id of its palaces, circumference, commerce, &c.? What other great city? emperor resides at Mcaco? Of what is it the seat? For what distinguished? nich is the only port where the Dutch are permitted to trade? Who inhabit the island of Jesso, and to whom are they now subject?

SIBERIA, OR ASIATIC RUSSIA.

Extent 5,000,000 sq. ms.-Pop. 5,000,000.-1 per sq. mile. This vast region extends from the Altaian and Caucasian ranges of mountains on the south, to the Arctic ocean on the north, and from the Ural mountains on the west, to the Pacific ocean on the east. Its length from east to west is about 4,000 miles, and its average breadth about 1,500. It is as large as the whole Chinese empire, and nearly three times as extensive as Russia in Europe; but the population is extremely small in proportion to the extent of territory.

It is generally an alluvial, level country, consisting of immense plains or steppes, traversed by several large rivers flowing to the Northern ocean, and embracing deserts, impenetrable marshes, and numerous salt lakes. The most extensive steppes are in the southwestern sec. tion. Along the shores of the Arctic ocean, there are marshy, mossy plains of frozen mud, or tracts covered with perpetual ice and snow. On the east are the mountains of Stannavoy, and another chain which traverses the peninsula of Kamschatka.

The climate is proverbially cold and inhospitable, The winter is long and severe. The summer commences suddenly, and is short and scorching. The soil, to a vast extent, is sterile. The more northern regions are entirely incapable of cultivation.

The native tribes which inhabit Siberia are very various. Those most deserving of notice, are first, the Tartars. who occupy the more southern parts, and bear different names, viz. Kalmucks, Monguls, Tongusians, and Manchews. Second, the Samoiedes in the frozen regions of the north, who appear to be of the same race with the Laplan. ders of Europe, and the Esquimaux of America. They are mean and filthy in personal appearance, and in character ignorant, superstitious, and idolatrous. Third, the Ostirks who inhabit the more central parts. They are in gross ignorance, clothed with skins and furs, and subsisting by fishing and hunting. Fourth, the Kamschadales, the inhabitants of Kamschatka, who resemble the Somoiedes, living upon fish, in cabins half under ground, and occasionally travelling about in sledges drawn by dogs instead of reindeer.

Kamschatka is a peninsula 600 miles long, and separated from America only by Beerings' straits, 40 miles wide. The mountains of this peninsula are lofty and majestic, always covered with snow, and some of them are remarkable as volcanoes. The prevailing forms of religion in Siberia are grossly idolatrous. Buddha and the Grand La ma are extensively worshipped. The numerous tribes are tributary to the Russian government. The city of Tobolsk on the Irtish, is the capital of Western Siberia. Three fourths of the inhabitants are Rus.

sians, either exiles or the descendants of exiles; the rest are Tartars. This place is about 1,200 miles east of St. Petersburg, and is the grand thoroughfare of the caravans passing to and from China. Pop. 20,000. Irkutsk is the capital of Eastern Siberia. It is situated near lake Baikal, and is a flourishing city; a great deposite for furs, and the cen tre of an extensive trade with America and China. Population 12,000. Yakutsk, on the Lena, is the most northern town, and Ökotsk the prin cipal port of Eastern Siberia. The latter is the great medium of trade between America and Kamschatka.

QUESTIONS.

Of what extent and population is Siberia, or Russia in Asia? How is it bounded? To what latitude does it extend on the N.? To what on the S.? Through how many degrees of longitude does it extend? What are its length and breadth 7 What mountains border it on the W.? On the S.? On the E.? What are the three principal rivers, and where do they empty, and of what length? What large island on the northwest? How does Siberia compare, in size, with the Chinese empire, and with Russia in Europe? How many inhabitants on a square mile? What kind of a country is it? In what part are the most extensive steppes? What is the surface along the Arctic ocean? What of the climate? Of the winter? Of the summer? Of the soil? Of the soil in the northern regions? What of the tribes in Siberia? What are the Tartars in the southern parts ealled? Where are the Samoiedes and how described? The Ostiaks and how described? The Kamschadales and what is said of them? How long is Kamschatka? What of its mountains? What forms of religion? To whom are the natives tributary? Where and what is the city of Tobolsk? What course and distance from St. Petersburgh? What and where is Irkutsk ? Of what is it the great deposite? Where and what is Yakutsk ? Where and what is Okotsk? What straits divide Asia from the northwest coast of America, and how wide is it in the narrowest part?

INDEPENDENT TARTARY.

Extent 700,000 sq. ms.-Pop. 5,000,000.-7 per sq. mile.

Independent Tartary is a large, but thinly settled country, lying be tween the Caspian sea and Chinese Tartary. The surface is level, di versified, or mountainous. The climate is warm, dry, and pleasant. The soil is partly barren; but is, in a good degree, fertile in the wes tern parts, and along the shores of the Caspian

It is inhabited by various tribes of Mahometan Tartars, generally in the barbarous state, and of a roving, predatory character. The Kir ghises occupy the northern part, especially the wide uncultivated plains east of the sea of Aral, and subsist in a great measure upon their flocks and herds. The Usbecks are the ruling people in the southern portions, who also lead a pastoral life; but reside a part of the year in towns and villages, and are considerably advanced in civilization. Many of the inhabitants of Tartary have large possessions in horses, sheep, goats, and camels. Agriculture is here little attended to. Manufactures receive some attention. The people are in a state of independence, and are not accustomed to paying tribute.

This is the native country and was the favorite residence of Tamerlane, the great conqueror of Asia in the fourteenth century. Samar. cand, on the river Sogd, was the seat of his vast empire, and was en

riched by him, with the spoils of India and of the eastern world. It was also renowned as a seat of Mahometan learning, and has still an astronomical observatory, and is the modern capital. Bukharia, on the same river, is a great and populous city. It is distinguished as a place for the study of the Mahometan law. The inhabitants are in a measure civilized. There are here some manufactures; but the commerce has declined. Pop. 100,000. Khojund and Koukan, on the Sihon, are no mean cities, but respectable in population and distinguish ed for the beauty and healthfulness of their situation.

QUESTIONS.

How many square miles and inhabitants in Independent Tartary? What are its boundaries? What mountains on the east divide it from Chinese Tartary? What large sea on the west? What sea in the interior? What three principal rivers flow into the sea of Aral? What of the surface? Climate? Soil? By what tribes inhabited, and what i said of them? What parts are occupied by the Kirghises, and how do they subsist? What parts by the Usbeks, and how described? What of agriculture and manufactures ? Are the people of Tartary independent? What great conqueror had his birth and the seat of his empire in this country? What was his capital city? By what was it enriched, and for what renowned? Is it the modern capital? On what river is Bukharia, and how is the city described ? What other two cities are mentioned, and what is said of them?

AFRICA.

Extent 12,000,000 sq. ms.-Pop. 100,000,000.-9 per sq. mile.

QUESTIONS.

In what direction is Africa from America? From Europe? From Asia? By what waters is it bounded on the north, north-east, cast, south, and west? Which is the most northern cape or point of Africa? Which the most southern? The most eastern? The most western? On which side of the equator does the greater part of Africa lie? In what zone? Between what deg. of Îat. and long. ? Aus. Between 370 N. and 350 S. lat.; and between 180 W. and 510 E. long. Is Africa an island or peninsula ? What isthmus connects it with Asia? How wide is this isthmus? Ans. About 60 miles. What strait divides Africa from Spain? What strait between Africa and Arabia? What large island on the south east coast of Africa? By what channel are they separated? What other islands off that coast? Which way from the Cape of Good Hope is the island of St. Helena, where Napoleon died? What two islands north-west of St. Helena? What islands in the Gulf of Guinea? Where are the smaller gulfs of Benin and Biafra? What capes south of Guinea? What cluster of isles between Sierra Leone and the mouth of the river Gambia ? What cluster west of Cape Verd? Where is Cape Blanco ? Which way from Cape Verd are the Canary isles, and what are the names of some of them? Which way from Morocco is the island of Madeira? Which way from the straits of Gibralter are the Azores ? What is the length of Africa from Cape Sena to the Cape of Good Hope? Ans. About 4,500 miles. What its greatest breadth from Cape Verd to Cape Guardafui? Ans. About 4,000 miles. What number of sq. ms. and pop. does it contain? How does Africa compare in size with Europe? How with S. America? How with N. America? How with Asia? How does the population of Africa compare with that of Asia? With that of Europe? With that of America? What six countries in northern Africa border on the Mediterranean? What three on the eastern coast bordering on the Red Sea? What countries border on the Indian Ocean, between the straits of Babelmandel and the Tropic of Capricorn? What are those in S. Africa, or south of the Tropic? What are those on the west coast, from the Tropic of Capricorn to Cape Verd? What are the divis

ions of central Africa between Senegambia and Abyssinia? What vast desert extending from the Atlantic Ocean to Egypt and Nubia? What are the boundaries of the five states of Barbary, viz. of Morocco? Of Algiers? Of Tunis? Of Tripoli? Of Barca? What are the boundaries of Egypt? Of Nubia? Of Abyssinia? The boundaries of Adel or Ma gadoxa? Of Zanguebar? OfMozambique? Of Monomotapa? Caffraria? Cape Colony? Hottentot country? What are the boundaries of Zimbebas? Benguela? Congo, including Angola? Where is Loango? Biafra? What the boundaries of Upper or Western Guinea? Of Senegambia? Of Soudan or Nigritia? Of Darfur ? Of Sahara the Desert? Which is the most obscure or unexplored region in Africa? Ans. That vast interior between the Mounlains of the Moon and S. Africa, or the Tropic of Capricorn,

GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

PART FIRST.

MOUNTAINS.-RIVERS.-LAKES.

Africa, in extent of territory, is the second grand division of the globe. It is distinguished for its situation beneath the direct and powerful influence of a tropical sun; for the general heat of its climate; for the immensity of its sandy deserts; for the multitude, and monstrous size of its noxious animals and reptiles; the ignorance and barbarism of its inhabitants; and for the lamentable obscurity which hides large portions of it from the civilized world. The geography of Africa has always been involved in peculiar darkness. The most learned of the ancients could speak of this continent at large, only from vague report or in the mystery of fable. And the expeditions of modern travellers with a view to explore its vast central regions, have in general proved disastrous, either from the sultriness of the climate or the barbarism and perfidiousness of the people. So that comparatively little definite knowledge has as yet been obtained concerning this quarter of the globe, except of the more maratime parts.

The three principal ranges of African mountains are the Atlas, the Jibbel Kumri, cr Mountains of the Moon, and the mountains of Kong. The Atlas chain is in the north part of the continent, and extends from the Atlantic Ocean, in an eastern direction, through the states of Barbary, separating the more fertile portions of Barbary from the sandy regions bordering on the Great Desert. Its greatest heights, which are along the eastern boundary of Morocco, are elevated above 13,000 feet, and covered with perpetual snow. The Atlas stretches half across the continent, and its elevations gradually lessen from Morocco towards the east.

The Mountains of the Moon, called by the natives Jibbel Kumri, are in central Africa, extending east and west, south of Abyssinia and Darfur, and are considered the highest mountains in Africa. They constitute the source of the Nile and of other large rivers, of which little is known by geographers. The mountains of Kong are in the western part of central Africa. The principal rivers with which we are acquainted are the Nile, the Niger or Quorra, the Tchadda, the Senegal, Gambia, Congo or Zaire.

The Nile has its rise in the Jibbel Kumri. Its course is above

2,000 miles in length, and for the last 1,000 miles it receives no branch. es. Its banks are high and mountainous through Nubia and Upper Egypt, where its waters are often raised from their deep bed by arti. ficial means, to fertilize a narrow belt of land, about a mile in width, along the borders of the river. But in lower Egypt, called the Delta, it periodically, in the summer months, overflows its banks, rising 30 feet, and spreading fertility over all the adjacent plains, while it dis. tributes its waters into numberless canals and passes into the sea by several mouths.

The great river Quorra, or Niger, rises in the mountains of Kong, and after running an easterly course till it passes near the city of Tim. buctoo, it turns toward the south, passing the cities of Yaoori and Boossa and many other populous towns and villages, and having receiv. ed near the lat. of 80 the large tributary stream Shary or Tchadda, from lake Tchad on the north-east, it proceeds generally in a southern direction, and empties into the Gulf of Guinea by several mouths or estuaries, the principal of which have been called the Benin or Formo. sa, the Nun, and the New Calabar rivers. The final course and termination of the Niger were discovered in 1830 by Richard and John Lander, two English gentlemen, who actually sailed down the river from the city of Yaoori to the mouth of the Nun, near Cape Formosa. In this happy result of their adventure they have decided an important geographical question, which had long been agitated, but till then had never been solved by Europeans.

This river as surveyed by the Landers in the rainy season, is represented as a magnificent stream from one to five miles in width, traver sing a fertile and extensively cultivated region, and interspersed with many interesting islands, while numerous towns and market places are found on its borders, and a vast multitude of the long canoes of the natives are plying up and down upon its waters. The stream is infested with crocodiles and river horses; and its navigation is rendered dangerous in the dry season, by the numerous rocks and sand banks near the surface; it is however practicable for a steam boat in the rainy months, to ascend the river a distance of 4 or 500 miles, and it is expected that by this means a communication will soon be effectual. ly opened by Europeans into the interior of Africa, with a view to com. mence a profitable trade with the natives and to further the great work of their civilization.

The number of people residing within the basin of this river is esti mated at more than 25 millions. The large river Tchadda issues from lake Tchadd, and runs a south-westerly course, till it forms a junction with the Quorra at the town of Cuttumcurrafee. It is described as being two or three miles wide at its mouth, above which, at a distance of three days journey, the city of Funda is said to be situated on its bank. Other rivers farther east are also represented by the natives as proceeding from lake Tchadd toward the south, and it is conjectured they are tributary waters of the Congo.