CHAPTER II. 



NORTH AMERICA CONSIDERED AS DIVIDED INTO FOUR ZONES, 

 WITH THE VARIOUS OBJECTS OF INTEREST FOUND IN EACH. 



|HE North American continent may be divided into 

 four zones or parallel regions, which, from the dif- 

 ference in temperature which exists between them, 

 pi'esent a great variety both in their fauna and tiora. 



THE FIRST ZONE. 



Commencing on the east, w^here the Greenland Sea washes 

 the coast of Labrador, and Hudson Strait leads to the intri- 

 cate channels communicating with the Arctic Ocean, we have 

 ■on the first-named coast a low and level region, which rises 

 inland to a considerable elevation, and then once more sinks 

 on the shores of Hudson Bay. West of that bay there is a 

 wide extent of low country, intermixed with numerous lakes 

 and marshes ; and then along the Arctic shore is a wild, 

 barren, treeless district, rising at length into the mountainous 

 region of the Arctic highlands. Amid them numerous rapid 

 streams find their way into the Arctic Ocean. Again they 

 sink into the basin of the Mackenzie River, which separates 

 them from the northern end of the Rocky Mountains. Hence 



