OF THE RIVER SAINT LAWRENCE. 



265 





Travelling through the Northern country, and the transportation of goods, during the 

 open seasons, since the discovery of Canada, were chiefly carried on through the lakes, 

 rivers, and streams, in bateaux, or canoes hollowed out of pine logs, — or in the still more 

 fragile craft, birch-bark canoes, — which were hauled out at rapids and falls, and carried 

 around by the Portage roads to the navigable water above or below, as the case varied. 



These brought into action a peculiar class of hardy French-Canadians, with Indians 

 and half-breeds, all known as " voyageurs;" and it is not to be wondered at that the open- 

 ing of the long-frozen waters is hailed with pleasure, as the commencement of a new 

 existence, in the interior of the country. 



The temperature of the lakes and rivers, and of the soil, has been referred to ; and the 

 study of a sufficient number of observations would probably enable us to define the general 

 laws of cooling: but all the leading phenomena connected with the advent of winter, and 

 with the well-established but slight moderation, known as the " January thaw," the mode 

 and time of breaking up of the ice, have naturally been long and patiently watched and 

 noted ; and as the variations of temperature and their effects on the streams and rivers 

 are again and again repeated, with much general regularity, there is little room for error 

 in taking only a few years' observations for the establishment of the leading general charac- 

 teristics of a given locality : and the uniformity of recurrence in the phenomena under 

 consideration is one of the most striking features of the natural history of the country. 



The average number of days of closed navigation is : 



At Quebec, . 



At Montreal, . 



Of the St, Lawrenoe Canals, . 



Of the Ottawa, . 



Of the Lake at Kingston, 



Of Lake Erie, at Buffalo, 



Of the New York Canals, 



Of the Welland Canal, . 



Of the Detroit River, 



Of the Sault Ste. Mario Canal, 



Of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, 



J45 

 135 



90 

 130 

 134 

 11(5 

 117 

 156 

 118 



The few frosts which occasionally occur early in October, and effect that remarkable 

 change in the color of vegetation so often dwelt on by those who have resided in, or visited, 

 during the " fall," the northeastern portion of the continent, are generally followed by 

 unsettled weather, with occasional heavy rains, and a temperature corresponding to the 

 mean of the year. This is succeeded, early in November, by a slight flurry of snow, and 

 then by a warm and genial season, with an increased degree of moisture in the air, and a 



VOL. XIII. — 34 



