GENERAL

SYLLABUS. 163

 

What sum was paid for Alaska by the United States
Government?

Name the principal indentations of the coast of Alaska.
What is the extent of its coast line?

Name the principal islands of the western coast. Of the
southern coast.

Describe the surface structure of Alaska. To what gen-
eral system of mountains do its elevations belong? Name
some of the principal peaks. Are any of them volcanic?

Describe the river-system of the Yukon. Where is the
Kuskovim River? Which of these rivers has a delta
mouth? Which has an estuary?

What is the general climate of Alaska? How does the
climate compare with that of corresponding latitudes in
the interior of the country or on the Atlantic coast? Why
is this?

Describe the vegetation of Alaska. What are the prin-
cipal trees?

Name the principal food-fish of Alaska. Name the prin-
cipal fur-bearing animals. What other large animals are
found in the country ?

Which is the principal settlement? Name some of the
different people who inhabit Alaska.

MAP QUESTIONS.

——-0595,00—__.

Describe from the Physical Map of the United States
the surface structure of the country, giving the relative
position of the High Lands and Low Lands. :

Describe the Pacific Mountain System.

Describe the Appalachian Mountain System.

Locate the following: the Black Hills; the Wahsatch
Mountains; the Sierra Madre; San Louis Park; Pike’s
Peak; Long’s Peak; Fremont’s Peak.

Describe the drainage of the Great Lakes.

Name the principal rivers which empty into the Atlantic.
Into the Gulf of Mexico. Into the Pacific.

Name the principal tributaries of the Mississippi.

Where are the Santa Barbara Islands? The Bahama
Islands? Vancouver’s Island?

Trace on the map the isothermal ‘line of 45°.

What is the cause of the southward deflection of
the isothermal lines in the western part of the United
States ?

Prove from the isotherms that the climate of the
northern half of the Atlantic coast is colder than the
southern half.

In what portions of the United States is the lowest mean
annual temperature found? The highest?

Name the swamps and sounds of the Atlantic sea-
board whose formation is to be traced to fluvio-marine
devosits.

What swamp is due to coral formations ?

 

GENERAL SYLLABUS.

- ——00$6400—\—.

Physical Geography treats of the distribution of the land,
water, air, plants, animals, and minerals of the earth.

The earth moves through empty space around the sun.
It is kept in motion in its orbit by its inertia and the
attraction of the sun.

The rotundity of the earth is proved—l. By the ap-
pearance of approaching or receding objects; 2. By the cir-
cular shape of the horizon; 3. By the shape of the earth’s
shadow; 4. By the great circle of illumination; 5. By
_ actual measurement.

Exact geographical position is determined by reference
to certain imaginary lines called parallels and meridians.

Representations of the whole or of parts of the earth’s
surface are made by means of maps.

Maps are drawn on different projections: the Equa-
torial, the Polar, and Mercator’s projection are in the most
general use. §

The length of daylight in either hemisphere depends on
the extent to which that hemisphere is inclined towards
the sun ; the iongest day in the northern hemisphere occur-
ring June 21st, when the sun is vertical over the Tropic of
Cancer.

The change of seasons is occasioned by the revolution
of the earth, together with the inclination of the earth’s
axis at an angle of 66° 33’ to the plane of its orbit,

and the constant parallelism of the axis with any former
position.

The Torrid Zone is the hottest part of the earth, because,
at one time or another throughout the year, every part of
its surface receives the vertical rays of the sun.

The following different opinions are held concerning the
condition of the interior of the earth:

(1.) That the earth has a solid centre and crust, with a
heated layer between.

(2.) That the crust only is sclid, and the remainder suf-
ficiently heated to be in a fused or pasty condition.

(3.) That the earth is solid throughout, but highly heated
in the interior.

The proofs of the present highly-heated condition of
the interior of the earth are as follows:

1. In all parts of the earth, the deeper we penetrate the
crust, the higher the temperature becomes; that is to say,
the entire interior is heated.

2. The presence of volcanoes, which, in all latitudes,
eject melted rock from the inside of the earth; that is to
say, the entire interior is filled with matter sufficiently hot
to melt rock at ordinary pressures.

3. The occurrence of earthquake shocks in all parts of
the earth.