Excerpt from The Diamond Atlas With Descriptions of Countries

Incognita (unknown land), have been driven back; whether by the knightly Crusader, the daring avarice of the lewlo Freebooter, or the more lofty promptings of a laudable ambition, until they only hover over a narrow circumference, around the inhospitable poles, where Science alone can hope to reap a harvest, and even there, she is pointing her adventurous prows, with a determination that seems likely to wrest from them their last secret; and complete the sum of Geographical knowledge. It is by comparing the Maps of Ptolemy, and Eratosthenes, or even those of 1492 and 1520, with the modern ones, that illustrate the present work, that something like a definite idea can be formed, of the achievements of Geographical knowledge, in the last few Centuries. There, a little section of the sphere is vaguely shown, its islands, shores, and rivers, remarkable only for their incorrectncss - and yet, when their date is considered, meritorious for their truthful approximations. Here, vast Conti nents are brought to light, their shores carefully triangulated, and their rivers tracked to their almost springs. There, a few frail, and cumbersome barks groped their way along uncharted shores. Here, the Rivers of the Seas are marked out, and the paths of the winds determined; and the stately steam ship of' to-day pursues its course over the trackless bosom of every ocean, with no less certainty. As to its position, and course, than the steamboat on our rivers. Not content with a superficial investigation, Geology has mined into the bowels of the Earth, and read from the stony pages of its history, the records of its past duration. By the aid of compartivo Anatomy, the monsters of the Primitive World are clothed again with flesh, and the massive bone that defied the destructiveness of ages, is made to tell the History and character of its race. (see vol. 1, p.

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