law, to have but one general characteristic; but these conclusions have
been found to be utterly erroneous, and now it is known to be
susceptible of division into three great and entirely distinct areas,
each being highly marked, and leaving, on these various surfaces,
peculiar evidence of their existence.

Instead of an _oceanic_ climate prevailing over the entire continent, it
is found to have but very narrow limits along the Pacific coast of the
United States, being broken entirely from the interior by the elevated
mountain ranges, conforming to them throughout their entire extent, and
having a sweep from near the thirty-sixth parallel to Sitka and the
Aleutian Islands, away to the extreme northwest.

The second division embraces the great interior basin lying between the
ranges of one hundred and twenty degrees and ninety-two degrees west
longitudes, having a general trend from the southwest, at San Diego, to
Hudson's Bay in British America, in the northeast. This vast district is
paralleled by that of the interior climate and character of the
continent of Asia in its elevation, aridity, and great extent, and may
be known as the true continental or Asiatic climate of the United
States. It is on the edge of this district, and visibly under its
influence, that the State of Minnesota, for the most part, lies. But we
pass, for the present, to the brief consideration of the third grand
division, embracing the entire country east of a line drawn from near
Central Texas to the centre of Wisconsin, including the immediate region
surrounding all the great lakes. Here we have an association of elements
constituting a highly variable climate, which prevails over all its
surface at all seasons, with remarkable uniformity. The wide range in
both vegetable and animal life over this area is one of its chief
distinguishing characteristics, partaking of the semi-tropical on the