File:The world book; (electronic resource) organized knowledge in story and picture (1917) (14578599737).jpg

Identifier: worldbookorganiz07oshe (find matches)
Title: The world book; (electronic resource) organized knowledge in story and picture
Year: 1917 (1910s)
Authors: O'Shea, M. V. (Michael Vincent), 1866-1932, ed Foster, Ellsworth D., ed Locke, George Herbert, 1870-1937, ed
Subjects: Encyclopedias and dictionaries
Publisher: Chicago, New York (etc.) Hanson-Roach-Fowler Co.
Contributing Library: Internet Archive
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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fromeast to west, is a little more than 3,000 miles,and its length from north to south is about4,500 miles. The area is approximately 8,300,-000 square miles, a little over half of the areaof Asia. The Mainland, Its Mountains and Plains.North America is built on a gigantic scale. Itcontains some of the highest mountains, themost extensive plains, the largest lakes and NORTH AMERICA 4251 NORTH AMERICA many of the greatest rivers in the world.Though it possesses physical features of everysort, their arrangement is simple. The greaterpart of the continent is occupied by a centralplain, the largest in the world, stretching acrossit from north to south and extending from theArctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. This the whole area of the continent, with the re-sult that the mean elevation of North Americais 2,300 feet above sea level, more than twiceas high as that of Europe. Many of the peaksare more than 14,000 feet high, and one. MountMcKinley in Alaska, rises 20,300 feet above theocean.
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RELATIVE POSITIONS Almost the entire continent of South Americalies east of the longitude of New York City. Prac-tically every portion of it is east of the longitudeof Charleston. The above map will correct thecommon impression that North America lies northof South America. plain is walled in by two mountain systems:on the east a shorter and smaller one, and onthe west a longer and higher one, which con-tinues southward to Panama. The mountains of the east, the Appalachians,begin near the Gulf of Saint Lawrence as hillsand extend in a southwesterly direction, gradu-ally increasing in height until within about 300miles of the Gulf of Mexico, where they ab-ruptly end. East of them the surface slopesgently to the Atlantic in a plain which variesin width from fifty miles in the north to about300 miles in the south. The most prominent relief feature of bothNorth and South America is the lofty westernmountain system, known as the Cordillera(which see). Its chief range in North Americais the

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