SHALER, N. S. _Seacoast Swamps of the Eastern United States._ In United States Geological Survey, Sixth Annual Report, 1884-'85, pp. 353-398. SHALER, N. S. _The Geological History of Harbors._ In United States Geological Survey, Thirteenth Annual Report, Part II, 1891-'92, pp. 93-209. SHALER, N. S. _Sea and Land._ Scribner, New York, 1894. _United States Coast and Geodetic Survey._ Annual Reports, Coast Pilot, Tide Tables, etc. CHARTS AND MAPS To the student of the geography of the coast and submerged border of North America, the extensive series of charts published by the _United States Coast and Geodetic Survey_ supply a vast amount of accurate information. A catalogue of these charts, with prices, etc., is issued by the Survey. Many of the charts issued by the _United States Hydrographic Office_, and a large number of the topographic maps published by the _United States Geological Survey_, are of value in this same connection. An account of these charts and maps, with instructions as to methods of obtaining them, etc., is given in _Government Maps for Use in Schools_, by Messrs. Davis, King, and Collie, published by H. Holt & Co., New York, 1894. CHAPTER II THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE LAND Taking the better known portions of North America as a basis on which to classify the leading geographical features of the continent, it is convenient, and in the main sufficiently accurate, to recognise five primary physiographic provinces. These are, in their general order, from east to west: 1. Coastal plains and plateaus, of which the country between the Atlantic Ocean and the Appalachian Mountains furnishes the most typical examples. 2. A series of mountain ranges embracing all of the more elevated country on the east side of the continent from Georgia northward to the arctic archipelago, and in this book termed the _Atlantic Mountains_. 3. The great system of plains and plateaus extending from the Gulf of Mexico northward to the Arctic Ocean and bordered on the east by the Atlantic Mountains and on the west by a still greater series of mountains, which may be designated with sufficient accuracy as the _Continental Basin_. 4. A group of mountain chains and mountain ranges on the west side of the continent, including the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada, Cascades, etc., and sometimes termed the Cordilleras. Under the scheme of classification here used, this highly complex belt of rugged country extending from south-central Mexico northward to the Arctic Ocean is termed the _Pacific Cordillera_, or, in less technical language, the _Pacific Mountains_.[1] [1] The propriety of using the names here employed for the larger physiographic provinces of North America has been discussed by several writers in the _Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia_, vol. ii, 1899, pp. 55-69.