CANADA. 



A GEOGRAPHICAL, AGRICULTURAL, AND 

 MINERALOGICAL SKETCH. 



It is proposed in the following pages to give a 

 short account of the physical geography and geo- 

 logy of Canada, considered more especially with 

 reference to its agricultural capabilities, and to the 

 nature of its different soils. To this necessarily 

 very brief outline will be joined a notice of some 

 of the more important natural productions of the 

 country, chiefly those derived from the mineral 

 kingdom. The consideration of its vegetable and 

 animal products, except so far as the questions of 

 manures from the fisheries, and of peat from the 

 bogs, are concerned, will be left to another pen. For 

 more ample details on the various matters here 

 touched upon, the reader is referred to the Reports 

 of the Geological Survey of the province, and espe- 

 cially to the large octavo volume published in 1863, 

 and entitled GEOLOGY OF CANADA ; to which the writer 

 is indebted for most of the materials of the present 

 sketch. 



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 



