Influences of Geographic Environment: On the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-GeographySemple, Ellen Churchill
History
Influences of Geographic Environment: On the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-Geography
Semple, Ellen Churchill
Human beings -- Effect of environment on; Human geography
Where, however, a purely local subsidence, as in Kamerun Bay and Old
Calabar on the elsewhere low monotonous stretch of the Upper Guinea
coast,[454] or a single great river estuary, as in the La Plata and the
Columbia, affords a protected anchorage on an otherwise portless shore,
such inlets assume increased importance. In the long unbroken reach of
our Pacific seaboard, San Francisco Bay and the Columbia estuary are of
inestimable value; while, by the treaty of 1848 with Mexico, the
international boundary line was made to bend slightly south of west from
the mouth of the Gila River to the coast, in order to include in the
United States territory the excellent harbor of San Diego. The mere
nicks in the rim of Southwest Africa constituting Walfish Bay and Angra
Pequena assume considerable value as trading stations and places of
refuge along that 1,200-mile reach of inhospitable coast extending from
Cape Town north to Great Fish Bay.[455] It is worthy of notice in passing
that, though both of these small inlets lie within the territory of
German Southwest Africa, Walfish Bay with 20 miles of coast on either
side is a British possession, and that two tiny islets which commands
the entrance to the harbor of Angra Pequena, also belong to Great
Britain. On the uniform coast of East Africa, the single considerable
indentation formed by Delagoa Bay assumes immense importance, which,
however, is due in part to the mineral wealth of its Transvaal
hinterland. From this point northward for 35 degrees of latitude, a
river mouth, like that fixing the site of Beira, or an inshore islet
affording protected harborage, like that of Mombasa, serves as the
single ocean gateway of a vast territory, and forms the terminus of a
railroad--proof of its importance.
[Sidenote: Evolution of ports.]
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