Charlotte Mason's Geography book V, pp. i-5
The Ambleside
Geography Books
by
Charlotte M. Mason.
-------------------
Book V.
The Old and the New World:
Asia, Africa, America, and Australia,
with
A Survey of the British Empire;
The causes which affect climate;
and
The interchange of productions.
With Maps.
----------
New edition:
Revised and brought up to date by
W.O. Brigstocke and G.S. Morgan, M.A.,
Berkhamsted School.
Kegan Paul, Trench, Trûbner & Co., Ltd.,
Dryden House, Gerrard Street, W.
and
Parents' Educational Union Office,
26 Victoria Street, S.W.
1910.
- iii -
Preface.
In this, as in former numbers of this series, the author
has tried to bring before the reader vivid pictures of
the regions treated of, and familiar ideas as to the
manner of life of the people who dwell in those re-
gions. Further than this, her aim has been to furnish
such interesting and attractive matter as should further
the fascinating study of geography, the scientific prin-
ciples of which are gradually unfolded in this and the
previous volumes as occasion offers. There are two
rational ways of teaching Geography: the first is the
inferential method, a good deal in vogue at the present
time: the pupil learns certain geographical principles,
which he is expected to apply universally. This method
seems to the author defective for two reasons: it is apt
to be misleading, as in every particular case the general
principle is open to modifications; also, local colour and
personal and historical interests are wanting, and the
scholar does not form an intellectual and imaginative
conception of the region he is learning about.
The second, which might be called the panoramic
method, unrolls the landscape of the world, region by
region, before the eyes of the pupil, with, in every region,
its own conditions of climate, its productions, its people,
their industries and their history. This method also,
- iv -
is inferential, for where a given effect is present the
cause is traced.
This way of teaching the most delightful of all
subjects has the effect of giving to the map of a given
country or district the brilliancy of colour and the
wealth of detail which a panorama might afford,
together with a sense of proportion, and a knowledge
of general principles.
The author believes that pictures are not of very great
use in this study; we all know that the pictures which
abide with us are those which the imagination con-
structs from written or spoken descriptions.
She wishes to commend, again, the Map Questions to
the notice of teachers. If the class or the pupils work
out the Map Questions on a given chapter by them-
selves, so that they are able to answer them from
memory, the reading of the chapter afterwards will be
intelligent and informing.
She would take this opportunity to express her
grateful thanks for the hearty reception given to the
earlier numbers of the series by persons well qualified
to appraise their educational value.
The writer begs to acknowledge her obligations to
the authors and publishers of the very numerous
works to which she is indebted for information.
Especially she begs to thank Messrs. W.O. Brigstocke
and J.S. Morgan, M.A., for the very great care with
which they have revised this work in order to bring
the matter up to date.
Ambleside, 1909.
- v -
Contents
--------
Asia ---
Page
General survey .. 1
"
" Part II.
.. 4
"
" "
III. .. 8
"
" "
IV. .. 11
Siberia .. 17
Kamtchatka .. 20
Turkey in Asia .. 22
"
"
Part II. .. 26
The Holy Land .. 29
Damascus .. 35
Arabia .. 38
" Part II. .. 43
Persia .. 48
Central Asia .. 56
Our Indian Empire .. 63
History of British India .. 66
The Himalaya Mountains .. 69
The Valley of the Ganges .. 71
The Valley of the Indus .. 75
The Deccan .. 76
The Coast Plains .. 78
India beyond the Ganges .. 80
The Celestial Empire .. 87
The Corea and other great dependencies of China .. 87
China proper .. 94
Part II.--The Celestial Empire .. 97
Japan .. 103
Africa .. 109
Dr. Livingstone's discoveries in South Africa .. 115
African village life .. 118
Dr. Livingstone on the condition of South Africa .. 121
- vi -
The discoveries of Captains Burton, Speke, Grant, etc. .. 125
Abyssinia .. 129
Egypt .. 133
" Part II. .. 136
" Part III. .. 138
Up the Nile .. 141
The Soudan .. 144
The Sahara .. 151
The Barbary States .. 154
South Africa .. 161
Cape Colony .. 164
The islands round Africa .. 170
America ---
The progress of discovery in America .. 173
South America ---
The Andes and the Mountain States .. 178
Chili .. 180
Peru .. 181
Bolivia .. 183
Ecuador .. 184
Colombia .. 185
Venezuela .. 185
Guiana .. 186
The Great Plains of South America .. 186
Central America .. 191
North America .. 193
"
"
Part II. .. 197
The Dominion of Canada .. 202
The United States .. 210
The Eastern States .. 215
States of the Mississippi Valley .. 221
The Prairies .. 223
The Western States and Territories .. 228
California .. 232
Mexico .. 238
The West Indies .. 244
The Greater Antilles .. 246
The Lesser Antilles .. 249
- vii -
Brazil .. 254
The mines .. 256
The Forest and the Campo .. 258
The Coast towns .. 260
The Republics of the La Plata .. 262
Polynesia .. 268
" Part II. .. 271
"
"
III. .. 272
Australia .. 278
" Part II. .. 283
New South Wales .. 288
Victoria .. 291
Queensland .. 292
South Australia .. 293
Western Australia .. 294
Tasmania .. 295
New Zealand .. 298
-----------
Causes which affect climate ---
Lesson I. --- Sunshine .. 301
" II. ---
Air and sunshine .. 303
" III.
--- Water and sunshine .. 305
" IV. ---
Air in motion .. 307
" V. ---
The wind and the rain .. 311
" VI. ---
The snow line, etc. .. 316
--------------------
Interchange of productions .. 320
The British Empire (a general survey) .. 326
-------------------------------------
Appendices ---
A. The Malay Archipelago .. 333
B. India .. 338
C. China .. 340
D. Japan .. 343
E. Rhodesia .. 345
F. New Zealand .. 347
- 1 -
Book V.
The Old and the New World.
--------
Asia.
General survey.
Asia, the East, or Morning Land of the world, forms a
third of all the land on the earth's surface, and is five
times as large as Europe. The two land masses whose
confines are marked by the Ural mountains are alike in
many respects. Asia has, like Europe, three great
peninsulas on the south; Arabia is an unbroken mass,
like Spain; India, with Ceylon, compares with Italy
and Sicily, both peninsulas being flanked on the north
by the loftiest mountains of their respective continents.
Further India, like Greece, is the most broken of the
three, and the East Indian Archipelago is not unlike
that of the Mediterranean. Putting the east coast of
Asia for the west of Europe, the British Islands will
correspond to those of Japan, and the Scandinavian
peninsula to that of Kamtchatka. In the interior,
many parallels may be drawn in the position of the
mountains and lowlands, and in the direction of the
rivers.
But in Asia the great features of the land are all on a
larger scale than in Europe. It has wider plains,
larger rivers, higher mountains--the highest in the
- 2 -
[black and white map of Europe and Asia]
- 3 -
world; and, what is peculiar to Asia, it has a chain of
high table-lands, which stretches almost across the con-
tinent from west to east. These enormous plateaus
occupy nearly two-fifths of the continent, and rise above
the average height of the European mountains, while
the mountains themselves that gird and cross them
surpass those of every other country in height. It is a
mistake to look upon the mountains as independent
ranges; they are, for the most part, simply the lofty
and uneven edges, the broken faces, of the table-lands
which they shut in.
Beginning at the west, there is first, the table-land
of Asia Minor, with the Taurus mountains; then the
vast table-land of Persia, crossed by the Elburz moun-
tains, and continued in the highlands of Afghanistan
and Baluchistan.
The Hindu Kush range forms the sort of mountain
isthmus which joins the highlands of the west with
those of the east. In this central region is the Pamir
steppe, "the roof of the world"; and here are the giant
Bolor Tagh mountains running northwards; while
spreading away to the east are the great table-lands of
Tibet and Mongolia.
The great Himalaya chain, "the abode of snow,"
forms the southern edge of the plateau of Tibet; the
plateau itself reaches a height of 17,000 feet, greater
than that of the highest Alps; while Mount Everest,
the highest of the Himalaya chain, and the loftiest
mountain in the world, is 29,000 feet in height.
The Kuen Lun mountains cross the table-land, and
to the north of it are the Tian Shan mountains, the
Altai range, and the long mountain ranges which,
under various names, stretch into the extreme north-
east of the continent.
- 4 -
Besides these, there are the Chinese mountains and
those of Further India, and the table-land of the
Deccan--walled in by mountain ranges--in the Indian
peninsula, as well as the great plateau of Arabia.
Tibet is by far the loftiest of the table-lands which
fill Central Asia, that of Persia being about 4000 feet,
the height of our highest British mountains. The bare
region of Tibet is, indeed, the highest plateau land of
the world; and here the wandering herdsman tends his
flocks of long-haired shawl-wool goats, his sheep, and
his yak oxen; for grain can only be cultivated in the
deeper valleys. This is the country of the wild horse
and of the great wild sheep.
Lastly, we must notice the curious chain of volcanic
mountains which skirt the eastern coast of Asia, be-
ginning in Kamtchatka, passing through the Kurile
Islands to Japan, thence through the Loo Choo Islands
to Formosa, and from that through the Philippines to
Borneo, Sumatra, and Java, which last has a greater
number of volcanic cones than is to be found on any
land of the same size in the earth.
___________
Part II.
Stretching northwards from the mountains to the
Arctic shores is the great Siberian plain, separated from
the plains of Europe only by the narrow belt of the
Ural. On the west, the plain is enormously wide, but
towards the east the mountains encroach on the low-
lands, until at last they are narrowed to mere coast
plains.
Very different landscapes appear in different parts of
the great plain of the north. On the south-west, from
- 5 -
the Caspian, where the Sea of Aral and Lake Balkash
are all that is left of a great Mediterranean which
once covered these low lands, are deserts of drift sand;
but where the rivers cross these, there are lovely
patches of brilliant green, as in the gardens round the
cities of Samarcand and Khiva, which seem, by contrast
with the desert, to be very gardens of Eden.
About 50ª N. lat., the deserts give place to the region
of grassy steppes, where rain is less scanty, and where
the nomadic peoples wander with their flocks and
herds, and pitch their homes--tents of black horse-
hair--wherever there is a show of green pasture. The
southern part is known as the Kirghiz steppe, and is
occupied by hordes of the nomadic Kirghiz, whose
wealth is in their flocks of broad-tailed sheep and
their camel droves. In the hot summer, clouds of
midges hover over the grazing herds; while winter
brings a covering of hard frozen snow, over which the
sledge caravans pass on their way to the winter fairs.
Gradually, in about 55ª N., the steppe begins to
be covered with trees, and we enter the forest zone, with
its woods of pine, and fir, and birch, sheltering innu-
merable squirrels, martens, and sables, bears, foxes, and
reindeer. Here the Russian and Samoide hunters carry
on their winter fur campaigns.
Approaching the Arctic Circle, the trees thin out, and
give place at last to the bare swampy levels of the
tundra region, over which winter holds sway during the
greater part of the year. In the tundras, the nomadic
Samoyede hunts and fishes; and hither, in the short
summer, the reindeer come to crop the mosses--the only
vegetation of this rigorous clime. So level are the
tundras, that along the coast in winter it would be
difficult to tell where land ceases and the ice-covering
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