The most striking of the inverse resemblances between America and
the Old World are found along the Atlantic border. In the north
of Europe the White Sea corresponds to Hudson Bay in America.
Farther toward the Atlantic Ocean Scandinavia with its mountains,
glaciers, and fiords is similar to Labrador, although more
favored because warmer. Next the islands of Great Britain occupy
a position similar to that of Newfoundland and Prince Edward
Island. But here again the eastern climate is much more favorable
than the western. Although practically all of Newfoundland is
south of England, the American island has only six inhabitants
per square mile, while the European country has six hundred. To
the east of the British Isles the North Sea, the Baltic, and
Lakes Ladoga and Onega correspond in striking fashion to the Gulf
of St. Lawrence, the river of the same name, and the Great Lakes
from Ontario to Superior. Next the indented shores of western
France and the peninsula of Spain resemble our own indented coast
and the peninsula of Florida. Here at last the American regions
are as favored as the European. Farther south the Mediterranean
and Black seas penetrate far into the interior just as does the
Gulf of Mexico, and each continent is nearly cut in two where the
canals of Suez and Panama respectively have been trenched.
Finally in the southern continents a long swing eastward in
America balances a similar swing westward in Africa. Thus Cape
Saint Roque and Cape Verde are separated by scarcely 16 degrees
of longitude, although the extreme points of the Gulf of Mexico
and the Black Sea are 140 degrees apart. Finally to the south of
the equator the continents swing away from one another once more,
preserving everywhere the same curious inverse relationship.

Even more striking than the inverse resemblance of the New World