Page:Maury's New Elements of Geography, 1907.djvu/30

26 Each hemisphere represents half of the earth's surface, with its continents, oceans, and some of its largest islands, mountains, rivers, and other objects.



If we look at the maps of the hemispheres on pages 28 and 29, we shall see that there is much more land in the eastern hemisphere than in the western. Four of the six continents are in the eastern hemisphere. These are Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. The western hemisphere contains only two continents. They are North America and South America.

The blue which we see on the map represents the water. The water has five great divisions or oceans. They are the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, the Arctic, and the Antarctic oceans.

All these oceans except the Indian are partly in the eastern hemisphere and partly in the western. But the western hemisphere has a much larger share of water than the eastern.

Nearly one-half of all the land surface of the earth is in the North Temperate zone, and more than one-half of all the people in the world live in it.

For Recitation.—What is a hemisphere? Name the hemispheres shown on the map. What continents are in the western hemisphere? What continents are in the eastern hemisphere? Name the oceans. In which hemisphere is the Indian ocean? Where are the other oceans?

1. Having learned the names of the continents and oceans, let us now notice some of the most interesting things about them.

2. Europe.— Let us cross the Atlantic and take a flying trip through Europe. Next to Australia it is the smallest of the continents. It lies chiefly in our own North Temperate zone. Most of the people are Caucasians. As we travel among them we hear a great many different languages that we do not understand.

Their cities contain many interesting and beautiful churches, palaces, and museums full of pictures and all sorts of curious things.

Schools and churches are to be seen everywhere, except in one part, called Turkey; railways extend, in every direction, and steamboats run on all the great rivers. We find the people busy on farms, in workshops, and in factories.

From Europe we buy more things than from any other continent, and to it we sell more than to any other.

3. Asia.—Leaving Europe, we pass into Asia. To-day we can make this trip by railroad trains. Asia is the largest continent. It is chiefly in the North Temperate zone. The people on its eastern coast are just half-way round the earth from us. In Asia we find the highest mountains in the world.

More people live on this continent than in all the others together. But there are not so many schools as in Europe and America, and the people are not so enlightened.



They belong chiefly to the yellow, the white, and the brown races. Some wear turbans instead of hats; others wear their hair in braids or queues (kews) two or three feet long.

4. Africa.—Suppose we now journey from Asia toward the west, and across the Isthmus of Suez, where shall we be? In Africa—the second continent in size, and the hottest of all. Most of it lies in the Torrid zone, and it contains the largest desert in the world.

Africa is the home of the Negro race. Many of the Negro tribes are ignorant savages. People from Europe have settled along the coast and in parts of the interior, and have introduced railways and schools.