GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 101 
through fifty-eight degrees of longitude ; and on the 
Atlantic coast from 25° N. to 45° N. through twenty 
degrees of latitude, and on the 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 Mississippi, 
and for a considerable distance west of that river 
was, with the exception of an inconsiderable portion 
of prairie, 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. 1 
Its great geographical features are derived from two 
principal systems of mountains which traverse it, and 
divide it into three distinct regions. The first system 
1 For details respecting the physical features of the country, the author is 
indebted to a valuable work on the Climate of the United States, by 
Samuel Forry, M. D., Svo. New York, 1842. 
vol. I. 27 
