GEOGRAPHY 



OF THE 



WESTERN SECTION OF NORTH AMERICA. 



GENERAL VIEW. 



North America borders upon three great divisions of the ocean : the 

 Atlantic on the east — the Arctic on the north — -and the Pacific on the 

 south and west — each of which receives, either directly or through its 

 gulfs and bays, the superfluous waters from a corresponding great section 

 of the continent. 



These three great sections of North America are unequal in extent, 

 and different in the character of their surface. At least one half of the 

 continent is drained by streams entering the Atlantic; and of that half, 

 the waters from the larger, as well as the more fertile portion, are carried 

 by the Mississippi into the Mexican Gulf. Of the other two sections, that 

 which borders on the Arctic Sea is probably the more extensive. The 

 Atlantic and the Arctic sections present each a large proportion of sur- 

 face, nearly plane, and comparatively little elevated above the sea; and the 

 line of separation between them is so indistinctly marked as to be, in 

 many places, imperceptible. The Pacific section, on the contrary, is 

 traversed in every part by steep and lofty ridges of highland ; and it is 

 completely divided from the other portions by a chain of mountains, 

 extending, in continuation of the Andes of South America, from the 

 Isthmus of Panama, north-westward, to the utmost extremities of the con- 

 tinent in that direction. 



Of the Atlantic coast of America it is unnecessary here to speak 

 particularly. The irregularity of its outline, the numerous gulfs and bays 

 enclosed by its sinuosities, the great rivers flowing through it into the sea, 

 the archipelagoes in its vicinity, and all its other characteristic features, 

 may be found minutely described in many works. The only parts of this 

 coast, to which reference will be hereafter made, are those surrounding 

 the Gulf of Mexico and Hudson's Bay, as many of the most important 

 discoveries on the western side of the continent have been effected in 

 consequence of the belief in the existence of a direct navigable communi- 

 cation between those portions of the Atlantic and the Pacific. 



The Pacific coast extends from Panama, near the 9th degree of latitude,* 

 westward and northward, without any remarkable break in its outline, to 



* All latitudes mentioned in the following pages are north latitudes, unless other- 

 wise specially stated. 



