Sentence:  And while idle curiosity may take its walk in shady avenues by the ocean side, commerce...defies every wind, outrides every tempest, and invades every <WSD>zone</WSD>. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Each of the five regions of the earth's surface into which it was divided by climatic differences, namely the torrid zone (between the tropics), two temperate zones (between the tropics and the polar circles), and two frigid zones (within the polar circles).