Metals-Minerals-Spanish Settlements-Productions, Towns-Tomb of Columbus, Bay of Samana-French Settle- CORRECTIONS. Page 150, 3d line from the bottom, for Thirteen States, read Colonies. Page 151, note (a). By a treaty between the United States and Russia, ratified in 1825, it was stipulated that the former should form no establishment on the north-west coast of America, to the north of Lat. 54° 40′; nor the latter to the south of the same parallel. But with regard to the territory lying between this parallel and the Oregon or Columbia river, there remain further conflicting claims between the United States and Great Britain, which are not yet adjusted. Note (b), page 151, is erroneously marked as if it were one of the notes added to the American edition. SYSTEM OF UNIVERSAL GEOGRAPHY. BOOK LXXV. DESCRIPTION OF AMERICA. 71 General Reflections.—Origin of the Americans. THE history of geographical discoveries leads us repeat- BOOK edly to the shores of the New World: we follow to them LXXV. the ancient navigators of Scandinavia ;* and, after seeing the notices which they had collected, become lost or ob- of AmeriDiscovery scured, we again accompany the immortal Columbus to ca. that continent which ought to have been honoured with his name. We are now about to traverse, in the progress of description, the different regions of this part of the world; but, conformably to our usual method, we shall, first of all, cast a glance over its original features, as well as the race of men by which it is inhabited. tion of The spirit of system has sometimes exaggerated the Configura points of resemblance, sometimes the differences, which America. have been supposed to be observable between America and the old continent. The external forms of the new conti BOOK nent, it is true, strike us at first sight by the apparent conLXXV. trast which they afford with the old. The immense island, Points of resemblance both conti composed of Asia, Africa, and Europe, viewed as one entire region, presents an oval figure, of which the greater diameter is considerably inclined to the equator; its outline is pretty equally interrupted on both sides by gulfs and inland seas; and the rivers descend from each in nearly equal proportions. In America, on the contrary, we perceive a lengthened, indefinable figure, abruptly cut short at the extremities, with the principal dimension running almost in the direction of the poles; two great peninsulas united together by a long isthmus, which, whether we consider its form, or the primitive rocks of which it is composed, bears no resemblance whatever to the isthmus between Africa and Asia; immense gulfs, the mediterranean seas of America, which open on the eastern side; on the opposite coast, we perceive an unbroken shore, with only some slight indentations at the extremities; and, finally, the great rivers, almost without exception, flowing towards the Atlantic. The actual differences, nevertheless, disappear, or at least become less important, when, on contemplating the common to general outline of the globe, we perceive that America is nents. merely a continuation of that belt of elevated land, which, under the names of the plateau of Caffraria, of Arabia, of Persia, and Mongolia, forms the spine of the ancient continent, and, scarcely interrupted at Behring's Straits, constitutes also the Rocky or Columbian Mountains, the plateau of Mexico, and the great chain of the Andes. This zone of mountains and plateaus-like a vast ring, crumbled and fallen back upon its encircled planet-presents, generally speaking, a declivity, shorter and more rapid on that side of the basin of the great Austro-Oriental Ocean, of which the Indian Sea constitutes a part,* than on the side of the Atlantic and Polar Seas. This, then, is the great leading feature common both to one continent and the *Vol. I. p. 147. |