QUESTIONS. What countries and What are the Spanish Which are the rivers of Of what does America consist. and of what extent is that grand division of the earth? What are the rivers of North America? What are the lakes of North America? What are the political divisions of North America? What do the British possessions comprehend? cities constitute the United States? dominions of North America? South America? What are the mountains of South America? What are the Spanish dominions and towns of South America? What are the Portuguese territories? Which are the French settlements ? What are the Dutch settlements? What are the unconquered tracts of South Ame rica? What are the American islands? CHAP. XXVII. ASTRONOMICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL THE GLOBES. THE globes are two artificial spherical bodies, the one called the terrestrial, and the other, the celestial globes. The terrestrial globe represents the natural form of the earth; and upon its surface are depicted its oceans, seas, continents, islands, countries, and rivers. It is made moveable upon a spindle or axis, to imitate the movement which the earth is known to perform, once in every twenty-four hours, round its own axis, an imaginary line passing through the centre. This globe is moved from west to east, to imitate the real diurnal motion of the earth. The celestial globe is formed in the same manner; but on its surface are represented the fixed stars, arranged under their respective constellations, and in their natural situations. It is moved from east to west, to imitate the apparent movement of the heavens, occasioned by the real movement of the earth. There are several circles and characters which are common to both globes; but some that belong to the celestial globe only. The circles are, four large ones that divide the surface into equal portions or hemispheres; and four smaller, which divide it into unequal portions. The equator, the ecliptic, the horizon, the meridian, are the four larger circles. The smaller circles are the two tropics, and the two polar circles. The equator encompasses the globe at equal distance from the poles; that is, at ninety degrees; dividing it into a northern and a southern hemisphere: hence it is called the equator or equaller. Upon the celestial globe, it is named the equinoctial, because when the sun appears in it, the days are equal to the nights over the whole earth. By sailors, it is usually called the line. It is divided into 360 degrees, reckoning eastward from Aries. It is also generally numbered by a second row of figures, eastward and westward, to 180°; the figures nearest the equa, tor proceeding westward, and those above them, eastward. The ecliptic is a circle crossing the equator obliquely, its most distant points being only twenty-three degrees and a half from it. This circle represents the sun's apparent path, the earth's real path, through the heavens, every year. In this circle, the sun appears to advance nearly one degree in twenty-four hours, and thirty degrees every month, till it has passed through the whole three hundred and sixty, in the space of 365 days, 6 hours, 56 minutes. The horizon is the upper surface of the broad wooden circle, or frame, in which the globe stands. This circle determines the apparent rising and setting of the sun and stars, dividing the heavens into two hemispheres, which may be termed upper and lower, with regard to a spectator, at any place on the earth's surface. Every place on the surface of the globe has its own horizon, the line where the sky seems to meet the land or water; so that, whenever we change our situation upon the earth, we change our horizon. By moving the globe till any given place be in the zenith, or point directly over head, the wooden horizon is made to represent truly the rational horizon of that place. The former is called the sensible horizon; the latter, the rational horizon. The meridian is a brazen circle encompassing the globe at right angles to the horizon, dividing it into an eastern and western hemisphere. This circle of brass is graduated on one side. Common meridians are semicircles, extending from pole to pole, and cutting the equator at right angles. These are called meridians, from th Latin word meridies, mid-day, because, when any one of these semicircles is brought by the diurnal revolution of the earth, directly opposite the sun, it is noon or mid-day to all places under that meridian. Of these, twenty-four are usually described upon the globe. But as many meridians may be imagined as there are places on the earth's surface. Whenever we move towards the east or west, we change our meridian, the supposed semicircle passing over our heads from pole to pole. To be able to determine accurately the situation of places on the earth's surface, two great circles have been fixed upon, from which to measure their distances; namely, the equator, the distance of any place from which, is measured northward or southward upon the graduated edge of the brazen meridian; and a certain meridian, called the first meridian, from which the distance is measured eastward or westward. Distance from the equator is called latitude. Distance from the first meridian is termed longitude. The meridian chosen by the English geographers, from which to measure eastern or western distance, is that which passes over the Observatory at Greenwich, near London, and which, also, nearly passes through the two first points of Aries and Libra. The smaller circles are the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn: the first of which is twenty-three degrees and a half north of the equator; the latter, twenty-three degrees and a half south of the equator; the Arctic circle, twenty-three degrees and a half from the north pole; and the Antarctic circle, twenty-three degrees and a half from the south pole. These smaller circles are parallel to the equator. The tropics are so named from the Greek verb, signifying to turn; because, when the sun arrives at either of them, in his apparent annual course along the ecliptic, he appears to turn, and travel towards the equator. Two small circles, usually described upon globes near the north and south poles, are called horary circles, because they are used to show the times of the rising and setting of the heavenly bodies, and of their continuance above the horizon. On some globes the equator is made the hour circle. Points common to the terrestrial and the celestial globes, are the two poles, or extremities of the axis of the globe. The two equinoctial points, where the equator and the ecliptic intersect each other; the one, which is the first point of Aries, is called the vernal or spring equinox; the other, which is the first point of Libra, is called the autumnal equinox. The two solstitial points, the two points of the ecliptic which are at the greatest distance from the equator. The one, which is the first point of Cancer, is called the summer solstice; the other, the first point of Capricorn, is named the winter solstice. term solstice is derived from the Latin words, signifying the sun, and to stand still; and is applied to them, because, when the sun arrives at either of those points, he appears to rise and set in exactly the same place for several days, and then returns towards the other, The |