342 



MEXICO, CENTRAL AlklEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



about 100 fathoms, a space of some 200,000 square miles, or more than one-third 

 of the whole area, would form continuous land with the surrounding shores. 



But if account be taken of their respective areas of drainage, the relations 

 will be reversed, greatly to the advantage of the Gulf. Thus while this inland 

 sea has an extent of only 615,000 square miles, compared with the 750,000 of the 

 Caribbean Sea, the catchment basin of the former is about six times more extensive 



Fisr. 160. 



-Slopes dkaining to the Aioieicax Mediteeeanean. 

 Scale 1 : 50,000,000. 



Depths. 



Fluvial basin of the 

 American Mediterranean. 



to 2,000 

 Fathoms. 



2,000 to 4,000 

 Fathoms. 



4,0(11) Fathoms 

 and upwards. 



1,250 Miles. 



than that of the latter — 2,250,000 and 360,000 square miles respectively. Owing 

 to the peculiar conformation of the North American continent, with its two outer 

 escarpments and great central depression, most of its surface waters are discharged 

 along the line of the meridian, north to the Arctic Ocêîin and Hudson Bay, south 

 to the Gulf of Mexico, which receives the Mississippi, most copious of all North 

 American rivers. Thanks to this single affluent, the area of the Gulf catchment 



