GEOGRAPHY 



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GEOGRAPHY 



Now suppose there had been drawn on this 

 orange skin, as on a little globe, a map 

 perhaps the map of North and South America. 

 What would be the result as regarded the 

 northern part of North America, the widest 

 land area? The western point of Alaska and 

 the eastern point of Labrador would be much 

 farther apart than they were on' the original 

 orange skin, and there would be many "gaps" 

 in the map. In making maps compromises are 

 necessary in meeting this difficulty, and no flat 

 map can ever represent accurately any very 

 large part of the earth's surface. On an 

 ordinary map of the world, for instance, where 

 the degrees of longitude are shown as just as 

 wide at the pole as at the equator, the land 

 masses are all "top-heavy" toward the poles, 

 appearing far wider there than they really are. 



The subject of projections, or the devices 

 resorted to with the object of lessening these 

 errors, is too technical for such an article as 



MERCATOR'S PROJECTION 



this. Best known is Mercators projection, 

 which is useful for sailors' charts, but which 

 by no means avoids the difficulties of map-dis- 

 tortion. 



Map-Making in School. Such map-making 

 as is referred to above the free-hand sketching 

 of continents, countries, states or provinces 

 is useful because it impresses upon a child's 

 mind outlines and, if carefully done, compara- 

 tive areas; and the value of such an exercise 

 may be increased by the addition of rivers, 

 mountains and cities. But this is by no means 

 the most valuable sort of map-making for a 

 child. He can obtain a far better idea of the 

 principles of map-construction by charting his 

 familiar environments. The earliest attempts 

 should be simple perhaps he may map out 

 the schoolroom, with straight lines to repre- 

 sent the rows of desks, a square for the teach- 

 er's table, and a circle for the heater. But 

 his map should be drawn to scale ; that is, meas- 



urements should be made, and a scale of draw- 

 ing decided upon. If the room is thirty feet 

 by twenty feet, and the map is to be drawn 

 upon a scale of five feet to one inch, the map 

 will be six inches by four inches. Later the 

 child may draw a map of the school yard or 

 of his own yard, or perhaps even of the block 

 in which he lives, but unless the idea of scale 

 is kept in mind, no real gain is made. Of 

 course such maps of limited areas do not give 

 the pupil any idea of the difficulty of charting 

 the "great round world," but they do show him 

 many other things, such as the need for ac- 

 curacy in measuring and the importance of 

 scale. 



Physical Geography. This second great di- 

 vision of geography, very commonly known 

 as physiography, ignores every living thing, 

 and treats of the earth's appearance and the 

 changes which have been wrought and are 

 being wrought to-day in its nurface. The three 

 "spheres" of the earth's surface which it con- 

 siders are the land, the sea and the air, and 

 .it may be seen at once that these offer a basis 

 for a very wide science. Were the continents 

 always where they stand to-day? Is "as old 

 as the hills" a just expression, or are there 

 young hills? Why are some mountains smooth 

 and rounded and some rough and craggy? 

 Why are some rivers broad and sluggish and 

 others narrow, dashing torrents? How deep 

 is the sea? What makes the tides? Why does 

 it hail in hot weather but never snow? What 

 determines the direction of wind? All these 

 and a thousand other questions, many of them 

 so interesting that if a man has once put 

 them to himself he cannot be content until 

 they are answered, physical geography will 

 explain. Though it does not deal with living 

 things, it is a very "human" science, neverthe- 

 less, for it treats of the conditions under which 

 living things exist. A more detailed discussion 

 of the subject is given under the heading 

 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



Biogeography. It is life, whether plant, ani- 

 mal or human, which is most interesting, and 

 this last phase of geography is one of the 

 broadest and most fascinating. To understand 

 it thoroughly there must be a knowledge of 

 mathematical and physical geography, for this 

 "life geography" is mainly a study of the man- 

 ner in which the form, motions, climate and 

 the surface features of the earth affect living 

 things. 



Plant Geography. Anyone who has traveled 

 to any extent has had his attention attracted 



