Not comprised in this enumeration is the large Territory north of Texas reserved for the Indians.

I. The "North" contains New England (the six States which stand first in the enumeration) and the great commercial central States, and contains more than a third of the population of the Union, though hardly a twentieth of its

area.

New England was originally colonised by Puritans, and its population is now essentially English. It claims to be the most advanced portion of the United States; Boston, its capital, is the centre of American literature, and close to it is the University of Cambridge.

The North is the commercial and manufacturing part of the United States; agriculturally it hardly produces its own food. Cotton is largely manufactured. Much iron is smelted near Pittsburg in West Pennsylvania, and hardware manufactured. Coal exists in vast quantities in the central hilly part of Pennsylvania. Petroleum is largely raised from wells in North-west Pennsylvania.

II. The "South" is the region where before the war of 1862 cotton and tobacco were raised by slave labour. The "South" was originally colonised by much more adventurous and unsteady people than the " North," and the population is to this day less sober and steady. Tobacco, cotton, rice, and the sugar-cane are still the chief products; Virginia and Tennessee are excellently adapted for wheat and maize.

The chief mineral of the district is coal; the finest field known in the world is the Appalachian coal-field.

All the Negroes of the United States are in the "South."

In the Indian Reserve are located remnants of the Red Indian race brought from various distant points. They are given a grant to aid in their maintenance by the Washington Government, are provided with industrial schools, and superintended by a Commissioner. The "Reserve" contains 70,000 square miles, and plenty of game.

III. The "West" is the great agricultural district of the

United States, Illinois and the States around it forming a level fertile wheat-field. Hence is largely fed England, the wheat proceeding by rail to the Lake ports. Stock-keeping, especially of pigs, is another large branch of agricultural industry Cincinnati being called the City of Pigs from the enormous quantity of bacon there prepared. So abundant is wheat, and of so little value on the spot, that in some seasons the pigs are largely fed on wheat, and it is said wheat is used sometimes to make a hot fire.

Most of the Germans in the United States settle in the West.

This vast area contains coal and iron in abundance, but not much mining is done at present; lead is raised in Illinois.

IV. The "Rocky Mountain" tract consists mainly of high ground, and is as yet hardly inhabited. In Utah there is some agriculture; but the principal occupation at present is mining, especially for gold and silver. Nevada produces silver on such a scale as to affect the value of silver throughout the world; Colorado produces gold largely. Gold has also been discovered in Dacotah.

In the North-west of Wyoming, the Yellow stone National Park has been set aside by Congress to be reserved from colonisation, an area of more than 3,000 square miles, containing gigantic geysers and hot-springs, together with scenery peculiar to itself. Some of the geysers play boiling water 300 feet high.

V. The "Pacific" coast is both an agricultural and a mining region. California first attracted attention by its gold mines in 1848, and produced for twenty years nearly 10,000,000l. gold per annum. Afterwards it was found to possess a climate unsurpassed in the whole world for corn and fruit it exports wheat even to England. Oregon rivals

California.

Celebrated features of California (and the whole west Rocky Mountains) are the "Cañons" or narrow Gorges with vertical sides, in which the rivers run. are 4,000-6,000 feet deep, the sides

Some of the Cañons so vertical for long

distances that it is impossible to find a way down from the upland to the river bank.

632. TOWNS. The following were by the census of 1870 the towns of the United States that contained more than 100,000 inhabitants :—

(1) New York (including the suburb Brooklyn), population 1,338,391; the commercial capital of the Union, on the left bank of the Hudson, near its mouth.

(2) Philadelphia, population 674,022 ; on the right bank of the Delaware, 120 miles from its mouth, but the largest ships can get up.

(3) St. Louis, population 310,864; on the right bank of the Mississippi, just below the confluence of the Missouri : the capital of the West.

(4) Chicago, population 298,977, on Lake Michigan, the chief of the Lake ports.

(5) Baltimore, population 267,354, on the Chesapeake estuary: a port.

(6) Boston, population 250,526; the port and capital of New England.

(7) Cincinnati, population 216,239; on the right bank of the Ohio.

(8) New Orleans, population 191,418; the chief Gulf port. (9) San Francisco, population 149,473; the chief Pacific port commonly called Frisco; contains a large colony of Chinese.

(10) Buffalo, population 117,714; a port on Lake Erie.

(11) Washington, population 109,199, the political capital of the Union, near the mouth of the Potomac. The small district round it is made a Federal Territory under the name of Columbia: that is, it is not included in any one of the States.

(12) Newark, population 105,059; opposite New York, across the Hudson.

(13) Louisville, population 100,753; on the Ohio; where a short canal enables steamers to avoid the Rapids of the Ohio when the river is low: when it is high the Rapids can be shot.

Sect. XLIX. MEXICO.

633. EXTENT. Mexico is about the size of all Europe leaving out Russia, Turkey, and Scandinavia; and has a population equalling that of Scotland and Ireland together.

634. BOUNDARIES. Mexico is bounded by the United States on the North; the Pacific on the West; the Gulf of Mexico on the East; and Guatemala and British Honduras on the South,

635. GULFS. Mexico on the east; California on the north-west included between the peninsula of California and the main continent.

636. CLIMATE. Mexico is intersected by the Tropic of Cancer, about one half of it lying in the tropical, the other half in the sub-tropical (or warmest part of the temperate) zone. This latitude would indicate an excessively warm climate, but a large part of the area of Mexico is elevated 5,000 feet above the sea, so that the climate of Mexico is one of the finest in the world. The low-lying tropical coasts are moist, hot, and subject to malarious fevers.

637. MOUNTAINS AND PLATEAUS. Nearly the whole of Mexico (except a band near the sea-coasts usually about 50 miles wide of low-lying country) is a plateau elevated 6,000 —8,000 feet above sea-level, and forming one of the most remarkable plateaus in the world. There rise from this plateau various mountain ranges and volcanoes, especially the line of volcanoes in the latitude of the city of Mexico itself. Of these the highest is Popocatepetl, all 17,783 feet, and others are nearly as high. In the north this plateau is continued and joins the southern broad end of the Rocky Mountain plateau.

638. RIVERS. The Rio del Norte is the boundary for hundreds of miles between Mexico and the United States.

639. COMMUNICATIONS. There is one railway, viz., from Vera Cruz, the port on the Gulf of Mexico, to the

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