RELATION OF HABIT TO FORM OF SHORE 159 



made evident in the sequel of tliis essay, North America, and 

 particularly the part of ii held by the United States, is more 

 advantageously placed in relation to marine navigation than 

 any other equally extensive portion of the lands of the earth. 

 Owing to the shape and position of this continent it faces the 

 two great divisions of oceanic waters, the Atlantic and the 

 Pacific, and nearly all parts of its area are readily accessible 

 from the shore by rivers or relatively short railways. At no 

 point on its coast line do we find a stretch of shore of more 

 than three hundred miles in length which is without a haven 

 suitable for modern shipping or which cannot readily be 

 made into a good harbor. 



In addition to the advantages arising from the relation of 

 this continent to the oceans, North America is singularly well 

 placed for internal marine commerce. On its southeastern 

 side lie the great inclosed basins of the Caribbean Sea and the 

 Gulf of Mexico, which together form one lield of tropical 

 waters, exceeded in their extent and the richness of their 

 shores only by the Mediterranean Sea and the Sea of Japan. 

 This great American basin lies between and in a measure 

 unites the continents of North and South America. Owing 

 to their essential unity these basins might fitly be termed the 

 Columbian Sea in honor of the explorer who first penetrated 

 to this part of the world. A straight line drawn in this basin 

 from Galveston, Texas, to the western mouths of the river 

 Orinoco, has a length of about twenty-eight hundred miles. 

 The total area of its waters is about the same as that of the 

 Mediterranean, and the economic resources of its shores are 

 probably greater than those of the Old World's historic sea. 

 Into this basin discharge the waters of two great navigable 

 river systems, the Orinoco and the Mississippi. Thus there 



