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still actually in existence, another part appears to us to have a more remote origin, and to be connected with the LXXVII. great revolutions of the globe. We have already seen, in our Physical Geography,* that extensive deposits of coal, of bituminous wood, and of overturned trees, are extended indiscriminately under the surface of continents and seas. This vegetable wreck must belong to several catastrophes, Theory of the origin to repeated devastations of the solid land. The whole ex- of this tent of the globe has experienced similar revolutions, and wood. even the Polar Regions present their traces. In Iceland, besides the fossil bituminous wood, another kind is also found in the earth, which has only undergone a change of colour, odour, and solidity; sometimes merely a flattening, but with no appearance of mineralization. This wood is met with in argillaceous and sandy ground, at the height of some fathoms above the present level of the ocean, while the deposits of turf and bituminous wood, most generally commence twenty-five, or even a hundred fathoms above this level. In the same manner, we find, in Siberia, great masses of wood deposited at elevations which the present sea could never have reached. Some philosophers have imagined, that in these facts, they perceive a new proof of the diminution of the sea, these deposits proceeding, according to them, from floating wood of an epoch anterior to this diminution. Without wishing altogether to reject this opinion, we ourselves rather consider them as the remains of forests, which were overturned in the very places where they originally grew. If we admit that the bottom of the sea in many places presents to the action of the waves similar deposits of shattered forests, that once belonged to continents which have been overwhelmed during the great revolutions of the globe, we may conceive that a greater or lesser quantity of wood must be detached from them, according as

VOL. V.

* Page 215-268.

+Olafsen, Voyage to Iceland, t. I. p. 80, 192, 220, and 326.

Gmelin, Voyage to Siberia, t. III. p. 126.

8

BOOK the action of the waves is stronger or weaker at any partiLXXVII. cular point. Now this action, always very superficial, takes

more effect in the shallowest seas, such as are all those of the north. It appears to us therefore, that a great part of the polar floating wood ought to be considered as the vegetable wreck of great continents, which, crumbling into the basin of the sea, have yet allowed the waters, on retiring, to leave our present land uncovered.

This conjecture may, perhaps, merit the consideration of those who shall, one day or other, direct their scientific attention to the mysteries of that Polar world, a sketch of which we have now completed.

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rior.

AFTER having surveyed the frozen zone of the new world, BOOK we enter a country of a milder climate, where men, by LXXVIII. means of agriculture, have been enabled to form themselves into more numerous societies. Although the soil is less sterile, it has still many disadvantages; and its inhabitants appear to have hitherto made but little progress in civilization. In ascending the river St. Lawrence, we observe the majestic forests of Canada expanding round the Canada. greatest lakes that exist in the world. The river itself may be considered as a strait, which affords a passage to these immense bodies of water. To the largest of these lakes, our earliest travellers have given the name of Lake Lake Supe Superior.* It is more than 500 leagues in circumference its clear waters, fed by forty rivers, are contained in extensive strata of rocks, and their surges nearly equal those of the Atlantic Atlantic Ocean. Lake Huron, Lake Huwhich is connected with the other by the Straits of St. Mary, has a periphery of 300 leagues, and receives the waters of Lake Superior through a series of rapid descents. The outline of Lake Michigan is supposed to be about 200 leagues: it communicates with the former by a long strait, which serves as an outlet for its waters, and the country around its banks belongs exclusively to the United States. Lake Huron discharges itself by the rapid river of St. Clair, which, by the accession of other streams, is changed into a small lake of the same name. A less violent channel, properly called the Detroit, unites this basin

Sagard Theodat, le Grand Voyage du pays des Hurons. Paris, 1632.

ron.

Lake Erie.

river.

BOOK with Lake Erie, which is more than ninety leagues in LXXVIII. length, and about twenty or thirty broad. On account, however, of its shallow waters, and the unequal elevation of its banks, it is subject to storms, which render navigation dangerous. This lake communicates with the river Niagara Niagara, and with those celebrated cataracts, of which so much has been written, although no description can convey an adequate idea of their awful sublimity. We may remark, that the western fall is the greatest; the river in this place is more than 600 yards wide, and the perpendicular height of the descent is upwards of 142 feet. The eastern, or American cataract, is 350 yards in breadth, and 163 feet high. It is separated from the western by Goat's Island, which lies about half a mile from the precipice, and has a sand bank, by means of which, in seasons of low water, the island may be approached from the eastern shore.(a) It is now accessible by a bridge thrown over a little above the American fall. Goat's Island contains about eight acres of good land. The great cataract is continually obscured with vapour, which may be distinguished at a very considerable distance; and its foaming billows appear to float in the heavens. As the density of the mist varies, the adjacent forests and rocks are occasionally perceived, and they add to the splendour of the scene. The effect produced by the cold of winter on these sheets of water, thus rapidly agitated, is at once singular and magnificent. Icicles of great thickness and length are formed along the banks from the springs which flow over them. The sources impregnated with sulphur, are congealed into transparent blue columns. Cones are formed by the spray, particularly on the American side, which have large fissures disclosing the interior composed of clusters of icicles, similar to the pipes of an organ. Some parts

(a) [The almost perpendicular brow of the island nearly coincides with the common line of the precipice which forms the cataract. The island is connected with the eastern shore by a bridge.]—AM. ED.

*Gourlay's Travels in Upper Canada.

of the falls are consolidated into fluted columns, and the BOOK streams above are seen partially frozen.*

LXXVIII.

Lake On

River St.

The river Niagara descends by this splendid porch into Lake Ontario, which is apparently calm, although its wa- tario. ters are subject to phenomena resembling those of the tides. This lake is nearly 170 miles long, and sixty broad at its widest part. It empties itself, through the romantic Lake of a Thousand Isles, into the St. Lawrence. The scenery Lawrence. along the banks of that great river, in the vicinity of Montreal, is wild and picturesque. The traveller observes numerous villages, while he doubles the little promontories that are covered with woods; the houses seem to be placed on the water, and the tin-covered steeples reflect through the trees the rays of the sun. Views of this description are varied and repeated almost at every league. After having passed Quebec, the St. Lawrence becomes so much enlarged, and its banks are so far distant from each other, that it resembles a gulf rather than a river.

cascades.

The Ottawa is the only other considerable river of Ca- Rivers and nada; it unites its blue and transparent waters with those of the St. Lawrence. They form together the cascade of the Chaudiere; (a) and many others of remarkable beauty. The river Sorell runs almost in a straight line northwards; it is the outlet of Lake Champlain; by being made navigable, it would afford a most convenient means of commercial intercourse with the interior of New York, and form. a direct chain of communication with the great western canals. Among the lesser rivers, that of Montmorenci is celebrated on account of its cataract. This stream forces twice a passage for itself through precipitous rocks. The rapidity of its current is augmented, as its channel is gra

*Heriot's Travels in Canada, cap. 7. and 8.

Duncan's Travels, Letter XV.

Weld, Voyage dans le Canada, t. II. p. 210, etc. etc.

(a) [The falls of Chaudiere are not formed by the waters of the Ottawa, but are a cataract of 120 feet in perpendicular height, four miles above the mouth of the river Chaudiere, which flows into the St. Lawrence six miles above Quebec. The Ollawa flows into the St. Lawrence just above Montreal.]-Aм. ED.

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