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Show CHAPTER XVIII CRITICAL ESSAY ON AUTHORITIES PHYSIOGRAPHY T HERE are several trustworthy works describing the general physical features of North America. J. D. Whitney, The United States ( 1889), published in part in the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannic a t is a comprehensive, authoritative account of the physical geography and material resources of that portion of the continent. N. S. Shaler, United States of America ( 2 vols., 1897), by various authors, considers the economic development of the nation in relation to the natural resources, and will be found useful. Shaler's chapter on " Physiography of North America," in Justin Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, IV. ( 1884), is also good. The chapters on " North America" and " The United States," by W. M. Davis, in Mill, International Geography ( 1900), are admirable condensed descriptions, and emphasize the relation of the physical features to the growth of population. J. B. Tyrrell's chapter on the " Dominion of Canada" in the same work is along the same lines. Most of the modern encyclopaedias also contain well-digested general accounts. On the subject of drainage, Israel Russell, Rivers of North America ( 1898), may be relied upon. The reports of the geological and other surveys of the United States government and of the several 272 |