From Chesapeake Bay, the largest and most prolific estuary in North America, to the seemingly endless deciduous woods of the Appalachian Mountains, lies a rich tapestry of natural habitats, unparalleled in Europe. Yet many of the colonists starved to death.

Trade rivalries eventually pushed the French south. Following the great Mississippi River, they laid claim to a land on behalf of their King - Louisiana.

The vast Spanish territory of Florida once stretched as far as the Mississippi. The wealth of this land was its wildlife, which thrived in sub - tropical swamps.

Beyond the Mississippi, the explorers found the trees giving way to immense grasslands: the rolling prairies ablaze with a mass of flowers.

The Southwest of the continent is mostly desert - harsh, hot, inhospitable landscapes where plants and animals have developed very special means of survival.

Alaska, the northernmost mainland of America was the gateway for the native peoples that, 10,000 years ago, came from Asia to the New World.

California's plant and animal communities were unrivalled elsewhere on the North American continent. But Americans soon began to realize the province's natural resources were not inexhaustible.