the earliest notices of Egypt that occur in profane history, we find it become the centre of an extensive land commerce. The merchants of Ethiopia brought gold, and ivory, and slaves; the Phoenicians, wine and timber; the Arabians, incense and spice; the Egyptians giving in exchange their corn, fine linen, robes, and carpets. The company of traders going down to Egypt, to whom Joseph was sold by his brethren, is the earliest recorded instance of a foreign commercial transaction, and has all the genuine features of a caravan crossing the desert at the present hour. Commerce likewise materially assisted to lay the foundation of oceanic adventure, and gradually to improve the means of conducting it with safety, the frail and simple raft that was paddled along the rivers giving place to the stronger vessel fitted to encounter the perils of the sea. Tyre and Sidon communicated with

Western Europe through their mariners, and their merchant princes trafficked with India on the east. Thus was obtained by the nations on the east and south banks of the Mediterranean, and bordering thereto-the primitive seat of civilisation-a general acquaintance with each other's localities, and more distant regions, afterwards increased by the military expeditions of Alexander, and the all-absorbing ambition of Rome. But the world, as known to the ancients, was a very paltry span. Of the whole western Continent of the greater part of Africa-of North-eastern Europe - of Northern Asia and its eastern limits Ptolemy, the last and most accomplished geographer of antiquity, was entirely ignorant; and with him the cultivation of geography and astronomy may be said to have terminated, till their mutual revival by the subjects of the Eastern caliphs. In those views of the earth embraced by the Arabs, the Homeric notion of a circumambient ocean had a place. The dry land was conceived to be bounded by a zone of waters, which was its absolute limit; the Atlantic receiving the title of the Sea of Darkness, and the northern ocean that of the Sea of Pitchy Darkness. It is little more than three centuries and a half since the shroud of mystery was removed from the western flood by the bold hand of Columbus, and light was poured upon the Sea of Darkness. A course of discovery was then commenced which has now opened to our view a tolerably exact map of the world-the extent and configuration of its great natural divisions of land and sea, with their respective superficial characteristics. There yet remains however to be unveiled a considerable portion of "terra incognita," chiefly situated within the arctic and antarctic circles, in Central Africa, and in Australasia; and we have still much to learn with reference to the geographical character of regions which have long been known and repeatedly visited.

Geography, in the widest acceptation of the term, embraces a description of the true figure and motions of the earth- the aspect of the superficies, and the mode in which its respective parts have been arranged; with the extent, population, resources, knowledge, and arts of particular localities. These are the Mathematical, Physical, and Civil branches of the subject; to the second of which the present section is devoted. It is the province of the physical geographer to deal with the features of the external surface of the earth's mass; and, in strictness of meaning, this is the boundary of his department. But it is customary also to treat of atmospheric phenomena and influence; of the variations of climate and temperature; of the distribution of the different classes of organised beings; and of the causes which have determined the distribution-an arrangement which it is difficult to follow without trenching upon ground occupied by other sciences. It is desirable, however, to respect the boundaries which belong to the various branches of physical enquiry; and therefore, while it will be impossible to avoid touching upon the domains of Geology, Botany, and Zoology, the avoidance of a trespass will be studied.

The terrestrial surface presents us with areas of land and water constituting two great Natural Divisions. The outlines of each are in a state of constant change; but the alteration proceeds so slowly, that apparently they are the same at present, with a few comparatively unimportant exceptions, as at the earliest date of geographical information. There is a remarkable difference in the extent of these divisions. The whole area of the globe includes about 197 millions of square miles, of which seven-tenths are usually given as the proportion of space occupied by the waters, approaching to 138 millions of square miles, leaving less than 60 millions for the area of the land. The distribution of the two is also as unequal as their extent. If we take London to be the centre of a hemisphere,

it will contain by far the greater portion of all the land upon the face of the globe. The opposite hemisphere, of which the antipodes of London will be the centre

a point to the south-east of New Zealand, near to Antipodes Island-will be a territory in which the ocean immensely preponderates, the principal tracts of land consisting of New Holland, and the southern extremity of South America. If we consider the two hemispheres into which the earth is divided by the equator, and the zones into which each is subdivided, the unequal distribution of the land and water will also be very apparent. Regarding the whole area of each zone as represented by 1, the proportion of land has been stated as follows:

The great preponderance of the land on the north of the equator over that on the south is obvious from this estimate. The former is in proportion to the latter as 16 to scarcely 5. The proportionate quantity of each, in each zone, according to the preceding statement, may be thus expressed :

The superficial extent of the land in each zone is generally estimated to be :

The course of recent discovery, especially since the year 1838, renders some modification of these tables necessary in the case of the south frigid zone. Down to the time of Captain Cook it was generally believed that a great continent existed around the antarctic pole, which figures in the ancient maps as "Terra Australis Incognita." This idea was founded upon the loose reports of some southern voyagers, and upon the presumption that such a continent must necessarily exist to counterbalance the mass of land in the northern hemisphere. The second voyage of Cook was expressly designed to solve the problem, and, after penetrating into high southern latitudes without finding anything but a few islands, the supposed continent was given up, and land was imagined to exist only slightly depressed beneath the surface of the ocean. Within the last half dozen years the enterprise of France has sent out Dumont d'Urville, that of America Charles Wilkes, and that of England James Clark Ross; and a coast line of upwards of 1800 miles has now been discovered, the boundary of a south polar continent. The preceding calculation, therefore, requires alteration so far as it relates to the south frigid zone, but this will not affect the general statement of the quantity of land in the northern hemisphere being still vastly greater than that in the southern.

The waters of the globe circumscribing the land form one great continuous ocean. This is divided by imaginary lines into various parts, to each of which a distinct name is assigned, for the sake of clear and easy reference. The following are three grand divisions:

THE NORTHERN BASIN.

This contains the Arctic Ocean, surrounding the North Pole. It is bounded by the northern extremities of Asia, Europe, and America, and the Arctic circle. The correct outline of this bed has however yet to be determined.

THE WESTERN BASIN.

This extends from the Arctic circle, on the north, to a line drawn from the extremity of Africa to that of America, on the south, and forms the bed of the Atlantic Ocean, divided by the equator into north and south. It is a channel between the two largest tracts of land upon the globe, 9000 miles in length, and from 700 to 4000 miles in breadth.

THE SOUTH-EASTERN BASIN.

This includes the Pacific Ocean, between America and Asia, extending in breadth nearly half round the globe, or about 11,000 miles, and in length about 8000 miles, from Behring's Straits on the north, to where it meets the Southern Ocean. The latter is bounded on the north by a line drawn from Cape Horn to the Cape of Good Hope, thence to Van Diemen's Land, by New Zealand to Cape Horn again. Its limit on the south is the Antarctic Continent. This vast bed also comprises the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa on the west, the Asiatic islands on the east, Hindustan and Persia on the north, and the Southern Ocean.

The Western Basin embraces
The South-Eastern Basin
Still smaller collections of

Each of these vast oceanic tracts is divided into lesser compartments, or seas the denomination given to considerable collections of water penetrating inland. Thus, the Northern Basin has the White Sea, and the Sea of Kara. the Baltic, North, Mediterranean, and Caribbean Seas. includes the Red and Yellow Seas, and the Sea of Okotsk. water running into the land are classed as gulfs or bays, and large inland seas are so entitled which have a broad and open communication with the main deep. Where the passage which connects a collection of water nearly land-locked with the outlying ocean is narrow, it is called a Channel; and, when still narrower, a Strait; and a Sound, when it is shallow. As an example of this, we have the English Channel, the Straits of Dover, and the Sound connecting the Baltic and the North Sea.

The other great natural division of the surface is distributed chiefly into two immense spaces, to which the term continent is applied- -a Latin derivative, signifying that which is connected. One of these, including Asia, Africa, and Europe, is known as the eastern, and the other, comprising America, as the western continent, because one lies to the east, and the other to the west, of the meridian of the Feroe Isles, from which longitude was formerly reckoned. They are also styled the Old and New worlds, owing to the western continent having been unknown till the close of the fifteenth century to the inhabitants of the eastern, the parent of nations, the subject of history, the cradle of the arts. Of the antarctic continent, we know at present too little to do more than merely mention its existence. Those portions of the great tracts of land which have peculiar natural features are ranged in classes according to their contour. To a considerable projection from the mainland into the sea, so as to be nearly enclosed by it, and approaching almost to an island, as Italy, Spain, and the Morea, the term peninsula is applied. A narrow slip of land connecting two great masses, having the sea on its other sides, is called an isthmus ; as the Isthmus of Suez, connecting Asia and Africa; of Darien, joining North and South America; and of Corinth, linking the Morea with Northern Greece, where the Isthmian Games were celebrated, from which they obtained the name. The smaller projections of land into the sea are variously denominated capes, headlands, and promontories. These

are frequently imposing parts of coast scenery, presenting a bold and lofty front to the ocean, the whole aspect of which the eye can embrace, this is not the case with peninsular projections. Europe terminates on the southeastern side with the ancient Promontory of Tænarum, the modern Cape Matapân, of which a distant view is here given. This is the extreme point of the Greek peninsula to the south, where the range of Taygetus-whose summits are often wrapped in snow when the orange tree is in full bloom on the banks of the Eurotas-meets the sea. The two great continents present points of resemblance, and of strong dissimilarity. Both are nearly separated into two principal parts, a narrow isthmus of sand joining Africa and Asia, and an isthmus of rocks connecting North and South America. In both continents also most of the great peninsulas pursue the same direction, trending to the south; as South America, California, Florida, Alaska, and Greenland in the new world; and in the old, Scandinavia, Spain, Italy, Greece, Africa, Arabia, Hindustan, Malacca, and Kamschatka; - a singular, and at present completely inexplicable, circumstance. The western continent has one exception to this direction, that of the Peninsula of Yucatan in central America, and the eastern continent has another, that of the Peninsula of Jutland in Europe, both of which project northerly, and are composed of lowlands of alluvial soil. In the general direction of the superficies, in extent and configuration, the two continents greatly differ. The land in the new world stretches from north to south, while that of the old world proceeds from north-east to south-west, or, leaving Africa out of sight, its direction is nearly parallel to the equator. A line drawn from the west coast of Africa about Cape Verd to the north-east coast of Asia at Behring's Straits, describes the largest extent of land that can be compassed in the same direction on the eastern continent, being equal to about 11,000 miles; while a similar line drawn over the western continent from the