6o : The Atlantic 



nation of the brook, the river, the bay and the sound. As Swinburne 

 has it, "Even the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea." 



Now before proceeding to the consideration of other functions let 

 us see where the Atlantic stands with respect to its service as a drain- 

 age recipient. The easiest way of doing this is to make a tour along 

 the shores of the Atlantic, considering the major river systems that 

 flow into it. We may start with the Cape of Good Hope and, neglect- 

 ing some smaller streams, the first river we come to is the Congo. 

 Farther on in the bight we have the mighty Niger. The Gambia and 

 the Senegal are smaller streams but drain a large, relatively dry area. 

 The northwest quarter of Africa is relatively dry with no big river 

 systems but in the Mediterranean there is the Nile. Also reaching 

 the Mediterranean by way of the Black Sea, consideration should be 

 given to the Dnieper and the Danube. The only other river in the 

 Mediterranean worthy of inclusion is the Rhone. We may refer to the 

 drainage of Spain and Portugal though the rivers in themselves are 

 not considerable nor are those of the French Atlantic coast such as 

 the Garonne, Loire and the Seine. In Germany there are the Elbe, 

 Oder and the Rhine — the latter the largest as well as historically the 

 most important of the northern European rivers. The drainage of 

 the Scandinavian countries, while large in aggregate volume, pro- 

 duces only few and short river systems. In the Arctic coasts we en- 

 counter some of the world's largest and longest river systems such as 

 the Dvina, Pechora, Ob, Yenisey, Lena, Yana, Indigirka and the 

 Kolyma. 



In passing to the Arctic coast of America we come to the Macken- 

 zie and the drainage of the Hudson Bay system. Below Labrador the 

 St. Lawrence accounts not only for the major drainage in eastern 

 Canada but also, through receiving the overflow from the Great 

 Lakes, of a large interior region of the continent. However, although 

 important to their area, the Penobscot, Kennebec and Connecticut 

 can hardly be reckoned as major river systems on the world scale. 

 The Hudson-Mohawk system should be included because of the rela- 

 tively large area it serves, and on the same account the Delaware, the 

 Chesapeake and collectively the Potomac and the other rivers that 

 flow into Norfolk Sound. 



In the gulf, the Mississippi-Missouri system constitutes one of the 

 world's greatest rivers — judging not only by the volume of its waters 

 but also by the area served. The Rio Grande is important only on 

 account of the area served, since the volume of its waters is not sig- 

 nificant. On the South American coast we come again to the rivers 



