or so of great peninsulas upon its seaboard, many great islands off its shores, and the interior of the land is divided into many separated regions by mountain ridges or by deserts. It is a land where man necessarily fell into variety, because of the isolation that the geography gave. If we look at the other continents, namely, the Americas, Africa, and Australia, we find that they want this varied and detailed structure. They each consist of a great triangular mass, with scanty subordinate divisions. In all of them put together there are not so many great peninsulas as there are in Europe. If we exclude those that are within the Arctic Circle, there are but few on the four regular continents, none of which compare in size or usefulness to man with the greater peninsulas of the Old World. The only one of value is that of Nova Scotia, in North America.

These regular continents are all in the form of triangles, with their apices pointing towards the southern pole. Near either long shore lie the principal mountain systems that give definition to the coast line. The middle portion of each continent is generally a region of plain, somewhat diversified by lesser mountain systems. Along either shore is a narrow fringe of plain land to the east and west of the main mountain chains. Near the northern part of the continent, and aiding to define the base of the triangle, there is another system of mountains having a general east and west With the exception of North America, none of these regular continents have seas inclosed within their areas, such bodies of water as form so striking a feature in the Asiatic continent, which is indeed a land of mediterranean seas.

course.

In a word, these continents are characteristically as simple as the Asiatic continent is varied. Their mass is undivided, and their organic or human histories are necessarily less diversified than in such a land-mass as Asia.

The continent of North America is, of all the triangular continents, the most nearly akin in its structure to the great Old-World land. In the first place, it is the only one of these continents that has the same general conditions of climate; then it has a far greater diversity of form than the similar masses of South America, Africa, and Australia. North America has several considerable seas inclosed within its limits or bordering upon its shores; its mountain systems are more varied in their disposition than in the other regular continents. So that in a way this continent in its structure lies intermediate between the Asiatic type and what is considered the normal form of continents.

Although this varied structure of the continent of North America makes it more fit for the uses of man than the continents of Africa, South America, and Australia, there are certain considerable disadvantages in its physical conditions. To show the relation of these evil and fortunate features, it will be necessary for us to consider the general geography of the continent somewhat in detail.

The point of first importance concerns the distribution of heat and moisture over the surface of the land; for on these features depends the fitness of the land for all forms of life. The influences which principally determine the climate of a continent come to it from the neighboring seas. The moisture arises there, and finds its way thence to the land; and the heat or coolness which modifies the land climate comes with it.

North America faces three oceans. On the north is the extremely cold Arctic Sea, mostly covered by enduring ice it is the extreme coldness of this sea, and its ice-clad character near the continent of America, that in good part causes the great severity of its winters. Where the Arctic Sea lies against Europe and Asia it is partly warmed by the Gulf Stream, and so is not completely ice-bound even in winter; but that part of it which lies near the northern coast of America is ice-bound the whole year, and the winds that come from it are many degrees below those that come over open water.

Both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans send streams of warm water against the American coast. But the Gulf Stream has acutally very little direct effect upon our climate; it only touches the coast about the Gulf of Mexico, where the temperature is naturally so high that its warming power is not felt. It then leaves our coast, to give its warmth to the shores of Europe and to the European part of the Arctic Ocean. The Pacific current corresponding to the Gulf Stream is feebler than the Atlantic current, and sends its tide of waters against the northwest shore of America. Its effects on that coast are very noticeable; but they are limited, by the geography of that shore, within narrow bounds. In the first place, the passage of Behring's Strait is too small to permit its waters to have access to the Arctic Sea; then the high ranges of the Cordilleras fence off the interior of the continent, so that the warm winds that blow from the sea cannot penetrate far to the east. Confined to the shore, the heat of the Pacific Gulf Stream generates a large amount of fog; this fog shuts off the sun's rays, and so lowers the temperature, almost as much as the current itself serves to raise it.

The distribution of moisture over the surface of the continent is effected in much the same way as is the distribution of heat. The Gulf Stream gives an abundant rainfall to the States about the Gulf of Mexico lying to the north of that basin; its effects on the rainfall are seen even as far north as the New England States, but they have little effect to the west of the Mississippi River. The high mountains of the Cordilleras cut off the Pacific winds from the centre of the continent, so that very little of the water which flows down to the Gulf of Mexico or to the Atlantic is derived from the Pacific. From the general conditions thus rudely outlined the following arrangement of climates arises. The northern half of the continent is more completely under the dominion of the Arctic Sea than any part of Europe or Asia; the only parts of it fit for the use of civilized man are the northern watershed of the St. Lawrence, the valley of Lake Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan, and the west-coast region as far north as Alaska. The rest of the northern part of the continent is practically barred out from the life of the race by the intensity of the winter cold, and by, the brevity of the summer season.

South of this domain of northern cold, North America divides itself, by its climate, soil, and topographical reliefs, into the following fairly distinct regions: (1) The eastern lowlands lying between the shore and the Appalachian range; these shade southwardly into (2) the lowlands of the Gulf States, which is the only part of North America in the immediate control of the Gulf Stream. These Gulf lowlands pass northwardly into (3) the great plain of the Mississippi Valley. Between these lowlands of the centre of the continent and the Atlantic sea-coast lie (4) the table-lands and moun

tains of the Appalachian system. West of the Mississippi Valley lie (5) the region of the Cordilleras of North America; and finally on the western shore we find (6) a narrow region of low mountains, forming a slender fringe of shorelands.

The mountains of the Appalachian system are composed of two parallel series of elevations, an old eastern range of peaks which are worn down to mere shreds; so that in place of being as high as the Alps, as they once were, they have no peaks that rise seven thousand feet above the sea. This outer range is traceable from Newfoundland to Alabama; but it only rises above six thousand feet in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Black Mountains of North Carolina. In form these mountains are steep and rugged. Their steep sides hold the little untillable land that exists east of the Mississippi; their actual area is small, for the chain is very narrow, not exceeding a score or so of miles in width, except in the Carolinas and in the White Mountains, where it is somewhat wider. The total untillable area in this chain does not exceed twelve thousand square miles. West of this, the old Appalachian mountain system, separated from it by a broad, elevated, somewhat mountainous valley, lies the newer Alleghany range. This valley intermediate is one of the most fertile and admirably situated in the world; it extends from New Jersey to Georgia, with an average width of about forty miles and a length of about six hundred, having an area of over twenty thousand square miles. The Alleghany Mountains on the west are composed principally of round, symmetrical ridges, often like gigantic works of art, so uniform are their arches; none of them rise to more than five thousand feet above the sea, and their surfaces are so little broken that they generally afford tillable though as yet generally untilled land. Practically no part of this great range, which extends from near Albany to Alabama, is completely unfit for the uses of man, and it includes some of the most fertile valleys of America. The most important feature connected with this double mountain system of the Appalachians is the great area of table-lands which it upholds; these bordering uplands are found all around the mountain system. The greater part of the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio owe the considerable elevation of their surfaces to the table-land elevations bordering the Appalachian mountain system. Taken altogether, this mountain system is perhaps the finest region for the uses of man that the world affords; its great length, of more than fifteen hundred miles from north to south, gives it a range of climate such as would be had in Europe by a mountain chain extending from Copenhagen to Rome. The total area of this Appalachian district, mountains as well as table-lands, is about three hundred thousand square miles. This is an area equal to near thrice the surface of Great Britain.

The Appalachian table-lands fade gradually into the Mississippi Valley. Their distinct character continues to near the borders of that stream where it unites with the Ohio. As we come upon the table-land system of the Cordilleras, soon after we pass west of the Mississippi, this great valley may be considered as made up of the table-lands of two great mountain systems, with only a relatively small area of alluvial matter between the mouth of the Ohio and the Gulf. Unlike the Ganges, the Amazon, and most other great rivers of the first class, the Mississippi River has a small

delta section: not over twenty to thirty thousand square miles has this character. By far the greater part of the basin is really table-land, and is thus free from the evil of low countries to a degree equalled by no other very great river basin. Its valley is characteristically a table-land valley, with a general surface of rolling plain, varying from three hundred to five thousand feet above the level of the sea. Outside of the Cordilleras and the Appalachians, this valley has few mountain folds within its ample space. The absence of included mountain systems is almost as noteworthy a feature as the small amount of delta. There are only two or three patches of mountains that lie far beyond the limits of the great mountain systems of the east and west; and only one of these, the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas, is at any distance from the main ranges. This is an insignificant group of low hills having considerable geological but no geographical importance.

On the western border of the Mississippi Valley rise the vast ridges of the Cordilleras. This great mountain region is, next after the mountainous area of Central Asia, the most extensive region of great altitude in the world. From Mexico northward this system of mountains widens, until, in the parallel of forty degrees, it has a width of about one thousand miles. This system is made up of many ridges lying upon an elevated table-land. The valleys of the lesser streams are generally over seven thousand feet above the sea; the main peaks, to the number of many hundred, rise over twelve thousand feet above the sea level; many of them attain to about fourteen thousand feet of altitude. Its table-land extends east to near the Mississippi River. The great height and width of this mountain system produce a very marked effect upon the climate of the vast area that it incloses, and upon the country which lies within a thousand miles to the east of its mountain walls. The winds from the Pacific are to a great extent drained of their moisture in the western or Sierra Nevada section of these mountains, and have little moisture to give to the central and eastern chains ; and when these winds emerge on to the western plains, they are as dry as those that blow over the Sahara.

Although these Cordilleras of North America afford access by their dislocations to a great supply of mineral substances, they are on the whole a curse to the continent. By the cold and dryness which their height entails, they reduce one third of the continent to sterility. Though here and there in their valleys we find oases of fertile land, and many regions of limited area may be made fertile by the use of irrigation, at least nineteen-twentieths of their lands are irretrievably barren. When their resources of precious metals are exhausted, as is likely to be the case within a hundred years, they will probably be to a great extent abandoned by man. Only the extreme northern section and a part of the central and border lands afford any other attractions to settlers than is found in their mineral wealth.

West of the Cordilleras of North America we have a narrow and mountainous coast region that is abundantly watered by the moisture from the Pacific, which penetrates some distance into the land over the lower ridges that border on them. Although this belt of fertile country cannot be compared in population-sustaining power with the Atlantic coast region, it is of great fertility, and has a climate of surpassing excellence.

On the borders of Mexico, within the limits of the United States, the mountains sink down to much less extreme heights, and the climate becomes less strenuous. This region is better fitted for the permanent occupation of man; but only a small part of the land is arable, — probably not one-tenth of its surface is or ever will be fit for the plough.

In Mexico proper we have a country that retains the character of the Cordilleras so far as its general elevation is concerned, but loses the lofty ridges which we find farther to the north. The loss of these barriers, combined with the narrowing of the space between the Atlantic and the Pacific waters, and its more southern position, increases the temperature and the rainfall; so that the fertility of the country augments in a rapid way as we go southwards, until finally in the isthmic part of the continent we have a tropical luxuriance of life. The lowland borders of the country gain upon the width of the table-land, until south of the Tehuantepec Isthmus the whole region is essentially unfit for the uses of our race.

The climate of North America south of the divide which separates the streams flowing toward the Arctic Circle from those entering the Atlantic south of Labrador may be said to resemble that of Europe in all important respects. The winters are far colder; but the summer seasons, which determine the usefulness of the soil to man, are as warm and quickening to plants as are those of the Old World. The more considerable cold of winter is a disadvantage, inasmuch as it limits the work of agriculture to a smaller part of the year, and requires a greater expense in the keeping of livestock. This is a considerable evil, especially in the regions north of the parallel of forty degrees; but the cold is not greater than in Northern Germany or in Scotland. There can be no doubt that the body and the mind receive certain advantages from the tonic quality of the winters which compensate for this loss.

Nearly the whole of North America that is within the limits of the United States receives some share of frost. This secures it against the permanent occupation of contagious fevers, which from time to time find their way to it from the tropics.

North America, east of the 100th meridian (west of Greenwich) and north of thirtyfive degrees, has a soil which is on the whole superior to that of Europe. Practically the whole of this vast area is tillable, and the variety of crops is very great, considerably greater than that of Europe. West of the 100th meridian the rainfall diminishes rapidly, being especially limited in the summer season. The winters become longer and more extreme throughout all the region within or under the climatic influence of the Cordilleras; the soil is thinner, and over vast regions almost wanting. In certain exceptional tracts as far westward as the Saskatchewan, and at points along the line between the United States and Canada to the south of that valley, there are considerable areas of good soil; but, considered in a general way, we may exclude all the region between the 100th meridian and the Sierra Nevada range from the hope of any great agricultural future. Even should the rainfall be increased by tree-planting in those regions where trees may grow, the quality of the soil in this district, even where soil exists, is often too poor for any use. Yet in some parts it is very good, and if tree-planting should increase the rainfall, some limited areas will be tillable.