Physical GeographyD. Appleton and Company, 1877 - 119 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Atlantic Ocean atmosphere banks basin beach becomes bottom Britain brooks and rivers called carbonic acid carried channel cliff clouds cold colder comes condensed continually cooled crumbling crust currents decay deep descend dissolved drop of rain earth earth's surface escaping River evaporation film of mist flow frost gather glacier glaciers of Iceland globe gravel ground happens hard rock heat-rays hollows Jura Mountains layer mass melts miles moisture mouldering Mount Vesuvius mountains moving muddy muddy water night North Sea notice ocean particles perpetual snow Physics Primer plants and animals Pompeii quantity reach remains rise river wears road sail salt sand and mud school-globe sea-floor seen shower side sinks slope snow-fields snow-line soil springs Strait of Dover streamlets streams substance sun's takes place valleys vapour vast volcanoes warm watch waves wind winter worn
Popular passages
Page 44 - In hilly districts, where the surface of the ground has not been brought under the plough, you will notice that many places are marshy and wet, even when the weather has long been dry. The soil everywhere around has perhaps been baked quite hard by the sun ; but these places remain still wet in spite of the heat. Whence do they get their water ? Plainly not directly from the air ; for in that case the rest of the ground would also be damp. They get it not from above, but from below. It is oozing...
Page 18 - Carbonic acid gas is also one of the invisible substances of the atmosphere, of which, though it forms no more than four parts in every ten thousand, yet it constitutes an important ingredient. You will understand how important it is when you are told that, from this carbonic acid in the air, all the plants which you see growing upon the land extract nearly the whole of their solid substance (see Chemistry Primer, Art.
Page 104 - This caldron-shaped hollow on the summit of the mountain is the " crater." The intensely heated liquid in the sputtering, boiling pool at its bottom is melted rock or " lava." And the fragmentary materials — ashes, dust, cinders, and stones — thrown out, are torn from the hardened sides and bottom of the crater by the violence of the explosion with which the gases and steam escape.
Page 118 - ... like flies walking over a great hill. All that can be seen from the top of the highest mountain to the bottom of the deepest mine is not more in comparison than the mere varnish on the outside of a school-globe.
Page 46 - ... long journeying up and down in the bowels of the earth, it once more reaches the surface. It soaks through the soil together with other drops, and joins some feeble trickle, or some more ample flow of water, which works its way through crevices and tunnels of the rocks. It sinks in this way to perhaps a depth of several thousand feet FIG.
Page 7 - All round you there is abundant material fur this most delightful inquiry. No excursion you ever made in pursuit of mere enjoyment and adventure by river, heath, or hill, could give you more hearty pleasure than a ramble with eyes and ears alike open to note the lessons to be learnt from every day and from every landscape. Remember that besides the printed books which you use at home, or at school, there is the great book of Nature, wherein each of us, young and old, may read, and go on reading all...
Page 4 - You saw that the water was moving along the channel always from the same quarter. And now when the channel is filled with this rolling torrent of dark water, you see that the direction of the current is still the same. Can you tell why this should be ? Again, yesterday the water was clear, to-day it is dark and discoloured. Take a little of this dirtylooking water home with you, and let it stand all night in a glass. To-morrow morning you will find that it is clear, and that a fine layer of mud has...
Page 26 - Let us understand how this takes place. On a hot day you find that stones, soil, or other parts of the land get very warm under the sun's rays ; yet if you bathe in the sea at that time you feel its waters to be pleasantly cool. This shows that the land becomes more quickly hot than the sea. After such a hot day you will find that at night the surface of the land becomes much colder than the sea, because it parts with its heat sooner than the sea does. By day the hot land heats the air above it,...