Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	circle_n	point_n	pole_n	2,440	5	11.6304	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89261	A new geography with maps to each country, and tables of longitude & latitude.	Moore, Jonas, Sir, 1617-1679.	1681 (1681)	Wing M2578; ESTC R231849	65,080	134

A NEW GEOGRAPHY WITH MAPS to each COUNTRY AND TABLES OF Longitude Latitude LONDON Printed for Robert Scott at the Princes Arms in Little-Britain 1681. Advertisement to the Reader THE following Geographick Treatise with some other Parts of this Book had the ill fortune to be left uncompleat by our Renowned Author who was snatcht from us whilst he was with greatest application hastning the Edition thereof This deplorable accident hath been the occasion that it hath been so long detained from publick view and that now it is come abroad with much less lustre than ought to be expected from the Judicious and Learned Pen of Sir Jonas Moore As far as could be Collected from the Maps he had caused to be engraven in his Life-time and the several Tables of the Latitudes and Longitudes of the Cities of Europe written with his own hand we have endeavoured to prosecute this Design he had laid and have given you a brief and succinct Description of the several Regions of the whole Earth and have been more or less particular therein according as our knowledg of the Countries we describe is more or less perfect The Maps are taken from the newest Geographers extant and therefore 't is probable the most exact time still producing corrections and amendments in the Works of them that went before and our first Meridian is that of the Isle of Ferro the most Westerly of the Canaries which at present all the French Geographers are obliged to observe The Tables are deduced from the Maps and serve to find out any place in them without long search This Reader is what was thought necessary to advertise thee of in this place and if any mistake have escaped unseen you are desired candidly to excuse it or at least not to attribute it to our deceased Author Vale Fruere THE WORLD IN PLANISPHERE GEOGRAPHY Or a Brief DESCRIPTION Of the whole EARTH THE Earths Surface whose Description is properly termed Geography is by many and sufficient Arguments made appear to be of no other than a Sphaerical Figure and the Circumference thereof hath in this our Age been more curiously than heretofore inquired into and found by the Concordant Observations of the Gentlemen of the Royal Academy of Paris and of our worthy Countryman Mr. Norwood to be very near 25000 English Statute Miles and consequently its Diameter 7958 Miles The greater part of this vast Globe is covered with Water which we call the Sea out of which the Land rises with very slow Ascents the hight of the highest Mountains and Prominences thereof scarce amounting to the two thousandth part of its Radius and only serving to cause the Rivers to run with slow and easie Chanels The Air on all sides encompasses it and renders it habitable and the principle of Gravitation whereby all Bodies descend towards its Center is that which defends it from dissolution by not permitting the least part thereof to be separated far from it into the reason whereof Philosophers have hitherto inquired in vain This Globe by its two-fold motion enjoys the grateful Vicissitudes of Day and Night Winter and Summer the former by turning round upon one of its Diameters in the space of 24 hours and shewing all its sides successively to the Sun This Diameter is called the Axis and its extremities the Poles of the World which by the experience of many Ages are found unalterable and fixt in the Earth and the direction of this Axis by some unknown Magnetical Principle of Nature is always carried parallel to it self during the time of the revolution of the other motion whereby the Earth is carried round the Sun in the space of a year and the Axis being inclined to the plain in which the annual motion is performed causes the one Hemisphere to have more of the Suns light for the one half year and the other Hemisphere for the other These affections though necessary to be premised here you will find explicated and demonstrated more at large in the Astronomical part We come now to the Explanation of the terms which have been thought proper in the illustration of Geography We must observe that there are greater and lesser Circles and that the former divide the World into two equal parts and the latter into two parts also but unequal All these Circles severally are divided into three hundred and threescore parts which are called Degrees There are four greater Circles to wit the Equinoctial the Zodiack the Horizon and the Meridian and as many lesser to wit the Tropicks of Cancer and Capricorn and the two Polar Circles the Artick and Antartick The Equinoctial Circle is so called because when the Sun enters it the days and nights are of an equal length it is also called the Equator because it divides the World into two equal parts Seamen call it only the Line For the right understanding of this Circle we must know that the Heavens seem to move upon two points called Poles the one bearing the name of Artick and the other of Antartick in a middle distance from which Poles this Circle is imagined to be the use of it in Geography is to divide the Earth into two parts the one Northern towards the Pole Artick and the other Southern towards the other opposite Pole The Latitude of places is reckoned from the Equinoctial where it begins towards the Poles wherein it ends and this space contains ninety Degrees Latitude is either Northern towards the Pole Artick or Southern towards the Antartick The Zodiack is the Suns High way and this Circle cuts the Equinoctial into two equal parts from which its greatest distance is but twenty three Degrees and an half it only shews what places of the Earth may have the Sun perpendicular and more properly belongs to the Heavens than the Earth Horizon is as much as to say boundary because that Circle limits our sight and divides the Heavens and the Earth into two parts which are called Hemispheres the one whereof we see but cannot the other There is a right Horizon a Polar or Parallel one and an oblique one those places that lye under the Equator have a right Horizon and are in the right Sphere those that are under either of the Poles have the Parallel Sphere and all other places have an oblique Horizon and are in an oblique Sphere This Circle shews the Rising and Setting of the Stars and the four principal Quarters of the World which are East West South and North the East is on the side of the Rising Sun the West is where the Sun Sets the North is towards the Pole Artick and the South towards the Antartick These four Quarters are very necessary for distinguishing the limits of Regions as will appear throughout this whole Treatise From thence come the four principal winds all which the Horizon sheweth but it is not marked on Maps but only on the outside of Globes and Spheres Meridian signifies Mid-day Circle because when the Sun is come

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