Since the beginning of the sixteenth century America has been the
general name for the two continents and adjacent islands, forming the
main body of land found in the western hemisphere.
=Position and Extent.=--North America forms the northern section of the
“New World” discovered by Columbus. It is separated from Europe by a sea
nine hundred and thirty miles broad, from Asia by Bering Strait sixty
miles across, and extends from the Arctic Ocean nearly to the equator.
The main mass is triangular in shape, and its outline varied by large
peninsulas, broad gulfs and numerous inlets. Development of coast-line,
twenty-eight thousand one hundred and thirty miles. Length, four
thousand five hundred miles; breadth, three thousand one hundred miles.
The area of the continental mainland is estimated at seven million one
hundred and forty-six thousand six hundred and forty-one square miles;
the entire area, including Greenland, the Arctic Archipelago, the West
Indies, Newfoundland, and other islands, at over nine million square
miles.
=Islands.=--It is customary to regard Greenland as a part of America,
while the adjacent island of Iceland, though partially in the western
hemisphere, is usually associated with Europe. The other principal
American islands in the Atlantic are Newfoundland, Cape Breton,
Anticosti, Prince Edward Island, Long Island, the Bermudas, the Antilles
or West Indies, Joannes, Staten Island and South Georgia.
In the Pacific are the Aleutian Islands, Kadiak, the Alexander and Queen
Charlotte groups, Vancouver and other British-Columbian Islands, the
Santa Barbara group, Bevilla-Gigedo, the Pearl Islands, and others in
the Gulf of Panama, the Galápagos, Juan Fernandez and the associated
islets, Chiloe and the Chonos Archipelago. In the Arctic Ocean there are
many large but unimportant islands. (See Map of Comparative Size of
Islands and Table of Areas.)
=Coast-line.=--The coast-line of North America on the west is almost
everywhere high and rocky. To the south of Puget Sound good harbors are
rare, but British Columbia and Alaska have great numbers of good
seaports, the coast-line being, in many places, deeply cut with
high-walled fjords, or “canals,” and elsewhere sheltered by ranges of
high and well-wooded islands. The Atlantic coast, north of New York Bay,
is generally rocky and well sheltered with islands, and has abundance of
good natural harbors; but south of the parallel of New York the coast of
the mainland is almost everywhere low and sandy. Many of the best ports
are formed by river-mouths, and have sandbars across their entrances.
Nowhere else in the world is there any such extent of low and sandy
coast as on the Atlantic and Gulf seaboards of the United States.
=Surface.=--The western mountain-system of North America comprises a
very great number of minor ranges, mostly having a north and south
direction. The main chain (Sierra Madre) cannot be said to preserve an
unmistakable identity throughout. The Coast Range, the Sierra Nevada,
and the Cascade Mountains are the most noted of the western parallel
ranges; they all lie on the Pacific slope, and contain some of the
highest of North American peaks. The elevated plateau called the Great
Basin (chiefly in Utah and Nevada), contains the Great Salt Lake and
several smaller bodies of strongly saline water, evidently the remains
of a much larger lake which once sent its waters to the sea. The eastern
or great Appalachian mountain-system has a general direction nearly
parallel with the Atlantic coast-line.
North of the St. Lawrence River is seen the vast and complicated
Laurentian mountain-system, which extends from the Atlantic westward to
near Lake Superior.
The highest summits are Mt. McKinley, in the north; Mt. Harvard, in the
Rocky mountains; Mt. Whitney, in the Sierra Nevadas; and Mt.
Popocatepetl or Peak of Orizaba, in Mexico. (See Tables of Mountain
Peaks.)
=Rivers and Lakes.=--In the Rocky Mountain region of Canada, the great
rivers, Yukon, Fraser, Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Mackenzie, take their
rise. Between these mountains and Hudson Bay, a girdle of vast lakes, or
inland seas (Great Bear, Great Slave, Athabasca, Deer Lake, Winnipeg,
and others), form a regular succession running from the Arctic Circle to
Lake Superior, the first of a wonderful chain of great sea-like
expansions of the Upper St. Lawrence (the others being Michigan, Huron,
Erie and Ontario). North of the St. Lawrence system almost the whole
country is thickly studded with lakes, which, with their connecting
streams, form a network of important waterways traversable by canoes and
boats.
The Atlantic slope of the United States is well supplied with water, and
many of its streams afford extensive navigation. The Hudson is noted for
its fine scenery; the Potomac is one of the noblest of American rivers;
and important streams flowing to the Atlantic are the St. John, the
Penobscot, the Kennebec, the Merrimac, the Connecticut, the Delaware,
the Susquehanna, the James, and the St. John’s, nearly all navigable in
their lower courses.
The chief rivers flowing to the Gulf of Mexico are the Appalachicola,
the Mobile, the Pearl, the great Mississippi, the Sabine, the Trinity,
the Brazos, the Colorado of Texas and the Rio Grande.
Of the many large Alaskan rivers the principal are the Yukon and the
Kuskoquim. The Fraser is a swift and strong river; the great river
Columbia is noted alike for its navigation, its salmon fisheries, and
its enormous cataracts. The Rio Colorado, whose waters flow to the Gulf
of California, traverses a desert plateau. Here nearly every watercourse
runs in a deep-walled cañon, a narrow valley with precipitous sides,
often of prodigious height.
In the plateau of Central America the largest lake is that of
Nicaragua, nearly equal to Ontario in extent, and only one hundred and
thirty-one feet above the level of the sea. (See further under the
respective countries of North America.)
=Climate.=--Largely determined by the direction of the mountain ranges.
Five climatic regions, viz., an arctic region, whose mean temperature is
less than thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit; an Atlantic temperate region,
extending as far as the Mississippi, with abundant rains and dense
woods; an inland temperate region, dry, with steppes or prairies; a
Pacific coast region, and a tropical region.
=Political Divisions.=--The political divisions of North America are:
(1) Danish America,[8] which includes Greenland and three small islands
of the Virgin group in the West Indies.
[8] The Danish West Indies were transferred to the sovereignty of
the United States in 1917 at the purchase price of twenty-five
million dollars.
(2) British North America, in which division we may place the Dominion
of Canada, Newfoundland, Labrador, the Bermudas, the numerous British
West Indian islands, and British Honduras.
(3) The United States, including the detached territory of Alaska.
(4) Mexico.
(5) The Central American republics of Honduras, Guatemala, Salvador,
Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, together with Panama--unless its southern
part be regarded as belonging to the South American continent.
(6) The West Indian republics of Hayti and San Domingo.
(7) The Dutch West Indies.
(See the articles on the separate states and colonies.)