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17 do.

G. Britain and Ireland London

316. Europe has three inland seas: the Mediterranean, the Baltic, and the White Sea; and its shores are washed by the Atlantic, the Bay of Biscay, the English Channel, the Northern Ocean, St. George's Channel, and the German ocean.

317. The great European rivers are, the Danube, the Rhine, the Elbe, the Weser, the Maine, and the Oder, in Germany; the Wolga and the Nieper, in Russia; the Rhone, the Garonne, and the Seine, in France; the Thames, the Severn, and the Humber, in England; the Clyde, in Scotland; and the Shannon, in Ireland.

Obs.-The rivers of South Britain are thus described:- From his oozy bed,

Old father Thames advanc'd his rev'rend head:
Around his throne the sea-born brothers stood,
Who swell with tributary urns his flood.
First, the fam'd authors of his ancient name,
The winding Isis and the fruitful Tame!

The Kennet swift, for silver-eels renown'd:
The Loddon slow, with verdant alders crown'd:
Cole, whose dark streams his flow'ry islands lave:
And chalky Wey that rolls a milky wave:
The blue transparent Vandalis appears:
The gulphy Lee his sedgy tresses rears:
And sullen Mole that hides his diving flood:

And silent Darent stain'd with Danish blood.-POPE.

318. The mountains of Europe are, the Alps, of Switzerland; the Pyrenees, between France and Spain; the Dofrafelds, in Norway; the Welsh, in Wales; and Ben Nivis and Ben Lomond, in Scotland. It has also three volcanoes, or burning mountains; viz. Etna, in Sicily; Vesuvius, near Naples; and Heckla, in Iceland.

319. The British empire is composed of two large islands, Great Britain, and Ireland, and several small ones, as the Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, the Hebrides, the Orkneys, Jersey and Guernsey, and the Scilly-islands. Great Britain is 700 miles long, and 250 broad; and Ireland 300 long, and 200 broad. Great Britain includes Scotland on the north, Wales north-west, and England on the south, east, and west.

320. England is subdivided into 40 counties as follow:

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Nottinghamsh. Nottingham Oxfordshire

Lancaster Worcestershire Worcester

Hereford

Shrewsbury Monmouthshire Monmouth
Derby Gloucestershire Gloucester

Oxford

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321. Wales is divided into 12 counties, as be

neath.

Counties. Chief Towns.

Flintshire

Counties.
Flint Radnorshire

Chief Towns.
Radnor

Denbighshire Denbigh Brecknocksh. Brecknock Montgomerys.Montgomery Glamorganshire

Anglesea

Cardiff

Beaumaris Pembrokeshire Pembroke Caernarvonsh. Caernarvon Cardiganshire Cardigan Merionethshire Harlech Carmarthensh. Carmarthen 322. Scotland is divided into 33 counties, as

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Chief Towns.

$25. Ireland is divided into four provinces; Ulster to the north, Leinster to the east, Munster to the south, and Connaught to the west; and these are subdivided into 32 counties.

Counties.

Dublin

Counties. Chief Towns. Dublin Antrim Carrickfergus

Louth

Wicklow

Wexford

Longford

East Meath

West Meath

Drogheda Londonderry

Derry

Wicklow Tyrone

Omagh

Wexford Fermanagh

Inniskilling

Longford Donegal

Lifford

Trim Leitrim

Ballinrobe

Mullingar Roscommon

Roscommon

King's County Philipstown Mayo Carrick on Shannon

Queen's Co.

Maryborough | Sligo

Kilkenny

Kilkenny Galway

Kildare

Naas and Athy Clare

Sligo Galway

Ennis

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Obs. For the particulars of the British Empire, see Goldsmith's British Geography.

324. ASIA includes countries the most populous and fertile of any on the globe. It was, besides, the first peopled, was the residence of our first parents, the scene of scripture-history, and in Canaan, Jesus Christ worked his miracles, and promulgated the doctrines of revelation and a future state.

325. Modern Asia contains, Siberia, Tartary, China, Birmania, Malacca, Hindostan, Thibet, Persia, Arabia, Syria, Turkey in Asia, besides the vast islands of Japan, Borneo, Sumatra, Ceylon, New Holland, the Phillipines, Formosa, &c.

326. The internal seas of Asia are the Red Sea, the Persian Gulph, the Caspian Sea, the Japanese Sea, and the Yellow Sea. Its coasts are

washed besides, by the Great Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Chinese Sea, the Northern Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and the Arabian Sea.

327. Its great rivers are, the Ganges, the Euphrates, the Indus, the Amur, the Kian Ku, and the Koan Ho; and the mountains where these rise are, the Uralian, the Gauts, those of Caucasus, Taurus, and Thibet.

328. British India, or countries governed by. Great Britain in India, are those immense and fertile districts watered by the Ganges, of which Calcutta is one of the capital towns; nearly the whole of the coasts of the peninsula of India; and the island of Ceylon.

Where sacred Ganges pours along the plain,
And Indus rolls to swell the eastern main,
What awful scenes the curious mind delight;
What wonders burst upon the dazzled sight!
There giant-palms lift high their tufted heads;
The plantain wide his graceful foliage spreads;
Wild in the woods the active monkey springs;
The chattering parrot claps her painted wings;
'Mid tall bamboos lies hid the deadly snake;
The tiger couches in the tangled brake;
The spotted axis bounds in fear away;
The leopard darts on his defenceless prey.
'Mid reedy pools and ancient forests rude,
Cool, peaceful haunts of awful solitude!
The huge rhinoceros rends the crashing boughs;
And stately elephants untroubled browse.
Two tyrant-seasons rule the wide domain,
Scorch with dry heat, or drench with floods of rain;
Now feverish herds rush madding o'er the plains
And cool in shady streams their throbbing veins:
The birds drop lifeless from the silent spray,
And nature faints beneath the fiery day:
Then bursts the deluge on the sinking shore,
And teeming Plenty empties all her store.

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