Henry Gannett, Ernest Ingersoll, George Parker Winship and others

“ Stretching from the south temperate zone through the tropics to the north polar zone, America has many climates, dependent upon latitude, prevailing winds, and the distribution of the relief features. The main body of North America is principally within the region of the anti-trades or prevailing westerlies. These winds give to the western coast of the United States and Canada, and to southeastern Alaska, an insular climate, with great uniformity of temperature and a heavy rainfall. ”

“ South America.—South America is for the most part drained into the Atlantic Ocean, the Andes forming a great and continuous watershed; and while three great river systems carry most of the waters to the sea, yet a number of secondary but by no means small rivers aid them in this work. In the extreme northwest of South America, the Magdalena drains the region in which the Andes separate into diverging ranges before their subsidence. The area of its basin is not great, but the enormous rainfall sends great volumes of water through this river channel into the Caribbean Sea. ”

“ In the extreme northern part of Canada and Alaska, where the ground is constantly frozen, thawing only on the surface in the summer, and forming the well known tundra, the prevailing plant life consists of reindeer moss, with a few dwarf Arctic willows. But in the short, hot summers of this region even the tundra is gay with bright-colored blossoms. ”

“ While both grand divisions lie mainly north of the equator, a greater proportion of the Old World is in the northern hemisphere. The coasts of the Old World, taken as a whole, are much more broken than the American coasts. The principal relief feature of the Old World is a great stretch of elevated land crossing most of Europe and Asia in an east and west direction, while the backbone of America traverses its length in a direction nearly north and south, near its western coast. ”

“ The northern plateau region of Mexico is without forests, except upon the higher ranges, while the southern and lower part of the country, with Central America, has a tropical profusion of fruit and vegetation. See Flora under Rocky Mountains; Canada; United States; Mexico; Nicaragua, etc.
South America.—The flora of South America ranges from that of the tropical to that of the temperate zone, and is controlled not only by latitude, but by altitude and rainfall. ”

“ On the Pacific coast the drainage is effected by short, torrential streams scarcely worthy the name of river. See Amazon; Orinoco, etc.
Geology. The geological history of North America, considered in a broad way, is not complex. The oldest part of the continent, the first to be elevated above the sea, is the northeastern section, including the Adirondacks of New York and the Laurentian Highlands of Canada, and a region about the Great Lakes, together with a southward projection just east of the Blue Ridge in the Southern States. This is the Archæan area. ”

“ Portugal began to colonize the eastern coast of South America in 1531, in order to maintain its claim to what is now Brazil against the Spanish, who were locating everywhere else on the new continent. A few settlements along the coast, however, were all that resulted until early in the eighteenth century, when the Portuguese tried to develop the country as a substitute for the East Indian possessions which the English and Dutch had taken from them. ”

“ At San Diego the rainfall, even in winter, is very light, while at Puget Sound it has increased to from 75 to 100 inches, and has an average along the Alaska Pacific coast of about 90 inches annually, most of which falls in winter. Air currents from the Pacific, deprived of most of their moisture in passing over the mountain ranges near the Pacific coast, flow over the Cordilleran region during most of the year as dry winds. In the summer, however, they retain a little moisture, which they give up to the high ranges of the interior. ”

“ On the whole, South America is characterized by the possession of a very uniformly distributed fauna, far more local and distinct from any other region than that of any other continent, unless it be Australia, probably more than four-fifths of its species being restricted to its zoögeographical boundaries. ”

“ In this region many great areas have been covered by outflows of lava, some of them in very recent times. The regions bordering the coasts of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico are floored with Cretaceous and Tertiary deposits, indicating their comparatively recent uplift. There are no active volcanoes in the United States proper or in Canada. Within historical times eruptions have been reported on the coast of Alaska, and several peaks on that coast are still smoking. In Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies there are many active volcanoes. ”

“ When, in 1763, England secured the whole of French North America east of the Mississippi, the greatest part of it was open for settlement by her own people.
The English, like the other European nations, began by establishing outposts, first for the fishermen on Newfoundland before 1570, and in 1585 on the Carolina coast for the purpose of extending the search for gold and treasures inland. Religious and political conditions, however, changed the character of the English emigration to America soon after 1600. ”

“ In the Arctic Ocean these land bodies are numerous and large, Greenland, almost continental in area, being the largest of them. West of Greenland, across Smith Sound, is the great extent of Grinnell Land, and south of this island are North Devon, Cockburn Land, and Baffin Land, with many other large islands to the west, including Bathurst, Melville, Prince of Wales, and North Somerset islands, and Prince Albert and Banks Land, the whole forming an extensive archipelago in the Arctic Sea. ”

“ This great area, comprising by far the greater part of South America, is but slightly diversified by hills, forming mainly an immense plain. In eastern Brazil is a mountain system standing on a broad plateau, and composed of many ranges, trending in general parallel to the coast, and having collectively a great breadth. The highest point in this system is Itatiaia, with an altitude of 10,340 feet. A similar but smaller plateau occupies much of the area of the Guianas. See Andes, etc.
The islands pertaining to this grand division belong mainly to North America. ”

“ In the northern United States are thousands of small lakes, which, in common with those of Canada, were formed by the Laurentian glacier. In the Cordilleran region are many lakes, some of glacial origin, like Pend Oreille and Flathead, others of volcanic origin, like Yellowstone Lake, while many occupy desert valleys and have no outlet, like Great Salt, Carson, and Walker lakes. ”

“ America is divided into two continents. North and South America, separated in part by the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, and connected by the narrow Isthmus of Panama, 30 miles in width.
North America has an area of about 8,300.000 square miles, and South America of 7,700,000. The mean altitude above sea level of both continents is not far from 2000 feet. ”

“ In the central United States, the prevalent species change to hard woods, while in the Southern States yellow pine becomes the dominant species. West of this forested region in the United States and Canada is the prairie region, once grassed, and with groves of timber, now highly cultivated, which passes by insensible degrees into the treeless plains which form the eastern slope of the Cordilleran plateau. ”

“ Where and when the land is colder than the sea, moisture is condensed from the air currents and falls in rain; the rainfall is therefore heavy on the northern part of this coast and light on the southern part, and is heavy in winter and light or entirely absent in summer. ”

“ Northward in British Columbia the system is not as high nor as broad, but following the coast around through Alaska, it rises in semi-detached groups and ranges, some of which are of great height, culminating in Mount McKinley, north of the head of Cook Inlet, 20,404 feet in height, the highest summit in North America. ”

“ The mountains of the Cordilleran system are mainly of recent formation, and show strata of all ages, as they have been much disturbed by uplift, and the beds exposed by subsequent erosion. Upon the mountains granitic rocks largely predominate, as the stratified beds which formerly covered them have been eroded away, while in very many cases these stratified beds still remain on the flanks of the ranges, as hog-back ridges. ”

“ Each has its greatest length along meridians, and greatest breadth along parallels of latitude; each has a great mountain system running the whole length of the western side and parallel to it, and a shorter secondary and more disconnected mountain system in the eastern part, also parallel to the coast, the two mountain systems in each case converging toward the lower apex of the continent. In both cases the eastern ranges are the oldest geologically. ”

“ Still farther north the peaks are not as high, but the system broadens and becomes more complicated by the appearance of ranges in Argentina, east of the Andes proper. In lat. 18° S. the system curves to the northwest, following the coast; here it has a breadth of fully 300 miles, with two, and, in places, three main ranges, and encloses an elevated plateau, on which is situated Lake Titicaca, 12,645 feet high. Near this lake, in the Cordillera Real, are many high peaks, among them Ancohuma, 21,490 feet; Cacaca, 20,250 feet ”

“ Colonization. Before Columbus left the newly discovered West India Islands in January, 1493, he built a fort on Española, now Haiti. Here some forty of his sailors remained to form a settlement which should serve as headquarters for the further discoveries that Columbus expected to make as soon as he could return to the new world. These first Spanish colonists were killed by the Indians, but their places were taken by others, numbering between two and three hundred, who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage. ”

“ There was no real occupation of the country, however, until the signs of the exhaustion of the farming lands in the east, combined with political considerations, led to an investigation of the opportunities for profitable existence beyond the Mississippi. ”

“ Many of these remained there to practice the trades necessary to town life, while others took farms near by or went on to assist in building up the newer towns which were being established at every good harbor and in the mining districts. ”

“ Nevada de Toluca, 14,950 feet; and Malinche, 13,460 feet. In the countries of Central America the Cordillera is represented by detached ranges of hills, with numerous volcanic peaks, some of which are active, others extinct. ”