No country has been peopled by such a variety of races. New England was settled by English Puritans, and a few Scottish and Welsh ; New York, by Dutch; Pennsyl vania, by Quakers and Germans; Maryland, by English Roman Catholics; Delaware and New Jersey, by Dutch and Swedes; Virginia, by English cavaliers; the Carolinas, in part by French Huguenots; Louisiana, by French; Florida, Texas, and California, by Spanish; Utah, by Mormons, chiefly from England, Wales, and Denmark. Immi gration from Ireland, Germany, England, Scotland, France, Switzerland, Sweden, has been large and progressive. In the year ending June 30, 1875, the total number of immigrants that arrived in the United- States was 227,377. Of these there came from Great Britain and Ireland, 85,362; Germany, 47,760; China, 16,433. In 1875-76, the number of immigrants was 169,986. From 1815 to 1874, the emigration from Great Britain and Ireland to the United States was 4,905,262. The Germans and Irish, and their descendants, in the United States, probably form one-third of the entire popu lations.
Physical occupying the central portion of a continent, more than two-thirds of the frontiers of the U. S. are shores of lakes and oceans, with numerous bays and sounds, rivers and lakes. On the Atlantic coast are—Passamaquoddy bay, Penobscot bay, Casco bay, Massachusetts bay, Long Island sound, New York bay, Delaware bay, Chesapeake bay, Albemarle and Pamlico sounds, etc. ; on the gulf of Mexico—Tampa bay, Appalachee bay, Pensacola bay, Mobile bay, Atchafalaya bay, Galveston bay, Matagorda bay, Corpus Christi bay, etc.; and on the Pacific—the channel of St. Barbara, bay of Monterey, San Francisco bay, Humboldt harbor, strait of Juan de Fuca, Puget's sound, etc., and the bays and sounds of Alaska. The principal lakes, besides those divided with British America, are lake Champlain, lake Michigan, Great Salt lake, Pyramid lake, Mono lake, lake Tulare, and many beautiful clusters of smaller lakes in Maine, New York, Minnesota, etc.
The rivers of the U. S. may be classed in four divisions: 1. The Mississippi and its branches (q.v.); 2. The rivers emptying into the Atlantic or its bays and sounds—the St. Croix, Penobscot, Kennebec, Merrimac, Connecticut, Hudson, Delaware, Susque hanna, Potomac, James, Roanoke, Neuse, Cape Fear, Pedee, Santee, Savannah, Alta maha, St. Johns, etc. ; 3. Those. besides the Mississippi, emptying into the gulf of Mexico—the Chattahoochee, Alabama, Tombigbee, Pearl, Sabine, Trinity, Brazos, Col orado, Nueces, and Rio Grande; 4. Those emptying into the Pacific—the Oregon or Columbia, Sacramento, Sau Joaquin, Colorado, etc. Besides these, there are many
small rivers emptying into the great lakes, and finding their outlet through the St. Lawrence; and the rivers which empty into the salt lakes of the great interior basin of Utah.
The chief mountains of America are those which belong to the great eastern chain of the Alleghanies (see APPALACHIANS) and the Rocky mountains (q.v.).—The geology of the U. S. will be found described under the titles NORTH AMERICA (geology), APPA LACHIANS, Roc= MouiTrArss, and the several states and territories.—The soil is of every variety, from the sterile deserts of the great western plains and Utah, to the inex haustible fertility of the bottom-lands of the Mississippi valley, where heavy crops of maize have grown for fifty successive years without manuring. The St. Lawrence basin is an elevated calcareous plain, fertile and well wooded. The Atlantic slope from Maine to New Jersey, e. of the Hudson, is hilly, and best adapted for grazing; more southerly, the coast-belt is low, sandy, in places swampy, with. pine-barrens, the inland region fertile, and among the best in the country. The Mississippi valley is generally level, and prairie-land of unsurpassed fertility, with a rich mold, in places 25 ft. deep. North-west, the country rises to a high and sterile region, extending from 200 to 400 m. from the base of the Rocky mountains. The Texas slope has rich bottom-lands on the coast, a fine rolling fertile country, rising to a high plateau, dry and sterile, except in the river-bottoms. The Pacific slope is generally sterile, except the great valleys between the mountain-ranges, and bordering the rivers, which are of great fertility. Utah, with the exception of a few fertile spots, is a desolate =timbered region of salt lakes and land saturated with alkaline substances. The country e. of the Mississippi, except the prairies of Illinois and Indiana, was, at its settlement, heavily wooded, and there are still vast forests of valuable timber—beech, birch, maple, oak, pine, hemlock, spruce, walnut, hickory, ash, elm, etc.; and in the south, live oak, water oak, magnolia, pal metto, tulip-tree, cypress, cotton-wood, cane, etc. 'West of the 97th meridian stretches a vast region of almost treeless prairies; forests again occur in the Rocky mountains; and California, Oregon, and 'Washington territory have the largest timber in the world. 'El and fauna will be found under the head NORTTI AMERICA (botany, zoology), and the several states.