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CHAPTER ^^ 



GEOGrxAPHY. 



As few sciences are more interesting than Geo- 

 graphy, so few have received more attention, or 

 been more improved and extended during the pe- 

 riod under consideration. At the beginning of 

 the century, more than half the surface of the globe 

 was either entirely unknown to the enlightened 

 inhabitants of Europe, or the knowledge of it was 

 so small and indistinct, as to be of little practical 

 value. Since that time such discoveries and im- 

 provements have been made, that geography has 

 assumed a new face, and become almost a new 

 science*. A spirit of curiosity has stimulated 

 mankind to unprecedented activity in exploring 

 remote rcsrions of the earth. Individual vov^acrers 

 and travellers, and private associations, have done 

 much to extend our acquaintance Vv ith the globe. 

 Beside the exertions of these, the governments of 

 Great Britain, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, 

 and Russia, have severally directed or encouraged 

 expeditions of discovery and of scientific research. 



* By Geography here is meant not only what the word strictly 

 imports, viz. a description of tlie extent, divisions, and aspect, of 

 the surface of our globe, but also some of the other .statistical in- 

 quiries, which modern writers, however improperly, have gene-* 

 rally agreed to include in geographical treatises. 



