46 



that's it; 



may be a perfect square, or any 

 other form of area, including the 

 same amount of surface. A pa- 

 rallelogram, 6a, is a figure, the op- 

 posite sides of which are equal 



and parallel, and . , 6a 



of which the 1 1 



angles, 7 9 are > 7 



equal. Upon the 

 map of the world, 242 * 

 225, 226, there are a number of 

 parallel circles, 8. These repre- 

 sent imaginary lines drawn round 



8 



9 



243. 



the world to assist us in refer- 

 ring to places that may occur 

 within either of those parallels. 

 The central circle, 9, is called the 

 equator, or equinoctial line, be- 

 cause it marks that part of the 

 earth which is equally distant 

 from the two poles, or northern 

 and southern extremities of the 

 earth. The distances between 

 these lines indicate latitude, which 

 means breadth, or width, extend- 

 ing from side to side. These lines, 

 however, can only indicate how 

 far a place may be from the equa- 

 tor, or from the poles, or whether 

 it lies in a north or south latitude. 

 They are therefore crossed by 

 another set of lines, which run 

 from the top of the map to the 

 bottom i and which are called me- 



ridians, 10. The term signifies 

 mid-day, or noon. When the sun 



10 



241. 



is directly over the meridian of 

 any place, it is mid-day at that 

 place. The distances on either 

 side of the central meridian are 

 called longitude, which means 

 length. There are thus two sets 

 of lines intersecting each other, 

 and producing imaginary squ ares, 

 the parallels of latitude, 8, show- 

 ing the position of any place, as 

 from north to south, and the me- 

 ridians, 10, in the same manner 

 indicating any position from east 

 to west. Places on the east of the 

 principal meridian are said to be 

 in east longitude, 11, and those on 

 the opposite side, in west longi- 

 tude, 12. Different nations num- 

 ber their degrees of longitude 

 from different points, and each 

 one commonly counts from that 

 meridian which passes through 

 its principal city. In America, 

 however, we count from Green- 

 wich. Latitude co ints from the 

 central, or equatorial line, 

 0-225, 226 ; the 0, or point from 

 which longitude is reckoned in 

 Britain, does not occupy a cen- 

 tral place on the map, out lies 

 near the western extremity of the 

 eastern hemisphere, where lies the 



