Home Geography.

If I should ask, "Which is the way to your home?" who could tell me what I mean?

You all know which way you must go to find your home, but if you should wish to go to a place where you have never been, you would ask, perhaps, "Which way is it?"

The way to a place is called direction. In order to find a place, we must know in what direction from us it lies, and we have names for directions, such as north, south, east, and west. We may know these directions by seeing where the sun is.

Did you ever see the sun rise? Point to the place where you saw the sun rise. The direction in which the sun seems to rise is called the east.

Did you ever see the sun set? Point to where you saw the sun set. The direction in which the sun seems to set is called the west. The west is just the opposite direction from east.

When do we see the sun rise? Where do we see the sun rise? What is the name of this direction? When do we see the sun set? Where do we see it set? What is the name of this direction? On which side of the schoolroom does the sun rise? On which side does it set? Which is the east side of your desk? Which the west side?

When coming to school this morning, in what direction did you see the sun? If we walk so that the morning sun shines in our faces, in what direction are we going? What direction is behind us?

Now that you know the east, you will be able to find other directions in this way: Stretch out your arms so that your right hand points toward the east, and your left hand toward the west. You are now facing the north. The direction behind you is the south.

Write the following on your slates:

The sun seems to rise toward the east, and set toward the west. The west is just the opposite direction from the east.

When my right hand is pointing to the east, and my left hand to the west, my face is toward the north and my back is toward the south.

ORAL EXERCISES.

Which is the north side of the schoolroom? Which is the south side? Who sits to the north of you? To the south?

In what direction do the pupils face? On which side of your schoolroom is the teacher's table? Which sides have no windows? Which sides have no doors?

If a room has a fireplace in the middle of the east side, which side of the room faces the fire? Suppose the wind is blowing from the north, in what direction will the smoke go?

In what direction from the schoolhouse is the playground?

What is the first street or road north of the school? The first street or road east? South? West?

In what direction is your home from the school? The school from your home? The nearest church from the school? The post office from your home?

You have learned how to tell north, south, east, and west by the sun; but how can we tell these directions at night?

Ask some one to point out to you a group of seven bright stars in the north part of the sky. Some people think that this group of stars looks like a wagon and three horses; others say that it looks like a plow.

The proper name of the group containing these seven stars is the Great Bear. The group was given this name because men at first thought it looked like a bear with a long tail.

These seven stars are called the Dipper. It is a part of a larger group called the Great Bear. Find the two bright twinkling stars farthest from its handle. A line drawn through them will point to another star, not quite so bright, called the North Star. That star is always in the north; so by it, on a clear night, you can tell the other directions at once.

Write on your slates:

Sailors out on the sea at night often find direction by looking at the North Star.

But there are times when it is cloudy, and neither the sun nor the stars can be seen. How can we tell direction then?

Have you ever seen a compass? It is a box in which is a little needle swinging on the top of a pin. When this needle is at rest, one end of it points to the north.

As the needle shows where the north is; it is easy to find the south, the east, or the west.

With the compass as a guide, the sailor, in the darkest night, can tell in what direction he is going.

North, south, east, and west are called the chief points of the compass.

Other directions are northeast, halfway between north and east; northwest, halfway between north and west; southeast, halfway between south and east; and southwest, halfway between south and west.

Write on your slates:

The chief points of the compass are north, south, east, and west.

Other directions are northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest. Sailors find their way over the ocean by the help of the compass.

Your teacher will give you time to discover answers to these questions. She could tell you, but it is better to find them out for yourself.

If I go out of doors, how can I find the north? How can I find it on a starlight night? How can I find it on pleasant days? How on rainy days? How does a sailor find the north?

If you were lost and knew your home was north, how would you find it? Do you know how hunters and Indians who live a great deal in the woods find out where the north is? When you are in the woods, notice the amount of moss on the north side of trees as compared to that on the south side.

As winter approaches; many of our birds will want to go to a warmer country; in what direction will they fly? Point to where ice and snow have their home. What direction is that?

In what direction does your shadow fall at sunrise? At sunset? At noon? When, during the day, is your shadow shortest?

In what direction does your shadow extend from yourself when it is shortest?

What time of day is noon? How can we tell when it is noon? When is the sun highest in the sky?

What may we discover by watching the direction of the smoke from the chimneys? What does a vane on a steeple tell us? What is a north wind? A south wind? An east wind? A west wind?

What kind of weather may be expected from a north wind? From a south wind? From an east wind? From a west wind?

Write all that you can tell about the wind.

What was the direction of the wind during the last snow-storm? Why is the north wind cold? Why is the south wind warm?

To tell where a place is, we must know its direction. But this is not all; we must also know how far it is from us; that is; its distance. To find this out we measure.

You have often heard of an inch, a foot, and a yard. This line is one inch long:

Your ruler is twelve inches long, that is a foot. Three lengths of your ruler make a yard. A yard stick is three feet long.

With these measures you can tell how long your slate or your desk is, or how long and wide the schoolroom is.

The inch, foot, and yard are used for measuring short distances. But when we wish to tell the distance between objects far apart, we use another measure called a mile. A mile is much longer than a yard.

Think of some object that is a mile from our schoolhouse. How long would it take you to walk that distance?

ORAL EXERCISES.

How many inches long is your slate? How long is your desk? How many feet long is your room? How wide is it? What is the distance around the room? How many feet wide is each window? Each door? How many yards wide is the nearest street or road?

About what is the height of the schoolroom? Of the schoolhouse? Of the tallest tree near by? Of the nearest church spire?

About how long is the longest street in the town where you live? Do you know how many blocks or squares make a mile? Name the nearest river or creek. Give its direction from the school. In what direction does the water run? Give the direction and distance of the nearest church. What must you know to go to any place?

NOTE.--Have pupils estimate distances by the eye, then verify by actual measurement. Continue the exercises until the work becomes quite accurate. Correct ideas of distance are necessary in order to understand how large the world is, and how far apart places are on its surface.

You all know what a picture is. But do you know what a plan is?

A little boy wanted to show his cousin, who lived some miles away; the shape and size of his house, and how the rooms were arranged. How could he do this?

On a large sheet of white paper, he placed lines of blocks in the form of his house. Then, with a lead pencil, he drew a line on the paper along the sides of the blocks. He next took up the blocks, and there, on the paper, was a plan of his house.

Here is a picture of a schoolroom. We see desks, the teacher's table, a chair, a clock, globe, and two maps, in the picture. The picture shows these objects as they would appear if we stood at the door behind the teacher's table and looked in.

This is a plan of the schoolroom, a picture of which is shown above. You see, the plan and picture are quite different.

The picture shows the objects as we see them before us. The plan shows where the objects are, and their direction from one another.

Now let us see if we can make a plan of the same schoolroom on the blackboard.

The first thing is to measure the sides of the room. We will suppose the two long sides are each forty feet long, and the two short sides each thirty feet long. Now we will draw four straight lines on the board for the four sides. Of course, the lines must be much shorter than the sides themselves, else our plan will be too large.

Make one inch in the plan stand for one foot in the room. So the lines for the long sides will each be forty inches long, and the lines for the short sides thirty inches long.

The next thing is to make spaces in the sides for the door and the windows, and oblongs for the desks. But we must remember that an inch in our plan stands for a foot in the object itself, and therefore we must allow as many inches for the width of doors and windows, and for the length and width of the desks, as there are feet in the objects themselves. Thus, if the door is three feet wide, we must make it three inches wide in our plan.

And lastly, we will draw a circle for the globe, and an oblong and square for the teacher's table and chair, that shall show just where and just how long these objects are.

We have now a plan of the schoolroom. Let us put N. to show the north side of the room, S. to show the south side, E. to show the east side, and W. to show the west side. We can now tell the direction of one thing from another in our plan.

Write the answers to the following questions, in full sentences:

What is the name of your school? On what street or road is it? Which side of the street? Between what streets? In which direction does the building face?

How many rooms has the building? In what part of the building is your room? How large is it? How many doors and windows? How many seats?

In what direction is the school from your home? How far is it? How long does it take you to walk to school?

EXERCISES IN DRAWING PLANS.

Draw a plan of the schoolroom on your slates. It cannot be drawn on your slates as large as it was drawn on the board. So let one inch stand for ten feet, instead of for one foot; that is, use a scale of one inch for every ten feet. Your plan will not be as large as mine, but it will show the position of everything as correctly.

Draw a plan of the top of the teacher's table, showing two books and an inkstand upon it. First, measure the sides. Then decide to what scale you will draw your plan.

Now draw a plan of the schoolhouse and grounds. You must measure not only the house, but the width and length of the yard. The plan must show the size, shape, and place of everything upon the grounds. (While drawing a plan of this kind, it is better to let the pupils face the north. The top of the plan should be the north side of the grounds.)

Draw a plan of your own room at home, showing the table, bed, chairs, and other objects in it.

ORAL EXERCISE.

If the shape of a room is shown on the blackboard, what have we drawn? Is a plan the same as a picture? What is the use of a plan? Mention some things of which plans can be drawn.

NOTE.--It is wrong to teach that the top of a map or plan is always north; as often as not, the bottom is north, in plans especially.

The floor of our schoolroom is level. The playground is almost, if not quite, level. As you look away from the school, is the land nearly level? Did you ever see a broad extent of nearly level land?

Let us imagine that we are out on a piece of nearly level land, many, many times larger than our playground. Such a broad, nearly level stretch of land is called a plain.

If this plain were covered with rich green grass and beautiful flowers, we should call it a prairie. In the summer it is a vast sea of waving grass. On the prairie we might find herds of wild horses and cattle, which feed upon the rich grass. If it were late in the summer, when the grass is dry and crisp, it might catch fire, and we might then see a grand sight--a prairie on fire.

We now come to another plain, miles and miles long, miles and miles wide. No rain falls here, and therefore we see no grass, nor flowers, nor cattle, nor horses, nothing but dry, burning sand, rocks, or gravel. We are in a desert. But we are so thirsty and tired!

No water to drink, no shade from the burning sun! Suddenly, in the midst of the desert, we come to a beautiful grassy spot. There is a cluster of date-palm trees, and, better still, a well or a spring of fresh water. This pleasant spot in the desert is called an oasis. Here we may quench our thirst, and rest beneath the shade of the trees.

An oasis is a fertile spot in a desert. What does fertile mean? When do we say land is fertile? When barren? When desert?

Find a picture of a palm tree, and try to draw it.

If we were really in a desert, we might see a company of merchants carrying goods to sell in the countries they visit. Such a company is called a caravan. The goods are packed in bundles, which are carried on camels' backs. The camel can live for a long time without drinking, and can carry a heavy load of merchandise a long distance. It is sometimes called the ship of the desert.

Why do travelers use camels to cross the desert? Why do they not use horses? If you can not find answers to these questions in your books at home, ask your teacher about them.

You have seen a small whirlwind in the street. The leaves flew round and round, the dust whirled along in clouds. Trees are sometimes torn from the ground, and houses overturned, by a strong wind.

Now think of a wind-storm in the desert. A loud, rustling noise is heard. Great clouds of fine sand are lifted into the air--clouds which darken the sun! Travelers must at once jump from their camels, cover themselves with their cloaks, and lie flat on the ground.

The poor beasts will close their eyes and nostrils, and kneel with their backs to the wind until the storm has passed over.

Thankful will the travelers be if none of them are buried in the sand.

The land is not always level like a plain. In some places it is high and uneven. We all know what a hill is. It is land a little higher than the surrounding country.

Is there a hill near where you live? Let us walk to the top, and stand on its summit. We will start from the foot or base of the hill. Now we have climbed its steep, rough sides or slopes. Was the ascent difficult? Is the view from the top fine?

What can you see from the top of the hill--meadow, river, lake, town? What grow on the hill? What live on the hill?

Which part of a hill is called the base, or foot? The slope, or sides? The top, or summit?

Give two names for the lowest part of a hill. Two for the highest part. Two for the part between the highest and lowest parts.

Parts of the land very much higher than the surrounding country are called mountains. Mountains are much higher than hills. Have you ever seen a steeple one hundred feet high? A mountain is as high as twenty such steeples, one on the top of the other. How high the mountains must be!

Some mountains reach away above the clouds. Their white tops seem to touch the sky. A man on the summit of one saw the clouds beneath his feet, while the sun shone where he stood. When it lightened he saw the flash far below him.

Is it warm or cold at the tops of mountains? With what are many high mountains covered, even in summer?

The land between mountains or hills is called a valley. Is there a valley near here? What do you call the ground on either side?

Would you like best to live on the mountains or in the valley? Why?

Are mountains of any use?

Yes, hills and mountains are of very great use. They make the earth more beautiful. Tops of high mountains are so cold that they turn the clouds into drops of water which fall as rain or snow. Then mountains give rise to rivers which make the valleys beautiful with grass and flowers. Mountains do much good to some countries by keeping off cold winds. They also give us coal and iron and other minerals which we find so useful.

Here is a picture. What do you call the very high land on the right and on the left? The long, narrow piece of land between the two mountains?

When you look at this picture you must think of a real valley between mountains.

Bring pictures of hills and mountains to school; if you can find them.

If you had a molding-board and a few quarts of sand; you might represent hills and mountains with valleys between. Think of a real hill while you mold.

Draw on your slate a hill you have seen with a little of the surrounding country.

Write:

A long, narrow piece of land between hills and mountains is called a valley.

A hill is land a little higher than the country about it.

A mountain is land that rises to a very great height above the country about it.

Heat, as you have learned, changes water into vapor. You must also know that cold turns vapor back into water again.

Now let us think of the kettle with the boiling water. You will notice a little space; quite close to the spout, where nothing can be seen. Is there no vapor there?

Yes, there is vapor there, but it cannot be seen; it is invisible. A little way from the spout we see something white, like smoke. This is only the vapor that has been chilled by the cool air and changed back again into water. The water is in the form of very fine particles, and may be called water-dust.

Hold a cold plate over boiling water. Observe how the water-dust gathers into drops that roll down the plate.

You have seen the inside of windows in cold weather covered with moisture. Where does it come from? Why did it form there? Why does it sometimes run down on the cold pane?

The vapor in our breath turns into water on frosty mornings. Explain this.

Carry a pitcher of ice-water into a room, and notice what takes place. A thin mist at once gathers on the outside of the pitcher. What takes place among the little drops of mist? What becomes of these larger drops?

Where does the water which collects on the outside of the pitcher come from? Does it come through the pitcher from the inside? Would the same thing have taken place if some other cold object had been used instead of a cold pitcher?

Write out what you have learned about vapor.