130 LECTURES. 



parts. For a long period, therefore, scarcely any but general maps 

 of the entire continent were produced. 



It is proposed, then, that the second class of our collection shall 

 consist of those general maps of America which show us the configu- 

 ration of the continent, its position on the globe, and its relation to 

 the other parts of the world, as these were gradually developed by 

 years of exploration and study. , 



It is only in our time, as it were, that America has been fully cir- 

 cumnavigated and its general features completely made known. We 

 may therefore bring this division of our maps down to these latter 

 years ; though, of course, among the enormous mass of modern general 

 maps of America, only those should be selected which really exhibit 

 some important change in the general outlines. 



Since the geographical pictures of the northwestern part of Europe 

 and of the northeastern part of Asia belong, in a certain degree, to a 

 collection of American maps, because these countries approach the 

 new world, and were for some time thought to be connected with it, 

 the old maps of these countries down to the time when this supposed 

 connexion was disproved will form two lateral and supplementary 

 branches of our collection of the general maps of America. 



America was at first supposed to consist of two separate islands or 

 continents, afterwards discovered to be connected by a narrow isthmus, 

 which we call North and South America. These two great bodies of 

 land belong to opposite hemispheres of the globe, are separated from 

 each other by broad waters, oifer many contrasts in their physical 

 features, and have had, to a certain extent, their separate histories ; 

 consequently they have in general been treated separately by geogra- 

 phers. This circumstance gives occasion for a third and fourth divi- 

 sion of our collection — one of which will comprise all the maps of the 

 northern, and the other those of the southern continent. 



North and South America are each subdivided by nature, as well 

 as by history, into different large portions. According to the prin- 

 ciple of division adopted, we might dissect them in almost num- 

 berless ways ; but for various reasons it would seem best to submit 

 in this respect to the dictates of custom, and follow the })ractice pretty 

 generally adopted by map-makers, geographers, and the public at 

 large. 



It is customary, for instance, to use the term Eussian America as 

 the name of that broad northwestern peninsula of the continent which 

 is possessed by the Russians. In adopting this name wo follow as a 

 principle of division the dominant nationality. Everybody knows 

 what is meant by the Arctic regions of America — a name derived from 

 the position of these regions on the globe ; and nearly all geographers 

 adopt the division of Canada and Canadian maps, which designation 

 is derived from the political name of the country, and corai)rises, more 

 or less, the maps of the great St. Lawrence basin. Another division 

 has been made of the Mississippi valley ; though this forms only a 

 liydrographical whole, and does not correspond to a political parti- 

 tion. Brazil, Patagonia, Peru, &c., are other great names which 

 everybody uses and understands. 



We theielbre adopt all these and other customary divisions, and 



