Wealth of the Worlds Waste Places and Oceania

Wealth of the World's Waste Places and?by Jewett Castello Gilson

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Oceania, by Jewett Castello Gilson
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Title: Wealth of the World's Waste Places and Oceania
Author: Jewett Castello Gilson

Release Date: November 19, 2007 [eBook #23546]
Language: English
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Redway's Geographical Readers
WEALTH OF THE WORLD'S WASTE PLACES AND OCEANIA
by
JEWETT C. GILSON Former Superintendent of Schools, Oakland, California
Illustrated

[Illustration: From the National Geographic Magazine, copyright 1911: The great Rainbow natural bridge of southern Utah]

Charles Scribner's Sons New York 1913
Copyright, 1913, by Jewett C. Gilson

PREFACE
Although the term "Waste Places" carries an implied meaning of "worthless," yet, interpreted in the light of Nature's methods, each region described, useless as it may apparently seem, possesses a definite relation to the rest of the world, and therefore to the well-being of man. The Sahara is the track of the winds whose moisture fertilizes the flood-plains of the Nile. The Himalaya Mountains condense the rain that gives life to India. From the inhospitable polar regions come the winds and currents that temper the heat of the tropics.
Nature has secreted many of her most useful treasures in most forbidding places. The nitrates which fertilize so much of Europe are drawn from the fiercest of South American deserts, and the gold which measures American commerce is mined in the arctic wilds of Alaska or in the almost inaccessible scarps of the western highlands. The description of these regions and the portrayal of their relation to the rest of the world is the purpose of Part I of this book.
Part II of the book deals with Oceania--more especially with our island possessions in the Pacific Ocean. It presents the salient features of the ocean grand division in the light of most recent knowledge.
The author wishes to give credit to Mr. Jacques W. Redway, F.R.G.S., for suggesting the subject of Part I and for the inspiration he received from the distinguished geographer in developing the subject.
J. C. G.
Oakland, California, December 25, 1912.

CONTENTS
PART I--WEALTH OF THE WORLD'S WASTE PLACES PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER I.
THE WEALTH OF THE ARID SOUTHWEST 4 II. THE GRAND CANYON OF THE COLORADO 27 III. YELLOWSTONE PARK 35 IV. TWO PREHISTORIC CEMETERIES--GIANT REPTILES AND GIANT TREES 51 V. DEATH VALLEY 58 VI. THE MINERAL WEALTH OF THE ANDES 67 VII. THE CZAR'S GREATER DOMAIN 82 VIII. THE MYSTIC HIGHLANDS OF ASIA 97 IX. THE PRIMAL HOME OF THE SARACEN 105 X. THE SAHARA 115 XI. POLAR REGIONS--THE CONQUEST OF THE ARCTIC 128 XII. POLAR REGIONS--ANTARCTICA 147 XIII. ICELAND, THE MAID OF THE NORTH 160 XIV. GREENLAND 170 XV. WHERE THE TWO GREAT OCEANS MEET 175 XVI. RECLAIMABLE SWAMP REGIONS 183 XVII. STRANGE ROCK FORMATIONS--NATURAL BRIDGES 190 XVIII. STRANGE ROCK FORMATIONS--TABLE MOUNTAIN OF CALIFORNIA 195 XIX. STRANGE ROCK FORMATIONS--GIBRALTAR 199 XX. THE BAKU OIL FIELDS 206 XXI. THE SOUTH AFRICAN DIAMOND FIELDS 211
PART II--OCEANIA
XXII. THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC 226 XXIII. AUSTRALIA 233 XXIV. THE GREAT BARRIER REEF 244 XXV. THE GOLD FIELDS OF AUSTRALIA 250 XXVI. TASMANIA 258 XXVII. NEW ZEALAND 262 XXVIII. SAMOA AND FIJI 270 XXIX. THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 277 XXX. GUAM 285 XXXI. THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 289 XXXII. THE DUTCH EAST INDIES--JAVA 301 XXXIII. THE DUTCH EAST INDIES--SUMATRA AND CELEBES 311 XXXIV. BORNEO AND PAPUA 319

ILLUSTRATIONS
The great Rainbow natural bridge of southern Utah Frontispiece
PAGE
Map of Islands of the Pacific Facing 1
Mohave Desert, California. Buzzards' Roost 6
Gila monsters 9
A giant cactus in Arizona 12
The Roosevelt Dam, Arizona, showing south bridge and spillway 17
Shoshone Project, Wyoming 25
The Grand Canyon of the Colorado 29
Grand View Trail 33
The Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, looking down canyon from Grand Point 37
The Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Mammoth Hot Springs, Summit Pools 45
The Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Beehive Geyser 47
The Brontosaurus 53
The Allosaurus 55
Twenty-mule borax team 61
The Oroya Railroad, Peru, showing four sections of the road 73
Llamas resting 77
Silver-smelting works at Cassapalca, on the Oroya Railroad, Peru, 13,600 feet high 79
Fishing for sturgeon through the ice of the Ural River. Catching the material for caviare 83
Gathering salt at the mouth of the Ural River 87
Driving over the tundra in winter 91
Train on the steppes of Russia 95
Dunkar Spiti, Himalaya Mountains, India 99
Khaibar Pass, the gateway to India 107
On the sands of the desert 117
The yak not only serves as a beast of burden, but furnishes milk, butter, and meat