POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY
Describes, in a general way, the countries and nations of men as they are politically divided, defines their boundaries, and to some extent characterizes their social and civil institutions. A great advance has been made in this branch during the present century. People respecting whom little was known, have come into the family of nations. The maps have been changed, and generally in a way that indicates the rapid progress of civilization. Asia has been so thoroughly explored that our general knowledge of the country may be regarded as nearly complete. No great terra incognita remains in that quarter, though fuller and more precise knowledge respecting the people in some parts is yet much to be desired. The interior of Africa is still but partially known, though the work of discovery has been pushed forward with considerable enterprise, and a host of explorers have struggled to penetrate the mystery that enveloped, for ages, that great division of the globe. The Upper Nile country has been explored far beyond the region assigned on the maps to the “Mountains of the Moon,” and all know the intense anxiety that is to-day felt for the safety of General Gordon and his little garrison, still shut up in Khartoum.
The study of geography, rightly pursued, is remunerative, full of inspiration, and as intensely interesting as any in the whole circle of physical sciences.