NEW other section of our country. Its shores were those first visited by people from northern Europe, and, after colonization began, settlements multiplied rapidly. It was named by Captain John Smith, who came across the Atlantic with two ships in 1614 and explored the coast from the Penobscot to Cape Cod. The region is halfway between the equator and the north pole, and, though the winters are severe, the summers are warm enough for the growth of a great variety of grains, fruits, and vegetables. It is not so far north that its harbors are closed by ice in winter, develop a desirable vigor of body and mind. New England is more than four hundred miles long north and south, and often the southern lowlands are bare when the forested uplands on the Canadian border are buried deep in snow. The winter weather is very changeable. A southeast wind from the Gulf Stream is likely to bring a winter rain, but such a storm may be followed by a cold "northwester" with driving snow. Then, after the skies clear, the mercury may drop well below zero. In the summer the prevailing winds are from the southwest, and the heat is frequently intense, except along the coast, where the sea breezes moderate it. Afternoon and evening thunderstorms are a feature of the warm months. These showers, though they often interrupt farm work and do more or less damage, supply needed moisture to the crops, and replenish the streams to the great benefit of the mills that depend on water power. The climate was once much colder than it is now. In the northerly part of the continent the snow did not melt in the spring, but accumulated and formed an immense sheet of ice. The ice extended across |