THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH. 



The principal terms composing the geographical nomenclature, 

 and expressing the forms affected by the outlines of land and 

 waters, and the forms of relief produced by the varying elevation 

 and depression of the surface of the land, being clearly under- 

 stood, a general description of the globe we inhabit, as it is 

 diversified by land and water, and by the undulating surface of 

 the former, will be easily rendered intelligible. 



II. ARABIA AND PERSIA. 



THE GREAT EASTERN CONTINENT. 



38. Its extent and limits. This vast tract has an oblong 

 form, as already indicated ; its extreme length being somewhat 

 more than twice its extreme breadth. It is included between 20 

 west and 190 east longitude, and between 35 south and 75 

 north latitude. Nearly its whole extent lies therefore in the 

 northern part of the eastern hemisphere. A small portion of the 

 north-western part of Africa, including Morocco, juts into the 

 western hemisphere, and the southern promontory of the same 

 division of the great continent, terminating in the Cape of Good 

 Hope, projects into the southern hemisphere. 



This continuous tract of land consists, as is well known, of three 

 unequal divisions, which, though not detached one from another 

 by sea, have received the name of continents. The smallest of 

 138 



