PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE UNITED STATES 113
opposite shores of a narrow ocean have created on the North
Atlantic Ocean the chief trade of the world. Having a long
frontage on the Pacific, this country readily reaches out to
Japan, China, and the newer countries and islands of that
ocean. A commercial position of this kind is held by no other
country save Canada.
84. Atlantic region. On the Atlantic border is a broken shore
line whose bays and tidal rivers once tempted the explorer and
pioneer, as they now invite the ships of commerce and form
the gateways to great cities. The shallow waters of these inlets
extend from 50 to 100 miles out from shore over the continental
shelf, and here the fisherman plies his trade, and the oyster-
man gathers his harvests from the Chesapeake to the Banks
of Newfoundland.
The Atlantic lowland from New York to Eastport, Maine, is
a worn mountain land, once lofty and rugged, now reduced and
merely hilly, bearing the farms, towns, and cities of coastal New
England. From New York to Florida the lowland is a coastal
plain cut by many tidal rivers and by deep bays such as the
Delaware and the Chesapeake, and stretching westward to the
fall line and to the cities of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washing-
ton, Raleigh, and Columbia. These cities mark the passage
from the smooth coastal plain and its sluggish rivers to the
ancient foothills of the Appalachians. The Atlantic region
shows a fiord coast. It is without the rugged heights of the
fiords of Norway or Scotland, and in the south is more like east-
ern England, with the ** drowned ” lower courses of the Thames,
the Humber, and the Tyne. Here, therefore, are safe harbors,
good sites for cities, valleys offering roadways to the interior,
and fertile fields lying close at hand. All these conditions are
helpers to commerce.
85. Appalachian highlands. Rising as a background from
these eastern lowlands are the Appalachian highlands. These
are mountain ranges and plateaus of various ages, shapes, and
heights. As a whole they stretch from northeast to southwest,
with Maine at one end and Alabama at the other. To them
