Chapter XI: Land and Water

The terrestrial Globe is pleasingly tinted in blue, pink, yellow and green.

The blue portion is called Water and is inhabited by oysters, clams, submarines, lobsters and turtles, besides delightful schools of fishes and whales.

The pink, yellow and green portions are called Land and are alive with human beings and other animals and vegetables.

Besides the animals and vegetables there are mountains, table-lands, rivers, forests and lakes.

Note:--At the moment this picture was taken a war cloud drifted over the last two peaks.--Until the cloud passes it will be impossible to ascertain their altitudes.]

In former times mountains were used as protective barriers. Today they serve as monuments to Public Men for whom they are named (_See Presidential Range_), and country seats for retired Grocers and Fishmongers.

Rivers are the most curious and interesting form of Water.

Though seldom as shallow, they are as lengthy and involved as Congressional speeches, and have to be curled into the most ludicrous shapes to get them into the countries where they belong.

The first thing a river does after rising is to betake itself as fast as it can to the nearest River-Bed, in which it remains for the rest of its days.

The largest river in the world is the Amazon, named after the single-breasted suffragette of ancient times.

_QUESTIONS_

_How many rivers can get into one river-bed?_

_Why is a Congressman?_

When Noah saw the flood subside,
"The world is going dry!" he cried,
"So let us all, without delay,
Fill up against a drouthy day."