i338 LUNAR INFLUENCES. 



Witli respect to the crescent of the new moon, it always sets upon 

 its back, and this is most observable in the spring of the year, 

 when the declination of the growing moon is more northerly than 

 that of the sun. 



In respect to the various absurd ideas which we inherit from 

 bygone ages, we may observe that Canada has had her full share of 

 misrepresentation, and even at the hands of those from whom better 

 things might have been expected. Steam, no doubt, has been a 

 mighty instrument in dissipating error as well as in annihilating time 

 and space, and bringing those together who were once put so far 

 asunder. A few short years ago, this country was considered as a 

 sort of Siberia, a region of frost and snow and thick ribb'd ice. This 

 arose from the erroneous impressions caused by the early systems of 

 geography formerly in use, and the absence of communication, and 

 the scantiness of information respecting the country generally. 

 The faulty notion respecting the climate alone, and which, no doubt, 

 has had, and still has an injiirious eifect in retarding the progress of 

 its settlement, is well known. Instances innumerable might be 

 quoted on this head of climate in particular, which would form an 

 apt appendage to Sir Thomas Brown's Book on "Yulgar Errors." 

 Take the following example from Captain De Roos' Travels, p. 142, 

 143, published some years ago : "A friend of mine knew an instance 

 of an ice-boat having crossed from York to Niagara (a distance of 

 forty miles) in little more than three quarters of an hour." A 

 statement not at all questioned by his reviewer, but matched by 

 another drawing quite as literally upon the credulity of the reader. 

 The celebrated Sydney Smith observes, "We might discover in 

 Canada, or the "West Indies, or the coast of Africa (mark the com- 

 bination) a climate malignant enough or sufficiently sterile to avenge 

 all the injuries inflicted on society by pickpockets, larcenists and 

 petty felons." — Ud. Review for 1803. 



In a speech made by the late Mr. Roebuck in the House of Com- 

 mons, on the Hudson's Bay question, occurs the following passage : — 

 " When it was said that much of this district was unfit for human 

 habitation, it should be remembered that France and Gaul were 

 '' once, in point of climate, what Canada is now . . . The descrip- 

 tion of Paris in the time of Julian might now very well be applied 

 to Quebec, and if the same circumstances had taken place in Canada, 



