Excerpt from Harper's School Geography: With Maps and Illustrations Prepared Expressly for This Work by Eminent American ArtistsTo this end the careful selection and arrangement of topics have been regarded as matters of prime necessity in order to insure such a unity of plan as to present a simple, yet practical, definite, and coher ent view of the subject.The geography of commerce has been made the leading line of thought, because commerce, domestic and foreign, is becoming more and more a dominant interest in the affairs of the leading nations of the world, and because no other department of the general subject presents in such bold relief their rivalries and mutual dependencies. It involves a systematic presentation of the resources and industries of countries as dependent upon climate, soil, mineral deposits, and other physical conditions. It also includes all important information concerning cities and towns as commercial, manufacturing, and mining centres, and an outline of the system of transportation, domestic and international. The tables of reference show the total imports and exports of all the maritime nations, and particularly the commerce of each of these countries with the United States.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.