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 ELISEE 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.