Page:Maury's New Elements of Geography, 1907.djvu/15

Rh 3. Islands.—Parts of the land smaller than continents, and entirely surrounded by water, are called islands. All the islands have never been counted, because there are so many. Some of them are very large, others so small that they look on the map like specks. Some contain a great many inhabitants; others have no one living upon them.

Perhaps the most curious of all are the Coral Islands. Most of them are found in the Pacific ocean. We shall learn more about these islands by and by.

4. Other Forms of Land.—The edges of the land are often jagged, as shown in the picture.



Some parts stretch far out into the sea, and are nearly surrounded by water. These are called pen-in'-su-las. The word peninsula means almost an island. A narrow strip of land that connects two large bodies of land is called an isthmus.

Points of land jutting out into the water are called capes.

Find a peninsula on map, page 35. Find also an isthmus. How many capes can you find?



1. Heights of Land.—The playground is level, or nearly level. Let us imagine it stretched out for miles on every side. Nearly level land like this would be called a plain. On very large plains we may travel for days and days together, and see only the blue sky above us and level land all around.

Some large plains are called prairies. They are often covered with long grass and beautiful flowers. Thousands of buffaloes used to live upon them. Many of the prairies are now plowed and used as corn and wheat fields.

Now imagine a great plain covered with sand, rocks and stones—not a single flower to be seen, not even a blade of grass, for hundreds of miles. Such land is called a 'desert.

Instead of being level, like plains, the land in some places slopes up and up until it is higher than a house, or the tallest tree. Such land is called a hill. A very high hill is called a mountain. Some mountains are so high and so hard to climb that no one has ever been to the top of them.