СНАР. XXIX. THE Dominion of Canada-New Bruns. XXXVI. AUSTRALIA-OUTLINE PAGE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 1. GAIR LOCH, INVERNESS 2. LOCH NA GAR 3. LINLITHGOW PALACE. 4. BONNINGTON LINN, FALLS OF CLYDE . 5. THE CLAUDA, GALWAY 6. A VIEW ON THE RIVER SHANNON 7. THE OLD WEIR BRIDGE, KILLARNEY 8. THE ROCK OF CASHEL 9. MUCKROSS ABBEY, KILLARNEY 10. The Grisly Bears of NorTH AMERICA II. CLEARING THE FOREST for a Settlement. 12. TRAVELLERS ATTACKED BY WOLVES IN A CANADIAN FOREST. 13. BEAVERS AT WORK 14. A KANGAROO HUNT 15. WASHING the Sand for Gold 129 GEOGRAPHICAL READER. BOOK IV. CHAPTER I. THE BRITISH ISLES. 1. The English lad who has carefully mastered the geography of his own neighbourhood, county, and country, may with advantage extend his view further. He will wish to learn something first of that group of more than a thousand islands of which Great Britain is the largest, and next of the countries in other climes which are under his Sovereign's rule. 2. These countries are in all seventy times as large as the British Isles. For by means of her powerful navy Britain holds sway over one-sixth of all the land on the globe. On this vast empire the sun never sets. Before the sun dawns on England it is high noon in India. When it is evening in Ireland it is noon in Canada. When the sun sets to the western shores of that Dominion it is overhead to Australia and dawning on our African settlements. From the lad's own experience he knows that our weather is never too hot nor too cold to permit work, whether of hand or head, and that business is never stopped by earthquakes or hurricanes. From having so often surveyed the globe, he will have noticed that the British Isles lie about the centre of the great masses of land on the surface of the earth. 3. He cannot fail to have heard of the advantages which our country gains from the belt of water by which it is severed from the mainland. Forming a highway of trade, this belt enables us to fetch and carry goods cheaply, to and from any part of the world. It spares us the need of taking away from our fields and factories many thousands of hands to guard a long land frontier. Time was when this was not so; for many ages ago the British Isles formed part of the mainland of Europe. 4. We have seen that the surface of England slopes from north-west to south-east. If the whole west of Europe were upheaved only 200 feetthe height of many a church spire-we might walk dryshod eastward from London to Belgium, from Norfolk to Holland, from Yorkshire to Denmark. · 5. Our eastern shores are, on the whole, sandy and flat, though here and there crop up cliffs, just as here and there from our plains rise low hills. Our western shores, on the other hand, are for the most part indented and craggy. 6. Having noticed this already in our wanderings about the southern two-thirds of Great Britain, we shall not be surprised to find that the formation of the northern third of the island is in this respect similar. Scotland, too, we shall find presenting a rugged wall of heights to the west, but gradually relaxing her frown towards the south-east. 7. As we shall find it useful to compare our foreign possessions with the British Isles, it may be as well to notice some measurements. |