| PUBLIOT SPART JOX AND SAN FOUNDATIOIM L DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WHT: District Clerk's Office.. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-seventh day of August, in the forty-seventh year of the ludependence of the United States of Amer ica, Sidney E. Morse, A. M. of the said District, has deposited in this Office the Title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Author, in the words following, to wit: A New System of Modern Geography, or a View of the Present State of the World. With an Appendix, containing Statistical Tables of the Population, Commerce, Revenue, Expenditure, Debt, and various Institutions of the United States; and General Views of Europe and the World. By Sidney E. Morse, A. M. Accompanied with an Atlas. In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the times therein mentioned:" and also to an Act entitled, " An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies during the times therein mentioned; and extending the Benefits thereof to the Arts of Designing, Engraving and Etching Historical and other Prints." JNO. W. DAVIS, Clerk of the District of Massachusetts. endeavored also to render the descriptions of important towns, harbors, monuments of art, natural curiosities and every other subject that would admit of it, as graphical as possible. It is to be regretted, however, that the materials for such descriptions are in most cases wanting. From the manner in which the work has been prepared, it would have been impossible to have referred on each page to the different authors from whom the information was derived. The language of others is seldom used, each article being commonly the result of a comparison of all that was read upon the subject. It is believed, however, that a much larger portion of the information has been derived from original sources than is common in works of this nature. Mexico was given almost entirely on the authority of Humboldt. In Buenos Ayresand Chili we have relied chiefly on the valuable documents furnished to our government by the commissioners, who were sent to those countries in 1817, to collect information.* Brazil is described principally from Mawe. Most of the countries of Europe have been given on the authority of the New Edinburgh Gazetteer, and the latest editions of Hassel and Cannabrich. In Asia we have derived considerable assistance from Murray's Historical account of discoveries in Asia, and the description of Hindoostan was principally taken from the interesting article in that work. The recent discoveries in Africa, particularly those of Belzoni in Egypt and Nubia, will be found noticed in their proper places. The regions within the Arctic circle have of late been rendered peculiarly interesting from the discoveries made by Capt. Parry in 1819, a particular notice of which is given under the head of Polar Regions. The account of our own country was principally the result of investigations made by the author during the last year in the preparation of arti Note. Since the sheets containing South America were printed, the government of the United States has acknowledged the independence of Mexico, the republic of Columbia, Buenos Ayres, Chili and Peru. cles for the third edition of Morse's Universal Gazet- The Statistical Tables and General Views at the interesting addition to the work. They contain much valuable information in a narrow compass, and the comparison of the facts which they present will be a very profitable exercise for the student. The knowledge which we obtain from the comparison of such facts is of the most solid and substantial charac- ter. To facilitate the study of the tables Remarks and Questions are annexed. The Remarks are in- tended to explain every thing which needs explana- tion, and to point out the comparisons which will lead to the most interesting results. The questions are designed to show the manner in which the tables are to be studied; and they are generally so framed as not to require that the numbers should be committed to memory. It has been commonly supposed that the study of statistics must necessarily be dry, but if it is conducted in the manner which is here pointed out, it is believed that it will prove as interesting as It was originally the intention of the Author to have inserted a System of Ancient Geography in this The Atlas which accompanies this work, except the part relating to the United States, is principally a re BOSTON, SEPT. 1822. |