A Balloon Voyage around the Earth. 1 1 



20. Suppose you should start some pleasant 

 morning in a balloon that could move all the 

 way around the world before dark the same 

 day. Of course, that has never been done, for 

 the distance is too great, but suppose it could 

 be done. What would you see ? (The teacher 

 may here pause for answers.) Well, you would 

 glide over an immense portion of land, called 

 a continent, a portion of which you see in the 

 chart (pointing to all the land). On this con- 

 tinent you would see mountains, hills, 

 valleys, rivers, lakes, farms, and trees. 

 You might see men at work in the fields, others 

 building houses, or bridges, or railroads ; some 

 busy in great factories and mills making cloth, 

 shoes, food, tools, wagons, and other things too 

 numerous to mention. Here and there you 

 would see cities, towns, and villages, and, be- 

 yond them, houses scattered here and there ; 

 then, perhaps, a forest, a wilderness or wild 

 place, inhabited only by Indians and wild ani- 

 mals ; then, perhaps, beautiful valleys, plains, 

 streams, and busy towns ; and all at once you 

 might come to a body of water which extends 

 much further than your eye could reach. That 

 is an ocean. In it, dotted here and there, you 

 might see islands, which also contain trees, hills, 

 lakes, people, birds, animals, etc., all different in 

 appearance from any you had seen before. And 



