18 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



domestic 'animals, both for burden and food- to hides 

 and skins, and wool for clothing. We have already 

 illustrated the production of these in our own country. 

 Let us now cross the Atlantic, and survey the produce 

 of Canada. The same commodities reappear, and form 

 the chief bulk of the wealth of that confederation. Our 

 largest supplies of timber and of forest products come 

 from Canada ; the quantity of wheat produced is almost 

 incalculable; and of provisions there is an ever-increasing 

 store. If we go to the Antipodes, the resemblance is 

 still more remarkable. What is the chief produce of 

 New Zealand and South Australia ? Timber, minerals, 

 cereals, cattle, and wool. If the difficulties of transit 

 be ever overcome, a transfusion of useful produce will 

 eventually take place in the two hemispheres. Arid all 

 this is British produce the aggregate upon which is 

 founded our commercial intercourse with other nations. 



Warm Temperate Zones: British Produce. Wheat and 

 Tropical Grains. Olive, Citron, Fig, Grape. Domestic 

 Animals. 



The warm temperate zone is well defined, and 

 displays interesting correspondences throughout its 

 circuit. In the northern hemisphere it is the whole 

 region between the line of vine culture and the tropic 

 of Cancer; in the southern hemisphere, it is the band 

 cut off by Capricorn from the American, African, and 

 Australian continents. Of these countries, the Cape 

 Colony, Natal, and Australia are British colonies. The 

 only parts in the northern zone belonging to us are the 

 Mediterranean stations of Gibraltar and Malta. 



Australia. Scarcely separated from the Indian arcm- 

 pelago, with its northern parts purely tropical, Australia 

 exhibits a distinctive character, differing from the exube- 

 rant life of the East Indies as much as the English settlers 

 now spreading over its surface differ from its aborigines. 

 Indigenous elements of wealth on this continental island 

 are few, though important. Gold mines have yielded for 

 a long while annually many millions sterling, most of 

 which have arrived in England. Copper also has been 

 obtained from mines the richest probably known. 

 Economic plants and animals were few till introduced by 

 the colonists. The kangaroo was the largest quadruped ; 

 it is now displaced by the sheep, and becoming extinct. 

 Cattle, multiplied beyond enumeration, roarn over the 

 plains, and meat is exported to England. Of animal 

 produce, the chief is wool, of excellent quality and 

 unlimited quantity, the supply becoming gradually our 

 mainstay for home manufacture. Tallow is obtained by 

 boiling down the sheep, the perishable nature of their 

 flesh giving them hitherto only nominal value as food. 

 Salted or wet hides are furnished in large numbers 

 by the colonists, who have lately also prosecuted with 

 great activity the sperm whale and South Sea fisheries. 

 Like all the Anglo-Saxon race, they have a strong pre- 

 dilection for tea, which has made them attempt its culti- 

 vation, and with such promise of success that they begin, 

 to export part of their produce. 



South Africa. South Africa resembles, in its economic 

 aspects, the corresponding latitudes of Australia.. The 

 two are our great sources of supply for wool. From both 

 we obtain hides and skins in large numbers. The Cape 

 farmers, by cultivating the vine, have made wine one 

 of their exports, and Australia emulates the example. 

 Ivory is another of the commercial products of the Cape. 



Tropical Zone : British Produce. Intense Vitality. Rice, 

 Maize; Palms; Spice; Sugar. Carnivora. 



In the torrid parts of Africa there are settlements 

 important commercially, if not in extent. Sierra Leone 

 and the Guinea coast are names of fatal import, from 

 the deathly pestilence which their valuable produce 

 tempts our merchants to brave. Gold, hides, ivory, 

 wax, teak, dye-woods, and palm-oil form the staples of 

 production in these settlements. 



Off the opposite coast of Africa the Mauritius repre- 

 sents the tropics in its chief produce that of sugar to 

 which it adds the allied substances of molasses and rum. 



Indian Possessions. Far larger than our African settle- 

 ments is our Indian empire, comprising British India, 

 Ceylon, Singapore, and the Straits Settlements. Hin- 

 dostan is so large that our other Indian possessions are 

 not fairly seen, although their produce is of the highest 

 importance. And the corresponding Indies of the New 

 World, including the Bermudas and Belize, are no mean 

 consideration. By inference we know that these countries 

 will produce the raw materials of the zone in which they 

 are situated, whether animal or vegetable ; and only in 

 the case of minerals will there be any great divergence. 

 Viewing, then, the tropics generally, we see life in its 

 intensest phase. Not only are individuals numerous, 

 but species have greatly increased in number. Amongst 

 animals, the carnivora reach their highest development. 

 Flowers exhibit the brightest colours, and secrete the 

 strongest essences ; whilst the buds, blossoms, leaves, 

 root, bark, and the wood yield the pungent aroma of 

 spices, with narcotic principles, and dyes, which only 

 arrive at perfection under the rays of a vertical sun. 



India. India well represents the whole girdle of the 

 tropics in the variety, exuberance, and value of its raw 

 produce, which equals almost half that of the other British 

 possessions combined. Of food substances it produces 

 immense quantities in the forms of rice, sugar, coffee, 

 and spices. Of materials for clothing, wool and silk of 

 valuable qualities are produced; the Cashmere shawls 

 made from the former being unsurpassed, for softness and 

 beauty, by the products of our best looms. Vegetable 

 fibres find India their most prolific home. Cotton has 

 been an Indian commodity from very ancient times. It 

 was our sheet-anchor, and saved our staple industry. 

 from wreck when the war-storm passed over America. 

 Kips, or dry hides from the wild cattle of the interior, 

 are produced extensively, differing from the hides of 

 Australia and South America, which are larger and 

 salted, thus getting the name of wet hides. Indigo and 

 numerous dyes ; opium, and many other drugs ; tanning 

 principles ; gums, resins, and balsams ; teak oak for our 

 ships ; timber for building; cocoa-nut and palm oils ; and 

 a thousand miscellaneous commodities reach perfection 

 in this region. 



Ceylon. Ceylon varies a shade in the prominence 

 which cinnamon and oil take amongst the raw produce, 

 and in the comparatively small cultivation of rice. It is 

 the chief home of the cocoa-nut palm, as Arabia is of the 

 date, and coffee is much grown. Ivory is a valuable 

 product of the island; and the pearls are of great 

 renown, although new Australian grounds already vie 

 with this famous fishery. 



East Indian Islands. The pepper vine, the nutmeg, and 

 the clove are indigenous to the East Indian Islands the 

 botanical centre of spice-producing and aromatic plants. 

 The chief spice islands belong to the Dutch, who still 

 maintain the strictest monopoly of the produce. Though 

 grown elsewhere, the quality is inferior ; and these spices, 

 like tea, are examples of plants that perfect their powers 

 within limited areas. Other tropical substances, some 

 of which are unique, are produced ; such as the hydro- 

 carbons, guttapercha, caoutchouc, camphor and gamboge 

 both in tears, or pure lumps, and as extracts and 

 ebony. 



Minerals are richly spread over the whole archipelago. 

 Diamonds are obtained from Borneo, and gold from all 

 the larger islands. Banca possesses tin inines as rich as 

 those of Cornwall, and as easily worked, the ore being 

 near the surface. 



West Indian Possessions and Central America. From 

 the West Indies and Central America we obtain sugar, 

 mm, coffee, rice, tobacco, and cigars, of which last those 



