141 AMERICA. 346. This vast tract (called also the New Continent, to distinguish it from the Old Continent, containing Europe, Asia, and Africa) extends nearly half the circumference of the globe, from 75° north to 55° south latitude, a distance exceeding 9000 miles; and where widest, stretches 4000 miles from east to west; is four times as large as Europe, about one-third larger than Africa, one-fourth less than Asia; and contains about three-tenths of the dry land on the surface of the globe. It is divided into two parts, nearly but not exactly equal, North America and South America, the former exceeding the latter by about one-ninth. NORTH AMERICA. 347. BOUNDARIES.-Including Greenland and Central America, North America is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean; on the west and south by the Pacific Ocean; and on the east by the Isthmus of Panama, the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Ocean. 348. EXTENT AND POPULATION.-Extent, upwards of 8,700,000 square miles; population, about fifty-one millions. 349. INLETS AND STRAITS.-In the north-east, Davis Straits and Baffin's Bay, west of Greenland; Hudson Bay or Sea, with James Bay in the south, Fox Channel in the north, and Hudson Strait in the north-east: in the east, Gulf of St. Lawrence, with Belle Isle Strait; Fundy Bay, west of Nova Scotia; New York, Delaware, and Chesapeake Bays, east of the United States: between North and South America, the Gulf of Mexico, with Campeachy Bay and Straits of Florida, and the Caribbean Sea, with the Gulfs of Honduras, Mosquito, and Darien: on the west coast, Bay of Panama, south of Panama; Gulf of California, west of Mexico; Queen Charlotte Sound, between Vancouver Island and British Columbia; Behring Straits, between America and Asia. 350. CAPES.-Icy Cape and Point Barrow, north of Russian America; Farewell, south of Greenland; Chudleigh, north-east, and Charles, south-east of Labrador; Race, south of Newfoundland; Sable, south of Nova Scotia; Cod, and Hatteras, east of United States; Sable, south of Florida; Catoche, north-east of Yucatan; Gracios a Dios, east of Honduras; Corrientes, west of Mexico; St. Lucas, south of California; Mendocino, and Blanco, west of United States; Prince of Wales, and Lisburne, on the coast of Behring Straits. 351. ISLANDS.-In the Arctic Ocean, Greenland, on the north-east of British America, from which it is separated by the Greenland Sea, Davis Strait, and Baffin Bay; Cumberland, Cockburn, and Southampton Islands, between Baffin Bay and Hudson Bay; Prince of Wales Land, Prince Albert Land, and Banks Land, between the mainland and the Parry Islands to the north in the Atlantic Ocean, Newfoundland, Anticosti, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton Island, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; the Bermudas, 600 miles east of Cape Hatteras ; West India Islands, between North and South America in the Pacific Ocean, Vancouver and Queen Charlotte Island, west of British America; Prince of Wales Island, and Sitka, north of Queen Charlotte Island; Kodiak, south of the peninsula of Aliaska; Aleutian Isles, between Aliaska and Asia; Clark Island, in Behring Strait. 352. PENINSULAS AND ISTHMUSES.-Labrador, between Hudson Bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence; Nova Scotia, east of New Brunswick, with which it is connected by the Isthmus of Chignecto; Florida, in the south-east of the United States; Yucatan, between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea; Isthmus of Panama, 30 miles across, connecting North and South America; Peninsula of Lower California, between the Gulf of California and the Pacific; Aliaska, south-west of the territory formerly called Russian America. 353. MOUNTAINS.-North America contains two mountain systems, one in the west and one in the east. The western system is a continuation of the Andes of South America, and stretches along the whole length of the continent, from Lake Nicaragua, in Central America, to the Arctic Ocean. Its various divisions are, the mountains of Guatimala; mountains of Southern Mexico, with Popocatepetl, 17,720 feet, and Orizaba, 17,347 feet, continued by three ranges, the Cordilleras of Sonora, stretching north-west along the coast to New Mexico, the mountains of Potosi in the east, and in the centre, Sierra Madre continued by Sierra Verde to the Rocky Mountains, which extend in a double chain to the Arctic Ocean, highest summits, mountains Hooker and Brown, in the eastern range, each nearly 16,000 feet. Another range stretches along the western coast, from Lower California to the territory formerly called Russian America, called Sierra Nevada from Cape St. Lucas to Cape Blanco, the Cascade Range from Cape Blanco to Vancouver Island, with Mt. St. Helens, 15,750 feet, and Mt. Hood, 15,500 feet, and the Maritime Range in the north, with Mt. St. Elias and Mt. Fairweather, within a few miles of the Pacific, the former 17,850 feet high. The eastern system consists of the Alleghany or Appalachian Mountains, extending from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the State of Alabama, highest summit, less than 7000 feet. 354. RIVERS.-Flowing north into the Arctic Ocean, the Mackenzie, with the Liard, Peace, and Athabasca; the Coppermine, and Back or Great Fish River: flowing into Hudson Bay, the Churchill, and the Nelson and Saskatchewau: flowing into the Atlantic on the east, the St. Lawrence, with its tributaries Ottawa and Saguenay; the Connecticut, Hudson, Susquehanna, Potomac, and Savannah: flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi, with its tributaries from the east, Illinois and Ohio, and from the west, Missouri, Arkansas, and Red River; the Colorado, and the Rio-Grande-del-Norte: flowing into the Pacific, the Colorado, Sacramento, Oregon or Columbia, and Fraser River. Of the North American rivers the St. Lawrence, giving discharge to the waters of the Great Lakes, has the greatest body of water, being navigable for ships of the line for 400 miles, as far as Quebec, and for ships of 500 tons for 580 miles, as far as Montreal, having an average breadth of two miles. Between lakes Erie and Ontario, this vast body of water, there contracted to a width of three-quarters of a mile, rushes impetuously over a perpendicular rock 160 feet high, producing the far-famed cataract of Niagara. The Missouri, if measured from its source in the Rocky Mountains to its junction with the Mississippi, and thence along the channel of this last to the Gulf of Mexico, has a course of 4500 miles, and much the longest in the world. 355. LAKES.-The principal lakes are Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior, in the basin of the St. Lawrence, between Canada and the United States; Lake of the Woods, Winnipeg, Winnipegoos, Deer, and Wollaston, connected with Hudson Bay; Athabasca, Great Slave Lake, and Great Bear Lake, in the basin of the Mackenzie River; Great Salt Lake, in Utah, west of the Rocky Mountains; Lake Chapala, in Mexico; Lake Nicaragua, in Central America. The lakes of North America are the largest fresh water lakes in the world. The five lakes in the St. Lawrence basin are supposed to contain more than half of all the fresh water in the world. Lake Superior itself is fully larger than Ireland. It is 400 miles long, 180 broad, and 1500 in circumference, is 640 feet above the sea, 1000 feet in depth, and discharges its redundant water into Lake Huron, with which also Lake Michigan communicates. The stream, discharging |