judaia, plateau of, 264

hill country of, 350
Julamerik Mountains, 349
Julfa, 346
Julianshaab, 415
Julius Caisar, 25
Jumna river, 267, 310
Jungfrau mountain, 209
Jura Range Mountains, 158,

209
Justinian, emperor, 28
Jutland, 188

Jutes, the, invited to Britain,
27

Kabul, 83, 339, 340, 341

river, 339
Kachh, 318
Kachhi-Gandava, 338
Kabyles, 92, 372
Kaffa, 21

Kafirs, 88, 340, 398, 399, 403
Kafir kingdoms, the, 403
Kafirland, 399
Kafraria, 399

British, 89, 399
Kairwan, 373
Kaisarieh, 355
Kakango, 389
Kakars, 340
Kalantan, 326, 327
Kalat, 338

Kalaliara Desert, 404
Kalamata, 240
Kalkas, 296

Kalmucks, 256, 272, 278
Kainalondo, lake, 363
Kamput, 329
Kamt(!hatka, 280
Kamtchatdales, 272
Kanakas, 455
Kanates, 296
Kandahar, 83, 341
Kandy, 321
Kanem, 388
Kano, 388
Kansu, 81, 291
Kanuri, 388
Kaolin, Chinese, 288
Kapuas river, 334
Kaimnda, 459
Kara Buruu marsh, 2

Karachi, 318

Kara Dagh mountain, 350
Karajah Dagh mountain, 349
Kara Kirghiz, 283
Karakoram mountains, 37,

263, 299
Kara Kum Desert, 344
Kara Sea, 265, 281
Kara Su river, 350
Karategin, 343
Karelians, 256
Karens, 323
Karikal, 320
Karkhad river, 344
Karki, 343
Karkof, 258
Karlsbad, 207
Karlskrona, 187
Karman, 346, 347
Kars, 278, 279
Karshi, 343
Karuma Falls, 362
Karun river, 344
Kasala, 381
Kasan, 258
Kasbek, 160
Kasbek mountain, 277
Kasbel Dagh mountain, 349
Kashan mountains, 401
Kashgar, 299
Kashgar-daria river, 298
Kashmir, 317
Kassaba valley, 351
Kassacks, 256
Kasvin, 347
Kathiawar, 318
Kattegat, 155, 182, 188
Kaveri river, 311
Kawele, 394
Kebrabasa rapids, 364
Keeper mountain, 171
Kei river, 396, 399
Keneh, 380

Kenia mountains, 361, 392 ]
Kenneth, king, 35
Kepler, 112
Kerry mountains, 171
Ketchwayo, 403
Kesanlik river, 246, 253
Keshin, 406
Kesho, 327
Khabur river, 351
Kliaibar Pass, 84, 337, 339, 341
Khalkis ])eniiisula, 246
Kliandush Dagh mountain,

349
Kharkof, 260
Kharput, 355
Kliartum, 380
Khas, 327
Khatmandu, 320
Klielat, 84
Kliidiv of Egypt, 86
Kliiva, 78, 262, 270, 342, 343
Klioja (Jliai river, 351
Khoja Sala, 340
Klii.jak I'ass, 341
Khcikan, 79
Kliorassan, 347
Khosru, 28

478

INDEX.

Kliotan, 299

Kliotan-daria river, 298

KluulaveiKligiar, 355

Klmid Kabul Tass, 84

Khuzistan, 347

Khyber Pass, 84, 337, 339, 341

KUlderminster, 178

Kief, 32, 258, 260

Kiel, 197

Kila Panja, 342

Kilauea, 465

Kilif, 343

Kiliiua-njaro nionntain, 3G1,

392
Killarney, lough, 173
Kihvas, 393
Kimberley, 403
Kinghan mountains, 263, 292
Kingani river, 364
Kiiigsmill Islands, 462
Kingston, 437
King Geiirge's Sound, 460
King William's Tdwn, 399
Kini-Balu mountains, 264,

334
Kinsale Harbour, 173
Kiiilen heights, 160
Kiona mountain, 240
Kipchaks, 283
Kiiitchak, empire of, 33
Kirghiz, 262, 272, 279, 282
Kirghiz, Kara, 283
Kirghiz nomads, 262
Kirin, 293
Kishenef, 258, 260
Kishon, plain of the, 350
Kisiwani, 393
Kissovo, 247
Kita, 385

Kiushiu Island, 302
Kiyef, 32, 258, 260
Kwanes, 256
Kwinja, 393

Kizil Irmak river, 349, 351
Kizil Kum Desert, 262, 282
Kizil Uzen, river, 344
Klagenfurt, 206
Klar Elv fall, 184
KlausenVjurg, 204
Kluitchev, vol., 264, 280
"Kloofs," African, 362, 397

401
Knights Templars, 36
Knockmealdown mountains,

171
Koepang, 336
Kostei river, 334
Koh-i-Baba mountains, 339,

342
" Koh-i-nur," 69
Kohrud range, 264, 344
Koja Balkan mountains, 246
Kqja Chai river, 22
Kokan, khanate of, 283
Kokcha river, 341
Koko-nor lake, 269, 300
Kom, mountain, 246, 250
Komorn, 208

Kciniggi-atz, battle, 78 ; town,
, 207

Konigsberg, 197

Kong mount^iins, 361, 384

Konkanese, 313

Kordofan, 85, 377, 380, 389

Koriaks, 272

Koron, gulf of, 240

Korshut Su river, 351

Kos-gol, 265

Kosseir, 380

Kotour valley, 349

Krah, Isthmus of, 323

Krasnovodsk, 283

Kreli, chief, 89

Kremlin of Moscow, 258

Krishna river, 311

Kronstadt, 208, 258, 260

Kroos, 386

Kuban river, 278

Kublai, 37, 38

Kuch Behar, 316

Kuelan ranges, 263

Kuka, 388

Kulja, 79, 288

Kulugli, 373

Kunduz, 342

Kurdistan, 264, 344, 347, 348

Kurd Kabul Pass, 339

Kurds, 273, 345

Kurian Murian Islands, 358

Kurile Islands, 302, 306

Kur-kara-usu, 297

Kurkleki mountains, 337, 338

Kur river, 278

KuiTum valley, 339, 341

Kustendye, 245

Kutahiat, 355

Kutais, 279

Kutchuk Mendere river, 351

Kyhens, 324

Kyrenia, 348

Laaland Island, 188

Labrador, 98, 422

Labuan Island, 83, 332, 334

La Calle, 372

Laccadive Islands, 322

Lacerda, Dr., 73

Lachan river, 454, 456

Laconia, gulf of, 240

La Coruna, 230

La C'umbre Pass, 448

Lacus Asphaltites, 272

Ladak, 317

Lado, 381

Ladoga, lake, 162

Ladrone Islands, 462

L8BS0 Island, 188

Lago di Garda, 203

Lago Maggiore, lake, 209

La Guayra, 440

Lagos, 90, 387

Lahor, 317

Laiboch, 206

Laing, Major, 93

Lake, General, 82

Lama, 275

Lamaison, 257, 275, 300

Lammermoor Hills, 170

Lampong, 332

Landan Fortress, 200

Landeens, 395

Landes, 157, 219

Land's End, 168

LangcliiTgf n mountains, 396

Langi'land Island, 188

Langrt-s inountiiins, 159, 218

Laos, 272, 325, 327

Laotian tribes, 325, 327

Laoutze, 275

Lanji, lake, 363

Lanzarote Island, 407

La Paz, 446

La Plata, 94, 449, 451

Lapps, 162, 165, 256

Larissa, 255

Laristan mountains, 344

Larnaca, 348

La Roca, cape, 155

La RocheUe, siege of, 59

Las Casas, 52

Las Palmas, 407

La Salle, 65

L'assa, 300, 301

Latakieh, 355

Latitude, parallels of, 108

Latuim, 21, 237

Launceston, 461

Lausanne, 210

Lazistan, Russian, 351

Lebanon mountains, 264, 349,

350
Le Creuzot, 222
Leeambye river, 364
Leeba river, 364
Leeds, 178
Lee river, 173
Leeuwin, cape, 453
Leeward Islands, 437
Leghorn, 238
Leicester, 178
Leichhardt, river, 458
Leipzig, 198

battle of, 76
Leith, 179
Leitha river, 201
Lek river, 212
Lemaire's Expedition, 62
Lemberg, 204, 207
Lemnos Island, 348
Lena river, 262, 265, 266,

280
Leoben, 206
Leon, 228

Leontes river, 350, 352
Lesghians, 257, 273, 278
Lesseps, Mount de, 86
Lesser Antilles, 435, 436, 43T
Letts, Russian, 256
Leuk, 210

Level of the sea, 125
Le\'nka Island, 464
Lewis, Isle of, 169
Leyden, 213, 214
Leyte Island, 336
Liao-ho river, 293
Liao-ho Valley, 264
Liao-tong, 285, 293
Liberia, 91, 386

trade and products of,
386

INDEX.

479

Libertad, 434

Libyan Desert, 361, 375, 377

Lichi, 383

Lichtenau, 415

Lichtenfels, 415

Liechtenstein, 207

Liege, 216, 217, 21S

Liffey river, 173

Liguria, 236

Ligiirians, 235

Liim Fiord, 188

Lille, 221

Lima, 445

Limasol, 348

Limburg, 215, 218

Limerick, 179

Limoges, 222

Limon, 434

Limpopo river, 364, 3%, 401,

402
Lindi, 393
Linga Island, 332
Linz, 206
Lion, Gulf of, 156
Lipari Islands, 283
Lippe, 198
Lisbon, 161, 231

Roclc of, 225
Lithuanians, 194, 250
Little Belt, 188
Li, tribe, 287
Liu-klu Islands, 302, 306
Liverpool, 161, 178
Li\ingstone, Dr., 93, 363, 395
Livingstone mountains, 301
Livingstonia, 39a
Livonians, 256
Lizard, 168
Llama, the, 444
" Llanos," 440
Loa river, 444
Loanda, 90, 390, 391
Loango, 389
Lo Benguela, king, 404
Lob, lake, 269
Lob Nor marsh, 298
Local time, 105
Lochy, Loch, 172
Lofeten Isles, 183, 186
Loire river, 161, 219
Lot tribe, 326, 329
Loja, 439

Lomami river, 363
Lorn river, 252

Loiubarils, their conquests, 29
Lonibunly, 202, 234, 236
Lomblom Island, 335
Lombok, 335
Lombombo Hills, 395

river, 401
Lomond, Loch, 172
London, 161, 177
LondondeiTy, 179
Long Island, 42S
Longitude, 108
Longobards, 235
Loo-choo Islands, 302, 306

Mountains, 306
Lorraine, 77, 201
Loa Boques Island, 436

Loucheux, Indians, 422
Louis and Clarke's Expedi-
tion, 96
Louisiana, 96
Louis\ille, 430
Lourenzo Marquez, 395
Louvain, 216
Low Islands, 462
Lower Cochin China, 322, 328
Lower Guinea, 389
Lowther Hillas 170
Loyalty Islands, 462
Lualaba river, 93, 363, 394
Luapula river, 363
Lubeck, 198
Lucayas, 435
Lucknow, 316
Lufiji river, 364, 393
Lugano, 210

LugnaquiUa mountain, 171
Lukoja, 387
Lukuga, 363
Lunar day, 135
Luneburg Heath, plains, 157
Luneville, Peace of, 74
Lujiata gorge, 364
Luristan, 347
Lusitania, 34
Luther, Martin, 47, 197
Luurs, 345
Luvwa river, 363
Luxemburg, 215, 218
Luz, 338

Luzern, 209, 210, 211
Luzon Island, 336
Lydenburg, 402
Lys river, 216
Lyttelton, 462
Lyons, 221
Lyons, Gulf of, 218

Haas river, 161, 211, 212, 215,

217
Maasluis, 214
Macassar, 335
Macedonia, 22, 249

Philip II. of, 22

Alexander of, 22
Mackenzie, the traveller, 73
Mackenzie river, 410, 420
Madagascar, 405

French settlement in, 64
Madeira Islands, 42, 91, 231,

232, 407
Madeira river, 442, 446
Madras, 318
Madrid, 228, 230
Madura, 318
Mael Strom, 183
Mag.ilies mountains, 401
Ma-dala, 87, 384
Ma-dalen Islands, 419
Magdalena river, 438
Mag.leVmrg, 197
Magadoxa ; see Magdeshu.
Magalliiiens, 50, 51
Magellan, 50, 51, 50"
Magellan Straits, 448

Magenta, battle of, 238

Magenie Island, 1S3

Maggiorc, lake, 162, 233

Mags, 323

Magyars, 31, 165, 203

Malianadi river, 310

Mahe, 320

Mahebourg, 406^

Mahrattas, 313

Mahrischen Hoke, or Mora-
vian Heights, 159 4

Maimana, 342

Mairaatchin, 297

Mainz, 198

Maitland, 456

Majorca Island, 225

Makalla, 358

Slakapans mountains, 401 '

Makatee Kafirs, 402

Makdeshu, 393

Makololo Kafirs, 404

Makran, 338. 347

Makran Desert, 338

Malacca, 37, 50, 83, 322, 329
330 '

Malacca, Strait of, 332

Malaga, 229, 230

Malagarazi river, 363

Malagesses, 405

Malar Lake, 187

Malatia, 355

Malay race, 148, 272, 273, 399

Malayan States, 326

Maldive Islands, 322

Malea, Cape, 240

Malin Head, 169

Malines or Mechelen, 216, 217

Malta, 182, 239

Maltese Islands, 239

Malvern Hills, 170

Maliva Plateau, 309

Maraede, Sierra de, 225

Mameluke Dynasty, 38

Mamelukes of Egypt, 85

Mammoth, 262, 280

Mamorc river, 446

Man, distribution of, 143

Man, Isle of, 169

Manaar, Gulf of, 320

Managua, 434

Managua Lake, 434

Manchester, 178

Manchus, 37, 57, 272, 292

Manchuria, 79, 272, 292

Mandalay, 325

Mandingoes, 385, 388

Mangalor, 318

Maniiattan Island, 428

Manias, lake, 352

Manica, 395

Manilla, 337

Mauipur, 319

Manissa, 355

Manitoba, 98, 416, 421

Maiiitsh river, 278

Manulieim, 200

Man.sarawar lakes, 2ii7
Mans, Ia; 222
Mantua, 2:is
Manyuema, 394

480

INDEX.

Manzanas, 452
Maoris, 4()'2

Maps and mapping, 8, 109
Mapiita river, 395
Maracaju Heights, 450
Maracaybo, lake of, 440
Marafton river, 444
Maranhao, 443
Marlborough, Duke of, 67
Marchfeld, 205
March river, 202, 207
Marco Polo, 37, 291
Marcus Antonius, 25
Marea, 381
Maree, loch, 172
Maremnia, 164, 233
Marengo, battle of, 74
Marianne Islands, 464
Marlco, 402

Marie-Galante Island, 436
Mariner's conipass, 3
Maritza river, 247, 253
Maritza, vaUey of, 246
Marne-Rhine Canal, 219
Marocco, 49, 91, 368, 370
Maroni river, 441
Marowyne river, 441
Marquesas Islands, 465
Marrah mountains, 361, 384
Marseilles, 21, 222
Marshall Islands, 464
Mars' Hill, 243
Marston Moor, battle of, 60
Martaban, 323
Martaban, Gulf of, 323
Martel, Charles, 30
Martinique Island, 436
Marv, 339, 344
Maryland (Africa), 91
Mary, Queen, 48
Mascarenhas Isles, 54, 406
Mascat, 359
Mash-had, 345, 346
Mashona Range, 404
Mask, Lough, 173
Massilia, 21
Massina, 388
Massowah, 381, 384
Matabele Kafirs, 404
Matanzas, 436
Matapan, Cape, 155, 240
Matoppo Range, 404
Matrah, 359
Matsumaye, 305
Matterhorn, mountain, 209
Maule river, 447
Maulmain, 323
Mauna Loa, vol., 465
Mauritania (Marocco), 25
Mauritius Island, 54, 406
Mavro Nero Torrent, 240
Mavro Potamo river, 240
Maximilian of Austria, 96
Mayence, 198
Mayotta Island, 406
Maypu river, 447
Mazagan, 371
Mazandaran, 347
Mazatlan, 433

Mecca, 28, 350, 355
Mecklenburg Grand Duchy,

198
Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 198
Medina, 350, 355
Mediterranean Sea, 156
Megalo Kastron, 255
Mehdia, 373
Mehemet AH, 85, 379
Meissen, 198
Me-Khong river, 266, 300,

322, 325, 328, 329
Melacoree river, 385
Melanesia, 463
Melboui-ne, 99, 457
Melegiietta pepper, 42, 386
Melinde, 393
Melilla, 230
Melville Island, 453
Memel, 197

Memphis, ruins of, 380
Menado, 335
Menai Strait, 169
Menam, 322
Menam river, 266, 325
Mendere Su river, 351
Mendif, Mount, 361, 384
Mendoza, 449
Menza, 381
Mequinez, 371
Merash, 355

Mercator's projection. 111
Merg)ii, 323
Meridian, 2

Meridian of longitude, 108
Meridian, prime, 109
Merj-ibn-Amii- plain, 350
Merka, 393
Merom, lake, 352
Merovingian dynasty, 29
Merrick mountain, 170
Mersey river, 161, 172
Mersina, 355
Merv ; see Marv, 344
Meshed Ali city, 353
Messina, 238

Strait of, 234
Mesopotamia, 262, 347, 348

(S. America), 450
Mesiirado, Cape, 386
Mestizos, 434, 439
Meta river, 440
Metz, 78, 201
Metemmeh, 384
Meuse river, 161, 212, 215,

217, 219
Mexico, 52, 94, 96, 409, 431
Mexico (city), 52, 432
Miako or Kioto, 304
Miantze tribe, 287
Mia Wady, 375
Michigan, lake, 410
Micronesia, 464
Middle Ages, the, 33

religion in, 33
Middleburg, 402
Mikado of Japan, the, 30, 275
Mikindani Bays, 393
Milan, 233

Millet or Durra, 378
Miltsin mountain, 361
Milwaukie, 430
Min river, 286
Minchinnialdiva'(vol.), 452
Mincio river, 233
Mindanao Island, 336
Mindoro Island, 336
Ming dynasty, 39, 292
Mingreliaus, 257, 273, 278
Minho river, 226
Minorca Island, 225
Minou Islets, 406
Miquelon - Langlade Island,

423
Mira river, 439
Misol Island, 336
Mississippi river, 410, 425
Missouri river, 425
Mistral wind, 219
Mitchell river, 458
Mithridates, 25
Mitylene Island, 348
Mizen Head, 169
Moab plateau, 264

mountains, 350
Moans, 324
Mobile river, 425
M odder river, 401
Mrelar lake, 162, 184
Moen Island, 188
Moeris, lake, 378
Moero, lake, 363
Moesia, ancient, 252
Mogador, 371
Mogdesho, 393
Mogul dynasty, 46
Mongol dynasty, 46
Mohammed, 28, 273
Mohammedan Asia, 337

Empire, 28, 29, 93
Mohammedanism, 273
Mohawks, 418
Moi tribe, 326, 329
Moisture, disti'ibution of, 139
Mokta-el-Hadid mines, 372
Moldavia, 85, 243
Molise, 237
Moluccas, 336
Mombasa, 393
Mona Isle, 169
Monastir, 373
Monchique, Sierra de, 225
Mongolia, 37, 295, 297
Mongolians, 37, 38, 147, 165,

272, 287
Monotheism, 150
Montpellier, 221
Monrovia, 91, 386
Mons, 217

Montserrat Island, 436
"Monsoon" wind, 133, 310,

311
Mont Blanc, 158, 218
Mont Cenis, 238
Monto Corvo, 233
Mont Dore, 218
Montenegrins, 248
Montenegro, 85, 159,245, 250

INDEX.

481

Monte Rosa, 207, 209

Monte Rotoudo, 100

Monte Video, 451

Montezuma, 52

Moorfoot Hills, 170

Moormen, 321

Moors, 29, 34, 48, 370, S72,

373, 376
Moplays, 322
Morava river, 249, 250
Moravia, 207
Moravian Heights, 202
Mordvins, 256
Morea, 239, 240
Morena, Sierra de, 225
Moriscoes, 61
Morlachs, 251
Morlou Bay, 99
Morocco (Mauritania), 25
Morrison mountain, 204, 2S5
Moscovy, 258
Moscow, 258
Mossamedes, 90, 390, 391
Mossuril, 394
Mostaganum, 372
Mostar, 252
Mosul, 355
Motagua river, 433
Mourue mountains, 171
Moxos, Indians, 446
Mozambique, S8, 394
Mukden, 293

Mulabacem mountain, 225
Mulattoes, 435, 446
Miilhausen, 201
Mull, Isle of, 109
Multan, 317
Muluya river, 370
Munich, 199

Muniong mountains, 454
Miinster, Treaty of, 59
Murad-chai river, 349, 350

Murch'ison Falls, 362, 364
Murcia, 229, 230
Murgh-ab river, 339, 342
Murong river, 334
Murray river, 454, 456
Murrumbidgee river, 454, 456
Murshedabad, 316
Murzuk, 374
Musart Pass, 299
Muscat, 86
Mush, 355

Mushinga mountains, 361
Musk, 301
Mutshobo, 325
Mweelrea mountains, 171
Myrrh, 358, 391
Mysor, 316, 317

Nachtioal, Dr., 389
Nadir Shah, 69
Nagasaki, 304
Nagpur, 310, 317
Nagunie river, 303
Nahr-el-Ahsy mountain, 349

VaUey, 350
Nahr-el-Kasimiyeh river, 350

Namaqua Hottentots, 404

Namaqiuilaud, 404

Namcho, Lake, 300

Naiuur, 216, 217

Nancy, 222

Nan-hei Sea 285

Nanking, 291

Nan-ling mountains, 263, 385

Nan-sban river, 300

Nantes, Edict of, 48, 60

Napier, 462

Napier, Sir Charles, 82

Naples, 237, 238, 239

Napo river, 439

Narbada river, 310

Nari, Province of, 301
river, 339

Narin river, 282

Narses, 28

Nasik, 318

Nassau, 437

Nasser, 380

Natal, 88, 400

Natuna Islands, 332

Nauplia, Gulf of, 240

Navarre, 34, 229

Navigator's Islands, 465

Nawa, 306

Neagh, Lough, 173

Necker river, 200

Neembucu Marsh, 450

Nefud Desert, 356

Negoi mountain, 202

Negritos, 149, 273, 336

Negro family, 148, 345, 358,
367, 374, 379, 455

Negroland, 93

Negroponte Island, 240

Negros Island, 336

Niemen, 162

Nejd, The, 350, 355, 356, 357,
358

Nelson, 402

Lord, 68, 74
river, 410, 420

Nepal, 319

Nephin mountains, 171

Ness, Loch, 172

Ness river, 172

Nestorian Christians, 345

Netherlands, The, 48, 59, 211

Netherlands Trading Com-
pany, 333

Ncuchatel, 162, 209, 210

Ncusiedl Lake, 202

Neva river, 102

Nevada, Sierra, 225

Nevis Island, 436

Now Amsterdam, 441

Newark, 429

New Britain Islands, 404

New Brunswick, 97, 416, 418

New Caledonia, 462, 404

Newcastle, 178

(Australia), 456

New Kngland Range (Aus-
tralia), 450

Newfoundland, 97, 416, 422

New Granada, 94, 437

New Guinea, 71, 462, 463 '

2 I

New Hebrides' Islands, 464

New Holland, 71

New Mexico, 97

New Munster, 461

New Orleans, 430

New Plymouth, 462

New South Wales, 61, 99, 453

Newton, Sir Isaac, 112, 113

New Ulster, 401

New York, 428

New Zealand, 74, 99, 461

Company, 99
Nezwar, 359
Ngami, Lake, 365
Niagara Falls, 417
Nicaragua, 95, 433, 434

Lake, 410, 434
Nice, 222
Nicopolis, 252
Nicosia, 348

Niebuhr, the explorer, 66
Nieuweveld mountains, 397
Niger river, 73, 90, 361, 363,

384, 387
Nijni-Novgorod, 260
Nikolayef, 258, 260
Nikscliich, 251
Nile, battle of the, 68
Delta, 362, 378
inundations of, 378
river, 73, 93, 361, 362,
378 382
Nilgiri Hi'Us,'309
Ninies, 221
Ning-po, 289
Nipon Bassi Bridge, 303
Nipon Island, 302
Niris, lake, 345
Niu-chwang, 2S9, 293
Nizam of the Deccan, 69
No, lake, 302
No-man's-laud, 400
Nogais, 250, 27S, 343
Nordensldold, naturalist, 101,

281
Nord Kyn, 183
Nore river, 173
Norfolk Island, 73, 456
Normberga, 199
Normans, tlic, 31
Nortli Brabant, 214
Nortli Cape, 155, 1S3
North Channel, 108
North-East Passage, 54, 56,

70, 265
" Northern Lights," 162
North German Confederation,

78
North Island (New Zealand),

401
Northmen, the, 31, 1S5
North Pole exjiloi'ation, 101
North-West Company of Mon-
treal, 72
North-West Passage, 54, 70,

74, 423
North-West Territory, 98,

416, 420
North Sea, 155, 167
North Star, 7

482

INDEX.

Norse colonies, 38

Norway, 35, 182

Norwich, 178

Nossi Be Island, 406

Nossi Burra, 40t5

Nottingham, 178

Nourse river, 364

Nova, Juan de, 49

Nova Scotia, 97, 416, 419

Novgorod, 32

Nubia, 377, 378, 380

Nubian deserts, 879

Nucha, 279

Nuehrs, 379

Nuer tribes, 380

Nueva Guatemala, 434

Nueva Salvador, 434

Nu Gariep river, 364, 397, 401,

402
Numidia (Algeria), 25
Numidians, 367
Niirnberg, 199
Nutmeg tree, 336
Nyangwe, 394
Nyam-Xyains, 379
Nyassa, lake, 93, 364
Nyl Strom river, 402
Nymegen, 214

Oamaru, 462

Oases of the Sahara, 875

Oberland, 209

Obi river, 205, 280

"Occidental Land," 261

Ocean currents, 136

Oceanic negi-oes, 455

Ochil Hills, 170

Oder river, 162, 194, 202

Odessa, 258, 260

Ogaden, 391

Oglio river, 233

Ogow6 river, 90, 361, 363,
389

Oguzian Turks, 37

Ohio river, 425

Ohtere and Wolfstau's voy-
ages, 32

Oich, loch, 172

Okanda river, 363

Okhrida, lake, 207

Oland, 182

Old Calabar river, 387

Oldenburg Fens, plains, 157

Oldenburg Grand Duchy, 198

Oldeuwald mountains, 168

Olifants river, 397, 402

Olmiitz, 207

Oluths, 296

Olympus, mount, 246, 247,
348

Oman, 86, 355, 357, 358, 359

Ombai Island, 335

Omoa, 434

Onega, lake, 162

Oneyzah, 359

Onitsha, 387

Ontario, lake, 410, 416, 418

Ookiep mines, 398

Ophir, mount, 330

Ophir, mount (Sumatra), 332

Opium, Chinese, 287

Oporto, 123, 161

Oran, 92, 372

Orange River, 364, 396, 397,

401, 403
Orange Free State, 88, 89, 390,

400
Ordos, 296
Oregon, 98

river, 425
Orenibavola river, 363
Orenibawango river, 363
Orenburg, 260
Organ mountains, 409, 442
" Oriental land," 261
Orinoco river, 410, 440
Orissa coast, 307

Mehals, 316
Oristano bay, 234
Orkney Isles, 169
Orleans, 220, 221
Orafa, 160
Orontes, mountain, 349

river, 352
Orotava, 407
Orsova, 208

Ortler Spitze mountain, 202
Oruba Island, 436
Orura, 446
Osaka, 304, 305
Osman Pasha, 79
Osmanli Turks, 39, 165, 247
Osmer river, 252
Ossa, mountain, 246, 247
Ossetes, 273, 278
Ostend, 217
Ostiaks, 272
Ostrich, 366

farming, 398
Ostrogoths, the, 26, 28
Otago, 462

Otho, king of Germany, 31
Othrys mountains, 240
Ottoman Empire, 37

rise or progress of, 46, 57
Ottowa river, 417
Orizaba mountain, 431
Oudh, 83, 316
Ourthe river, 215
Ouro Preto, 443
Ouse, Yorkshire river, 172
Outeniqua mountains, 396
Ova Herero, 404
Ovampos, 405
Overyssel, 214, 215
Ovis Amnion, 299
Owen Stanley mountains, 463
Oxus river, 79, 268, 282, 339,

340
Oyapok, river, 441

Padang, 332

Padua, 235

Pagan, 325

Pahang, 330

Palar river, 311

Palawan Island, 334, 336

Palembang, 332

Paleneia, 230
Palestine, 347, 348
Palk Strait, 320
Palma, 230

island, 407
Palm oil, 386, 387
Palmerston, 459
Palti lake, 300
Palus Tritonis, 309
Pamir steppe, 263, 339, 340
Paiiipa AuUagas lake, 446
"Pampas," 411, 448, 449
Pamplona Pass, 228
Panama, isthmus of, 408, 409,

433, 438
Panar river, 311
Panay Island, 336
Pancore Islands, 330
Pangani, 393
Panjab, 83, 267, 317

doabs, 308
Panjira, 329
Panjnad river, 267
Panom-peng, 329
Pantar Island, 335
Papal States, 236
Papeete, 465
Papho, 348
Papua, 462, 463
Papuas, 149, 273
Para, 443

Paraguay, 73, 94, 442, 450
Paramatta, 456
Paramaribo, 441
Parana river, 410, 442, 448, 450
Paranahyba river, 442
Paris, 34, 76, 78, 221, 222

treatv of, 68, 243, 244
Park, Mungo, 73
Parker, Port, 458
Parma, 235

Parnassus mountain, 240
Parnon mountains, 240
Paro Island, 242
Parsees, 274, 345
Pasco, 445
Patagones, 51
Patagonia, 51

and Tierra del Fuego,
451
Patagonian Indians, 452
Patani, 326, 327
Pathans, 339
Patmos Island, 348
Patras, 239, 242
Paumotu, 465
Pavia, battle of, 47
Paysandu, 451
Peace river, 420
Pechora river, 162
Pe-chi-li Gulf, 285
Pedrotallagalla mountain, 321
Peel Island, 307
Pegu, 65, 323
Pei-ho forts, 289

river, SO, 286
Peipus lake, 162
Peking, 37, 80, 286, 290
Pelew Islands, 462

INDEX.

483

Pe-ling mouutains, 203, 2S5
Peliou mountain, 240
Peloponnesus, 239
Penang, 330

Pendulum experiments, 113
Peninsular war, 75
Peninsulas, 125
Pennine Chain, 170
Pentapolis, 374
Pentlaud Firth, 16S

Hills, 170
Peoples of the World, 146
Pepin le Bref, 30
Pepper Coast, 91
Pera, 254
Perak, 830
Pergamus, 25

Perihelion, position of, 117
Perim Island, 73, 35S
Perm, ironworks of, 259
Permians, 256
Pernambuco, 443
Perouse, La, 74
Persepolis, 22, 347
Persia, 21, 28, 34, 57, 84, 264,

272, 344
Persians, 35S
Perth (Australia), 460
Peru, 53, 94, 408, 444
Perugia, 235
Peruvians, ancient, 53
Peshawar, 314, 317, 340
Pest, 204

Peter the Great, 58, 65
Peter the Hermit, 36
Peterwardein, 208
Petrozavodok, 259
Peutingerian table, 26
Pfaffers, 210
Pharpar river, 352
Philadelphia, 428
Philippeville, 372
Philippine Islands, 330, 336
Philippopolis, provinceof,253

town, 253
Philip II. of Macedonia, 22

of Spain, 48
Phcenicians, 20, 227, 235
Phanix Islands, 462
Physical Geography, 101
Pic de Nethou, 159, 218
Pichincha mountain, 439
Picts and Scots, 27, 35
Piedmont, 236
Pietermaritzburg, 400
Pilcomayo river, 446, 448
" Pilgi-ini Fathers," 63
Pillars (.f Ilrr.'uU-s, 21
Pindus ilountains, 159, 240,

246
Pinzon, Yanez, 50
Pirteus, 242
Pisa, 235

Pishin Valley, 341
Pitcaim Island, 71, 456, 402,

465
Pizarro, Francisco, 53
Planets, movements of, 112,

114, 115
Platsea, battle of, 22

Flatten See, lake, 202
Plevna, 79, 252
"PIevo,"lake, 211
"Plough," 5
Plymouth, 178
Plynlymmon, Mount, 170
Po, river, 161, 233
Podgoritza, 251
Poictiers, battle of, 41
Point de Galle, 322
Pola, 206
Poland, 32,' 35, 41, 58, 67, 78,

79, 258
Polani, tribes of, 32
Polders of Holland, 211
Pole-star, 7, 104
Poles, 194, 203, 256
Political systems of the

world, 146
Polo, Nicolo, and Matteo,

their travels, 39
Polo, Marco, his travels, 39
Poltava, battle of, 06
Polynesia, 404
Polynesians, 148, 463
Polytheism, 150
Ponape, 464
Pondichery, 64, 320
Pondomise Kafirs, 399
Pongo river, 385
Pompeii, 233
Pontevedra Bay, 225
Pontianak, 334
Pontine Marshes, 164, 233
Po]jocateiietl, Mount, 409,

432, 433
Population of the world, 146
Porcelain, Chinese, 288
Port au Prince, 437
Port Darwin, 459
Port Denison, 458
Port Elizabeth, 399
Port Jackson, 456
Port Louis, 400
Port Philip, 99, 457
Port Royal, 437
Port Said, 379
Porto Santo Islet, 407
Portsmouth, 179
Portugal, 34, 42, 49, 57, 61,
75, 224, 231
foreign possessions of,
African, 88, 390,

391 394
Indian, 320, 336
Posen, 197
Pntchefstroom, 402
Poti, 279

Potomac river, 424
Potosi, 446

mountain, 446
Pcmltry, Asiatic, 271
Poverty Bay, 71
Povin.lahs, 340
Poyang-hu, Lake, 286
Prague, 207

Treaty of, 78
" Prairies," 411, 425
Pretoria, 402
Pressburg, 208

Pressburg, Peace of, 75

" Prester John," kingdom of,

43
Primeira chain, 394
Prime Meridian, 109
Prince Edward Island, 98,

416, 419
Prince of Wales Island, 330
Prince of Wales Peninsula,

409
Princes Island, 90, 361, 389
Prisren, 255
Prisrendi, 255
Prishtina, 255
Projections, various, 110
Probolingo, 333
Prome, 323
Provencal, 220
Providence, 428
Province Wellesley, 330
Prussia, 59, 78, 196
Pruth river, 243
Ptolemy, 20, 102

Puebla, 433

Puerto Cabello, 440
Principe, 436
Rico, 95, 436

Pulo-Condor Islands, 329

Puna, 318

"Punas" region of Peru,
444
Bolivia, 445

Punic Wars, 24

Purus river, 442

Punta Arenas, 434, 452

Punta da Genha, 390

Punti tribe, 287

" Put," 263

Putumayo river, 439

PjTamus river, 352

Pyremean peninsula, 224

PjTenees mouutains, 159
225

Pyi-eneos, 410, 442

Pytheas' voyages, 23

Pygmies, land of the, 102

"Quadrilateral, The," 238

Quarken Islands, 182

Qnarners, 200

Quebec, 02, 70, 410, 418

Quedah, 326, 327

Queen Charlotte Islands, 71

422
Queensland, 99, 453
Querimba, Islands, 394
Quetta, 84, 338, 341
Quiihua, 444, 446
Quilimaue, 394
Quinhon, 358
Quito, 439
Quorra river, 363

Rabat-Saleh, 371
Radiation of heat, 133
Ragusa, 208

Rain, distribution of, 139
effect of mountain ranges
on the, 142
Rajput tribes, 313

484

INDEX.

Rajputana, 318

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 55
Rangoon, 323
Rannoch, Loch, 172
Rann of Kac-hh, 308
Rannun, 184
Ras Dashan peak, 3S2
Ras el Keruu, cape, 300
Rasht, 34(3
Ravi liver, 267
Red river, 421, 425

Settlement, 421
Ree, Lough, 173
Reformation, the great, 47
Reicheuberg, 207
Reims, 222

Reindeer, 162, 259, 271
Religions of the World, 14G,

150, 273
Religious belief, effects of, 149
Rennes, 222
Reshades, 376
Reunion Island, 406
Reuss, Principality ,*19S
Revel, 258, 260
Rhaeto Romanic fair, 209
Rhenish jialatinate, 200
Rhine river, 157, 161, 194,

200, 209, 212
Rhodes Island, 348, 355
Rhodope mountains, 159, 246,

258
Rhon mountains, 158
Rhone river, 161, 209, 219
Rhubarb, Chinese, 291
" Riachos," 448
Riadh, 358
Ribe, 393
Richelieu, Cardinal, 59

river, 417
Richmond (U.S.), 429
Riebeck, J. A. van, 64
Riesen mountains, 159, 202
" Riff," The, 369
Riga, 258, 260

gulf, 156
Rigaf, 381
Rigi, 210

Rilo Dagh mountain, 246
Rio de Janeiro, 95, 443

de la Plata, 449

Grande river, 432, 443

Grande del Norte, 425

Negro ri^•er, 442, 451, 452

Pongo, 385

San Pedro, 385

Vennejo, 449
Riou river, 278

archipelago, 332
Ripon falls, 362
Ristigouche river, 419
Riviera, 235

" Riverina" (Australia), 456
Rjukand Fos falls, 183
Roanoke river, 424
Rocliester (U.S.), 429
Rockhampton, 458
Rocky Mountains, 98, 409, 425,

431
Rock of Gibraltar, 225

Rock of Lisbon, 155, 225
Rodriguez Island, 406
Roggeveld mountains, 397
Rohlfs, tlie traveller, 388
Rolf of Normandy, 34
Roman Empire, 21, 23, 24, 25,

27
Romania, S5, 158, 217, 243,
249
cape, 261
Romanic group, 165, 203, 209,

244
Romans, 235
Rome, 235, 237
Ronieni, 244
Rosario, 449
Roses, attar of, 253

Wars of, 41
Rosetta, 379
Rostock, 197
Rostof, 260

Rotation of the eartli, 112
Rotterdam, 161, 214
Rouen, 221
Roumelia, Eastern, 245, 249,

252
Rousselaere, 217
Roveredo, 207
Ro^'uma river, 364
Rowandiz peak, 349
Ruahine range, 461
Ruapehu mountain (vol.), 461
Rufla river, 240
Rufu river, 364
Rumelia, 239
Rumili, 249
Rupel, 216

river, 215
Rupert's Laud, 98, 416, 420
Rurick (the Scandinavian),

32
Russia— General, 32, 35, 40,

57, 65, 99, 157, 256, 258
Russian Armenia, 351
Russian Asia—

the Caucasus, 277
Siberia, 279
Central Asia, 282
Russian Central Asia, 58, 65,

66, 69, 78, 79, 84, 276, 282
Russian Lazistan, 351
Russian Turkistan, 79
Russuiaks, 203, 256
Rustchuk, 252
Rustcnburg, 402
Rutliens, 203, 256
Ruthenians, 203

Saadaki, 339

Saan, 404

Saarbruck, bay of, 78

Saba Island, 436

Saba, Saint, dukedom of, 251

Sabah, 334, 335

Sable Island, 419

Sabzawar, 346

Sadowa, battle of, 78

village, 207
Safld Koh mountains, 339, 340

Saghalien Island, 281
Saguenay river, 417
Sahama (\'ol.), 445
Sahara, the —

region, 141, 362, 369, 372,
374
Sahmelads, 256
Saigon, 82, 328

St. Bartholomew's Day, mas-
sacre of, 48
St. Bartholomew Island, 436
St. Bernard, 209
St. Christobal, 407
St. Christopher Island, 436
St. Denis, 406
St. Elias, Mount, 240, 409
St. Etienne, 221, 222
St. Eustatius Island, 436
St. Gall, 210, 211
St. George's Channel, 168
St. Gothard Pass, 158, 211, 238
St. Helena Island, 76, 407
St. Jolin's (Newfoundland),

419, 422
St. John, island of, 420
St. John's river, 399, 419
St. Juan del Norte, 434
St. Lawrence, Gulf of, 422
St. La^\Tence river, 410, 417
St. Louis, 385
St. Louis, 406

(U.S.), 429
St. Lucia Island, 436
Ste. ]Marie Island, 436
St. Martin Island, 436
St. Maurice, 210

liver, 417
St. Michael, 232
St. Nazaire, 222
St. Petersburg, 66, 258, 260
St. Paul de Loanda, 391
St. Pierre Island, 423
St. Quentin, 221
St. Thomas Island, 90, 369

389, 437
St. Vincent Cape, 225
St. Vincent Island, 407, 436
Sakalavas, 405
Sakaria river, 351
Sakhalin Island, 281
Saladin, 34, 36
Salado, river, 448
Salah-ed-din, 34
Salamanca, bay of, 76
Salambria river, 247
Salangore, 330
Sallee rovers, 48
" Salinas," 448
Salisbury Plain, 170
Salonica, 255

Gulf of, 247
Salta, 449

Saltholm Island, 188
Salto Grano, 451
Salt Range, 308
Salvador, 95
Salwatty Island, 336
Salwen, 322

River, 267, 300
Salzburg, 202, 204, 206

INDEX.

485

Samar Island, 336
Bamara, 200
Kaiiiarang, 333
Samariuda, 334
Samarkand, 79, 262, 283, 342
Sambre river, 215, 217
" Samiel " wind, 353
Samoa Islands, 465
Samoyeds, 162, 165, 257, 272
Samos Island, 348
Samothrace Island, 34S
Samotliraki, island of, 246
Samso Island, 188
Samsun, 355
Sanbok Islands, 306
Sandalwood Island, 335
Sandhurst, 457
San Domingo Island, 436, 437

river, 385
Sand Dunes, 189
Sandwich Islands, 72, 462, 465
San Francisco, 97, 426
Sang, pro\'ince of, 301
Sangalak river, 339
Sangar Islands, 335
Sangarius river, 351
Sanitaria, 271
San Jose (Guatemala), 434

(Costa Rica), 434
Ban Juan, 389
river, 433
San Luis mountains, 448
San Marino, 239

San Pedro river, 385

San-po river, 30, 367

Ban Salvador, 390, 433, 434

Sansandig, 388

San-san Islands, 306

San Sebastian, 230

Santa Criu Islands, 462
river, 424

Santander, 230

Santee river, 424

Santiago Island, 407, 432, 448

Santiago de Cuba, 436

Bantos, 443

Sao Francisco river, 442

Saone river, 219

Sao Paulo, 443

Sarabat Chai river, 351

Saracens, the, or Moors, 29,
30

Sarakarta, 333

Saratof, 260

Sarawak, 332, 334

Sarawan, 338

Sardinia, 232, 234, 237

Sarmatians, 32

Saros, Gulf of, 246

Sarpenvos fall, 184

Saskatchewan rivers, 420

Sassanian dynasty, 23

Satlej river, 267

Satpura Hills, 309

Satsuporo, 305

Savanilla, 438

Savannah river, 424

Save river, 202, 245

Savoyards, 2:!5

Baxe Coburg-Gotha, 198

Saxe- Weimar, Grand Duchy

of, 198
Saxons, settlement in Eng-
land, 27
Saxony, 197

Sayan mountains, 263, 2S0
Scandina\ia, 182
Scandina\'ia and Denmark,

32, 166, 157, 182
Scamander river, 351
Scania, plain of, 182
Scawfell liill, 170
Schaffhausen, 210, 211
Schamyl, capture of, 79
Scheldt river, 212, 216
Scheveningen, 214
Schiedam, 214
Schleswig, 77, 188
Schneekoppe mountain, 202
Schouwen, 212
Schwartzburg Principality,

198
Schwarzwald mountains, 158
Schwy, 62, 211
Scilly Isles, 20
Scindia, 82
Scotland. See British Isles,

169
Scots and Picts, 35
Scutari, Lake, 247
Sea and land, distribution of,

122
Seals, 162

Sea, level of the, 125
of iVzof, 156
bed of the, 127
" Sea of pitchy darkness," 38
temjieratui-e of, 132
slugs, 305
" Sebkhas " or Marshes, 369
Sebu river, 370
Sedan, 78, 222
Sego, 388
Segura river, 226
Sehend Koh mountain, 345
Seine river, 161, 219
Seistan, province, 340, 341,
347
Lake, 269
swamp, 339
Selenga river, 265
Seleucia, 352
Selim, Sultan, 46
Selish IiKlians, 422
Semip:U;itiiisk, 2S2
SciJiitic, family, 147, 166, 247,

272, 27:^, 367
Semlin, 208
Semyen mountain, 382
Sena, 394
Senaai', 380
Senegal, 64, 91
Company, 91
river, 363, 384, 385,
386
Senegambia, 385
" Se]item Triones," 5
Serai-Bosnia, 252
Seraing, 217
I Serayevo, 252

Seringapatam, G<^, 317

Serra do Mar, 442

Serrano, 50

Serrao, 50

Sert, river, 351

Servia, 85, 159, 245, 249, 250,

255
Servians, 203, 248
Setubal Bay, 225
Sevastopol, 260
Severn river, 172

Vale of, 171
Seville, 225, 230
Sevres, 222
Seychelle Isles,
SejTil, 294
Sfax, 373
Shah Jehan, 57
Shamanism, 257, 276
Shambi, 381
Shamo Desert, 295
Shan Alin, 264

Moimtains, 292
Shanghai, 289
Shannon river, 173
Shans, 324, 325
Shan-ta-bun, 326
Shari river, 365, 384
Sharja, 359
Shat el Arab, 268, 351
Shawl, 338
Shea butter, 387
Sheliah mountain, 369
Sheliff, river, 371
Shemakha, 279
Sherboro Island, 385
Shere Ali, 84, 341
Sherian Dagh Mountain, 349
Shetland Isles, 169
Shiaks, 345
Shields, 178
Shikolu Islands, 302
Shilka river, 266
Shiluk Negroes, 379, 380
Shimonoseki, 305
Shingeti salt-mines, 376
Shing-king, 293
Shin, Loch, 172
Shipka Pass, 246
Shiraz, 345, 34(5, 347
Sliire river, 364, 395
Shiuri, 306
Shoa, 88, 383
Shoalhaven river, 456
Sho-goon of Jajjan, the, 304
Shamcr, 357
Shott Kebir sands, 369
Shott Melghir, 369
" Shume" wind, 376
Shumla, GO, 252
Shutargardan Pass, 339, 341
Siak, 33-2
Siam, 82, 266, 325
Siamese, 272, 326
Siberia, 262, 270, 272, 276, 279
Siberiaks, 280
Siberian mammoth, 262
Sicilies, the two, 36
Sicily, 232, 237
Sidereal day, 115

48G

INDEX.

Sidlaw Hills, 170

Sidon, 20

Siebeiibiirgen, 202

Siena, 235

" Sierra " region of Peru, 444

Sierra Estrella, 159

Sierra Guadan-ama moun

tains, 159
Sierra Leone, 20, 73, 91, 385
SieiTa Morena, 159
Sierra Nevada, 159, 409, 425

431, 440
Sigismund of Poland, 58
Sihun Chai river, 362
Sikhota Alin, 264
Sikhs, 83, 84, 313
Si-kiang river, 286
Sikkim, 316
Silesia, 205, 207
"Simoom" wind, 356
Simplon Pass, 211
Simpson river, 421
Sinai, Peninsula, 377
Sind, Conquest of, 82
Singapore Island, 83, 330
Singhalese, 321
Sinope, 355
Sintu temples, 275
Sintuism, 275
Siriiins, 256
Siri-kul Lake, 340
"Sirocco" wind, 164, 3T6
Sistova, 252
Sitka, 423
Siuli, 306

Siu-san Island, 306
Siut, 3S0
Sivas, 355

Siwah, Oasis of, 377
Skader Lake, 247
Skager Rack, 155, 182, 183
Skane, plain of, 182
Skhar Dagh, 246, 255
Skipetars, 248
Skrellings or Eskimos, 41
Skye, Isle of, 169
Slaves, freed, colonies of, 9
Slavonia, 207, 245
Slavonians, 32,'.,165, 208, 245,

247, 248, 255, 273
Slavs, 31, 32, 203, 165
Slieve Bloom mountains, 171
Sligo Bay, 173
Sli-i-no, 253
Slovaks, 203
Slovenes, 203
SmjTna, 355

Sneeuwliergen mountains, 307
Snowdon mount, 170
Snowland or Iceland, 32
Snow-line, 163
Sobat river, 362
Society Islands, 465
Socotra, 406
Sofala, 366, 395
Sofia, 252

Soghanlv Su river, 351
Sohar, 359
Sokota, 384
Sokoto, 388

Solano wind, 104, 227

Solar day, 115

Solent, 169

Solferino, battle of, 236

Solomon Islands, 464

Solothurn, 211

Solstice, 119

Solway Firth, 172

Soljinan, 46

Somali Country, 88, 381, 301

Somali and Gallas, 391

Somalis, 358

Somerset, 458

Song-ka river, 266, 327

Sorata mountain, 445

Soudan. See Sudan

Soumali. See Somali

Sound, the, 182, 188

Soundings, ocean, 127

South Africa, 396

South America, 437

South America, Spanish, 73

South Australia, 453

Southern Alps (New Zea-
land), 461

South Do^vns, 170

South Foreland, 168

Southampton, 178

South Island (New Zealand),
461

South Pole, 100

South Sea of China, 285

South-Western Archipelago,
336

Spa, 217

Spain, 41, 42, 49, 55, 61, 67,
224
foreign possessions of, 57,
73, 90, 94, 230, 389

Spalato, 208

Spanish Main, 55

Spanish Town, 437

Speke, Captain, 93

Spencer Gulf, 453

Sperrin mountains, 171

Spey river, 172

Speyer, 200

Spice Islands, 50, 336

Spielberg, 207

Spire, 200

Spitza, 245, 249

S]iliigen Pass, 208

Spree river, 197

Stafford, 178

Staffordshire Potteries, 178

Stanley Harbour, 452

Stanley, Mr., 90, 93, 363, 365

Stanovoi mountains, 263, 280

Stars, movements of the, 114

Staten Island, 428

Steons Klint, 189

Steppes, 167, 256

Stereogi-aphic projection, 110

Stettin, 197

Stewart Island, 460, 401

StejT, 206

Stikine river, 421

Stilfser Joch, 15S

Stor-Elv river, 184

Strabo, the geographer, 26

Straits Settlements, British,

322, 330
Stralsund, 197
Strasburg, 201
Strathmnre, 170, 171
Stravropul, 278, 279
Strelitz, 198

Strombuli mountain, 233
Stroud, 178
Stuart, M'Bouall, 99
Stuttgart, 200
Styria, 204, 206
St>-x, the, 241
Suakin, 380, 381
Sual, 337
Sucre, 440
Suda, Bay of, 255
Sudilan, 86, 93, 375, 377, 378,

384, 388
Sudetic Mountains, 202
Suedia, 352
Suez, 379

Canal, 86, 261, 379
Suilvein, 169
Suir river, 173
Sukhum, 279
Sukurlu, river, 351
Sulainian range, 264, 303, 339
Suljuk Turks, 33
Sulu Islands, 330
Sumatra, 56, 332
Sumba Island, 335
Sumbawa Island, 335
Sun, magnitude of the, 115

distance of earth from
the, 115

the source of heat, 117

rising and setting, 114
Sunda Islands, 330

Lesser, 335
Sundarbans, 263, 267, 308
Sunderland, 178
Sungari river, 266, 292
Suniteh, 296
Superior, Lake, 410
Sur, 352
Surabaya, 333
Sm-at, 318
Surinam river, 441
Sus, 371
Susa, 373

Susquehanna river, 424
Sutlej ri\-er, 22
Suwo Nada Channel, 302
Swabia, 200
Swahili, 392, 405
Swan river, 460
Swansea, 178
Swatow, 289
Sweden, 182
Switzerland, 41, 59, 208
Sydney, 73, 456
Sylhet, 316

S>T Daria river, 268, 282
Syra, 242
Syi'acuse, 21
S>Tia, 85, 347, 348, 355
SjTians, 354
Szegedin, 208
Szeklers, 203

INDEX.

487

Taasinge Island, 188
Table Jlouutain, 397
Tabora, 394
Tab(jniiau, 334
Tabriz, 34(j, 347
Tadinan glacier, 461
Tafilet, oasis of, 371
Tagalas, 336
Taganrog, 260
Tagus river, 161, 225, 266
Tahiti Island, 61, 71, 465
Tai-lui lake, 286
"Tai-ping-wang" rebellion,

80
Tai-wan Island, 285
Tajiks, 273
Taka, 381

Takazze river, 362, 382
Takla Makan Desert, 265
Takue, 3S1

Talavera, battle of, 76
Talcahuano, 448
Tale-Sap Lake, 329
Tamar river, 460
Taniarieh Mountains, 350
Tamatave, 406
Tamboro (vol.), 335
Tambukis, 399
Tamerlane, 40, 283
Tamilians, 313
Tamils, 321
Tanega Island, 306
Tanganyika, Lake, 94, 363,

394
Tangier, 371
Tangutans, 300
Tanjor, 318
Tanta, 379

Taodeni salt mines, 376
Taouism, 275
Tapajos river, 442
Tapti river, 310
Taranjis, 282
Tarbagatai, 297
Ranges, 263
Tarik, his invasion of Spain,

29
Tarim river, 263, 269, 298
Tarragona, 230
Tarshish, 21
Tarso, Jlount, 376
Tartessus, 21
Tashkend, 79, 283
Tasman, Abel Jansen, 64
Tasmania, 99, 460
Tasmanian Islands, 453
Tataric race, 38, 247, 256, 272,

353
Tatar, Manchn, 57
mountains, 264
" Tsing" Dynasty, 57
Tatra mountain, 202
Taujiks, 340, 342, 345
Taunus mountains, 158
Taupe lake, 461
Tauric Chersonese, 21
Taurus ranges, 264, 349
Tavoy, 323

Taygetos mountains, 240
Tay Loch, 172

Tay river, 172

Tcheremisses, 256

Tea, Chinese, 286

Tebus negroes, 374

Tees river, 172

Tehamah, the, 352, 353

Tehran, 346, 347

Tehuantepec Isthmus, 409

Tehuelohes, 452

Tekke, the, 344

Telaings, 324

Telescope, invention of, 105

Telford, the engineer, 184

Tell country, 369, 371

Telugu, 313

Temperature, 120, 130, 132

Tenijilars, Knights, 36

Temujin, 37

Tenasserim, 82, 323

Tenedos Island, 348

Tenerifa Island, 407

Teng-cho^y, 289

Tengri-nor lake, 269, 300

Tenochtitlan, 52

Teu-rio-ga^va river, 303

Tensift river, 370

Teplitz, 207

"Terai," the, 264, 308

Terek, 278
Pass, 299
river, 278

Temate Island, 336

" TeiTa Australis Incognita,"
71
Fria, 432

Tessin, 211

Tete, 395

Tetuan, 92

Teutones and Cimbri, 25

Teutonic Knights, 35, 59
States, 167

Texas, 96

Texel Island, 212

Tejiua, 356, 359

Thames river, 161, 171

Thar desert, 308

Thaso, Island of, 246

Thasos island, 348

Theiss river, 202

Theodoric, king of the Ostro-
goths, 27

Theodosia, 12

Thessaly, 247, 249, 255

Thian Shan Moimtains, 79,
263

Tliian-shan pe-lu, 297

Thirty Years' War, 59

Thompson River, 421

Thomson, Sir Wyville, 135

Thrace, 247, 249

Three Rivers, 418

Tliulc discovered, 23

Tlmn, lake, 209

Tliurgau, 211

Thiiringerwald Mountains,
158

"Thurr," 263

Tibbu, 370

Tibbus, the, 376

Tiber river, 233

Tiberias, Lake of, 352

Tibesti, 361, 376

Tibet, 65, 263, 265, 299

Tibetans, 272

Ticino river, 209, 233

Tides, 135

Tidikelt, 376

Tien-tsin, 289

Tierra Caliente, 432

Tierra del Fuego, 451

Tierra Templada, 432

Tiflis, 279

Tigre, 383

Tigris river, 262, 268, 349, 350,

351
Tilburg, 214
Timaru, 462
Timbo, 388
Timbuktu, 93, 388
Time, local, 105
Timor Island, 335

Laut Island, 33S
Timur-leng, 40
Tinnevelli, 318
Tioge river, 365
Tipperah hills, 316
Tippoo, 69
Tins, 376
Tirnova, 252

Titicaea, Lake, 53, 410, 446
Tinmen river, 276
Tobago Island, 436
Tobolsk, 281
Tocantlns river, 442
Tokio, 304
Toledo, 230

Mountains, 225
Tolima mountain, 438
Tollposs, 160
Tolosa, battle of, 34
Toltecs, 52
Tomsk, 281
Tone-gawa river, 303
Tonga island, 465
Tongariro mountain, 461
Tong-king, 327
Tonquin, 65
Topolias lake, 240
Tornea river, 182
Toronto, 418
Ton-ens lake, 454, 459
Torres Vedras, battle of, 76

Strait, 453
Toulon, 222
Toulouse, 76, 221
Touraine plain, 157
Tournay, 216, 217
Tours, 221
Toweym, 359
Trade winds, 124
Trafalgar, battle of, 75
Trajan's wall, 243
Tralee bay, 173
Tramontana wind, 234
Tranquebar, 318
Trans-Baikal, 281
Trans-Caspian province, 283
Trans-Caucasia, 258
Translation of the earth, 112
Trans-Leithan Monarchy, 201

488

INDEX.

Transvaal, The, 88, 89, 401
Transylvania, 202, 207
Transylvanian Alps, 159,

202
Travankor, 318
Traveller's tree, 405
Tra^Tiik, 252
Trebinje, 252
Trebizond, 346, 355
Trent, 207
Triangulatlon, 106
Trichinopoli, 318
Trieste, 205, 206
Trikhala, 255
Trincaniali, 322
Tringam, 326, 327
Trinidad Island, 409, 437
Tripoli, 86, 368, 373

of Syria, 355
Tristan de Cunha, 49
Trolliatta, 184
Tropic of Cancer, 119

of Capricorn, 120
Troppau, 207
Trujillo, 434
Truxillo, 445

Tsetse fly, 366, 387, 393, 402
Tsian-po, 327
Tsitsihar, 293
Tu country, 376
Tuamotu Islands, 465
Tuareg, 376
Tubingen, 200
Tubuai Islands, 462
Tucacas, 440
Tucuinan, 449
Tugela river, 400
Tula, 258

Tumbelan Islands, 332
Tumets, 296
Tundras, 157, 162, 255
Tugnanis, 81, 282
Tung-hai Sea, 285
Tung-ting-hu, lake, 286
Tungue, 393
Tunguses, 272, 292
Tunis, 86, 368, 372
Tunja river, 253
Tupi Indians, 443
Turanian lowland, 262
Turcoman desert, 262
Turgai, 282
Turgurths, 296
Turin, 235, 237, 238
Turkestan ; v. Turkistan
Turkey, 31, 40, 47, 69, 79, 85,

252, 347

people of, 33, 37, 165, 247,

253, 272, 353
Turkistan, 79, 81, 298, 340,

341, 342
Turkomans, 344, 345
Turkoman territory, 343
Turnagain river, 420
Turtle Islands, 439
Tuscans, 235
Tuscany, 237
Tuticorin, 318
Tuz Gol, lake, 269, 352
Twelve Pins mountain, 171

Tycoon of Japan, tlie, 304
Tyne river, 172
Typlioons, 287, 327
Tyre, 20, 352
Tyrol, 202, 206

mountains of, 233
Tyrrhenian Sea, 186
Tzaua, lake, 362, 382

UcATALl river, 444

Udong, 329

Uem-ul-Bilad, 342

Uganda, 94

Ugrian Mongolians, 165

Ujein, 319

Ujiji, 394

Ukerewe, 93

Ukraine, 256, 258

Uled Delem Tribes, 376

Ulleswater, lake, 172

Ulm, 200

Ulundo, 93

Umbria, 237

Umbrians, 235

Um-el-Ehea river, 370

Umzita (Chief), 403

United Provinces of the

Netherlands, establishment

of, 48
United States, 68, 72, 96, 97,

424
Union Islands, 462
Unitarians, 34
Untamfuna river, 400
Unterwalden, 211
Unyam\iesi, 301, 394
Umyamyembe, 394
Unyoro, 381
Uperna\'ik, 415
Ural mountains, 155, 160,

255
Uralsk, 282
Urban, Pope, 36
Urfa, 355
Urga, 296, 297
Uri, 209, 211
Urmia lake, 345
Urua, 93

Uruguay or Bauda Oriental,
94, 451
river, 451
Urumiah, lake, 269, 345
Usbegs, 81, 283, 342, 343
Ush Turfan, 299
Uskub, 255
Uspallata Pass, 448
Ussuri river, 292
Ust Urt, Plateau of, 283
Usutu river, 395
Utah, Great Basiu of, 426
Utrecht, 213, 214
(Africa), 402
peace of, 67

Vaal river, 364, 397, 401,

402, 403
Valais, 211

Valdai Hills, 160, 255
Valdivia, 448
Valencia, 229, 230

(Venezuela), 440
Valenciennes, 221
Valentia, 226, 229, 230
Valetta, 239
Valladolid, 225, 230
" Valle " region of Bolivia,

445
Valparaiso, 448
Van, lake, 269, 349, 352
Vancouver, Captain, 70, 421
Island, 79, 98, 416, 421
Vandals, the, 26
Van Diemen's Land, 64, 99,

459
Vanua Island, 463
Vapour, 139
Varanger Fiord, 182
Varangians, 32
Vardar river, 247
Variation of the compass, 3
Varna, 252
Vasa, 47

Vasco de Gama, 393
Vascones or Basques, 31
Vasco Nunez, 49
Vatna Jokull, 192
Vaud, 211
Vecht, 212
Veddahs, 321
Velasquez, Diego, 52
Vellar, 318
Venetia, 236
Venetian lagoons, 234
Venezia, settlement of, 36
Venezuela, 94, 439
Venice, 36, 238
Venus, transit of, 71
Vera Cruz, 52, 433
Verazzano, the voyager, 52
Verd, Cape, 360, 385
Verga, Cape, 385
Vermejo river, 448, 449
Vesu\ius (vol.), 159, 233
Viatka, 256
Vicenza, 238
Victoria, 99 , 453
Victoria Falls, 364
Victoria Hills, 454
Victoria Lake, 93, 381
Victoria Nyanza, 93, 362, 392

394
Victoria Rcgia, 412
Victoria (Vancouver Island),

422
"Victoria," voyage of, 51
Vienna, 58, 204
peace of, 76
Vignobles, plains, 157
Vigo Bay, 225
Villa Bica, 451
Vilna, 258

Vindliya Mountains, 264, 309
Virgin Island, 436
Virginia, 55, 62
Visigoths, the, 26
Vistula river, 162, 194, 202
Viti Islands, 100, 462, 464

INDEX.

489

Vittoria, battle of, 76
VivaWi, 39
Vizagapatam, 318
Vlaardingen, '214
Vladivostock, 2S1
Vogelsberg mountains, 158
Volcanic heights of Asia, 264
Volga river, 160, 256
Volscians, 21
Volta river, 387
Voltiaks, 256
Vbring Foss Falls, 183
Vorarlberg, 207
Vosges mountains, 159, 218,
219

Waal river, 212
Wadai, 374, 388, ISO
Wadi Draa, 370, 371
Wadi Haifa, 379, 380
"Wadis" African, 362
Wady el Arabali, 350
Wagram, Bay of, 76
Wahabi Kingdom, 86
Wahabis, 85, 86, 273
■Waijaunne, Island, 336
Waikato river, 461
Wairan river, 461
Waitaki river, 461
Wakerstroom, 402
Wakhan, 341
Wakhis, 342
Wa-Kwavi, 392
Walachia, 85, 243
Walcheren, 212
Waldeck, 198
Waldenses, 235
Wales, 38. See British Isles,

176
Walflsh Bay, 404
Wallace, 35
Wallachians, 203
Wallaroo, 450
Wallis, 211

Captain, 71
Walloons, 195, 216
Wa-Masai, 392
Wami river, 364
Wanganui river, 461
Warragong mountains, 454
Warrego river, 458
Warsaw, 67, 75, 258
Warsheikh islet, 393
Wash, the, 170
Washington City, 96, 428

George, 72
Water, density of, 135

interoliange of, between
tlie Pole and the Equa-
tor, 135
Watcrberg Mountains, 401
Waterburg, 402
Waterford Harbour, 173
Waterloo, battle of, 76

village, 217
Waziris, 340
Wear river, 172
Wellesley, province, 330

Wellington, Duke of, 69, 75,
76, 82

town, 462
Wellingtonia gigantea, 426
Wends, 194
Wener lake, 184
Weser river, 194
West Indies, 43, 435
Westminster Abbey built, 35
Westphalia, kingdom of, 75

treaty of, 59
Wetter lake, 162, 184
Wexford Bav, 173
Whernside Hill, 170
White Sea, 155

Sea archipelago, 348

River, 862
Whitney, mount, 409
Whydah, 387
Wiborg, 258

Wicklow mountains, 171, 173
Widin, 252
Wieliczka mines, 204
Wien river, 205
Wiesbaden, 197
Wight, Isle of, 169
Wild sheep, 299
William mount, 454

"the Conqueror," 35

Prince of Urange, 55, 60
Willoughby, Sir Hugh, 54
Wilna, 258

Windermere lake, 172
Windhoek, 404
Winds, movements of trade,

133
Windward Islands, 437
Winnipeg lake, 410, 420, 421

town, 421
Wismar, 197
Wito fishers, 383
Wolfe, General, 68, 70
Wolfstan and Ohtere's Voy-
ages, 32
Woolaston lake, 420
Worcester, 399

battle of, 60
World, population of, 146
Worms, Diet of, 47
Wiirteniberg, 200
Wiirzbui'g, 199
Wynberg, 399

Xavier, Francis, 54

Xenophon, 22

Xerez do la Frontcra, battle

of, 29
Xerxes' canal, 246
Xingu river, 422

Yablonoi Mountains, 203,

280
Yakoba, 388
Yakoob Bog, 81

Khan, Amir, 81
Yak Ox, 271

Yakutsk, 270, 281

Yanan, 320

Yangi-hissar, 299

Yanina, 255

Yang-tse-kiang river, 266, 286

Yantra river, 252

Yao tribe, 287

Yarkand, 299

Yarkand-Daria river, 298

Yarra-Yarra river, 457

Yedo, 302, 304

Yellala Falls, 363

Yellow Sea, 285

Yemen, 28, 86, 347, 348, 352,

355
Yenisei river, 265, 266, 280
Yeniseisk,' 281
Yerba mate, 450
Yeshil Irmak river, 351
Yesukai Bahadur, 37
Yezd, 346

Yezo Island, 302, 305
Yines Field, 160
Yloilo, 337

Yodo-gawa river, 303
Yokohama, 304
Yoma mountains, 323
York Cape, 453

plain of, 170
Yorkshire Wolds, 170
Yowaru, 388
Yssel river, 212
Yukahires, 272
Yukon river, 410, 423
" Yungas" region of Bolivia,

446
Yunnan, 81, 287, 325
Yun-nan Mountains, 266
Yu, province of, 301
Yusufzais, 340

Zab, Greater and Lesser,

rivers, 351
Zagros mountains, 351
Zalirah or desert, 374
Zaidam plain, 300
Zaire river, 363, 389
Zaisan lake, 265
Zama, battle of, 24
Zambezi river, 93, 361, 364,

394, 395
Zamboanga, 337
Zambos, 444, 446
Zante island, 240, 242
Zanzibar Island, 392

sultanate of, 87, 392
Zara, 208

Zarafshan river, 79, 282, 343
Zaragosa, 230
Zealand Island, 188
Zceland, 215
Zeila, 8S1
Zenith, 105
Zermatt, 210
Zinguichor, 385
Zii)angu (Japan) discovered,

39
Zirknitz, 206

490

INDEX.

ZoUverein, 196
Zones, frigid, 121

temperate, 121
Zoroaster, 274, 342
Zoutpansberg, 402
Zug lake, 209, 211

Zuider Zee, 212

Zukkertoppeu, 415

Zulu Katirs, S9, 395, 396, 402,

403
Zululand, 403
I Zungares, 297

Zungaria, 79, 265, 282, 297
Zurich, 210, 211
Zvoniik, 252
Zwartebergen Momitains,

396
Zwickau, 19S

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