Outlines of Physical Geography

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J.H. Colton, 1856 - History - 225 pages
 

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Page 23 - Hudson, the Green Mountains of Vermont, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
Page 149 - For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs : "But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven...
Page 190 - The human animal is the only one which is naked, and the only one which can clothe itself. This is one of the properties which renders him an animal of all climates, and of all seasons. He can adapt the warmth or lightness of his covering to the temperature of his habitation. Had he been born with a fleece upon his back, although he might have been comforted by its warmth in high latitudes, it would have oppressed him by its weight and heat, as the species spread towards the equator.
Page 59 - A great wave swept over the coast of Spain, and is said to have been sixty feet high at Cadiz. At Tangier, in Africa, it rose and fell eighteen times on the coast ; at Funchal, in Madeira, it rose full fifteen feet perpendicular above high-water mark, although the tide, which ebbs and flows there seven feet, was then at half ebb.
Page 17 - Others are so sluggish, that they may be mistaken for pieces of the rock, and are generally of a dark colour, and from four to five inches long, and two or three round. When the...
Page 17 - But this growth being as rapid at the upper edge as it is lower down, the steepness of the face of the reef is still preserved.
Page 16 - The examination of a coral reef during the different stages of one tide is particularly interesting. When the tide has left it for some time it becomes dry, and appears to be a compact rock, exceedingly hard and ragged ; but...
Page 15 - Both the sound and sight were such as to impress the spectator with the consciousness of standing in the presence of an overwhelming majesty and power...
Page 13 - Multitudes of these tiny creatures are associated in the secretion of a common stony skeleton, that is, the coral, or madrepore, in the minute orifices of which they reside ; protruding their mouths and tentacles when under water, but the moment they are molested, or become exposed to the atmosphere, withdrawing by sudden contraction into their holes.
Page 16 - ... invisible. These animals are of a great variety of shapes and sizes, and in such prodigious numbers, that, in a short time, the whole surface of the rock appears to be alive and in motion. The most common worm is in the form of...

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