bourage. 4. Lake Erie, receiving the surplus waters | larches, poplars, and pines; mosses and lichens; and of Huron by the navigable rivers St Clair and Detroit -the former, after a course of 30 miles, expanding into a shallow lake, which again contracts into the latter, also about 30 miles long. Erie is 230 miles long by 40 broad; area 10,000 square miles; its level 560 feet above the sea, and depth 120 feet. The shores of this sheet are low, with a marshy or sandy beach. 5. Ontario, receiving the surplus waters of Erie by the Niagara, which has a descent of 330 feet, 165 of which are by the celebrated Falls of that name, and 51 by the rapids beneath. This lake is 200 miles long, and 40 broad; area 7200 square miles, and mean depth 500 feet. Ontario discharges its waters by the Kataraqui, and the Lake of the Thousand Islands, which afterwards becomes the St Lawrence. The other principal lakes are-Athabasca, Winnepeg, Great Slave Lake, and Great Bear Lake in the Hudson's Bay Territory; and Nicaragua in the Central States. a scanty herbage, interspersed by a few wild flowers during summer. In the Canadas, and generally in the basin of the St Lawrence, the true forests of American pine and fir prevail, though the trees are inferior in size to those of the United States. Interspersed with these, and becoming more frequent as we proceed southward, are the white cedar, sugar-maple, basswood, hickory, several species of oak, and wild cherry. Here also flourish the Canadian lily, the ginseng, Venus's fly-trap; the cultivated grains and fruits of temperate Europe; with tobacco, hemp, and flax. In the United States-which presents three very different zones of climate-are found a greater variety of species than in almost any other region of the same dimensions. The first zone, north of lat. 44°, exhibits birch, elm, red and white pines, sugar and other maples, a variety of oaks, and the vegetation common to Canada. Between this zone and 35°, oaks, ash, hickory, plane, and red maple become more frequent, as do also fine flowering climbers and aquatics. South of this middle zone, and up to 27°, most of the foregoing are found, with deciduous cypress, Carolina poplar, magnolias, swamp - hickory, lobelias, and a greater variety of climbers and aquatics. South of 27° the vegetation merges into the tropical, or that to be described under the West Indies and South America. As already stated, all the common garden fruits of Europe are reared in the north; pomegranates, melons, figs, grapes, olives, almonds, oranges, &c. in the southern zone. Maize is grown all south of Maine; tobacco as far north as lat. 40°; cotton to 37°; the sugar-cane to 32°; rice in the Carolinas, Louisiana, and Georgia; wheat all over the Union; oats and rye principally in the north; hemp, flax, and hops chiefly in the western and middle districts. (See subsequent sections.) With respect to rivers, no country is more bounti-white cedar, sassafras, witch-hazel, cornel, yellow birch, fully supplied than North America; almost every part of its interior being accessible by their means. The Mississippi-reckoning from the source of the Missouri, its true head-has a course of 4300 miles, for 3900 of which it is navigable for boats. It has been calculated that the basin of this river has an area upwards of 1,300,000 square miles, and that the whole amount of boat navigation afforded by the river-system, of which it is the main trunk, is nearly 40,000 miles. Its principal affluents are the Roxo, Arkansas, La Platte, and Yellowstone on the west; and the Tennessee, Ohio, Wabash, and Illinois on the east. The St Lawrence, estimating its course from the head waters of the rivers flowing into Lake Superior, drains a territory of 600,000 square miles, and affords a partially interrupted boat navigation of 4000 miles. The other large rivers are the Mackenzie, flowing into the Arctic Ocean, navigable during the short polar summer, as proved by Dease and Simpson; the Columbia or Oregon, a rapid and obstructed stream; the Bravo or Del Norte, the watering river of Texas; and the Colorado in California. These, as well as many others of the minor rivers, exhibit in their course some of the magnificent and picturesque waterfalls, of which Niagara (165 feet) and Montmorency in Canada (250 feet), the Katerskill (175), Tauqkanic (160), and Great Falls (150) in the United States, may be taken as examples. CLIMATE-BOTANY-ZOOLOGY. Of climate, although there must necessarily be a great variety in such a vast extent of continent stretching from the limits of perpetual verdure to those of perpetual ice-yet it does not agree in particulars from what might be anticipated from an acquaintance with the climatology of different places in the eastern hemisphere. It is usually stated that the temperature in any latitude in America is, upon an average, 10 degrees less than in the same parallel of the old world. The latitudes which are temperate in Europe, for example, are extremely cold in America; and at the same time no part ever suffers under that intense heat which scorches up the torrid zone of Africa and Asia. The coldness of North America is partly attributable to the extent of land uninterrupted by seas, partly to the amount of surface under the frigid zone, and partly to the general elevation of the country. Cold currents of air are constantly passing from the north over the interior, while cold currents of water are as regularly passing from the Arctic Ocean southwards along its shores. The western coast is considerably warmer, however, than the east; and altogether, it is supposed that it will be impossible to carry the arts of civilised life beyond the 60th parallel, on which may be said to be situated the capitals of Norway, Sweden, and Russia in Europe. With this general outline we must here close, referring for particulars to the respective countries hereafter described. The Fauna of North America is in many respects peculiar, and has, besides, no analogy to several of the forms common in the old world. Of mammalia, we may mention the tailed monkeys of Mexico; the puma, lynx, glutton, wolf, American fox; polar, black, and grisly bears, badger, otter, racoon, opossum, beaver, skunk, ermine; prairie dog; bison, wapeti, prong-horned antelope, moose, red, Virginian, and other deer. Among birds- the white-headed and other eagles, various vultures, wild turkey, Canada goose, passenger-pigeon, bell-bird, mocking-bird, humming-birds, &c. Of reptiles-the alligator, tortoise, rattlesnake, black-snake, siren, &c. Of fish, &c. a vast and useful variety-as cod, sprat, mackerel, salmon; crab; oyster, and other shell-fish. Of useful insects, the continent possesses the bee and cochineal insect, and is infested with the mosquito. All the domestic animals of Europe have been introduced with success. POPULATION-COUNTRIES. The people who inhabited the continent at the time of its discovery in 1492, belonged exclusively to the American variety of our species, but subdivisible into numerous families and tribes, differing not so much in physical aspect as in manners and customs. Without descending to minutiæ, the aborigines might be classed into the Toltecans, or Aztecks, a civilised race who inhabited Mexico, and had made considerable progress in the domestic arts; the Indian tribes, who led a savage life, obtaining their subsistence chiefly by hunting and fishing; and the Esquimaux, who peopled, as they do now, the shores of the northern seas. Soon after the discovery, several European settlements were formed at various points along the eastern shores of the continent, from the Isthmus of Panama to the Gulf of St Lawrence, and these settlements have been gradually extending, either by purchase from the natives or by conquest, till now the whole of the country may be said to be under European supremacy, before which the Red Man is gradually but surely passing away. The SpaThe vegetation of the northern regions greatly re- niards colonised Mexico; the French settlements exsembles that of Lapland in Europe-dwarf willows, | tended along the St Lawrence and Mississippi; and the English chiefly along the eastern shores; where also | nexed to Nova Scotia, but since 1768 has formed a settled Scotch, Dutch, Germans, and Irish. Out of all separate colony; 6. Newfoundland, noted for its prothese have been formed the now dominant Anglo-Ame- ductive cod-fisheries, discovered by the English in rican family, which holds subordinate the few remain- 1497, but not successfully established as a colony till ing Indian tribes, the vast population of African ne- 1623; and, 7. To these may be added the settlement groes imported as slaves, and the half-breeds resulting of Belize on the Bay of Honduras, transferred from from intermixture with the white and coloured races. Spain to England by treaty in 1670-valuable for its Politically, the original settlements have undergone mahogany and logwood. Of these territories and colomany mutations: most of them have declared them-nies, as more especially interesting to British readers, selves independent, and adopted republican govern- we may offer a few details:ments; some have changed masters; and only a few remain in unaltered connection with the mother country. The following table exhibits the existing political divisions of the continent : This territory comprehends the north-western corner of the continent, together with the adjacent islands, forming in all an area about 500,000 square miles. It is in the immediate possession of the Russian-American Company, whose chief object is the collection of peltry for the Chinese market; but their dominion over such a vast and inhospitable region is merely nominal. The natives who live along the coasts, and barter furs and skins with the Company's agents, acknowledge in some degree the sovereignty of the empire; but those of the interior are utterly ignorant of, and uncontrolled by, any idea of extraneous authority. They are comparatively few in number, are thoroughly savage, and subsist wholly by fishing and hunting. As a race, they are rather under the middle size, are of a dark-brown complexion, and seem, especially towards the coast and on the islands, to be intermediate between the Mongolians and true Americans of the interior. The white population form a mere handful of agents and their servants-inhabiting the forts or settlements, which are few and widely separated. The chief of these is New Archangel-the capital of the country-containing a mixed population of 1000. It is situated on the west coast of Sitka Island, and contains the boards and warehouses of the Company. As a region, Russian America is sterile, dreary, and unimprovable; even the trade which it at one time possessed is rapidly on the decline, in consequence of the unsparing massacre of the animals-sea-otters, seals, sea-lions, foxes, wolverines, &c.—which yielded the furs and peltry. BRITISH AMERICA. New Britain, or, as it is commonly termed, the Hudson's Bay Territory, comprehends the whole lands in North America granted by the British government to the Hudson's Bay Company. The boundaries of these lands were never very satisfactorily defined. Originally limited to the districts drained by the rivers falling into Hudson's Bay, they have, since the union of the Hudson's Bay and North-West Companies in 1821, been regarded as comprehending the whole of British America, with the exception of the settled provinces or crown colonies. The territory, as might be expected from its vast extent, presents considerable variety in physical character, though on the whole cold, dreary, and uninviting. In the north, vegetation is scanty and stunted; as we travel southwards, the pine forests begin to appear, till in the southern regions on both sides they become dense, with open spaces of lake, morass, and prairie ground. With the exception of Red River district, near Lake Winnepeg, which was sold by the Company to Lord Selkirk, and is assuming the form of a European settlement, the whole territory may be regarded as a vast hunting-ground, occupied by buffaloes, muskoxen, deer, bears, wolves, foxes, beavers, lemmings, ermines, and other fur-bearing animals-the skins of which constitute the principal value of the territory. No doubt copper, iron, lead, plumbago, coal, and salt have been discovered in several places; but these, without the facility of being mined and transported, remain unemployed and worthless. The population, amounting to about 140,000, consists chiefly of various Indian tribes, who roam over the interior; of Esquimaux, inhabiting the northern and eastern coasts; and of the officers and servants of the Company (with a sprinkling of half-castes), who inhabit the forts or factories. With respect to the Hudson's Bay Company, which was chartered in 1670, and possesses the monopoly of the fur trade in these regions, the supreme direction (we quote Waterston's 'Cyclopædia of Commerce') is vested in a board consisting of a governor, deputygovernor, and seven directors, who hold their sittings in London. A resident governor appointed by them has the superintendence of all the settlements, and is assisted by local councils, composed of the principal officers in each district, who meet him at central points during his annual tours of inspection. The acting officers consist of chief factors, each of whom has charge of several posts, of principal and secondary traders, and of clerks. The higher offices are filled up, according to merit, from the inferior ones; so that it is perfectly open for a clerk to rise to the rank of chief British America embraces a territory nearly as large factor. The Company have at present in their employ as Europe, and comprises 1. The bleak region of about 1000 Europeans, and their descendants by InNew Britain, inhabited by the Esquimaux and other dian wives. They have four or five principal stations: savages, and by the forts or fur depôts of the Hud- York Fort, the most important, commands all the vast son's Bay Company; 2. Upper and Lower Canada, region extending west and north of Hudson's Bay; united into one colonial province in 1841-the former Moose Fort, at the south extremity of Hudson's Bay, settled chiefly by emigrants from Britain and the presides over all the country between that gulf and the United States, and the latter originally settled by the Canadian lakes; Ungava Bay, at the exterior entrance French, but conquered in 1759; 3. New Brunswick, of Hudson's Bay, contains a small station for collecting noted for its timber and fisheries, ceded by the French the produce of the adjacent coasts of Salvador, conat the peace of 1763; 4. Nova Scotia, first settled by sisting chiefly of oil from the seal and porpoise; Monthe French, and along with New Brunswick called treal is the centre of the transactions carried on in the Acadia, but subsequently fell under the English, and Canadas.' The Company has also several stations west after several times changing masters, was finally ac- of the Rocky Mountains, the chief of which was Fort quired by Britain in 1763-possesses coal, gypsum, Vancouver, on the Columbia River; but since the adwood, and abundant fisheries; 5. Prince Edward's justment of the Oregon boundaries with the United Island, also taken from the French in 1758, and an- [ States, the chief factory has been removed to Vancouver Island, which, during the present year (1849), has been | feature of the country is its water-courses. By looking given by the crown to the Company as a field for colonisation. Possessing wood, coal, iron, and, it is said, other metals; having a favourable climate; and affording facilities for shipping, Vancouver Island is likely to assume considerable importance; and this all the more rapidly from its being the nearest British territory to the now El Dorado of California. The annual value of the imports from Britain to the Hudson's Bay Territory is estimated at £55,000; while that of the peltry and other articles exported varies, according to circumstances, from £40,000 to £70,000. Canada. at the map, it will be perceived that there is a series Canada is bounded on the east by the Gulf of St Lawrence, on the north and west by the territories of the Hudson's Bay Company, and on the south by the United States and the British province of New Brunswick. Until a recent period, Canada was divided into two provinces, the Upper and Lower, each of which had its own local government; but by an act of the imperial parliament in 1841, the two provinces are united under one general Legislative Council and House of Assembly, two bodies respectively resembling the Houses of Peers and Commons in the mother country, and whose measures require the consent of the gover-tario, and affords a passage for vessels of large size. nor, as the acts of the home parliament require that of the sovereign. The affairs of this, as of all other colonies, are subject to an ultimate control, vested immediately in a colonial minister, but finally in the British legislature. In Lower or Eastern Canada, the greater part of the population is of French descent (this having originally been a French colony): the laws resemble those of France, and the French language is generally spoken. Upper or Western Canada lies to the west and south-west of the lower province. Its inhabitants are of British descent, and a very large proportion of The climate of Canada presents very opposite exthem are from Scotland, both Lowlands and Highlands. tremes of heat and cold, and the transition from the The English law and church are here established; but one to the other is much more sudden than in Great there is the most perfect liberty of conscience, and as Britain. Notwithstanding this, however, it is healthy; great a security of life and property as in Britain. The all accounts which we have seen, both those of travelaggregate area of the province has been estimated at lers and the letters of private individuals, agreeing in 355,000 square miles, and the population at 1,225,000. this respect. The spring in Canada generally commences Western Canada, which is the finer and more eligible about the end of April, and the fields are well covered section, is divided into districts, counties, ridings, town- with vegetation by the beginning of May. The therships, special tracts, and allotments, together with mometer ranges during summer from about 80° to 84°; blocks of land reserved for the clergy and the crown, in some instances it has reached 102°; but such exand lands appropriated to the Indians. A district treme heat is very rarely felt. Spring, summer, and contains one, two, or three counties, and each county autumn extend from the end of April to October. contains from four to thirty townships. The line of Winter commences in November, when thick fogs and division betwixt Western and Eastern Canada is in snow-storms are frequent. By the middle of December one part the Ottawa or Grand River. Nearly all the the ground is generally covered with snow, and the other lines of division in the provinces are straight, frost, especially in Lower Canada, becomes sometimes without regard to physical distinction, such as hills very intense. The depth of the snow in Upper Canada and rivers; and this peculiarity is common over the varies according to seasons, from a few inches to several whole of North America. The entire area of Upper feet; the average depth, taking one season with another, Canada has been estimated at 64,000,000 acres. Of has been estimated to be between eighteen inches and this extent of territory, the portion laid out in town- two feet. The winter in the Upper or western part of ships, and open for settlement, amounts to nearly the province is much milder than in the Lower or 17,000,000 acres, the size of each township averaging eastern part, and new settlers generally are pleasantly 61,600 acres. Deducting the quantities granted to disappointed in not experiencing the rigours which, different classes of settlers, and otherwise disposed of from exaggerated rumours at home, they had expected by the crown, there yet remains within the townships, to find. January has generally a week or more of open, at the disposal of government, about 3,000,000 acres. and sometimes mild weather; and it not unfrequently This tract of country, chiefly bordering the north shore happens that it is only in February that the weather of the river St Lawrence, and of the lakes Ontario, may be said to be very severe and the frost intense. Erie, and St Clair, and of the rivers or straits communicating between these lakes up to Lake Huron, a distance in all little short of 700 miles, and stretching northward from the water to a depth varying from 50 to 80 miles, is composed of a soil which, for productive richness, variety, and applicability to the highest purposes of agriculture, may challenge competition with the choicest tracts of land in the new world. Western Canada is chiefly a flat country, and is for the greater part covered with timber, but possesses a number of chains or ridges of high lands, running in different directions, and separating the sources and channels of innumerable rivers and brooks. The grand In Lower Canada, where winter is most severe, the thermometer ranges from 25° above to 25° below zero. The sky of a Canadian winter is generally almost cloudless, the air bracing, and, from the absence of wind, in spite of the low temperature, the cold is not felt to be disagreeable. From Quebec to Montreal and upwards, the St Lawrence and other rivers, and also the lakes, cease to be navigable; but the firm icy surface serves as a road for the sleighs and carrioles; and although the entire face of nature is now changed the varied and pleasing tints of autumn in the forest, and the busy and enlivening signs of commerce upon the lakes and rivers, having given place to one dead and drear-like scene, seemingly destitute of variety-yet the snows and frosts of Canada are hailed as ushering in a season which brings with it no small amount of social enjoyment. Winter in Canada is indeed the season of joy and pleasure: all classes and ranks indulge in a general carnival, as some amends for the more enervating toil undergone during the summer months. The double-seated sleigh, with its mettle pair of horses, or single-horse cutter of the Upper Canadian, or the carriole of the humble habitan, or proud seigneur of Lower Canada, is got ready all over the country. Riding abroad on business or pleasure commences; visiting is in active play between friends, and relatives; regular city and town balls, and irregular pic-nic country parties, are quite the rage. between Toronto and Trafalgar. Although less popu. lous than the tract of country composing the first part of the division which we have adopted, this portion of the province does not yield to it in fertility, and is equally well watered by numerous lakes, broad and beautiful rivers, and innumerable streams and brooks. The rivers in general abound with excellent fish, and especially salmon, great quantities of which are annually speared in the river Credit, for the supply of the western country. In front of Newcastle district, on the borders of Lake Ontario, the soil consists of a rich black earth; but in the district of Home, the shores of the lake are of an inferior quality. The lands upon Yonge Street [roads are frequently called streets in Canada], which connects Toronto with Lake Simcoe, are exceedingly fertile, but so destitute of stones (for building and other purposes) as to create some incon While the external weather is guarded against by warm clothing when out of doors, the habitations of the Canadians are kept comfortably warm, the apart-venience to the settlers. A sandy plain, of some extent, ments being heated with stoves, which keep the temperature at a higher and more uniform rate than can be effected by English fireplaces. The various writers on Canada each recommend particular districts for the settlement of the emigrant; but it is hardly to be expected that persons in this country can make a perfectly judicious choice, a personal inspection of the lands, or at least information near the spot, being in almost every case requisite. The most elaborate details are given by Bouchette, in his large work on British America, regarding the different parts of the province; and as what he mentions may be of use in furnishing emigrants with an idea of the nature of the lands, we take the liberty of transcribing a few of his observations: 'The Eastern Section includes Ottawa, Johnstoun, Midland, and Bathurst districts. Situated between two broad and navigable rivers, the Ottawa and the St Lawrence, and centrally traversed in a diagonal course by an extensive and splendid sloop canal, connecting the navigation with the waters of Ontario, this section of country evidently enjoys important geographical and local advantages. Its surface presents, almost unexceptionably, a table-level of moderate elevation, with a very gentle and scarcely perceptible depression, as it approaches the margin of the magnificent streams by which it is bounded to the northward and south-east. The soil, though sometimes too moist and marshy, is extremely rich and fertile, and chiefly consists of a brown clay and yellow loam. This section is intersected by numerous rivers, remarkable for the multitude of their branches and minor ramifications. There are also a number of good public roads, both along the St Lawrence and Ottawa, and into the interior. Great industry and attention to improvement are displayed upon most of the lands throughout this tract. The town of Kingston, the largest and most populous of the upper province, is very advantageously seated on the north side of the St Lawrence, or rather at the eastern extremity of Lake Ontario. The thriving village of Perth is situated in the township of Drummond, on a branch of the Rideau, and occupies a central position between the Grand River and the St Lawrence, communicating by tolerably good roads with Kingston to the south and Bytown to the northward, at the opposite extremities of the Rideau Canal. The first establishment, fostered by government, was made in 1815, by British emigrants, chiefly from Scotland, many of whom are now at the head of excellent farms, possess comfortable habitations, and reap the fruits of their perseverance and industry. Ascending along the shores of Lake Chaudiere, the objects of note first presenting themselves are the rising colonies in front of the townships of March and Tarbolton; they are chiefly composed of families possessed in general of adequate means to avail themselves of the advantages that are incident to a newly-opened country. The Central Section of the province embraces the districts of Home and Newcastle, which occupy a grant of about 120 miles upon Lake Ontario, extending from the head of the Bay of Quinté westward to the line exists some distance north of Ontario, towards Rice Lake; but saving this, and probably one or two more comparatively insignificant exceptions, the soil of this tract of country is extremely fertile, well adapted for agriculture, and yields luxuriant crops of wheat, rye, maize or Indian corn, peas, barley, oats, buckwheat, &c. The fronts of all the townships from Kingston to Toronto are, with few exceptions, well settled; roads lead through them, from which, in many places, others branch off to the interior. At intervals, rather distant indeed from each other, there are a few small villages. On the lands that are occupied, great progress has been made in agriculture: the houses, generally speaking, are strong and well-built: and the inhabitants appear to be possessed of all the necessaries, as well as most of the comforts, that a life of industry usually bestows.' In this division is the town of Toronto, which occupies a good situation on a fine bay of Lake Ontario; population in 1840, 12,000. The Western Section comprises Gore, Niagara, London, and Western Districts. The surface is uniformly level, or but slightly undulating, if we except a very few solitary eminences, and those parts of the districts of Gore and Niagara traversed by the ridge of elevated land. The variety of soils, and the diversity of their combinations, observable in these four districts, are by no means so great as might be expected in so extended a region. The whole tract is alluvial in its formation, and chiefly consists of a stratum of black, and sometimes yellow loam, above which is deposited, when in a state of nature, a rich and deep vegetable mould, the substratum beneath the bed of loam being generally a tenacious gray or blue clay, which in some parts appears at the surface, and, intermixed with sand, constitutes the super-soil. There are numerous and extensive quarries of limestone to be found in these districts, that supply the farmers with excellent materials for building. Freestone is also found, but in small quantities, and generally along the shores of the lakes. The Thames River, in this section, rises far in the interior; and after pursuing a serpentine course of about 150 miles, in a direction nearly south-west, discharges itself into Lake St Clair. The chief towns in Canada are Quebec, Montreal, Three Rivers, Prescot, Kingston, and Toronto, formerly called York. The city of Quebec is the capital of Lower Canada, and stands on the extremity of a precipitous cape, on the north bank of the St Lawrence, opposite the island of Orleans. Population in 1840 about 26,000. The appearance of the town, on coming into view, is particularly striking. The city is divided into an upper and lower town; the former being of ancient date, and adopted as the seat of commerce, and the latter being the residence of the higher and more affluent classes. There are a number of fine public edifices; among the rest, the Castle of St Louis, a prominent object on the summit of the rock; the Roman Catholic and Protestant Cathedrals, the barracks, hospitals, the Quebec Bank, and a handsome monument to Wolfe and Montcalm. The institutions are in many instances of French character, and the language of the inhabitants is French and English. | height, is diked, and the waters of the sea excluded. As a port, Quebec has great capabilities-the basin being sufficient to contain 100 sail of the line. The amount of shipping annually entered is little short of 400,000 tons. Montreal is a city of an entirely different appearance. It is agreeably situated on a beautiful island of the same name in the St Lawrence, which measures 32 miles long by 104 broad, and lies at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the St Lawrence. The island of Montreal is nearly level, and is scarcely excelled in fertility. The city stands on the south side of the island, and is reckoned the first in the province, in respect of situation, local advantages, and mildness of climate. The houses are well built, and the streets commodious. There are also some handsome public buildings. The literary and scholastic institutions in Montreal are numerous, and are of great benefit to the province. There are no wharfs, and the ships and steamboats sail close to the bank of the river, where there is water for vessels of 600 tons. The annual tonnage entered at the port is about 24,000; the population of the city in 1840 was 35,000. Nothing can exceed its fertility. In many places, particularly about Windsor and Truro, it yields three tons of hay per acre, and has continued to do so without manure for fifty years past. There is a difference in its quality. Where the water which overflows it is not much enriched by a long course through the country, it is thin, and of an inferior quality. The quantity of land enclosed in this manner is very great. At the head of the Bay of Fundy, there are 70,000 acres in one connected body. There is one marsh in Cumberland containing nearly as much land as Romney Marsh in Kent, and of a quality vastly superior. This land is found in great quantities in Cumberland, Macan, Napan, Londonderry, Truro, Onslow, Shubenacadie, Noel, Kennetcook, Newport, Windsor, Falmouth, Horton, Cornwallis, Granville, Annapolis, &c. The next best quality of land is called by a term peculiar to America, intervale, an alluvial soil made by the overflowing of large fresh-water brooks and rivers in the spring and autumn. The quantity of intervale is incalculable. It is to be met with in every part of the province, and is frequently found covered with a long natural grass, several feet in length, and is sometimes called wild meadow.' The quality varies according to the size of the brook or river by which it is made, but in general it is very fertile and rich. The upland varies so much in character that it is difficult to give a general description of it. The principal branches of industry in Canada are— agriculture, the main product of which is wheat, amounting to upwards of 11,000,000 bushels per annum; the felling and export of timber, yielding about £705,000 yearly; the preparation of pot and pearl ashes, in clearing the land of timber, there being about 36,000 barrels annually exported; and the subordinate branches of fisheries, oil, and fur trade. There are The mineral products of this part of America are some small manufactories of different articles at Mon- valuable; but none is so much worthy of consideration treal and Quebec; flannel, coarse cloth, and linen are as coal, which is worked at Pictou, at Sidney in Cape now made to some extent in various districts; iron- Breton, and also in Cumberland county; and there can founding is conducted on a considerable scale in Three be no doubt that the possession of this mineral will Rivers, Quebec, and Montreal; and soap, candles, and constitute one of the chief advantages of these provinces the like, in several of the larger towns. The chief over every other. In 1847, about 120,000 tons were articles of export are timber, ashes, wheat, and other shipped from Pictou alone. Limestone, freestone, and raw produce; the imports are coal, metals, cordage, slate abound, of the best qualities, and there is plenty East India produce, and various kinds of British manu- of fine clay for bricks. Iron ore has also been disfactures from Europe; sugar, molasses, rum, and hard-covered in several places; gypsum occurs in enormous woods from the West Indies; and beef, pork, biscuit, rice, and tobacco from the United States. The total value of the imports average about £2,000,000, and and that of the exports £1,080,000. Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia is a peninsula connected with the mainland by a narrow isthmus. It measures about 300 miles in length, but is of unequal breadth; altogether, it contains 15,617 square miles, or nearly 10,000,000 acres, with a population of about 156,000. There are numerous lakes, but the greater number occur near the southern and south-western coasts, covering about one-tenth of the entire superficies. There is no part of the land thirty miles distant from navigable water, and in all parts there are fine streams and rivers. The southern margin of Nova Scotia is broken and rugged, with very prominent features, deep inlets, and craggy islands. The features of the northern coast are soft, and free from rocks. It is bounded on the north by part of the Gulf of St Lawrence, which separates it from Prince Edward's Island; on the north-east by the Gut of Canso, which separates it from the island of Cape Breton; on the west by the Bay of Fundy, which separates it from New Brunswick; and on the south and south-east by the Atlantic Ocean. beds, and forms a valuable article of export to the United States; and Nova Scotia blue grits,' or grindstones, are celebrated all over America. The climate of Nova Scotia, like that of the adjoining districts, is salubrious and pleasant, but is in a peculiar degree exposed to the extreme of summer heat and winter cold. The ground is generally covered with snow from the 25th of December till the 5th of March, in which respect it nearly resembles Upper Canada; and during this period the farmers draw upon sledges their wood and poles from the forest, and carry their produce to market. It is difficult to say when spring commences, as it is rather late and irregular in its approaches. When vegetation does begin, it is very rapid, and two or three days make a perceptible change in the amount of the foliage. The summer may be said to be short and powerful, and during the time it lasts it exerts a much greater influence on vegetation than is observable in Britain. During this period, the inhabitants go very lightly dressed. Altogether, the climate of Nova Scotia is as good as that of Scotland, if not superior; nor are there any of those local or epidemical disorders with which other countries are frequently afflicted. Although the winters are intensely cold, they are not so disagreeable as the raw changeable winters of this country, nor nearly so fatal to human life. Besides, if the settlers work during three-quarters of a year, they have ample provision for the remaining quarter, and are enabled to look forward to winter as their season of holiday enjoyment and relaxation. The soil of a country of such extent and such varied features as Nova Scotia must necessarily be various. If an imaginary line be drawn, dividing the province in the exact centre, from east to west, the north-western half will be found to contain by far the greatest portion Few parts of the world are so well watered as Nova of good land. On the side towards the Bay of Fundy, Scotia. The rivers, brooks, springs, and streams of the soil is very rich, and free from stones, and contains different kinds, are very numerous. Some of the lakes many thousand acres of diked marsh land. This is are extremely beautiful, containing in general one or alluvial land, and is made by the deposit of the tides more small islands, which are covered with a luxuriant -a sediment composed of the finer particles of soil, growth of wood, and vary in every imaginable shape. brought away by the rivers and torrents in their course The land in the neighbourhood of them is often unduto the Bay of Fundy, of putrescent matter, salt, &c. lated in the most romantic manner. These lakes will This land, called marsh, after it has attained a suitable | in time be of great service to the province; in several |