Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n
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A89261
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A new geography with maps to each country, and tables of longitude & latitude.
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Moore, Jonas, Sir, 1617-1679.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing M2578; ESTC R231849
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65,080
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134
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to it it is Noon in that place whereof it is the Meridian for over every part of the Earth there is a Meridian so that the number of these Circles is almost infinite However out of all those there is one pitched upon which is called the great or first Meridian or the Geographers Meridian The Ancients chose the Meridian of the Canaries which they knew by the name of the fortunate Islands and some Moderns make use of it still in their Maps Others have pitched upon the Meridian of the Isles Azores or Western Islands which lie to the West of Europe From this first Meridian the Longitude of places is reckoned from West to East through the three hundred and sixty Degrees of the Equinoctial which is the circuit of the whole Earth whereas Latitude is only reckoned to ninety Degrees which make but a fourth part thereof The Tropicks are so called from a Greek Word Tropos which signifies turning because when the Sun is come to one of these Circles he returns again towards the Equinoctial The Tropick of Cancer is towards the Pole Artick and that of Capricorn towards the Antartick and both carry the names of the Signs of the Zodiack through which they pass each of them is distant from the Equinoctial three and twenty Degrees and a half which is the greatest distance of the Sun from that Circle The Polar Circles go round the Poles from which they borrow their names and are distant each from his Pole twenty three Degrees and a half Of the Zones THE four lesser Circles whereof we have been speaking divide the World into five parts called Zones that is to say Belts or Girdles because they begird the whole Globe One of them is Torrid two are temperate and two cold The Torrid Zone is comprehended between the two Tropicks and the people that inhabit it are called Amphiscians that is such as have their shadows both ways To all places of this Zone the Sun comes perpendicular twice in a year and therefore some of the Ancients believed this Zone inhabitable by reason of too much heat but we know it to be otherways now a days The Northern temperate Zone is between the Tropick of Cancer and the Artick Polar Circle The Southern temperate Zone is between the Tropick of Capricorn and the Antartick Polar Circle The Inhabitants of these Zones are termed Heteroscians that is such as have their shadow but one way The Frigid Zones are within the Polar Circles the Northern within the Artick and the Southern within the Antartick the people of those two Zones are called Periscians signifying that they have shadows round them on all sides To all places in these Zones the Sun in Summer never sets for some days and in the Winter he never rises for as long time The Inhabitants of the World are distinguished after another manner according to the different Scituation they have to one another as into Antipodes Antoecians and Perioecians The first are wholly opposite and when it it is Noon with us with our Antipodes it is midnight and they have Winter when we have Summer Our Antoecians have Noon and Mid-night when we have them but Winter for our Summer And our Perioecians have the same seasons that we have but the hours quite contrary for when we have Noon it is Mid-night with them Of Climates A Climate is a space of the Earth contained between two Circles Betwixt the beginning and end of a Climate in the length of the longest day of Summer there is half an hours difference For the clearer understanding of this it is to be observed that Countries under the Equinoctial have all the year round twelve hours day and twelve hours night but as places recede and are distant from the Equator they become more and more unequal and the days in Summer are longer than the nights This inequallity is marked by the Climats so that when on either side of the Equinoctial we find a place where the longest day of Summer is of twelve hours and a half that is the first Climate and so successively till we come to the Polar Circle where the longest day of Summer extends to twenty four hours For beyond that Circle the days encrease by whole days and months until ye come to the Pole under which the whole year makes but one day and one night six months long a piece Climats take their names from the famous places through which they pass Now to know in what Climate one is we must from the number of hours of the longest Day in Summer subtract twelve and double the Remainder that is reduce them into half hours and that will shew the Climate wherein we live CHAP. I. Of some proper terms of Geography HAVING explained the Circles that are useful to this Science we are now to consider some terms and words which are peculiar to it Continent is a vast space of Earth such as that which comprehends Europe Asia and Affrica it is likewise called the main Land Island is a piece of Land surrounded with the Sea or other Water and so divided from the Continent Peninsula that is to say almost Island is a part of the Earth encompassed by the Sea on all hands except on that part which joyns it to the Continent the Greeks call it Chersonesus a term sometimes made use of in Geography Isthmus is that Neck or Piece of Land that joyns a Peninsula to the Continent Promontory is a high Land running out into the Sea The Moderns call it a Cape Mountain is a part of the Earth higher than the rest that is about it Ocean is that vast body of Water which environs the Continents and is likewise called the Sea Gulph is an Arm of that Ocean running in between Lands The Latins call it Sinus and sometimes it has the name of Sea Bay is likewise an Arm of the Ocean but whose entrance is much wider than that of a Gulf. Port is a small part of Sea so hemb'd in by the Land that Ships may there lie in safety Harbour is the same thing almost Streight or Frith is commonly taken for a Channel that joyns one Sea to another or a Gulf to the Ocean there is also a Streight or Neck of Land which as we have said is called an Isthmus Banck is a heap of Sand in the Sea which puts Vessels in danger A Shelf is much the same on which and on hidden Rocks near the Surface of the Water Ships may split and be cast away Archipelago is a part of the Sea where many Islands are River is a running Water that loses its streams in the Sea CHAP. II. The Division of the Earth and Sea THE most common Division of the Earth is into four parts which are Europe Asia Africa and America the three first are comprehended in one Continent and is our old World and the other makes an Island of it self called the new World because it hath not been discovered but since the Year
one thousand four hundred and ninety two it is likewise called the West-Indies in distinction from the East-Indies which are in Asia Some Geographers divide the Earth into six parts adding to the four which we have named the Artick towards the Pole that gives it its name and the Antartick towards the South Pole this is called Terra Australis incognita or the Southern Land undiscovered and is thought to make a Continent as big as Europe Asia and Africa Of these two last we shall speak at the end of this Treatise Europe has Asia on the East separated from it by these limits the Egean Sea or Archipelago the Streights of the Dardanelli the Sea of Marmara the Streights of Constantinople the Black Sea the Streights of Caffa the Sea della Zabache the River Tanais and a Line drawn from its most Eastern Bank to the North Sea it hath the same Ocean on the North the Atlantick Sea on the West and the Streights of Gibraltar and Mediterranean Sea that divides it from Africa on the South From West to East that is from Cape St. Vincent in Spain to Constantinople it contains seven hundred seventy five French Leagues and from South to North that is from Cape Malee in Morea to the Northern Cape of the Laplanders eight hundred and twenty five Leagues Asia has to the West the same bounds that divide it from Europe and the Red Sea with the Streights of Suez that divide it from Africa on the South the Indian Ocean the Ocean of China on the East and on the North the Sea of Tartary called Mare Glaciale From East to West it contains seven hundred and fifty Leagues from the Archipelago to the Ocean of China and from South to North a thousand five hundred and fifty reckoning from Malacca to the Sea of Tartary Africa has on the North the Mediterranean Sea on the East the Red Sea with the Isthmus of Suez that divide it from Asia and the Indian Ocean On the South the Ethiopian Sea which with the Atlantick Ocean is likewise to the West of it From West to East that is from Cape Blank to the Cape of Guardafuy it contains a thousand six hundred and fifty Leagues and from South to North that is from the Cape of Good Hope to the Mediterranean Sea a thousand six hundred and seventy It is on all sides encompassed with the Sea except that narrow track of Land between the Red Sea and Mediterranean which is not above thirty Leagues in Length so that it is a perfect Peninsula America hath the North Sea to the East the South Sea to the West to the South the Streights of Magellan which divide it from the Terra del fuego and to the North unknown Lands or Seas It is divided into two great Peninsulaes by the narrow Ibstmus of Panama which is but eighteen Leagues over From South to North that is from the Streights of Magellan to the Northern Ocean it contains three thousand and fifty Leagues and from West to East towards Mexico two thousand nine hundred The Terra Australis and that of the North are so little known to us that their limits and extent cannot as yet be designed Having taken a view of the Earth let us now cast our eyes on the Sea which takes divers names according to the parts of the World where it is or the Countries it washeth That which encompasses Continents is called the Ocean and this likewise hath different appellations as on the West of Europe and part of Africa it is called the Western or Atlantick Ocean towards the Cape of Good Hope the Ethiopick Ocean to the East of Africa the Indian Sea to the East of Asia the Eastern Ocean or Sea of China to the North of Asia the Sea of Tartary and on the same side and towards Europe Mare Glaciale or the Frozen Ocean to the East of America the North Sea and to the West the South These are the general denominations of the Sea but it hath also particular names from the Countreys that lie near to it The chief Gulfs or Bays of the Ocean are the Mediterranean Sea which lies betwixt Europe Africa and Asia the Red Sea betwixt Africa and Asia the Gulf of Persia and that of Bengala in the East-Indies the Baltick Sea encompassed by Germany Sweden and Denmark the Gulf of Mexico and that of St. Laurence in America These Gulfs are joyned to the Ocean by Streights the Mediterranean Sea by the Streights of Gibraltar the Red Sea by that of Babel-mandel the Persian Sea by the Streights of Bassora otherwise of Ormus The Gulfs or rather Bays of Bengala Mexico and St. Laurence have no Streights because their mouth or entry is very large The Baltick Sea has the famous Streight of the Sound The Mediterranean Sea hath some noted Bays that well deserve to be mentioned Betwixt Italy and Dalmatia is the Gulf of Venice called in antient times the Adriatick Sea In Greece is the Gulf of Lepanto heretofore of Corinth And in Macedonia that of Salonica formerly of Thessalonica Between the Egean Sea now called the Archipelago and the Propontis or Sea of Marmora there is a Streight heretofore called the Hellespont and at present the Streights of Gallipoli or the Dardanelli and St. Georges Channel between the Sea of Marmora and the black Sea formerly called the Euxin Sea is the Bosphorus of Thrace which is now a days called the Channel of the Black Sea or Streights of Constantinople because that famous City is seated there betwixt the Black Sea and the Palus Meotides at present called the Sea delle Zabache is the Streights of Caffa heretofore named the Cimmerian Bosphorus Betwixt the Island of Euboea at present Negropont and Greece there is a narrow passage of Sea by the Ancients called Euripus who have affirmed that it ebbed and flowed seven times a day There are some other famous Streights which joyn several parts of the Ocean together or to say better the Ocean to the Ocean it self Towards the Northern Ocean is the Streights of Waigatz between Tartary and nova Zembla between Cathay and the Land of Jesso is the Streights of Jesso between Japan and the Land of Jesso is the Streights of Sengar between the same Land and Califurnia is that of Anian between Estotiland and Greenland is that of Davis between Greenland and the Island of Elizabeth is that of Forbisher Towards Canada is that of Hudson which according to the new Maps is properly a Gulf. Towards the Terra Australis is the famous Streights of Magellan discovered by him who gave it the name in the year one thousand five hundred and twenty between America and the Terra del fuego Betwixt this Land and that of the States is the Streights of Le Maire discovered in the year one thousand six hundred and sixteen And between that Land of the States and the Terra Australis is the Streights of Brouvers discovered in the year one thousand six hundred and forty