Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Henry Gardiner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net * * * * * Transcriber's note: The original publication has been replicated faithfully except as listed in the List Of Corrections at the end of the text. Words in italics are indicated like _this_. * * * * * Appletons' World Series _THE REGIONS OF THE WORLD_ EDITED BY H. J. MACKINDER, M.A. _Reader in Geography in the University of Oxford_ Each complete in One Volume, Large 8vo. BRITAIN AND THE BRITISH SEAS By the EDITOR WESTERN EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN By ELISÉE RECLUS CENTRAL EUROPE By JOSEPH PARTSCH, Ph.D. SCANDINAVIA AND THE ARCTIC REGION By Sir CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, K.C.B., F.R.S., President Royal Geog. Soc. THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE By PRINCE KROPOTKIN THE NEARER EAST By D. G. HOGARTH, M.A. AFRICA By J. SCOTT KELTIE, LL.D., Sec. R. G. S. INDIA By Colonel Sir THOMAS HOLDICH, K.C.I.E., C.B., R.E. THE FARTHER EAST By ARCHIBALD LITTLE NORTH AMERICA By ISRAEL C. RUSSELL, LL.D. SOUTH AMERICA By JOHN C. BRANNER, LL.D. AUSTRALASIA AND ANTARCTICA By H. O. FORBES, LL.D. [Illustration: FIG. 1.--North America. From a photograph of a relief map by Victor and Cosmos Mindeleff. Scales of original: Horizontal, 120 miles to 1 inch; vertical, 40,000 feet to 1 inch: proportion, 1:16.] NORTH AMERICA BY ISRAEL C. RUSSELL PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN _With Maps and Diagrams_ [Illustration] NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1904 COPYRIGHT, 1904 BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY PREFACE The aim of this book is to give a condensed and, I trust, readable account of the leading facts concerning the North American continent which, from the point of view of the geographer, seem most interesting and instructive. The area of the continent is so vast and the diversity among its various parts so great, however, that the completeness of treatment which characterizes the preceding volumes in the series to which it belongs could not be attempted. To obviate in a measure this confessed shortcoming, there has been appended to each chapter a list of books which will enable the reader to continue the studies outlined in it. A complete review of the geography of a continent should, as it seems to me, be divided into two parts: first, a discussion of the natural conditions, or physical geography, and, second, man's dependence on and use of the natural resources, or economic geography. Each of these two leading phases of the subject was embraced in the preliminary outline of the present volume, but owing to a desire to make each chapter as complete as practicable, and also on account of limitations as to space, the treatment of the economic phases of geography has been necessarily brief. But little more can be claimed for the book as finished than that it is an attempt to describe some of the more prominent and attractive aspects of the natural conditions pertaining to North America. While writing this book I have become more and more impressed with the incompleteness and inadequacy of the printed records relating to the geography of the continent of which it treats. Extensive tracts, particularly in the far North, have not been traversed by observant men, vast areas throughout the continent have not been surveyed and mapped, and even in the somewhat thickly inhabited portions of the more enlightened countries there are large districts in reference to the geography of which there is but little critical information available. Under these conditions it seemed best to select typical examples of various geographical features from the better known portions of the continent to represent the conditions throughout the less thoroughly explored domain in which they are situated, and at the same time serve to illustrate the highly creditable advances made by American geographers in definitely formulating the principles of physiography. The book may, in a measure, be considered as an attempt to present in popular form a report of progress concerning the study of the geographical development of North America at the beginning of the twentieth century. I. C. R. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE MARGIN OF THE CONTINENT 1 The continental shelf--The submarine topography of the Caribbean region--Movements of the ocean waters--Islands--Topography of the coast--Estuaries and harbours. II. THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE LAND 60 Coastal plains and plateaus--The Atlantic mountains--The continental basin--The Pacific mountains--The Antillean mountains. III. CLIMATE 173 The elements of climate--Climatic provinces--Secondary disturbances of the atmosphere--Evaporation. IV. PLANT LIFE 215 The forests--Prairies, treeless plains, and plateaus--The treeless mountain tops. V. ANIMAL LIFE 258 General principles of geographical distribution--Life-regions and life-zones--The mammals--Some representative mammals--The birds. VI. GEOLOGY 299 The growth of the continent--The rocks of which the continent is composed--The concentration of mineral substances. VII. THE ABORIGINES 355 The Eskimos--The Indians. VIII. POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY 408 Classification of boundaries--Political control--Population in 1900. INDEX 427 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS COLOURED MAPS PLATE PAGE I. Orographical features 25 II. Mean annual rainfall and temperature 173 III. Climate and life provinces 185 IV. Leading geological features 306 V. Pleistocene glacial deposits 315 VI. Linguistic stocks of Indians North of Mexico 370 VII. Distribution of governments 410 VIII. Characteristic vegetation 418 OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS FIG. PAGE 1. Relief map of North America _Frontispiece_ 2. Profile of a continental shelf 2 3. Map of Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean region, showing topography of the sea-floor 17 4. Co-tidal lines 29 5. Profile of sea-cliff and cut-and-built terrace 33 6. Map of a portion of the Atlantic coast of the United States 35 7. Map of Mobile Bay 36 8. Map of Cape Cod 37 9. Map of the coast of Texas 39 10. Map of a portion of the coast of Maine 45 11. Map of the coast of southeastern Alaska 47 12. Map of the delta of the Mississippi 53 13. Map giving the names of the larger physiographic divisions of North America 61 14. Altitude map of North America 65 15. Map of the Appalachian Mountains 74 16. Section of anticlinal valleys and synclinal mountains 78 17. Profile showing relation of ancient peneplains in the Appalachians 81 18. Section through the Black Hills of Dakota 117 19. Sketch of the Grand Cañon of the Colorado River 134 20. Map of the Great Basin 137 21. Map of Crater Lake, Oregon 153 22. Mount Rainier, Washington 154 23. Map of Puget Sound 161 24. Map showing isobars for January and July 175 25. Ice-palace, Montreal 199 26. Map showing tracks of West Indian hurricanes 209 27. Map showing depth of evaporation in the United States 212 28. Map showing distribution of forests 215 29. Douglas firs, Vancouver 241 30. View in redwood forest of California, from photograph by U. S. Bureau of Forestry 242 31. Bison at Silver Heights, Winnipeg 275 32. Map showing range of bison 276 33. Maps showing the growth of the North American continent 303 34. Map showing the distribution of coal-fields 336 35. Ideal section through an oil and gas pool beneath an anticlinal 339 36. Lodge or tepee of Blackfoot Indians, Manitoba 387 37. Panorama of Uxmal, Yucatan 390 38. Pointed arches in Central American ruins 393 39. Carved stonework, Uxmal, Yucatan 394 NORTH AMERICA CHAPTER I THE MARGIN OF THE CONTINENT--THE CONTINENTAL SHELF In beginning the study of the physical geography of North America, one of the first facts to claim attention is that the true continental border is in general many miles seaward from the present margin of the land. The boundary of our field of study is defined with considerable accuracy by a line drawn on the bottom of the sea adjacent to the present coast-line of the continent so as to pass through all points where the soundings show a depth of 100 fathoms of water. This 100-fathom contour in the topography of the sea-floor chances to coincide in a general way with the outline of the submerged border of the continent; landward from it the bottom rises with a gentle slope, while seaward the descent is usually steep down to a depth of 2,000 or more fathoms. A gently sloping shelf-like border surrounds the deep central basin of the Gulf of Mexico (Fig. 3). To the west and north of Yucatan and west of Florida the shelf is from 140 to 160 miles broad, with a surface slope towards the centre of the Gulf of less than 6 feet to a mile--a slope so gentle that were the surface of the shelf exposed to view, no eye could distinguish it from a perfect plain. The deepest sounding yet obtained in the central part of the Gulf, approximately midway between Yucatan and Florida, shows a depth of 2,119 fathoms. The remarkable fact is that the slope from the 100-fathom line to the bottom of the central basin of the Gulf is precipitous. In two places on the border of the Yucatan bank a descent of about 8,500 feet occurs within a horizontal distance of 15 or 20 miles. On the east side of the southern extremity of Florida, and again on the eastern shore of Yucatan, the continental shelf is only about 5 miles broad; these are the nearest approaches of the present land to the actual border of the continent to be found on the Atlantic coast. The explanation of these exceptional conditions is that both Florida and Yucatan are portions of the continental shelf which have been raised so as to form low emerged plains. From Cape Hatteras northward to the extremity of the Newfoundland Banks the shelf increases gradually in breadth from about 15 miles in the region of the Carolinas to over 100 miles off the coast of Maine. The outer border of the shelf is an irregular curving line. Opposite the coast of Massachusetts and Maine an extension of the Atlantic basin reaches within 15 or 20 miles of the present margin of the land. The manner in which the low plain fringing the eastern border of the United States passes beneath the waters of the Atlantic and becomes a continental shelf is illustrated by Fig. 2. [Illustration: FIG. 2.--Ideal profile through a continental shelf.] Southeast of Newfoundland the continental shelf has an irregular surface, marked by shoals and depressions, and furnishes the most valuable fishing-banks in the world. The 100-fathom curve is there over 500 miles from the coast. This is the broadest portion of the continental shelf now known on the Atlantic border of the continent. Northward of Newfoundland the Atlantic basin extends far into Davis Strait and Baffin Bay, and then its border swings outward about Greenland, but its true margin is there but imperfectly known. To the north of the arctic coast of North America, as is suggested in part by the soundings made by Nansen, the submerged margin of the continent is probably broad and presents a steep escarpment to the arctic basin, but the outline of the true continent, as in the case of the present land extension in that direction, is unknown. Soundings to the north of Cape Lisburne, on the northwest coast of Alaska, show that the 100-fathom curve is there over 200 miles from land. The exceptionally shallow sea covering this portion of the shelf continues westward to the coast of Asia, and southward through Bering Strait, so as to embrace the eastern portion of Bering Sea. The continental mass of North America is thus directly connected with the continental mass of Asia. A rise of the bottom of less than 200 feet in Bering Strait would bring about a land connection between the Old and the New World. This, as will appear later, is a most significant fact to students of geography and geology. On the Pacific coast of North America the continental shelf is throughout much narrower than its average breadth on the Atlantic side of the continent, and is also more deeply submerged on its seaward border. The broad platform beneath the northern and eastern portions of Bering Sea--from which rise the low islands, St. Lawrence, St. Matthew, Nunivak, and the Pribilof group, now separated by water from 25 to 35 fathoms deep--extends to the south of the more easterly of the Aleutian Islands, and is prolonged eastward along the south border of Alaska, where the 100-fathom curve is from 10 to 20 miles from the coast-line, and approaches still nearer the land in the neighbourhood of the islands of southeastern Alaska and British Columbia. The shelf is narrow but well defined along the coasts of Washington and Oregon. Adjacent to California, Mexico, and Central America, its outer margin is barely 10 miles from land. Throughout the entire distance from the Aleutian Islands to Panama the outer border of the shelf is in general well defined, and its seaward escarpment descends abruptly to the floor of the vast Pacific basin, where the sounding-line shows depths of from 2,000 to 3,000 fathoms. Could the waters of the sea be removed and North America viewed from a distance, in the manner we are enabled to examine the surface features of the moon through a powerful telescope, an observer would behold a great plateau, having the present well-known triangular shape of the continent, rising boldly between the Atlantic and the Pacific basins. The surface of the plateau would be rough, in comparison with the generally smooth contours of the adjacent troughs, but even the highest mountains would be less in elevation above its general surface than the crests of its bordering escarpments above the adjacent depressions. The mountain-peaks when illuminated by the sun would appear as points of light with long, tapering morning and evening shadows, and the east and west plateau-borders would be strongly drawn bands of light or shadow, according to the time of day, 6,000 or 8,000 miles in length. The Bermuda, Hawaiian, and other islands now rising above the surface of the deep sea would stand on its desiccated floor as isolated, gigantic mountains--"Bermuda mountain" with an elevation of 15,000 feet, and the Hawaiian group of peaks with a culminating point of light 30,000 feet above the surrounding plain. The bordering slopes of the "North American plateau" and its slightly bevelled margin forming the present continental shelf would be lacking in details, and appear as a vast, smooth, curving belt of light or shadow, in striking contrast to the roughened surface now above water. The North American continent is not exceptional in being partially submerged at the present time. Similar conditions occur about the margins of other continents which, as is well known, are fringed with broad submarine terraces built in part of their own _débris_. In fact, every large land mass on the earth under existing climatic conditions and present distribution of life, if it remained moderately stable for a sufficient length of time, would have a submarine shelf built about its borders. _Of what is the Continental Shelf Composed?_--The rocks forming the present land surface of North America extend seaward from the existing shores and constitute the basal portions of the continental shelf, thus suggesting that the submerged platform is due, in part at least, to shore erosion--the waves having eaten into the land so as to make a terrace. That this is not the true explanation, however, may be shown in several ways. The superficial covering which gives the continental shelf its smooth contours is composed largely of sediments such as rivers bring from the land. This material is coarsest and in greatest abundance near shore and decreases both in the size of the particles composing it and in abundance towards the seaward borders of the shelf. The wash from the land is mostly deposited within a few miles of the coast-line and, as has been shown by dredging, is seldom carried, even under the most favourable conditions, more than about 100 miles seaward. Supplementing the fragmental material derived from the land, and increasing in thickness towards the seaward margin of the continental shelf--coincident with the increase in depth of the water--is a deposit of light-coloured calcareous mud or ooze, formed of the hard parts of animals and plants which live in the waters of the sea. The organisms which supply this material are in the main microscopic and live especially in the warmer seas in countless myriads. Their dead shells or cases fall to the sea-floor in a constant shower, much as the snow falls from the air, but continuously year after year and century after century. This descent of the hard parts of organisms, both calcareous and siliceous, from the waters of the sea has led to the accumulation of a sheet of slimy sediment over almost the entire sea-bottom. How thick this layer is we have no means of knowing, but it is probably many hundreds of feet. The organic _débris_ falling on the continental shelf descends through only a few hundred feet of water and is but little affected by its solvent action. The great number of organisms, such as the Foraminifera which secrete calcareous tests or "shells" causes the slime on the continental shelves to be calcareous and in the condition to form limestone if cemented or subjected to sufficient pressure. In the deep sea, where the hard parts of dead organisms fall through many thousands of feet of water, their more soluble portions are removed and the bottom is covered throughout vast areas with a pinkish clay composed of the more insoluble residue of the calcareous shells and the cases of silica-secreting animals and plants. The continental shelves are, in general, within the influences of ocean currents, and fine _débris_, as we seem justified in concluding, is removed from their surfaces, carried beyond their margins, and deposited on their seaward slopes. The shelves are thus built outward and are largely constructional topographic forms. Their outer slopes, where best defined, represent about the "angle of repose" in water of the fine material of which they are composed. These slopes are in several regions so precipitous that they probably would not retain their present forms, but descend in landslides, should the restraining pressure of the sea-water be removed. In certain favoured regions, as about the southern extremity of Florida, over an extensive area in the West Indies, and on both sides of Central America, the conditions favour the growth of reef-building coral-polyps, and portions of the continental shelf in that region are covered with an irregular layer of living coral and dead coral rock. The importance of this resistant superficial layer on the minor features of the relief of the submarine banks, etc., needs to be considered in studying the secondary topographic features of many portions of the floor of shallow tropical seas. In addition to the _débris_ from the land and the rain of the hard parts of organisms from the water covering the continental shelf there is in northern regions a third but less important source of material furnished by floating ice. About the northern shores of America sea ice forms in winter, some of which is frozen fast to boulders and stones in shallow water, and when this ice-foot, as it is termed, is adjacent to steep cliffs, rock _débris_ falls upon it. When the ice becomes broken into cakes in the spring-time or during storms, it floats away, under the influence of the winds and currents, and as it melts drops its freight on the floor of the sea. This shore ice seldom travels far, and is probably not an important factor in the building of continental shelves. Of greater interest are the bergs derived from glaciers, especially in Greenland, many of which contain hundreds of thousands and even millions of cubic feet of ice and travel hundreds of miles before melting. In some instances these bergs carry with them rock masses, mud, etc., derived from the land over which their parent glaciers flowed, and as they melt, distribute this material over the sea-floor. The greater portion of this ice-carried freight derived from Greenland is dropped on the continental shelf, and not infrequently reaches the latitude of Halifax, and even journeys farther south. This berg-carried _débris_ is mainly deposited on the continental shelf, for the reason that the cold currents which bring the bergs southward follow the coast in a general way, and are bordered on their seaward margins by warmer currents flowing northward. To the north of Nova Scotia the additions of material to the continental shelf through the agency of bergs is considerable in the aggregate, and as the process has been in operation for thousands of years, the banks or shoals in the sea off the Newfoundland coast are due in part to this cause. Ice-carried _débris_ forms an important source of material for the building of the continental shelf from New England northward and westward about the shores of North America, including Greenland, to Bering Sea, and to a less extent on the south coast of Alaska, where many comparatively small bergs are set afloat by glaciers which reach tide-water. Supplementing the distribution of _débris_ over the continental shelf by shore ice and bergs, is the similar work carried on by the ice discharged into the sea by northern rivers, such as the St. Lawrence, Mackenzie, and the Yukon. During the glacial epoch great ice-sheets like those now discharging bergs along the Greenland coast, but vastly larger, entered the Atlantic all the way from New York to the Arctic Ocean, and along the Pacific coast from the Aleutian Islands to the State of Washington. During certain periods of this time of intense glaciation great additions of ice-borne _débris_ must have been made to the continental shelf. The banks to the east of Newfoundland and other similar shoals as far south as Nantucket are probably due in large part to the _débris_ deposited by the glaciers which formerly entered the sea in that region. It is of interest in this connection to note that the glaciers, even at the time of their greatest expansion, could not have extended beyond the seaward margin of the continental shelf, for the reason that on passing that boundary and entering deep water they must have broken off and given origin to bergs. _Submerged River Channels._--One of the most interesting features in connection with the continental shelf bordering North America is that its generally plane surface is trenched in several places by cañon-like depressions similar to the narrow steep-sided valleys which streams sometimes cut in the surfaces of plateaus. This suggestion that the surface of the continental shelf is crossed by stream-cut channels is supported by the fact that several such depressions, leading seaward from the present mouths of large rivers, have been discovered by the sounding-line. The best known example occurs off the mouth of the Hudson and has been traced from New York Bay about 120 miles seaward to the edge of the continental shelf. It is deepest and best defined on the outer portion of the submerged plateau, where for a distance of 23 miles, beginning 97 miles from Sandy Hook, it has an average width of 3 miles and a maximum depth of about 2,500 feet below the surface of the bordering submarine plain, which has 20 fathoms of water over it. This cañon opens out in the seaward face of the plateau and forms a deep notch in the generally uniform crest-line of that escarpment. Farther "up-stream," so to speak, the channel narrows to a mile and a quarter, with some irregularities in depth, and near Sandy Hook it is not apparent, owing to the amount of _débris_, largely sand, swept into it by shore currents. This evidence, strengthened by the fact that the true rock-cut valley of the Hudson as far as Troy is filled with clay and sand to a considerable but unknown depth, is abundant proof that the land was formerly higher than at present by at least 3,000 feet, and that the now submerged continental shelf off Long Island was then a plain above water, across which the ancient Hudson was extended. The river flowed across this plain for a sufficient length of time to excavate a cañon over 2,500 feet deep and 3 miles wide from crest to crest of its walls in its seaward portion. This submerged channel has the characteristics of a young, stream-cut valley and suggests that the plain across which it flowed to the eastward of Long Island was a submerged continental shelf previous to being upraised so as to be trenched by the Hudson. The evidence as to changes in the elevation of the Atlantic coast furnished by the submerged valley of the Hudson does not stand alone. Similar but less well-defined channels have been discovered by soundings off the mouths of the Delaware and the Susquehanna, while the most remarkable instance of all is furnished by the submerged valley of the St. Lawrence, which has been traced through the Gulf of St. Lawrence and out to the brink of the submerged continental escarpment some 200 miles eastward of Nova Scotia. The tide now rises and falls in the St. Lawrence to within a few miles of Montreal; that is, the "Greater St. Lawrence" has lost about 1,000 miles of its length owing to a downward movement of the land. Evidence of the nature just considered is lacking, or, more correctly, surveys and soundings which would perhaps reveal the presence of submerged river channels have not been made about the shores of the more northerly portion of the continent, but instructive results in this connection are to be expected when that region is thoroughly studied. On the Pacific coast several transverse channels in the continental shelf, similar to the submerged valleys of the Hudson, have been discovered by soundings, some of which are thought to be true stream-cut valleys; others, however, start from the coast where there are no rivers entering, and may be due to other and as yet unknown causes. An exceptional feature in the geography of the Pacific coast to the south of the United States-Canadian boundary is furnished by the islands off the southern portion of California. These islands, of which Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Santa Catalina, and San Clemente are the most important, rise from water that is 300 or more fathoms deep to a height of from a few hundred to about 2,000 feet above the present sea-level. These islands are the summit portions of mountains similar to those which give a characteristic relief to southern California. One feature concerning the islands referred to which is of interest in connection with the study of the continental shelf is the presence on them of numerous terraces. These occur on a series of level, step-like areas, which sweep about the slopes of the islands, in a general way parallel to the present shore-line, and are records of an upward movement of the land. The highest well-defined terrace on San Clemente occurs at an elevation of 1,320 feet, but there are less distinct beach-lines up to 1,500 feet above the present sea-level. The evidence of movements of the land along the Pacific border of the continent might be multiplied, but enough has been stated to show that the western border of North America, like its eastern portion, is subject to fluctuation in reference to the level of the sea. The line which marks the passage of the solid earth beneath the waters of the sea is ever changing, owing to movements in the earth's crust. It is ever changing, also, owing to the action of waves and currents on the ocean's shores and other causes. _Life on the Continental Shelf._--No attempt need be made here to give an accurate description of the plants and animals which find a congenial home on the continental shelf. One needs, however, to have in mind a general idea of the wonderful abundance and variety of organic forms in the shallow waters adjacent to the continent to fully appreciate the changes in the relief of the ocean-floor, in which they play a leading part, and also the vast economic importance of these marine harvest-fields and pastures, as they may be termed. The continental shelf fringing North America reaches from within 500 miles of the equator to probably a less distance of the north pole. Its length following its broader curves is in the neighbourhood of 25,000 miles, and its average width is not far from 50 miles; its area is therefore something like 1,000,000 square miles. On account of the vast extent of this submarine plain and its great range in latitude, the conditions influencing the lives of the plants and animals inhabiting its surface or living in the waters covering it vary from place to place between wide extremes. The waters resting on it have a mean annual surface temperature of from 70° to 80° F. at the south, and about 32° F. at the north. In places great rivers and the turbid waters from glaciers bring in sediments and form muddy deposits; at other localities the currents, as in the path of the Gulf Stream off the Carolina coast, sweep the bottom clear of all light _débris_; and again bare rocks of limited extent are exposed. The depth of the water resting on the shelf varies through all gradations down to 100 fathoms. At the south the hours of light and darkness are approximately equal each day, but at the north there are six months of sunlight and six months of darkness each year. Still other variations, as of strength of currents, salinity, etc., exert an influence in this realm and lead to great diversity in its living organisms. Throughout its entire extent, however, the continental shelf abounds in both plant and animal life. The plant life of the sea, as has been shown in recent years by the use of the dredge and net, is most abundant at the surface and is practically absent at the bottom where the water is over 100 fathoms deep. The animals of the sea, like those of the land, are dependent primarily on plants for their food. By far the most abundant supply of food plants in the sea is furnished by minute algæ, which float free in its water. Below a depth of about 100 fathoms algæ are absent because of lack of light, and all the deep-sea animals are believed to be carnivorous. For these reasons the comparatively shallow waters adjacent to the land and mainly covering the continental shelf are the most favourably circumstanced of any portion of the sea for the support of a teeming fauna. On the continental shelf of North America, especially to the south of Cape Cod on the Atlantic and south of the Aleutian Islands on the Pacific coast, there is a warm temperature, light penetrates to the bottom except in the unfavourable and fortunately restricted areas of muddy water, and motion of the waters produced by currents and the pulsations of waves is present. These several favourable conditions permit of an exuberance of life such as is unknown to persons who confine their attention to the study of land areas. We may safely say, in the words of Alexander Agassiz, that the abundance of life in the many favoured localities of the ocean far surpasses that of the richest terrestrial faunal districts. The most thickly populated tropical jungle does not compare in wealth of animal or vegetable life with certain portions of the continental shelf on the western border of the Gulf Stream. In this connection we may also cite Humboldt, who before the marvellous revelations in reference to the life of the sea made by recent dredging expeditions wrote: "Upon surfaces less varied than we find on continents, the sea contains in its bosom an exuberance of life of which no other portion of the globe could give us an idea." The distribution of life in the sea is analogous to the distribution of life on land, but in a reverse direction with reference to sea-level. A traveller passing from the tropical plains of eastern Mexico and ascending Orizaba, for example, crosses successive belts of vegetation, each with its indigenous animals, but merging one with another so as to make a gradation in the luxuriance of the flora and the abundance of animal life from the wonderfully rich plains adjacent to the Gulf coast to the snow-capped mountain top. In the sea, the tropical plains with their tangled vegetation and plentiful animal life are represented by the still more uniform plain forming the submerged continental shelf with its strange forests of flowerless plants, the seaweeds. These submarine jungles shelter hosts of animal species, many of which swarm in countless myriads. This life embraces all grades of invertebrates, such as the microscopic protozoa, sponges, radiate animals like the coral-polyps, starfishes, sea-urchins, etc., and crustaceans in vast variety, and, among vertebrates, includes fishes, reptiles, and mammals. Even birds might be included in this category, since many of them are more at home on the sea than on the land. The struggle for food among this multitude is intense. As with many animals on the land, adaptive coloration is here a means of escape from enemies, and many of the animals assume the brilliant hues of the surrounding vegetation. The water is less transparent than air, and in the deep sea it is always night. Counteracting to some extent this diminution or absence of sunlight, many marine animals are luminous and shine with phosphorescent light of many different tints. This property is shared also by the animals of the sunny, shallow sea as well as by those always living in the cold midnight of the great deep and in the polar oceans. The luxuriant vegetation, both attached and floating, and varying from giant kelp, scores of feet in length, to microscopic algæ which an amoeba might encompass, clothes the surface of the continental shelf except in unfavourable localities or is carried here and there by the currents moving over it, but has its lower limit at about the 100-fathom line. This inferior limit of marine vegetation is probably more definitely defined than the superior limit of land plants on snow-capped mountains. All attached seaweeds are confined to the shallow seas, but floating kelp, like the well-known Gulf weed or sargasso, which collects in the eddies of the sea currents and forms more or less mythical floating islands, is widely distributed, as are also many kinds of minute algæ which thrive in the upper 100 fathoms of the open ocean in all latitudes. The primary source of food for the hungry millions of marine animals, excepting the comparatively small quantity brought by rivers or blown from the land, is supplied by the marine algæ, and mainly by the minute forms which float in the water. So much space has just been given to the marvellous luxuriance of life on the southern portion of the great shelf surrounding North America that the reader may perhaps think the cold northern oceans are even more lifeless and desolate than their adjacent shores. This, however, is not the case. Northward along the continental shelf, with decrease in the strength of the sunlight, the plants and animals lose much of the brilliancy which characterizes many of the denizens of southern waters, and in general assume more subdued colours in harmony with the prevailing gray of their surroundings. The great diversity of animal life to be found in shallow tropical seas decreases as one traces the continental shelf northward, but even in the Arctic Ocean adjacent to the land invertebrate life literally swarms, although the number of species, genera, etc., is comparatively limited. Seaweeds are not absent from the Arctic Ocean, although its shores, owing to the destructive action of ice, usually seem exceedingly barren, and the lower or smaller forms of algæ float in the waters in abundance. Food sufficient for an extensive fauna is thus supplied, and where food is plentiful animals are present also, no matter what the mean annual temperature may be. The life of the Arctic Ocean has been but inadequately studied, but enough is known concerning it to show that a promising field there awaits the naturalist. On the continental shelf off Point Barrow, the most northern portion of the arctic shore of Alaska (latitude 71° 23'), 180 species of marine invertebrates have been collected. Of these, the molluscs numbered 61 species; the crustaceans, 44 species; the worms, 20 species; and the echinoderms (sea-urchins, starfish, etc.), 17 species. Nearly all of the Arctic Ocean adjacent to the coast of America is as yet unexplored, and we have therefore no direct testimony as to its flora and fauna. We may reasonably assume, however, that the life is there practically the same as in the waters of similar depth to the north of Eurasia. Nordenskiöld, in his narrative of the voyage of the Vega, speaks of decapods, worms, mussels, crustacea, and asteroids which crawled in myriads over the beds of clay and sand at the bottom of the Kara Sea. A detailed account is given of one unusually successful haul of the trawl when it brought up large asteroids, sponges, crinoids, holothuria, a gigantic spider, masses of worms, crustacea, etc. This was the most abundant yield of the trawl-net at any one time during the voyage of the Vega on the north coast of Asia, and that, too, from the sea off the northern extremity of the continent. The temperature of the water at the surface was from zero to -1.4° C. (32° to 29.48° F.), and at the bottom from -1.4° to 1.6° C. (29.48° to 34.88° F.). In this connection the same distinguished naturalist remarks: "It is singular that a temperature under the freezing-point of pure water should be advantageous for the development of an animal life so extremely rich as that which is found here, and that this animal life should not suffer any harm from the complete darkness which during the greater portion of the year prevails at the bottom of the ice-covered sea." To persons who have never visited the far north the statements that travellers in those regions give in reference to the abundance of life in the sea seems scarcely to be credited. The assertion, however, that comparing equal areas in the most populous tropical sea and in portions of the Arctic Ocean, the amount of life, or the tons of living animal matter per square mile in the two regions, would be in favour of the northern station is probably true. In addition to the direct evidence indicated above as to the prolific invertebrate life of the cold waters of the north, we have still more impressive testimony from the vast numbers of birds and large-sized mammals which subsist on this abundance, or feed on fishes, which in turn obtain their subsistence from the invertebrate realm. Every rocky island and headland at the north is a breeding-place for sea-birds. They are to be numbered by millions, yet their daily food is gathered from the surface of the sea. The seals live in large numbers about all the arctic shore, and the walruses, each individual weighing about a ton, occur in herds; while whales and narwhals inhabit the same waters. The presence of such numbers of large mammals is proof that the life on which they subsist is abundant. THE SUBMARINE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE CARIBBEAN REGION The studies which have given to the world so much information concerning the continental shelf surrounding the main body of North America have been continued, or, perhaps more properly, were initiated, in the West Indian waters. For this important work we are indebted mainly to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey and the United States Fish Commission. The work of officers of the United States Navy in charge of Coast Survey and Fish Commission vessels, in making accurate measurements of depths, temperatures, strength and direction of currents, character of bottom, etc., has, in some instances, been commemorated on maps of the sea-floor by such names as Brownson Deep, Sigsbee Deep, Bartlett Deep, etc. The routine survey work referred to has been supplemented and extended by the labours of Louis Agassiz, L. F. Pourtales, Alexander Agassiz, and others in studying the life in the sea, the origin and history of the material forming the sea-bottom, and the nature of the shelves, banks, deeps, etc., which give diversity to its topography. The continental shelf bordering Florida on the east is separated from a similar submarine embankment surrounding the Bahama Islands by a channel 56 miles wide and from 200 to 500 fathoms deep (Fig. 3). This channel when followed northward becomes shallower and broader, and opposite the Carolina coast is no longer discernible in the relief of the broad continental shelf. The Gulf Stream flows northward through this Florida channel, as it is termed, with a current of from 2 to 6 miles per hour. These conditions are such as to suggest that the channel referred to has in part been excavated by the Gulf Stream. [Illustration: FIG. 3.--Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean region: topography of sea-floor. The first contour line from the land indicates a depth of 600 feet--the outer margin of the continental shelf. Contour interval below the 600-foot curve, 3,000 feet. After R. T. Hill.] The Great Bahama Bank, from which rise the low coral-built Andros Islands and a large number of crags and rocks, measures about 360 geographical miles from southeast to northwest, and has a width of approximately 200 geographical miles. Throughout its entire submerged portion the water is less than 100, and over much of the area less than 10 fathoms deep. It is invaded and given an irregular shape, however, by a "tongue of the ocean" which curves in from the northward, in which soundings of from 700 to 1,000 fathoms have been obtained. To the north of the Great Bahama Bank, and separated from it by water nearly 2,000 fathoms deep, is the Little Bahama Bank, measuring 50 by 150 geographical miles, from which rises the low islands known as Great Bahama, Great Abaco, and a multitude of islets and crags, while beneath the water, as is the case also on the greater submarine plateau to the south, there are numerous shoals. Southeast from the Great Bahama Bank, and in a general view to be classed with it, are several other shallow areas in the sea, of similar character, and with numerous islands and reefs rising from them. The southeastern terminus of this series of plateaus, the surfaces of which have been built up practically to the level of the surface of the sea, is the Navidad Bank, situated about 50 miles to the north of the eastern end of the island of Santo Domingo (Haiti) and forms the west border of Brownson Deep. The length of the series of banks to the north of the Greater Antilles is about 800, and its average width 120 geographical miles. The unevenness of the surface of the Bahama Banks (and the same is true also of the southern portion of Florida, the Yucatan peninsula, and of nearly all of the submarine plateaus or banks in West India waters) is largely due to the coral reefs and the coral rock formed on them. While the outer portion of the continental shelf, in most instances, is formed of soft, unconsolidated calcareous mud or ooze, in the tropical seas, where the depth, clearness of the water, etc., are favourable, reef-building coral-polyps become attached and form massive corals. The growth of these corals is irregular, and the surface of the plateaus where they are attached becomes roughened. There is a delicate adjustment between the growth of reef-building corals and strength of current, freedom of exposure to the waves, etc., and they flourish in certain localities, as on the windward border of islands, and die at other localities. The growth of coral "heads" and reefs changes the direction of currents, and the spaces of soft ooze and dead coral between the localities most favourable for coral growth are liable to be scoured out and the bottom lowered. When coral, together with the shells of molluscs and other organic refuse of the teeming life of tropical seas, reaches the surface of the water, fragments and even large masses are broken off by the force of the waves, ground into calcareous sand owing to the movements produced by the waves and currents, and much of it heaped on the borders of the reefs so as to raise them above the fair-weather level of the sea. Much of this material, when it becomes dry, is moved by the winds and built into dunes, thus still further increasing the height of the land. Many of the islands in the Bahamas have thus been formed, but the process has been modified in the greater part of that region by movements in the earth's crust which have produced widely extended elevations and depressions. The larger islands in the Bahama group are coral platforms which have been moderately elevated, and bear on their surfaces extensive accumulations of wind-deposited sand. The Yucatan peninsula is also, to a great extent, an upraised coral platform. The surfaces of such exposed areas of easily soluble calcareous rocks are roughened still more by the action of rain and percolating waters, and if subsequently submerged to a moderate depth would give origin to "banks" with uneven, and possibly conspicuously roughened surfaces. Different stages in this varied history are illustrated throughout the West India region. About the Caribbean coast of Honduras and Nicaragua the continental shelf is broad and is termed the Mosquito Bank, in reference to its proximity to the widely known coast of that name. Off the northeast cape of Honduras this submerged shelf has a breadth of about 125 geographical miles, and is succeeded to the eastward by the much smaller, isolated, submarine plateau known as the Rosalind Bank. Even on a small map, like that forming Fig. 3, it is readily seen that in general terms there is a series of banks and low islands extending from the Mosquito Coast to Jamaica, Santo Domingo, Porto Rico, and the Caribbees. The distance measured along the curved line connecting the several areas of shallow water is about 1,700 geographical miles. Should this region be upraised 600 feet, the new lands that would appear would still, in several instances, be separated by deep water, thus showing that although in a generalized view it is convenient to consider the banks and shelves referred to as parts of a single great group, there are several centres from which they have grown. A third great group of banks and shoals occurs about the borders of Cuba, especially along its southern margin. Associated with this submerged plain of calcareous mud, roughened by countless coral crags, is a narrow east-and-west ridge in the Caribbean Sea, known in part as the Misteriosa Bank, which rises precipitously on its southeast border from a depth of over 3,400 fathoms, and is indicated at the surface by the Cayman Islands. The Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico region has great depressions or "deeps" as well as broad banks or shoals. The submarine topography is, in fact, on a more Titanic scale than in any other known region. Brownson Deep, some 50 miles north of Porto Rico, has a depth of 4,561 fathoms (27,366 feet), and the bordering slopes of the depression in certain places, and for long distances, have an inclination of 35 degrees. Between 15 and 30 miles south of Porto Rico the bottom of the Caribbean Sea is 1,500 fathoms below its surface, and rapidly descends to over 2,400 fathoms. Bartlett Deep, a long, narrow depression in the sea-floor, intervening in its eastern portion between Cuba and Jamaica, has a depth of 3,428 fathoms (20,568 feet) measured from the surface of the sea. Sigsbee Deep, in the central portion of the Gulf of Mexico, is a third basin of similar nature, remarkable for the great extent of its nearly level floor, which is from 2,035 to 2,071 fathoms below sea-level. (On Fig. 3 only the general depths of these great depressions are indicated.) Coupled with the profound depth of the sea in the West Indian region are the rugged mountains of the Great Antilles and the volcanic cones of the Caribbees. Some of the elevations of the land referred to are, in feet, as follows: Porto Rico, 3,609; Jamaica, 7,360; Cuba, 8,600; and Santo Domingo, 10,300. The extreme range in the relief of the surface of the solid earth (lithosphere) between the bottom of Brownson Deep and the summit of Santo Domingo is 37,666 feet--the horizontal distance between the two is about 270 geographical miles. No mountain on the earth has such an elevation above sea-level. The islands of the West Indies are thus shown to be the summits of stupendous mountains, the greater portions of which are submerged. The low-lying islands, and even the banks which can be discovered only with the aid of the sounding-line, are in reality the tops of wonderfully steep mountains or plateaus some 20,000 feet in height. It is a significant fact that the profiles of the partially or wholly submerged mountains of the West Indies are, as
{'title': 'North America by Israel C. Russell', 'source': 'Project Gutenberg', 'lang': 'en'}