LXXIX. BOOK the serpents, the birds, and the cayman alligator, come and repose on these flowery and verdant rafts, which are sometimes carried to the sea, and engulfed in its waters. Sometimes a large tree attaches itself to a sandbank firmly, and, stretching out its branches like so many hooks, entangles all the floating objects that approach it. A single tree often suffices to arrest thousands in their course: the mass accumulates from year to year; and thus are gradually created new isles, new capes, and peninsulas, which change the course of the stream, and sometimes force it to seek out new channels. Eastern rivers. The tides are not felt in the Mississippi, in consequence of its numerous sinuosities. The winds are variable; and though the prevailing wind is from the south, and favours vessels sailing against the stream, still the navigation upwards is slow and difficult, especially during the floods, when the current has a velocity of three or four miles an hour. These floods occur in May, June, and July. The additional waters, form an inclined plane, the rise being 50 feet in Tennessee, 25 feet near the mouth of Red River, and 12 feet at New Orleans. The invention of steam-boats has perhaps been nowhere so beneficial as in the navigation of this river. The voyage upwards from New Orleans to the Falls of Ohio, which often occupied sailing vessels three months, may now be accomplished in steam-boats in fifteen or eighteen days. We shall mention very briefly the other considerable rivers of the United States. The Bay of Mobile receives the waters of the Alabama, which has two large branches, the Alabama Proper, and the Tombigbee. Farther cast is the Apalachicola. The only large river in Florida is the St. John, which rises in a marsh, and flowing northward, parallel to the coast, falls into the Atlantic. The Alatamaha, Savannah, Santee, and Pedee, are the most considerable rivers in Georgia and South Carolina. They are all navigable to a considerable distance, but have their mouths, less or more, obstructed by sand bars. The entrance into Cape Fear River, the Neuse, and Roanoke, is still more difficult, in consequence of the line of sand banks BOOK which cover the whole coast of North Carolina. Hence LXXIX. Albemarle Sound, and Pamlico Sound, are properly mere lagunes, to which ships find access only by one or two inlets, too narrow and dangerous to be attempted except in favourable weather. To the north of Cape Henry, extends the magnificent Bay of Chesapeake, 180 miles long, which receives James's River, the Potomac, and the Susquehannah. The Delaware falls into a bay of the same name. The Bay of New York receives the Hudson, a large river, in which the tide ascends 160 miles, and which is the scene of a most extensive and active inland commerce. The most considerable rivers east of the Hudson are the Connecticut, the Merrimac, the Kennebec, and the Penobscot. The small river St. Croix separates the territories of the United States from New Brunswick. The climate of the United States is remarkably incon- Climate. stant and variable. It passes rapidly from the frosts of Norway to the scorching heats of Africa, and from the humidity of Holland to the drought of Castile. A change of 20° or 25° of Fahrenheit, in one day, is not considered extraordinary. Even the Indians complain of the sudden variations of temperature. In sweeping over a vast frozen surface, the north-west wind acquires an extreme degree of cold and dryness, and operates very injuriously on the human frame. The south-east, on the other hand, produces on the Atlantic coast effects similar to those of the Sirocco. The south-west has the same influence on the plains at the foot of the Alleghanies: when it blows, the heat frequently becomes painful and suffocating. In the mountains, however, where the summer heat is moderate, even in the southern states, the fresh and blooming complexion of young persons, is a proof of the purity and salubrity of the atmosphere. The same ruddy complexion prevails in New England* and in the interior of Pennsyl It may be proper to mention, that the name of New England was applied at an early period (and is still in use) to all the country east of the Hudson. It embraces the six states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. BOOK vania; but the pale countenances of the inhabitants of all LXXIX. the low country, from New York to Florida, reminds a stranger of the Creoles in the West India Islands. In this region malignant fevers are prevalent in September and October. The countries situated to the west of the Alleghanies are in general more temperate and healthy. The south-west wind there brings rain, while the same effect is produced on the other side of the mountains by the north-east. But the north-east wind, which covers the Atlantic coast with thick fogs, is dry and elastic on the banks of the Ohio. When we compare the climate on the opposite sides of the Atlantic, we find that the extremes of temperature are greater, and particularly that the winter's cold is more severe on the west side than on the east. The mean temperature of the year, according to Humboldt, is 9 degrees (Fahr.) lower at Philadelphia than in the corresponding latitudes on the coast of Europe. The mouth of the Delaware is shut by ice for six weeks, and that of the St. Lawrence for five months in the year. Throughout the United States the rains are sudden and heavy, and the dews extremely copious. Storms of thunder and lightning are also much more common and formidable than in Europe.* ver. Yellow fe- A climate so variable, and subject to such extremes of temperature, must favour the introduction of that pestilent disease, the yellow fever, which has renewed its ravages so often during the last thirty years in the ports of the southern and middle states. It is the same distemper with the black vomiting of the Spaniards, and the Matlazahault of the Mexi cans. It seems to be endemic in the low and marshy coasts of tropical America. From the shores of the Atlantic to the Mississippi, the United States present an immense natural forest, interspersed however with open and naked plains, called prairies, which are numerous on the west side of the Alleghanies, but very rare on the east side. In the country on * Volney, Tableau du climat et du sol des Etats Unis. LXXIX. the west side of the Mississippi, wood is comparatively BOOK scarce; and in the arid and desert plains, occupying a breadth of three or four hundred miles on the east side of the Rocky Mountains, only a few trees are seen along the Vegetable Kingdom. banks of the rivers. In the inhabited part of the United States, the lands cleared and cultivated probably do not exceed one-tenth part of the surface. There is a diversity in the American woods, according to the climate, soil, and situation of the different districts; and some naturalists have distinguished the vegetation of the United States into five regions. 1. The region of the north-east, bounded by the Mohawk and Connecticut rivers, where firs, pines, and the other (a) evergreens of Canada prevail. 2. The region of the Alleghanies, where the red and black oak, the beech, the balsam poplar, the black and red birch often overshadow the plants and shrubs of Canada, at least as far as North Carolina. The valleys among these mountains are remarkably fertile in corn. 3. The upland country, extending from the foot of the mountains to the falls of the rivers; here the prevailing trees are the red maple, the red and black ash, the walnut, the sycamore, the acacia and the chesnut. To the south, the magnolia, the laurel, and the orange, are interspersed through the forest. Tobacco, with the indigo. and cotton plants succeed as far north as the Susquehannah, beyond which, pastures prevail. 4. The region of maritime pines, which extends along the Atlantic coast from the sea to the first elevations; the long-leafed pine, the yellow pine, and the red cedar occupy the dry grounds, and the cypress with acacia leaves, the low and moist soils, as far as the Roanoke, or even the Chesapeake; farther to the north we find the white pine, the black and Canadian fir, and the Thuya occidentalis. The rice grounds commence where the tidewater becomes fresh, and terminate where it ceases to be felt. 5. The western region, which no doubt admits of subdivision, but in which, generally speaking, the forest trees (a) [This is not a very correct statement; the prevailing forest trees, in a large part of the "region of the north-east," are deciduous.]-AM. ED. BOOK are, the white oak, the black and scaly walnut, the walnut LXXIX. hicory, the cherry, the tulip tree, the white and gray ash, the sugar maple, the white elm, the linden tree, and the western plane, which all grow to a great size upon the Atlantic coast. But the varying altitude of the ground necessarily blends the characters of these different regions. Looking, therefore, at the forests of the United States as a whole, the most universally diffused trees are, the willow-leafed oak which grows in the marshes; the chesnut oak, which in the southern states rises to a prodigious size, and which is as much esteemed for its farinaceous nuts as for its wood; the white, red, and black oak. The two species of walnut also, the white, and the black, valued for its oil, the chesnut and the elm of Europe, abound almost as much as the oak in the United States. The tulip tree and the sassafras, more sensible to cold than these others, are stunted shrubs, at the confines of Canada-assume the character of trees in the middle States; but it is upon the hot banks of the Alatamaha that they develop their full growth, and display all their beauty and grandeur. The sugar maple, on the other hand, is not seen in the Southern States, except upon the northern slopes of the mountains, while in the colder climate of New England it reaches its full natural dimensions. The amber tree, which yields an odorous gum, the ironwood, (Carpinus ostrya) the American elm, the black poplar, the taccamahaca are found growing in every place where the soil suits them, without showing any great preference for one climate more than another. The light and sandy soils are covered with this useful tribe of pines, with the common fir, the beautiful hemlock fir, the black and the white pine. We may also class with this family of trees, the Arbor vitæ, the juniper of Virginia, and the American red cedar. Among the shrubs generally diffused in the United States we may reckon the chionanthus, the red maple, the sumach, the red mulberry, the thorn apple, &c.* * Michaux, Voyage a l'ouest des Alleghanys, et Histoire des arbres forestieres de l'Amérique septentrionale. |