Chapter I: Preface

The aim of this book is to give a condensed and, I trust, readable account of the leading facts concerning the North American continent which, from the point of view of the geographer, seem most interesting and instructive. The area of the continent is so vast and the diversity among its various parts so great, however, that the completeness of treatment which characterizes the preceding volumes in the series to which it belongs could not be attempted. To obviate in a measure this confessed shortcoming, there has been appended to each chapter a list of books which will enable the reader to continue the studies outlined in it.

A complete review of the geography of a continent should, as it seems to me, be divided into two parts: first, a discussion of the natural conditions, or physical geography, and, second, man's dependence on and use of the natural resources, or economic geography. Each of these two leading phases of the subject was embraced in the preliminary outline of the present volume, but owing to a desire to make each chapter as complete as practicable, and also on account of limitations as to space, the treatment of the economic phases of geography has been necessarily brief. But little more can be claimed for the book as finished than that it is an attempt to describe some of the more prominent and attractive aspects of the natural conditions pertaining to North America.

While writing this book I have become more and more impressed with the incompleteness and inadequacy of the printed records relating to the geography of the continent of which it treats. Extensive tracts, particularly in the far North, have not been traversed by observant men, vast areas throughout the continent have not been surveyed and mapped, and even in the somewhat thickly inhabited portions of the more enlightened countries there are large districts in reference to the geography of which there is but little critical information available. Under these conditions it seemed best to select typical examples of various geographical features from the better known portions of the continent to represent the conditions throughout the less thoroughly explored domain in which they are situated, and at the same time serve to illustrate the highly creditable advances made by American geographers in definitely formulating the principles of physiography. The book may, in a measure, be considered as an attempt to present in popular form a report of progress concerning the study of the geographical development of North America at the beginning of the twentieth century.

I. C. R.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE MARGIN OF THE CONTINENT 1

The continental shelf--The submarine topography of the
Caribbean region--Movements of the ocean
waters--Islands--Topography of the coast--Estuaries and
harbours.

II. THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE LAND 60

Coastal plains and plateaus--The Atlantic mountains--The
continental basin--The Pacific mountains--The Antillean
mountains.

III. CLIMATE 173

The elements of climate--Climatic provinces--Secondary
disturbances of the atmosphere--Evaporation.

IV. PLANT LIFE 215

The forests--Prairies, treeless plains, and
plateaus--The treeless mountain tops.

V. ANIMAL LIFE 258

General principles of geographical
distribution--Life-regions and life-zones--The
mammals--Some representative mammals--The birds.

VI. GEOLOGY 299

The growth of the continent--The rocks of which the
continent is composed--The concentration of mineral
substances.

VII. THE ABORIGINES 355

The Eskimos--The Indians.

VIII. POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY 408

Classification of boundaries--Political
control--Population in 1900.

INDEX 427

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

COLOURED MAPS

PLATE PAGE

I. Orographical features 25

II. Mean annual rainfall and temperature 173

III. Climate and life provinces 185

IV. Leading geological features 306

V. Pleistocene glacial deposits 315

VI. Linguistic stocks of Indians North of Mexico 370

VII. Distribution of governments 410

VIII. Characteristic vegetation 418

OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS

FIG. PAGE

1. Relief map of North America _Frontispiece_

2. Profile of a continental shelf 2

3. Map of Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean region,
showing topography of the sea-floor 17

4. Co-tidal lines 29

5. Profile of sea-cliff and cut-and-built terrace 33

6. Map of a portion of the Atlantic coast of the
United States 35

7. Map of Mobile Bay 36

8. Map of Cape Cod 37

9. Map of the coast of Texas 39

10. Map of a portion of the coast of Maine 45

11. Map of the coast of southeastern Alaska 47

12. Map of the delta of the Mississippi 53

13. Map giving the names of the larger physiographic
divisions of North America 61

14. Altitude map of North America 65

15. Map of the Appalachian Mountains 74

16. Section of anticlinal valleys and synclinal
mountains 78

17. Profile showing relation of ancient peneplains
in the Appalachians 81

18. Section through the Black Hills of Dakota 117

19. Sketch of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River 134

20. Map of the Great Basin 137

21. Map of Crater Lake, Oregon 153

22. Mount Rainier, Washington 154

23. Map of Puget Sound 161

24. Map showing isobars for January and July 175

25. Ice-palace, Montreal 199

26. Map showing tracks of West Indian hurricanes 209

27. Map showing depth of evaporation
in the United States 212

28. Map showing distribution of forests 215

29. Douglas firs, Vancouver 241

30. View in redwood forest of California, from
photograph by U. S. Bureau of Forestry 242

31. Bison at Silver Heights, Winnipeg 275

32. Map showing range of bison 276

33. Maps showing the growth of the North American
continent 303

34. Map showing the distribution of coal-fields 336

35. Ideal section through an oil and gas
pool beneath an anticlinal 339

36. Lodge or tepee of Blackfoot
Indians, Manitoba 387

37. Panorama of Uxmal, Yucatan 390

38. Pointed arches in Central American ruins 393

39. Carved stonework, Uxmal, Yucatan 394

NORTH AMERICA