EFFECT OF CLIMATE ON PEOPLE. 427 



wood to the city or village, and sells it, sometimes bark to 

 the tanneries, or logs to the mill, or ship timbers to the 

 ship-yard, or sleepers to the railway, &c., &c., accordingly 

 as he happens to be situated. 



A comparison between the climate of the United States 

 and of Canada, as exemplified by the physique and ap- 

 pearance of the people, is very strongly in favour of the 

 latter climate. A climate suitable to the forest, as we 

 have seen, is also that one most suitable to the growth of 

 grasses and to the health of cattle. It is also most 

 favourable to man, who appears to benefit by a certain 

 amount of humidity in the atmosphere as much as the 

 forest tree. Thus the natives of the forest regions in 

 North America are robust and ruddy, while those of the 

 prairies and treeless regions are lanky and yellow. The 

 world cannot produce finer specimens of manhood than 

 are to be met with in the backwoods of Canada, more 

 especially in the lumber districts. Canadian-born men 

 are, if anything, taller than the old-country people, and 

 less fleshy; they are hardy, robust, and vigorous, pre- 

 senting a very striking contrast to their next neighbours. 



Although the colonies are better known and more 

 thought about in the old country than they were a short 

 time ago, still there is a certain amount of mist to be cleared 

 away. Untravelled and unthinking Englishmen are apt 

 to suppose that because the two countries lie side by side 

 in the map of the New World, separated through many 

 degrees by only an imaginary boundary line, that there- 

 fore the citizens of Canada and of the United States 

 must be almost identical in physique, appearance, habits, 

 character, and so on. There cannot be a greater mistake. 



