An Elementary Treatise on Physical Geography: To which is Added a Brief Description of the Physical Phenomena of the United States |
Other editions - View all
An Elementary Treatise on Physical Geography: To Which Is Added a Brief ... David M. Warren,Adolph Steinwehr No preview available - 2018 |
Common terms and phrases
Africa Aleutian Alps animals Antarctic Arctic Ocean Asia Atlantic Ocean atmosphere Australia Basin called Cape chains circle climate clouds coast color continent degrees deposits Describe Desert divided earth earth's surface earthquakes east eastern elevation emptying equator equatorial currents Europe extends Fahrenheit feet high flow forests Geography globe Gulf Gulf of Mexico Gulf Stream heat height Hemisphere Hudson Indian Ocean inhabitants interior Islands Lake land latitude longitude low plains Mediterranean Sea metal Mexico Mississippi moisture Moun Mount mountain-chains mountain-system Name the principal North northern occur Pacific Ocean peaks peninsula phenomena plants Plateau polar poles produced race rain regions rise River rocks Rocky Mountains Sahara Sea of Okhotsk shores Sierra Nevada slopes South America southern species springs square miles steppe summer temperate zone trees tributaries tropical United Valley vegetation Victoria Land volcanoes western winds winter
Popular passages
Page 95 - Valley system of earthworks may be said to embrace all that region that lies between the Great Lakes on the north and the Gulf of Mexico on the south, and...
Page 43 - While sailing a little south of the Plata on one very dark night, the sea presented a wonderful and most beautiful spectacle. There was a fresh breeze, and every part of the surface, which during the day is seen as foam, now glowed with a pale light. The vessel drove before her bows two billows of liquid phosphorus, and in her wake she was followed by a milky train.
Page 51 - England, and the standard adopted in this work, fixes the freezing point of water at 32°, and the boiling point at 212°.
Page 91 - ... hatchets, whether for peaceful or warlike purposes. They had recognised the bonds of blood and the bonds of marriage ; they followed their leaders and kings, and the distinction between right and wrong was fixed by laws and customs. They were impressed with the idea of a divine Being, and they invoked it by various names.
Page 9 - ... and more equable climate, gradually died out and disappeared.* In the state of stability to which the surface of the globe appears actually to have attained, the sun must be considered as the agent which most directly influences the temperature of our atmosphere. The length of the day, the number of hours during which the sun is above the horizon, coupled with the height to which he ascends, such is the cause with which the temperature of each particular latitude is primarily connected; and in...
Page 71 - When the inhabitants have convinced themselves, by boring a hole in the tree, that the pith is ripe, the trunk is cut down and divided into several pieces, the pith is extracted, mixed with water and filtered; it is then quite fit for use as sago. One tree commonly yields 300 Ibs., and occasionally 500 to 600 Ibs. There, then, people go into the forests, and cut bread for themselves, just as they cut fire-wood.
Page 58 - ... twas told to us ;" and wo can account in no other way for the fact that the captain, with a fair wind for his port, should steer away from it. The average passage out to California of vessels not having the results of these researches to guide them is upwards of 180 days; but vessels with these charts on board have made it in 107, in 97, in 96, in 91, and even in 90 days; and their masters, after making allowance for the improved model of their ships, ascribe this great success to the information...
Page 18 - They lie. parallel to the shore, but are separated from it by a channel of water of considerable depth and varying greatly in width. The grandest example of coral formation known is the Great Australian barrier reef. Externally it rises, with little inclination, from a fathomless ocean — stretches upwards of 1,000 miles along the northeast...
Page 31 - It was with difficulty we could persuade ourselves that we were not looking down upon some manufacturing city, until, by a tortuous descent, we arrived at the spot where at once the secrets of the inner world opened upon our astonished senses. In the space of...
Page 43 - There was a fresh breeze, and every part of the surface, which during the day is seen as foam, now glowed with a pale light. The vessel drove before her bows two billows of liquid phosphorus, and in her wake she was followed by a milky train. As far as the eye reached, the crest of every wave was bright, and the sky above the horizon, from the reflected glare of these livid flames, was not so utterly obscure as over the vault of the heavens.