Chapter I: The Earth as a Whole

1

Long ago wise men found out that the great earth on which we live is not flat, but round like a ball. It is so very large, and we see so small a part of it at one time, that it looks flat to us. Take a piece of paper and tear out a small hole. Hold the hole over your globe so that a small part of the surface shows through. Does the small piece of the globe look very curved?

These men noticed ships sailing away across the water. When the ships were far away the lower part of the boat could not be seen. More and more disappeared till only the tops of the masts could be seen; and at last they were gone too. If you make a little paper boat and let it sail flat across your desk and then try it over the globe, you can see how this proves that the earth is not flat.

Did you ever see an eclipse of the moon? The big curved shadow was the earth's shadow. Why was the shadow round?

A globe shows the shape of the earth.

2

Look at all of the globes and maps in the room. Find how the land and the water are shown. Can you see any islands, any peninsulas? A tiny dot may mean the whole city with hundreds of homes, factories and other buildings. Do you remember how we looked down on our town from a great height and saw the many houses? Just think of a tiny dot meaning all of our town.

3

How are the rivers drawn? Think of the great wide flowing river with its wharves and its boats. It flows on for miles and miles. Some day all of its water will reach the ocean. This little black line means all of that great broad river.

Why do we have such tiny things to represent such great things?

See this land called North America. It would take five days and nights in a fast express train to travel straight across it.

4

We can cut the globe in half and make a flat picture of the two parts as they look when placed side by side.

Another name for the globe is sphere. "Hemi" means "half," so each half of the globe is called a "hemisphere."

One half is called the Eastern Hemisphere and the other half the Western Hemisphere.

In the Western Hemisphere we have the Western Continent, which is America. This Western Continent is made of two grand divisions, North America and South America. Why are they so named? We live in North America. Find our city and the river nearest to it. North America was joined to South America by a narrow strip of land called the _Isthmus of Panama_. Look at the map and think why millions of dollars have been spent through many years to cut through this isthmus. Now vessels can pass through this Panama Canal.

Look at the map of the Western Hemisphere and notice what it contains besides the Western Continent of America. There is more water than land. This water forms the great oceans.

Perhaps you have been to Atlantic City or some other seashore place and have seen the Atlantic Ocean. Do you remember the big waves which rolled in on the sandy beach and the pretty white-caps far out? Did you see the big nets drawn in full of hundreds of fish? Perhaps you bathed in the ocean and got your mouth full of water. It did not taste like the water we drink, for it was salty. All of the water of the ocean is salt water, but the water of rivers is fresh.

The oceans are very large. It would take us five or six days and nights on a great steamer to cross to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. In what direction should we go?

5

On the western side of America there is another great ocean, the Pacific Ocean. It has salt water like the Atlantic Ocean, and it also is constantly in motion with great waves.

North of North America, in the intensely cold region, is the Arctic Ocean. Great masses of ice called icebergs and ice floes are floating through this ocean.

Far south of South America is the Antarctic Ocean. It does not touch South America. It too is in a cold part of the world.

6

Do you know of any people who came here from England, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy or Russia? Their homes were in the Eastern Hemisphere. The Eastern Hemisphere has a great mass of land called the Eastern Continent. The Eastern Continent is composed of three grand divisions, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Find the great island named Australia. That is sometimes called the Australian Continent because it is so large.

7

The same oceans which are in the Western Hemisphere extend into the Eastern Hemisphere. Can you name them? The Eastern Hemisphere also contains the Indian Ocean, which is not in the Western Hemisphere.

8

1. How can people go from North America to Europe?

2. How do the Chinese, whose home is in Asia, come to America?

3. Nearly all of the rubber which we use for automobile tires, overshoes, erasers, and hundreds of other articles comes from South America. Over what ocean does it come?

4. On what ocean did Peary sail on his journey to the North Pole?

5. When Amundsen searched for the South Pole, he started from an island near Australia. On what oceans did he sail?

6. When the first negroes were brought here from Africa over what ocean did they come?

7. What ocean trip is shortest from Africa to Asia?

8. Of what use is the ocean?

9. Which ocean can we reach most quickly from our home? How long would it take us to get to this ocean?

10. How long would it take us to reach the Pacific Ocean?

"Behold the sea, ... splendid and strong, yet beautiful as the rose
or the rainbow; full of food, nourisher of man, purger of the world,
creating a sweet climate."--_Emerson_.