CHAPTER I. 



GREAT NATURAL DIVISIONS OF THE EARTH. 



GEOGRAPHY a description of the earth, as the term imports is a science of early 

 cultivation, but only in very recent times has maritime and inland discovery been con 

 ducted upon such a scale as to furnish enlarged and accurate knowledge of the features 

 of the terrestrial globe. The enterprise of the commercialist, the career of the warrior, 

 and professedly scientific expeditions, have each contributed to extend the acquaintance 

 of man with the earth he occupies. The first cause came into operation the earliest, and 

 has been the most influential. Difference of climate yielding diverse productions gave 

 rise to the desire in one district to possess what was only to be obtained in another, upon 

 which the mutual intercourse of inhabitants by land expeditions for the purpose of traffic 

 was grafted, which became subservient to the expansion of geographical knowledge. In 



