168 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



conveys most generally the idea of plurality. It is commonly 

 used in indefinite sentences : 



On dit, people say, they say, it is | On parle, somebody speaks, efc. 

 said. 



On garde sans remords ce qu'On We (one, people) keep without re- 



acquiert sans crime. worse that which we (one, people) 



COENEILLE. acquire without crime. 



On relit tout Racine ; On choisit We (people, they) read again and 



dans Voltaire. DELILLB. \ again all Racine ; we (etc.) select in 



\ Voltaire. 



On ne surmonte le vice qu'en le | We conquer vice only by avoiding 



fuyant. FENELON. | it. 



(5.) On, coming immediately after the words et, ou, si, que, 

 and qui, may be preceded by the article 1', used for euphony ; 

 this should not be done, however, when on precedes a word 

 beginning with 1 : 



That which one understands well 

 he clearly expresses. 



Jt is from a king that we derive 

 this august maxim, that one is only 

 great in proportion as he is just. 



Ce que 1'on cohort bien, s'ex- 

 prime clairement. BOILEAU. 

 C'est d'un roi que 1'on tient cette 



maxime auguste, 

 Qne jamais on n'est grand, qu'au- 



tant que 1'on est juste. 



BOILEAU. 



NOTE. L'on may be used before, but never after, a verb. 

 When on follows a verb ending with a vowel, t is inserted 

 between them for the sake of euphony : 



Vous croira-t-On ? 

 L'aime-t-on ? 



Will they believe you 

 Is he loved 1 



(6.) Personne, no one, nobody, as an indefinite pronoun, is 

 always masculine and singular, and may be used as subject 

 or as object. Like all negative expressions, it requires ne be- 

 fore the verb : 



II n'est personne qui ne 

 cherche a se reudre heureux. 

 Chinese thought. 



Personne ne veut 6tre plaint de 

 ses erreurs. VAUVEN ARGUES. 



Je n'ai vu et n'ai entendu per- 

 sonne. 



There is no one who does not seel; 

 to render himself happy. 



No one wishes to be pitied on ac- 

 count of his misfafccs. 



I have seen and ?ieard nobody. 



LESSONS IN GEOGRAPHY. XXXVII. 



NORTH AMERICA (continued). 



THE rivers in North America are even on a grander scale 

 than the mountains, as compared with those of the Old World. 

 The largest river in this continent is the Mississippi, which 

 brings to the Atlantic the waters drained from a surface of 

 more than a million of square miles. This river, which rises 

 in Lake Itasca, in Minnesota, at the elevation of about 1,500 

 feet, flows in a southerly direction to its embouchure, in the 

 Gulf of Mexico, a distance of about 2,400 miles, reckoning its 

 windings. The longer branch of this river, called the Missouri, 

 rises in the Eocky Mountains, and has a course of about 

 2,500 miles before it joins the Mississippi ; so that the whole 

 length of the River Mississippi by this great branch is upwards 

 of 4,000 miles. This river is navigable from the sea to the 

 Falls of St. Anthony, a distance of about 400 miles from its 

 source ; and the Missouri is navigable from its junction with 

 the Mississippi to the great falls at the base of the Eocky 

 Mountains. Thus the navigation of the Mississippi exceeds a 

 distance of 2,000 miles, and that pf the Missouri, with the 

 lower Mississippi, a distance of 3,000 miles. The Ohio, another 

 tributary to the Mississippi, has a course of nearly 1,000 miles 

 before it reaches the latter, and receives a considerable number 

 of tributary rivers, of which the Tennessee is the largest, being 

 nearly equal to the Ohio itself. The delta of the Mississippi, 

 owing to the floods which occur among the tributaries and the 

 principal branches, is annually inundated to a great extent 

 from its banks, and is frequently the cause of very serious 

 changes and loss to the neighbouring country. 



The next river of importance and magnitude is the St. Law- 

 rence. The source of this river is the St. Louis, which flows 

 ino Lake Superior. This lake is connected, like a chain, with 

 Lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario, through all of which the river 

 runs, and, escaping from the latter, receives the name of the 

 St. Lawrence : it then flows iu a channel of about 700 miles in 



length, forming between Quebec and the sea a broad estuary, 

 which increases from 25 miles to upwards of 100 miles at its 

 embouchure. The whole length of the St. Lawrence is conse- ; 

 quently about 2,000 miles. This river is navigable to the 

 rapids, near Montreal. On the channel between Lakes Erie 

 and Ontario, a distance of about 40 miles, occur the Falls 

 of Niagara, about 150 feet in depth, one of the most remark- 

 able cataracts in the world for extent and sublimity. In 

 the northern regions of the North American continent occur 

 several rivers of considerable extent : the Nelson, about 1,400 

 miles ; the Churchill, about 900 miles ; the Mackenzie, upwards 

 of 2,000 miles ; the Coppermine Eiver, and others, whose lengths 

 are not yet determined. On the eastern coast of this continent 

 are a number of rivers, whose average length is about 400 miles, 

 such as the Connecticut, the Hudson, the Delaware, the SUB- 

 quehanna, the Potomac, the Savannah, etc., all of which flow 

 into the Atlantic. On the western side of the continent, and 

 flowing into the Pacific, are the following, with their estimated 

 lengths : The Columbia, 750 miles; the Sacramento, 420 miles; 

 and the Colorado, 840 miles. The Eio Grande del Norte, about 

 1,400 miles long, falls into the Gulf of Mexico. 



Of the lakes in North America, the largest are those in the 

 line of the St. Lawrence, namely, Superior, Huron, Michigan, 

 Erie, and Ontario, which, taken together, are estimated to 

 cover a surface of nearly 100,000 square miles. These lakes 

 are situated upon a succession of terraces, rising one abova 

 another. Ontario, at a height of 234 feet above the level of the 

 sea, covers about 13,000 square miles; Erie, at a height of 565 

 feet, about 11,000 square miles ; Huron, at a height of 595 feet, 

 about 17,000 square miles ; Michigan, about the same height, 

 nearly 14,000 square miles ; and Superior, at the height of 627 

 feet, about 43,000 square miles. 



The other lakes of North America are very considerably 

 smaller, those in the northern part of this continent being 

 Lakes Winnipeg, Winnipegoos, and Athabasca, the Great Slave 

 and Great Bear Lakes, the Deer Lake, Lake Wollaston, etc., 

 covering altogether a surface of about 30,000 square miles. To- 

 the west of the Eocky Mountains are the Great Salt Lake and 

 Lake Utah ; in Mexico and Central America, Lake Chapala., 

 Lake Nicaragua, and Lake Managua, covering a space of about 

 4,600 square miles. 



The islands of North America are numerous. Greenland may 

 be regarded as an immense island, in the north-west ; Grinnell 

 Land, North Devon, Cornwallis. Melville Island, Banks Land, 

 Prince Albert Island, Prince of Wales Island, North Somerset, 

 Cockburn Island, and some others to the north of the mainland, 

 form what is sometimes called the Arctic Archipelago. Going 

 southwards along the Atlantic seaboard we find Newfoundland, 

 Anticosti, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton, on the 

 British coast, and Long Island and some smaller ones on the 

 United States Coast. Far out in the Atlantic are the Bermudas, 

 and stretching in an arc from Florida to the north coast of 

 South America are the West India Islands, which will be men- 

 tioned in detail in our next lesson. On the Pacific seaboard are 

 Vancouver Island and Queen Charlotte Islands. On the coast 

 of British Columbia and on the coast of Alaska are Prince of 

 Wales Archipelago, Sitka, Kodiak, and some others ; and the 

 Aleutian Isles trending westward in a long chain from the head- 

 land which terminates the peninsula of Alaska. This peninsula, 

 it may be said, gives its name to the whole of the new territory 

 purchased by the United States from Eussia, and formerly 

 known as Eussian America. 



SUMMARY OP RIVERS. 



St. Lawrence, Canada. 



Hudson, E. United States. 



Delaware, E. United States. 



Chesapeake, E. United States. 



Mississippi (with the Missouri, 

 Ohio, and other great tributa- 

 ries), Central and S. United 

 States. 



Eio Grande del Norte, Mexico. 



Colorado, E. United States. 



Sacramento, E. United States. 



Columbia, E. United States. 



Frazer River, British Columbia. 



Youkou, Alaska. 



Mackenzie River, British North 

 America. 



Back River, British North America. 



Great Fish River, British North 

 America. 



Nelson (and its tributary, the Sas- 

 katchewan), British North 

 America. 



SUMMARY OF LAKES. 

 Ontario 

 Erie 

 Huron 

 Michigan 

 Superior 



Itasca, Minnesota, U.S. 

 Nicaragua, Central America. 

 Chapala, Mexico. 

 Great Salt Lake, Utah. 



For boundary line 

 between tho United 

 States and Dominion 

 of Canada. 



