xvui.] LAND AND WATER. 311 



but still great, continental land which stretches for 10,000 

 miles from north to south, and has an area of 15,800,000 

 square miles (CLXXV.). This is the New World, formed 

 of the two almost distinct masses of North and South 

 America, joined by the narrow isthmus of Panama. 



It will be observed that the eastern coast of the American 

 continent presents the same sort of rough parallelism with the 

 western coast of the old world, as the latter does with its 

 eastern coast. Where the one is convex, the other is concave, 

 and vice versa ; and the Atlantic ocean lies, like a great wind- 

 ing canal, from 800 to nearly 4,000 miles broad, between 

 the two. The western coast of the American continent 

 would repeat the curvature of the western coast of the old 

 world, were it not that, in its northern portion, it trends far 

 away to the west, to approach Asia in Behring's Straits- 

 Again, in the new world, as in the old, the larger mass of 

 land lies to the north, the area of North America standing to 

 that of South America, in the proportion of about 17 to 14 ; 

 while there is a remarkable similarity of form between South 

 America and Africa. But, instead of being much longer, from 

 east to west, than it is from north to south, the American 

 continent is much longer, from north to south, than it is from 

 east to west. 



In accordance with this north-and-south elongation, an 

 elevated tract runs from south to north, through nearly the 

 whole length of the two continents. Narrow in the south, it 

 attains a considerable breadth, and a great elevation in the 

 Andes of Bolivia, Peru, and Chile ; in which last country, 

 Aconcagua rises to 24,000 feet. After sinking to a mere 

 range of hills in the isthmus, it rises and widens out into a 

 great table land, which occupies more than a third of the 

 width of North America. Several ranges of mountains, 

 known under the general name of the Rocky Mountains, 





