ન Q. What is a gulph ? A. A gulph is a part of the sea that runs in between land; if it be very large, it is rather called an inland sea. Q. What is an isthmus ? A. A narrow neck of land between two seas, joining peninsula to the continent, as the Isthmus of Darien, or Panama, which joins North to South America. Q. What is a promontory? A. A promontory is a high land that juts into the sea; it is often called a cape, as the Cape of Good Hope in the south of Africa. Q. What is an island? A. An island is a part of the earth that is surrounded by the sea or other water as Great Britain, Ireland, Sicily, &c. there are also islands in rivers. Q. What is a peninsula, or almost an island? A. A part of land that is almost surrounded by the sea; as the Morea, which joins to Greece. Q. What is a lake? A. A lake is a large extent of water inclosed all around with land that never dries, and that has no current, as the Caspian lake in Asia. Q. From whence do rivers and brooks derive their stores? A. A river is a stream of fresh water, formed from many springs, which, running down by the vallies between the ridges of the hills, and coming to unite from little rivulets, or brooks; many of them again meeting in one common valley, and arriving at the plain become a river, the magnitude of which is generally in proportion to the greatness of the mountain, from whence its waters descend. Q. What Q. What are fountains or springs? A. Fountains or springs are those waters that issue from the sides of hills and mountains, where they form natural pools or basons, which overflowing, the waters descend in rivulets, and as before observed give rise to rivers. Q. What is a pond? A. A quantity of water flowing from a river, or some other source, and confined by a bank for the preservation of fish. Q. What is a marsh ? A. A very shallow, but stagnant water, that is often dried by the heat of the sun. LESSON XVI. SEQUEL OF GEOGRAPHY. Q. How is the whole extent of land di vided? A. Into an infinite number of countries or sovereignties. Q. How many sorts of governments are there in Europe? A. Seven; Empires, Kingdoms, the Ecclesiastical State, Republics, Electorates, Dukedoms, and Principalities. Q. How How many Empires are there! A. Three; The empire of Germany, the Ottoman or Turkish empire; and the empire of Russia Q. How was the empire of Germany formerly called? A. The Roman empire. Q. Why so? A. Because A. Because its head is a succession of the ancient Roman emperors in the western empires. Q. Is this empire as considerable now as formerly ? A. No; it has been extremely weakened by the many provinces that have been detached from it, and are become sovereignties themselves. pire? What is remarkable of the Ottoman em A. That the greatest part of it is situated in Asia, and its head is a successor of the ancient Roman emperors in the east. Q. Why is this distinction made between the eastern and western empires? A. For this reason, when the Romans had conquered almost the whole earth, and formed the fourth monarchy, one of their emperors, Theodosius the Great, ordered, that after his death, the empire should be parted between his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius. The first had the eastern part of the empire, and continued his residence at Constantinople. The second had the western part. This event happened about the end of the fourth century. Q. What have you to remark of the empire of Russia? A. It is only fifty or sixty years ago that this country has been erected into an empire, and its princes have been successively acknowledged emperors by other European monarchs. Q. What title had these princes before? A. They had, and still keep the name of Tzar, or Czar, which signifies Great Duke or King. Q. How many kingdoms are there in Europe? A. Eleven; Q. What is a century? A. Century or age is a course of an hundred years. Q. What is a year? A. A space of twelve months, which is the time the sun takes in passing thro' the twelve signs of the zodiac. Q. What is the zodiac? A. A circle shewing the earth's annual or yearly path through the heavens. On this circle are marked the twelve signs which are numbers of stars reduced by the fancy of men into. the form of animals, and may be described in order thus: The ram, the bull, the heavenly twins, Q. From what is said of the patriarchs having lived so many centuries, and some even to the age of nine hundred years, may we not believe that the years were then shorter than at present? A. No for we learn from Moses that the year consisted then, as now, of twelve months. In his history of the deluge, he tells us, that after the rains which began the seventeenth day of the second month, that the ark, which floated upon the waters, rested upon the mountains of Armenia, and in the tenth month, that land began to appear. Q. What is a month? A. A month is just the time the moon is going round the earth, which revolution she per forms forms in twenty seven days, seven hours, and forty three minutes; so that there are thirteen lunar months, in a year, though for conveniency and a greater regularity, they are made but twelve in our almanacks, by adding a greater number of days to each month than it really contains. Q How many weeks are there in a year ? Q. How many days are there in a week? Q. How are they named ? A. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. To these days, the Pagans gave the names of the sun, moon and planets: To the first the name of the Sun, To the second of the Moon, To the third of Mars, To the fourth of Mercury, Q Do all nations reckon them in the same order? A. No; the Christians count from Sunday, in memory of the resurrection of our Saviour, the Jews from Saturday, and the Mahometans from Friday, Q. What is a day? A. A day is either artificial or natural. The natural day contains twenty-four hours, the artificial day from sun-rise to sun-set Q How is the natural day divided? A. Into two parts, night and day, properly so called. Q. Is |