NATURAL H!ST.|;v , 



NATURAL IIISToin (>F 



CHAPTEK XI. (run/ in- 

 11IK NEW WOELD: NORTH, CKNTUAL, AND SOUTH 



AJCCaiCA. 



n ito and Soil Temperature* of Old and New World eomp*r*d 

 Buw Produce, Animal, Ve^oUM*, *ud Minrl. 



.-1 >< inial Produce. The indi^< un of America it 



fume limilcil than that of the Old World, an*: 

 M> in the larger speeies of animals. Besides bei: 

 in number. and small ill si/e, tin; animals are m<> 

 peeuhar st met ure. The llama, was tin- only domestic 

 annual found upon tin- continent l>y the tir.-.t Kuropcun 

 M-itlrrs. In the northern regions, where. America all 

 I'm meets the Old World in the narrow hreudth of 

 Hehring's Straits, the reindeer, the elk, tho b'.'ar, the 

 fox. the beaver, and the marten are common to both 

 hemispheres. Hunting and trapping tho fur animals 

 has been hitherto the almost exclusive vocation of the 

 sparse population of tho Hudson's Hay territories. The 

 marine mammals tho seal, tho walrus, and i'ne whale. 

 \\IIOM- chase provides us with skins, oil, whalebone, and 

 are identical with those throughout tho Arctic 

 and sub- Arctic zones. 



Further south, the American bison or buffalo, hunted 

 lor its tongue chiefly, overruns Canada and tho United 

 States, herding in the prairies and savannas of the 

 Mississippi rivers, where likewise deer are extremely 

 numerous. Great flocks of tho large-horned or wild 

 mountain sheep live among the Rocky Mountains. 

 Many of the quadrupeds of Mexico are peculiar to the 

 country, but none of them are of any important economic 

 value. 



Birds are numerous and of many varieties. America 

 is the native home of the turkey, two or three species of 

 which are found in the forests of North and Central 

 America. Tropical America has the curassow, a bird 

 equally large, and as delicate of flesh. The other birds 

 of use for food, or for industrial purposes, are closely 

 related to those of the Old World. The Arctic shores 

 are covered with sea-fowl as in Europe. The eagle and 

 the vulture live in the mountains. Passenger pigeons 

 darken the sky by the immensity of their numbers. 

 The nandu, of La Plata, and the rhea, a smaller bird 

 of Patagonia, represent in America the ostrich, by which 

 name, too, they are sometimes called. 



Many of the American birds are valued only for the 

 brilliancy of their colours. The delicate humming-bird 

 ranges from Alaska southwards to Cape Horn. Beauti- 

 ful parrots likewise have a large southerly range, though 

 not ascending more than a few degrees beyond the Tropic 

 of Cancer. Amongst the American reptiles, several are 

 turned to useful account. Turtles abound in the enclosed 

 seas of Central America, and upon the shores of the 

 West Indian islands, affording one of tho choicest 

 forms of animal food; and along tho Pacific coast the 

 tortoise supplies the beautiful substance called tortoise- 

 shell. An extraordinary fish-like reptile, caught only in 

 the Mexican lakes, and called the axolotl, is eaten as an 

 exceeding delicacy. 



Food fishes are abundant, both marine and of the river 

 species. Exhaustless shoals of cod feed on the banks 

 east of Cape Breton and of Newfoundland. Varieties 

 of the herring also fill the inlets, and are caught in 

 myriads. 



Of minor food-products from tho animal kingdom, 

 oysters are so plentiful, that dinner in the United States 

 is never complete without them in one or more fashions 

 of cooking. Oyster banks, along the low mangrove 

 swamps of the Southern States, form natural embank- 

 ments against the sea. Along the shores of California, 

 pearl oysters are found. In the class of insects, the 

 cochineal is indigenous, and was brought from Mexico, 



118-N.K. 



wr mill gut Hupplie*, though small in comparison 



roduco of the warm parts of Europe. Bees 



iced from Europe, in return, supply large store* 



the native animal produce, bat the produce 

 of animals introduced by Europeans, that distinguishes 

 Ameriui m the present day. Tho domestic varieties of 

 Europe have found the condition a of increase so favour* 

 able, that horses, cattle, and swine have returned to a 

 state of nature, and swarm over the boundless plains, or 

 through the forests both of th North and the :- 

 The Indians of tho North, who have become fcartaui 

 riders, hunt the biaon on horseback. In Mexico and 

 Central America, tin; mule is used as a beast of burden. 

 Tho numbers of thin mire- footed animal a compromise 

 between tho beautiful Spanish wild ass and the norse 

 it is hardly possible to estimate. 



With the knowledge of these resources, we are able to 

 name the animal produce, of which America will hare a 

 surplus for interchange. From our own possessions and 

 the United States, cheese and provisions as export* in- 

 crease in quality and quantity every year. Hides, tallow. 

 and wool are also exported. Furs from the extreme 

 north, and fish both dried and pickled, to which we may 

 add the produce of the whale fishery, are, and will remain, 

 constituents of tho grand commerce of North America. 



South America, less advanced, sends us chinchilla 

 furs from Venezuela, and hides, tallow, horsehair, horns, 

 bones, and wool from tho animals that bound ov 

 country between tho llanos of the Orinoco and the shingly 

 steppes of Patagonia. Means are being taken to export 

 the flesh of the oxen in a fresh state to Europe, but the 

 success as yet has been very partial. 



Vegetable Produce. 



The flora of a continent whose distinguishing physical 

 features are vast lowlands, in temperate and tropical 

 regions, amidst heat and moisture, may be determined 

 beforehand as diversified and exuberant. In tropical 

 America, vegetation reaches its utmost limits of luxu- 

 riance. Nevertheless, before the introduction of plants 

 from Europe, the productions of the continent were 

 peculiar, and comparatively few of them known to be 

 useful to man. As in the case of animals, America has 

 given little and received much. Tho plants introduced 

 have spread widely, and furnished limitless stores of 

 food. Nearly all tho economic plants of Europe are now 

 grown in the cleared parts of the United States, and the 

 tropical zone has been enriched with many plants from 

 corresponding parts of Africa and Asia. 



Indigenous Produce. Maize is the only native repre- 

 sentative of the cerealia; and manioc, from which cas- 

 sava bread and tapioca are prepared, takes tho place in 

 South America that rice assumes in India. Allspice 

 is the only native pungent condiment, and is akin to 

 the various spices of India. Cocoa, and mate or Para- 

 guay tea, are tho beverages of South America, in lieu of 

 coffee and tea. Plantains are the characteristic fruit, 

 closely resembling tho bananas of Asia. Cinchona, or 

 Jesuit's bark from which the invaluable drug quinine 

 is extracted the ipecacuanha of Brazil, and tho jalap of 

 Mexico, have no representatives elsewhere. The most 

 remarkable native products are, without doubt, first, 

 the potato spread from Chili throughout the world ; 

 secondly, tobacco now grown in several countries, but 

 brought to perfection only in its native soil of Cuba, 

 whose capital, Havannah, gives tho name descriptive 

 of the best leaf. Although the indigenous plants used 

 for food are few, compensation is given in the weight 

 of their produce. In Europe, large spaces are covered 

 with foou-grasses and other plants, for the sustenance 

 of the inhabitants. In America, small tracts of maize, 

 manioc, and plantain will produce enough food for 

 largo numbers of people. As a consequence, in South 



