Page 157 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

156 THIRD BOOK 01
ZONE, n., a girdle: the wide space lying between the tropics-like a girdle surrounding the globe-is called the torrid zone ; those be­ tween the tropics and the arctic and antarctic circle are ca ed the north and so th temperate; and those extending to the polar cir­ cles, the north and south frigid zones. F. zone; G. zone, from zon­ nuein, to gird.
HEM1ISPHERE, n., half of a sphere or globe. F. hemi here, from (G.) hernisus, half, and aira, a sphere.
1. THE rm of the earth is nearly globular or spherical. Being somewhat compressed at each ex­ tremity of the axis, its diameter, om north to sou , js about 26 miles less than that om east to west. The mean diameter is computed at 7,912, and its cir­ cum rence at 24,856 miles English; and the area of the earth's entire sur ce at 198,000,000 square miles. Of this area, more than two-thirds are covered with water ; the remainder is the land. For greater ac­ curacy of description, writers on geography suppose circles to be drawn on the sur ce of the earth, dis­ tinguisting them into great and small circles. The great circles are the equator, ecliptic, and meridians; the small circles, the parallels of latitude, ur of which rm the boundaries of the zones; namely, the two tropics, and the two polar circles.
2. That part of the earth's sur ce called the land, is divided into two great continents, the eastern and weste , situated principally in opposite hemispheres. The eastern continent is 31 millions of square miles in extent, and is said to contain about 800 millions of inhabitants. It comprises Europe, Asia, and Af­ rica, and is called the Old World. The western continent contains 17 millions of square miles, and a population of about 47 millions. It is divided into North and South America, and, because discovered at a comparatively late period, is called the New
World. To these grand divisions another has been added, called Oceanica, consisting of the numerous