in no part been subjected to cultivation, except in small spots, where the fur traders have established posts; and on the banks of the Red River, where the late Lord Selkirk established a settlement.

The principal lakes of this region, are, the Lake of Woods, equidistant between Lake Superior and Lake Winnipeg. It receives the river La Pluie, rising in the heights west of Lake Superior, and discharges its waters, by a rapid river, into Lake Winnipeg.

LAKES ATHABASCA AND WINNIPEG.-Lake Winnipeg is about 240 miles long, and, in its irregular width, from five to fifty-five miles broad. It lies between latitudes 50 deg. and 54 deg. N., and longitude 96 deg. to 108 W. It receives the waters of several rivers, the largest of which is the Saskatchawine, which flows from the Rocky Mountains. It receives also the Assinboin and Red rvers, and its surplus waters are carried off by two or more rivers to Hudson Bay. The large lakes, Winnipegoos and Mannetowoopow, lie immediately west of, and discharge their waters into, Lake Winnipeg. Lake Athabasca, lying west of these, is about 200 miles long, and from fourteen to twenty-six broad. It receives several rivers, some of which, the Unjigah, or Peace River, and others, rise in the Rocky Mountains. Its waters are carried off the rapid Stony river, along a rocky channel, into Slave Lake; on the north, its shores are rugged and barren; on the south, alluvial; and on the west, sandy and naked.

The Slave Lake is larger than either Lake Ontario or Lake Erie, being 250 miles long, by about fifty in breadth. It is from sixty to seventy-five fathoms in depth. Its shores are generally wooded, with firs, beeches, and poplars; and it has several small islands, many of them high, abrupt elevations of rock, principally gneiss and granite. It receives several rivers, and discharges its waters by the river Mackenzie, by which Sir Alexander Mackenzie first, and afterward Sir John Franklin, descended to the Arctic Ocean, in latitude 67 deg. 48 min. N., and longitude 115 deg. 37 min. W.

The extensive regions lying west of the Rocky Mountains, from the Gulf of California to Behring Straits, and possessed by Russia, England, the United States, and Spain, abound with innumerable bays, islands, rivers, and harbours; and, south of the Russian limits, in latitude 55 deg. N., splendid forests, mountains, hills, rich valleys, and plains, wild animals, and plentiful fisheries. The climate, also, like the western shores of the old continent, is much milder than that of countries under the same latitude on the eastern coasts. The Oregan, or Columbia, the Frazer, and the Buenoventura, are the principal rivers.

The territory of the Hudson Bay Company, held by virtue of the charter granted by Charles II., is now understood to include all the countries from 52 deg. N., on the coast of Labrador, to the extremity of all the rivers falling into Hudson Bay. This portion of Labrador is of little importance, excepting

for furs and fisheries; and the coast and Bay of Hudson, and the inhospitable regions of the Esquimaux, are of as little consequence; but the rivers which flow into the bay, rising in the south and west, actually include a portion of the United States, and nearly the whole of the Indian territory, in which the old French fur traders, and the Montreal Company, had forts or trading-posts. The latter are now occupied by the servants of the Hudson Bay Company, who may be said to monopolise the whole fur trade of British North America. The territory, called Ossiniboin, purchased in 1811, by the late Earl of Selkirk, from the Hudson Bay Company, is understood to commence "at a point in 52 deg. 30 min. N., on the western shore of Lake Winnipeg, the line running also west to Lake Winnipegoos, or Little Winnipeg; then south, to latitude 52 deg. on the western shore of this lake, thence south to the highlands, dividing the waters of the Missouri and Mississippi from those falling into Lake Winnipeg, thence by those highlands to the source of river La Pluie, and down that river, through the Lake of the Woods and river Winnipeg, to the place of beginning." Half of this territory at least, and certainly the better half, is within the boundary of the United States. The whole comprises about 116,000 square miles, or 73,240,000 acres.

CHAPTER III.

CONFIGURATION AND ASPECT OF THE TERRITORIES OF THE UNITED STATES.

THE land, along the whole sea coast of the United States, is generally low, level, or undulated, for some distance into the interior. This low or sea coast region is about fifty miles broad at the north-east extremity, and from thence widens, gradually, till it attains near 200 miles in the State of Georgia; beyond which line, the land gradually rises into hills and mountain ridges, which are more remarkable for their length and breadth, than their height; and whether, in parallel ridges, or rising in isolated hills, the whole range with its numerous ramifications form Percé, near the mouth of the St. Lawrence, in the district of Gaspé, to where they disappear in the southern states, from the Alleghaneys, called by the Indians the Endless Mountains. The general course of the Alleghaneys, from their rise to the frontiers of British America, is about north-east and southwest. East of the Hudson they diverge, and spread, irregularly towards the south.

The range of the Rocky or Chippewayan Mountains are a continuation of the Andes, or Cordilleras of Mexico. Their western limit is considered to be about 112 deg. west longitude, and they terminate in about 70 deg. north latitude.

The numerous ridges and ramifications of the Rocky Mountains occupy a breadth of from two to three hundred miles. Lewes says he saw their high snow-covered summits at a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. From the highest summits being covered with perpetual snow, they have been called the shining mountains. The Missouri and all the rivers falling into the Mississippi from the west, are supplied by the streams, and torrents, flowing from the Rocky Mountains. Along the Pacific there is a large, collateral range, extending from the Cape of California along the coast to Cook's Inlet, generally rising to no great height in the southern portion. In the northern part, Le Perouse states that this range rises to the height of ten thousand feet, and that its northern extremity, Mount Elias, is eighteen thousand feet high, and the loftiest peak of North America.

MOUNTAINOUS ELEVATION OF THE SEVERAL STATES.

NEW ENGLAND.-The White Mountains in New England are the principal ramifications running north-east and south-west, which diverge from the great Alleghaney ridge. The highest summits are those of the White Mountain ridge. in New Hampshire, which extend from north to south. These are the loftiest in the United States east of the Mississippi. Mount Washington, the highest, is six thousand two hundred and thirty feet above the level of the sea. Mount Adams, Mount Jefferson, and Mount Madison, are each more than five thousand feet high.

These mountains are difficult of access. The east side of Mount Washington rises at an angle of forty-five degrees. From the summit the Atlantic, sixty-five miles distant, is seen, and the view extends west to the hills.

MAINE. The northern and western parts of Maine are mountainous. The highest summits are the Katahdin, the Speckled, Bald, Bigelow, and Ebeem, mountains.

VERMONT.-The range between the rivers Hudson and Connecticut, and between the latter and Lake Champlain, called the Green Mountains, which have given a name to the state of VERMONT, corrupted from Verd- Mont, the name given to the highest range by the French in Canada, from its perpetual verdure, being covered on its western side with pine, spruce, hemlock, and other evergreen trees. The Green Mountains, or hills, are from ten to fifteen miles in breadth, and intersected with fertile valleys, through which numerous streams flow. Vegetation, which is luxuriant in the valleys, and on the lower slopes of the hills and mountains, becomes gradually stinted towards the summits; which are usually covered with broad thickets of spruce and hemlock, from two to three feet high, with the branches so closely intertwined, as to render the way between them impassable.

The loftiest summits are Killington Peak, near Rutland, Camel's Rump, between Montpelier and Burlington, and Mansfield Mountain, all of which are above 3000 feet high.

MASSACHUSETTS.-Ramifications of the Green Mountains enter the western parts of Massachusetts from the north, and form the Hoosack and Tagkannuc ridges, which run nearly parallel to each other south, into Connecticut. The most elevated of the Tagkannuc are, Saddle Mountain, in the north, 4000 feet high, and Tagkannuc Mountain in the south, 3000 feet high. None of the summits of the Hoosack ridge exceed half that elevation.

NEW YORK.-Ramifications of the Alleghaney range extend in two principal ridges in the state of New York, the Catskill and Wallkill. The Catskill, or the most northern, is the chief ridge of the Alleghaney or western chain. The hills of Weehawken rise on the west side of the Hudson, nearly opposite the city of New York.

The Highlands of the Hudson, called Fishkill Mountains, about forty miles above the city of New York, are conspicuous for their picturesque and romantic grandeur. These heights extend for about twenty miles along both sides of the Hudson. The loftiest summit is about 1500 feet high.

The Peruvian Mountains consist of a lofty region in the northern part of New York, the sources of the Hudson flow from them, and these separate also the waters of Lake Champlain from those falling into Lake Ontario. The loftiest summit, called Whiteface, is about 3000 feet above the level of Lake Champlain.

PENNSYLVANIA.-The Alleghaney, called the Apalachian chain, in Pennsylvania, spreads in this state to liits widest mits, and occupies, with its various ramifications and ranges, more than half of the state.

The greatest breadth is about 200 miles, and consists of parallel ridges, separated, in some parts, by narrow valleys, or ravines, in others by valleys and plains, twenty or thirty miles broad. The range nearest the sea-coast, called the South Mountains, is a continuation of the blue ridge of Virginia. The blue ridge is an irregular rocky, broken eminence, sometimes disappearing altogether, and afterwards rising into hills and summits over a breadth of several miles. They rise about 150 to 200 miles inland from the sea-coast, and are about 1200 feet above the level of the surrounding country. Beyond these are the Kittatinny, or the Blue Mountains, which extend from Maryland to New Jersey, the Susquehanna and Delaware flowing through the range. Further westward are the ridges called the Sideling Hills, Ragged Mountains, Great Warrior Mountain, East Wills Mountain, all of which branch from the Alleghaney ridge. The highest summits are between 3000 and 4000 feet above the level of the sea.

West of the Alleghaney, are the Laurel and Chesnut ridges. These are generally covered with thick forests, and are traversed by the great streams of the Susquehanna and the head waters of the Ohio. The Wallkill, which crosses the Hudson at West Point, forty miles below the Catskill, is a continuation of the Blue ridge, or Eastern Chain.

The eastern and western ranges run parallel to each other south-west, till on

the frontiers of North Carolina and Virginia they unite, and are called the Alleghaney arch. A little further to the south, but still in North Carolina, collateral ridges unite from the west, and form a culminating point between the sources of several rivers. Another ramification, or rather range, stretches southwest, and then west, called by the name of the Cumberland Mountains, through the whole state of Tenessee, while the main Alleghaney Chain, nearly unaccompanied by any collateral ridge, extends south-west to the western boundaries of Georgia, and the Carolinas.

Mr. Jefferson divided the whole of the territory from the Mississippi to the Atlantic into three natural divisions each differing from the other in climate, configuration, soil, and production, namely, the sea coast, the mountains, and the western territory. On the summit of a lateral ridge, separating the valley of the Arkansa from that of the Plate river, north latitude 41 degrees, there runs a peak called the Great White Mountain, the height of which is said to be 10,580 feet above the level of the meadows at its foot, and the height of the meadows are estimated at 8000 feet above the level of the sea, being 18,580 feet of absolute elevation above the level of the sea. This, however, being an estimate may probably be exaggerated.

On the west side of the Mississippi, and about midway between the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghaneys, lies a broad range of mountainous ridges called the Ozarks, 600 or 700 miles in length from south to north, about 100 broad, and having an elevation varying from 1000 to 2000 feet above the sea. A similar range of broken and hilly country commences on the Wisconsin river, and extends north to Lake Superior. Between the Ozarks and the Rocky Mountains a flat country called the American desert is said to prevail.

The Floridas, Louisiana, and all the countries of North America, south of the termination of the Alleghaneys and west to the Ozarks, and south of those to the Gulf of Mexico, and thence west to the first highlands of Mexico, and north to the rising plateaux of Texas, may all be considered as flat countries.

CHAPTER IV.

VALLEYS, RIVERS, AND LAKES OF NORTH AMERICA.

THE Valley of the Mississippi is the most extensive in America. It is bounded on the south by the Gulf of Mexico, on the west by the Rocky Mountains, on the north by the great lakes of America, and on the east by the Apalachian ridge of mountains. Its general aspect may be classed under three diversities-the thickly wooded, the barren, and the prairie regions. This