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stupendous efforts that unfold so wide a field 

 for the inquisitive researches of human wisdom 

 to investigate the effects of her creative power, 

 none are more calculated to excite admiration, 

 and bafHe the progress of philosophic enquiry, 

 than the vast collections of fresh waters forming 

 the chain of lakes, that through the channel of 

 the Saint Lawrence descend like another sea 

 to swell the bosom of the Atlantic. To trace 

 the means, and lay open the secret agency by 

 which these magnificent objects are produced, 

 is left to the abler hand of science; my design 

 is to relate, with the humble ability I am pos- 

 sessed of, the actual state of some of these ex- 

 traordinary features of a country, even now 

 but little known, comparatively speaking, to 

 the rest of the world, as they have appeared to 

 me, and as they are connected with the work 

 I have undertaken. In this relation, the ma- 

 jestic river Saint Lawrence, from its import- 

 ance to the British dominions on this continent, 

 and, in fact, to the general interests of the British 

 empire, will claim the first place in whatever way 

 it can be examined. Embracing an inland na- 

 vigation of little less than 1000 miles up to 

 Niagara upon its own stream only, and which 

 distance, with the exception of about 300 miles, 

 is entirely within British territory ; it confers 



* From the mouth of the St. JL.awrence up to St. Regis;, a 



