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IN presenting to the public this work on geography, the publishers respectfully invite the attention of Boards of Education, teachers, and parents to the following statement of its plan and leading features:

The study of geography is now, much more than at any former period, an essential element in education. It is second in importance only to reading, writing, and rudimentary arithmetic. The newspaper is and must continue to be the chief source of that knowledge of current events which is indispensable to every intelligent person. Its telegrams and other items and articles necessarily assume that the reader possesses a knowledge of certain geographical facts. It is the aim of this work to present and impress these facts.

To this end the careful selection and arrangement of topics have been regarded as matters of prime necessity in order to insure such a unity of plan as to present a simple, yet practical, definite, and coherent view of the subject.

The geography of commerce has been made the leading line of thought, because commerce, domestic and foreign, is becoming more and more a dominant interest in the affairs of the leading nations of the world, and because no other department of the general subject presents in such bold relief their rivalries and mutual dependencies. It involves a systematic presentation of the resources and industries of countries as dependent upon climate, soil, mineral deposits, and other physical conditions. It also includes all important information concerning cities and towns as commercial, manufacturing, and mining centres, and an outline of the system of transportation, domestic and international. The tables of reference show the total imports and exports of all the maritime nations, and particularly the commerce of each of these countries with the United States.

The work is essentially in two distinct parts-a physical geography and a political geography. The physical geography is treated with sufficient fulness, and presents no difficulty greater than the description of a chain of mountains or of the course of a river. A systematic outline of this department will be found in the questions of the general review. Each of the two parts has a series of special maps, exercises, and descriptions. Each series is complete in itself,

and may be so taught if it be thought desirable. Again, by a differ ence in type and by the arrangement of the questions, each series presents the choice of a simple outline or a fuller course.

The questions are so clearly related to the maps and the text as to avoid the serious difficulties which frequently arise from obscurity in this connection. The cities and towns called for by the text are at once pointed out both by the prominence of the type and by a peculiar device of color which will be found upon the maps.

Among the many other original matters of great practical importance to pupils and teachers are the map showing the divisions and subdivisions of the United States, and the Industrial and Commercial Map of the United States, exhibiting the leading industries and resources of the country, and its various existing and proposed systems of transportation by railroad, coast lines, and interior water-ways, the whole for the first time so simply and clearly presented as to be easily committed to memory. The definitions are few and brief, and, like the rest of the work, are expressed in the simplest language which the subject will allow. The map-drawing exercises and the tabular reviews are simple and practical, and will commend themselves to teachers.

The perfect clearness and legibility of the maps and the character of the type used in the text prevent injury to the sight of the pupil and teacher.

In view of the limited time which can be given to geography in school, this treatise has been made as concise as possible, without limiting its comprehensiveness. This is not only very desirable in itself, but was made necessary by the large type and the great space given to the instructive pictorial illustrations. While great care has been taken to reject all matter not strictly relevant, it is believed that no other School Geography presents so many essential facts and principles in so few words.

The character of the type and the quality of the illustrations, maps, paper, and binding of this work leave it without a rival in the beauty and excellence of its mechanical execution.

The work in all its details shows that the author is a practical teach er, to whom the difficulties of the class-room are thoroughly familiar.

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY.

I.

THE EARTH: ITS SHAPE AND SIZE.

1. Geography is a description of the surface of the earth, and of its countries and their inhabitants.

2. The shape of the earth is nearly that of a ball, globe, or sphere.

The earth does not appear to be shaped like a ball, but looks like a large plain, stretching out in every direction. The reason of this is that we see only a small part of it at one time.

NOTE. To ensure correct conceptions on the part of the pupil, it is recommended that the lessons on Mathematical Geography be illustrated by means of a globe.

3. We know that the earth is shaped like a ball from the following facts:

First. Ships have sailed around it.

Second. When a ship sails away from the land, the hull or body first disappears from sight, then the sails, and last the tops of the masts.

When a ship is coming in from sea, the tops of the masts are seen first, then the sails, and lastly the hull or body. If the surface of the water were flat, the hull would be seen as soon as the masts.

In like manner, in travelling across broad plains we see the tops of distant mountains long before their bases are visible.