characteristic a feature of America. The principal are the Mackenzie,
Coppermine, and Great Fish Rivers, entering the Northern Ocean; the
Churchill, Nelson, Severn, and Albany, entering Hudson's Bay; the St.
Lawrence, entering the Atlantic; Mississippi and Rio del Norte, entering
the Gulf of Mexico (all these being in N. America); the Magdalena, Orinoco,
Amazon, Paranahiba, Rio de la Plata, Colorado, and Rio Negro, entering the
Atlantic (all in S. America); and the Yukon, Fraser, Colombia, San Joaquin,
Sacramento, and Colorado, entering the Pacific. The rivers which flow into
the Pacific, however, owing to the fact that the great backbone of the
continent, the Rocky Mountains and the Andes, lies so near the west coast,
are of comparatively little importance, in S. America being all quite
small. Sometimes rivers traversing the same plains, and nearly on the same
levels, open communications with each other, a remarkable instance being
the Cassiquiari in S. America, which, branching off from the Rio Negro and
joining the Orinoco, forms a kind of natural canal, uniting the basins of
the Orinoco and the Amazon. The Amazon or Maranon in S. America, the
largest river in the world, has a course of about 3500 miles, and a basin
of 2,300,000 sq. miles; the Mississippi-Missouri, the largest river of
North America, runs a longer course than the Amazon, but the area of its
basin is not nearly so great. North America has the most extensive group of
lakes in the world--Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario,
which through the St. Lawrence send their drainage to the Atlantic. Thus by
means of lakes and rivers the interior of both N. and S. America is opened
up and made accessible.
In regard to climate N. America naturally differs very much from S.
America, and has more resemblance to the continents of Europe and Asia
(regarded as a whole). In N. America, as in the older continent, the
eastern parts are colder than the western, and hence the towns on the
Atlantic coast have a winter temperature about 10deg lower than those in
corresponding latitudes of Europe. The winter temperature of the greater
part of N. America is indeed severe, though the intense cold is less felt
on account of the dryness of the air. There is no regular season of
rainfall unless in the south. Although two-thirds of S. America lies within
the tropics the heat is not so great as might be expected, owing to the
prevailing winds, the influences of the Andes, and other causes. The
highest temperature experienced is probably not more than 100deg in the
shade; at Rio de Janeiro the mean is about 74deg, at Lima 72deg. Over a
great part of S. America there is a wet and a dry season, varying in
different regions; on the upper Amazon the rains last for ten months, being
caused by the prevailing easterly winds bringing moisture from the
Atlantic, which is condensed on the eastern slopes of the Andes. In each of
the Americas there is a region in which little or no rain falls; in N.
America it extends over a part of the United States and Northern Mexico, in
S. America over a part of the coast region of Peru and Chile.
America is rich in valuable minerals. It has supplied the world with
immense quantities of gold and silver, which it still yields in no small
amount, especially in the United States. It possesses inexhaustible stores
of coal (United States), with iron, copper, lead, tin, mercury, &c.
Petroleum may be called one of its specialities, its petroleum wells having
caused whole towns to spring into existence. Diamonds and other precious
stones are found.
As regards vegetation America may be called a region of forests and
verdure, vast tracts being covered by the grassy prairies, llanos, and
pampas where the forests fail. In N. America the forests have been largely
made use of by man; in S. America vast areas are covered with forests,
which as yet are traversed only by the uncivilized Indian. In the north is
the region of pines and firs; farther south come the deciduous trees, as
the oak, beech, maple, elm, chestnut, &c. Then follow the evergreen forests
of the tropical regions. The useful timber trees are very numerous; among
the most characteristic of America are mahogany and other ornamental woods,
and various dyewoods. In the tropical parts are numerous palms, cacti in
great variety, and various species of the agave or American aloe. In the
virgin forests of S. America the trees are often bound together into an
impenetrable mass of vegetation by various kinds of climbing and twining
plants. Among useful plants belonging to the American continent are maize,
the potato, cacao, tobacco, cinchona, vanilla, Paraguay tea, &c. The most
important plants introduced are wheat, rice, and other grains, sugar-cane,
coffee, and cotton, with various fruits and vegetables. The vine is native
to the continent, and both the American and introduced varieties are now
largely cultivated.
The animals of America include, among carnivora, the jaguar or American
tiger, found only in S. America; the puma or American lion, found mostly in
S. America; the grizzly bear of N. America, fully as powerful an animal as
either; the black bear, the skunk, the racoon, the American or prairie
wolf, several species of foxes, &c. The rodents are represented by the
beaver, the porcupine, and squirrels of several species; the marsupials by
the opossum. Among ruminants are the bison, or, as it is commonly called,
the buffalo, the moose or elk, the Virginian stag, the musk-ox; and in S.
America the llama (which takes the place of the camel of the Old World),
the alpaca, and the vicuna. Other animals most distinctive of S. America
are sloths, fitted to live only in its dense and boundless forests;
ant-eaters and armadillos; monkeys with prehensile tails, in this and other
respects differing from those of the Old World; the condor among the
heights of the Andes, the nandu, rhea or three-toed ostrich, beautiful
parrots and humming-birds. Among American reptiles are the boa-constrictor,
the rattlesnake, the alligator or cayman, the iguana and other large
lizards, large frogs and toads. The domestic animals of America, horses,
cattle, and sheep, are of foreign origin. The electrical eel exists in the
tropical waters.
The population of America consists partly of an aboriginal race or races,
partly of immigrants or their descendants. The aboriginal inhabitants are
the American Indians or red men, being generally of a brownish-red colour,
and now forming a very small portion of the total population, especially in
N. America, where the white population has almost exterminated them. These
people are divided into branches, some of which have displayed a
considerable aptitude for civilization. When the Europeans became
acquainted with the New World, Mexico, Central America, and part of S.
America were inhabited by populations which had made great advances in many
things that pertain to civilized life, dwelling in large and well-built
cities under a settled form of government, and practising agriculture and
the mechanical arts. Ever since the discovery of America at the close of
the fifteenth century Europeans of all nations have crowded into it; and
the comparatively feeble native races have rapidly diminished, or lost
their distinctive features by intermixtures with whites, and also with
negroes brought from Africa to work as slaves. These mixed races are
distinguished by a variety of names, as Mestizos, Mulattoes, Zambos, &c. In
North America the white population is mainly of British origin, though to a
considerable extent it also consists of Germans, Scandinavians, &c., and
the descendants of such. In Central and South America the prevailing white
nationality is the Spanish and Portuguese. In the extreme north are the
Eskimos--a scattered and stunted race closely allied to some of the peoples
of Northern Asia. That the aboriginal inhabitants of America passed over
from Asia is tolerably certain, but when and from what part we do not know.
The total population of the New World is estimated at 180,000,000, of which
perhaps 124,000,000 are whites, 28,000,000 mixed races, 15,000,000 negroes,
and 13,000,000 Indians. As regards religion, the bulk of the population of
N. America is Protestant; of Central and S. America the religion is almost
exclusively Roman Catholic. Several millions of the Indians are
heathens.--The independent States of America are all republican in form of
government, Brazil having become a republic in 1889. See _North America_,
_Central America_, _South America_, _West Indies_, &c.
The merit of first opening up the American continent to modern Europe
belongs to the Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus, who discovered, in
Oct., 1492, one of the Bahamas, and named it San Salvador. Europeans,
however, had on different former occasions discovered the American coasts,
and the coasts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island were visited by Northmen
and named Vinland in the year 1000. Still these discoveries had no
influence on the enterprise of Columbus, and cannot detract in the least
from his merit; they were forgotten, and had never been made known to the
inhabitants of the rest of Europe. Though Columbus was the first of his
time who set foot in the New World, it has taken its name not from him, but
from Amerigo Vespucci. The mainland was first seen in 1497 by Sebastian
Cabot, who sailed under the patronage of Henry VII of England. For further
particulars of discovery see _North America_ and _South America_.
The known history of America hardly goes beyond the period of its discovery
by Columbus; but it possesses many monuments of antiquity that might take
us many centuries backward, could we learn anything of their origin or of
those by whom they were produced. Among such antiquities are great
earthworks in the form of mounds, or of raised enclosures, crowning the
tops of hills, river peninsulas, &c., and no doubt serving for defence.
They enclose considerable areas, are surrounded by an exterior ditch, and
by ramparts which are composed of mingled earth and stones, and are often
of great extent in proportion to the area enclosed. They are always
supplied either naturally or artificially with water, and give other
indications of having been provided for a siege. Barrows and tumuli
containing human bones, and bearing indications of having been used both as
places of sepulture and as temples, are also numerous. They are in
geometrical forms--circles, squares, parallelograms, &c. A mound on the
plain of Cahokia in Illinois, opposite the city of St. Louis, is 700 feet
long, 500 feet broad, and 90 feet high. Earth mounds of another class
represent gigantic animal forms in bas-relief on the ground. One is a man
with two heads, the body 50 feet long and 25 feet broad across the breast;
another represents a serpent 1000 feet in length, with graceful curves. The
monuments of Mexico, Central America, and Peru are of a more advanced state
of civilization, approach nearer to the historical period, and make the
loss of authentic information more keenly felt. Here there are numerous
ruined towns with most elaborate sculptures, lofty pyramidal structures
serving as temples or forts, statues, picture writing, hieroglyphics,
roads, aqueducts, bridges, &c. Some remarkable prehistoric remains
discovered in recent years are what are known as the abodes of the
'cliff-dwellers'. These consist of habitations constructed on terraces and
in caves high up and steep sides of canons in Colorado and other parts of
the western states of N. America. Some of these buildings are several
stories high. See also _Mexico_, _Peru_, &c.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: L. Farrand,
_The American Nation_; Prescott, _The Conquest of Mexico_ and _The Conquest
of Peru_; Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History of America_; F. W.
Halsey, _Great Epochs in American History_ (11 vols.).
AMERICAN INDIANS. See _Indians_.
AMERICANISM, a term, phrase, or idiom peculiar to the English language as
spoken in America, and not forming part of the language as spoken in
England. The following is a list of a few of the more noteworthy
Americanisms, some of them being rather slangy or vulgar.
_Approbate_, to approve.
_Around_ or _round_, about or near. To _hang around_ is to loiter about
a place.
_Backwoods_, the partially-cleared forest regions in the western
States.
_Bee_, an assemblage of persons to unite their labours for the benefit
of an individual or family, or to carry out a joint scheme.
_Boss_, an employer or superintendent of labourers, a leader.
_Bug_, a coleopterous insect, or what in England is called a _beetle_.
_Buggy_, a four-wheeled vehicle.
_Bulldose_, to; to intimidate voters.
_Bunkum_ or _buncombe_, a speech made solely to please a constituency;
talk for talking's sake, and in an inflated style.
_Bureau_, a chest of drawers, a dressing-table surmounted by a mirror.
_Calculate_, to suppose, to believe, to think.
_Camp-meeting_, a meeting held in the fields or woods for religious
purposes, and where the assemblage encamps and remains several days.
_Cane-brake_, a thicket of canes.
_Car_, a carriage or wagon of a railway train. The Englishman 'travels
by rail' or 'takes the train'; the American takes or goes by the
_cars_.
_Carpet-bagger_, a needy political adventurer who carries all his
worldly goods in a carpet-bag.
_Caucus_, a private meeting of the leading politicians of a party to
agree upon the plans to be pursued in an approaching election.
_Chalk_: a _long chalk_ means a great distance, a good deal.
_Clever_, good-natured, obliging.
_Cocktail_, a stimulating drink made of brandy or gin mixed with
bitters, sugar, and water.
_Corn_, maize (in England it means wheat, or grain in general).
_Corn-husking_, or _corn-shucking_, an occasion on which a farmer
invites his neighbours to assist him in stripping the husks from his
Indian corn.
_Cow-hide_, a whip made of twisted strips of raw hide.
_Creek_, a small river or brook; not, as in England, a small arm of the
sea.
_Cunning_, small and pretty, nice, e.g. 'It was such a _cunning_ baby'.
_Dander_; to get one's _dander raised_, to have one's _dander up_, is
to have been worked into a passion.
_Dead-heads_, people who have free admission to entertainments, or who
have the use of public conveyances, or the like, free of charge.
_Depot_, a railway station.
_Down east_, in or into the New England States. A _down-easter_ is a
New Englander.
_Drummer_, a bagman or commercial traveller.
_Dry goods_, a general term for such articles as are sold by
linen-drapers, haberdashers, hosiers, &c.
_Dutch_, the German language.--_Dutchman_, a German.
_Fix_, to; to put in order, to prepare, to adjust. To fix the hair, the
table, the fire, is to dress the hair, lay the table, make up the fire.
_Fixings_, arrangements, dress, embellishments, luggage, furniture,
garnishings of any kind.
_Gerrymander_, to arrange political divisions so that in an election
one party may obtain an advantage over its opponent, even though the
latter may possess a majority of votes in the State; from the deviser
of such a scheme, named _Gerry_, governor of Massachusetts.
_Given name_, a Christian name.
_Guess_, to; to believe, to suppose, to think, to fancy; also used
emphatically, as 'Joe, will you liquor up?' 'I guess I will.'
_Gulch_, a deep abrupt ravine, caused by the action of water.
_Happen in_, to; to happen to come in or call.
_Help_, a servant.
_High-falutin_, inflated speech, bombast.
_Hoe-cake_, a cake of Indian meal baked on a hoe or before the fire.
_Indian summer_, the short season of pleasant weather usually occurring
about the middle of November.
_Johnny Cake_, a cake made of Indian corn meal mixed with milk or water
and sometimes a little stewed pumpkin; the term is also applied to a
New Englander.
_Julep_, a drink composed of brandy or whisky with sugar, pounded ice,
and some sprigs of mint.
_Log-rolling_, the assembly of several parties of wood-cutters to help
one of them in rolling their logs to the river after they are felled
and trimmed; also employed in politics to signify a like system of
mutual co-operation.
_Lot_, a piece or division of land, an allotment.
_Lumber_, timber sawed and split for use; as beams, joists, planks,
staves, hoops, &c.
_Lynch law_, an irregular species of justice executed by the populace
or a mob, without legal authority or trial.
_Mail letters_, to; to post letters.
_Make tracks_, to; to run away.
_Mitten_; to _get the mitten_ is to meet with a refusal.
_Mizzle_, to; to abscond, or run away.
_Mush_, a kind of hasty-pudding.
_Muss_, a state of confusion.
_Notions_, a term applied to every variety of small-wares.
_One-horse_: a one-horse thing is a thing of no value or importance, a
mean and trifling thing.
_Picaninny_, a negro child.
_Pile_, a quantity of money.
_Planks_, in a political sense, are the several principles which
appertain to a party; _platform_ is the collection of such principles.
_Reckon_, to; to suppose, to think.
_Rock_, a stone of any size; a pebble; as to throw _rocks_ at a dog.
_Scalawag_, a scamp, a scapegrace.
_Shanty_, a mean structure such as squatters erect; a temporary hut.
_Skedaddle_, to; to run away; a word introduced during the civil war.
_Smart_, often used in the sense of considerable, a good deal, as a
_smart chance_.
_Soft sawder_, flattering, coaxing talk.
_Span_ of horses, two horses as nearly as possible alike, harnessed
side by side.
_Spread-eagle style_, a compound of exaggeration, bombast, mixed
metaphor, &c.
_Store_, a shop, as a book _store_, a grocery _store_.
_Strike oil_, to; to come upon petroleum: hence to make a lucky hit,
especially financially.
_Stump speech_, a bombastic speech calculated to please the popular
ear, such speeches in newly-settled districts being often delivered
from stumps of trees.
_Sun-up_, sunrise.
_Tall_, great, fine (used by Shakespeare much in the same sense); _tall
talk_ is extravagant talk.
_Ticket_: to vote the _straight ticket_ is to vote for all the men or
measures your party wishes.
_Truck_, the small produce of gardens; _truck patch_, a plot in which
the smaller fruits and vegetables are raised.
_Ugly_, ill-tempered, vicious.
_Vamose_, to; to run off (from the Sp. _vamos_, let us go).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: T. Pickering, _Vocabulary of Words and Phrases Supposed to be
Peculiar to America_; J. R. Bartlett, _Dictionary of Americanisms_; Schele
de Vere, _Americanisms_.
AMERICAN JUTE. See _Abutilon_.
AMERICAN ORGAN. See _Organ_.
AMER'ICUS, a town of the United States, Georgia, in a good cotton and corn
district. Pop. 11,000.
AMERIGO VESPUCCI ([.a]-mer-[=e]'go vesp[u:]t'ch[=e]), a maritime
discoverer, after whom America has been named, born, 1451, at Florence;
died, 1512, at Seville. In 1499 he coasted along the continent of America
for several hundred leagues, and the publication of his narrative, while
the prior discovery of Columbus was yet comparatively a secret, led to the
giving of his name to the new continent.
AMERONGEN, a village in Holland. Here, at the chateau belonging to Count
Goddard Bentinck, the ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II took up his residence after
signing his letters of abdication at Spa on 9th Nov., 1918.
AMERSFOORT ([:a]'merz-f[=o]rt), a town in Holland, province of Utrecht,
communicating by the Eem with the Zuider-Zee; manufactures woollen goods,
tobacco, glass, and silk yarn. Pop. 28,777.
AMES, Fisher, American statesman, born 1758, died 1808; studied law, and
became prominent in his profession--distinguished as a political orator and
essayist.
AMES, Joseph, English antiquary, born at Yarmouth, 1689, died 1759. He
became a ship-chandler at Wapping, devoted himself to antiquarian pursuits,
and was for many years secretary to the Society of Antiquaries. His chief
publication is, _Typographical Antiquities: being an historical account of
Printing in England_ (1749).
AMETAB'OLA (Gr. _ametabolos_, unchangeable), a division of insects,
including only the apterous or wingless insects, as lice, spring-tails,
&c., which do not undergo any metamorphosis, but which escape from the egg
nearly under the same form which they preserve through life.
AM'ETHYST, a violet-blue or purple variety of quartz, generally occurring
crystallized in hexahedral prisms or pyramids, also in rolled fragments,
composed of imperfect prismatic crystals. It is wrought into various
articles of jewellery. The _oriental amethyst_ is a rare violet-coloured
gem, a variety of alumina or corundum, of much brilliance and beauty. The
name is generally said to be of Greek origin, and expresses some supposed
quality in the stone of preventing or curing intoxication. The gem was one
of the twelve stones in the breastplate of the Jewish high-priest.
AMHARA ([.a]m-h[:a]'r[.a]), a district of Abyssinia, lying between the
Tacazze and the Blue Nile, but of which the limits are not well defined.
The Amharic language, developed from the ancient Gheez, and written since
the sixteenth century, has gradually gained ground in Southern and Central
Abyssinia, and has also become the Court language.
AMHERST (am'[.e]rst), a seaport of Canada, in Nova Scotia, on an arm of
Chignecto Bay, with flourishing industries, and trade by railway and sea.
Pop. 10,320. Also a port of Burmah, 31 miles south of Moulmein, a health
resort of Europeans. Pop. 3750.
AMHERST, Jeffrey, Lord, born 1717, died 1797; distinguished British
general, who fought at Dettingen and Fontenoy, and commanded in America,
where he took Louisburg, Ticonderoga, and Quebec, and restored the British
prestige in Canada. He was raised to the peerage, became
commander-in-chief, and ultimately field-marshal.
AMHERST, William Pitt, first earl, nephew of the above; Governor-General of
India, 1823; prosecuted the first Burmese war, and suppressed the
Barrackpore mutiny. Born 1773, died 1857.
AMIAN'THUS, a kind of flexible asbestos. See _Asbestos_.
AMICE (am'is), an oblong piece of linen with an embroidered apparel sewed
upon it, worn under the alb by priests of the Roman Catholic Church when
engaged in the sacrifice of the mass.
AMIDE, or AMINE (am'id, am'in), names used in chemistry. The amines are
compounds formed by the introduction of alcohol radicles into ammonia, e.g.
C_2H_5NH_2, which is known as ethylamine. They closely resemble ammonia in
properties. The amides are formed by replacing one of the hydrogen atoms of
ammonia by an acid radicle, e.g. C_2H_3ONH_2, which is called acetamide.
They are not strongly basic, and are usually crystalline, and have high
boiling-points.