. The first [-fifth] reader of the school and family series. -taining an immense population, and doubtless destined to bethe seat of a vast empire. Who does not see, says Guyot,that here is the character of America—that here lies the fu-ture of the New World; while the countries of mountainsand plateaus seem destined to play only a secondary part ? 6. The accompanying chart of a large poition of NorthAmerica will give a very correct idea of the physical config-uration of the country, showing the comparative elevationsof its different parts above the ocean level. Yet the eleva-tions on this cha
. The first [-fifth] reader of the school and family series. -taining an immense population, and doubtless destined to bethe seat of a vast empire. Who does not see, says Guyot,that here is the character of America—that here lies the fu-ture of the New World; while the countries of mountainsand plateaus seem destined to play only a secondary part ? 6. The accompanying chart of a large poition of NorthAmerica will give a very correct idea of the physical config-uration of the country, showing the comparative elevationsof its different parts above the ocean level. Yet the eleva-tions on this chart are 120 times enlarged beyond their true 378 WILLSON S FIFTH READER. Paht VII r. relative height as compared witli the scale on which the mapitself is dra)vn, showing that the loftiest mountains are quiteinsignificant when we compare them with the size of the greatglobe itself. v. Portions of the great North American plain, in the val-leys of the Missouri and Mississippi, and also in Texas, arecalled prairies^ a word signifying meadoxos. These natural. IstDlV. OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPIIT. 379 meadow-lands, covered chiefly with grass, and presenting, inthe summer season, the grandest display of floral vegetationwhich the sun looks down upon, are grouped in three divis-ions, as bushy prairies, ^cet or swampy prairies, and rollingprairies. It is the latter, more particularly, which are de-scribed in the following lesson as the gardens of the desert—island groves hedged round with forests. LESSOX VII, THE PRAIRIES.
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