642 RELATION TO ENVIRONMENT. 



the Northern Foerst, or because of the large number of lakes in the zone, 

 the Lacustrian Forest of the North. It includes also the upper timbered 

 slopes of the higher mountains of the United States and Mexico. In the 

 eastern United States the Hudsonian zone is restricted to the cold sum- 

 mits of the highest mountains, where it occurs in the form of a chain of 

 widely separated islands reaching from northern New England to western 

 North Carolina. Like the preceding, this zone is of no agricultural im- 

 portance. 



3. The Canadian Zone. The Canadian zone comprises the southern 

 part of the great transcontinental coniferous forest of Canada, the northern 

 parts of Maine, New Hampshire, and Michigan, a strip along the Pacific 

 coast reaching as far south at least as Cape Mendocino in California, and 

 the greater part of the high mountains of the United States and Mexico. 

 In the east it covers the Green Mountains, Adirondacks, and Catskills, 

 and the higher mountains of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, western 

 North Carolina, and eastern Tennessee. In the mountains of the east it 

 covers the lower slopes in the north and the higher slopes in the south. 

 In the Rocky Mountain region it appears to reach continuously from 

 British Columbia to west central Wyoming; and in the Cascade Range, 

 from British Columbia to southern Oregon, with a narrow interruption 

 along the Columbia River. Pines, spruces, firs, hemlock spruce, 

 larches, etc., outnumber the broad-leaved deciduous trees. Counting from 

 the north, this zone is the first of any agricultural importance. Wild 

 berries as currants, huckleberries, blackberries, and cranberries grow 

 in profusion, and the beechnut (in the east) is an important food 

 of the native birds and mammals. In favored spots, particularly 

 along the southern border, white potatoes, turnips, beets, and the more 

 hardy Russian apples and cereals may be cultivated with more moderate 

 success. 



THE AUSTRAL REGION. This includes three zones and seven areas. 



Transition Zone. As its name indicates, this zone is the ground where 

 the boreal and austral types meet. The forests are chiefly of deciduous 

 trees which grow in the cooler austral belt. 



a. Alleghanian Area. This is the humid eastern division. It ex- 

 tends from the coast of New England across New York, Pennsylvania, 

 southern Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas, 

 when it meets the dry, grassy plains of the west. In the east it reaches 

 southward in a long arm including the Alleghany Mountains to Georgia. 

 Oaks, hickories, chestnuts, locusts, birches, aspens, ash, and mountain 

 ash mingle with the northern spruces, hemlock spruce, pines, and other 

 coniferous trees from the south, while the shrubby undergrowth is charac- 

 terized by azaleas, rhododendrons, andromedas, and other heaths. Oats, 

 rye, wheat, Indian corn, the potato, onion, root crops like the beet, carrot, 



