THE IMMENSITY OF THE UNITED STATES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1844, 24 January 1889, Page 4

THE IMMENSITY OF THE UNITED STATES.

Exaggeration aside (writes Harold Brydges in Uncle Sam at Home) the American continent is not only a marvel of immensity, but of wealth and beauty. None but habitual travellers and those who have lived long in America can form any conception of its size, and the majority of Americans are ignorant of its vast mineral treasures and its magnificent scenery. The single State of Texas is as large as England, France, and Germany combined. Into California, England and three other European kingdoms could be placed side by side and not overlap. Colorado, which in England is hardly known, except in connection with the Colorado beetle,has nevertheless an area of 104,000 miles —nearly twice the area of Turkey, which has cost Europe so many millions of treasure, and hundreds of thousands of men slain. New Mexico, Dakota, Arizona, and Montana are almost terra incognita in Europe—and yet they have a total area of 531,000 square miles, which gives an average larger than Austria, and a total equal to Great Britain and Ireland, France, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Denmark, Belgium, and Holland. The distance between cities on this vast continent seems incredible when placed in juxtaposition with European distances. The journey from New "York to San Francisco, for example, is three times as long as that from London to Gibraltar—is, indeed, 500 miles greater than that from England to Quebec, Rome is as near to London as Chicago is to Boston, Madeira is 170 miles nearer to Portsmouth than New Orleans is to New York, while Jerusalem is nearer to Kensington Gardens than Salt Lake City is to Boston Common, BudaPesth, Warsaw, Stockholm are not quite as far from the British Metropolis as Wilwaukee is from Albany; and Madrid is 150 miles nearer. The Londoner is separated from St. Petersburg by a less distance than is the Philadelphian from Kansas City; and he might go to Cairo, and thence by Tunis and Algiers to Morocco, without traversing a distance as great as that from the Hudson to Sacramento. General Sherman recently stated that the northern line of defences during the Civil War extended 5000 miles. This would make a line as great as one one drawn from London across the Channel to Paris and Yienna, through Constantinople, Asia Minor, Persia to Afghanistan, on through the Punjaub, and away down Central India nearly to Madras. Look up your geography, friend! You will hardly understand such a statement without a map.