The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1951-06-08
IT Taxes
ALL KINDS
Elementary Geography
By DAVE WEST

CndL CnG SdlSSL dIIAIuuC CO"eeAN -
bit of information masquerading
as a fact is to note it, then wait
for the rest of the evidence to
come in.
There's nothing like the exami-
nation of a map to knock precon-
ceptions about geography cockey-
! ed. We borrowed a boxful of maps
from the library one afternoon
lately-and now we're not even
sure that Canada is red," as the
little boy said.
We noted that the seth PARALLEL
crosses Colington Island. So we
thought we'd look at few of the
maps and see what other places in
the world, like Manteo, lay just
below the 36th parallel.
It's not an unhistoric ring
around the globe. We were start
led to discover that on the other
side of the globe, almost Identical
ly as far north of the Equator as
Manteo, was the site of city that
was not long ago considered as lost
as the settle of Raleigh"-Hiro-
shima, Japan, where the first
atomic bomb fell six years ago this
August.
We found that in the western
most county of North Carolina
along our line is town named
Joy. When we are down in the
dumps, hereafter, we shall think
with dread how far it is from
Manteo to JOY.
1t was somewhat startling to
fird that the southernmost part of
England, which so many Dare
| Countians think of as the home
of their ancestors, lies just below
the 5Oth parallel. The great bulk
Of cold, foggy England stretches
north of parallel so.
We were not prepared to discov-
er these points lying north of Man
teo either; the larger part of the
state of California; Nashville,
Tennessee; the Grand Canyon and
the Painted Desert of Arizona; all
of sunny Italy and Greece and
the country of Turkey; Sicily and
the Island of Malta in the balmy
/ Mediterranean. A part of Africa
also is north OF Manteo, including
i the cities of Tunis and Algiers,
so we'll known to many ex-soldiers
who fought their way across the
country from Casablanca and Oran
I to them.
Lying in nearly the same lati-
tude as Manteo are the islands of
Gibraltar and Crete; Santa Fe,
New Mexico; Teheran, in troubled
Iran; and the mouth of China's
great Yellow River.
Our imaginary circle around the
world passes through the Panhan-
die of Texas, the southern extrem-
tiles of Death Valley in Califor-
mia; through what we had always
thought must be the steaming hot
country of Syria, the extreme SOU
thern tip Of Korea. 1t crosses the
ancient river Euphrates.
| i
Never able to let dizzy-enough
suffice, we cast a glance along the
Both parallel south of the Equator.
The locations corresponding to
Manteo are just north of it. In
South America, the line passes to
the south of Buenos Aires, Argen-
tina, and Santiago, Chile; an Ar
gentinian hamlet named Dolores
was the nearest South American
equivalent we could find to Man
teo in location.
The line passes entirely below
| the continent of Africa, and BIZ
sects an island off the south cen
trail coast of Australia with the in
teresting name Kangaroo Island.
1t passes north of the city of Mel
bourne in the land down under and
then traverses the vast expanse of
the South Pacific, the least known
area on the worlds surface.
= =
We didn't know any of these
things. Because we have misplaced
the addresses Of our grade school
geography teachers, we didn't
know how to call them to the at
tention of parties to whom they
might be of service.
x =
All right, there are some facts
for you've don't believe a single
one of them: Manteo the same dis
tance from the Equator as Gilbral-
tar Don't talk nonsense!