l6o SEA AND LAND 



may here be united by water transportation the products of 

 the temperate and tropical zones. Owing to the pohtical and 

 social conditions of this American Mediterranean, it has, as 

 yet. played but a small part in the commerce of the world, but 

 the possibilities of commercial development which it affords 

 are very great. 



The northern part of North America, both on its eastern 

 and western faces, abounds in extensive embayed waters, 

 which in their general character resemble those of Scandinavia 

 and which are equally well fitted for the development of sailors. 

 On the Atlantic side, to the north of Newfoundland, the rigor- 

 ous climate is likely to debar the land from much use by civil- 

 ized man. On the western shore, however, north to Bering 

 Strait, the forests, mines, and fisheries are likely to make the 

 bays and fiords the seat of a great maritime life. On the 

 southern portion of the Pacific shore the Gulf of California, 

 one of the longest embayments of the sea in the world, has an 

 extensive coast line, and, though its shores are of an arid 

 nature, it is likely to have an importance in the development 

 of our semi-inland navigation. 



In the central and northwestern part of the continent lies 

 a great system of lakes, which together constitute the most 

 extended series of fresh-water seas known in the world. 

 Already the Laurentian jjortion of these waters, which we 

 fitly term the Great Lakes, is the seat of a vast and contin- 

 ually augmenting commerce. With the development of the 

 Canadian Dominion, the yet more northern and western 

 basins which lie in the valleys of the Nelson and McKenzie 

 rivers are likely to attain much commercial importance. It 

 will thus be seen that North America, in all that relates to 

 water transportation, both that which lies within the continent 



