The Red Man's Continent: A Chronicle of Aboriginal America — John Shaqi
The Red Man's Continent: A Chronicle of Aboriginal AmericaHuntington, Ellsworth
History
The Red Man's Continent: A Chronicle of Aboriginal America
Huntington, Ellsworth
Human geography -- North America; Indians of North America; Physical geography -- North America
South of the great granaries of North America and Eurasia the plains are
broken, but occur again in the Orinoco region of South America and
the Sahara of Africa. Thence they stretch almost unbroken toward the
southern end of the continents. In view of the fertility of the plains
it is strange that the centers of civilization have so rarely been
formed in these vast level expanses.
The most striking of the inverse resemblances between America and the
Old World are found along the Atlantic border. In the north of Europe
the White Sea corresponds to Hudson Bay in America. Farther toward the
Atlantic Ocean Scandinavia with its mountains, glaciers, and fiords
is similar to Labrador, although more favored because warmer. Next
the islands of Great Britain occupy a position similar to that of
Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. But here again the eastern
climate is much more favorable than the western. Although practically
all of Newfoundland is south of England, the American island has only
six inhabitants per square mile, while the European country has six
hundred. To the east of the British Isles the North Sea, the Baltic, and
Lakes Ladoga and Onega correspond in striking fashion to the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, the river of the same name, and the Great Lakes from Ontario
to Superior. Next the indented shores of western France and the
peninsula of Spain resemble our own indented coast and the peninsula
of Florida. Here at last the American regions are as favored as the
European. Farther south the Mediterranean and Black seas penetrate far
into the interior just as does the Gulf of Mexico, and each continent is
nearly cut in two where the canals of Suez and Panama respectively have
been trenched. Finally in the southern continents a long swing eastward
in America balances a similar swing westward in Africa. Thus Cape Saint
Roque and Cape Verde are separated by scarcely 16 degrees of longitude,
although the extreme points of the Gulf of Mexico and the Black Sea are
140 degrees apart. Finally to the south of the equator the continents
swing away from one another once more, preserving everywhere the same
curious inverse relationship.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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