Among the minerals of this province, coal and iron certainly claim the first attention. As to the extent of the coal-fields, or what may be considered independent coal-fields, it may be sufficient to observe, that enough has been discovered for the consumption of America for centuries. Iron of excellent quality abounds in great plenty in different parts of the province, generally accompanying vast strata of coal, and chains of carboniferous limestone. A most extensive coal field has been opened at Picton. It is accompanied with vast strata of iron stone. Coal abounds also at Chignecto, and many other parts of the provinces. Different varieties of copper ore, but one in great plenty is met with at Carreboo, Tatmagouche, and some other places. Lead ores, chiefly sulphurate of lead, and carbonate of lead, are also found in small quantities. Salt springs are met with near Picton, at River Philip, and in some other parts, one of which is saturated with salt in the proportion of 12 to 88 water.

The soil of Nova Scotia is of many different qualities and of various degrees of fertility. The alluvial, or intervale lands, of which there are extensive tracts, are rich, and produce plentiful returns of wheat, barley, oats, Indian corn, potatoes, turnips, and all vegetables and fruits common in England. Apples, equal to any grown in the United States, are produced in many parts of the province; and vines, covering several acres, have been discovered, growing wild, or indigenous, near Digby. Some of the uplands, lying between the hilly ground and the intervales, or rivers, are light and poor; while the high, or what the inhabitants call the hill lands, are rich and very productive. The circumstance appears somewhat unaccountable; and the cause assigned is, that the light sand, or other substances, which naturally impart little nutrition to vegetables, having been carried at various periods, by the rains down from the hills, have left behind a rich loamy earth, and that the poor uplands or rather midlands, which prevail below the hills, and which have been formed of those sandy and light deposits, being very deep and loose; therefore retain neither rich earth. or manures near the surface, and are consequently sterile and unproductive.

The lands on the southern coast are generally so rocky, as to admit of cultivation only at much expense and labour. After the rocks and stones are removed, the soil is by no means barren; and some remarkably fine tracts are met with at the heads of the bays and up the rivers. The lands, however, within the Bay of Fundy, and those lying between the Gut of Canseau and Bay de Vert, form fertile agricultural districts.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.-In coming, by sea, within view of Prince Edward Island, its aspect is that of a level country, covered to the water's edge with trees, and the outline of its surface scarcely curved with the appearance of hills. On approaching nearer, and sailing round its shores (especially on the north side), the prospect becomes interesting, and presents small villages, cleared

farms, red headlands, bays, and rivers, which pierce the country; sand hills covered with grass; a gentle diversity of hill and dale, which the cleared parts open to view; and the undulation of surface occasioned by small lakes or ponds, which from the sea appear like so many valleys.

NEW BRUNSWICK.-The province of New Brunswick extends from the river St. Croix, which is considered the boundary line of the United States, to the Bay de Chaleur and the river Restigouche, which divide it from Canada. The greater part of this colony is yet in a wilderness state, although its soil, with the exception of a few rocky districts, principally on the Bay of Fundy coast, and several, but not extensive, swampy tracts, is rich and fertile.

The river St. John, with its lakes and myriads of streams; the tributary waters of one side of the St. Croix; the river Petit Coudiac; the Miramichi, with its majestic branches; the river Nipisighit, and many lesser rivers, open an inland navigation into almost every part of the province.

Dense forests cover nearly the whole country; and the trees, which grow to an immense size, are of the same kind and quality as hereafter described under the head of forest trees. Pine abounds in greater plenty than in any other of the lower provinces. Birch, beech, and maple, are the prevailing hardwood trees.

The quality of the soil, here, as elsewhere in America, may always be ascertained by the description of wood growing on it. Along the countless rivers of this province there are innumerable tracts of what is termed intervale land: this kind of soil is alluvial, with detached trees of luxuriant growth, principally elm, maple, black birch, and butter-nut; and like the lands of the Nile, annually irrigated and enriched by the overflowing of the rivers. In several parts of the interior country, generally along small brooks, are wild meadows: caused, originally, by the irrigation of a flat tract, with the water arrested by the dams, constructed by the industry of the beaver.

The aspect of the coast of New Brunswick, along the Bay of Fundy is generally rugged, and the soil near the shore stubborn and difficult to cultivate. The geology of the province is very imperfectly known. Limestone, graywacke, clay-slate, with sandstone, interrupted occasionally by gneiss, trap, and granite, seem to prevail on the southern coast. Among these, however, calcareous rock appears to predominate. Marble, of fair pretensions to beauty, abounds at Kennebecasis, and probably in other parts of the country. Coal is plentiful; and iron ore abundant. Copper, plumbago, and manganese, have also been found; and greater research may likely discover many other minerals. Gypsum and grindstone are abundant near Chignecto Basin. Along the shores of this province, facing the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Chaleur Bay, sandstone prevails. Gray sandstone and clay-slate seem to predominate, as far as we could observe, along the course of the Miramichi; among which, granite, mica, quartz, and ironstone, in detached rocks, occasionally occur. Specimens of amethyst, car

nelian, jasper, &c., have been picked up in various places. Some sulphurous or hepatic springs, of much the same properties as the waters of Harrowgate, have lately been found. Salt springs, strongly saturated, are numerous. Some of the salt produced by boiling the water of one of these springs which was shown us, resembled the finest table salt we have in England.

As we proceed from the sea coast up the rivers of this province, the rich fertility of the country claims our admiration. A great flat district may be said to prevail, from the parallel of the Long Reach, up the river St. John, to the foot of Mar's Hill. High hills occasionally rise in various places, but no part of New Brunswick can be considered mountainous. The scenery of the rivers, lakes, and cataracts, is beautifully picturesque, and often grandly romantic.

CANADA.-Canada may be said to present the most extraordinary and grand configuration of any country in the world. From the eastern extremity of this vast region, rising abruptly out of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to the rocky mountains, the natural features, of its lands and waters, exhibit romantic sublimities, and picturesque beauties, amidst the variety and grandeur of which, the imagination wanders and loses itself,-luxuriating among boundless forests, magnificent rivers, vast chains of mountains, immense lakes, extensive prairies, and roaring

cataracts.

The mind, on sailing up the St. Lawrence, is occupied under impressions, and with ideas, as varied as they are great and interesting. The ocean-like width of this mighty river where it joins the gulf,-the great distance (about 2500 miles) between its débouché and the source of the most westerly of its streams,-the numerous lakes, cataracts, and rivers, which form its appendages,-the wide and important regions, exhibiting mountains, valleys, forests, plains, and savannahs, which border on these innumerable lakes and rivers,-their natural resources,their discovery and settlement, and the vast field thrown open, in consequence, for the enterprise, industry, and capital of mankind,—are subjects so great and so fertile in materials for speculative theories, as well as practical undertakings and gainful pursuits, that the imagination strives in vain, to create an empire so grand, and powerful, as that to which the energy of succeeding generations will likely raise a country possessed of such vast and splendid capabilities as those of the Canadas.*

The natural aspect, configuration, and geological structure of Canada, exhibit the greatest diversity of appearance.

The St. Lawrence may certainly, including its lakes, tributaries, vast breadth, and the quantity of fresh water it discharges, be considered the largest river in the world-from Cape Chat, 100 miles above Cape Rosier, where its mouth may be deemed to commence, to the head of Lake Superior, the distance is 2120 miles. At Cape Rosier its breadth is 80 miles, and at Cape Chat 40 miles; at Kamouraska, where its waters are brackish, its breadth is 20 miles, and its average depth 12 fathoms. It discharges annually to the sea 4,277,880,000,000 tons of fresh water, of which one-half may be considered melted snow. The length of the Amazon, from the Andes to the ocean is 2070 miles, and its greatest width at its embouchure is 23 miles.

On the south side of the St. Lawrence, from Gaspé to some miles above Point Levi, opposite Quebec, the whole country presents high mountains, valleys, and forests;-these mountains appear as high as any of the Alleghaney chain, of which range they form a part.

Their altitude has not, however, been ascertained. We have seen various parts of their outline and summits rising in the interior, when we were on the sea, at least a hundred miles distant. The prevailing rocks are granite, in vast strata, but sometimes in boulders between the mountains and the shore; graywacke and clay-slate also occur, with limestone occasionally; and various other rocks, usually detached, present themselves. The mountains and valleys are thickly wooded. The soil is generally very productive along the banks of the St. Lawrence; and in the valleys of the interior, according to the usual indications of fertility, equally fit for cultivation. The lower islands of the St. Lawrence are mere inequalities of the vast granite strata which occasionally protrude over the level of the river. The Kamouraska Islands, and the Penguins in particular, exhibit this appearance; and in the parish of Kamouraska and St. Anne, huge masses of granite rise into sharp conical hills, one of which is 500 feet high, with smooth sides, and scarcely a fissure. The mountain of St. Anne is lofty and imposing. Its ascent is rugged and picturesque.

At St. Roch the post-road leads for more than a mile under a perpendicular ridge of granite, 300 feet high.

The north coast of the St. Lawrence, below Quebec, exhibits trap rocks, clayslate, various detached rocks and granite occasionally: the latter is considered to prevail in the interior country, and particularly as forming the base of the mountains of Labrador, and of the country north of Quebec. Cape Tourment, thirty miles below Quebec, is a round, massive granite mountain, about 1000 feet high, and a ramification of the rugged interior chain. The lands situated on the north shore of the St. Lawrence, below the river Saguenay, are not near so high as those on the south coast; but their features are remarkably rugged and forbidding, and apparently nowhere fit for cultivation. Numerous small rapid rivers, plentifully frequented by salmon, roll from the mountains over rugged channels, or foam over precipices into the St. Lawrence.

Except in the bogs or marshes, rocks obtrude between the trees over all parts of the surface. Although the country is generally covered with wood, yet the trees are far from attaining the size of those on the south coast. In various parts we observed extraordinary deep fissures, from six inches to two feet wide, and apparently many feet deep, dividing the rocks as if they had been cracked by the action of fire, or some volcanic shock: intense frost may have been the agent. In many places, these fissures hidden from view by various creeping shrubs, formed dangerous traps. The Indians have told us, that they have traced

some of these rents for several miles in length, about a foot broad, and from forty to fifty feet deep.

As we approach Quebec, a reddish or dark clay-slate appears as the prevailing rock, and it forms the bed of the St. Lawrence to Kingston and Niagara. Boulders of granite, limestone, sandstone, syenite, trap, and marble, occur as detached rocks in the same extensive region. Above the rapids of Richelieu, where the mountains commence retreating to the south and north, a flat country prevails, until we reach Queenston Heights. The greater part of the soil of the low lands is apparently of alluvial formation; and twenty to fifty-five feet rise of the waters would nearly cover the whole country between the Alleghaneys and the high lands of the north. The exceptions to this general rule are the Rouville mountain, the highest summit of which is about 1200 feet high. This mountain is an abrupt termination of a branch of the Green Mountains, and divides the waters of Lake Champlain from the sources of the rivers St. Francis and Yamaska. The mountain to which Montreal owes its name, the rocks of which appear to be principally of the trap family, accompanied by limestone, is another exception. Whenever rapids occur, we find the elevation of the country increasing, and limestone generally accompanying the prevailing rocks. The step of country formed by the calcareous ridge which commences at Queenston Height, and which rests on a bluish clay-slate, is elevated about 350 feet above the shores of Lake Ontario; and the upper country, the base of which is limestone, is generally level, until we approach the high lands, between the Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. This calcareous region abounds in organic remains, some of which, particularly the serpents in nests, are very rare and beautiful;* and in many places petrified horns and bones of wild animals, shells, trees, &c., have been frequently dug up. The limestone rocks of the Manitoulin islands, in

* Various names applied to local appearances or peculiarities, are current in the common parlance of the Americans, and introduced, sometimes, without explanation, into books,-for instance:-"Vaults," which are deep glens or valleys in the forests; Carraboo Plains are lands formerly laid waste by fire, or that, from some natural cause, produce little wood. They are also called Barrens; and are frequented by the Moose and Carraboo. Cedar Swamps are deep mossy bogs, soft and spongy below, with a coating sufficiently firm to uphold small cedar or fir trees, or shrubs. Such lands are difficult, almost incapable, of culture.

Buffalo, or Deer Licks, are marshes on low level grounds, over which salt-springs flow, and to which buffalo and deer resort, to lick the salt that adheres to shrubs or small trees.

Prairies are lands on which, from being overflowed during spring and fall, the growth of trees is prevented.

Intervales or Bottoms are alluvial lands, along the rivers or lakes.

Mammoth Caves are dens in which skeletons of the mammoth have been found.

Rattlesnake Dens are caverns in the basins of the Ohio and Mississippi, in which, myriads of living rattlesnakes are said to abound tangled among each other. Of this circumstance I know nothing but the common report; although I have heard the backwoodsmen swear that it is

true.

Blazes are marks on the sides of trees, by chipping a small slice off with an axe, and continued in a line through a forest, for the guidance of travellers, when there are no roads.

Sugaries is a plot of forest lands in which maple trees abound, and where sugar is made from the sap.-Macgregor's British America.