88 NORTH AMERICA 



Proceeding down the valleys of the southern Appa- 

 lachians in a south-eastern direction, a regular series 

 of belts parallel to the mountains and the coast is 

 crossed : the sandy and gravelly foot-hills, a broad 

 terrace resting on hard rock, and the alluvial coast plain 

 or Eastern Valley. In each, the temperature becomes 

 milder and more regular, the rainfall less abundant, 

 and the soil more fertile. Correspondingly the ratio of 

 conifers decreases and that of the broad-leaf evergreens 

 increases, while the dominant type of vegetation re- 

 mains the leaf-shedding forest, with a greater variety of 

 species but, perhaps, a less luxuriant growth than in the 

 mountains. The sequence of belts down to the sea-coast 

 is broken by the interposition of a long strip of pine 

 forest which runs parallel to the coast-line and round 

 the extremity of the Appalachians, across the valley of 

 the Mississippi, far into Texas. This pine belt exactly 

 coincides with, and is due to, the development of rolling 

 downs, sandy and porous. Beyond it commence the low 

 mud flats of the shore intersected with marshes and 

 lagoons, where the evergreen vegetation of the south is 

 in evidence, and the transition to the vegetation of Flo- 

 rida and the southern states is so gradual as to be 

 imperceptible. 



The Atlantic lowlands, and — to a large extent also — 

 the mountains, have been cleared of their timber; the 

 former, to make room for cultivation and industry, the 

 latter simply to obtain the wood. The consequences 

 attending the destruction of the mountain-forests have 

 been, as usual, very serious : destructive floods, the ruin 

 of the slopes, &c. : and protective measures have had to 

 be resorted to. In the lowlands, agriculture, especially 

 the growing of cereals, has no longer the importance it 

 used to possess when the West was yet uncultivated. 



