the Rhine? If the waters of the earth maintain a general equilibrium, they could not rise essentially higher on one hemisphere of the earth than on the other. This inferior antiquity, or later appearance, of the land of America can therefore be explained and proved, not from the gradual diminution of the waters, but only by the doctrine of the upheaval of the mountains. The Americans deny that such proof can be adduced; and it is not my province to decide the controversy. An unqualified superiority in the natural advantages of whole quarters of the globe can by no means be proved from their greater youthfulness or greater age. In North America, it is human history alone that, as far as our knowledge extends, is brief and void, when we compare it with that of the old continent; and although we know not the age of many monuments erected in it by the hand of man, still they do not suggest the idea of such ancient and high civilisation as do, for instance, those of India and Egypt.* At least those which have been found in North America are only mounds of earth, without stones, bricks, or walls. Let us then, in conformity with our purpose, leave those primitive ages undisturbed, to investigate the present and still existing. America extends from the 54th degree of south to the 71st degree of north latitude, and has therefore, from south to north, an extent of 7500 geographic miles. The extreme breadth of the southern half, from east to west, is estimated at 2800, and that of the northern half at 3000 miles. The entire territory of the United States of North America has, from the southern extremity of Florida to the northern extremity of Maine, an extent of 24 degrees of latitude, or 1440 miles, which is about the distance from Naples to Drontheim in Norway, or from Bern to Thebes in Upper Egypt. The greatest extent from east to west is from the eastern boundary of the state of Maine in 45° N. lat. to the north of the Columbia river, on the Pacific ocean, making over 50 degrees of longitude. The most westerly states of North America, Missouri and Arkansas, reach to scarcely half way between the Atlantic and the Pacific. The greatest extent from east to west is about equal to that from the eastern boundary of Russia in Europe to the western coast of Ireland. The superficial area of the United States has from natural causes been estimated very differently; according to a moderate computation, it must amount to about 1,792,000 geographic square miles,† or from ten to eleven times as much as the superficial extent of France. Bancroft's History, iii. 309. Doubtful in South America. † Darby, in his View of the United States, p. 57, reckons the surface at 2,257,000 English square miles, or about one-twentieth of the superficies of the earth; Tucker reckons it at 2,369,000 miles. Which estimate is correct?-So long as the boundaries of the Oregon territory remain unsettled, exactness and agreement are impossible. But that of this immense region only a very small part is under tillage, while another portion is incapable of cultivation, will be shown in the sequel. If we consider the sea-coasts of the United States, the western has as yet no importance; although the Oregon region will doubtless one day obtain it, and will probably be the last land on the earth capable of being settled. But of so much the more consequence are the coasts of the Atlantic. They form gulfs of different sizes deeply indenting the main land. The first extends from the Sabine river (the boundary on the side of Texas) to the southernmost point of Florida; the second, from here to Cape Hatteras in North Carolina; the third to Cape Cod in Massachusetts; and the fourth to Passamaquoddy bay, which forms the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick. The northern bays afford more numerous and better harbors than the southern; and this has had an important influence on the progress of the states. New Orleans, however, near the mouth of the Mississippi, is of the greatest importance; and Mobile, at the mouth of Alabama river, is also of some consequence. St. Augustine in Florida, Savannah in Georgia, and Charleston in South Carolina, are worthy of notice; but they are far behind Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. Boston is now the principal seaport in the northernmost gulf. The sea-coast from Florida to New Jersey is low alluvial or diluvial soil, a great part of which is swampy or sandy; yet with proper care and industry it could be fitted for cultivation. The tide rises on the southern coasts only from 4 to 6 feet, but on the coast of New Brunswick from 40 to 50 feet;* perhaps an effect of the Gulf stream, or of still more general laws of nature. West of these lands, sinking towards the sea, arise the long chain of Appalachian or Alleghany mountains; which in several ridges, interrupted by streams and without peaked summits, separate the eastern slope from the immense valley of the Mississippi. Far beyond this stream arise the loftier and more sharply defined Rocky mountains; from which there stretches to the upper Missouri a great desert in many places impregnated with salt, which recalls to mind that of Africa. The greatest elevations reached by the Appalachian chain are found in New Hampshire, and are estimated at from 3,000 to 7,000 feet; but the highest mountains in all North America are probably at the sources of Columbia river. According to the measurement of Mr. Thompson, the Brown mountain rises to the height of 16,000 feet; and he conjectures that other peaks are 10,000 feet higher still.† Darby's View, pp. 62, 66. ↑ Greenhow's Memoir on the Northwest Coast, p. 11. There are no ignivomous mountains in the United States, and it is only among the Rocky mountains that proofs of volcanic action are found. But if the mountains of South excel those of North America in altitude and extent, the North American lakes are unique of their kind upon the earth. We will mention only the five largest: Lake Ontario has a superficies of 11,640 miles, Lake Erie of 7,940, Lake Huron of 1,520, Lake Michigan of 14,880, and Lake Superior of 36,000. They exhibit for the most part a prodigious depth, so that in several places no bottom has been found with 1800 feet of line. Hence they, together with their outlet the St. Lawrence, contain, as has been estimated, more than one half of the fresh water on the globe. They are girt with hills and sandy ridges, but not with mountains properly so-called. The bottom of Lakes Huron and Michigan is estimated to be at an average 300 feet below, and their surface at 618 feet above the level of the sea. An outlet for this enormous mass of water is furnished by the river St. Lawrence, running from west to east. Its sources lie very near those of the Mississippi; and so far are they from being separated from each other by high mountain-ridges, that when the waters have been unusually high, boats of from 70 to 80 tons burthen have passed from Lake Michigan through the Illinois into the Mississippi: consequently but little assistance would be required at this place to establish a natural water communication between the Atlantic ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. It has been estimated that every hour 1,672,704 cubic feet of water are poured into the Atlantic through the St. Lawrence. The tide ascends the stream about 400 miles, or half-way between Quebec and Montreal. Vessels of 600 tons sail up to the latter city, and ships of the line as far as Quebec. Although the valley of the St. Lawrence exceeds in extent every thing of the kind in Europe, this stream is far inferior to the Mississippi, and still more so to the Missouri. The former takes its rise in about 48° N. lat. and 95° long. west of Ferro; the latter in 43° N. lat. and 110°W. long. The Missouri is wrongfully deprived of its name at its confluence with the Mississippi: that of the latter prevails through several zones, although the former brings down four times as much water and is twice as long as the Mississippi;* it is in fact one fourth longer than the River Amazon, and if not robbed of its name, is the longest river in the world. It flows through a distance of 3,100 miles before reaching the Mississippi; and consequently down to this point it is about seven times as long as the Rhone. In common with the Mississippi, it moves from north to south in so many windings, that it is difficult to calculate its length. They receive about 200 *North Amer. Review, 1823, p. 60. Mexico has fewer navigable streams and fewer serviceable harbors than the United States. †The Encyclop. Americana, art. Missouri, estimates its length to the Gulf of Mexico at 4,400 English miles. Lewis and Clarke navigated it above St. Louis 3096 miles. (Travels, p. 21.) If the tributaries, and water a region of immeasurable extent. Raab, which rises in the Fichtel-Gebirge, emptied in the African kingdom of Fezzan, it would still not have by far the length of the Missouri, but only that of the Mississippi. Between this stream and the St. Lawrence many essential differences and contrasts present themselves. The Mississippi runs from north to south in a regular stream; the St. Lawrence from west to east, forming or passing through many lakes. The former comes from an almost polar region of perpetual ice, and descends into the country of the fig, the orange, and the sugarcane; the latter flows almost wholly through the same degrees of latitude. The Mississippi rises and falls to an uncommon extent at different periods of the year; the St. Lawrence remains constantly at the same height, and causes no inundations. Although it receives innumerable tributaries, the Mississippi becomes no broader, but constantly deeper and deeper (or the water is dispersed. by running over its banks); while the St. Lawrence widens into a large bay, and its bed is interrupted and embellished with countless islands. From its confluence with the Missouri, the Mississippi becomes turbid, and is constantly adding to the deposit at its mouth, which renders it difficult of entrance;* the St. Lawrence, on the contrary, is and remains throughout, pure and clear, and is bordered on its banks by woods and fields, while the Mississippi winds its way, less picturesquely, through tracts of meadow-land and swamps. Trunks of trees, floating timber, and even whole islands torn from its banks, drive down its current or assume a fixed position; so that a voyage down the Mississippi was for a long time regarded as more dangerous than one across the Atlantic. But by means of steamboats and machines of different kinds, an immense number of trees have been removed from the river, others that threatened to fall in have been cut down, sandbanks have been washed away by the application of dams; and thus the dangers of its navigation, though not yet wholly removed, have been greatly diminished. Among all the lateral streams of the Mississippi, the Ohio is as yet by far the most important. Through a long extent of its course, mountains appear at its side; but in fact these are only the margin of a level highland, and the deep-cut bed of the river has from Pittsburg to the Mississippi a fall of only about 400 feet in 1000 miles; so that obstacles presented to navigation by the low state of the water in summer, may mostly be removed by artificial means. These and other giant streams of North America, as the Mississippi, either do not burst forth from lofty Alps; or else, like the Missouri, after breaking from the mountains, they flow through * At New Orleans, the river is 158 feet deep, while there are only 12 feet over the bar. and thus present but few Yet this very peculiarity of much the more useful, as of country, as the highways tedious plains of the same aspect, images of beauty to the artist's eye. their conformation makes them so bonds of union between great tracts of a daily increasing commerce. In what manner the industrious exertions of a shrewd and active people have profited by, and even greatly enhanced these natural gifts of rivers and lakes, will be seen hereafter. It is sufficient here to indicate the natural peculiarities of the principal streams, and at the same time to observe that, by the settlement on their banks of an enterprising race of men, the beautiful and commercially important Hudson, Delaware, Potomac, Susquehanna, &c., have been raised far above their primitive natural condition. It is an indubitable fact, that in the same degrees of latitude, the winters are colder and the summers warmer in North America than in Europe. To this general observation, important with respect to living, to commerce, and to navigation, I will add a few particulars chiefly respecting the climate of the United States.* Hudson's Bay, in the same latitude as the Baltic sea, is even in summer full of ice. In New York (in the latitude of Madrid and Naples) the winter accompanied with ice lasts on an average one hundred and sixty-four days; and the Delaware is frozen over for five or six weeks. New York has the summer of Rome and the winter of Copenhagen; Quebec, the summer of Paris and the winter of St. Petersburgh. In America, too, the climate by no means depends altogether on the degrees of latitude, but is influenced more or less by the winds, the lakes, the great tracts of land in the north, the ocean, the gulf stream, &c. In the northern parts of the United States, the medium temperature amounts to about 45°, and in the southern to 68° Fahrenheit. Here the difference between summer and winter is but slight, while in the north it is immense. It amounts for instance in Florida to 10°, and at Fort Snelling in the north to 56°. At Key West, the southernmost extremity of Florida, the medium temperature amounts in winter to 70°, and in summer to 81° Fahrenheit. At Fort Snelling, it is in winter only 16°, and in summer 72°. In the month of July, the heat is sometimes five degrees higher than it is even at Key West. Summer. 63° 30° 72o 59° 83° 70° 81° *Chiefly from the instructive work of Dr. Forry. ↑ Long's Second Expedition, ii. 466. Poussin, Puissance Américaine, ii. 200. |