in reality, clusters of islands; and that the western coasts of America, like those of other continents, were broken by numerous indentations and encroachments from the sea;-when, more lately, the indefatigable investigations of Vancouver and his officers ascertained that these were limited; -our former opinions were confirmed, and what we had suggested appeared more probable than ever. We shall explain ourselves. From considering the very circumstantial account of Juan de Fuca; and finding, from Mr. Meares's Narrative, that a strait, at about the same spot, which seemed to lead to an inland distance, was observable; we supposed it not unlikely that it might reach the Stony Mountains. On examining the only information which the Hudson's Bay Company chose to supply, we found in the interior continent various lakes interspersed, particularly a large one, Lake Winipic, in the line between the supposed straits and the bay of this name. Though it was impossible to suppose a direct communication by water, a highly practicable one. might be discovered with few intervening portages. This at length appears to be actually the case; and Mr. Mackenzie has penetrated from Canada to the sea on the north, and to Nootka Island on the west.

It is well known that an attempt was made by the Hudson's Bay Company to penetrate from their station to the Pacific. Mr. Ellis's narrative of the attempt was published, and has been long scarce. It is said to have failed; but such is the baneful influence of monopoly, and so many reflexions have been thrown on the conduct of some of the former directors of that incorporation, that we dare not say the attempt was prosecuted with perseverance, or that the narrative was faithfully detailed. In each respect some suspicions have appeared. We introduce the subject, however, to remark, that, from all the knowledge which we can obtain of the continent, the passage from Ches terfield's Inlet in Hudson's Bay is much shorter and more easy than from Canada. The Lake of the Hills should be the point of union from each, and the grand depot of the commerce of this continent; part of which should proceed to Upper Canada, and thence to the United States, in the route proposed by general Simcoe; and part to Europe through the bay itself. This, however, can only be effected by the abolition of the company, and by carrying on the trade in conjunction with those who have shares in the present concern, and with the Canadian settlers. The extensive and unrivaled commerce that would then take place, would be a full recompense to the company for resigning their monopoly.

These travels through a country distinguished only for variety of wretchedness, cannot, from the events attending them, be very interesting. Their importance is chiefly geogra phical; and in this view we shall trace the outline.

Mr. Mackenzie, as the title shows, departed from Montréal, coasted the northern shores of Lakes Huron and Superior, to the north-western angle of the latter, where the first portage or carrying-place occurs, formed by the range of hills to the north and west, which prevents the communication between Hudson's Bay and the Atlantic in a much lower latitude. From the Great Portage, he proceeds to Lake Winipic, which we have mentioned as in the line from the supposed Straits of Fuca to the south-western side of Hudson's Bay, and which may perhaps contend with the Lake of the Hills for the honour of becoming the central depot*. The whole will depend on what part of the Stony Mountains the passage is most easy.

Our traveler hence proceeds north-west to the Great Elk River, which falls into the Lake of the Hills rising from the Stony Mountains. This river leads him, in a northerly direction, to Fort Chipewyan on the north-eastern side of the Lake of the Hills, in little more than 110° of W. longitude, and about 58° of N. latitude. We mention the situation more particularly for reasons already assigned. It must be observed that this is not wholly untrodden ground. Fort Chipewyan has been long a commercial station; and this indeed is the meaning of the term Fort' in these regions;-and the Hudson's Bay Company had factories at Hudson-house and Manchester-house, to the south, and a very little to the east of this lake; while Macleod's Fort was far to the west, and not far distant from the high part of the rocky mountains, whence arise Columbia River and Peace River, running south-west and north-east respectively.

We may just observe, that the continent of America in every respect resembles those of the old world. The high grounds, as in Asia, Africa, and Europe, are near the western coast; and the sea has so far encroached, as to form numerous islands and sounds. Twenty-five degrees of longitude intervene between the western coast of Hudson's Bay; which may be compared to a mediterranean sea, extending far to the west of the Atlantic; while the high grounds from which Columbia and Peace Rivers arise are not three degrees from the eastern coast of Vancouver's Island.

In the first journey, Mr. Mackenzie proceeds from Fort Chipewyan, northward, through Slave River, communicating with Slave Lake on the north, and the Lake of the Hills on the south. He coasts the north-western shores of the former, till he meets with another river from the rocky mountains. These

*If it be true, as appears highly probable, that Lake Winipic communicates by the Red River with the mountains to the north and west of Lake Superior, and by various rivers with the Stony Mountains in different parts, whence some rivers of importance fall into the Pacific, this lake may in time be a depôt of importance.

1 ...

A.

united streams create another considerable river, called Mackenzie's, which falls into the hyperborean sea; and our traveler advances till he comes in sight of the sea at Whale Island, in about 69° of north latitude.

In the second journey, our author proceeds from the same spot, Fort Chipewyan, on the Lake of the Hills, marked in different maps of great respectability as Athabasca Lake; for, in reality, this is the name of one of the adjoining watery expanses. Advancing in a northerly direction, he falls in with Peace River, which we shall soon particularly describe. The course of this river he pursues in a south-west, and occasionally in a southerly, direction, till he arrives at the rocky mountains in about 120 west longitude. Peace River, like the Ganges, near its source wanders through these mountains, where it can find a practicable passage, pursuing a serpentine course, till, in longitude 12140, it takes a northern curve, bending at its head a little to the west, and turning eastward at about 122° 15" west longitude. In about 121° west longitude is the head of Peace River; and nearly at the same spot that of Columbia River, falling into the Pacific in a somewhat lower latitude. This we point out with more anxiety, as it may in future be of considerable consequence. There are undoubtedly other rivers from this source, which bend more strictly westward: but a branch of the Stony Mountains has a westerly direction, and forms some high grounds very near 521° north latitude, at no great distance from the Pacific, between Fitzhugh's Sound, and Princess of Wales's Islands. From this branch rise the little streams which at that part fall into the Pacific; and in this spot our traveler reached that famous ocean. The height of the mountains whence Peace River proceeds is here said to be 2451 feet above the level of their base ;-by other writers, to be more than a thousand feet loftier. From this minute description the importance of Mr. Mackenzie's discoveries may be appreciated. A north-western passage may thus be said to be discovered, not of a continuous sea, but of an inland navigation-interrupted indeed, and occasionally inconvenient, but assisted by water-carriage of a very considerable extent. probability of a passage of this kind, and no other, we many years since pointed out; and future trials may yet greatly im prove it. Perhaps, in every view, Lake Winipic should be the depot, but, if we cannot command the navigation of the Mississippi, all the peltry must be conveyed through Port Nelson River and Hudson's Strait, except what is destined for Canada and the United States. Thus the question is brought to a point.

The

When we consider the fur-trade in one view, it will appear trifling as affording articles required only by the infant and aged, by luxurious effeminacy or premature morbid imbecillity.

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This is, however, a partial and unjust representation. In countries where the heat sinks as much below frost as in our hottest summers it rises above that point, furs are objects of necessity; and those animals whose hairy coverings are the thickest and finest for reasons we have often had occasion to explain-afford the best defence against cold. While, therefore, all furs in the higher latitudes are valued, these last are particularly so; and the haughty Chinese, who declines European commerce, because, as he asserts, he wants nothing that Europe can bestow, bends in this respect, and will allow that the finest furs are acceptable. Pekin is only in 40° north latitude; but 25° of the inclement deserts of Siberia and Tartary on its north, and these bounded by an ocean almost constantly frozen, render it extremely cold. A Tartar dynasty has however chosen a Tartarian residence; and the sea-otter, who shuns habitations frequented by the human race, has taken refuge on the western coasts of America, and is brought thence to cherish the monarch and the nobles of China.

Mr. Mackenzie's account of the fur-trade is in many respects interesting. One singular fact in the history of human nature merits recording, viz. the ease which men bred in civilised degenerate into savage life. Religious zeal, in its principle highly commendable, but, in its hasty indiscriminate rashness, often counteracting its own benevolent designs, in these regions outran, as usual, the dictates of discretion and common sense. The mind of the stupid savage, whose most active exertions were required for his bodily support, was little adapted to receive sublime and intellectual truths. The missionaries, from want, were soon obliged to undergo the same labours; and, from less dexterity, as soon sunk in the estimation of those who know no superior talents than are exerted in the fishery and the chase. The French, before the peace of 1763, had cultivated the furtrade; but, when Canada became an English colony, the trade was deserted by the former, and, for a time, neglected by the conquerors. The Hudson's Bay Company continued unaccountably supine, and till within these few years did not reassume their activity. The adventurers from Canada have experienced a variety of fortunes; many of their losses were occasioned by their own misconduct, and they were preserved only by the misfortunes of the Indians. These are related with peculiar elegance and spirit, though the horrid scene can scarcely be a second time contemplated,

About the same time, two of the establishments on the Assiniboin river were attacked with less justice, when several white men, and a greater number of Indians, were killed. In shart, it appeared that the natives had formed a resolution to extirpate the traders ; and, without entering into any further reasonings on the subject, is

appears to be incontrovertible, that the irregularity pursued in carrying on the trade has brought it into its present forlorn situation; and nothing but the greatest calamity that could have befallen the natives saved the traders from destruction: this was the small-pox, which spread its destructive and desolating power, as the fire consumes the dry grass of the field. The fatal infection spread around with a baneful rapidity which no flight could escape, and with a fatal effect that nothing could resist. It destroyed with its pesti lential breath whole families and tribes; and the horrid scene pres sented to those who had the melancholy and afflicting opportunity, of beholding it, a combination of the dead, the dying, and such as, to avoid the horrid fate of their friends around them, prepared to disappoint the plague of its prey, by terminating their own exis

tence.

The habits and lives of these devoted people, which provided not to-day for the wants of to-morrow, must have heightened the pains of such an affliction, by leaving them not only without remedy, but even without alleviation. Nought was left them but to submit in agony and despair.

To aggravate the picture, if aggravation were possible, may be added, the putrid carcases which the wolves, with a furious voracity, dragged forth from the huts, or which were mangled within them by the dogs, whose hunger was satisfied with the disfigured remains of their masters. Nor was it uncommon, for the father of a family, whom the infection had not reached, to call them around him, to represent the cruel sufferings and horrid fate of their relations, from the influence of some evil spirit who was preparing to extirpate their race; and to incite them to baffle death, with all its horrors, by their own poniards. At the same time, if their hearts failed them in this necessary act, he was himself ready to perform the deed of mercy with his own hand, as the last act of his affection, and instantly to follow them to the common place of rest and refuge from human evil.' P. xiv.

In 1787, the two trading companies, who, after these diréful events, had been most successful, united their stocks and efforts, and the trade was conducted with more skill and less irregularity. Our author describes the outfit of the canoes, and their management, tracing their course very minutely to the west. These accounts are curious, but often dry and uninteresting. We shall prefer, as an extract, the description of Lake Superior.

Lake Superior is the largest and most magnificent body of fresh water in the world: it is clear and pellucid, of great depth, and abounding in a great variety of fish, which are the most excellent of their kind. There are trouts of three kinds, weighing from five to fifty pounds, sturgeon, pickerel, pike, red and white carp, black bass, herrings, &c. &c. and the last and best of all, the Ticamang, or white fish, which weighs from four to sixteen pounds, and is of a superior quality in these waters.

This lake may be denominated the grand reservoir of the River St. Laurence, as no considerable rivers discharge themselves into it.