396 



FIRST YEAR SCIENCE 



of Europe has a considerable plain of this kind. The 

 Netherlands are situated on land which has been either 

 reclaimed from the sea naturally in recent geological time 

 or artificially by man in recent historical time. In the 

 southern part this reclamation is largely due to the sedi- 

 ment brought down by the Rhine. 



Sometimes the materials of a coastal plain are found 

 far inland in places which are now separated from the sea 

 by mountain ranges, as near Lake Ontario. But the 

 method of formation was the same, only thousands upon 

 thousands of years have passed since these rocks were ex- 

 posed, and vast geological changes have taken place in that 

 time. Such areas as these are sometimes called ancient 

 coastal plains. 



In the western part of the United States the coastal 

 plain is not as well developed as on the Atlantic border. 

 But the region about Los Angeles is a coastal plain, and 



almost all the charac- 

 teristics of the broad 

 eastern plain can be 

 seen in traveling from 

 the ocean to the coast 

 mountains. 



182. Industries on 

 Coastal Plains. The val- 

 uable minerals of the 

 earth are usually found 

 in the older rocks, so 

 there is no mining on a 

 coastal plain, and be- 



CRUDE TURPENTINE STILL. 



In the pine belt of the North Carolina 



coastal plain. 



cause the rivers are shallow and fall over no ledges as 

 they flow across these plains, no great water power for 

 manufacturing can be developed. The sluggish streams 

 are often dammed and small water powers developed, but 



