valley extends from the 29th to the 42nd parallel of north latitude, and exhibits every variation of temperature from the climate of Canada to that of the tropics. It comprises, in its breadth the generally level country, through which the great and small rivers, flow between the two great chains of American mountains, east and west of the Mississippi, and which are 3000 miles apart, and in which, finally, these rivers run into one great channel, and then, through a delta, discharge their waters into the sea.

A soil, much of it alluvial, of great fertility, prevails in this magnificent valley: the principal appendent basins of which are the valleys of the great rivers which fall into the Mississippi.

Valley of the Missouri.—The greatest length of the valley of the Missouri is about 1200 miles: its greatest breadth 700. Ascending from the lower verge of this widely-extended plain, the forests gradually disappear, until nearly woodless plains, or prairies, extend far from the banks of the river.

The valley called the American Bottom, extends along the eastern bank of the Mississippi to the Piasa Hills, four miles above the mouth of the Missouri. It is several miles in breadth, and its soil of astonishing fertility. The great valley of the Ohio comprises, as described by the American geographers, 80,000 square miles, north-west of the great river, and 116,000 on the south-east, or total superficies of 196,000 miles. It is intersected by chasms and rivers, and diversified by bold elevations. The valleys of the St. Lawrence, and its confluent the Ottawa, are naturally of great fertility.

The valleys of the Hudson, Mohawk, Connecticut, and of most of the remaining rivers of North America, and south of fifty degrees, are fertile and richly wooded when not cleared for cultivation.

Under the general head of the inland navigation of America we shall give some account of the great navigable rivers of North America; viz., the St. Lawrence, the Ottawa, the Saghunny; the rivers Miramachi, and St. John in British America; and of the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and their navigable affluents; of the St. Croix, Penobscott, Merrimack; the Saco, the Kennebec, the Pisquataqua, the Connecticut, the Hudson, the Delaware, the Susquehannah, the Potomac, York River, James's River, the Great Pedee, the Savannah, and the streams of Florida and Alabama.

CHAPTER V.

GREAT LAKES OF CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES.

LAKE HURON is 250 miles long, 120 broad, and 860 feet deep, without comprehending a branch of it called Georgia Bay, which is 120 miles long and 50 miles broad. Near the head of the latter, at Pentagushine, there is a small naval

depôt. It receives several rivers; the principal of which are, the Severn, flowing over a rocky bed from Lake Simcoe; the Maitland, at the mouth of which is the town and harbour of Godrich, and which flows through the Huron tract; the river Muskotea, flowing from lakes between the Georgian Bay and the Ottawa; and the French river, a large stream flowing from Lake Nippising, which a very narrow portage divides from a rapid river falling into the Ottowa. This was formerly the grand route of the north-west voyageurs.

The lands on the east and west coasts are generally fit for cultivation, and covered with heavy timber, presenting clay cliffs, rocks, and woody slopes along the shore. The north coast exhibits a rugged, formidable, and barren aspect. The Cloche Mountains are behind this shore, and very little is known of the interior, which bears the general name of the Chippewayan hunting-grounds.

A multitude of islands, called the Manitoulins, or Islands of Spirits, extend from the northern extremity of Georgian Bay to the détour between the continent and Drummond's Island. The largest of these is eighty miles long. The Indians attach a religious veneration to them, as being consecrated by the Great Spirit, Manitou.

Through the strait of Makillimakinak, the fort of which the Americans claim, the navigation to Lake Michigan is deep and safe. This lake is within the United States boundary. It is, without including Green Bay, a branch of it, 400 miles long, and 50 broad: and Green Bay is 105 miles long and 20 miles broad; both are on a level with Lake Huron. The Michigan territory, lying between Lake Huron and River Detroit, and Lake Michigan, is a valuable and extensive region, in which settlements are forming with extraordinary rapidity.

The passage to Lake Superior, by the strait of St. Mary, 40 miles long, is interrupted by the rapids or falls of St. Mary, which occur about mid-distance between both lakes. The appellation of fall is, however, improper. About midway between both lakes, the banks of the strait contracts the channel, which also descends altogether, in the course of the rapid, about 23 feet; and the vast discharge of Lake Superior rolling along impetuously over and against natural irregularities, renders the navigation upwards altogether impracticable. Canoes have descended, but the exploit is dangerous. A canal two miles long would avoid this rapid, and connect the navigation of Lake Superior with that of Lake Huron, and Michigan, and Erie.

Lake Superior, the great upper reservoir of the St. Lawrence, is about 360 geographical, or 417 statute miles long, and 140 geographical, or 162 statute miles broad; its circumference round its shores about 1600 miles, and its depth about 900 feet. Its waters are pure, and astonishingly transparent, and this inland ocean is not surpassed in turbulent commotion, during tempests, by the most violent agitation of the Atlantic. It receives numerous rivers, but none of them are remarkably large. Low lands, lying between the lake and the ramps and mountains, are considered to have been formerly covered by the waters of the lake.

The elevations and cliffs, rise in parts to 1500 feet above the level of the lake. In other places a flat country extends back from fifty to seventy miles. The largest of its islands, near the British side, Isle Royale, is about 100 miles long, by 40 in breadth.

The lands fit for settlement and agriculture may be considered to be nearly altogether within the boundaries of the United States. Tracts of good land may occasionally occur, or be found, on the British side; but as far as we know, chiefly from the fur traders, the northern shores are forbidding and sterile, and the whole country between this lake and Hudson Bay is of little value, except for the furs of the wild animals, or the fish that may be caught in its waters.

Salmon of great size, herring, black bass, sturgeon, and all the lake fishes, are abundant. It is said that neither salmon nor herring are caught in any of the lakes, except those communicating with the St. Lawrence. How either herring or salmon got into those lakes is a question to puzzle the naturalist.

The comparative depths of the lakes form another extraordinary subject of inquiry. The bottom of Lake Ontario, which is 452 feet deep, is as low as most parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, while Lake Erie is only 60 or 70 feet deep; but the bottoms of Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior, are all, from their vast depths, although their surface is so much higher, on nearly a level with the bottoms of Lake Ontario, and of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Can there be a subterranean river running from Lake Superior to Huron, and from Huron to Lake Ontario? This certainly is not impossible; nor does the discharge through the river Detroit, after allowing for the full probable portion carried off by evaporation, appear by any means equal to the quantity of water which the three upper great lakes may be considered to receive. All the lakes of Canada are estimated to cover 43,040,000 acres.

The great lakes occasionally rise above their usual level, sometimes from three to five feet. These overflowings are not annual nor regular. They have occurred about once in seven years, and are probably the effect of more rain and less evaporation, during the seasons in which they take place. Sir Alexander Mackenzie observed several overflowings of two or three feet in the lakes north-west of Superior, so that they are not peculiar to the lakes of the St. Lawrence.

Lake Champlain is one of the most picturesque of the inland waters of America. The great lakes are so expansive, that parts only can be seen of their coasts; which, however, are often exceedingly bold, sometimes precipitous, and when studded with rocky or wooded islands, and pierced with inlets, are remarkably picturesque and romantic. Lake Champlain is long and narrow; and at its southern extremity, and where it unites with Lake George, it is richly varied by woods, islands, and highlands.

The interior of Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the state of Maine, abound with lakes.

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CHAPTER VI.

WILD ANIMALS, BIRDS, REPTILES, AND FISHES, OF AMERICA.

THE Zoology and ornithology of America have been so thoroughly described and illustrated, that neither require any notice in this work. As man advances in subduing and forming settlements among the forests, the wild animals diminish in number. In the far west and north-west, the buffalo, the different varieties of the deer species, and the various animals hunted for their furs, though far less abundant than formerly, inhabit the prairies and forests; and there are none of the countries of America in which some of the original native animals are not still to be found.

The natural history of the fishes of America is still to be written: with the exception of the turbot, and a few other kinds, the fishes of the sea-coast of America are nearly similar to those of the corresponding shores of Europe; they differ frequently in quality, and some of those which are scarce on the European shores, are abundant on those of America. Pilchards, anchovies, and sardines, are rarely, if ever, seen in the American waters. Smelts and caplin swarm in the latter.

The fishes of the Mississippi are described as generally coarse, often hideous and voracious. The cat-fish, of which there are many varieties, weighs about 100 lbs. Pike, pickerel, and jack, are also caught in the Mississippi, and its streams. Fishes, of which there are several varieties, called gar-fish, are caught in the Mississippi. The trout, yellow cat-fish, pike, bar-fish, and perch, are described by Mr. Flint as the best.

The alligator-gar, appears, from the description given of it, to be the shark of the rivers. It is about eight feet long, weighs about 200 lbs., its mouth is large, round, and set thickly with sharp teeth. Its scales are said to be impenetrable by a ball from a rifle, and when dead, to be so hard, as to strike fire from flint. It is more dreaded than the alligator. Another monster of the Mississippi waters, is called by the Americans, devil-jack diamond fish, is from four to ten feet long, and weighs from 100 to above 350 lbs. There are several varieties of sturgeon, some of which are eaten. The saw-fish, the shovel-fish, the buffalo-fish, perch, weighing from ten to twenty pounds, bass, hog-fish, saw-fish, eels, minny, false herrings, and several varieties of small fishes abound in the Mississippi and its tributaries. The fish, called florida, or Louisiana trout, is striped, of the perch species, and it weighs from one to four pounds; and the fishes caught in the saline lakes of Louisiana, and the rock-fish, taken in the rivers from Susquehanna to the Mississippi. Crawfish, and various shell-fish abound in the Gulf of Mexico. A

ray-fish, which Dr. Mitchell describes as the "oceanic vampire," was caught near the entrance of Delaware Bay, when towed ashore, was found so heavy, that five oxen, two horses, and twenty men, could not drag it up on the shore. Its length was seventeen feet, and its breadth sixteen feet. It weighed from four to five tons.

Among the fishes of the great lakes is the sturgeon, it weighs from 70 to 120 lbs.; it affords isinglass, and differs from the sturgeon of the sea, by wanting the shelly scales on the back. The masquinongé is delicious, and sometimes weighs 50 lbs. The white fish, caught in abundance, resembling the shad of the Atlantic coast, or very large alewives; it is excellent eating, but inferior to the masquenongé. The lake herrings are plentiful, but flabby and indifferent.

Trout of all sizes, weighing from half a pound to sometimes 50 to 70 lbs. The large kind called lake salmon resemble those of the sea, but the flesh much paler and not so richly flavoured. Pike are much the same in flavour as in England.

There are two or three varieties of bass, the black is the best. The other fishes which are found in the lakes and rivers of Upper Canada, are principally perch, eel pout, cat-fish, mullet, dace, chub, carp sucker, dog-fish (small), bill-fish (the tyrant of the lakes, with a bill about a foot long), lamprey, silver eel, sunfish, &c.

On the Atlantic and Gulf of St. Lawrence, coasts of America, especially along the shores and inlets of the Northern States and of British America the best fish abound, and where they have afforded the source, since the discovery of Newfoundland, Labrador, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Nova Scotia, of extensive and profitable fisheries.*

CHAPTER VII.

NORTH AMERICAN FORESTS.

THE forests of North America have been classed under three great general divisions, or zones. The vegetation, and the growth, and kind, of trees, in these divisions, are not altogether dependent on their more northern or southern latitudes, but also on the nature of the soil, and on their distance from the sea coasts, as well as on the peculiarities of the mountainous, of the low, flat, table land, and valley regions. The first forest zone, or that of the southern sea coasts, comprehends the region south of the Chesapeake and the These will be found described hereafter, under the general head of "THE FISHERIES OF

AMERICA."