LOWER CANADA. 249 



and is often cultivated. The isle of Orleans, near Quebec, and the 

 'ands upon the river St. Lawrence, and other rivers, are remarkable 

 or the richness of their soil. The meadow grounds in Canada, 

 which are well watered, yield excellent grass, and breed vast num- 

 bers of great and small cattle. 



Timber and plants. ...The uncultivated parts of North America 

 contain the greatest forests in the world. They are a continued wood, 

 not planted by the hands of men, and in all appearance as old as the 

 world itself. Nothing is more magnificent to the sight ; and there is 

 such a prodigious variety of species, that even amongst those per- 

 sons who have taken most pains to describe them, there is not one 

 perhaps that knows half the number. The province we are describ- 

 ing produces, amongst others, two sorts of pines, the white and the 

 red ; four sorts of firs ; two sorts of cedar and oak, the white and the 

 red ; the male and the female maple ; three sorts of ash trees, the 

 free, the mongrel, and the bastard ; three sorts of walnut trees, the 

 hard, the soft, and the smooth ; vast numbers of beech trees and 

 white wood ; white and red elms; and poplars. The Indians hollow 

 the red elms into canoes, some of which, made out of one piece, will 

 contain twenty persons ; others are made of the bark, the different 

 pieces of which they sew together with the inner rind, and daub over 

 the seams with pitch, or rather a bituminous matter resembling pitch 

 to prevent their leaking ; and the ribs of these canoes are made of 

 boughs of trees. About November the bears and wild cats take up 

 their habitations in the hollow elms, and remain there till April. 

 Here are also found cherry-trees, plum-trees, the vinegar-tree, the 

 fruit of which, infused in water, produces vinegar; an aquatic plant* 

 called alaco, the fruit of which may be made into a confection ; the 

 white thorn ; the cotton-tree, on the top of which grow several tufts 

 of flowers, which, when shaken in the morning before the dew falls 

 off, produce honey, that may be boiled up into sugar, the seed being 

 a pod containing a very fine kind of cotton ; the sun-plant, which 

 resembles a marigold, and grows to the height of seven or eight feet; 

 Turkey corn ; French beans ; gourds, melons, capillairc, and the hop 

 plant. 



The trees of the British provinces, are, however, generally inferi- 

 our in size to those of the United States, on account of the rigour 

 of the climate. 



Animals... .These make the most curious, and hitherto the most in- 

 teresting part of the natural history of Canada. In their spoils has 

 heretofore consisted the principal pavt of the trade of this country, 

 and they furnish the materials of many important manufactures. 

 Those animals which are common to Canada and the United States 

 will be described under the latter. Those which appear to be pecu- 

 liar to this and the more northern provinces, are, 



The Lufms Cervarius, commonly called the Loup, Cervier,a. species 

 of lynx, the same as the lynx of Siberia. A few stragglers are oc- 

 casionally seen in Maine, but they mostly confine themselves to the 

 higher latitudes. They are covered with long greyish hair. Their 

 fur is fine, close, and highly esteemed. Their length varies from two 

 to three feet, and the tail is about six inches long, and tipped with 

 olack. 



The Kincajou, is a very common animal in some parts of Canada, 

 is a formidable en^mv to the deer, numbers of which are destrov 

 IT Rk 



