New Publications. 207 



place of our destination. The circumstance of there being upwards of 

 two hundred passengers on board, and a great scarcity of provisions, to- 

 gether with the coldness of the weather, rendered our situation during the 

 forty-eight hours of our imprisonment far from agreeable, 



" The country through which I travelled for some days before reaching 

 the shores of the lakes, on my way from the Ohio River to Lake Erie, 

 and also that part of it through which I passed on my route from the 

 lakes to Quebec, presented all the indications of summer, everj^ tree and 

 shrub being in full foliage. In the immediate neighbourhood of Lake 

 Erie, however, no signs of the approach of spring or returning vegetation 

 were visible, though it was towards the end of May. The countr}'- sur- 

 rounding the margin of the lake was bleak, and the trees were leafless, 

 while the atmosphere was exceedingly damp, and the temperature indi- 

 cated by the thermometer ranged from 32° to 35° of Fahrenheit. Such 

 was the effect produced on the climate by this huge cake of floating ice, 

 that it was almost impossible, from the state of the lake atmosphere, and 

 the appearance of the surrounding country, to divest one's-self of the 

 idea that winter was not yet gone, although in fact the first month in 

 summer was drawing to a close. This circumstance affords a striking ex- 

 ample of the degree in which climate may be influenced by local circum- 

 stances ; for, while the shores of Lake Erie presented this sterile appear- 

 ance, and were still plunged in the depths of winter, the country in the 

 neighbourhood of Quebec, although lying three degrees further north, 

 was richly clothed with vegetation. 



" The transition from winter to summer in the northern parts of North 

 America, is very sudden. There is no season in that country correspond- 

 ing to our spring. The vast heaps of hardened snow and ice which have 

 accumulated during the winter, remain on the ground long after the sun 

 has attained a scorching heat, but it is not until his rays have melted and 

 removed them, that the climate becomes really warm, and then the foliage 

 being no longer checked by the cold produced by these masses of snow and 

 ice, instantly bursts forth, and at that particular time a single day makes 

 a marked difference on the i^ce of the countr}%" 



The river navigation of America, which is next considered, 

 affords an opportunity of giving a minute description of those 

 great rival rivers, the St Laurence and the Mississippi. The 

 systems of navigating those rivers are very different, the St 



Laurence bemg " distorted by numerous expansions and contractions 

 of its banks, and also by declivities or falls in its bed, and clusters of 

 small islands, which render its navigation exceedingly dangerous^ and in 

 some places wholly imjjracticable for all sorts of vessels excepting the 

 Canadian hatteaux, which are strong flat-bottomed boats, built expressly 

 for its navigation. While the bed in which the Mississippi flows, is of a 

 soft alluvial formation, maintaining a nearly uniform breadth throughout 



