The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1892-05-11
DON'T.
A Few Warnings to Careless Dabblers in
Geographical Matters.


Don't say or write Austro-Hungary.
The best writer's prefer Austria-Hun-
gary.
Don't call the Chinese "Mongolians. /"
/, 1t is better to reserve the latter name
for the people who live north of China
proper.
Don't speak of a native of China as a
Chinaman. You would not say that
you had an Ireland man digging in
your garden. 1t is better to call John
Chinese.
Don't, please don't, say that New
York city is located on Manhattan
island. Such a misuse of the verb "to
locate" is trying to the nerves of the
best photographers. Say New York
city is situated on Manhattan island.
Don't speak of China as our anti
podes. Our antipodes is the point on
the other side of the world reached by
a straight line passing through the
place on which we stand and the CEN
ter of the earth. Our antipodes is in
the ocean southwest of Australia.
Don't forget that oriental names
ending in "an" have the accent almost
invariably on the last syllable, as
Teheran, Beloochistan.
Don't imagine that the spelling of
geographical names in the newspapers
is necessarily accurate. It is safe to
say that one-half of the place names in
Africa and Asia, as they appear in our
daily press, are mangled almost be-
yond recognition by the cable or the
types.
Don't call Bermuda "a North Ameri-
can island," as writer in newspaper
did the other day. There are plenty
of North American islands, but Ber-
muda is not one of them. 1t is an
oceanic, not continental island.
Don't be mystified if on one map in
your atlas Hudson bay seems to be
larger than the Gulf of Mexico, while
on another sheet of the same atlas the
Gulf OF Mexico appears larger than
Hudson bay. The apparent discrep-
ancy is doubtless due to the different
map projections employed. You know.
for instance, that areas far removed
from the equator are very much exag-
gerated as they appear on maps of the
Mercator projection.
! Don't say that the compass points to
the true north, for it doesn't, except in
certain places. The compass points to
the magnetic north, which is at pres
ent considerably west of the north
pole. When Lieut.. Greely was at Lady
Franklin bay the declination of his
needle was found to be very great, the
needle pointing toward the magnetic
pole in direction nearly southwest.
Don't make the mistake some people
do of thinking the word "allnvium" to
be synonymous with "soil." Only
those soils which are the result of the
deposition of sediment by running wa
ter can properly be called alluvial
soils.
Don't for mercy's sake say. "the
Smithsonian institute" The name is
the Smithsonian institution.
When you are writing a novel don't
get your geographical facts SO badly
mixed as to reflect discredit upon your
early training. In one of the popular
novels of the day the Azores are re-
ferred to as in southern latitude.
The writer also introduces his hero in
to the Antarctic regions in January,
and speaks of the "inky blackness" of
the nights he experienced there. OF
course anybody ought to know that
the month of January is the height OF
the Antarctic summer, and the entire
month is one of continuous day.
GoldtlbaOGite's Geographical Magazine.