Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

GeographyIf one looks at a map of North America, certain geographic featuresclearly bridge the Forty-ninth Parallel: the rain forests of the Pacific Northwest,the Rocky Mountains, the prairies, the Great Lakes. There are otheracross-the-border similarities that are more than geographic, such as theWest Coast way of life that prevails from Los Angeles to Vancouver.Yet, look again. The seaboards of the southern part of the continentare compact, allowing few incursions from the sea. There are many rivers,but these are held firmly in their courses by the surrounding land mass.There are few large lakes other than the Great Lakes, and they too are clearlycontained by land. Here the element of earth seems dominant.Moving northward, the picture changes. From the Atlantic onetravels past Newfoundland, Cape Breton, and other islands to enter Canadathrough the long waterway of the Saint Lawrence. The approach to the Pacificcoastline is even more confounded by islands, and large inlets thrust themselvesfar into the coastal mountains. The sea begets a fog that reaches rightacross British Columbia to the western flanks of the Rockies. The Canadianprairies, in turn, are covered with lakes, great and small, while the watersof the Hudson and James Bays bring Arctic waters to within a few hundredmiles of the American border. The Canadian Shield comprises some 2 millionof Canada’s 3.845 million square miles. Extending southward throughmost of Quebec, curving around James Bay and then spreading northwardto the Arctic, it is a maze of pre-Cambrian granite, muskeg, and lakes thathas profoundly affected the physical development of Canada, as well as theCanadian imagination.If the element of earth prevails in the southern part of the continent,the element of water prevails in the north. 2 To the south, the land containsthe water; northward, the land is contained by water, held together by avast network of rivers and lakes and encroaching seas. The transition fromthe one configuration to the other corresponds to the border between theUnited States and Canada.A second observation: the crossing of geographical frontiers such asthe Appalachian Mountains, the Mississippi River, or even the Rocky Mountains,which is central to the westward movement of American history, hasno counterpart in the history of Canada. The Canadian Shield was never afrontier to be crossed but rather a space to be entered, explored, and named.It was not a matter of crossing it but of learning to survive within it. Thatpicture holds true, as well, for the prairies, and even for the mountains ofBritish Columbia, where the Rockies are but the threshold to further ranges,56