same with the sea mile; being one minute, or the 60th part of a degree of a great circle on the earth's surface.

**Geography**

**Introduction**

Geography is that part of knowledge which describes the surface of the earth; its divisions, extent, and boundaries; the relative position of the several countries and places on the globe, and the manners, customs, and political relations of their inhabitants. The word is Greek, γεωγραφία, from γῆ or γῆς, terra, "the earth," and γράφω, scribo, "I write." As everything that immediately contributes to the ascertaining of the situation and limits of countries and places on the surface of the earth, is within the province of geography, this science includes the description and use of globes, maps, and charts, with the methods of constructing them.

This science has been divided into Geography properly so called, or a description of the lands of the geography-globe, and Hydrography, or a description of the waters; but this division is of little consequence, and is now seldom employed. Geography has also been divided into general and particular, terms which are variously understood by different writers on the subject. By Varenius, one of the oldest and best modern writers on general geography, general or universal geography is used to denote that part of the subject which considers the earth in general, and explains its affections as a terrestrial globe, without attending to its arbitrary division into different regions; and by particular or special geography, this writer understands the description of the particular regions of the earth; and he divides this latter into two parts; chorography, describing some considerable...