218 GEOGRAPHY AND ASTRONOMY. and having not any visible and open communication tvith the sea : Such are the Caspian Sea or Lake in Asia ; the Lake Zaire in Africa, (as some- maps describe) and many others there are in Europe and America, and especially in Sweden and Finland and -on the west of New-England: Such also is the lake or sea of Tiberias in the Land of Canaan, and the Dead Sea there, which we read of in scripture. A gulf is a part of the sea that is almost encompassed with laud, or that runs up a great way into the land. If this he very large it is rather called an inland sea: Such is the Baltic Sea in Sweden, and the Euxine Sea between Europe and Asia ; the .tEgean Sea between Greece and Lesser Asia ; and the Mediter- ranean Sea between Europeand Africa, which isoften in the Old Testament called the Great Sea. If it be a lesspart of the sea thus almost inclosed between land, then it is more usually called a gulf or bay : Such is, the Gulf of Venice between Italy and Dalmatia: The Arabian Gulf or the Red Sea between Asia and Africa. The Persian Ga.(/' between Arabia and Persia : The Gulf or Bay of Fin- land in the Baltic Sea ; and the Bay of Biscay between France and Spain. If it be but a very small part, or as it were an arm of the sea that runs but a few miles between the land, it is called a creek, a haven, a station, or a road for ships ; as Milford Ha- ven in Wales; Southampton Haven in Hampshire, and many more in every maritime country. A strait is a narrow part of the ocean lying between two shores, whereby two seas are joined together, as the Sound which is the passage into the Baltic Sea between Denmark and Swe- den : The Hellespont and Bosphorus, which are two passages into the Euxine Sea between Romaniaand the Lesser Asia : The Straits of Dover between the British Channel and the German Sea ; and the Straits of Gibraltar between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, though the whole Mediterranean Sea is some- times called the Straits. If we compare the various parts of the land with those of the water, there is a pretty analogy or resemblance of one to the other. The description of a continent resembles that of the ocean the one is a vast tract of land as the other isof water. An island encompassed with water, resembles a lake encompassed with land. A peninsula of land is Tike a gulfor inland sea. Apromontory or cape at land is like a bay or creek at sea; and an isthmus, whereby two lands are joined, has the same relation to other parts of the earth as astrait has to the sea or ocean. Let os now t_ke notice by what figures the various parts of land or water are described in a globe or map, and in what man- lier they are represented. See Figure xitt. Sea is generally left as au empty space, except where
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