gation, the readiest medium of communication between remote parts of the earth. The conveyance from Europe to China by sea is much easier than carriage by land one fourth of the distance; and a vessel will sooner circumnavigate the globe than a caravan will travel the length of the Russian empire.

Nothing can be more opposite to mechanical ideas of regularity, than the form and disposition of the land on the globe as moulded by the circumfluent ocean. Two main continents or continued tracts appear, of which, however, large parts are nearly severed from the rest, and the edges are singularly broken by projections and indentations. In many places separations seem to have been entirely effected by the force of the water, producing the detached spots called islands; unless it be a more probable supposition, that from a gradual shrinking of the fluid which once covered the whole globe, the elevated parts and prominent points of a subaqueous land have disclosed themselves as islands, peninsulas, and promontories.

Of the two continents the larger, which from the earliest records of the world has been the seat of all science, was by the geographers of antiquity divided into three portions, usually called quarters of the world; and this distribution is still observed. The other continent, a new discovery, has been considered as a fourth quarter; and thus the number, as referring to parts of a whole, has been completed, although with great disproportion of the several parts. The islands have been adjudged to those quarters nearest to which they are situated.

The Ocean may, with respect to its universal communication, be regarded as one; but for geographical purposes it has been distributed into portions, relatively to the lands between which they are interposed, or their position with regard to the poles and circles of the globe. The greatest of these parts, constituting almost one half of the surface of the globe, has had the appellation of the Pacific ocean, from the tranquillity observed by navigators in crossing it in certain directions. It fills up the space between Asia and America, and is geographically divided by the equator into northern and southern: the northern may be said to be bounded by the strait between the two continents: the southern has no definite limit.

Another great ocean is the Atlantic, flowing between Europe and Africa on one side, and the eastern coast of America on the other. Northward it joins the Arctic ocean, an appellation given to the sea between the northern shores of the old and new continents, and the north pole; an expanse of ice rather than of water. An Antarctic sea round the south pole has also been marked by geographers, but no land has been discovered to give it a natural limit. The Indian ocean is that tract of sea which lies between the southern coast of Asia, the eastern side of Africa, and New Holland. All the other seas may be considered only as arms or branches of these. The Mediterranean, however, flowing between the three quarters of the old continent, and communicating with the Atlantic only by a narrow strait, may claim particular notice.

EUROPE.

OF the four quarters of the world Europe is considerably the least. It occupies a portion of the north temperate zone, from the 36th degree of latitude northward: a small part of it, however, projects beyond the arctic circle. Its boundaries are the Atlantic and Arctic oceans to the west and north; the Mediterranean and Black seas with their communicating branches to the south; and an indistinct line of rivers and mountains, separating it from Asia, to the east.

The outline of this mass is extremely irregular, being broken into islands and peninsular tracts, and intersected by bays and gulfs. Of the latter the most remarkable is the Baltic sea, with its annexed gulfs of Finland and Bothnia, making a peninsula of a large part of the north of Europe. The German sea and British channel cut off the British isles from the continent. The bay of Biscay interposes itself between France and Spain, and, by the approach of the Mediterranean on the opposite side, forms the peninsula of Spain and Portugal. The Adriatic or gulf of Venice renders a similar office to Italy.

The internal part of Europe exhibits the variety of surface that is to be found in all large tracts of the globe. Its peculiarities will be noted under the head of each country into which it is divided. It will suffice in a general survey to remark, that the land rises into the highest mountains toward the south, especially opposite to the centre of the Mediterranean sea, where they constitute the Alps of Savoy and Switzerland; and that the eastern side, for the most part, consists of one vast plain, extending from the Black sea to the Northern ocean.

Within such a range of latitude great diversities of climate must necessarily exist; but the prevalent character of Europe is that of moderate temperature. Of the two extremes that of cold alone is felt; the heat in no part can be compared with

ous.

that of the torrid regions. In no part is the human skin blackened by the rays of the sun; nor does nature in any part yield those spontaneous products which sustain the life of man without care and toil. To these circumstances it is probably owing that the men of Europe have at all times displayed more vigour and energy than the inhabitants of the other quarters of the globe; and that in arms, arts, and sciences they have for a long course of ages maintained a superiority, which the progress of improvement has rendered more and more conspicuWhilst European colonies and settlements are spread over the richest tracts of the world, and every coast is visited by ships from Europe, she keeps herself inviolate from all extraneous dominion, and is only known to the unenterprising natives of the east and the south by the awe she inspires. It is in Europe alone (that part of America which may be called European excepted) that the human mind is in a progressive state; that improvement of every kind is assiduously cultivated; and that the principle of liberal curiosity is active. Here only, in short, man appears in the full exertion of all the faculties of his nature, and attains his proper rank in the scale of beings. With the European countries, therefore, as the most worthy objects of contemplation, and as chiefly influencing the fate of the rest of the world, these sketches will commence. We shall begin our tour from the north, that we may enjoy the satisfaction of seeing the face of nature gradually improve upon us in our progress.

DENMARK AND NORWAY.

THE most northern part of Europe is distinguished by a vast peninsular tract, disposed in a kind of horse-shoe shape, of which the Atlantic and Arctic oceans form the exterior boundary, while the Baltic sea, with its branches, the gulfs of Bothnia and Finland, separate it from the southern mass of continent. On the east it is joined to Russia by a broad neck, though a chain of lakes leaves but a small space of connecting land.

Toward the south-western extremity of this peninsula, another peninsular tract, but of small comparative dimensions, runs out to meet it; and some islands form steps, as it were, between the two.

This great portion of land, of which the part known to the ancients received the general name of Scandinavia, now constitutes the kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden, and makes a small addition to the mighty empire of Russia.

DENMARK PROPER consists of the smaller peninsula above mentioned, and its annexed islands. From the borders of the Dutchy of Holstein in Germany, about lat. 54° 20′ the coun tries of Sleswick and Jutland extend northward, till they terminate in a point or beak, bending eastward in lat. 57° 40'. This tract, about 220 miles in length, is very narrow at its southern part, but increases in breadth northward, till it approaches its termination. The principal islands are Zeeland, Funen, Laland, and Falster, stretching across the entrance of the Baltic sea, to which they leave only narrow channels of communication. The largest island, Zeeland, approaches very near to the Swedish coast, from which it is separated only by the strait of the Sound. This is the chief passage to the Baltic, of which Denmark, from its position, holds, as it were, the keys;