X.-PARAGUAY.

PHYSICAL FACTS.

Latitude, between 21° 50′ and 27° 35′ S. Longitude, between 54° 40′ and 58° W. Estimated area 56,698 sq. m.

Paraguay is the only S. American State which has no sea-board. It lies entirely between the Rivers Paraguay and Parana,1 and has Brazil on the N. and E., and the Argentine Republic on the S. and W. It is about 400 m. long from N. to S., and 200 m. broad. The surface is marshy and low in the S. and W.; and hilly in the N. and E. A range of hills, the Cordillera Maracaya, lies on the N.E. frontier; and a second range, the Cordillera de Caáguasu, runs N. and S. through the centre of the country. Paraguay is most copiously watered: its W. side by the Rivers Aquidaban, Ypane, Tejui, and Tebicuary, tributaries of the Paraguay; its E. side by the Acaray, and Munda-ij, tributaries of the Parana. The Parana and its tributary, the Paraguay, compensate the country to a great extent for its want of coast-line. The climate is temperate and salubrious. The temperature in summer averages about 88°; in winter, about 63° Fahrenheit; it is, however, liable to sudden changes from the winds, which are very variable. The animal productions are of the same character as those of Brazil. The vegetable productions are varied and valuable, but that which is most distinctive of the country is the Yerba maté, or Paraguayan tea, which attains perfection nowhere else in the world. The population is estimated at 293,844, and consists of Whites, descended from the Spanish; Immigrants, mostly Europeans, Negroes, Indians, and Mixed Races. The State language is Spanish; but the Indians speak their own languages, and chiefly Guarani.

POLITICAL FACTS.

The Republic of Paraguay is divided into 25 Departments. The chief towns are-Asuncion (pop. 20,000), the capital, which lies on the Paraguay, and is a place of considerable trade, especially in Paraguayan tea, timber, tobacco, and hides. Concepcion, the chief port for the Paraguayan tea trade, on the Paraguay, 180 m. N. of the capital. Paraguari, and Villa Rica, in the interior, to the S.E. of the capital.

The chief Industry is agriculture, especially the cultivation of maté, sugarcane; tobacco, cotton, and grain of various kinds. The rivers form the chief means of communication, but there is also a railway from Asuncion to Paraguari. The government is Republican in name, but in reality it is a Dictatorship. The President is elected for life. The Legislative Congress consists of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies. Education is in a waning condition owing to the exhausted condition of the State since its disastrous war with Brazil, the Argentine Republic and Uruguay (1865-1870). The religion of the country is Roman Catholicism, but there is toleration for other religions.

1 And for this reason has been called the Meso- 2 Yerba Mate is the dried leaf of the Brazilian holly. potamia of S. America.

XI.-URUGUAY.

PHYSICAL FACTS.

Latitude, between 30° and 35° S.

Longitude, between 53° 30' and 59° W. Estimated area 72,151 sq. m.

The complete name, "Banda Oriental del Uruguay," defines generally the position of the Republic. It has Brazil on the N.; Brazil and the Atlantic on the E.: the Atlantic, and the Rio de la Plata on the S.; and the Argentine Confederation on the W. The coast is even and unbroken, but contains a few fairly good harbours, as Maldonado, Montevideo, and Colonia. The principal cape is Santa Maria, at the S.E. extremity. The surface is low along the coast and in the S. W., and forms a broken plateau in the interior, traversed by low hill ranges, of which the highest, Sierra de los Animos, does not exceed 1000 ft. Uruguay is abundantly watered throughout, the largest rivers being the Ibicuy and the Rio Negro, tributaries of the Uruguay. The climate, though humid, is temperate and healthy. The animal and vegetable productions are mainly the same as those of the Argentine Republic. The population is estimated at 440,000, and is composed of, 1. Whites, of Spanish descent; 2. Negroes; and 3. Mixed Races. There are no Indians in Uruguay. The language is Spanish.

POLITICAL FACTS.

POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND TOWNS -Uruguay is divided into 13 Provinces, which are named from their chief towns. The chief towns are

Montevideo (pop. 91,167), the capital, which is also the chief seaport of the Republic. Maldonado, and Colonia, other seaports. Fray Bentos, and Paysandu, on the Uruguay, are important centres of the manufacture of tinned

meats.

1

Pasturing-cattle, horses, and sheep;-and agriculture-the raising of grain, rice, sugar, cotton, hemp, and fruits-form the chief occupations of the people. The commerce of the country is becoming considerable, the chief exports being preserved meats, tallow, hides, wool, horns, and hoofs. The communications include numerous rivers which are navigable for small craft; 195 m. of railways opened for traffic, and 225 m. more which are being constructed. The Uruguay River, however, is the great commercial highway of the Republic. The government consists of a President, who is elected for four years, a Senate, and a Chamber of Representatives. Education in any public sense of the word can hardly be said to exist. The chief religion is Roman Catholicism.

XII.-PATAGONIA.2

GENERAL GEOGRAPHY.

Patagonia is the name given to the arid and sterile region which extends S. from the Rio Negro to the Straits of Magellan, and is enclosed by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The surface of the country is marked in the W. by the S. Andes, which skirt the coast as a lofty chain of volcanic peaks. A great shingle desert interspersed with patches of coarse grass, occupies much of the central

1 The commerce is almost entirely in the hand of foreigners.

2 Patagonia is so called from "Patagonians,"

the name given to the Indian tribes by Magellan from the appearance of their sandalled feet, which were like the hoofs (pata) of an animal.

portion, and of the remainder there is but little of any value. The chief rivers are the Rio Negro, Chupat, Desire, and Santa Cruz, which flow E. to the Atlantic in deep gorges which they have worn out for themselves. The climate is humid in the W., dry in the E., and very severe in the S. Wild cattle and horses wander over the country in large herds, but the guanaco is the most characteristic animal. The population is very sparse, consisting of some 30,000 Indians. The stories of their remarkable height seem to be exaggerations. The most recent and best informed observers give the average height as being about 5 ft. 10 in. Their manner of life is nomadic; their religion is Pagan. Though this territory is shared by Chile and the Argentine Confederation, there is no settled form of government, nor are there any towns which call for notice.

III. GREENLAND.1

GENERAL GEOGRAPHY.

Greenland, as described on our maps, may be compared to a huge wedge of land hanging down from the N. Pole. It is thought to be an aggregation of islands, separated from one another by narrow inlets, channels, or fjords, but bound together by a thick covering of ice. The known portion of this continental land lies between 59° 49′ and 82° 54′ N. lat; and between 17° and 67° W. long. The area is estimated at about 760,000 sq. m. It has the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans on the E.; the Greenland Sea, on the S.; Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, Smith Strait, Smith Sound, Kennedy Strait, Robson Channel, and Lincoln Sea on the W. The N. portion awaits exploration. The known coasts are rocky and mountainous, precipices of 5,000 ft. high rising in places abruptly from the sea, and almost everywhere penetrated by deep indentations of the sea. The W. coast is fairly well known; the E. coast not so well. The chief capes are Bismarck, and Brewster, on the E.; Farewell, (on an island), in the S.; York, Parry, Bryant, May, and Britannia, on the W. The inlets are very numerous; but the chief of them are Dove Bay, Franz Josef Fjord, Davy Sound, and Scoresby Sound, on the E.; Disco Bay, Umanak Fjord, Melville Bay, Murchison Sound, Peabody Bay, Petermann Fjord, Newman Bay, and St. George's Fjord, on the W. The principal islands are Shannon, Clavering, and Liverpool, on the E.; and Disco, on the W. The surface is described as consisting of an outer circlet, and an interior region. The outer circlet extends from the sea towards the interior for from 20 to 60 m., embraces numerous narrow, and tortuous inlets of the sea, and is crossed by many valleys which afford passages from one fjord to another, and much pasturage for flocks. In the vicinity of these fjords there is a luxuriant vegetation which gradually increases towards the termination. At the head of the fjords a wall of ice rises abruptly from the ground and forms the unbroken edge of the interior region, which consists of an elevated icy plateau, an ice waste, of some 320,000 sq. m. in extent, covered with a huge mer de glace of fresh water ice that slopes gently down to the sea, supplying the mighty glaciers and icebergs which characterise the appearance and encumber the seas of Greenland. Of the few lofty elevations which the country boasts, the highest is Petermann Peak (14,000 ft.) near the head of Franz Josef Fjord. The Drainage is not effected by rivers properly so called, but by glaciers and icebergs which flow to the sea down the valleys and fjords of the country. The pools of water which cover the ice from the melting of the snow in summer either find their way over the edge of the inland region in

1 Greenland was so called by Red Erik, who | friends in Iceland, "people would sooner be indiscovered it (A.D. 983), because, as he said to his duced to go thither in case it had a good name."

countless diminutive cataracts, or disappearing down deep crevasses of the ice, are carried to the sea by sub-glacial rivers. Lakes are common everywhere, but they are frozen from September to June. The climate is Arctic, and increases in severity from S. to N. The mean average temperature is 27.5° Fahr. The mirage is a very frequent appearance at all seasons; halos are common everywhere and at all seasons; and the Aurora Borealis is a phenomenon everywhere observable, especially in the autumn. The chief Productions are dogs, reindeer, musk ox, foxes; ptarmigan, eider ducks; seals, whales, and fish in great variety; coal, iron, and graphite. The Population consists of Esquimaux, and a few European colonists who are chiefly Danes. Within the Danish settlements there are about 10,000 souls; and scanty tribes of the Esquimaux race are scattered about beyond the limits of these settlements.

The political facts relate only to that part of the W. coast region which forms the Danish trading districts. It stretches from Cape Farewell in the S. to about 74° N. lat. and at lat. 67° 40′ is divided into N. and S. Greenland. North Greenland comprises 7 and S. Greenland 5 of the trading districts. Each district moreover includes several trading stations. The districts are, in the S., Julianshaab Frederikshaab, Godtshaab, Sukkertoppen, Holstenborg; in the N. Egedesminde, Christianshaab, Jakobshavn, Godhavn, Ritenbenk, Umanak, and Upernivik. The people are chiefly occupied in fishing and hunting, and produce for export, furs, eider-down, reindeer, and oil. The Christian Religion is taught to the people by Moravian missionaries who have several permanent stations among them.

OCEANIC TERRITORIES.

To this heading belong those 3 great regions under which geographers sometimes group the numerous islands of the Pacific and Antarctic Oceans.-viz.: 1. Malaysia; 2. Australasia; 3. Polynesia.

I. MALAYSIA.1

Malaysia is the name given to that large archipelago which lies beween S. Asia and Australia. The whole group forms a triangular wedge of islands which separates the Indian Ocean and Chinese Sea from the Pacific. It is more than six times as large as the British Isles, is almost entirely of volcanic origin, contains many volcanoes which are still active, and is composed principally of the following groups, viz.: 1. The Philippines; 2. The Borneo Group; 3. The Celebes Group; 4. The Moluccas or Spice Islands; 5. The Sunda Islands.

i. The Philippines are a group of upwards of 400 islands, besides rocks and uninhabited islets. Their aggregate area is about 114,000 sq. m. and their population about 8,000,000, consisting chiefly of Malays and Negritos, part of whom are Christians, and part Mohammedans. The chief islands are Luzon, Samar, Leyte, Mindanao, Sulu Archipelago, Palawan, Mindoro, Masbate, Panay, Negros, Zebu, and Bohol. They are generally mountainous and weil watered. The climate is tropical, but, on the whole, salubrious. The soil is most fertile and yields vast quantities of tobacco, sugar, rice, coffee, hemp, indigo, &c. Minerals also, including copper, iron, coal, sulphur, &c., abound. After Cuba these islands are the most valuable of the Spanish possessions. The capital of the group is Manila, a town of 130,000 inhabitants, on the S. W. coast of Luzon. It was famous before its recent (1880) destruction by earthquake, for its excellent cigars, and has an extensive, but declining commerce with Great Britain, Spain, India, China, and America.

ii. The Borneo Group consists of the large island of Borneo and the small islands of Labuan, off the N. W. coast, and the more westerly groups of South Natuna, Natuna, and Anamba.

Obs. 1. Borneo lies in the middle of the Malaysian Archipelago. Its area is about 280,000 sq. m., and its population about 1,700,000. The interior is mountainous and the coasts low, and there are some large navigable rivers. The climate is salubrious and the soil fertile. The animal productions include the horse, ox, and pig, the deer, tapirs, wild-boars, buffaloes and orang-outang, which is peculiar to this island and the neighbouring Sumatra. Of the vegetable productions the chief are sago-

1 Malaysia is so called because the islands are | king Philip II. Soon after discovering these ispeopled chiefly by the Malay race. lands Magellan and some of his companions were

2 The Philippine Islands were so named by treacherously destroyed by the natives of one of Magellan, their discoverer, after the Spanish | them in 1528.