Ocean

Its greatest length thus considered is nearly 4,000 m., and its breadth at the widest part is abt. 3,500 m. Its shape would be triangular and regular but for the projecting peninsula of Florida. The eastern coast is deeply indented by bays, gulfs, and inlets. The western coast has the long and narrow peninsula of California, and the projecting Aleutian Islands, besides Vancouver's Island, but is not otherwise broken. A triple chain of mountains converging towards and terminating in the lofty plateaux of Mexico, form the western boundary of North A. Of these the sierras, or lofty ridges, that extend into and form the Californian peninsula, commencing near Vancouver's Island, make the actual coast-line. Within this there is a second coa strange, broken by very wide gaps, culminating in the very lofty mountain called St. Elias, which is 17,900ft. high, and has spurs extending to the Arctic Sea. Lastly, there is the great and lofty system of the Rocky Mountains. At abt. the 40th parallel of N. Lat., all the great chains are cro ed by a transverse range of snowy mountains, separating the gold-fields of Oregon and California, and succeeded on the S. by a great. sandy plain watered by the Colorado. Between the great triple range on the W. coast and the Appal a chi an Mountains(which in like manner are a triple but very much lower chain, parallel to the east coast), are the great plains or prairies, the vast tract surrounding the Salt Lake, and the low-lands drained by the Mi i ippi and its tributaries. To the N. are the 5 great lakes, Superior(the longest), Michigan (the largest), Huron, Erie, and Ontario, which cover an area of more than 120,000 Fig. 23. INDIAN OF THE OREGON. sq. m. Then comes the valley of the St. Lawrence, and still farther N. the plains, towards the Arctic Ocean, broken by Hudson's Bay. The chief river systems are the Mi i ippi -Mi ouri, draining into the Gulf of Mexico; the St. Lawrence and great lakes, emptying into the Atlantic; the Mackenzie, embouching into the Arctic Sea. The great central plain of North A. is a very remarkable feature of the physical geography of A. Reaching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, it includes the valleys of all the prin. rivers, and occupies an area of more than 4,000,000 sq. miles. The elevation above the sea is for the most part only about 700 ft., and nowhere exceeds 1,500 ft.; and the land for the most part is wonderfully rich and fertile.- Central A. Under this name we include the table-land of Mexico, continued in a narrow belt of land to the S.E., from which rise the volcanic mountains of Guatemala. These mountains, continued in the Isthmus of Panama, connect the Northern mountains with the great mountain chain of the Andes. The Rio del Norte is the sole important river of Central A., and it drains only the Northern district.- SOUTH A. Including Terra del Fuego, its greatest length, from Cape Horn to the Isthmus of Panama, is abt. 4,700 m., and its extreme width 1s3,200 miles. Triangular in form, like so many of the prin. tracts of land on the earth, its northern half is partly inclosed between the great chain of the Andes running along the W. coast, and the le important mountains of Brazil in the N.E. and Venezuela in the N. The rest of the continent consists of vast plains at various elevations, chiefly in terraces. It is drained by some of the largest river systems on the earth, the prin. of which are those of the Amazons, of the Rio de la Plata and of the Orinoco. The low-lands on the E. of the Andes are divided by table-lands and mountains into 3 parts: the Pampas of Patagonia and Buenos Ayres, the Silvas of the Amazons, and the Llanos of the Orinoco. Population, Divisions, and Subdivisions of America in 1870. SQ. MILES. INHABITANTS Green land 759,814 10,000 British North America: Dominion of Canada..... 3,268,764 3,484,924 Newfoundland 40,200 130,000 Prince Edward Island... 2,173 90,000 British Columbia... 212,989 54,600 Bermuda 24 11,796 Saint Pierre and Miquelon 81 3,971 United States 3,579,978 38,555,983 Mexico 773,144 8,218,080 Total North America. 8,637,167 50,559,354 British Honduras.... 13,501 25,635 Guatemala.... 40,778 1,180,000 San Salvador. 7,335 600,000 Honduras 47,092 350,000 Nicaragua 58,169 400,000 Cost a Rica..... 21,495 135,000 Total Central America...... 188,370 2,690,635 West Indian Islands: British Po e ions...... 14,787 948,147 Spanish Po e ions: Cuba 45,883 1,414,508 Porto Rico... 3,596 615,574 Dutch Po e ions.... 368 34,818 French Po e ions..... 1,017 303,269 Danish Po e ions: St.Thomas, St. John, St.Croix 119 38,231 Swedish Po e ions (St. Bartholomew). 8 2,898 Republic of Hayti.............. 10,005 572,000 Republic of San Dom in go....... 17,827 136,500 Total West Indies.... 93,810 4,065,945 Brazil 3,609,160 11,058,000 French Guiana. 35,080 25,174 Dutch Guiana 59,806 58,841 British Guiana 99,925 155,026 Venezuela. 368,235 2,200,000 New Granada..... 357,179 2,900,000 Ecuador 218,985 1,300,000 Galapagos(not inhabited). 2,955 Peru.... 510,107 2,500,000 Bolivia. 535,769 1,987,352 Chili 132,624 2,084,960 Argentine Republic. 603,272 1,801,000 Gran-Chaco Argent i no.. } 223,237 { 40,000 Pampas Argent i no Paraguay. 126,352 1,337,439 Uruguay..... 66,716 240,965 Patagonia and Terra-del-Fuego.. 376,314 40,000 Falkland Isles.. 4,741 662 Aurora Islands not in-213 South Georgia Island habit'd { 1,573 Total South America... 7,332,243 27,735,419 66 North America 8,637,167 50,559,354 " Central America..... 188,370 2,690,635 66 West Indies........ 93,810 4,065,945 Grand total America 16,251,590 85,051,353 It is generally admitted that Scand in avian pirates visited Green land in the 6th cent., where they made settlements; and that, in the 10th cent., two Ice landers, Biorn Hersue en and Lief Eriksen, landed in New England; but it is only in the 15th cent., and by Christopher Columbus, that A. was first made known to Europe: in 1492, he landed in the Bah am a Islands, and in 1498 he discovered the continent. To Amerigo Vespucci, however, was reserved the glory of giving his name to A., though he had scarcely the merit of exploring it in 1499. The most celebrated explorers of A. after Columbus were Fernando Cortez, Pizarro, Almagro, Sebastian Cabot, Cabral, De Solis, De Soto, and Magellan. [s. 26] IMG:p0047_0.jpg:Gravür