446 EEYIEWS — LAKES SUPEBIOB, AND HURON. 



regions are capable of supplying an indefinite quantity of gold, the 

 value of gold will not sink universally to its permanent or natural 

 value, until the whole of the annual yield is merely sufficient to meet 

 the demands of commerce. 



That when that time shall arrive the value of gold in any country 

 will be determined solely by the cost of obtaining it in that country, 

 and nothing else. 



In the preceding remarks I have not discussed the influence of the 

 late war, (for we may happily now speak of it as past), or of many 

 other circumstances which are admitted by all to have exercised a 

 very considerable effect in raising the prices of many commodities 

 both in Canada and elsewhere during the last two or three years. 



As regards particular localities or particular classes of commodi- 

 ties the influence of these causes may no doubt have been con- 

 siderable. Glancing, however, at those co-operating. causes, I may, 

 observe that their influence on prices, whatever its amount may be, 

 is essentially different in its character from that of the gold discover- 

 ies, inasmuch as the effects of the former are merely temporary and 

 local, whereas those of the latter are permanent and co-extensive 

 with the commerce of the world. 



REVIEWS. 



Report on the exploration of Lakes Superior and Huron. By the 



Count De Rottermund. 



{Printed by order of the Legislative Assembly, April, 1856.) 



In the Report of this exploration, undertaken at the public expense 

 by the Count de Rottermund, we look in vain for a single new fact 

 of any practical or scientific value. This might indeed have been 

 predicted, a priori: the ground having been already traversed and 

 reported upon by the Officers of the Geological Commission. When 

 we affirm, however, that the Report of the Count de Rottermund con- 

 tains nothing new, nothing previously unknown, in the way of facts, 

 we do not mean to imply that it is altogether destitute of new an- 

 nouncements. Some of these, if we are to look upon the work as an 

 exponent of Canadian Science, are not exactly calculated to add to 

 our reputation in the geological world. It is now well known, from 

 the researches of Sir William Logan and Mr. Murray, that the prin- 

 cipal rock formations along the northern shores of Lakes Huron and 



