Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/102

UNITED STATES

{|align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" rules="cols" style="font-size: smaller" Acquisition or Organization (Sq. Miles) {|width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
 * colspan="5"|
 * colspan="5"|
 * align="center" rowspan="3"|Territory
 * align="center" rowspan="3"|Date of
 * align="center" rowspan="3"|Territory
 * align="center" rowspan="3"|Date of
 * align="center" rowspan="3"|Area
 * align="center" colspan="2"|Population
 * colspan="2"|
 * align="center"|Year
 * align="center"|Number
 * rowspan="8"|
 * 1919
 * align="right"|65,062
 * align="right"|210
 * 1919
 * align="right"|14,969
 * rowspan="8"|
 * 1919
 * align="right"|65,062
 * align="right"|210
 * 1919
 * align="right"|14,969
 * 1919
 * align="right"|65,062
 * align="right"|210
 * 1919
 * align="right"|14,969
 * 1919
 * align="right"|14,969
 * &emsp;Hawaii
 * align="right"|

been the shore of an ancient sea. The most fertile part of this slope is between Long Island and the Potomac. The coast to the Mississippi is sandy throughout; from Long Island to North Carolina it is marshy only close to the sea, but farther S. the seaward half of the plain is covered with swamps. The Appalachians form the watershed between the rivers draining into the Atlantic and the tributaries to the Mississippi, though some of the former may be said to rise on the inland side of the mountains, and to force a passage through them to the sea. The principal rivers falling into the Atlantic are the Penobscot, Kennebec, Merrimac, Connecticut, Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, Potomac, Rappahannock, James, Roanoke, Pedee, Santee, Savannah, and Altamaha. The Chattahoochee and the Flint river joining form the Appalachicola; the Alabama and Tombigbee, the Mobile; these drain into the Gulf of Mexico E. of the Mississippi.
 * }
 * 1919
 * align="right"|226,938
 * align="right"|527
 * 1918
 * align="right"|21,707
 * align="right"|115,026
 * 1919
 * align="right"| 9,101,427
 * align="right"|3,435
 * 1919
 * align="right"|1,262,158
 * align="right"|77
 * 1916
 * align="right"|7,550
 * align="right"|132
 * 1917
 * align="right"|26,051
 * colspan="5"|
 * }
 * align="right"|77
 * 1916
 * align="right"|7,550
 * align="right"|132
 * 1917
 * align="right"|26,051
 * colspan="5"|
 * }
 * align="right"|26,051
 * colspan="5"|
 * }
 * }

The great central plains and prairies between the Appalachians and the Rocky Mountains are drained almost entirely by the Mississippi and its affluents, chief of which are the Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, and Red river. The only other river of great importance flowing into the Gulf of Mexico is the great boundary river, the Rio Grande del Norte. The streams flowing N. are trifling, the principal being the Red river of the North, which flows into Lake Winnipeg. Almost the whole of the Mississippi basin consists of open, rolling prairies, while, on the other hand,

almost all the country between the Appalachians and the Atlantic was originally more or less thickly wooded. Between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Alps, called Sierra Nevada, in California and Cascade Range farther N., lies a rainless region, mostly S. of lat. 45° N., with an average elevation of 5,000 feet above the ocean, great part of it communicating, not with the sea, but draining into salt lakes and marshes. Except where irrigated, this plateau is utterly unproductive. To the N. it is drained by the Columbia, with its tributary the Snake river, which forces its way through the Sierras to the Pacific; while in the S. portion the Colorado and its affluents, after flowing through frightful cañons 3,000 to 5,000 feet below the surface of the plateau for some 600 miles, forms a delta at the head of the Gulf of California. The Great Cañon of the Colorado is more than 300 miles long. Between the Sierras and the ocean stretches the comparatively narrow but rich and beautiful sea-coast known as the Pacific Slope, drained by the Columbia, the Klamath, the Sacramento, and the San Joaquin, along with numerous smaller streams. The “Great Divide,” or watershed, is in Montana and Wyoming, whence flow the Missouri, Columbia, and Colorado. In this wild region Congress set apart in February, 1872, the Yellowstone National Park, a tract 62 by 54 miles in extent (3,312 sq. miles) in the N. W. of Wyoming. The region, while mostly unfit for agriculture and mining, contains more natural marvels than can be found elsewhere. There