731 



UNITED STATES (CLIMATE). 



descend the great rivers of North America Mac- 

 kenzie's to the north, the St Lawrence to the eut, 

 and the Mississippi to the south. (See Mississippi, 

 Missouri, and Miasiuippi Valley.) To the west 

 of the Rocky mountains lies the Pacific slope, the 

 declivity of which is greater and more rapid than 

 those of the others. This region, as yet little 

 known, and unoccupied by whites, is visited only 

 by hunters and trading ships, and is now generally 

 known under the name of Oregon. (See Columbia, 

 and Oregon.) With regard to soil, the territory of 

 the United States, to the east of the Rocky moun- 

 tains, may be classed under five grand divisions : 

 1. That of the New England states, east of the 

 Hudson, where the Alleghanies spread out into a 

 broken, hilly country. The soil is here, in general, 

 rocky, has but little depth, is barren in many places, 

 and better adapted for pasture than tillage. 2. The 

 sandy soil of the sea shore, commencing from Long 

 Island, and extending along the coast of the At- 

 lantic and the gulf of Mexico, to the mouth of the 

 Mississippi, with a breadth varying from thirty to 

 a hundred miles. This tract, from the Potomac 

 southward, approaches to a horizontal plain, very 

 little raised above the sea, and traversed through 

 its whole breadth by the tide water at the mouths 

 of the great rivers. The surface, which consists of 

 sea sand, is scarcely capable of cultivation, and 

 produces nothing but pines, except on the banks of 

 rivers, and in marshy spots where rice is raised. 

 3. The land from the upper margin of this sandy 

 tract to the foot of the Alleghany mountains, from 

 ten to two hundred miles in breadth, the soil of 

 which is generally formed from the alluvion of the 

 mountains, and the decomposition of the primitive 

 rocks beneath the surface. This tract is fertile, 

 and generally well adapted for tillage. 4. The 

 valleys between the ridges of the Alleghanies, the 

 soil of which is various, but rather richer than that 

 of the tract last mentioned. 5. The extensive 

 region west of the Alleghanies, bottomed on lime- 

 stone, well watered, inexhaustibly productive, and 

 containing perhaps as large a proportion of first 

 rate soil as any country in the world. The north- 

 ern and western parts of the Mississippi valley, 

 stretching for hundreds of miles along the foot of 

 the Rocky mountains, and several hundred miles in 

 width, is a barren desert of sand. (The geology 

 of the United States has been fully described in 

 the article North America). Volney, who visited 

 the United States in 1796, describes the country 

 as a vast forest, interrupted by open spaces formed 

 by brackish marshes, and by cultivated tracts round 

 the cities. In a state of nature, the whole Atlantic 

 slope was, in fact, covered by a dense forest, 

 which also spread over a great part of the basin of 

 the St Lawrence to the fifty-fifth degree of north 

 latitude, and nearly the whole of the Mississippi 

 valley on the east of the river, and stretched be- 

 yond the Mississippi for the distance of fifty or one 

 hundred miles. Of this enormous forest, one of 

 the largest on the globe, nineteen twentieths yet 

 remain, the efforts of man having made but partial 

 inroads, on either its mass or its extent. This 

 forest is bounded on its western limits by another 

 region of much greater area, but of a very different 

 character. " This," says Darby, " may be strictly 

 called the grassy section of North America, which, 

 from- all that is correctly known, stretches from the 

 forest region indefinitely westward, and from the 

 gulf of Mexico to the farthest arctic limits of the 

 continent." The grassy or prairie region, in general, 



is less hilly, mountainous or rocky than the forest 

 region ; but there are many exceptions to this re- 

 mark : plains of great extent exist in the latter, 

 and mountains of considerable elevation and mass 

 in the former. The two regions are not divided 

 by any determinate limit, but frequently run into 

 each other, so as to blend their respective features. 

 With the Atlantic ocean on the east, the Pacific on 

 the west, the gulf of Mexico on the south, and an 

 Atlantic coast of nearly 3000 miles, the United 

 States contain some of the finest harbours in the 

 world. The largest bays are Passamaquoddy, 

 Massachusetts, Delaware and Chesapeake. The 

 principal sounds are Long Island sound, Albemarlc, 

 and Pamlico sounds. The largest lakes included 

 wholly within the United States, are Michigan and 

 Champlain. The great lakes Superior, Huron, 

 Erie and Ontario, lie partly within the United 

 States and partly in the British dominions. The 

 country is intersected by a great number of rivers, 

 which afford great facilities for inland navigation, 

 and an unlimited natural power for mechanical pur- 

 poses, which, in a great measure, renders the use of 

 steam and other artificial powers unnecessary, and 

 thus gives great advantages to the manufacturing 

 establishments of the country. Some of the prin- 

 cipal are the following : 



Rivers flowing into the Atlantic. 



See the separate articles, and the article Rivers t 

 Navigable. Many details in physical geography 

 will also be found in the articles on the separate 

 states, written for this work, and containing the 

 most recent information in regard to this country. 



Climate. In a country having so many varieties 

 of exposure as the United States, and extending 

 through twenty degrees of latitude, the climate 

 must, of course, be various. In the northern parts 

 between lat. 42 and 45, the winter is severe for 

 three or four months : during this season, the snow 

 is abundant enough for the use of sledges, and the 

 ice of the rivers sufficiently strong to bear the pas- 

 sage of horses and wagons. In summer, the heat 

 is very intense during five or six weeks. In the 

 southern parts of New York, Pennsylvania, New 

 Jersey and Maryland, the winter is equally cold, 

 but of shorter duration, generally commencing about 

 the beginning of November, and the severe cold 

 seldom continuing more than fifteen or twenty days. 

 The temperature of the summer is nearly the same 

 as in the Northern states. Between the first of 

 May and the first of October, a fire is not necessary. 



