4 GEOGRAPHY. 



bordering to the north on Asia, to the east on New Holland, to the south on 

 the Antarctic Ocean, and to the west on Africa. 



The dry land belonging to the earth is divided into five parts or continents : 

 Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and New Holland. The largest of these 

 is Asia, with about 14,128,000 square miles ; then comes North America 

 with 5,472,000; South America with 5,136,000; Africa with 8,720,000; 

 Europe with 2,688,000 ; and lastly, New Holland, or Australia, with 2,208,000 

 square miles. 



1. Europe {Plate 1). 



Europe extends from 36° to 71° north latitude, and from 9° west to 

 60° 20' east longitude, reckoning from Greenwich. It is bounded on the 

 north by the Arctic Ocean, on the South and west by the Atlantic, and to 

 =the east by Asia. It eastern line of division from Asia has been variously 

 assigned, although the Ural Mountains are now generally taken as the 

 boundary. Its area amounts, as already remarked, to about 2,688,000 

 geographical square miles ; its coast line to 17,200 linear geographical 

 miles. 



The Arctic Ocean, or Icy Sea, presents one gulf, the White Sea. Of the 

 many indentations of the Atlantic Ocean may be mentioned : a, In the west 

 of Europe, the Scandinavian Sea, west of Norway, extending to the Arctic 

 Ocean ; the English Channel between England and France ; St. George's 

 Channel, or the Irish Sea, between England and Ireland ; the North Sea, 

 united to the ocean to the south by the Straits of Dover ; the Skagerrack 

 and the Cattegat, connecting the North Sea with the Baltic ; the Baltic or 

 East Sea, with the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland, with Riga Bay and the 

 Bay of Biscay to the west of France and north of Spain, b, In the south of 

 Europe we have the Mediterranean Sea connected with the Atlantic by 

 the Straits of Gibraltar, and having numerous minor gulfs and seas. The 

 principal of these are the Gulf of Lyons on the south of France ; the 

 Tyrrhenian or Tuscan Sea, between Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and Italy ; 

 the Adriatic Sea to the east of Italy ; the Ionian Sea betwen lower Italy 

 and Greece ; the Egaean Sea, or the Archipelago, between Greece and Asia 

 Minor ; the Sea of Marmora (Propontis), connected with the Egaean Sea 

 through the Dardanelles (the Hellespont), and with the Black Sea through 

 the Straits of Constantinople (the Bosphorus) ; finally the Black Sea with its 

 gulf, the Sea of Azof. 



The arrows placed in difi'erent parts of the seas represented on pi. 1, 

 indicate the direction of the oceanic currents. Two kinds of currents may 

 be distinguished : those produced by the action of the wind, and those 

 entirely independent of this case. The latter are the most important, 

 constituting true streams of from fifty to two hundred miles in width. One 

 of the principal of these is that which, striking from the north-western 

 shores of Africa, crosses towards America, passing round in the Gulf of 

 Mexico, and thence continued to the north as the Gulf-stream. On 

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