GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. IQ\ 



tlirough fifty-eiglit degrees of longitude ; and on the 

 Atlantic coast from 25° N. to 45° N. tlirough twenty 

 degrees of latitude, and on tlie Pacific coast from 42° 

 N. to 49° N. through seven degrees of latitude. The 

 distance from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, through 

 this tract, is estimated at 2500 miles, and between 

 the extreme north and south points at 1400 miles. 

 It has a maritime frontier of more than 4000 miles, 

 and a lake coast of 1200 miles. Its superficial con- 

 tents are supposed to exceed 2,200,000 square miles, 

 only one half of which is included within the bounda- 

 ries of the organized State and Territorial govern- 

 ments. The whole country east of the IMississippi, 

 and for a considerable distance west of that river 

 was, with the exception of an inconsiderable portion 

 of prau-ie, originally covered with a dense forest ; and 

 the labors of two hundred years have cleared and 

 opened for cultivation probably less than one-eighth 

 part of it. The magnitude of the whole area will be 

 more fully realized by reflecting that it is eleven times 

 greater than the kingdom of France, and considerably 

 exceeds that of the whole of Europe, with the excep- 

 tion of the Russian empire.' 



Its great geographical features are derived from two 

 principal systems of mountams which traverse it, and 

 divide it into three distmct regions. The first system 



' For details respecting the physical features of the country, the author is 

 indebted to a valuable work on the Climate of tJie United States, by 

 Samud Forty, M. D., 8vo. New York, 1842. 



