Canada
Canada has a very long border with USA in the South and the
West
The Great Lakes are shared by both Canada and the USA
The Canadian shield dominate the country’s topography
The western part of the country is occupied by the Rockies
and other mountain ranges and by the plateau of the western cordilleras.
Mt.Logan is a high peak near the border.
Between the Rocky mountains and the shield lie the Canadian
Prairies.
The GreatSt. Lawrence river is one of the busiest
waterways.
The longest river in Canada is the Meckenizie, which drains
into the Arctic Ocean.
It is a cold country andsummers are generally short and
cool.The storms known as ‘blizzards’ are common
The pacific coastal belt has mild winters because of the
influence of the warm ‘North Pacific Drift’.
The northern Tundra region is a black ice-desert. A few
mosses and Lichens sustain the musk ox, elk and reindeer.
South of Tundra is the vast belt of Taiga. The prairies lie
south of the Taiga Belt
Spruce, fir, larch, hemlock and pine are some common trees
found in the Canadian Taiga.
Fur Animals like, the fox squirrel, bearer, ermine,
muskrat, mink etc., are found in the coniferous belt.
Montreal is the leader fur market.
The chief trees for lumber, pulp and paper industries are
spruce, Douglas fir, hemlock, cedar, pine and balsom fir.
Felling of the trees is done by ‘lumberjacks’ in autumn and
early winter
Cod is the main catch on the Grand Banks of the coast of
New found land and Salmon is important on the Pacific coast.
Wheat is the most important crop grown on the prairies and
Canada prouces spring wheat because of its short growing season.
Winnipeg is a big centre for wheat trade and wheat milling.
Nova – Scotia is well known for its apple orchards.
Canada produces 35% of the world’s Asbestos
It has the largest
aluminium smelter in the world at Arvida in Quebec
About 3/4th of the Canada’s present power needs
are met by HEP
Niagara Falls is the main source of water power in N
America
Toronto – Engineering automobiles chemicals, textiles,
pulping etc.
Main Industrial Centres:
·
Hamilton – known as ‘the Brimingham
of Canada’ makes iron and steel, cars, porcelain etc.
·
Windsor – The Detroit of Canada,
specialises in automobiles and tyre making.
·
Sarnia – Huge oil refinery
·
Malton- Aircrafts are designed and
tested
·
Kingston – Locomotive manufacturing
·
Guelph – electrical engineering
·
Montreal – Heavy industries
·
Quebec – Marinie Engineer and ship
building
·
Ottawa – Saw-milking, paper and
pulp making
·
Edmonton – power resources.
·
Vancouver – Lumbering, fish canoing
etc.
Most of the Canadian live in the cities. Population is
mainly concentrated in southern part of the country.
Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatchewan are
Prairie towns.
Ottawa is the national capital and Montreal is the biggest city.
Quebec has the most of French population. Quebec and
Ontario has more than 3/4th of the Canadian population.
The
USA
Physical Divisions
a)Western Cordilleras are made up of three almost parallel
ranges running north to south
i) The coast range
ii) The Cascade Mountains and Sierra Nevada
iii)The Rockies
b) Mt. Mackinley is the biggest peak in the USA
c) The Great Basin is an area of inland drainage.
d) The Columbia and Colorado plateaus are drained by the
snake and Colorado rivers respectively.
f) The world’s largest active volcano Mauna Loa and
Mt.Kilanea having the largest volcanic
crater are in the Hawaii islands.
g) The higher areas just east of the Rockies are known as
the Great Plains. These plains are drained
by the rivers Mississippi and its tributaries.
h) The Eastern or Appalachian Highlands in the east area
series of ridges running from south-west to north-east
Climate
a) Eastern half – humid withmore than 50 cms of rains
b) Western half – dry with less rain
c) North-west- is the driest part
d) Southern half-warm temperate zone
e) Northern half-cool temperate
Maize of Corn is the most important cereal crop-grown
mainly in the corn belt.
The corn-belt stretches from Ohio westwards across Indiana,llinois
and lower to Central Nebraska
‘Kansas’ is the ‘wheat state’ of the USA
Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina are chief
tobacco producing states.
USA leads the world in the production of Soya bean,
Tobacco, Cotton seed oil, Maize, Cheese, Poultry, Printing and Writing Paper;
Gypsum, Natural Gasolene
Great lakes specialize in Dairy Farming.
The USA ranks first in the production of Electricity from
all the three sources Viz. Thermal Hydel and Nuclear.
Most of the industries are concentrated in the Northeast, Boston, New York, Detroit,
Chicago, Philadelphia etc.,
On the pacific coast, Los Angeles is by far the most
important industrial region
Detroit is the automobile capital of the world
Pittsburgh is the iron and steel capital of the world
The town of ‘Akron’ is the world’s largest type-making
centre
Major Industrial
Regions of the USA
Southern New England
·
Boston and Beverly – Footwear
Machinery
·
Boston – Shoe making centre and
ship building
·
Spring field – electrical Machinery
·
Hartford – Aircraft and armaments
·
Bridge port – Instrument making
·
Lowell and providence woolen
textiles
The Mid Atlantic States
·
The Pittsburg – Lake Erie Region
·
Akron – synthetic rubber and tyre
making centre
·
Cleveland – wearing apparel
·
East Liverpool-Pottery
·
Buffalo-Flour milling centre
The Detroit Industrial Region
The lake Michigan Region
·
Chicago – Meat packing, grain
milling etc.
·
Gary- Iron and Steel
·
Milwaukee-Steel, engineering
textiles
·
The Southern Application Region
·
Brimingham-Steel-making.
Eastern Texas supplies about 1/3rd of US
domestic production of oil and has ¾ of
the country’s natural gas reserves
Dallas – Cotton market fashion industries
Fortworth-Cattle town, aircraft industries.
Other Industrial Cities of USA
·
St. Louis – meat packing flour
milling, footwear, agricultural machinery
·
Kansas City-same as St. Louis plus
aircraft and oil refining
·
New Orleans-Oil refining, chemicals
and cotton textiles
·
San Francisco-Oil refining, ship
building, steel making
·
California-Film making food
processing etc.
·
Seattle-lumbering fish canning,
aluminium smelting, aircraft etc.