IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 Hl^ 1^ 1.1 l.-^KS 1^ IIIJ4 U4 d^ ^%. / / ^^>-' '^x* ■^ >* ttiotographic Sciences Corporation 33 WIST MAIN STRICT WIUTH.N.Y. USM (716) 173-4903 '^ .or CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHIVI/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical l\Aicroreproductions / Institut Canadian da microraproductions historiquas Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notas techniques et bibliographiques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Featurev( meaning "CON- TINUED"), or tha symbol y (meaning "END"), whichever applies. L'exemplaira film6 fut reproduit grAce A la ginArositA de: La bibliothique des Archives publi(«'jes du Canada Lea imagaa suivantes ont 6t6 raproduites avac la plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition at da la nattatA de Texemplaira f ilm6, et en conformity avac las conditions du contrat de filmage. 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The following diagrams illustrate the method: Lea cartes, planches, tableaux, etc.. peuvent Atre filmte A des taux de ridubdon diff6rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atra reproduit en un seul clichA, il est film* A partir da Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche k droite. et de haut an bas, en prenant la nombra d'imegas nAcesssire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. >y errata ed to mt \x\% pelure, apon A 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 / TUK INLAW D SEAS OF NORTH AMERICA; / AND THK NATURAL AND INDUSTRIAL PRODIICTIGM OF MM, WITH THE ni:AL foundations for FTS future PROSfP.RITV- BY THE REV. JAAIES WILLIAMSON, A. M., rROFElBOR OF MATllKMATiCS AND NATURAL FIIILOSOPHY, UNlVERblTIT or queen's college. KINGSTON: J O H IV 1) U F F. MONTREAI. : HEW RAMSAY j TORONTO : A. II. ARMOl K ANO Cn. JSf)!. \ ^ 'I'lu- lii>l of thcrjo Lectiii-es, wliicli were ilt'livcred lor tiu- benrfii nf ill*: Commercial Reading Room, though written after conisidera- tion and eiiquir)', was not intended for the press. Rut the Conimitte*-, '.Mid others, having expressed a desire for the publication of both, Uic i\ril.or has much pleasure in complying witii their wishi.'s. kiNToN. May, 18J)J. THE INLAND SEAS OF NORTH AMERICA. The size, and multitude, of its lakes are the peculiar features of North America. Other continents have higher mountains, and even rivers discharging a much greater volume of water ; but North America is emphatically the region of lakes. They are most frequent in the north of the continent, in the northern part of the United States, in Canada, and in the Hudson's Bay Territory, where they are almost literally innumerable, and in some measure supply the want of a great northern sea, and temper the climate to a very considerable extent, in the same latitudes, in which, in Siberia, which !J comparatively destitute of lakes, the cold is far more intense, than in North America. But, among these lakes, there are five, distinguished at onc3 by their great size, their mutual connection, and vicinity to one another, and their more important position. Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario, which claim our special notice ; and are, at the sarre time, most interesting to us, forming as they do the greater part of the boundary of Canada West, and the means of its communication with the ocean through the St. Lawrence, of which they may be viewed as the expansions. These lakes, traversed as they are by large vessels, and with iheir rolling waves, and dis- tant horizon, may well be termed " inland seas," have aii area of nearly 100,000 square miles, and contain upwards of 11,000 cubic miles of water, or much more than half the fresh water in all the lakes of the world. Lake Superior, alone is by far the largest fresh water lake on our globe, and, * *> although singly surpassed in magnitude by the Caspian, the waters of which are salt, the Caspian has no outlet, while Lake Superior, with undiminished volume, discharges its surplus waters by a mighty river. Up to 1678 only the Indian canoe had skimmed the surface of the great Lakes,and their names therefore are all of Indian origin except the name of Lake Superior, which it received from the French. Although the river St. Lawrence had been entered and explored, as far as the Cedar Rapids, by Jacques Cartier so early as in the years 1534, 1535, and 1541, and finally by Champlain, by whom the first perma nent settlement in Canada was formed at Quebec in 1608, the first record of the shores of any of the lakes having been trodden by the foot of Europeans is the account of Cham- plain's visit to Lake Huron from Montreal by the route of the Ottawa, in 16 1 5. Little however was known about them ibr years afterwards, during which the infant colony of New France was scarcely more than slniggling for existence. At length the adventurous white m^n ascended the St. Lawrence, passed its foaming rapids, ind penetrated through the trackless forests to Lakes Ontario and Erie. In 1654 the Jesuit father Le Moine made the first settlement in the vicinity of Lake Ontario, which was then called by the French " the Lake of the Iroquois," by founding a mission house at Onondago, near the present town of Syracuse, on the sodlh side of the lake, and, in 1667, Father Perrot pene- trated to Lake Superior. In 1671 Sieur Soissons met the assembled deputies of the Indian tribes at the Sault St Mary. In 1673, Fort Frontenao was erected on the site of the present T6te du Font Barracks at Kingston, and about the same time trading posts were established at Detroit, Mackinaw and Niagara In 1678, a vessel of 16 tons was I launched on Lake Ontario by La Salle, and in 1G79 another of 60 tons was launched on Lake Erie, under the superin- tendence of the same enterprising Frenchman, the first pre- cursors of those fleets by which their waves are now plough- ed in every direction. The Lakes, from this period began to be somewhat better known, but it appears, from the statements of Charlevoix, that things continued nearly in this position in 1720 and 1721, the French being hardly able to main- tain their posts at these scattered points against the hostile tribes of Indians, that there was little or no cultivation in their neighbourhood, and that, above Montreal, theie was nothing that could be called a colony, and, even down to 1783, when the settlement of the U. E. Loyalists took place, there was scarcely any settlement on the north side of the lakes, with the exception of a few French on the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers, and the Indians. The acquaintance with the great lakes on the south, and then British side of the shore, was still more recent. The first trading post of the British was at Oswego, and was not established until 1722. In 1791, on the north- ern sides of the lakes, there were only 3000, or 4000 inhabitants of European descent, and the country on their shores was al»^ost an unbroken solitude. The mail from Quebec reached the few settlers at the upper end of Lake Ontario only once in six months On the southern shore the inhabitants were scarcely more numerous, and the scene was essentialiv the same. Such was the state of things in ihe^country around the lakes sixty years ago. But while the general features of nature which the lakes pre^'ent, remain almost the same, as they have been for ages, they have changed, even within the brief space of half a century, in eveiyihing else, — their banks stufjded with rising cities and towns, each with an ever increasing population of thousands of busy inhabitants, and their surface traversed in every direction by steamers of the largest size, furnished with almost every thing that com- merce and elegance seem to require, and by the stately ship, laden with the burden of a commerce which grows with a rapidity unexampled in the history of the world. A change so great, and astonishing, in so short an interval, may well awaken our interest, but tl)e very briefness of the period during which it has taken placr. renders the attempt at an accurate description of the lakes, and the consideration in a satisfactory manner of the subjects connected with them, or which they suggest, the more difficult. It is well known, that, in the various geographical notices of the lake region, some of them published but a few years ago, we often meet with statements which are glaringly incorrect ; and it is only lately, that even the heights of the several lakes above the level of the sea, and above each other, have been determined with much exactness, that either the annual temperatures, or the different magnetic means and variations, and other meteorological characteristics of any points on their shores, or the geological structure of the surrounding country, have been ascertained with any degree of precision; and no work on the lakes has yet appeared, presenting in one view even those authentic results which have already been obtained, to lessen the labour of research. On many points, also, such as the changes in the level of the lakes, their depth, the zoology of their waters and of the adjoining land, the botany of their different regions, and the statistics of their commerce, although much has been done to supply such deficiencies by various Provincial Reports, and especially by the Stale Reports of the opposite Republic, our information is far from complete. The field, indeed, is so extensive, and the variety of particulars to be ascertained is so great, and requiring such combined and sustained investigation in different localities, and in the different departments of enquiry, that it cannot be expected that it should be otherwise. With these remarks, we shall now endeavour to give as complete, a sketch of our sub- ject up to the present time as the present state of our information, and the limits of a single lecture, will permit. North America may be divided into seven great basins, with reference to the direction of its rivers, — the Atlantic basin, betwe«.n the Alleghanies and that ocean, the Pacific between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, the Arctic within the Rocky Mountains on the west and the heights of land which separate it from the head waters of the St. Law- rence, and of those river v 'lich flow into Hudson's Bay, the basin of Hudson's B !ie basin of the St. Lawrence, the basin of the Mississippi, md the basin of Mexico, and Central America, between the prolongation of the Rocky Mountains in those countries, and the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. The five great lakes, which we are now to consider, are situated within the basin of the St. Lawrence, and seem as it were the continuation of a long line of lakes, many others of which are also of great magnitude, extending in a direction from north-west to south-east, from not far from the mouth of the Mackenzie River to the Atlantic Ocean. The valley, or basin, of the St. Lawrence is divided into two parts by the rocky ridge which crosses it through the groupe of the Thousand Islands, and, in the upper portion, lie the five inland seas. This upper part, or sub-basin, is marked out by boundaries which, though presenting no very striking feature, are yet sufficiently well defined. On the north, it is enclosed by the mountains from which flow the streams fall- ing into Lakes Superior and Huron. Thence, on the N. E., it is bounded by the high lands separating it from the coun- try unwatered by the Ottawa, and extending from Lake Nipissing to the townships of Tudor and Grimsthorpe, and round by Hinchinbrook to the summit level of the Rideau Canal. To the east, its limits are the Thousand Islands, the high grounds in which are the sources of the Black River and its tributaries, and of the Oneida ; and to the south, the heights from .which descend the Seneca and Genesee Rivers, in the State of New York, (one half of the waters of which State flow into Lake Ontario alone ;) and farther westward, the ridge separating the streams falling into the other lakes from the Alleghany and Ohio, the Illinois, the Wisconsin, and other tributaries of the Mississippi. Within the area thus bounded what are termed the "Great Lakes" are contained. Including the lakes, its extent is about 300,000 square miles, that of the great lakes themselves being not much less than 100,000, a surface larger than the whole of Great Britain. These inland seas are not like the most of other great lakes. There are no mountain ranges, of any considerable altitude, at any part of the circumference of their basin, ex- cept on the north, and part of the south shore of Lake Superior, and the La Cloche Mountains, on the north of Lake Huron, none of which, however, rise to any great elevation. Indeed so low, in some places, and so small, is the breadth of the ridge wh:"h separates the Lakes from the head waters of the streams which flow from Rainy Lake, or the Lake of the Woods, through Lake Winnipeg, and other large lakes into the Arctic Ocean, that in some geo- graphical works, the source of the St. Lawrence has been traced through the Sackatchawan to the Rocky Mountains, thus making it the longest river in the world. This, indeed, is not the case, as there is a dividing ridge on the west of Lake Superior, betw^ecn the waters which flow eastward, through the lakes, into the Atlantic, and those which flow towards the Northern Sea, though the distance between their sources is a comparatively short and easy one. But it is true, that various important tributaries of the Mississippi rise very near to the lakes, and in time of flood actually communicate with them. A branch of the Alleghany, one of the streams which by their junction form the Ohio, rises only a few miles from the edge of Lake Erie. The Kanka- kee, which with the Des Plainea forms the Illinois, rises in Indiana within two miles from the River St. Joseph, which falls into Lake Michigan, and in the wet season boats pass from the one to the other. The Des Plaines River again runs for some distance nearly parallel to the shore of Lake Michigan, not more than ten miles from the lake, and, in similar seasons, is connected with it, through the Chicago River, and loaded boats pass and re-pass from the one to the other. The general aspect, therefore, of the area within which the lakes are comprised is that of a great central plain, with successive terraces, or plateaux. The bounding ridges are of small elevation, and the whole fall of the water of the lakes, in their course of 1300 miles, from the head of Lake Superior to the foot of Lake Ontario, is only 370 feet, or a little more than three inches in a mile. The land area, be- tween these bounding ridges, and the lakes themselves is comparatively narrow and hence no large rivers flow into B I i> I-. ii ;l 10 them, although their tributary streams are very numerous. The extreme point of the great Lakes situated within this area on the east is 76° 10' W. Long, on the east of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Black River, in Jefferson county, Kew York, and on the west, in 92'' 20' W. Long, at Fond du lac, at the west end of Lake Superior, the distance be- tween these two points, or the transveise axis of the lakes, being a little more than 16 degrees, or about 800 English miles, in a straight line. The extreme point on the South is in 41'^ 20', N. Lat., on Lake Erie, a little to the East of Sandusky city, and, on the north in 49° N, Lat., on tho north of Lake Superior, at the mouth of the Neepigong River, the distance between the extreme north, and south points being thus, 7° 40', or about 530 English miles. The shores of the lakes themselves are bounded on the N., by Canada West, except a small portion of the North West extremity of Lake Superior, which is bordered on by Wisconsin, and, on the south by the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wis- consin, seven of the principal States, and containing nearly one half of the whole population of the union. The boun- dary between the British dominions, and the United States, runs through the middle of the Lakes throughout their whole course, extending frotu the middle of the South Channel of the St. Lawrence at Cape Vincent, north of the Galops Is- lands, through Lake Ontario up the Niagara River pass ing to the west of Grand Island, thence through Lake Erie between Pelee and Cunningham Islands up the Detroi, river and St. Clair lake and river, through Lake Huron, between Cockburn, and Drummond Islands, south of St. Joseph, between Neebish and Sugar Islands, and up the St. Mary through Lake Superior, passing by the north of Isle Royale to Pigeon Bay. Hi I u Before proceeding to consider briefly each of the lakes in succession, we may advert in general, to their relative position and mensions, and the course of iheir waters in their progress to the sea. Lake Superior, at a height of 599^ feet above the sea, 420 miles long, 160 miles broad, and 1200 feet deep, dischar- ges its waters by ?he River St. Mary, 39 miles long, into Lake Huron, which lies 21.41 feet below. Lake Huron, ai a height of 578 feet above the sea, 250 miles long, 220 miles broad, and 900 feet deep, and Lake Michigan with the same height, and about the same depth of water, 310 miles long and 90 broad, overflows by the river, and lake St. Clair, and the Detroit river, in all about 80 miles long, with a fall of 13 feet into Lake Erie. This latter lake again, at an eleva- tion above the sea of 565 feet, 260 miles long, 65 miles broad, and 270 feet at its greatest depth, but, on an average, con- siderably less than 100 feet deep, discharges its surplus wa- ters by the Niagara river into Lake Ontario 334 feet below, 51 feet of this descent being in the rapids immediately above the Falls, 164 feet at the Falls themselves, and the rest chiefly in the rapids between the Falls and Queenston. Lake On- tario, the lowest of the Lakes, is 231 feet above tide water at Three Rivers, and is 200 miles long, 60 broad, and 600 feet deep. Thus basin succeeds basin, like the locks of a great Canal. Of these lakes, Lake Superior has by far the largest area, being very nearly equal in superficial extent to La'ies Huron, and Micliigan logeliier, and Lake Ontario has the least, having a surface only one-fifth of that of Lake Superior, and being somewhat less in area than Lake Erie, although not much less, if any, in the circuit of its shores. Lake Superior is about 1750 miles in circuit, with an area of 40,000 square miles. The borders of this lake are 1£ generally bold, and rocky, especially on the north shore, where a range of low mountains rises from 600 to 1300 feet in height. The most remarkable elevations on the coast are the precipice of basalt of the Thunder mountain in Thunder Bay, on the north shore, immediately overhanging the lake, 1200 feet high, and the pictured rocks, as they are termed, on the south side of the lake towards its eastern ex- tremity. The pictured rocks form a perpendicular face of crag, 300 feet high, and about 12 miles long, broken into the most fantastic forn^.s, and worn out into caverns, resounding with the deafening roar of the waves which beat into them during the stormy weather which not unfrequently prevails in the lake. At one point of this great escarpement there isr a fall of water, called the Cascade de Portaille, 70 feet high, which is precipitated so far into the lake, that a boat can pass between it, and the shore ; and, at another, four pillars of rock support a natural entablature of stone covered with soil, and crowned with pine and spruce trees, fifty feet in height. To this singular object has been given the name of the Doric Arch. The shores of Lake Superior, except in the scanty clearings of Michigan and Wisconsin on the south, and of the Hudson's Bay and Mining Companies on the north, are almost every where covered with the primeval forest. There is comparatively little arable land, particu- larly on the north, but a good deal of fertile soil, which yields abundance of hardy grainj and vegetables, is to be found, especially in the valleys of the rivers. About 220 rivers flows into the lake, some of them nearly 200 miles in length, but none of them are of any great size. The islands of Lake Superior are chiefly on the northern coast, the largest of ihem being Isle Royale, 45 miles long, belong- ing to the United States, and St. Ignace to the British govern^ IS tnent. The main body of the lake even in that cold climate, where the thermometer falls in winter to 30^ below zero, is never frozen, the ice covering only the shores, and bays. The water however is generally very cold, even in summer, so that it is oftpn as low as 38*^ in July, while it is 80"^ a little distance inland. The fogs on the coasts in summer are fre- quent, the warm air off the land having its vapour condensed by the cold of 1 he lake. The liver St. Mary i? the only outlet of Lake Superior into Lake Huron. Fifteen miles from Gros Cap, the entrance of Lake Superior, the navigation of the river is interrupted by a rapid three fourths of a mile long, with a fall of 18| feet» which renders neces^^a^y a portage of about a mile, on the one side, to the American village of Sault Sic, Marie, and the Military post of Fort Brady, and, on the other, to a station of the Hudson's Bay Company, and an Indian village. This portage will, on the Americanside, be very soon super- seded by a canal on a large scale. The fall from the foot of the St. Mary rapids to Lake Huron, 24 miles farther down is 2.91 of a foot. The scenery below the Sault on the north side of the river St. Mary, although the river itself has no magnificent fall like the Niagara,is much grander, and more picturesque, than in any of the other rivers which connect the great lakes with each other. Having descended the St. Mary by a channel which is easily navigable for large vessels, except for about a miln and a half, in Great Lake George, where it is from 150 lo 600 feet broad, and has from 10 to G feet of water, accor- ding to the height of the water in the lake, and therefore re- quires careful pilotage, we reach Lake Huron. This lake is very irregular in form, and is divided into two parts by the chain of the Manitoulin Islands, which slrelching from ' i il f4 i I ; J;! m opposite Cabot's Head, extend in a line nearly parallel to the north shore. The area of the south portion of the lake is about 14,000 square miles ; that to the north is divided into two parts, known by the names of the Georgian Bay, and the North Channel, the former with an area oi 6000, and the latter with a surface of 1700, thus making the area of the whole about 21,700 square miles. Saginaw Bay in Michi- gan, a branch of the lake, is about 60 miles long, and 32 miles broad. The shores, on the south, and other sides of the lake are generally low, and the water is comparatively shallow. But on the north, the shores, although not so bold as those of Lake Superior, are more elevated than on the south, rising into heights of from 400 to 700 feet, with deep water, and many good harbours. The land on the borders of Lake Huron^ is generally fertile, except on the north, where it is often rocky, but even there much of it is capable of being profitably cultivated. The rivers which flow into it, besides the St. Mary, are exceedingly numerous, although none of them are very large, or of any great length of course. The Islands of Lake Huron are chiefly on the north shore, and are almost countless in number, many thou- sands of them studding the shores of the Georgian Bay. But by far the largest, and most important are the Manitou- lins, an Indian name, denoting the abode of the Great Spirit, which properly comprize only the (Jreat Manitoulin, Cock- burn, Drummond, and Fitz William, or Horse Shoe Island, but may be taken generally as including the Island of St. Joseph, and La Cloche, and other smaller islands in the same natural groupe. The Great Manitoulin, which is 80 miles long with an average breadth of 20 miles, and a land area of 1600 square miles, is the mo.n beautif^^l, and fertile island of Canada, and of the Lakes. Along with 15 Cockburn and Horse-Shoe Islands, it forms an Indian reserve, and contains none but Indian settlements. All of these islands, as well as the adjacent coast, on the south of the Georgian Bay have an abrupt escarpment on the north east, and a gentle slope to the south west. Lake Michigan, the third great lake, is connected with Lake Huron, of which it is in reality only a part, by the straits of Mackinaw about four miles broad at their narrowest part, and so called from the island of Michillimackinac, or Mackinaw, important both from its natural position, and from its historical associations, which is situated near the en- trance from Lake Huron into the Straits. Lake Michigan has a circuit of about a 1000 miles, and an area of nearly 17,000 square miles, exclusive of the branch of the lake call- ed Green Bay 100 miles in length, and at an average 20 in breadth, and with an area of about 2000 miles, thus making the whole area of Lake Michigan about 19,000 square miles. The area of Lakes Huron, and Michigan, taken together is very nearly the same as that of Lake Superior. The waters of Lake Huron, and Michigan, issue by the River St. Clair, 24 miles, Lake St. Clair 30 miles, and the Detroit River about 28 miles long, through a level, and rich country abounding in magnificent timber of the most valu- able kinds. The Rivers St. Clair, and Detroit are easily navigable by large vessels, but the navigation of the Lake St. Clair is much impeded by flats. Lake Erie, the fourth of the great lakes, is about 700 miles in circuit, with an area of about 11,000 square miles. Its shores are generally low, and shallow, like the lake itself. It has, therefore, few good harbours, and is often covered with floating ice until near the beginning of May. Its com- mercial position, however, is a favourable one, F^ituated as it n 1$ is in one of the most fertile regions of North Amerfca, at the centre of the lake communication, and not far from the navigable tributaries of the Delaware, and the Mississippi. Notwithstanding, therefore, its disadvantages in other res- pects, compared wilh Lake Ontario, the increase in its com- merce, and shipping, has hitherto been much more lapid, and decided, although the greatly augmented facilities of communication between Lake Ontario and the sea board, on ihe one hand, and with the Upper lakes, on the other, has already begun to turn, and will probably ere long turn, the scale in favor of Lake Ontario. Lake Ontario, the last of the great lakes, is connected with Lake Erie by the Niagara river, 33| miles long, forming in its course the falls of Niaganr. Although its area, about 7000 square miles, is less thsti that of Lake Erie, the circuit of its shores, and bays, which are more varied, and irregular in their ontline, particularly the Bay of Quinie, the scenery of which is among the finest in North America, is much greater, in proportion to its size, than that of the latter lake. And it has the advantage of greater depth of water, and better harbors, of which that of King- ston, on the Canadian side, and Sacketts Harbour, on the other, are the best. Lake Ontario, besides the waters of the upper lakes which it receives by the Niagara, is also fed by a number of smaller, yet somewhat considerable, streams, the principal of which are the Napanee, the Salmon, the Trent, Humber, and Credit on the north, and the Genesee, Oswego, and Black rivers on the south. The St. Lawrence, formerly called in this part of its stream the River Iroquois, or the Cataraqui, forms, about 700 miles from the gulf, by its north and south channels, on either side of Wolfe Island, the sole outlet to the waters of lii. n the lakes. The whole length of the lakes following the windings of the water course is about 1270 miles, thus mak- ing the length of the St. Lawrence, from the source of the St. Louis River, which is nearly 200 miles from the western extremity of Lake Superior, to the entrance to the gulf, about 2170 miles. No river on the globe has such exten- slves lakes forming a part of its course, and feeding the commerce on its banks, and its water area is by far larger than that of any other river in the world. With regard to the maximum height of the Lakes, it still requires to be more fully ascertained. The height given by the United States surveyors as that of Lake Huron above the level of the sea, or 578 feet, is 17 feet less than that for- merly given on maps of the regions of the lakes, but it has been confirmed by more recent surveys on the British side. In notices of Lakes Superior, and Huron, their heights are usually stated as 625, and 595 feet respectively, which aie not merely erroneous in themselves, but assign 9 feet greater fall between Lakes Superior, and Huron, and 17 feet greater fall between Lakes Huron, and Erie than is really the case. Th3 Canadian and United States' estimates of the heights of Lakes Erie and Ontario above the sea are the same, except that in the case of Lake Erie, the one makes the height a foot greater than the other. The level of the lakes has not undergone any great change for a very long period. We do, it is true, find terraces, in some places, on the shores of Lake Superior, rising like steps to the distance of two, or three miles back from the lake to the height of three, or four hundred feet, and which appear to have been former lake beaches from the apparently lacus- trine nature of the stratified deposits, and the freshwater bivalve shells, which have been found in them. It is very c II r 18 probable, therefore, that the water of the lake stood sccess- ively at these diflerent heights. Some have also supposed, that the vidge gravel, and sand, which are found near the shores of the Lakes, aiid which form terraces at various ele- vations, along especially their south shores, 30, 90, 120 140 feet above the water, are former sea beaches, but these seem rather to be the effect of a submarine curreiit, for otherv^ ise, if old beaches, they would be horizontal, and parallel to the surface of the lakes, instead of constantly varyinj( in al- titude, as they do, along the same ridge. Whatever change, however, has taken place, in ages long gone by, of the level of the lakes, their present level is, in a remarkable degree, periodically permanent. This is peculiarly the case with Lake Superior, where large pine trees, at least a andred years old, are seen only three, or four, feet above the surface of the water, shewing, that the level of th^Jt lake has. not materially varied for a century past, and, although recent observations have led some to think that Lake Huron, as well as Lake Nipissing which discharges its waters into it, has fallen below its ancient level about fom- feet, we have no evidence to lead us to infer, that thj waters of Lakes Erie, and Ontario have subsided, even by this comparatively small amount. The reasons of this are sufficiently obvious. The great lakes are not lakes formed in the valleys of moun- tain ranges, into which rapid rivers flow, and which, at one time, are swollen much above their usual height, and, at another, are as much depressed below it ; but they are fed by innumerable rivers, flowing through a com- paratively level country, with too little descent rapidly to carry off their waters, and the rain, and snow, by which their streams are maintained. Any rise, also, which may have laken place in autuinn is prevented from increasing by ihe land around all the lakes being icebound for a consider- able time during the winter, so that the supply throughout the year is thus rendered more equable, and they are kept always very nearly at the same height. None of them moreover has any very rapid current at its extremity to deepen its outlet. This beirg the case, and the discharge of water thus remaining the same, and the mean annual temperature, and consequent amount of evaporation from their surfaces, as well as the average quantity of rain, and snow, remaining nearly unaltered, we have no grounds for supposing, that the levels of these lakes should be perma- nently affected to any great extent. A priorij this is to be looked for least of all in the case of Lake Superior, where the waters are of great depth, and which is not liable to have its bed raised lo any extent by the deposits carried down by the rivers, flowing for the most part over stony beds ; while its exit, at some distance above the Sault Ste. Marie, is gentle, and over a channel of the hardest rock, and the discharge therefore will be nearly uniform,while the annual average of temperature, rain, and evaporation must be considered to remain nearly the same in amount* And we have seen that this is in complete accordance with the fact. There are some differences in the circumstances of Lakes Michigan, and Huron, Erie, and Ontario, such as the less resisting nature of the rock at the outlet of Lake Huron, anvl the greater amount of moisture carried off by evapora- tion, as the surrounding country becomes more widely cleared, and exposed to the sun. These circumstances lead us to the conclusion that, on the whole, there will be a fall, with quicker rises, and falls from time to time, but we have no reason to think, that they will, in any considerable X ? so degree, modify the general result of a periodical perrna" nency of the level. At the same time, all t" ' ' cs are subject to certain periodical rises and falls, according to the season of the year, and the nature of the seasons, according to their greater drought or wetness, for a longer, or shorter succes- sion of years. Thus in 1845, from 1st June to December 31st, Lake Ontario fell two feet three inches. From Febru- ary to June, 1846, it rose fifteen inches, and tlien fell until November in the same year, when it was two feet lower than in June, 1845, or about the same height as in November, 1845. And, during the past year, (1852,) the level of the same lake was greatest in January, more than two feet lesar in July, and only one foot less on the 31st December. The other lakes vary in their level in the same manner. In 1846, Lake Superior, and all the upper lakes were consid- erably below their former water marks. In 1838, Lake Erie was higher than it had been since the beginning of the cen- tury, but lower as we have some reason to think than it was in 1790. From 1838 it began to fall, and has since again risen. The rise of Lake Michigan between 1819 and 1838 was no less than 5^ feet. The effect of these alternate rises and faM3 of the waters is often very sensibly felt in the stopping of mills, the flooding and interruption of roads, and' the production of shoals of greater or less depth on the shores of the lakes. If we enquire how^ these continually recurring variations are to be accounted for, it is evident, that unusually rainy and snowy seasons, or differences in the amount of evaporation in colder or hotter summers, must be accompanied by a corresponding amount of extraordin- ary change of level. But, in general, owing to the moisture of the ground, and the snow, which supply them, being, m tl a great measure, locked up by the frost in winter, and the flow from the lakes through their connecting channels, and the St. Lawrence continuing uninterrupted, the waters arc at their lowest early in the spring. They then rise, until the distant ice of the countries bordering on Lakes Superior and Huron has been thawed, and, in its now liquid state, has passed down to the other lakes, and contributed gradu- ally to fill up the lakes of this great natural canal to their maximum height. Thereafter the drought and frost again begin to cut ofl'the supply, and the level sinks until the fol- lowing spring. We may remark, that the lakes are subject to sudden changes of level, although of a very temporary nature, pro* duced by strong winds blowing for a gi'eater or less length of time in one direction. This is particularly the case with Lake Superior. The waters of that lake are always very much colder in summer than the adjacent land, over which the air is highly rarefied by the heat of the ground below. In this season, therefore, the lake is exposed to violent gusts, and storms, caused by the disturbance of the fluid equili- brium, and the waters are often, for the time, raised upwards of a foot, on the leeward shore. For this reason, also, the bars at the moutlis of the rivers which flow into Lake Superior, and which are formed at the point where the force of the descending water and that of the waves impelled by the wind mutually neutralize each other, and allow the sedimentary materials to be deposited, are of greater extent than on the other lakes, and form obstructions to their navigation except by small vessels. The same appearances are observable in the lower lakes, though to a less extent. In 1845, an ebb and flow of the waters of Ontario took place, to the amount of two feet, caused by the passage of I a a tornado, accompanied by waterspouts, and hail, over the lake. No tide has been observed in these inland seas, for being so small, all their particles are attracted at the same time with nearly equal force, but it is possible that in Lake Superior at least, a tide may yet be traced, to some slight, yet appreciable extent. The length and breadth of the lakes may be regarded as invariable, but the height, as we have seen, is to a certain degree variable. The depth will of course be also liable to a corresponding variation, so that harbours which, when, the waters of the lakes are at a high level, are accessible to large vessels, will be unapproachable by them when the water is four or five feet lower. Their beds are also being gradually made shallower by the wearing away of the banks, and the deposit of alluvial matter, although the waters may stand at the same .' ^ight, being spread over a larger area, in conse- quence of the encroachments which they make on the land- Thus, since 1796, Lake Erie has encroached on the coast at Cleveland 265 feet, and the Canadian shore from Detroit River to Long Point is losing even faster than that on the opposite side, and, in other places, particularly at the foot, and in the course of the connecting rivers, large sedimentary deposits are being made. The lakes must, therefore, be becoming shallower, for there is no strong current through them to deepen and clear oat the channel. The amount, how- ever, of this decrease of depth, for a long series of years, will be exceedingly small. In connection with the depth of the lakes, it is remarkable, thai they are all, with the exception of Lake Erie, much below the level of the sea. They have, in consequence, been spoken of, in books of some aulhority, as likely to have a subterranean communication with the ocean. But little would be known by us of the lakes as 23 thoy really are, if wc should indulge in such gratuitous and absurd hypotheses. If (here were a subterranean communi- cation with the sea, it is evident, one would suppose, that the lakes would then sink to its level, and become small sheets of water at the bottom of deep valleys, and Lake Erie would be converted into dry land, just as by a communica- tion being open (for such a communication has also been supposed to exist) between the Sea and the Caspian, and the Dead Sea, a reverse action would cause them to over- flow, and flood the surrounding land. The amount of water issuing from the upper lakes may be judged of from a computation which has been made at the outlet of Lake Erie, where the channel in one place is only 1700 feet wide, and 42 feet deep, and the water runs at the rate of six miles an hour. The quantity thus discharged is about 20 millions of cubic feet, or upwards of 600,000 tons per minute, which, passing, about 20 miles below, over the rapids and falls of Niagara, furnish an immense water power, already begun to be taken advantage of, and likely to be so more and more every year. Supposing this estimate of the quantity of the water to be correct, and, as it appears to have been made with some care, it is probably not far from the truth, we may consider what the effect would be upon the waters of the lakes above, if this discharge were continued for a year without its place being supplied by any rivers flowing into them. Their level would sink about four feet. To this fall must be added the loss by evapora- tion during the same period at a mean annual temperature for the whole surface of 44° F. The further depression of level thus produced we may estimate, from the quantity evaporated per hour at that temperature, at two and a half feet, which, added to the former quantity of four feet, makes i" 114 the whole fall of the waters, on the supposition of the losses thus occasioned not being filled up, six and half feet. These, however, are repaired by the quantity of rain and snow which they receive on their surface, together with that which falls on the area of the lake basin, and is not absorbed, or evaporated, but feeds their tributary streams. The average annual quantity of rain and snow, in inches of water, may be taken as 36 inches. This falling over the lakes themselves would raise them three feet four inches, and the like annual amount being deposited on the remain- ing 200,000 miles and upwards of the area of their basin, and being supposed to IjQ wholly conveyed to them by the rivers which flow into them would raise them about seven feet higher, making in all ten feet. But there is reason to think, that at least one-half of the rain and snow which fall ont his latter area is again carried off by evaporation before it reaches the lakes, and, therefore, the quantity of the rise in the lakes produced by the deposit of moisture from the atmosphere will be lcss,to the extent of about three and a half feet than it would otherwise have been, although we have not yet sufficient data to speak with much precision on the point. The whole rise, therefore, will, on this supposition, be six and half feet, and thus balance the loss by the dis- charge of water, and the evaporation from the surface of the lakes. The water of the great lakes, and of the St. Lawrence from the Thousand Islands to its junction with the Ottawa, is remarkable for its clearness, and its purity. In Lakes Superior and Huron, in particular, any white object sunk beneath the surface can be seen at the depth of many fathoms. This is no doubt owing to there being few, or no large rivers flowing into them through deep alluvial soil, which, in the m n\ tb times of flood, they would carry down into the receptacle below. Their principal tributaries flow over rocky beds, ■and deposit a great portion of the debris which they roll along in successive small lakes, before it can reach the mouths of the rivers, and affect the transparency of the in- land sea into which they flow. The same thing lakes place ca a larger scale in the great lakes themselves, each of which, by allowing the sediment from the lake above, and the connecting river link, to be deposited at its upper extremity, acts as an immense filter to the waters which flow into it. And, in consequence of this, the St. Law- rence down to Lake St. Louis, and generally, throughout its whole course to the sea, is the most transparent large river in the world. The waters of the lakes arc exceedingly plea- sant to the taste, and, from the continual influx of fresh water, they are also very soft and pure. There is hardly a trace of sulphates, and altogether but a small portion of solid matter, in the waters of Lake Ontario, chiefly chloride of calcium And we have reason to think, that the nature of the water will be found to be in a great measure the same both in the lakes above, and in the St. Lawrence, down to Lake St. Louis. The difference between the mean annual temperatures of the extreme points north, and south, of the shores of the lakes is very considerable. But as the climates of both extremi- ties are only varieties of wliat may be termed a climate, of extremes, the summer heal at both points is quite sufficient for the production of the necessaries of life. In the coldest month of the year, the isothermal of 6 F. passes on the northernmost point of Lake Superior, while in tbe hottest month the same point is reached by the isothermal of 63**. The mean temperature of the southern limit of the lake area i s I ;■! 26 during the coldest month is 25° F., and that of the hottest 72.5. The mean annual temperature of Toronto and Kingston, which is very nearly the same, or about 44° F., or nearly the same as the degrees of latitude of these places, is also about the mean annual temperature of the whole area, of the genial and almost tropical climate of Ohio taken together with the cold of Lake Superior, and the climate of the intermediate regions. It appears proba'tle from the meteorological observations which have been already made, (as indeed naturally might be expected to be the case), as the country becomes more widely cleared and settled, that the annual temperatures have somewhat in- creased, and that, at ihe same time, the distribution of heat has become more equable, the summers being less hot, and the cold of the winter less intense. Upon the whole, how- ever, the mean annual temperatures are less than those of 10° higher latitude in Great Britain, and the western part of the Continent of Europe. The cause of this lower annual temper ature it is not difficult to account for. Itis caused not by a greater heat in the latter during the summer, for it is considerably less, but by the greater cold of the North American winters. In North America large tracts of land extend much nearer to the pole than on the north of tne western portion of Europe, and the lowness of the ridge between Hudson s Bay and the lake coasts, permits the cold of the north easily to reach the latter. Hence too our nortii-west winds have the greatest effect in lowering the thermometer, and the most westerly Districts of Canada West are more liable to frosts late in the spring and early in the fall, than those nearer Lake Ontario. The presence of the lakes, however, on the other hand, has a very powerful influence in rendering the climate more tern- 27 perate. In general, il is to be observed, that the difference between the temperature of the night, and that of the day, on land is found to be about thirty times greater than the difference of the temperatures of these periods over water, and hence the tempering effect of their vicinity may be easily conceived to be very considerable. Towards the approach of winter, moreover, the temperature of the surface of the water in the lakes is much higher than the average temperature of the surface of the land, and heat continues to be given forth, during the whole winter, from by far the largest part of the surface of the lakes which is always un- frozen. And, where they are frozen in the neighbourhood of the land, the whole body of the water from top to bot- tom must have been first cooled down to 40° F., and then the temperature of the surface lowered to 32°. It thereafter begins to freeze, and in so doing gives out the latent, or ab- sorbed heat, as it is termed, of the liquid state, the amount of which is so great, that, for each pound of water thus converted into ice, as much heat is given out as would raise another pound of water at 32° to the temperature of 172°. And hence the dense, curling mists seen over the shores of the lakes, when the ice is " taking," as it is called, which are caused by the colder air of the surround- ing atmosphere condensing the moisture of the warmer air the surface of the lake. Thus the lakes moderate the immediately over climate in winter, and maintain a certain uniformity of temperature, which, although com- paratively low, is more favorable to animal and vegetable life. In spring, again, the effect is reversed, and the heat is tempered by the ice, when thawing, absorbing a large por- tion of the caloric of the atmosphere, and by the lower temperature generally of the waters of the lakes, compared with that of the adjoining land. 28 The tendency of the lakes to temper the climate on thei/ shores, which we should thus infer to be considerable, is quite in accordance with the fact. Differences in latitude of places ought, cceteris paribus^ to be expected to be marked by corresponding differences of annual temperature. But the neighbourhood of these lakes is found to have a much greater influence than differences of latitude, or dif- ferences of elevation. For, in consequence of the vicinity of these inland seas, the isothermal lines between the ex- tremities of their basin, in winter, rise in a very marked manner towards the north, and, in the summer, descend again towards the south. For the same reason, the climate of the south shore of Lake Erie at Cleveland, in Ohio, is much more temperate than at Cincinnati, Marietta, and other places in that State, three or four degrees further south, the greatest cold being from 5 to 10 degrees less at Cleveland. The peach crop, therefore, and many tender, and early flowering fruits, and shrubs, often succeed at the latter, while, in the former, they are injured, or destroyed by frosts in the spring. The amount of the fall of moisture from the atmosphere in the form of rain, and snow,* on the lake shores, unlil more extended observations at different points be made on this subject, may be taken, as on an average 36 inches, the most part of which falls in the middle of summer, and in the autumn. The quantity of rain which falls annually is doubtless increased by the evaporation from the surface of the waters, and tends, with the greater amount of vapour suspended in the air, to prevent the evils, in the summer, of excessive ('rought. t • Sis inches of newly fallen miow'are very nearly equal to one of water. ii 29 The prevailing winds are from the north east, ond south v/est. They are more sudden in their changes, but very seldom blow with such force as in Great Britain. This is, no doubt, owing, in a great measure, to an almost constant succession, in this part of North America, of short intervals of about two days and a half, during which only the wind continues in the same quarter, and then veers round to blow for a similar period in a different, and generally opposite, di- rection. Any disturbance, therefore, ofthe fluid equilibrium, which may have taken place, during so brief an interval, is speedily balanced", instead of being suffered to accumulate, and lead by a more intense reaction to storms of more rrcs- tructive violence. Secondary currents of land and iake breezes, are felt to some extent on the shores of all the lakes, but especially on the shore of Lake Superior, where the dif- ference between the temperature ofthe lake, and ofthe land, is the greatest. Occasionally a tornado strikes the lakes, accompanied with water-spouts, and hail, as was the case on Lake Ontario in 1845. When a strong eddy is formed in the current of air in certain localities, where the atmosphere is highly larified by heat, and electricity is at the same time strongly developed in the clouds above, the loose dry soil, and even solid bodies below, becoming oppositely electrifi- ed by induction, are raised, and whirled round in the centre of the vortuA, and present the appearance of a solid column, moving onwards with the current, which has set them in motion. When it passes over water, the water is raised in the same way, and presents the appearance of a long tree-like tube between the over hanging cloud, and the lake. But these phenomena on the lakes arc comparatively rare in their occurrence, the breadth of their course is very narrow, and as the amount of water thus raised up, there is reason to li { ■ X so think, is small, the danger to a, vessel, encountering one of them i;i its path, would be chiefly from the force of the whirlwind itself. Although, however, the winds in the region of the lakes are in general much less violent than on the Atlantic, and on the coasts of Great Britain, yet, owing partly to the ihe greater shallowness, and shortness of the sea on the lakes, and partly to their less density, sickness often affects upon their waters the sailor, and the traveller, who have seldom, or never felt it in many voyages on the Ocean. The phenomena of looming, and mirage, caused by the light passing through currents of air differing in an unusal manner in their density are not uncommon on these lakes in hot weather, or at other times when the difference between the surface heat, and the temperature of the air above is considerable. In the former, objects on the horizon, and even those below, appear raised above it, in the latter the images of near, or distant, objects are seen inverted in the air. Electrical intensity during the winter, at the surface, is much greater than during the summer, but the electricity developed, dunng summer, over and around the lakes is much larger in amount. Yet the thunderstorms in the coun- try on their shores are rarely of remarkable severity, because the moisture in the air above conducts it more rapidly away, than where the atmosphere is drier. Hence storms of light- ning are more violent on the Isthmuses of Niagara, and De- troit, and down the St. Lawrence where the land is moie continuous. The only other remarks connected with the meteorology of the lakes, which we shall here make, are with regard to the variations in the declination, and dip, of the magnetic needle. These are subject to very remarkable local varia- 91 IS n lionj in the vicinity of the Jakes h many places, owing no doubt to iron disseminated through the rocks, or in massive beds of that metal which are found within the area of the basins ofthe lakes. These variations, however, being caused by local attraction in the land, in a great measure, disap- pear in the compass of a vessel on the surface of the lake. Leaving these local variations out of view, it may be obser- ved, that the line of no variation, or that in which the needle points due north passes near to the Sault St. Mary. West of this the needle points easterly, and east of it the variation is west. In the neighbourhood of Kingston it is about 4" \V., at Toronto 1** 43' nearly, with a mean annual increase of about 2\ At Toronto the mean inclination, or dip of the needle is about 75*^ 21' with an annual increase of 089 ; the mean horizontal intensity is 3- 53043, with an annual decrease of .0043, and the total force is 13.8832, both in absolute measure. The diurnal variations of the declina- tion are greatest in summer, amounting in August to 13', and least in winter with a minimum of about 4\ but the dip of the needle is greatest from October to February. In a geological theory of the formation, especially of the lower lakes, and of the great plain in which they lie, the primitive and metamorphic range passing through the Thousand Islands, and to the north of Canada West, ought to hold a conspicuous place. The strata around the shores of the lakes abound with marine fossils, which shew them to have been formed at the bottom of a shallow sea. They must, therefore, have been upheaved by some violent sub- terranean action. Now, as the granite with the oldest stratified rocks, and the copper veins, and trap overflows, on the north of Lake Huron, are older than the Lower and Upper Silurian strata which lie upon them in almost undis- lli lurbed repose, and almost horizontally, with only a very blight dip from N. E- to S» W., these igneous rocks could not have been the cause ot the. upheaval of ihe more recent- ly deposited Silurian It seeir..^ probable, that it was by the elevation of the spur of the Alleghanies passing northward into Canada to the east of Lake Ontario, and forming the high ground of Canada West, and which has penetrated, and altered in the most striking manner, the Silurian strata in contact with it, that these strata were raised, and the pre- sent aspect of mingled land and lake, was produced. The evidence, derived from the nature of its fossils, of the sedimentary rocks within the area of the great lakes being a marine deposit consolidated by water pressure is, in itself, perfectly conclusive. We may here notice, however, more particularly another circumstance, which, there seems to he no doubt, is owing to the same cause, their being formerly covered by the waters of the sea. It is well known, ihat, around the shores of Lake Ontario more especially, at various depths below the surface, near Syracuse, at St, Catherines, and in our own neighbourhood, there is an almost exhaustless supply of salt water. Rock salt is not a substance which is found in any part of the world in the formation in which those brine springs occur, and there is no probability, therefore, that they are to be traced to any deposit of that mineral below the surface. Indeed the fact, that this salt water is found at a very moderate depth in this neighbourhood, where the series of rocks in w^hich it is found is well known, sufficiently proves this- Its presence, there- fore, can be accounted for only by the area in which it occurs having been formerly the bed of the ocean ; the waters of which penetrated, under the great pressure above, by fissures such as abound in the limestone rocks, and other- wise deep into tlic depor^ils^boiicath, and are lliere lield oon- linod, sinking by their greater speciiic^graviiy below the iVesh walor which may be lloating above. ThisTsalt water, it may be remarked, is not like a solution of rock-salt, as in the brine springs of England, which are nearly pure solutions of chloride of sodium. It is much more mixed with e;'.il!iy sidts, paiticiihirly those of lime, than that of the sea, from its being so long in close contact with the rocks beneath. The hikes, which were doubtless once all salt, have become fresh, unlike the Caspian, or other salt lakes which have no outlet, by their having an outlet iii their several commiiiiications with one another, and in the main stream of the St. Lawrence, to allow the fresh waters of the rivers by which they are fed to flow through thera. How strange to think, that in the very brine which is brought up from no great distance, close to the very spot in which wc are met, we lind the traces of a fo 'rier state of things, when the surface of the land around was covered by the vraters of the sea ! The geology of the land area of the basin of the lakes may be briefly thus described. North of Lake Superior primary rocks, consisting chiefly of granite, hornijlendic and micaceous gneiss, abound, with numerons trap over- flows, and dykes of greenstone, porphyry, amyygdaloid, and basalt, both on tlie N. and on the S. coasts Upon these rest what appear to be the synonyms of the Cambrian rocks in Wales. On the N. shore of Lake Huron granite and quartz rocks abound, accompanied also with the same Cambrian formation, and greenstone dykes, and overflows, upon which the Lower Silurian strata rest uncomforrnably. Towards the N. E. of the same lake, the Silurian beds rest directly on the primary rocks without the Cambrian strain, V 94 which are found, however, again on the north of the sicnilic itange about Lake Temisoaming. Connected with the ridge to the north east of Lake Huron, is a range of primary rocks, the principal of which are sienite, metamorphic lime- stone, serpentine, dolomite, and talcose rocks, running across al an average of 40 or 50 miles from the lakes to the Thousand Islands, and Lake (yhamplain, and from which branches off the chain which runs to the north of the St. Lawrence down to Labrador. To the S. W. of this prima- ry boundary on the N. and E., the stratified rocks rise up in succession at a small inclination from the Lower Silurian to the Devonian, and carboniferous rocks of Michigan, and the South. Deposits of blue, yellow, or red, posl-tert:ary clays, with ridges of drift, and boulders both in and upon them, are spread over the whole of this area. There are multitudes of these boulders on the mountains more than a thousand feet above the level of the lakes, and on the shores of Lakes Superior and Huron, and the o'aer lakes, with polished surfaces and longitudinal furrows, grooves, and scratches, generally in a direction from N. to S., but varying to the E. or W- of it, apparently according to the vicinity of neighbouring ranges of igneous rock. The rocks below the diluvial clay, and drift, are polished, and grooved in the same manner, and in the same direction, so that the same cause, whatever we may conceive it to be, which led to their being thus marked must have carried with it the boulders, and the drift. The more immediate agent in this, we are inclined to think, was mainly the upheaval of mountain ranges, as, for example, the Rocky Mountains, during the elevation of which from the sea the violent agi- tation of its waters, raised up at the same time, continued, ■we may not unreasonably suppose, for a considerabh; sn period, and swept along large masses to hundreds of miles from their original site, and rounded, and marked them in the way just alluded to. No doubt many of the boulders may have been transported also by floes of ice, and ice- bergs detached from their moorings, or carried along by the heaving current of these rnighty earthquake waves, but the glacial theory is altogether inadequate to account for the whole, or even the chief part, of the appearances which the surfaces of the rock and of the boulders present. In some instances, as on the south shore of Lake Superior, and in the approach from the south to the iron beds of Marmora, and Madoc, north of Lake Ontario, huge masses of lime- stone, many tons in weight, are scattered over the ground, which can be traced beyond dispute to the strata in the immediate vicinity, and which, it appears evident, have been conveyed to their present position not by any glacial action, but by an oceanic current. And, if an ocean cur- rent must be supposed to have been the agent of transport of ihe boulders in such cases, its action must have extended from Lake Superior to Lake Ontario. With regard to the zoology of the lake region, no com- plete or systematic information, in so far as the Canadian side is concerned, yet exists, but a very full account regard- ing the zoology o the opposite shores is to be found in the State Reports of the different States on their other side, especially in that of the State of New York. Upon the whole, however, it appears, that, while the structure, and arrangement, of the inorganic kingdom are almost identical, none of the indigenous animals are the same as in the Old Continent, ahhough some of the >pecies very closely resem- ble each other. The common deer, (Cervus Virginianus,) of the country, for example, although nearly allied to the deer ^f M. hJlf 1/ 3ii of Great Briluiu, is }ct dilRneiil. Aiitl Aga^siz, the Ijigli- est authority in Ictliyology, decltjro.s, that theru is not a sin- gle strictly fre^^h water fijsli in North America cxaclly the same with any of the Old Continent, although many are of a similar type. One of the most singular of the fi.>hes of the lakes is the Lepidosteus, or bony scaled lish, which is found in Lake Superior, as well as in the Ottawa, and other rivers of the north. It is remarkable for being almost the only species now existing,which in the nature of its scales, and its heterocercal tail, and other partsof its structure, closely resembles the fossil fishes of the older formations. The same remark regardingthc dissimilarity of the species, otherwise the most neaily alike, applies generally to the plants of the lake basin, and of Kun^pe, m hen compared together. The remark, liowever, whicli''applics so strictly to the Fauna, is not so universally true with regard to the Flora of the lakes, and in the trap regions of Lake Superior we find a vegetation which is in many cases identical with that of the Higher Jura of Switzerland, and the trap districts of Great Britain, and in which the botanist is delighted to recognise not a few of the plants of the hills, and vales, of the British Isles. The furs, and fisheries, particularly of the western lakes, forma branch of commerce of considerable and increasing value, especially the latter. While nsli, lake trout, and sturgeon of great size abound in Lakes Superior and Huron, White fish are also caught in largo quanti- ties in Lakes Erie and Ontario. 3590 barrel s'of fish were expoited from Lake Erie alone in 1851, valued at 5 dollars a barrel, and this is but a small portion of a traffic which is yearly increasing in all the lakes. But the chief natural nroductions of their basin are those of the forest, and of the r .17 mineral kiiigdcun, iilino<*t cxlinnslless supplies ol' liic iiiu-sl as well as the most iisefnl timber Tor the shiplmihU-r, the eabiiielrnaker, and the carpenter, bituminous coal IVom Michigan, close to Saginaw Bay in Lake Huron, one oi ihe great American coal fields, and from the two others, that ol' Illinois, near to Chicago, and the Appalachian coal Held only 36 miles from Cleveland, iron, in the form of the magnetic, and specular oxides in enormous quantities, na- tive copper, and its sulphurets, to a greater amount than in any other quarter of the world that we yet know of, sil- ver, lead, zinc, manganese, plumbago, marble, hydraulic limestone, gypsum, clays, shellmarls, and building stone of every description. Of these, as we have already mentioned, copper had previously been shipped to the amount of £160,000, and in 1852, the operations were on such a scale, that the produce would be increased to about 2,000 tons, which, at £120 per ton the selling price at Pittsburg, would amount to £240,000. The value of the copper of Canadian production exported in 1851 was about £20,000. In the same year, the weight of the iron " blooms" seiit down from Lake Superior was 383 tons, selling at Detroit at £16 10s per ton, and it was expected, that the quantiy would be augmented in 1852 to nearly 1,000 tons. It is worthy of notice, that the iron of Lake Superior, which abounds both on its N. and on its S. shores, there is reason to think from experiments which have been made on the subject, excels in quality the iron of every other part of the world, -vvhere it has yet been wrought. Its ultimate tenacity in bars has been found to be 89,882 lbs. to the square inch, that of the best Russian being only 79,000. Of the natural productions of the basin of the lakes, however, the various products of the forests are at present far the most valuable ii ii 38 Ii! lb.51, tlio amount of sawed lumber which readied the Hudson Hivt-rwas upwards of7n,000 tons, vahied at about £ 1,000,000, cnrreney. At least three eighths of this tonnage was brouglit from the country on the shores of the lakes, and this does not include the large quantities shipped from Canada to the difli'erent ports on the other side for consump- tion there. But say, at a moderate computation, that the export timber trade on the laiies, and to the seaboard, by the Hudson amounts in value only to £ 1,500,000, we have to add to this the amount exported from Upper Canada by the St. Lawrence to Great Britain, and other markets, amounting to about lialf a million more, and we have thus the export pro- ductions of the forest from the lakes equal in value to £2,000,- 000 annually. The home consumption it is not easy to esti- mate, but it must of course be very great. The cultivated productions of the soil are of still greater importance. The country of the lakes seems formed to be one of the richest agricultural regions which can any where be found. With the exception of a part of the east end of Lake Ontario, in the State of New York, the shores of Lake Superior particularly on the north, and the north shore of Lake Huron, it has almost everywhere fertile soil. From Sturgeon Bay, round by Cabot's Head, the St. Clair River, Lake Erie, tlie Niagara River, and Lake Ontario to King- ston on the Canadian side, and on the other from the east all round to Milwaukie, and the Straits of Mackinaw, the land is generally excellent, in some places of unrivalled fertility, producing the finest grains, and fruits, and vegeta- bles. The whole " through tonnage" which arrived at the Hudson, and was shipped from the Western States, or Canada, by Buffalo, and Oswego, in 1851, was in value about £G,7.'>0,0{>0, currency. To this must be added 39 47,000 tons which aniveJ at tide water by the Oiitaiio Kail- roads, and a great part of the througli business of the New York and Erie railroad, which would make the whole uj)- wards of £7,500,000. If from this we deduct £1,000,- 000, as the value of the products of the fore:,!, the value of the products of the farm will not be less than £5,500,000 of the remainder, and if to this we add £500,000 as the value of the agricultural products from the lakes, shipped for the seaboard by the way of the St. Lawrence, we have, at a very moderate estimate, £6,000,000 currency, for the total value of the agricultural exports of the lake basin. The wdiole value of the various products, natural and indus- trial, exported from the area of the great lakes, adding to these amounts the copper, iron, wood, and other articles* exported from the upper lakes by the Ohio and Illinois Canals, cannot now be less than £10,000,000 of surplus produce, over and above what is required for the home con- sumption, and a large portion of the returns goes annually to swell the circulating capital of the lake country. The Canadian exports alone in 1851 amounted to £3,250,000 currency, of which the larger portion was from Upper Canada. The amount of imports into the area of the lakes is much greater. The value of the merchandir^t; which left the Hudson River for the Western Stales and (Jaiiada in 1851, by Buffalo and Oswc^go, was £15,500,000, ciirrcncy, independently of that of 29,1 12 tons which left by raihoad, (part of which must have been through Iraliu',) and of tlx; through tradie by the New York and Erie itaiiioafl, which would make the whole from the sidi^ of ilie Slates, £16,000,000 Of this upwards of two million^ were for Western Canada alont^ To this must be added nearly £2,000,000 of injports into \N'(>tcrn (Canada l-y tlic St. : ! rv ! 'r\ ^ . 10 Lawrence IVoin Great Britain, the Lower Froviiiees, West Indies, and I'oreigu countries, thus making the whole Upper Canadian imports about £4,000,000, and the whole imports of the lake basin about £18,000,000, currency. To give some idea of the extent and importance of the traflic of the lakes, we may mention, that the whole imports into the United States, in the year ending 30th June, 1851, amount- ed to nearly £54,000,000, currency, so that the imports into the Western Stales and Canada, by the way of the lakes, is one third of the imports of all the States taken together. Nor is this surprising when we consider, that the popu- lation of Canada, and the States in more immediate contact with tlie shores of the lakes, may be estimated at from six to seven millions. In 178:^, Upj)cr Canada, and the rest of the land around the lakes, was almost a wilderness We all see, and know, the change which has since taken place on this side. Upper Canada has now a million of popula- tion, and the change, in this respect, in the opposite territory of the States is almost without a parallel. In 1810, Buffalo had only 1508 inhabitants, and Rochester was un- known. In 1850, the former had a population of 42,261, and the latter of 30,403. The growth of Syracuse lias been still luoie remarkable. In 1840, its inhabitants w^ere only 6,502. In 1850, they were 22,271, or more than trebled in 10 years. But the increase of Chicago, in Illinois, and of JNlilwaukie, in Wisconsin, far surpasses that of any other cities in the Union. In 1818, they were only in embryo. In 1840, Chicago had a i)opulation of 4,479; in 1850, it was 29,963. Milwaukie in 1840 had only 1,700 inhabi- tanis ; in 1850, it had 20,0G1, or nearly twelve limes the niunber it had len years before. Sixty-live years ago, the lirsi scUKMiicnl was made in the State of Ohio. Now it 41 has up'.vards of two millions of inhabitants. In connexion with tills increase of population, which is even greater comparatively in Canada than in the States, the shipping on the lakes has increased with extraordinary rapidity. In 1817, the first Canadian steamerr, on Lake Ontario were built, one to sail from Prescott to Kingston, and the other up the Bay of Quinle. In 1818 there was only one steamer on Lake Erie, and forty sailing vessels above the Falls of Niagara, only two of which were of more than 100 tons burden. Now there are hundreds of steamers, and sailing vessels on Lake Ontario, and the waters of Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan, are traversed by numbers of floating palaces, impelled by steam, some of ihem from 1000 to 1700 tons burden, and more than 500 sailing vessels, many of them of large tonnage. On Lake Superior also, where, a few years ago, there was not a single vessel, there are now a paddle steamer, three propellers, and five schooners, with a burden of 1500 tons. It is not surprising, therefore, that the amount of exports and imports should at the same time be found to have been augmented in an astonishing degree, or that it should be anticipated to become yet far greater. To take for example, the exports and imports to and from tide water on the Iladson. In 1845, the through tonnage from the West, by Buffalo and Oswego, down to Albany, was 303,551 tons, the up tonnage West was 58,455 ; in 1851, the numbers v.^ere 906,993 down, and 192,023 up, or more than trebled in both cases in six years, while the whole exports of the United States were only trebled in 30 years previous to 1851. If the exports and imports of the area of the lakes are thus being made much more than double every four years, hovv enormous will the amount soon be, were no limits to be gradually arrived at to the rapid increase of the / i'l 4f population, to the extent of the productions of the lake le- gion, and to the demand for them. The present value of the exports and imports together is about £28,000,000, which doubled every quadriemi period, would give £996,000*- 000 at the end of even 20 years. It is scarcely possible to conceive, that such a marvellous increase should be arrived at, but as to the amount of the tonnage of imports and exports now, and the present rate of incrcasCy which have been laid before you from authentic documents, there can be nodoubty neither can there be any doubt that the increase, whatever it may be, even in that short peiiod will be almost inconceiva- bly great. Every way of communication to the East, and lo the sea-board, will be loaded with the commerce of the region of those inland seas, and even the commerce of the Upper Mississippi, incapable of being conveyed to New Orleans, except to that very small amount, at which it is now stationary, • :ll overleap its bounds, as it has already begun to do, in all directions, and hasten across the lakes,, and by canal and railway to the great markets of the East,, and thencr by the Atlantic to the Continent of Europe itself. But by what route can this transmission be best effected 1 The great lalces themselves are of course best fitted to be a part of it. To give some idea of their importance in this point of view, we may remark, that the length of their navigation merely, with that of their bays, is not much less than that o§ the 2000 miles of canals in the whole of the United Slates together, and the Erie Canal, valuable as it is, is but a fourth of their ietigth. But this, though much, gives but an imperfect idea of their importance. Navigable rivers and lakes are always, in a peculiar degree, the means of the outward prosperity of an industrious and enterprising peo- ple. And great lakes, for obvious reasons, nuich more so' 43 tlian rivers, having a wider area for the handling of larger vessels, — a longer circuit, by which many more points may be reached from one another, no current to make their ascent by sailing vessels difficult, and not being liable at one time to lowness of water, like the Missouri, which, for more than half the year, is scarcely navigable by vessels drawing more than two and a half feet water, and at an- other to annual inundations, which render such rivers as the Mississippi uninhabitable for hundreds of miles on their banks, and produce numerous obstructions to the navigation. The lakes arc, in fact, innumerable canals in one, a cheap, and universal railway, which, at the expense only of the termini of the road, can be traversed by steam in all directions, to great distances, at the rate of from 15 to 18 miles an hour. They are thus admirably adapted for internal commerce, uniting, while they divide, and enabling every point on their shores to supply, or be supplied, by all the rest without difficulty for nine months in the year. Their existence and position have been wisely adapted for the promotion of the intercourse of a vast continent like North America, and for being the centre of its circulating system, to a much greater extent than the Mississippi itself. Had the If^kes not existed, such obstacles would have been presented to the extended settlement of the country, and to the communications from one point to another, that it is not likely, comparatively speaking, that much progress in this would yet have been made. Even, supposing that the lakes had existed in the form of one, or two, instead of five, having the same area of surface as the five together, there would then not have been the same extent of shore, the places on their opposite coasts would then have been separ- ated by a much greater distance from each other than thej 44 now are, and there would not have been these great ferries on necks of land so favourably situated betAveen the suc- cessive lakes, across the Niagara, the St. Clair, and the St. Mary Rivers, which allow of a passage to either side at all seasons of the year, and which will all erelong, as the Niagara River has already been, be bridged across. The lakes are, therefore, of the utmost importance in themselves as the means of home, and internal communica- tion, but they become unspeakably more important, when they are connected as they are by canals and railways with the south and east, and with the sea. Of these means of connection, laying out T view the superior advantages of railroads for the conveyance of passengers and light goods, and conc^ic'ering that the chief articles of export from their basin are of a bulky nature, nine-tenths of it being agricul- tural produce, and timber, and more suitable, therefore, for water carriage, canals are unquestionably at present much the more important, in so far at least as the export, if not the import trade, is concerned. As r? proof of this, it has been calculated by the State Engineer of the State of New York, in his report of February, 1851, that it would have required six double track railroads, and these having other traffic from which to make their dividends, with an equip- ment of 10,000 cars, and 4,000 engines to perform the business of the Erie Canal m 1850. All the railways, therefore, which are, or will be made, to connect with the seaboard can never come into competition with the canals in a traffic which is every year increasing with rapid strides. And here we may observe, how little was thought of the future increase of the traffic to and from the lakes when the Erie Canal was built of such small dimenssions, and how prudently our government has judged in making the 45 Canals of the St. Lawrence, and the WcUand, on so inueli larger a scale. The routes of commnnnioation between the lakes and other parts of the continent, and the sea, are various. By the Illinois and Ohio Canals they are connected with the Mississippi and New Orleans, by the Ohio and Chesapeake Canals with the Delaware, by the Erie Railroad with New York, by the Welland, and Oswego Canals, by the Buffalo and Albany, Albany and New York, and Albany and Boston Railroads, with the Hudson River, New York, and Boston, by the Cape Vincent Railroad, and its connect- ing lines with the same points, by the St. Lawrence and the Ogdensburg Railr^^ad with Lake Chaniplain, the New England States, and New York, and by the St. Lawrence, and its Canals with the Lower Provinces, and all ultimately with the Atlantic, and the Continent of Europe. Tliese routes, however, are by no means of equal importance, and the amount of lake traffic on some of them is, and must, there is reason to believe, continue to be comparatively small. It is not likely, for example, that it will be groat by the Mississippi. For the distance to the sea is upwards of 1500 miles, with a navigation impeded by sand- banks, snags, floods, and currents, ind by ice for a consid- erable part of the year, and the progress of barges upwards and returning, being assisted by no tide, for then; are no tides in that river, and against a powerful stream, would be so slow, that where the ' are employed to carry down pro Quce, they are sold to be broken up, or used for such pur- poses as may be required, at New Orleans on their arrival there. The current, therefore, of the traffic of the Upper Mississippi, and of the North Western States, shews no tendency to set in that direction. The Illinois, the Ohio, n I 46 and the Ohio and Chesapeake Canals are toe circuitous in their communication with the seaports of the States to prove at all formidable rivals to more direct, cheaper, and quicker hnes for the transmission of produce and merchandise to and from the sea. The New York and Erie Railroad is not shorter than the Buffalo and Hudson River Railroads, and is as yet by no means so well constructed and equipped, while for the transport of heavy goods and produce, it is liable to the same objections as lie, in this respect, against lailroads in comparison with canals. The only route, therefore, which can compete for the carrying trade with the St. Lawrence, and its canals, are those by the Erie Canal from Buffalo, and by the Welland, and Oswego, and Erie Canals to the Hudson. In both of these transhipment is required in the progress of exports to, and imports from, tide water. But the course by the Welland is by much more expeditious, and superior in every way to the other, and promises at no distant day to be the one by v/hich the greater portion of the transit trade of the States' side will pass. Thus, in 1840, the down trade through Buffalo was 138,l(>i, and by Oswego 20,047 tons, while, in 1851, it stood thus, Buffalo 626,656, and Oswego 340,338, showing that while the former had increased less than five, the other had increased nearly seventeen times the amount of each respectively 11 years before. In the up trade Oswego already surpasses Buffalo, the amount up by the Erie Canal to Buffalo being only 1 14,960 tons, and by Oswego 131,853. Part of this increase in the exports and imports, by Oswego, is no doubt due to an increased trade with the Canada shore of Lake Ontario, but the greater part goes to, and comes from, the upper lakes by the Welland Canal, and it is evident, that the people of the Stages preferthis rouie. Nor 4t is ft surprising, lliat this should be the case. The Erie Canal is 363 miles in length, very narrow, and adapted only for barges drawing four feet water, while the Welland by a cut from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, only 28 miles in length shortens the boat canal no less than 154 miles, and is 9 feet deep, with locks 150 feet long, and 26^ broad, and is open throughout to brigantines and steamers of 500 tons, the dimensions most suitable at once for most of the har- bours of the lakes, and for the navigation of Lake St. Clair, and the St. Lawrence River. It is not wonderful, therefore^ that the route by the Welland is preferred, and that the ton- nage, and number, of vessels passed through it has been considerably more than doubled in the four years from 184S to 1851 inclusive, the tonnage in 1851 being 691,627, and the number of vessels and boats in the same year, of all kinds, 5,693. The Cape Vincent Railroad, connecting the seaports of the Atlantic with the City of Kingston, which is only 300 miles from Boston, measured on the are of a great circle, and the nearest City of Upper or Lower Canada to New Yor\-, being distant from it by the nearest line only 274| miles, is by far the most favorably situated of any cf the American lines of railroad for communication with *he Canadian side of Lake Ontario, and will, therefore, receive a very large portion of the import and export traffic with that side of the lakes at all times, and especially in the win- ter, and in the late fall, and early spring. The Ogdens- burgh line by no means presents equal advantages except for the limited c ommerce with Lake Champlain. The Cape Vincent route surpasses it as a medium of communi- cation not only with New York, but even with Boston, and the greater, more populous, and wealthy, portion of the New England States. 5 J 48 VVc aro, liowovor, strongly inclined to think, that the best line for tiie conveyance of agricultural produce, and timber, as well as of other heavy articles, to New England an ] New York for domestic consumption there, would be the St. Law- rence, and a Canal such as that proposed from Lake St. Louis at Caughnawaga to lake Champlain, and the^ by the Whitehall Canal to the Hudson River. This would shorten the boat canal navigation 297 miles, or 143 miles more than even the Welland does, while at the same time neither the cost nor the time of transit would be increased, there would be a greater certainty of the regular arrival of the cargoeSp and a large amount of foreign imports, and of the manufac- tures of New England, would add to the tonnage sent up- wards by this route. A ship canal of a mile in length uni- ting Lake Fluron to Lake Superior, which is already begun, is the only one required to complete this line throughout to the head of Lake Superior, connecting the head of the same lake by ihe Welland, and the St. Lawrence, with its canals, with Quebec, the gulf of the St. Lawrence, the Lower Provinces, and Europe. This last route is undoubt- edly far the best for the conveyance of the produce, and im ports, of the lakes to, and from, the British North American Colonies, and the European Continent. The distance is shorter from Quebec to Liverpool, by a safe channel through the Straits of Bellcisle, and by the North of Ireland, than it is from New York by 500 miles, and from Boston by nearly 400. And Quebec is nearer to the Mediterranean than either (>f these ports. And we are here almost i^s near to Que- bec as we are to New York, and when the raihoad between Quebec, and Kingston is completed, will be able to reach the one City as soon as the other. In the navigation, more- over, descending from the Upper lakes to Quebec only 28 miles of canal would require to be passed through by steam- ers and in returning only 6 1 ^ miles more of the St. Lawrence canals, which have at an average 9 feet of water, and locks 200 feet long, and 45 broad, and are therefore amply sufficient for the reception, and passage of the largest vessel, which it seems aesirable to construct for t.ie trafiic on, and between the lakes, and even of sea going vessels. This route will be open as soon, and shut as late as the Erie Canal, or rather more so, there being on the whole a gain of upwards of a fortnight in favor of the St. Lavvrance, and it will have the further great advantage of no transhipment beiiig required in the course to the sea. It will enable us to increase our traffic by the Gulf of the St. Lawrence with Great Britain, and the Continent of Europe. It will enable us to supply with flour, and grain, direct from Canada, the Lower Pro- vinces which now receive from New York, to the amount of about 700,000 dollars, those products, in many cases after they have been originally exported from Canada to New York, and to obtain from them in return the products of their mines, and fisheries, the sugars of the West Indies, and the wines and fruits of Portugal, and Spain. This route may be followed to a vast extent, as it ought to be, and, at the same time, the Welland, and Oswego, and the Caughna- waga lines, be eminently successful. No river, except the La Plata in South America, has so wide an estuary, and is navigable so iar for large vessels a.s the St. Lawrence, which admits ships of the line to Quebec, and ships of GOO tons to Montreal, and when the canal of only one mile in length between Lakes Superior and Huron, is completed, as it will very shortly be, there will be a con- tinuous water communication from the Sea for 2000 miles, H so for vessels of 500 tons. Willi its wide sliclchiiig LaFicar^ noble river, and magnificent canals, and when traversed, as it will very shortly be, in its length and breadth, by a network of well constructed railways, in front by the Main Trunk 11 np, and Great Western, and in the rear by that of Peterborcugh, and th.e Georgian Bay, and other connecting Vines, the ineuns of Canada for both internal iind external communication may be said, without exaggeration, to be unequalled by those of any other country whatever. But now, and at all times, except during the period when the navigation is closed, the route by the Gulf of the St- Lawrencc for the lake commerce of exports to, and imports from, the Lower Provinces, and the continent of Europe^ appears to be by far the best. I do not, I confess, see how flour, which can be delivered as cheaply in Kingstfon;, as in? Oswego, cannot be sent more cheaply from Montreal, or frora Quebec, than from New York, for the expence of transport of a barrel of flour to New York from Oswego is greater than from Kingston to Montreal, and no transhipment is necessary before it reaches the port of final lading, and Montreal and Qut?bec are both nearer to Great Britain than New York is. It appears evident, that, if that were done, which seems to be all that is required, — if the ship owners,, and shipbuilders of Quebec were to build more vessels, which they can do more cheaply than any where in the States, and not resort lo American vessels brought round in ballast to convey produce to the British Market, and the freights were made as low as possible so as to turn the scale in favor ol the St. liawrence route, — if the Gulf were pro- perly buoyed, and more perfectly lighted on the North, as well as on the South shore, to the entrance of ihe Straits of Belleisle, — iXaline of tug steamers were established to be 51 rmployed when necessary in towing vessels up Ihc gulf, and harbours of refuge were constructed, one for exam- ple, on the island of Anticosli, employing , perhaps con- vict labour for that purpose, that the agricultural products of the lakes, would come to be conveyed to Britain, and tlie continent of Europe, by the St. Lawrence rather than by New York. But the merits of this route will soon be more fully tested by the more extended communication already begun between Great Britain, and the St. Lawrence, by means of lines of Ocean Steam-ships running from Liver- pool, and Glasgow to Quebec, during the season of open navigation, and the safety of which will require to be care- fully provided for by every thing which the government can do to iwiprove the navigation of the Gulf. I have thus endeavoured, my friends, to bring under your notice the principal facts connected with the great lakes, which, as most of them are not stated any w^here in a syste- inatic form, or adapted to the subject of our present consi- deration, I have endeavoured, at some pains, to ascertain, ^nd to verify. I have also endeavoured to lay before you, in as perspicuous a manner as possible, such observations, and inferences, as occurred to me, and appeared io be of most consequence, in connection with these facts. And now, in a few words, to conclude this, we fear, too long disquisition. When we consider the important purposes which the lakes may be, and have been made to serve, of facilitating intercourse and traffic it and with a country so abundartt in those things which mainly contribute to the support, and temporal comfort, and advancement of man, in grains, and fruits, in wood, and coal, in iron, and copper ores, and which without them would have been, in a ^eat measuj^, 52 scarcely habitable, or accessible, we may without irrever- ence, nay we are rather called upon, with deepest thankful- ness to conclude, that the lakes have been designed by the AUwise Creator for these ends. And, this being our con- clusion, we are, at the same time, led, both in lake and in land, and all that ihem inhabit, in the vast expanse, and ever changeful aspect of the inland sea, and in the varied, and munificent gifts of the land, to behold the power and goodness of Him, who has meted out the waters, and clothed the -arlh with fertility and vegetable life ; and to hear His voice amid ihem proclaiming His presence in the ever during thunder of that mighty cataract, which, although the mountains of the region of the lakes are of low elevation, and their tributary streams are small, yet, with the lakes themselves, and the pure and majestic river which flows from them^ forms wonders enough for one portion of the THE NATURAL AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTIONS OF CANADA, "WITH THE REAL fOUNDATIONS FOIl ITS FUTURE PROSPERITY. In the lecture of last year, on " The Inland Seas of North America," we had occasion to dwell at some length on the facilities which tbey afford for the intercourse, and com- merce, of the countries on their shores. We now propose, in connexion with the same subject, to speak of tlie natural and industrial production^ of Canada, that country by the western division of which they arc bounded on the north throughout their whole extent, and in the prosperity of which we are more immediately interested. We shall not occu' py your time by any preliminary remarks, as the consider- ation of the subject itself is amply sufficient for the limits of a single lecture, but proceed at once, to consider, in the first place, the natural productions of Canada. I. According to the usual division, these may be divided into the productions of the Forest, of the Mine, and of the Seas, as its industrial productions may be divided into those of Agriculture, and of Manufactures. 1. Firsty in the order now mentioned, of its natural products are those of the Forest, which as yet far exceed in value those of the Mine, and of the Seas, and even somewhat ex- ceed those of Agriculture, and all other exports put together. The value of the wood of the white pine alone exported by the last returns of 1852 is upwards of £1,000,000, the next in value of the timber exports being those of Red Pine, Oak, and Elm. In 1853, 1145 vessels were loaded with timber at Quebec against 1003 in 1852, shewing that the trade 54 must have greatly increased during the past year. The ex- ports of wood to Europe, and the lov/er provinces, are chiefly from Quebec in the forms of round, and square timber, deals, and planks. West Indian, and other staves, together with masts, and spars. The imports to the United States are generally in the form cf planks, and boards. By far the largest portion of the trade is with Liverpool, but the best kinds of timber, particularly of deals, go to the Londou market. Besides these products of the forest, the wood which is burnt off the ground in the new clearings, and for the purpose of fuel, yields large quantities of Pot, and Pearl Ash, of which the value of £232,004 was exported in 1852 for bleaching, glass making, and other purposes. Furs, and skins may also be reckoned as other productions of the forests of Canada, and were supplied by them in the same year to Great Britain, the United States, and other countries to the amount of £25,547. In 1852, the total exports being £3,513,993, the whole exports of the produce of the forest amounted to £1,907,183, including £262,000, as the valueofthe ships builtat Quebec, of which £1,436,637 were sent to Britain, and £460,049 to the United States. The amount of wood exported, however, is but the smaller part of the natural riches which Canada draws from its forests. Probably not less than £3000,^ 000 of the materials which they aflbrd is employed for domestic purposes, for fuel, and for the building of houses, barns, fences, ships, wharves, and other structures of wood, thus making the total valueofthe annual produce of the Canadian forests about £5,000,000 currency. With regard to the useful qualities of the woods them- selves, these may be inferred from the fact, that more than two thirds of the wood imported into Britain comes from 55 British North America. The while, and red, pine form in- valuable materials for all ordinary purposes, while the white oak is inferior only to that of Britain for ship building, and the swamp elm, as a material in the construction of ships, is sought after as superior even to Biitish elm. Although the quantity of tinibcr fit for exportation ia being rapidly diminished, it is still very considerable in the unsettled parts of the country, and will doubtless suffice to keep up the amount of export at its present rate for some years to come, but it cannot be exjx;cted to do so long, when we consider the enormous amount shipped every year to other countries, and the great, and growing requirements for timber of different kinds v/ithin the Province itself. The extensive lines of railway already begun, aiid to be carried on so rapidly to completion, will themselves require a very large and immediate supply for the erection of station houses, for sleepers, ties, waggons, cars, and fencing. And it is a * great advantage which Canada possesses in the construc- tion of her rail-roads, that no country has materials of this description so cheap, and so abundant. Unless, however, a system of reproduction be, at the sanie time, carried on, it is evident, that with sucli vast, and constant, drains, tim- ber must become scarcer, and dearer, every year, and in- stead of being a source of great wealth, and of the utmost benefit to the province, as it now is, may even require to be imported at great expence from tlie lower Provinces, and from other countries for home consumption. While, there- fore, it is to be regretted, that trees are not more generally planted throughout the province for ornament, it is still more desirable in an economical point of view, that plantations were made throughout the country, in order to provide a supply for the wants of the Province itself, and for exporlu- lit IN li 56 tion, after ihe present islock is exhausted. In places where the soil is of a light and sandy description, or on broken, and rocky ridges, the area would be occupied much more profitably by woods, than otherwise, while the rest of the land would yie'.d its plentiful returns to the labours of the husbandman. And li would Ix; well, the- nfore, if Agricul- tural Societies, like the Highland, and Agi»cultural Society of Scotland, taking an enlarged view of their object in pro- moting the cultivation of the soil, should institute premiums for the plantation, in such localities, of woods of the - eat staple,^ of pine, oak, ap.d elm. 2. The next source of the natural products of Canada is the Mine. Although yet very imperfectly developed, its mineral wealth is very great. The only productions of the mine exported in 1852 were copper and copper ore to the value of £8,105 from the Bruce Mines, and a small quanti- ty of pig iron. But various other minerals already add to the riches of the country, and supply materials for useful applications within its own limits. Mining for gold, on a small scale, is carried on with profit by skilful hands on the branches of the Chauditre. The white potsdam sandstone is quarried at Vaudreuil for the manufacture of fine glass. Salt is procured from the brine springs of St. Catherines. Plaster of Paris is prepared in large quantities from native gypsum in the western part of Upper Canada, and deposits of shelhnarl, which are abundant throughout the province, are used, in like manner as the plaster, for manuring the soil. The lithographic stone of Marmora has been already quarried, and applied, to some extent, for prints and maps, and millstones of excellent (juality have been made from the millslone rock of the Eastern Townships, and from the granite of the ChaudiOre. Some of the marbles have also 67 been partially worked, and *he clays are wrought in various places into bricks and tiles, and articles of common pottery ware. Many other natural productions of the mine, however, will ere long contribute to add greatly to the increase of the wealth of Canada. In every direction, it is possessed of vast beds of iron ore of the finest quality, from the bog iron of the St Maurice forges to the specular iron of Lake Huron. Marmora, and Madoc, South Sherbrooke, Hull, the Wallace Mine, and McNab, themselves contain iron enough for the supply of a continent for ages. The mines of copper on Lakes Huron and Superior admit of being worked with profit to a much greater extent. Chromic iron, a very valuable material for the manufacture of the chromates of potass, and of lead, for dye and painters colours, and for, glass staining, is found in large quantities in the Eastern Townships. Besides these, iron ochre, in the forms of yellow ochre, Spanish brown, &c., abounds in various localities^ equal to the best imported from France into Britain, and there are inexhaustible supplies of white quartzose sand- stone, as at Vaudreuil, admirably adapted as a material for flint glass. Sulphuret of zinc is found at Maimanse, Lake Superior, sulphuret of nickel on Lake Huron, and manga- nese in the Eastern Townships. Sulphate of baryta for permanent white paint, soapstonc and plumbago for hearthn and crucibles, and phosphate of lime for manure, and materials for roofing slates, wait only the growth of capital, and enterprize, to rendci them available for the supply of t! e country and for export. Marble of various colours from the coarsest to the finest quality, while, black, mottled, variega- ted white and green, verd antique, and serpentine of the 68 most beautiful descriptiong,are found in numerous localities, and in great abundance. We might add to the above products of the mine other minerals, such as silver on Lake Superior, which may yet be obtained in workable quantity, valuable agates, and ether precious stones, and building materials of various kinds. But our limits forbid, and we proceed to consider the — 3. Third source of the natural wealth of Canada, it» fisheries^ or the produce of its seas and lakes. From the Gulf of the St. Lawrence large quantities of dried and pickled, codfish salmon and herring, and from the lakes,, white fish and trout, and other produce of the waters, are exported, over and above what supplies the home consump- tion. To such an extent is this trade increasing, that, while the value of these exports was, in 1850, only £36,521, it amounted, in 1852, to £74,462, or more than double that sum. The fishei'es on the lakes are chiefly on the south- west of Prince Edward'n District on Lake Orvtario, and Oil Lake Huron, and furnished, in 1852, 11,884 barrels. In the Lower Province, they are carried on in Gasp6, the north side of the Bay of Chaleur, the Magdalen Islands, and the Coasts of Labrador. As the trade increases, the popu- lation in the lower part of the gulf will increase along with it, and, as their great place of trade is at Quebec, they will there exchange their fish and oil for the flour and other pro- duce of Upper Canada, and the other necessaries which they require. U. Having thus adverted to the natural productions of Canada, we have still to consider its industrial products of Agriculture, and Manufactures. I. With regard, first, to those of agriculture, we begin; with the live stock, and their produce, for the agricultural ^latc oF a country can never be a prosperous one where the amount of these is small. The possession of a considerable number of animals on the farm is not only a source of wealth in itself from the butter, cheese, and wool which they afford, and from the surplus stock, but is an indispensable condi* tion for the profitable following out of a proper rotation of 60 Provinco. The total estimated value of the live stock in the whole of Canada, in the same year, was £10,947,537, currency. Great as this amount of stock is, it might yet be wery much greater with advantage both to the farm and to the farmer, if hay, and particularly root crops, such as carrot, and mangel-wurzel, were more generally cultivated, espe- cially in this section of the Province. In 1852, 39,762 animals, valued at £87,000 besides a nearly equal value of ■pickled and cured beef and pork, were exported. The increase in the export of pork is very remarkable. In 1850, it was only £7,374; in 1851, £17,992; in 1852, £54,487, mo.re than seven times greater in two years. By much the largest amount of animals, and animal food, exported was from Canada West, and a very considerable portion of it from Kingston. The greater number of horses, however, were from Lower Canada. We must confess, that these are items of export, which we would rather see diminish, than increase, in localities where farms are often inadequately supplied with a sufllcient number of stock to admit of their ■ght cultivation, and for keeping the land properly manured and tilled. For instance, in the country around Kingston, stock, we are inclined to think, is too frequently parted with, where enough has not been left for the attainment of these ends, and, although we have some excellent agriculturists in the Midland District, yet for its general good farming, horses, cattle, and sheep, ought to be much more numerous than they are. As might have been expected, the increase in the amount of the chief ank?nal produce, butter, cheese, and wool, has been no less extraordinary than the increase of stock, and shows, in another point of view, of immediate interest, the i V, 61 importance of keeping up, and angumenting the latter. In 1848, the number of lbs of butter made in Canada West was 3,380,406, in 1851 it was 15,976,315, or about five times greater in three years. In 1848, the number of lbs of cheese was 668,357, in 1851, it was 2,226,776. In 1842, the num- ber of lbs of wool was 1,302,510 ; in 1851, 2,398,764. In 1851, the number of lbs of butter produced in Lower Cana- da was 9,637, 1 52, of cheese, 5 1 1 ,0 1 1 , and of wool 1 ,430,976 . Of these products the butter chiefly is exported. In 1850, the value of the exports of butter was £30,817, in 1851, £65,600, in 1852, £102,959, or nearly quadrupled in t-'o years. Some of the wool from the United States was de- clared by the Jurors at the Great Exhibition, in 1851, to approach nearly to the German wool in fineness, and the Canadian wool is also in general of excellent quality, and will become yet far more valuable, as the breed of sheep through- out the Province is improved. The amount ot wool ex- ported in 1852, was only £18,576, although the value of the whole produce of wool in 1851 was £413,073. Canada, in fact, already imports a considerable quantity of wool for the purposes of manufacture. In 1852, 169,915 lbs valued at £8,321 were imported of which £2,791 were from Britain, and £5,530 from the United States. Of the latter, Cobourg alone imported to the value of £2,634, and when we consider, that Canada, in the area at present settled, is rather an agricultural than a pastoral country, it is likely, that this importation will continue to increase, until the back ridges are opened up, and occupied by settlers who will devote their attention principally to the rearing of sheep, and other stock. The total value of the animals, and their produce export ed in 1852 was £295,929, while in 1850, it was only et ,i £157,583, thus shewing, that the exports have nearly don* bled ill two years. All the foimcr, and by far the 1 irger portion of the latter wcr'^ exported to the United States, to the amount of £241,549 of the whole sum now mentioned. The other North American Colonics took £43,574 of the re* mainder, and only £10,021 went to Britain. 2. But by far the greater portion of Candian products is vegetable, grains, fruits, and seeds. Canada is pre-eminent^ ly an agricultural country, from the rich flats on the south side of the St. Lawrence below Quebec, and those to the south of Montreal to the fertile regions of the west. Of 3,695,763 acres under cultivation in Canada West, 2,273,746 were under crop in 1852, while 1,365,556 were under pas- ture. The soil is in general good, so that the extent of wheat soil is proportionably greater than in the British Isles, which contain only about a third of the area, and in many parts it is of a deep loam, admirably adapted for the rearing of crops of every kind. The climate also, in consequence of the greater and more steady heat of summer, enables a greater variety of grains, roots, and fruits to come to perfec- tion. In addition to the staples of British husbandry which are produced to a continually increasing amount. Maize is largely grown throughout the Province, while peaches, and grapes flourish in the western districts, and tobacco is raised in considerable quantities in Essex and in Kent. The whole estiinated value of the vegetable productions of agriculture, in 1851, was of grain £5,624,268, and of •other vegetable products of the farm £3,564,521, in all £9,188,789. The total amount of these various products exported in 1852 was £1,181,363. In 1851, the wheat crop of Canada West was 12,692,852 bushels, or 13.33 for every inhabitant, while it was only 3.46 in Lower Canada, and, ia as 1850, only 4.33 in the United Slates to each of the population. 7^he amount of wheat ra.'sed in Upper Canada has been nearly quadrupled within the last ten years. About an equal number of bushels of oats is reaped every year, and next to wheat and oats, peas, Indian corn, potatoes, and tur- nips arc most extensively cultivated. The amount of ihc crops of these, in 1851, displays the same astonishing in- crease as that of wheat. It is worliiy of remark, however, that while the produce of wheat was four times greater in 1851, than in 1841, the proportion to each inhabitant was only doubled, thus showing, that the population had been growing during the interval with wonderful rapidity. The home consumption is further shewn to require a much larger portion of the wheat crop to meet its demands by the fact, that the exports of wheat and flour, are not being augmented to the degree in whioh they would have been, if the rate of increase of the population had been of an ordinary kind. Out of a crop of about 16,000,000 bushels, including the crops of Canada East and West, only about 5J millions w^ere exported in 1852, about 10^ millions, or at the rate of 5^ bushels for every inhabitant, being con- sumed in the country. The value, however of this export- ed surplus was upwards of i2 1,000,000, and the amount is being annually increased. And it is farther to be remarked, that the exports of wheat, as well as of other vegetable food» might be double, and even treble what they now are, if a system of more perfect farming, such as exists in Britain, were more generally pursued. In some counties of Canada West the average yield of v^'iieat per acre is from 19 to 20 bushels, or even more, but the general average is only 16^, and in Lower Canada only 7.3. I regrcl to find, that the County of Lennox, notwithstanding its excellent soil, ha» I . 94 the smallest average to the acre under wheat crop in Canada West, in 1851, being little more than 6 bushels to the acre, but I am glad to learn, that this was owing to the ravages of the weevil, which were very destructive in that quarter in that year. It is, however, certain, that, if the land be not imperfectly tilled, or exhausted by constant cropping, but be properly cultivated, and manured, it might, over the whole of Upper Canada, without difficulty, and to the great advantage of the farirtcr, yield an average of 25 or 30 bus- hels instead of 16. Next to wheat, and besides large quantities of barley, rye and Indian corn, oats and peas are most largely produced and exported. In 1852, 641,616 bushels of oats, and 4,538 bar- rels of meal, and 239,601 bushels of peas, were exported to the estimated value of upwards of JG80,000, and the amount is increasing every year. The peas and haricot beans of Canada are of very superior colour and quality, and, like the wheat, command a high price in the British market. The roots, especially these with tap roots, as carrots and mangel-wurzel, grow luxuriantly, and attain a great size. And scarcely any thing, with careful ploughing and manur- ing of the soil, would tend more to add to the resources of the Canadian farmer than their more extensive cultivation. The preparation of the land for such crops better fits it for succeeding crops of grain, while their culture enables the agriculturist to pursue a judicious system of rotation. They are more sure in their return than the turnip, and contain more nutritive matter for the keeping and fattening of stock, of which they enable the farmer to keep a greater number, and in better condition, and at less expance also, especially in such seasons as the present, than if they had been fed mostly on hay, or even on hay and straw. For milch cows tliey are incuiiiparably superior. The supply of milk and butler from cattle fed on carrots, or mangel wurzel, is both abundant and of the finest quality. But the cultivation of root c^ops is not only attended with great advantage to the general tillage of the land, and otherwise. It is abso- lutely essential to good farming anywhere, and especially in Canada, where the winter is longer and more severe than in Britain, and stock, therefore, can be pastured only during tlie summer. To i'arm at all well, or profitably, a sulficien't number of stock must be kept to supply the necessary re- turn of manure, and this can be accomplisihed only by raising a larger amount of roots. Canadian hops were considered next to the British at the Great Exhibition in London, and 47,000 lbs were exported in 1852. 20,000 bushels of linseed, and 2,649 barrels of oilcake, also were exported in the same year, and it is evident from this, and from the excellent coarse linen made in Lower Canada, that flax is cultivated there to a small extent. But, upon the whole, the produce is comparatively insignificant. Indeed, instead of exporting, there was an importation of the raw material alone, of flax, hemp, and tow, chiefly for shipbuilding purposes, to the value of £17,552, of which ^66,609 were from Britain, and ^10,943 from the States, and, in 1851, the produce of flax and hemp together in Canada West was only 56,650 lbs, or about 25 tons. Had Canada had a large stock of these materials now, in all probability, her fortune would have been made during the ensuing summer. In addition to about 20,000 tons of flax and hemp of home growth, about 80,000 tons are im- ported annually into the United Kingdom from other coun- tries, and nearly 60,000 of these from Russia, the flax being K I * 1 .fi- , 'If 1 Aif 1 1 66 valued at from £40 to £180, sterling, and the hemp at £50 a ton. Besides this, more than 5 millions of bushels of linseed are in the list of British imports, of which 4,000,000 are from Russia, worth, at a dollar a busliel, £1,000,000, currency. The whole value of the produce of flax, and hemp, imported into Great Britain and Ireland from Russia alone is, therefore, in money value about £0,000,000 cur- rency. These inniiense imports from Russia are now at an end for a time, and a most important source of revenue to the population and government of that country is cut oif. This drying up of one of the mainsprings of their wealth by the earthquake commotions of war ujay per- haps, as much as any other circumstance, incline tJiat am- bitious power from the Czar, to the splendour a::d wealth of whose Court it ministered, to tlie peasantry, from whose small plots the exports of these materials were derived, to desire the cessation of a strife, on the i)art of Russia, at once the most unjust, and the most unprofitable. But, at all events, we may learn not lightly to overlook the benefits which she has so long enjoyed from her commerce in these articles, and in which we have every natural advantage for successfully competing with her We have a better soil and climate, though of a similar kind. The fibre of Canadian flax has been ascertained to be of the best description, and the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, years ago, de- termined by actual experiment, that Canadian hemp is equal to that from the Baltic. All that is required is to have the fibre carefully and properly prepared by well known methods for that purpose, at a very small expense. There is scarcely any object connected with the agriculture, and the increase of the wealth of the country, which is so deserving, a1 the present moment, of the atlentioit and 67 M encouragement of the Provincial Government, or which can by its endeavours, and support, and by the intelligent energy of our farmers, be more easily attained. To such an extent have the wealth and prosperity of Belfast grown, that the tonnage entering that port has increased 925 per cent within the last 36 years, while that of Liverpool, the most rapid in its increase of the British ports, has risen only 658 per cent during the same period. The exports from the port of Belfast alone were nearly £8,000,000 in 1852, and its imports upwards of £7,000,000, while the exports from the whole of Canada during the same year were only three millions and a half, and the imports £5,000,000 currency. And all this is mainly due to the commerce of the North of Ireland in the raw material, and manufactures of flax. Having thus considered that part of the industrial produc- tions of Canada which consists of agricultural products, it remains for us to consider the second part of this branch of our subject, its Manufactures. And,,/?rsf, with regard to its manufactures of copper and iron. The Montreal Mining Company, (the proprietors of the Bruce Mines,) have erected a very complete establish- ment there for working tlie ores according to the mode practiced at Swansea, and now export both black and refined copper, as well as the ore itself, and for the speci- mens which thev exhibited at the Great Exhibition in Lon- don one of the prize medals was awarded. For pig and other iron the Hon. J. Ferrier, the proprietor of the St. Maurice or Three Rivers Mines, also obtained a prize medal, and the Marmora Iron Company received an hon- orable mention. It is, therefore, much to be regretted, that while, during the year ended June 30th 1851, the United States, over and above their own consumption, exported If 96 £54,000 currency of pig and bar iron,and nails, and £41,000 of castings, and above £550,000 of iron manufactures, or a total of £645,000 of domestic produce in iron, the /hole produce of Canada, notwithstanding its vast mines, was very small, and its exports only to the value of £G063. To shew to what extent ores of iron are available as a means of increasing the resources of a country, we may just men- tion as a yet far more striking instance tlian that of the States, that, besides enormous quantities of steel and cast steel, pig iron alone was produced in Great Britain in 1351 to the amount of £5,400,000. Very little has yet been done to develope the peculiar capabilities of Canada for the production of iron, especially malleable iron, and steel of the finest quality. We are glad, however, to learn, that the works at Marmora are expected soon to be resumed under a company of largo capital, that new erections are projected, and a foreman of the works has been appointed. A rail- way passing from Kingston towards Peterborough in the direction of the works, and connected with them by a branch, would soon, we believe, generpte a trade in iron, which would yield a large return to the holders of its stock, and surtice to supply the wants of the railways, and machi- nery, the founderies, and workshops of Canada, and of Britain itself, for ages 1o come. While the most important material employed in machin- ery is as yet produced only to a small amount in Canada, its manufactures of machines, whether for direct use, or for manufacturing purposes, are in a much more advanced state throughout the Province. In various places, there are large machine factories, and founderies, in which land and lake steam engines and water wheels, with all the hea- vy and other castings, and gearing, blast engines for fur- yy naces, pump.s, aiitl fire engines, are made, and now locomotives, railway carriages, and Avaggoiis, are begun to be constructed at Montreal, Toronto, and Hamiltou. Excellent and substantial work is turned out from these manufactories. Some of the fastest steamers on the lakes liave been built on the British side, and as an in- stance worthy of notice of the skilful workmanship of our artizans we may recall to your recollection, that Mr. Perry, of Montreal, gained the first prize in London in 1851 for the best fire engine, after a comparative trial with some of the most celebrated English, and foreign makers. The ingenuity of its construction, and its great power, were equally admired. Besides these manufactures in iron, axes, planes, and other edge tools, of superior quality, together with excellent scythes from Melbourne in the Lower Province, are made in large quantities. In addition to stoves of every kind, spades, shovels, and nails are made in various places, and at Gana- noque, where these are also manufactured, a factory for the making of screw nails, the first established in Canada, will soon be in operation. Ploughs, harrows, cultivators, ihrash- ing, and separating machines, and other agricultural imple- ments of the most approved construction, are further mostly supplied by the handicraft of the Province itself. Last, though not least of the manufactures in metal, we may mention, that excellent types are cast in Montreal, and stereotype plates for printing. Next to machines made for direct use tire those manu- factured for manufacturing purposes, especially grist, and paw mills, which are very numerous, and some upon the largest scale. The saw mills in particular on the Ottawa, and at Chicouliini are perhaps the largest in \h*^. world. The whole num])er of "rist niills in Cnnada Wrst nlonr in (0 ISf)!, was 610, 41 of which were driven by steam, and pro* ducing in all about 1,800,000 barrels of flour yearly. The number of the saw mills in Canada West, in the same year, was 1618, ( of which 169 were propelled by steam,) pro- ducing during the year upwards of 400,000,000 of feet of wood. The manufacture of philosophical, surgical, and musical instruments is yet in its infancy. But that of musical instruments has already been begun with some success both in Montreal, and in Canada West. The making of woven fabrics of cotton was carried on in 1852, to a very small extent however, in a factory near the Welland Canal, and also in Sherbrooke in Canada East. The manufactures of linen are more considerable, but are almost wholly confined to the Lower Province, which pro- duced about 900,000 yards in 1851, and to coarse articles, and are not, we believe, increasing. Woollen fabrics, and mixed fabrics of wool and cotton, blankets, flannel, woollen cloth for wearing apparel of stib- stantial texture, tweeds, and satinetts are largely manufac- tured, chiefly in Canada West, and machine made hosiery is now wrought at the Mills of Mr. Lee, of Niagara. Carding and fulling mills, and cloth factories, are very numerous, and out of a produce, in 1851, of 698,764 lbs of wool, 310,890, together with 170,000 lbs imported, or nearly 500,000 lbs of \vool in all, were manufactured into woollen stuffs within the Province. The quality of the fabricj thus wrought is being improved every year. The blankets from Dundas are already highly thought of nd gained the first prize in the late Exhibition at New York, and Cobourg, in which one factory employs 175 hands, and turns out 800 yards a day, is celebrated for the amount and excellence of its cloths ; 71 Every t liing indeed, indicates, lliat Canada is destiiied to become distinguished for its manufactures in wool, and even to export them to other countries. Another branch of manufacture which is carried on to a very large extent is that of leatiier, for which the compara- tive cheapness of the hides, and the abundance of oak and hemlock bark, obtained from the timber, afford unusual facilities. One firm in lliis neighbourhood, the Messrs. Miller, are very extensively engaged in this business. The imports of unmanufaclr ed leather, therefore, in 1852, were only £15,302, shewing that tlie home supply was nearly sufficient to meet the demand for home consumption. Car- riage, sleigh, and other harness, sleigh robes, and furs, are also manufactured within the Province in a very workman- like manner, and to a considerable amount. Among the manufactures in timber, ship building occu- pies the first place, aud is curried on chiefly at Quebec, and Kingston. Forty -eight ships with a tonnage of 48,675 tons, and valued at £486,750 were built at Quebec during the last year, to 26 in 1852, valued at £262,600. This branch of business in our good city promises to become one of no small importance, and already the ships built in this port are celebrated for their substantial make, and excellent sailing qualities. Two large vessels, each of about 800 tons burden for ocean navigation, besides others, are now on the stocks in the ship yard of our worthy fellow citizen, Mr. Counter. In addition to this manufacture on a great scale, there are numerous factories for chairs, and general house furnirure, for sash making, for the making of lasts, and pegs, staves, pails, rakes, scythe-handles, and other useful articles in wood. To these are to be L.ldcd nianufaotures of excellent wril- . i? i ? t 72 iiig, printing, and wrapping paper, good Hint glass, plaster oi' Paris, earthern and pottery ware, bricks and tiles, soap and candles, on a very large scale, in Montreal and Toronto, maple sugar to the extent of 7,000,000 lbs., valued at the rate of 4d. a lb,, at £162,870, or more than one-half of the con- sumption of VVeist India sugar, wood, vinegar, charcoal, linseed oil, and manufactures in straw, which last are already exported to the Slates to a considerable amount. We would willingly dilate on some of these particulars, did your time permit, but enough has been said to shew that the maich of improvement has begun, and is steadily advancing. Such are the natural, and industrial productions of Cana- da. Yet, however great its natural capabilities, they will never be rightly developed, nor will its wealth and pros- perity ever greatly increase, if we depend on these alone. The real foundations for its future prosperity, as they must be for that of any country, are the education, religion, and morality of its people. The Indian once roamed the same land, and knew little of the riches of the soil which lay be- neath his feet, or the wealth of the forest which stretched around. But when an educated, and enterprising race, train- ed to tlie arts of a civilized life, came in, these riches began to be appreciated, and the fruits of intelligent labour yielded an abundant return. The same education, and intelligence, are necessary now to perpetuate the advantages thus reaped, and a much greater and more general advancement, in these qualifications is required, in order that the progress of the country may be as decided as it may, and ought to be. The spread of education will soon tell with almost inconceivable power on the returns of the natural productions realized, n\u\ o\'\hr iiidnstrial prodiu Is, of Canada. Even the universal 7^i I •possession of a knowledge of the most ordinary brandies of instruction will be itself of the utmost benefit. The ability to read enables a man to obtain information with regard to the facts which are of the greatest importance to be known in the business in which he is engaged, and opens up to him more widely the field of the experience, and observation, of others. Indeed without this he would become, in so far, al- .?;ROSt like the inferior creation, who have no accumulated trecsures of knowledge either of the present or of the past, and whose narrow compass of intelligence has continued the same from time immemorial. An acquaintance with arithmetic enables a man to calculate for himself, and un- derstand the calculations of others, in matters in which he is nearly interested. And the ability to write enables him to note down his observations for his own future use. and to communicate their results to others. But the improvements which have been made during the last, and especially since the beginning of the present century, in agi'iculture, and in the arts, and manufactures, depend so much on a know- ledge of the principles especially of Natural Philosophy, and Chemistry, that to carry these improvements into suc- cessful operation requires an acquaintance not only with 'he ordinary branches of a common education, for that of course is indispensable as the first step to knowledge, but also with the leading facts, and laws, of physical and chemical science, or at least with the practical rales which have been derived from them. The Agriculturist will then cultivate his farm more skilfully, and more profitably to himself, and the Engineer, the Manufacturer and the Artizan will be prepared for engaging in their work more intelligently, and efficiently. And, what will not be the least advantage, the minds of many will bo stimulated to reason, and form 74 inductions and deductions of their own ; a general spirit of enterprise will be awakened, and the inventive faculties will be called into play. Watt had received a good educa- tion, and could not have made the discoveries he did with- out it, and ere long, we may hope, some Canadian Watt, nurtured in our schools and colleges, will arise to do honour to his coun ^ , r.nd io banefit the world. George Stephenson, the celebrate ''2n. i^eer, whose locomotive gained the prize from the Directors o- J/'e Liverpool and Manchester Rail- way, altho' he had not been wholly an uneducated man, yet felt the disadvantages of the imperfection of his early instruction so much, that, in the evenings, after his ordinary work, he employed himself in mending his neighbours clocks and watches, in order that he might give a good edu- cation to his son Robert. For this purpose Robert was sent, at the age of ten, to the Academy in Newcastle, where he continued until nearly sixteen. He then, for a shoit time, received private lessons from Mr. Riddell, (afterwards headmaster of the Royal Naval School of Greenwich,) after which he attended at the University of Edinburgh the lec- tures of Professor Leslie in Natural Philosophy, Dr. Hope in Chemistry, and Professor Jamieson in Natural History. During most of this time, excepting during his absence in Edinburgh, he was the assistant and companion of his father, and the work of mutual instruction went on, until the father attained the highest distinction among the bene- factors of his country, and, from the son of a collier, pick- ing dross from coal heaps at two pence a day, became possessed of a large locomotive manufactory at Newcastle, and an extensive owner of collieries, and iron works. And his son Robert is now a member of Parliament, and enjoys the well merited reputation of the first engineer of the age. I > 75 Similar may be expecled to be the efFects of the spread both of a common, and of a higher education in Canada. It must, therefore, aflbrd peculiar gratification to all who desire to see its more yet rapid advancement, and more extended tesources, to know, that its educational interests have not, especially of late years, been neglected. Besides endow- ments, and grants lo Universities, Colleges, Grammar, and Normal Schools, and others w^ilhin the Province to a large amount, £41,095 17s lOd is given by Parliamentary grant for the annual support of the Common Schools of Canada West and East, and h divided between ue svo according to their population, each scjiool miiniclp Uty boing bound to raise at least as much by local rate as it receives from the government allowance. The amount realized from the local assessment in Upper Canadt^ greatly exceeds the minimum required. In addition to these, school rates are levied in each scliool section for llie support of the teacher, and it is pleasing to know, on comparing the sums raised for the support of Common Schools in 1851, in the Slate of New York, with the sums applied in Canada West to the same purpose, that w^hile the pi)pulation of the former was four times greater than that of U])p(r Canada, the amount expended by the former was only three limes greater than that expended by the latter. Another circumstance, also worthy of notice, is, that, while the percentage of those from five to sixteen years of ago attending school was somewhat greater in the State of New York than in Upper Canada, the proportion in Canada West had gradually in- creased from 1 in 7 in lS-12 to nearly 1 in 5 in 1851, and while the average period during wdiich the schools were kept open in New York Stale was only 7 months and 17 days, in Upper Canada it was 9 months and 28 days, or about >: *i I u i i I 76 cnc-lhji'd longer. The comparison wiUi llie Western States is stiJl more favorable to Canada, but we are as yet conside- rably behind Massachusetts both in the sum applied to educa- tional purposes, and in the extent to which school education is carried. The whole number of District, Grammar, Com- mon, and Private Schools, in 1851, in Canada West, was 3,230 attended by more than 176,000 out a population of 950,551. The propoition of those from 5 to 16 years of age attending Common Schools in Lower Canada appears^, ac- cording to the latest and still imperfect returns, to be less than one Jialf of that i ft Upper Canada. We may here mention, that we observe with regret, from the returns of 1861, that the proportion of those between the ages of 5 and 16, attending 'he Common Schools in Kingston, Frontenac, and Lenox, is considerably less than in many other parts of the Province, and in Kingston the instruction seems to be more confined to elementaiv branches than in To- ronlo, where a larger proportion of the scholars are taught Geography, and the Elements of Geometry, and Algebra, and few or none, it would appear from the returns, are taught in the Common Schools of our good city, the Elements of Na- tural Philosophy, Vocal Music, and other branches of in- struction, while many receive instruction in such branches in Toronto and Hamilton. Private Academies also were more numerous in proportioiif to the population in those cities, than in Kingston. We trust, that either some omis- sion has occurred in the returns, or that, since 1851, matters have in these respects improved, for one of those things which most tends to elevate the position of a city, as well as of a country, is a high standard of education in its citizens, and we earnestly hope, that what is needful to be done to bring it up to its due completeness among us will soon be carried into effect. ^ 71 An education ot a high.*r kind is piodticiive ol many ad- vanlages lo the community, and country, in v. hich it pre- vails. A well educated people is much more easily govern- ed than a rude, and ignorant population, and, although the expenditure required for public instruction may be consid- erable, yet both ihe private wealth, and the public revenue, will be improved by the people receiving a higher educa- tion, while the State will derive honor by having in it men of its own who have risen to distinction in literature, and science. We cannot forbear * .pressing our conviction, however humiliating the confession, that as yet a much larger portion of the youth of the New England States re- ceive a higher education than in Canada West. But we are at the same time convinced, that, in the movement in this direction which has now begun, a wide fi(4d of useful- ness and advancement lies before the Higher Schools, and Universities of Canada. Many who have once tasted the pleasures of learning will not rest, until they have made those farther attainments which lead to eminence. And as our population increases in intelligence, and wealth, they will more and more perceive, that knowledge is power, and earnestly desire for their children, and their country., the benefits of an education of the most perfect and solid kind. The education of the intellect, however, important and essential as it is, as a foundation of a nation's progiess, is not the only one. The blessing of God alone makcth rich, and without that religious instruction which elevates the mo- tives, and inspires with the truest patriotism, which restrains from vice, and prompts to justice, truth, and benevolence, be Iween man and man, the most essential element for a nation's prosperity is still awanting. There must be a people, not only of learning and intelligence, but of Christian worth and 78 '•I f ! integrity, and Canada must seek her brightest ornament, the best safeguard of her hiippiness, and the surest source of her future cminonco, in tiie piety and morality of her popu- lation. Let a wise and virtuous race of her sons arise, and a righteous government will rule for the good of its subjects, and its statutes will be cheerfully obeyed, the authority of the law will be maintained, and the rights of property will be secure, good order, and freedom without license, will prevail, her name will command the respect of other coun- tries, her credit will be extended and upheld, and capital will be freely invested for her benefit. How earnest, therefore, onght we to be, that the moral field, as well as the natural soil, may be more extensively and perfectly cul- tured, and that there may be more universally diffused throusf'iout the land the blessin£;s of our common Chris- tianity, which not only restore men to holiness and peace with their God, but confer so many and so signal moral benefits on the country ^^i which it prevails, and its elevating and purifying tendencies are widely felt "Then shall the Earth yield her increase, and God, even our God, shall bless us." THTE ENU.