NORTH AMERICA.
LESSON XXI.
1. Position and Boundaries.—North America is the continent on which we live. It is third in size among the continents. It is larger than Australia and Europe together, but is somewhat smaller than Africa and a little more than half as large as Asia. It lies between the Atlantic ocean on the east and the Pacific ocean on the west. On the north is the cold Arctic ocean; on the south are the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and of the Pacific ocean.
Coast-line.—The coast-line of North America is much broken by gulfs and bays on the north and east. Many of these make excellent harbors. The western coast has fewer good harbors than the eastern coast.
Sunset over the Pacific ocean.
2. Climate.—The map of the heat belts (page 17) shows us that our continent extends far into the Frigid zone on the north, while the southern end lies in the hot belt. The middle part of the continent lies in the Temperate zone. It has, therefore, almost every kind of climate and a great variety of plants and animals.
The winds have much to do with the climate. The southern half of the continent receives the warm winds from over the Gulf of Mexico, These bring an abundance of rain. The middle portion is swept by winds from the Pacific ocean, but much of the rain is kept out by the mountains along that coast. In winter, cold winds from the Arctic ocean sweep over the level part of the continent and make the climate very cold.
3. Mountains and Plateaus.—The entire western half of North America is a great plateau region called the Pacific highlands. If we look at this region on the map of North America (page 35), we shall see that this region is made up of many smaller plateaus and of long ranges, or rows of mountains, extending all the way from the Arctic ocean to South America. Many of these ranges together make up the Rocky mountains. These extend into Mexico where they are called the Sierra Madre (sē-er'rah mah'dray), or Mother range.
To the west of the Rocky mountains are shorter ranges called the Sierra Nevada (ne-vah'dah) and the Cascade.
Near the eastern shore of the continent is another plateau region containing the Appalachian ranges of mountains. But the plateau is not so wide, nor are the mountains so high as in the western highlands.
Mountain of the Holy Cross in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado.
4. Plains.—Now put your finger on the map at the mouth of the Mississippi river, and follow
30
