of the Old World and the New World. 169 
waters; like the Arkansas, and so many others composing that ~ 
vast system of arteries that vivify the whole West, and that are 
destined to assume daily a greater and greater importance ? ? And 
these immense rivers are not isolated. At the side of the Ma- 
ranon, the La Plata has a course of not less than 1,900 miles, and * 
more than a million of square miles send it their waters. t the 
side of the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence has a course of 1,800 
miles and a basin of nearly a million of square miles. : 
The Old World offers nothing similar. The greatest of its . 
rivers, the Yan-tse-Kiang in China, has a course of only 2,500 m 
miles. The Ganges and the Nile are far from equalling it. The 
Volga, the greatest of the rivers of Europe, exhibits a course of 
only 1,700 miles: and if it were necessary to enumerate in Amer- 
ica rivers like the Rhine, so celebrated, it would be almost by 
hundreds that we should have to cite them 
And what shall we say of the abundance of its lakes? The 
group of the great lakes "of Canada, so characteristic of North 
, America, finds nowhere a parallel, It contains at once the largest 
"lakes in the world, and the greatest mass of fresh water united - 
on the surface of the continents. nee? vast seas th fresh water, |” 
100,600 with the St. Lawrence, cover a surface of nearly aes 
- 
They, too, are not alone, and a glance off the eye at the map, j 
enables us to perceive in the North a multitude of rae ay “an § 4 3 
inferior in extent: the lake Athapescow, Winnipeg, Sla + 
the Great Bear, are worthy to figure side. is side with 4 e ee 
of Canada and of ob St. Lawrence. 
ot, 
earn merce _between all the parts of this \ ve 
: nope everything of the. 
he avatery element reigtigget . 
hough half of its lands are i lags th Ve cde 
“yet,: Hehe PT te b nak Ameri hs 
little sta orld, and” we “Fy 
ti, fe ob 4 athe, oceahic te 
ba they are oes ea will become still:more so, 
- Maeeeet Niszis, ve vis wd t P 
“and th a tion of #ts lands; “while the Did Wo vt 
; 4 ai ‘for its ape ae <2 
“Lee tie * follow ott 
es: pon the) 
ie Ne rife 
