265 
SCIENTIFIC REVIEWS. 
Historical Aceount of Discoveries and Travels in North America, 
&c. 2 vols. Svo. By Huew Murray, Esq. F.R.S.E. Long- 
- man & Co. London. Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh. 1629.. 
No subject is so extensive, no field so fertile, as the geographical 
description (in the ordinary acceptation of the word) of a large and 
fertile country ; and when this is applied to an immense continen- 
tal tract, presenting different physical features, inhabited by diffe- 
rent nations of men, with the whole range of diversity from bar- 
rens and virgin forests to all the improvements of agriculture,— 
from barbarous uncouth Indians to the most civilized colonist,— 
and when we have to contemplate “a people destined to become 
the greatest on earth, whose population will ultimately surpass that 
of all Europe, and is fast covering the whole of the western world,” 
an almost boundless knowledge of nature, a deep acquaintance with 
the springs of social order and the fountains of political economy, 
and a correctness of judgment which shall render each generaliza- 
tion a glimpse at futurity, are among the least of the intellectual 
attributes necessary for the task. ‘The Historical Account of the 
Discoveries and Travels in North America, independent of those 
essays on the physical geography, political system, moral and social 
state, industry and commerce, of the United States,—on the pre- 
sent state of Canada, and on emigration in general, which Mr. Mur- 
ray has presented to us, is of itself sufhcient to constitute a work 
of exceeding interest. There is connected with it the almost mys- 
terious visits of our own ancestors,—the discovery and gradual ex- 
ploration of a new world,—the civilization of its southern parts, as 
ancient as that of the shores and islands of the Titicaca,—the inva- 
sion of the Spaniards,—the establishment of the western colonies, 
and their gradual rise to independence,—the labours of our navi-~ 
gators to steer through the ices of the north, and the exertions of 
our countrymen treading the shores of the Polar Sea,—labours 
which may be considered as equal to those of the travellers who suf- 
fered under the burning sun of Africa, though there were some ad- 
vantages connected with the northern voyages and travels that led 
to much more satisfactory results than the many attempts made to 
penetrate the interior of the last-mentioned continent, and which 
are to be sought for in the taste and excellent judgment of the indi- 
viduals engaged in these meritorious researches, and the impulse 
given to natural science by the march of intellect at home. 
We never perhaps saw a more superficial attempt than that of 
Mr. Murray to condense so great a variety of materials,—a result 
still more astonishing, as the catalogue of works which he states 
himself to have consulted, includes the very best authorities ; and 
as our knowledge of these countries is so rapidly increasing, from 
the labours of intelligent inhabitants, and from the progressive ad< 
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