Maryland and Delaware are famous for strawberries and peaches. 7. The Middle Atlantic States abound in minerals, especially coal and iron. Coal-fields cover two-thirds of West Virginia and one-fourth of Pennsylvania. The latter State also yields nearly half the pig-iron made in the United States. Petroleum, or rock-oil, is another important mineral product of Pennsylvania and West Virginia it is pumped from wells sunk in the earth. New York surpasses all the other States in the production of salt. 8. New York and Pennsylvania are the greatest manufacturing and commercial states of the Union, and they are also the most populous and the most wealthy. The cities of New York and Philadelphia take the lead in the manufacturing and commercial industries. More than half of the foreign commerce of the country centres in New York, and the manufactures of Philadelphia exceed those of any other town of the Union. Brooklyn and Jersey city-suburbs of New York, on the magnificent harbour of New York Bay-have risen into great cities. Baltimore, in Maryland, on Chesapeake Bay, is a great commercial city, and has large manufactories. Pittsburgh is noted for the manufacture of iron. Richmond, on the James river, has extensive tobacco factories and warehouses. LESSON XLVIII. THE UNITED STATES.-THE SOUTH ATLANTIC STATES-THE SOUTH CENTRAL STATES. 1. The South Atlantic States-North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida-lie to the east and south of the Alleghany Mountains. The west of North Carolina and the north-west of Georgia are traversed by ridges of the Alleghanies. Mount Mitchell-the highest peak in the United States east of the Mississippi-is in the T 66 western part of North Carolina. Florida is a long peninsula stretching southwards, dividing the Mexican Gulf from the Atlantic. In the low ground near the coast are large swamps. The great Dismal Swamp extends southwards from Virginia into North Carolina. It consists of a succession of weird and apparently irreclaimable marshes through which run black currents of water, and in the midst of which spring up thousands of dead treetrunks, many of them charred by recent fires." The Everglades, in Florida, consist of similar swamps, overgrown with coarse grass and palmettoes, and occasionally inundated over a considerable portion of its extent. 2. The climate of these States is warm and genial. Malarial fevers are common in the swampy districts, but many parts are comparatively salubrious. Many sick persons go south, particularly to South Carolina and Florida, to avoid the northern winter and spring. A large proportion of these States boasts of a rich soil and splendid facilities for agricultural industries. Middle Georgia is perhaps the richest agricultural region in the Commonwealth; but, compared with the more northern, the Southern States cannot be said to be in a very thriving condition. Wheat, tobacco, maize, cotton, and rice, are the chief productions. South Carolina is the great rice state. Florida-the " Flowery State "—is famous for its beautiful orange-groves, the excellent fruit of which forms an important article of export. 3. There are some valuable mineral deposits-especially of gold-in the Carolinas and Georgia, but mining and manufacturing are not leading pursuits in the South Atlantic States. Charleston has some manufactures, but it depends mainly for its prosperity on its trade in rice and cotton. It is one of the oldest, as well as one of the loveliest, of American towns. Atlanta, in Georgia, is a busy city, being the centre of a great railway system; and Savannah is an active cotton-shipping town. 4. Of the states which may be called the south-central, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and the Indian Territory, belong almost exclusively to the basin of the Mississippi. Alabama is drained by a river of the same name into the Gulf of Mexico; and Texas-the "Lone Star State "-is drained by numerous streams running south-eastward into the same Gulf. 5. These States are comparatively low and level. The southern part of Louisiana is but little higher than the Mississippi; and when floods or freshets occur, it would be overflowed were it not for banks, called levees, built for many miles along the river. Situated at the mouth of the greatest river on the continent, Louisiana contains within its limits the delta of the river which is intersected by numberless lesser rivers and bayous,* and filled with lakes. To those whose ideas have been gained by sailing up the Mississippi, this State appears to be a great plain of wonderful fertility, with an infinite succession of dense jungle, tangled swamps, marshes, lakes, sloughs, and cane and cypress brakes. If we penetrate back from the river, our ideas will speedily alter. The whole surface may be divided into two great areas, the hilly and the level country. The hilly parts may be again subdivided into three regions, differing from each other in configuration of the surface, in soil, in forest growth, and in fertility. These divisions have been named the good uplands, the pine hills, and the bluff lands. The level country may be subdivided into pine flats, prairies, arable alluvial lands, wooded swamps, and the coast marsh. 6. The coast marshes are composed, where the soil is at all firm, of rich black mould; but the greater portion of these are liable to inundations from the river, or from the tidal overflow, and often the green meadow-like covering is only a treacherous crust concealing the unknown depth of water and oozy mud below. 7. The chief vegetable productions of these States are cotton, rice, sugar, tobacco, and Indian corn. Texas produces the most cotton; Louisiana, the most rice and sugar; and Tennessee the most tobacco. Immense numbers of cattle, sheep, and horses, are raised in Texas. Grass is abundant; and the climate is so warm that the animals need no housing in winter. * Channels of water filled by the overflowing of the rivers; but sometimes connected with them. |