Using your journeys in a new way. — In your journeys thus far, you have seen only a few parts of the great world in which you live. However, from the few parts you have seen, you can learn some things about other parts of the world, too. The following pages will help you see what these journeys and your maps show you about the parts of the world you have not visited.

Adding the halfway line. — Men can find places just halfway between the poles by measuring the height of the sun in the sky, just as Amundsen and Peary measured its height to find the poles. The drawing in Figure 170 represents the earth. The dots at A, B, C, D, and E, stand for places that are just as far from the North Pole as they are from the South Pole. In Figure 171, some other places that are just halfway between the North Pole and the South Pole are shown by dots. Could you show on Figure 171 still other "halfway" places? Do you see that, if you added signs for all the places that are just halfway between the poles, you would have a line like that in Figure 172? Do you see that this line would run entirely round the globe? This line that stands for all the places that are exactly halfway between the North Pole and the South Pole is called the equator. The first part of the word is just like the first part of "equal." This line was given the name equator because every point in the line is equally distant from the two poles.

Of course, as you really travel from the region of the North Pole to the region of the South Pole, you do not see any such line. On most passenger ships that cross the equator, however, the captain tells the passengers when the sun measurements show that the ship is just halfway between the poles, and there is some sort of celebration on board. Although there is no real line to cross, many people call going through this halfway place. "crossing the line."

It is very helpful to have such a line on your globes and on your maps, even though there is no line on the earth through these hallway places. It helps you tell where places are. You can say, for example, that a place is about halfway between the equator and the North Pole, and that another place is only a third of the way from the equator to the South Pole. It is also helpful in several other ways that you wifi learn later on.

On the map in Figure 173 find the equator. Notice that the Congo region is near the equator. Is the mouth of the Congo north of the equator, or south of it? Are the other lands in which you have traveled north of the equator, or south of it?

Four important facts. — You should now know the following facts:

1. All the places in the world that are just halfway between the North Pole and the South Pole are at the equator.

2. As you go from lands near the equator toward the North Pole, you go into cooler and cooler regions.

3. As you go from lands near the equator toward the South Pole, you go into cooler and cooler regions.

4. Winter months south of the equator are summer months north of the equator. In the same way, summer months south of the equator are winter months north of the equator.

An arithmetic problem about the poles. — The North Pole is a little more than 6ooo miles from the equator. How far from the equator is the South Pole? How far is the North Pole from the South Pole?

The land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Arctic Ocean. — You have found in your journey-stories that the countries on the northern shores of the Mediterranean are joined to one another and to other countries. All of them are parts of one very large land. Notice in Figure 137 that the large peninsula in which Norway and Sweden lie is also part of this land. You have visited only a few parts of this great mass of land that lies between the Mediterranean Sea and the Arctic Ocean, but from the many things you, have seen in those few places, you have some idea of how many, many things there are for you yet to see in this land. In fact, even if a person were to spend his whole life traveling in this part of the world between the Mediterranean Sea and the Arctic Ocean, it would be hard for him to see all that is there. This great land is called the continent of Europe. A continent is a mass of land so large that it is very hard indeed for anyone to understand what continent means before he has really crossed one, and has learned in this way how it feels to go over hundreds and hundreds of miles of lowlands, to cross mountains, to travel on lakes and rivers and railroads, to visit cities, and to watch thousands and thousands of people at their daily work in different parts of the land. If you think, however, of all the things you have read about the places between the Mediterranean Sea and the Arctic Ocean, you will have some idea of what the continent of Europe is.

Other continents. — There are other continents besides Europe. You know that the lands just south of the Mediterranean Sea are joined to the lands near the Congo. All these lands are part of the continent of Africa. Figure 137 does not show the southern part of this continent. You can see, however, that even the part of Africa it does show is much larger than Europe.

The land of the Tigris and Euphrates is neither in Europe nor in Africa. Notice in Figure 137 the ocean east of Africa. This is called the Indian Ocean. Find the land lying between the Indian Ocean and the Arctic Ocean. This is part of the huge continent of Asia. Most of this continent is not shown in Figure 137. It extends thousands of miles eastward from the land of the Tigris and Euphrates.

There are three other continents that you have not even had glimpses of on these journeys, but one of them you doubtless have heard of because you live in it. Your own continent is North America. The other two are South America and Australia.

The following questions and directions will show you that you can tell some things about these continents even before you have read any stories about them.

Southern Africa. — In Figure 173 the sign for the southern part of the continent of Africa has been added.

If there is a globe you can look at, see if you can find the sign for Africa on the globe. The picture in Figure 174 was taken near the southern end of Africa. What things in the picture show you that this land is not so hot and rainy as the lands near the Congo? It should not surprise you to learn that southern Africa is cooler than the Congo region, for you now know that, as you go from lands near the equator toward the South Pole, you go into cooler and cooler regions.

Asia. — In Figure 175 the sign for the remainder of Asia has been added.

How much of the continent of Asia is north of the equator? Is any part of Asia near the equator? If so, which part? Is any part of Asia as near the North Pole as Norway is?

One of the pictures in Figures 176, 177, and 178 shows a scene in the northern part of Asia, one shows a scene in the southern part, and one was taken about halfway between. In which of these places was Figure 176 taken? In which one was Figure 177 taken? In which one was Figure 178 taken? Tell why you think as you do in each case.

Do you see now how the maps and what you learned from your journeys help you to fit pictures into lands that you have not read about at all?

Australia. — 1n Figure 179, signs for another part of Antarctica, the remainder of the Indian Ocean, and the continent of Australia have been added.

Which part of Australia is nearest the equator? Which part, then, would you expect to be cooler, the northern part or the southern? Even though you now know that this is true, doesn’t it still seem a little strange to you to think of going north to get to a warmer land, and of going south to get to a cooler one, as one must do in Australia? Is southern Australia as far from the equator as northern Norway is? You will not be surprised, then, to know that even the southern, cooler part of Australia is not so cold as Norway. The pictures in Figures 180 and 181 were taken in Australia. Which one was taken in northern Australia? Why do you think so? Christmas day in southern Australia. — This letter was written by a little girl in Australia to her cousin in South Africa.

December 29

Dear Mary: Your Christmas box for us came three weeks before Christmas but mother, of course, did not let us open it till Christmas day. I like my book very much. I have read part of it already.

We are having a very pleasant summer. Two days before Christmas we went on a picnic and gathered flowers for our Christmas decorations. Mother has promised us another picnic on New Year’s day if it does not rain.

Your loving cousin,
Jane.

Although it seems strange to us to think of Christmas day as coming in the middle of the summer, it did not seem at all strange to Mary, for her Christmas, like Jane’s, comes in summer. As you have learned, summer comes in lands south of the equator at the time when winter comes north of the equator.

Antarctica. — What does the sign for Antarctica in Figure 179 now bring to your mind? Does it make you think of the things stated in sentences 3, 4, 6, 12, and 13 in the "north and south" exercise? These were the sentences that you should have marked "south," and 1, 2, 8, 9, and 10 should have been marked "north." The other statements were true of both the Arctic and Antarctic regions.

North America and South America. — Figure 182 is a map of the half of the world not shown in Figure 179. The continent wholly north of the equator is North America. The other continent is South America.

Of the three pictures shown in Figures 183, 184, and 185, one was taken in northern North America, one in middle North America, and one in the southern part of North America. Tell which one was taken in each of these parts of the continent. Tell why you think as you do in each case.

Of the two pictures in Figures 186 and 187, one was taken in northern South America and the other in southern South America. Tell which you think was taken in each of these places and your reasons for thinking as you do.

Which continent extends farthest south — South America, Australia, or Africa? Are there any oceans shown in Figure 182 whose names you did not already know? If so, you can find their names in Figure 188.

A caution and a check. — Remember that the pictures you have seen give you mere glimpses of some lands in the continents you have not visited. You later will see many pictures of very different kinds which were taken in those continents.

You can find in the List of Illustrations the titles of Figures 176, 177, 178, 180, 181, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, and from them you can find whether or not you placed these pictures correctly. This list also will help you check the answer to the Antarctic picture puzzle on page 128 (use the back button to return).

Comparing your map with a globe. — See if you now can find from a globe anything about the six continents that you did not find about them from your maps. If so, what?

Can you find the equator on the globe?

After comparing your maps with the globe, are there not some questions you would like to ask? Do you not wonder, for example, why the globe is hung or placed on a standard so that its axis is not straight up and down? Do you not wonder, too, why there are many lines besides the equator which run round the globe? In the following ten paragraphs, you can find answers to these questions.

A journey of the earth. — Men have found that the earth not only turns on its axis (p. 121), but also moves in an almost circular path round the sun. This journey is millions of miles long, and it takes the earth almost exactly a year to make it. Of all the journeys about which this book tells, the greatest is this journey which the earth itself makes each year round the sun.

As you "journeyed in distant lands," did you wonder why days and nights differ so much in length? When you are older you will find how the turning of the earth on its axis and the journey of the earth round the sun help to explain facts about day and night.

The inclined axis. — As the earth moves along the great circular path just mentioned, its axis is tipped or inclined just as the axis of a mounted globe is. Such globes, then, are so mounted as to suggest the true position of the earth’s axis. Your world maps were placed on the page as they are because it is easier to read a world map if its axis is straight up and down on the page than it would be if its axis were tipped.

Signs new to you. — There are some lines drawn on your globe that are not on Figure 179. Some of these lines help you follow directions correctly on the globe. Those that run from pole to pole are, of course, northsouth lines. Those that run round the globe in the same direction as that in which the equator runs are east-west lines.

In Figures 188 and 189, some north-south and east-west lines are shown. You will need to use such lines many times in your later work.

There are also four special lines that will be helpful to you in other ways. In Figures 188 and 189, they are dotted lines. Two are north of the equator, and two are south of it. Find the two nearest the equator. You may think of these as "sun lines," for they tell you about the sun’s behavior. Find the one marked Tropic of Capricorn. If you are at any place in the world south of this line, you always see the sun at noon in the northern sky. South African boys and girls learn in their geography classes that north is the direction in which they must look to see the sun at noon. Which side of a South African house is the shady side at noon?

Find the line marked Tropic of Cancer. If you are north of that line, you have to look toward the southern sky in order to see the sun at noon. You yourself do live north of this line, and you are so used to seeing the sun in the southern sky at noon that it may be hard for you to realize that some boys and girls live where they must always look north at noon to see the sun.

If you were somewhere between these two lines, you would see the sun at noon sometimes in the northern sky and at other times of the year in the southern sky.

The other special lines, called the Artic and Antarctic Circles, are "length of day lines." They pass through the places where the longest day is twenty-four hours long. Only north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle are there "days" and "nights" more than twenty-four hours long.

These four lines will be helpful, then, when you want to find out how the sun behaves in some part of the world you have not visited.

A world framework. — Has the building of the world map in Figures 40, 43, 80, 97, 137, 173, 175, 179, and 182 helped you to realize how large the world is, and how many places there are in it? There are, moreover, very many important places which are not shown on the maps in this book because they are not mentioned in the text. From now on, you can use maps as a sort of framework into which you can fit every place that you read about or see. The next book of this series of geographies helps you to see how your own home fits into the world framework.

A game to play with your map. — For the first few times that you play this game, look at the world maps in your books as much as you need to. Then play it without looking at them. The child who is "it "says" I am thinking of a continent," and then calls the no.me of some other child in the class — "Mary," for example. Mary then says, "North, south, or both?" By this she means to ask, "Is it all north of the equator, all south of the equator, or is part of it north and part of it south of the equator?" The person who is "it" may say, for example, "Both." Then Mary has two guesses as to which continent it is. If she names the right one either on the first trial or second trial, and can write the name of that continent on the board correctly, Mary is "it." If not, the same child is "it " again.

A world map puzzle. — Answer each of the following questions with "Yes" or "No."

I. It is a fine spring day in September and the birds are beginning to come back from the north, where they have spent the winter.
1. Would this be true in Europe?
2. Would this be true in Asia?
3. Would this be true in southern Australia?

II. "I do not want to live here another year. I do not like to live where it is always summer."
1. Might the child who wrote this have been living during that year in southern South America?
2. Might he have been living in southern Europe?
3. Might he have been living in northern South America?
4. Might be have been living in northern Asia?

III. October is a pleasant autumn month. Summer has passed. Winter is coming.
1. Could this be true in southern Africa?
2. Could this be true in southern South America?
3. Could this be true in Europe?

A fable puzzle. — The man who wrote the fable discussed at the top of the next column lived in a part of the world you have visited on these "journeys in distant lands." As you read the following paragraph, decide whether you think he lived near the Congo, the Mediterranean Sea, the Rhine, or the Arctic Ocean. Tell why you decide as you do.

Do you know the fable of the Fox and the Grapes? If not, ask some one to read it or tell it to you. Before knowing this fable, had you ever heard of a fox that wanted grapes? Do not foxes in your country want rabbits, chickens, and such things instead? The fox really did not want the grapes to eat. He wanted them to drink. The man who wrote this fable lived in a land of long, hot, dry summers. In the winter time there, the foxes find water in the streams to drink, but in summer time, when many of the streams dry up, they have a hard time to find water. They get very thirsty. They have found that the juice in the grapes quenches their thirst, and so they suck grapes in the vineyards. The farmers have to watch their vineyards carefully to keep the foxes from spoiling their crops. The grapes are not safe, unless, like those in the story, they are so high from the ground that the foxes cannot reach them.

A check. — There is a sentence on page 82 which will help you tell whether or not you solved the fable puzzle correctly.

"Ocean." — Thirty-one people, induding a " pronouncer," are needed to play this game. Thirty sheets of cardboard or of heavy paper also are needed, on which to draw large letters. There should be one letter only on a sheet. The followS ing letters should be colored red: A on two sheets C on two, D on one, F on one, I on two, L on one, N on two, P on. one, R on one, and T on two. On fifteen other sheets, the same letters should be colored black.

Fifteen people stand in a row along one side of the room, and fifteen others stand facing them in a row along the opposite side. Give a red letter sheet to each person in one row, and a black letter sheet to each person in the other row. When the "pronouncer" calls, for example, "Atlantic," the people in each row who have the letters which spell Atlantic step forward and arrange themselves in a line (just in front of their row and facing their rivals) in such an order that the letters they hold in front of them spell Atlantic correctly. The side wins a score on which the people holding these letters are so arranged first. If the Reds win, the "pronouncer" calls, "Reds, one; Blacks, zero." The "pronouncer" then calls the name of another ocean, the race to get properly placed is repeated, the new score is announced, and so the game continues till the names of all the oceans have been spelled. The "pronouncer" then describes an ocean, instead of naming it. For example, he may call, "The largest ocean," and the side by which Pacific first is spelled correctly wins the score. He might call instead, "The ocean between Europe and North America, ""The ocean between North America and Asia," "The ocean between Africa and Australia," "The ocean nearest the North Pole," and so on. The side wins which has the highest score at the close of the game. This is a game for which you may "choose sides."

Reading your world maps. — If you really know how to read your world maps, you answered "No" to all the ten questions in the world map puzzle excepting those numbered 3, and to the third question in each group you answered Yes." Is it not just as much fun to read maps as it is to read words and to study pictures? The more you use maps as you study about other lands, the easier it will be to read them.

Return to Table of Contents