4. There are several navigable rivers.

San Juan River, and Lake Nicaragua, of which it is the outlet, are the chief parts of a proposed ship canal between the oceans. The necessary surveys have been made, and the work of actual construction is now being energetically prosecuted.

5. The foreign commerce is limited, and is mostly with England. Coffee, rubber, indigo, bananas, cabinet-woods, dye-woods, and hides are the chief exports.

6. The capitals of the several republics are New Guatemala, the largest and finest city of Central America, San Salvador, Tegucigalpa, Managua, and San José.

Questions (I.)-1. What is Central America? What does it include ?-2. What does it include as a political division? Name the republics.-3. In what are they similar to Mexico?-4. What is said of the rivers?-5. Of the foreign commerce? Which are the most important exports?-6. Name the capitals of the five republics.

(II.)—1. Why is Central America important?-3. What are its principal mountains? What is said of them ?—4. Why is the San Juan River important?

LXXIV.

THE WEST INDIES.

1. Situation.-The West Indian Archipelago extends from Florida to South America.

The islands are the summits of mountain ranges which are partly under the sea, and parallel to the great chains of the western continents.

2. Area. The land surface of the archipelago is about equal to that of New York and Pennsylvania.

3. Divisions.-The Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the Lesser Antilles are the three principal divisions. The Bahamas are low coral islands. One of them, San Salvador, is said to be the first land discovered by Columbus in 1492.

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The Greater Antilles have forest-clad mountains and a fertile soil. The Lesser Antilles include all the islands between Porto Rico and South America; several of them contain lofty volcanoes. 4. Climate.—All these islands, except a portion of the Bahamas, are in the Torrid Zone. The intense heat of the tropical climate is modified by the ocean and the trade-winds.

5. Productions.-The principal exports are sugar, coffee, cotton, tobacco, and tropical fruits. Much of the fruit comes from Cuba, which also produces more canesugar than any other country in the world.

6. Ownership.-Cuba and Porto Rico are colonies of Spain; Jamaica, the Bahamas, and most of the Lesser Antilles belong to Great Britain; the rest to France and other European countries. Hayti was once divided between France and Spain; it now consists of two independent negro republics-Hayti and San Domingo.

7. Population.-The total population of the West Indies is about equal to that of the State of New York, the greater part being negroes.

8. The three largest cities, Havana, Matanzas, and Santiago de Cuba, are all in Cuba. Havana, the capital of Cuba, is larger than any other city in the West Indies.

Questions (I.)—1. Where is the West Indian Archipelago?—2. What is its area? -3. Name its principal divisions.-4. In what zone are they? What is said of the climate?-5. What are the principal exports? For what is Cuba noted?-6. To what countries do the West Indies belong? To what two countries did Hayti once belong? Of what does it now consist?-7. What is said of the population of the West Indies?— 8. Where are the three largest cities? Name them. What is said of Havana ?

(II.)-1. What are the islands of the West Indian Archipelago?-3. What is said of the Bahamas? Of San Salvador? Of the Greater Antilles? Of the Lesser Antilles?

Hayti from Porto Rico? What is the capital of Porto Rico? What island nearly west of Hayti? Its capital? What other city in Jamaica?

LXXI.

REVIEW EXERCISES.

LXX.

QUESTIONS ON THE MAP.

Mexico. What country north of Mexico? What country southeast? What gulf in the northwest? What peninsula? What gulf east? What bay? What peninsula in the southeast? What isthmus in the southern part of Mexico? What gulf? What mountain chain extends through Mexico? What river forms part of the northeast boundary? What city is the capital? Name the seaports of the eastern coast. Of the Pacific coast. What city near the mouth of the Rio Grande? What city southeast of Mexico? What three northwest? What two in the northern part of Mexico?

Central America.-Name the divisions of Central America. Which is farthest south? Farthest north? What British colony northeast of Guatemala? What is the capital? What bay north of Honduras? What name is given to the eastern coast of Nicaragua? What two lakes in Nicaragua? What is the outlet of Lake Nicaragua? Name the capital of each state.

West Indies. What are the three principal divisions of the West Indies? (Greater Antilles, Lesser Antilles, and the Bahamas.) Name the four Greater Antilles. Which is the largest group of the Lesser Antilles? What small group east What group near the coast of South America? of Porto Rico? What islands north of Cuba? What town is their capital? On what island? What city is the capital of Cuba? What city east of Havana? On the southern coast? What strait between Cuba and Florida? Between Cuba and Yucatan? Cuba and Hayti? What two countries in Hayti? Name their capitals. What strait separates

на

Countries. Where is it? How bounded? What is the capital?— Mexico? Belize, or British Honduras? Guatemala? Honduras? Salvador? Nicaragua? Costa Rica? San Domingo? Hayti? Islands. Where situated?—The Great Antilles? Cuba? Hayti? Porto Rico? Jamaica? The Bahamas? The Lesser Antilles? Virgin Islands? Caribbee Islands? Venezuelan Islands?

Gulfs and Bays.-Where is it?-California? Mexico? Campeachy? Honduras? Tehuantepec?

Straits.-Between what lands? What waters does it connect?-Yucatan? Florida? Windward? Mona?

Cities and Towns.-In what part of the state? How situated?-MEXICO? Leon? Guadalaxara? Puebla? Guanaxuato? Vera Cruz? Tampico? Matamoras? Guaymas? Acapulco? NEW GUATEMALA? SAN SALVADOR? TEGUCIGALPA? MANAGUA? SAN JOSE? HAVANA? Santiago de Cuba? Matanzas? PORT AU PRINCE? SAN DOMINGO? KINGSTON? Spanish Town? SAN JUAN? NASSAU? BELIZE?

LXXV.

QUESTIONS ON THE MAP.

Through what part of South America does the Equator pass? In what zone is the greater part of the continent? What tropic crosses it? What cape at its northern extremity? Its eastern extremity? Southern? Western?

Along which coast is the belt of highest mountains and narrow plateaus? What name is given to the broadest part of the plateau of the Andes? What lakes in it? What broad plateau in the eastern part of the continent? What mountain ranges in this plateau? What smaller plateau in the north? What mountains are in the plateau of Guiana? In what part of South America are the volcanoes?

What name is given to the northern part of the Great Central Plain? With what are they covered? What river drains the llanos? What name is given to the central part of the Great Plain? With what are they covered? What river drains the selvas? What island at its mouth? What river east of Joannes Island? What name is given to the southern part of the Great Plain? What river drains a large part of the pampas?

What branch of the Amazon is connected with the Orinoco? What branches drain the plateau of Brazil? What branch of the Para? What river drains the eastern part? What two the southern part? Which of these is the main river? What name is given to the forest region

AMERICA.

between the Paraguay and the Madeira? To the plain between the Matto Grosso and the pampas? Where is the rainless coast? How long is it?

What metals are obtained from the Andes? What two valuable minerals from the plateau of Brazil? How many principal diamond districts? What valuable woods are obtained from the forests of the Amazon and its branches? What gum? What vegetable productions from the northern coast? From the eastern coast? What grain from the southwestern coast? What animal products from the pampas and Southern Brazil? What valuable manure from the rainless coast? From what islands is it obtained?

NOTE. It will assist to memorize the physical maps of both the American continents to note the following points of similarity: Shape of continents. Position of the three coast lines. Rocky and Nevada Mountains. Andes chains.

Appalachian Mountains. Brazilian Mountains. Great Salt Lake. Lake Titicaca.

Great Basin. Plateau of Bolivia. Eastern Highland. Central Plain. Arctic Plain. Plateau of Brazil. Central Plain. Llanos.*

Mackenzie River. Magdalena.

Volcanoes on the west.

Western Plateau Belt.
Andes Plateau Belt.

Labrador.
Plateau of Guiana.
Great Lakes.
Selvas.†

Southern Plain. Pampas.‡

Llanos, a Spanish word meaning plains. † Selvas, from a Latin word meaning woods. Pampas, ar Indian word meaning plains. El Gran Chaco, means the great hunting-ground.

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LXXVI.

OUTLINE, SURFACE, ETC.

1. Outline.-South America is nearly a right-angled triangle, of which the Pacific coast is the longest side. It is nearly twice the size of the United States, and has a population of about 33,300,000.

Its coasts are unbroken by great gulfs or by enclosed seas.

2. Surface.-The surface of South America is naturally divided into four parts-the Andean plateau on the west, the plateaus of Brazil and Guiana on the east, and the Great Central Plain. The Andes Mountains stretch along the entire western coast, generally in parallel chains. Between them is a belt of plateaus, the broadest and loftiest being that of Bolivia.

These gigantic border walls of the plateaus are the loftiest ranges in America, and are exceeded in height only by the great chains of Central Asia. They are highest in the northern portion of. the table-land of Bolivia, where the loftiest peaks reach an elevation of 25,000 feet. They are unbroken, except at the Isthmus of Panama, where the western chain subsides into low hills, and towards the southern extremity of the continent, where the mountainous coast becomes a line of rocky islands. The Andes contain several groups of lofty volcanoes.

3. The Great Central Plain extends along the whole eastern base of the Andes.

This plain extends eastwardly to the shores of the Atlantic, except where interrupted by the low mountains and plateaus of Guiana and Brazil.

Three great rivers, the Orinoco, the Amazon, and the La Plata, with their numerous branches, drain this plain and the mountain slopes which surround it.

The remarkable rain-fall of this region is due to the tropical rainbelt and the trade-winds which sweep westwardly from the Atlantic and across the continent.

4. The northern part of the Great Central Plain, the llanos of the Orinoco, is treeless and very flat. It is about four times the size of Ohio.

At the close of the tropical rainy season it is a vast meadow, and is called by the inhabitants the "Sea of Grass."

It supports millions of cattle and horses. Before the end of the dry season it has become a scorched and arid desert, swept by hot winds that whirl the dry soil into the air in dense clouds of dust. During the extreme drought the horses and cattle are driven to the foot of the mountains, and the great reptiles with which the plain abounds bury themselves in the mud of the drying pools, and await in a torpid state the return of the tropical rains.

5. The central part, the selvas of the Amazon, is by far the largest.

It is nearly covered with a dense forest of flowering trees, interwoven with gigantic vines, and alive with birds and insects of brilliant colors, and with millions of monkeys and other animals of the Torrid Zone; it is almost unoccupied by civilized man, and can be traversed only by means of the rivers. This great forest, the largest in the world, also spreads far up the sides of the mountains by which the plains are surrounded.

6. The southern part, the pampas of the La Plata, is more than three times as large as the llanos.

It is similar to the llanos in many respects, but is far colder towards the south. It supports vast herds of cattle and millions of sheep and horses. These animals constitute the chief wealth of the inhabitants of the llanos and the pampas, and determine their principal occupations and exports.

7. Climate. The greater part of South America lies within the tropics, where its broad plains have a hot and moist, and therefore sickly climate.

The great moisture is caused not only by the trade-winds and