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FIG.

40. Sketch Map of the Swiss Rivers .

41. Diagram in illustration of mountain structure 42. Sketch Map of the Aar and its tributaries . 43. River system round Chur, as it used to be. 44. River system round Chur, as it is

45. River system of the Maloya

46. Final slope of a river.

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48. Diagrammatic section of a valley (exaggerated). RR, rocky basis of a valley; A A, sedimentary strata ; B, ordinary level of river; C, flood level

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49. Whitsunday Island. (After Darwin).

359

50. A group of Lunar volcanoes; Maurolycus, Barocius, etc. (After Judd).

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51. Orbits of the inner Planets. (After Ball)

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52. Relative distances of the Planets from the Sun. (After Ball)

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53. Saturn, with the surrounding series of rings. (After

Lockyer)

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54. The Parallactic Ellipse. (After Ball)

55. Displacement of the hydrogen line in the spectrum of Rigel. (After Clarke).

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AQUATIC VEGETATION, RIO. (Published

by Spooner and Co.)

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TROPICAL FOREST, WEST INDIES. (After

Kingsley)

SUMMIT OF MONT BLANC .

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THE MER DE GLACE, MONT BLANC.
RYDAL WATER. (From a photograph by
Frith and Co., published by Spooner
and Co.).

WINDERMERE

VIEW IN THE VALAIS BELOW ST. MAURICE

VIEW UP THE VALAIS FROM THE LAKE OF

GENEVA.

THE LAND'S END. (From a photograph by Frith and Co., published by Spooner and Co.) .

VIEW OF THE MOON NEAR THE THIRD

QUARTER. (From a photograph by
Prof. Draper) .

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

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If any one gave you a few acres, you would say that you had received a benefit; can you deny that the boundless extent of the earth is a benefit? If any one gave you money, you would call that a benefit. God has buried countless masses of gold and silver in the earth. If a house were given you, bright with marble, its roof beautifully painted with colours and gilding, you would call it no small benefit. God has built for you a mansion that fears no fire covered with a roof which glitters in one fashion by day, and in another by night. . . . Whence comes the breath you draw ; the light by which you perform the actions of your life? the blood by which your life is maintained? the meat by which your hunger is appeased? . The true God has planted, not a few oxen, but all the herds on their pastures throughout the world, and furnished food to all the flocks; he has ordained the alternation of summer and winter. has invented so many arts and varieties of voice, so many notes to make music. We have implanted in us the seed of all ages, of all arts; and God our Master brings forth our intellects from obscurity. — SENECA.

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THE world we live in is a fairyland of exquisite beauty, our very existence is a miracle in itself, and yet few of us enjoy as we might, and none as yet appreciate fully, the beauties and wonders which surround us. The greatest traveller cannot hope even in a long life to visit more than a very small part of our earth, and even of that which is under our very eyes how little we see!

What we do see depends mainly on what we look for. When we turn our eyes to the sky, it is in most cases merely to see whether it is likely to rain. In the same field the farmer will notice the crop, geologists the fossils, botanists the flowers, artists the colouring, sportsmen the cover for game. Though

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