Page images
PDF
EPUB

sense. The St. Lawrence empties into the Atlantic far to the north, where the winters are severe. Its lower valley is very narrow and is beyond the home of Indian corn, the American food stuff, whose easy culture and great returns made colonization farther south comparatively easy. The lower St. Lawrence is in reality a fiordlike arm of the sea, and is navigable-though with peril - by seagoing ships. At Montreal, the seagoing vessel is stopped by a rocky barrier-the Lachine Rapids. It was easy for the Indian trader or the soldier to evade this and other obstacles to the interior; but it was difficult for the colonist to transport his family, implements, and supplies to fertile regions on the southern shores of the Great Lakes. Besides, the St. Lawrence is frozen over for one half of the year, and ice closes the lakes to navigation for nearly an equal period. The Mississippi is not frozen except in its northern portion, and its course is not barred by rocks for thousands of miles; but it offered no less insuperable obstacles to the colonists in its tireless current, winding course, and recurring shallows. The (2) Gateway real gateway to the interior was from the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, through the passes of the Alleghanies or around the southern extremity of that mountain system.

on the continent.

(3) Pacific approaches.

Description

of Atlantic seaboard.

The Pacific coast is less inaccessible. The Golden Gate leads to the great lowland valley of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin; the Columbia affords access to fertile valleys, and Puget Sound opens up another region to the colonist. The Pacific slope, however, was far removed from the colonizing centers of Europe, and its first settlers came, as a matter of fact, overland from Mexico, and not by water from Europe. Hundreds of miles of rugged mountains separate this region from the Mississippi basin. We will now examine the three geographical divisions of the United States more in detail.

6. The Atlantic Seaboard. - This section extends from the water parting which divides the rivers falling into the Atlantic from those flowing into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence. It is about four hundred miles wide and two

$6]

The Atlantic Seaboard

II

thousand miles long. It possesses sufficient rainfall, and a range of temperature such as is found on the other side of the Atlantic from the Arctic Circle to Cape de Verde on the western coast of Africa. It is protected on the west by the Appalachian mountain system, which extends from outside the limits of the United States to central Alabama. Never more than four hundred miles in width, the Appalachians are divided into sections lengthwise by fertile valleys more than six hundred miles in length, extending southward from New Jersey to North Carolina. The western range (usually termed the Alleghanies) seldom rises to more than five thousand feet, and is generally fit for the plow. The eastern range (sometimes called the old Appalachian chain) is higher, and interspersed in all directions with fertile valleys.

Shaler's

United States,

I, ch. ii.

system.

The most important breaks in this long chain are those Passes of the between the Hudson and the St. Lawrence by Lake Cham- Appalachian plain, and between the Hudson and the Great Lakes by the valley of the Mohawk. The most important river of this region is the Hudson, which is really an arm of the sea or a tidal river. For more than one half of its length, it lies between high banks, and the influence of the sea is felt even above the mouth of the Mohawk. The low elevation of these breaks in the Alleghanies can be best understood, perhaps, from the statement that a rise in the sea level of one hundred and fifty-two feet would convert all the country east of the Hudson and Lake Champlain into an island, and a similar rise of four hundred feet would separate from the continent all that tract included between the St. Lawrence, the lower Hudson, the Mohawk, and the Atlantic. The Hudson River and the valley of the Mohawk were plainly provided by nature to serve as a means of communication between the fertile lands of the Ohio valley and the sea. Other passes, as Cumberland Gap, lead over the Alleghanies, but none have these easy grades. The seaport which controls the commerce of the Hudson is necessarily the greatest business center of the Atlantic seacoast.

Natural resources.

Characteristics of the interior

basin.

Shaler's

United

States, I, ch. iii.

The Ohio valley.

The region extending from the Alleghanies to the sea is on the whole of remarkable fertility. Near the coast are salt marshes, which are at present of little use. Between the mountain crest and the low-lying sea area, there is a sudden break in the continuity of the plain. This point is usually marked by falls in the rivers, which furnish, from Virginia northward, unrivaled water power for the turning of the machinery of mills. The whole region is well forested and suitable to the growth of wheat, corn, tobacco, and cotton. It contains some of the richest coal fields and beds of iron in the world. Everywhere splendid harbors, sheltered inland bays, and navigable rivers laid open the country to the seventeenth and eighteenth century colonist, and, in our own day, afford outlets for the products of the country. Great as are the natural advantages of the Atlantic slope, those of the Mississippi basin are even greater.

7. The Mississippi Basin. - This section extends from the crest of the Alleghanies to the crest of the eastern division of the Cordilleran system, or the Rocky Mountains, as they are usually termed. It contains not far from one million square miles of land, nearly all of which is suitable to the uses of man. It is a nearly level area, sloping gently from the west and the east to the center, and from the north to the Gulf of Mexico. It is for the most part a table-land, varying from six thousand to three hundred feet above the sea level, trenched by flood-plain valleys along the paths of the principal rivers. With the exception of the flood plain of the Mississippi below the thirty-sixth parallel, the river bottoms are narrow, and the whole basin is free from the diseases and dangers of low-lying countries, to a degree equaled by no other very great river basin. A better idea of its vast size may be gathered from the statement that the distance from the Gulf of Mexico to the mouth of the Ohio is eleven hundred miles, and from that point to Pittsburgh is fully one thousand miles more.

Measured by the amount of water contributed to the main stream, the Ohio is the largest branch of the Missis

§ 7]

The Mississippi Basin

13

sippi. A common misconception is to regard the Ohio valley as including only the portion north of the river, probably because of the situation of the state of Ohio. In reality, the valley of the Tennessee is as much a part of the Ohio basin as the valley of the Allegheny. This basin is the richest single division of the continent: the temperature is practically the same as that of the Atlantic slope; the rainfall is abundant; the soil is fertile and admirably suited to the production of corn and wheat, and the mineral resources are exceedingly rich. This basin was forest-clad at the coming of the whites, but there were large spaces of cleared land which could be at once used by the settler.

West of the Wabash, one of the tributaries of the Ohio, The prairies. there were no trees except in the river bottoms. This was owing to the Indian practice of burning the grass to provide fresh fields for the buffaloes or bisons. There is nothing in the natural condition of this treeless region as far west as the one hundredth meridian to prevent the growth of trees, and already they are springing up around the homesteads of the dwellers in those districts. West of the one hundredth meridian, until the slopes of the Rockies are reached, the rainfall is too scanty for tree life, and this is true of the Great Basin between the Rocky Mountains proper and the Cascade and Sierra Nevada ranges. The treeless region from the Wabash to the one hundredth meridian, including the valley of the upper Mississippi and the Missouri, is admirably fertile and suited to the growth of corn and wheat, the latter in the northern portion. The winters are severe, the summers are often hot, and the rainfall is sometimes not sufficient for the growing plants. Taking everything into consideration, however, this district is the best wheat and corn country in the world. There are also large deposits of coal, and most valuable mines of iron, copper, lead, and zinc.

The soil of the lower Mississippi valley is exceedingly fertile, the rainfall is abundant, and the climate is suited to the growth of plants which require a good deal of moisture, as

Lower Mississippi val

ley.

Resources of the Cordil

leran district.
Shaler's

United States,
I, ch. iii.

cotton and the sugar cane. The flood plain has been subdued by the erection of dikes, known locally as levees, and only about six thousand square miles of this fertile region is too swampy for redemption, except at great cost. Taken all together, and weighing the advantages and disadvantages, it may safely be said that there is no other land of its size on the earth's surface so admirably suited to the purposes of man as the basin of the Mississippi.

8. The Cordilleran Region. The Cordilleran system occupies the whole of the United States west of the one hundred and fifth meridian, with the exception of the upper valley of the Missouri and the valley lowlands of the Pacific slope. It is fully one thousand miles wide on the forty-second parallel. The mineral resources of this district are great and varied; they comprise gold, silver, copper, lead, tin, iron ores, and coal. The climate is healthy; but it is too dry for agriculture, except by irrigation, which his yielded large returns wherever tried. The Great Basin in the interior has an altitude of four thousand feet and over; its excessive dryness renders portions of it unfit for pasturage.

The Pacific coast district includes the valley lowlands of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and of the Columbia and Willamette rivers. The temperature of Southern California is singularly uniform, but in the lowland valley of the Sacramento and San Joaquin the heat is often oppressive. No rain falls in the summer, but the annual rainfall on the whole is abundant, and the country admirably suited to irrigation. Almost any crop can be grown, as wheat, oranges, olives. The mineral resources are great, with the exception of iron; gold, especially, is abundant.

The valley of the lower Columbia enjoys a uniform temperature and abundant moisture; indeed, in places the rainfall is excessive and the climate more nearly resembles that of England than does that of any other portion of America. The soil is deep and fertile, and the forest covering admirable and of great value. Little has been done as yet to develop its mineral resources.

« PreviousContinue »