356 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Oct, 



that such denudation is as difficult to account for as it is to explain 

 by what possible gradual agency the vast interior of the valley of 

 elevation of the Weald of Sussex and Kent, and that of the smaller 

 valley of Woolhope in Herefordshire, have been so absolutely and 

 entirely denuded of every fragment of the enormous masses of 

 debris which must have encumbered these cavities, as derived from 

 the rocks which once covered them ? Placing no stint whatever on 

 the time which geologists must invoke to satisfy their minds as to 

 the countless ages which elapsed during the accumulations of sedi- 

 ment, I reject as an assumption which is at variance with the 

 numberless proofs of intense disturbance, that the mechanical dis- 

 ruptions of former periods, and the overthrow of entire formations, 

 as seen in the Alps and many mountain chains, can be accounted 

 for by any length of action of existing causes. 



A GEOGRAPHICAL, SKETCH OF CANADA.* 



The great basin of the St. Lawrence, in which the province of 

 Canada is situated, has an area of about 530,000 square miles. Of 

 this, including the gulf of St. Lawrence, the river, and the great 

 lakes, to Lake Superior inclusive, about 130,000 square miles are 

 covered with water, leaving for the dry land of this basin an area 

 of 400,000 square miles, of which about 70,000 belong to the 

 United States. The remaining 330,000 square miles constitute 

 the province of Canada. With the exception of about 50,000 

 square miles belonging to Lower Canada, and extending from the 

 line of New York to Gaspe, the whole of this territory lies on the 

 north side of the St. Lawrence and the great lakes. 



On either side of the valley of the lower St. Lawrence is a range 

 of mountainous country. The two ranges keep close to the 

 shores for a considerable distance up the river ; but about 100 

 miles below Quebec, where the river is fifteen miles wide, the south- 

 ern range begins to leave the margin, and opposite to Quebec is 

 thirty miles distant. From this point it runs in a more southern 

 direction than the river-valley, and opposite to Montreal is met 



* The following pages are extracted from a small pamphlet on Cana- 

 da, prepared by Dr. T. S ferry Hunt, at the request of the Minister of Ag- 

 riculture, for distribution at the Exhibition held at Dublin in 1865. As 

 containing a brief and popular description of the topography and the 

 soils of the Province they may not be without interest to our readers. 



