southerly point of America. The western coast is comparatively unbroken.

Islands.-Melville Island is in the Polar Sea, Newfoundland is opposite to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the West India Islands оссиру the chasm between North and South America, the Falkland Islands and Terra del Fuego are at the southern extremity of the continent; New South Shetland, still further to the south, is crossed by the Antarctic circle; on the north-west are the Aleutian Islands, a semicircular group, forming a connecting link between the Old World and the New.

Seas. The waters of the ocean occupying the channel between Cape Farewell, the southern point of Greenland, and Labrador are, in their progress northward, divided into two branches; Davis's Strait, leading to Baffin's Bay, and the other, Hudson's Strait, which forms the entrance into Hudson's Bay.

Lancaster's Sound, an opening on the west of Baffin's Bay, and mistaken by the early navigators for a mere inlet, leads through Barrow's Straits to the Polar Sea, visited by Parry in 1820.

The Gulf of Mexico, which is traversed by the Tropic of Cancer, is nearly shut out from the ocean by the peninsulas of Florida and Yucatan. The Caribbean Sea is formed by the islands of Cuba, Domingo, Porto Rico, and the Caribbee Islands.

Mountains.-America is traversed from north to south by a range of mountains, the longest in the world, and some of the summits of which were long esteemed the loftiest. This chain, which in both continents keeps to the western side, is in North America called the Rocky Mountains, and in South, the Andes.

On the east of North America the Apalachian or Alleghany mountains, a long but less elevated range, run parallel with the coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico; and in S. America, another range divides the maritime from the inland portion of Brazil.

The regions between the eastern and western chains in both continents form plains of prodigious extent, which are distinguished by their fertility from the dreary deserts of Asia and Africa.

The principal table-land is that which covers Mexico, and is formed by the approach of the two ranges of mountains; its elevation is about 6,000 feet.

Lakes.-North America contains a series of lakes, which exceed in size those of any other part of the world; taking them in order from north to south, they are the Great Bear Lake, Slave Lake, Athabasca, Winnipeg, Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario.

Rivers.-The Mackenzie and Coppermine flow into the Northern Ocean. The St. Lawrence issues from Lake Ontario, and carries to the North Atlantic the waters of the great lakes; its principal tributary is the Ottawa. The greatest river of North America is the Mississippi, the channel by which all the waters falling between the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghany find an exit. The main stream, though it is deprived of this name, is the Missouri, which rises in the Rocky Mountains; the Ohio is the principal tributary from the east. The course of the Mississippi from the source of the Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico, into which it falls, is about 4,200 miles.

The Mississippi (or "Father of Waters") is, before its junction with the Missouri, a clear and beautiful stream. The Missouri (or "Mud River") is turbid and impetuous. The Ohio is a “fair river.” Immense quantities of drift-timber are carried to the sea by the Mississippi, and it often, by the force of its current, washes away its banks. It is subject to periodical inundations, the greatest of which takes place about Midsummer. The country at its mouth is for many miles a dreary swamp.

The Columbia flows from the western side of the Stony Mountains into the Pacific.

The Amazon or Maranon, probably the largest river in the world, rises from the eastern flank of the Andes, and traverses, before reaching the ocean, nearly the whole

breadth of the continent. Its principal tributaries are the Negro from the north, and the Madeira from the south. Its length is about 4,700 miles; at its mouth it is 180 miles in width.

The La Plata is formed of the rivers Paraguay and Parana; its waters are directed in a southerly course by the Brazilian mountains, and it joins the sea by a large estuary, below Buenos Ayres.

Climate. The great extent of land in North America gives it a climate tending to extremes; its summers are hotter and its winters colder than in the same latitudes in Europe. The narrowness of the central region, (forming a complete contrast to Africa,) with the great elevation of country, renders the climate temperate. The southern extremity is cold and moist.

States.-North America is divided into the British Possessions, Russian America, the United States, Texas, Mexico, California, and the disputed Oregon territory.

Guatimala occupies the isthmus connecting the continents.

South America consists of Colombia, Guayana, Peru, Brazil, Upper Peru or Bolivia, Paraguay, Chili, La Plata, Uruguay or Banda Oriental, and Patagonia.

Population.-About forty-seven millions.

Before the northern coasts of America were explored, it was difficult to account for the manner in which its inhabitants had emigrated from Asia, the cradle of the human race. Now the problem is easy; the passage across Bhering's Strait is practicable in the rudest canoe, or even on a piece of broken ice, and in winter the strait is probably frozen over. The progenitors of nearly all the native tribes of America, are therefore supposed to have emigrated from the north-east of Asia. The Esquimaux, inhabiting the north-east parts of the continent, differ in appearance from the other tribes, while they have a resemblance to the northern Europeans; they were probably derived from the northern coasts of Norway. A great part of the native inhabitants have been exterminated by the unparalleled cruelties of the early Spanish and Portuguese settlers. European diseases, and the introduction of intoxicating liquors, have also destroyed great numbers; others still roam in savage freedom through their forests, whilst a few tribes have embraced Christianity, and have adopted European civilization.

Another portion of the population of America and its islands consists of Africans, or the descendants of Africans, who have been torn from their native land to toil in slavery, in room of the extirpated native Indians. Many of these are still in bondage, and those who are eman*cipated are not admitted to most of the rights of citizenship and the privileges of general society.

The remaining part of the population of America is of European origin, chiefly Spanish and British.

Productions. The mineral riches of America are great. The chief supplies of gold and silver are drawn from the mines of Mexico and Peru. Chili and Cuba have some of the richest copper mines in the world. Europe is chiefly dependent on Brazil for its supply of diamonds. The forests yield immense supplies of timber. Europe is indebted to America for the potato, and this is the native region of the tobacco plant, which has been diffused from one extremity of the Old World to the other.

Animals.-The same animals occur in the northern parts of America as in the same situation on the other continents, as the black bear, the white bear, the rein-deer, the elk, the beaver, &c.; the grisly bear, the most ferocious of his tribe, is, however, peculiar to America. The bison, or American ox, is found on the prairie lands of the Rocky Mountains. On proceeding southward, the animals become of a totally different character from those of the Old World. The larger animals, as the elephant and hippopotamus, are not found; and before European intercourse, the horse and other domestic quadrupeds were not met with, but they now range in immense herds over the plains of South America. The jaguar nearly equals the Asiatic tiger in size and ferocity; the puma is often, though improperly, called the American lion. All the monkey tribes differ from those of Asia and Africa, and some of them are remarkable for the prehensile power of their tail. The condor of the Andes is the most powerful of the feathered tribes. The woods both of N. and S. America are the resort of vast flocks of wild tur

keys and pigeons. The vampire, a species of large bat, which lives upon blood that it sucks from man and animals during sleep, occurs. Among the reptiles, which are numerous, the boa constrictor and the rattle-snake are exclusively American.

BRITISH AMERICA.

Boundaries.-The whole of America lying between the two oceans, and extending from the United States on the S. to the extreme point of discovery in the N., is claimed by Britain, with the exception of the peninsula on the north-west, which is grasped by the Russians.

The boundary between the United States and British America begins at Passamaquady Bay, (which joins the Bay of Fundy,) it then runs by an artificial and irregular line to the St. Lawrence, which it joins in lat. 45° N., the Great Lakes then form the division, after which an artificial line, extending along the 49th degree of lat., carries the boundary to the Rocky Mountains.

Coast.-The Gulf of St. Lawrence extends from 45° to 51° lat. The islands of Newfoundland and Cape Bre ton lie at its mouth. The Strait of Belle Isle separates Newfoundland from Labrador, but the principal entrance to the gulf is between Newfoundland and Cape Breton. The peninsula of Nova Scotia forms the Bay of Fundy.

Lakes.-Lake Superior is 380 miles long and 180 broad. Lake Huron contains a number of islands, and is 218 miles by 180. Lake Michigan stretches southward into the United States territory. The river St. Clair connects these lakes with the Erie, and their superfluous waters then find their way by the channel of the Niagara to Lake Ontario, in the course of which they are precipitated in one tremendous plunge over a fall of 160 feet. Lake Ontario, the most easterly of the great lakes, is 180 miles long and 50 in breadth. Its shores are inhabited by a comparatively dense population, and numerous steam vessels constantly ply between the British side and the United States.

These lakes are very deep, in some places 900 feet, and their waters are clear and transparent.