AMERICA. 



85 



peculiar in its character, vegetation is proportionally 

 luxuriant. 



On the west coast there is in general much less 

 action between the mountains and the sea, as the 

 general current both of the air and the waters there 

 sweeps along the line of the coast, alternating with 

 the seasons, and occasioning great disturbances of the 

 atmosphere at its changes violent storms of thunder 

 and lightning, heavy falls of rain, and winds of hur- 

 ricane violence. 



The general motion of the oceanic waters is thus a 

 current playing round the American shores, north- 

 ward on the eastern shore to the north of the Equator, 

 and southward along that to the south ; and then by 

 Cape Horn around the whole line of the west. The 

 great return current is by the north of the Atlantic, 

 and that current casts the wreck of America the 

 timber brought down by the spring freshes, and the 

 more constant currents of such rivers as the Missis- 

 sippi, which continually shift their beds in the soft 

 alluvial soil upon the islands that lie along the shores 

 of the polar ice, and partially, it may be, upon some 

 of those of Siberia. That wreck consists chiefly of 

 timber, and the quantity of it is so great, that it 

 aft'ords an abundant supply to Iceland and some other 

 places which have no timber of their own. The 

 supply has been afforded from time immemorial ; 

 and there arc places where immense floats of it are 

 now covered with soil, and others where it has par- 

 tially been converted into coal by the action of 

 volcanic fire. 



America is too remote from Africa for allowing 

 the passage of any animal, even of a bird, from the 

 one to tlie other, as birds do not migrate much in 

 longitude, especially within the torrid zone, in which 

 these continents make their nearest approximation. 

 With Europe, also, there is no direct communication, 

 even by means of the polar ice ; and the communica- 

 tion with Asia is limited to the extreme north-east of 

 that quarter of the world ; thus the only part of Asia 

 which has an ice-connexion with America, and in so 

 far resembles it, is by the eastern mountains, and 

 the intervening deserts, in a great measure cut off 

 from the rest of Asia, so that the north-west of Ame- 

 rica can hardly be said to have an Asiatic character. 



The natural productions of America are just what, 

 from the peculiarities of its situation, we should be led 

 to expect. Generally speaking they are very different 

 from those of the other parts of the world ; and the 

 situations which they are found most to resemble are 

 those in which there is the clearest connexion. 



The mineral productions do not properly come 

 within the scope of these distinctions, because, with 

 the exception of some of the salts found in the soil, 

 we know but little of the effects of difference of 

 climate in the formation of minerals. The mountains 

 of the American- continent are, however, peculiarly 

 rich in metals. The gold, the silver, and the copper 

 of the Andes have been all long known and much 

 esteemed ; and the mountains of the north are parti- 

 cularly rich in iron. The gold is usually found native 

 or metallic, and in a comparatively pure state ; but it 

 is mixed with much soil, from which it is separated by 

 washing, the great specific gravity of the gold causing 

 it to remain at the bottom of the vessels. The places, 

 where that operation is performed, are by the Spani- 

 ards and their descendants called lavaderos, that is, 

 washing stations ; and the search for gold is in gene- 

 ral accounted a work of great labour, and vt-ry uncer- 



tain profit. Silver is founjl in much greater quantity, and 

 the operation of mining for it, though still one of some 

 hazard and much expense, is one of more certainty to 

 those who can command the requisite capital. In 

 Peru, where it is perhaps more abundant than in any 

 other part of the country, though some of the Mexican 

 mines have been far richer in pure or native silver, it 

 is found high in the mountains, but generally at no 

 great depth below the surface, and sometimes it is 

 disclosed by the mere removal of the vegetable sod. 

 In the richest mines, the silver is generally mixed 

 wiih brown oxide of iron, and the stratum in which 

 this mineral is contained is often limestone. But 

 notwithstanding the importance of the American 

 mountains, especially those of central and South 

 America, in an economical point of view, the geology 

 is still in a very imperfect state, and so must remain 

 till many additional discoveries have been made. 



The mineral kingdom is not, as has been said, under 

 the influence of local or climatal circumstances ; and 

 the effect which minerals, at, least those at even a 

 moderate depth below the surface, have on the vege- 

 table and animal productions is not very great, or 

 at least not very satisfactorily made out. So that, 

 with these considerations, we must take the living 

 productions as they occur, without seeking to esta- 

 blish any general connexion between them and the 

 minerals which they help to conceal. 



The vegetables of America resemble those of the 

 eastern continent much more at the northern extre- 

 mity of the country than in any other part ; but what 

 may be considered as the polar vegetation ranges 

 much farther to the south than it does in the old con- 

 tinent, especially in Europe. The north-west of 

 America and the north-east of Asia, which approach 

 each other in geographical position, also resemble 

 each other in climate and productions much more 

 than the north-east of America and the north-west 

 of Europe. What connexion, if any, there may 

 be between the maximum of cold in the northern 

 parts of America, and the situation of the mag- 

 netic pole, has not yet become matter of philosophy, 

 though it does appear that there is some connexion 

 between them. But, independently of that circum- 

 stance, there are, in the northern parts of Ame- 

 rica, sufficient natural causes to induce a very in- 

 tense degree of cold. There is no current of tidal 

 water by the sea from any warmer region ; all the 

 winds that blow come over either cold, and for the 

 greater part of the year, snowy heights, or they come 

 over lakes and swarnps which are calculated to pro- 

 duce intense cold by their evaporation. There is 

 thus no means by which heat can come from any 

 other region, and, for a great part of the year, the heat 

 of the sun is much absorbed in the melting of snow 

 and ice ; so that, in the extreme north, the average 

 temperature is below that of freezing ; and though 

 the difference in latitude is two or three degrees, 

 Melville Island is more dreary and barren of vegeta- 

 tion than Spitsbergen. The plants are very few, 

 and of the most humble growth. Even in our pro- 

 gress southward, especially toward the eastern part 

 of the continent, a latitude answering to the average 

 of that of the British islands must be arrived at 

 before we come to a climate equal on the average to 

 that of Lapland. The trees are not quite the same 

 species ; but we find in the country about the southern 

 parts of Hudson's Bay, and on the northern frontiers 

 of Canada, spruces (the black and the white) bearing 



