Chapter XVII: Appendix: No. I (3)

"The Jesuits are commonly very learned, studious, and are very civil and agreeable in company. In their whole deportment there is something pleasing; it is no wonder, therefore, that they captivate the minds of the people. They seldom speak of religious matters, and if it happens, they generally avoid disputes. They are very ready to do any one a service, and when they see that their assistance is wanted, they hardly give one time to speak of it, falling to work immediately to bring about what is required of them. Their conversation is very entertaining and learned, so that one can not be tired of their company. Among all the Jesuits I have conversed with in Canada, I have not found one who was not possessed of these qualities in a very eminent degree. They do not care to become preachers to a congregation in the town or country, but leave these places, together with the emoluments arising from them, to the priests. All their business here is to convert the heathen; and with that view their missionaries are scattered over every part of the country. Near every town and village peopled by converted Indians are one or two Jesuits, who take great care that they may not return to paganism, but live as Christians ought to do. Thus there are Jesuits with the converted Indians in Tadoussac, Lorette, Becancourt, St. Francois, Sault St. Louis, and all over Canada. There are likewise Jesuit missionaries with those who are not converted, so that there is commonly a Jesuit in every village belonging to the Indians, whom he endeavors on all occasions to convert. In winter he goes on their great hunts, where he is frequently obliged to suffer all imaginable inconveniences, such as walking in the snow all day, lying in the open air all winter, lying out both in good and bad weather, lying in the Indian huts, which swarm with fleas and other vermin, &c. The Jesuits undergo all these hardships for the sake of converting the Indians, and likewise for political reasons. The Jesuits are of great use to their king; for they are frequently able to persuade the Indians to break their treaty with the English, to make war upon them, to bring their furs to the French, and not to permit the English to come among them. There is much danger attending these exertions; for, when the Indians are in liquor, they sometimes kill the missionaries who live with them, calling them spies, or excusing themselves by saying that the brandy had killed them. These are the chief occupations of the Jesuits in Canada. They do not go to visit the sick in the town; they do not hear the confessions, and attend to no funerals. I have never seen them go in procession in honor of the Virgin Mary or other saints. Every body sees that they are, as it were, selected from other people on account of their superior genius and abilities. They are here reckoned a most cunning set of people, who generally succeed in their undertakings, and surpass all others in acuteness of understanding. I have therefore several times observed that they have enemies in Canada. They never receive any others into their society but persons of very promising parts, so that there are no blockheads among them. The Jesuits who live here are all come from France, and many of them return thither again after a stay of a few years here. Some who were born in Canada went over to France, and were received among the Jesuits there, but none of them ever came back to Canada. I know not what political reason hindered them. During my stay in Quebec, one of the priests, with the bishop's leave, gave up his priesthood and became a Jesuit. The other priests were very ill pleased with this, because it seemed as if he looked upon their condition as too mean for himself."--Kalm, in Pinkerton, vol. xiii., p. 648.

"The Recollets are a third class of clergymen in Canada. They have a fine large dwelling-house here, and a fine church, where they officiate. Near it is a large and fine garden, which they cultivate with great application.

"In Montreal and Trois Rivieres they are lodged in almost the same manner as here. They do not endeavor to choose cunning fellows among them, but take all they can get. They do not torment their brains with much learning; and I have been assured that, after they have put on their monastic habit, they do not study to increase their knowledge, but forget even what little they knew before. At night they generally lie on mats, or some other hard mattresses. However, I have sometimes seen good beds in the cells of some of them. They have no possessions here, having made vows of poverty, and live chiefly on the alms which people give them. To this purpose the young monks, or brothers, go into the houses with a bag, and beg what they want. They have no congregations in the country, but sometimes they go among the Indians as missionaries.

"In each fort, which contains forty men, the king keeps one of these monks instead of a priest, who officiates there. The king gives him lodging, provisions, servants, and all he wants, besides two hundred livres a year. Half of it he sends to the community he belongs to; the other half he reserves for his own use. On board the king's ships are generally no other priests than these friars, who are therefore looked upon as people belonging to the king. When one of the chief priests[219] in the country dies, and his place can not immediately be filled up, they send one of these friars there, to officiate while the place is vacant. Part of these monks come over from France, and part are natives of Canada.

"There are no other monks in Canada besides these, except, now and then, one of the order of St. Austin, or some other who comes with one of the king's ships, but goes off with it again.

"The priests are the second and most numerous class of the clergy in this country; for most of the churches, both in towns and villages (the Indian converts excepted), are served by priests. A few of them are likewise missionaries. In Canada are two seminaries: one in Quebec, the other in Montreal. The priests of the seminary of Montreal are of the order of St. Sulpitius, and supply only the congregation on the isle of Montreal, and the town of the same name. At all the other churches in Canada the priests belonging to the Quebec seminary officiate. The former, or those of the order of St. Sulpitius, all come from France; and I was assured that they never suffer a native of Canada to come among them.

"In the seminary at Quebec, the natives of Canada make the greater part.

"In order to fit the children of this country for orders, there are schools at Quebec and St. Joachim, where the youths are taught Latin, and instructed in the knowledge of those things and sciences which have a more immediate connection with the business they are intended for.

"However, they are not very nice in their choice, and people of a middling capacity are often received among them.

"They do not seem to have made great progress in Latin; for, notwithstanding the service is read in that language, and they read their Latin breviary and other books every day, yet most of them find it very difficult to speak it.

"All the priests in the Quebec seminary are consecrated by the bishop. Both the seminaries have got great revenues from the king; that in Quebec has above thirty thousand livres. All the country on the west side of the River St. Lawrence, from the town of Quebec to Bay St. Paul, belongs to this seminary, besides their other possessions in the country. They lease the land to the settlers for a certain rent, which, if it be annually paid, according to their agreement, the children or heirs of the settlers may remain in an undisturbed possession of the lands.

"A piece of land three arpents[220] broad, and thirty, forty, or fifty arpents long, pays annually an ecu,[221] and a couple of chickens, or some other additional trifle. In such places as have convenient water-falls, they have built water-mills or saw-mills, from which they annually get considerable sums. The seminary of Montreal possesses the whole ground on which that town stands, together with the whole isle of Montreal. I have been assured that the ground rent of the town and isle is computed at seventy thousand livres, besides what they get for saying masses, baptizing, holding confessions, attending at marriages and funerals, &c. All the revenues of ground rent belong to the seminaries alone, and the priests in the country have no share in them. But the seminary in Montreal, consisting only of sixteen priests, has greater revenues than it can expend; a large sum of money is annually sent over to France, to the chief seminary there. The land rents belonging to the Quebec seminary are employed for the use of the priests in it, and for the maintenance of a number of young people, who are brought up to take orders. The priests who live in the country parishes get the tithe from their congregation, together with the perquisites on visiting the sick, &c. In small congregations the king gives the priests an additional sum. When a priest in the country grows old, and has done good service, he is sometimes allowed to come into the seminary in town. The seminaries are allowed to place the priests on their own estates, but the other places are in the gift of the bishop."--_Ibid._

"After the conquest of Quebec, the British government prohibited the religious male orders from augmenting their numbers, excepting the priests. The orders were allowed to enjoy the whole of their revenues as long as a single individual of the body existed; then they reverted to the crown. The revenue of the Jesuit Society was upward of L12,000 per annum when it fell into the possession of the government. It had been for several years enjoyed solely by an old father, who had survived all the rest. He was a native of Switzerland; his name, Jean Joseph Casot. In his youth he was no more than porter to the convent, but, having considerable merit, he was promoted, and in course of time received into the order. He died at a very advanced age, in 1800, with a high character for kindness and generosity: his large income was entirely employed in charitable purposes. The lands belonging to the Jesuits, as well as to the other religious orders, are by far the best in the country, and produce the greatest revenues."--Lambert's _Travels in Canada_, vol. i., p. 59.

"The Jesuits, who in the early settlement of the country were merely missionaries, obtained a patent (_Petits Droits des Colonies Francaises_, vol. ii., p. 441), by which they acquired a license to purchase lands, and hold property as in France. The property the Jesuits possessed in this country in after times was acquired by grants from the kings of France; by grants from the Company of New France; by gifts from individuals, and by purchase."--Smith's _History of Canada_, vol. i., p. 27; Weld, p. 249. Smith estimates the revenues of the society, when, after P. Casot's death, they reverted to the crown, at only L1600 per annum. Weld comes nearer to the statement of Lambert. He visited Quebec in 1796, four years before P. Casot's death, and states that the great possessions of the Jesuits had centered in him, and amounted to L10,000 per annum. It is to be remembered that in 1764 the order of Jesuits was abolished by the King of France, and the members of the society became private individuals.

"The college of the Jesuits at Quebec was long considered as the first institution on the continent of North America for the instruction of young men. The advantages derived from it were not limited to the better class of Canadians, but were extended to all whose inclination it was to participate in them, and many students came thither from the West Indies. From the period of the expulsion of the Jesuits from the states of Europe, and the consequent abolition of their order on that continent, this establishment, although protected by the British government, began rapidly to decline.

"When, by the death of the last Canadian Jesuit, the landed property devolved to the crown, it was designed by the sovereign as a recompense for the services of the late Lord Amherst, who commanded the troops in North America at the time of the conquest of Canada, and Who completed the reduction of that province under the British government. The claim of these estates has been relinquished by his successor for a pension. The revenue arising from them has been appropriated by the Legislature of Lower Canada for the purpose of establishing in the different parishes schools for the education of children. The Jesuits' college is now converted into a commodious barrack for the troops."--Heriot's _Canada_, p. 30.

[Footnote 219: Pasteur.]

[Footnote 220: A French acre.]

[Footnote 221: French coin, value about a crown English.]

No. XIX.

The Mississippi is the only river in North America, which, for grandeur and commodiousness of navigation, comes in competition with the St. Lawrence, or with that river which runs from Lake Ontario to the ocean. If, however, we consider that immense body of water that flows from Lake Winnipeg through the Lake of the Woods, Lake Superior, &c., down to the sea, as one entire stream, and, of course, as a continuation of the St. Lawrence, it must be allowed to be a very superior river to the Mississippi in every point of view; and we may certainly consider it as one stream with as much reason as we look upon that as one river which flows from Lake Ontario to the sea; for, before it meets the ocean, it passes through four large lakes, not, indeed, to be compared with those of Erie or Superior in size, but they are independent lakes, notwithstanding, as much as any of the others. The Mississippi is principally to be admired for the evenness of its current, and the prodigious length of way it is navigable without any interruption for bateaux of a very large burden, but in many respects it is a very inferior river to the St. Lawrence, properly so called. The Mississippi, at its mouth, is not twenty miles broad, and the navigation is there so obstructed by banks or bars that a vessel drawing more than twelve feet water can not ascend it without very imminent danger. Fresh bars are formed or the old bars are enlarged every year, and it is said that unless some steps are taken to prevent the lodgments of the trees annually brought down at the time of the inundation, the navigation may in a few years be still more obstructed than it is at present. The River St. Lawrence, however, on the contrary, is no less than ninety miles wide at its mouth, and it is navigable for ships of the line as far as Quebec, a distance of 400 miles from the sea. The channel, also, instead of having been impaired by time, is found to be considerably better now than when the river was first discovered, and there is reason to imagine that it will improve still more in process of time, as the clear water that flows from Lake Ontario comes down with such impetuosity during the floods in the spring of the year as frequently to remove banks of gravel and loose stones in the river, and thus to deepen its bed. The channel on the north side of the island of Orleans, immediately below Quebec, which, according to the account of Charlevoix, was not sufficiently deep in the year 1720 to admit a shallop of a small size, except at the time of high tides, is at present found to be deep enough for the largest vessels, and is the channel most generally used.--Weld, p. 336.

No. XX.

"Upper Canada, down to the period when it was conquered by England, was in a very wild and unreclaimed condition. With the exception of the small location on the banks of the Detroit, it contained only detached posts at great distances, formed for military defense and the prosecution of the fur trade. The real settlement of Upper Canada took place in 1783, at the close of the first American war; at that time, not only a large body of troops were disbanded, but many inhabitants of the United States, who had adhered to Britain during this unfortunate contest, sought refuge within her colonies; and as these last were generally in a state of great destitution, the government felt disposed to treat them liberally, and afford the utmost possible compensation for their losses and sufferings. With this view, the whole land along the St. Lawrence above the French settlements, and also on Lake Ontario, to and around the Bay of Quiete, for the space of 150 miles, was formed into townships, originally entitled First, Second, Third, but to which regular names were afterward attached. These settlements were termed the United Empire Loyalists, and not only received an ample supply of land, but farming utensils, building materials, and subsistence for two years. A further engagement was made that every member of their families, on attaining the age of twenty-one, should have a fresh donation of 200 acres, which engagement has been strictly fulfilled. Military grants were at the same time bestowed at rates varying from 5000 for a field officer, to 200 for a private soldier.

"In 1791, Upper Canada had attained to such importance, that when Mr. Pitt determined to bestow a constitution on the colony, he formed this part into a separate government, giving to it the name of Upper, and to the early-settled districts that of Lower Canada. The former was not supposed, after all, to contain at that time above 10,000 inhabitants. General Simcoe, however, in 1794, founded the town of York,[222] which was fixed on as the seat of government, and made the most strenuous efforts to encourage colonists to settle in the neighborhood. They came in considerable numbers, though chiefly from the United States. It was not till 1803 that, through the exertions of Colonel Talbot, emigration from Britain was commenced on any large scale. The result of these measures was, that in 1811 the country was found to contain about 9623 persons paying taxes.

"Lower Canada is comprised within the parallels of 45 deg. and 52 deg. north latitude, and the meridians of 59.50 deg. to 80.6 deg. west of Greenwich; the entire province, as far as its boundaries will admit of estimation, contains about a quarter of a million square miles, or 160,000,000 of acres. Upper Canada is comprised within the parallels of 41 deg. to 49 deg. north, and the meridians of 74 deg. to 117 deg. west of Greenwich, embracing an area of about 100,000 square miles, or 64,000,000 acres. The following are the words of the order in council by which Canada was in 1791 divided into two provinces. "To commence at a stone boundary on the north bank of the Lake St. Francis, at the cove west of Point au Baudet, in the limit between the township of Lancaster and the seigniory of New Longueuil, running along the said limit in the direction of N. 34 W. to the westernmost angle of the said seigniory of New Longueuil; then along the N.W. boundary of the seigniory of Vaudreuil, running N. 25 E. until it strikes the Ottawa River; to ascend the said river into the Lake Temiscaming, and from the head of the said lake by a line drawn due N. until it strikes the boundary of Hudson's Bay, including all the territory to the westward and southward of the said line to the utmost extent of the country commonly called or known by the name of Canada." The want of clearness in the above delineation, added to the imperfections of the map on which it was drawn, particularly as regarded the westwardly angle of the seigniory of New Longueuil, and the S.W. angle of Vaudreuil, which are represented as coincident, when, according to Colonel Bouchette, they are nine miles distant from each other, has naturally caused disputes as to the boundaries between Upper and Lower Canada."--Montgomery Martin's _Hist. of Canada_, p. 62; Murray's _British America_, vol. i., p. 287.

[Footnote 222: It has now assumed the Indian name of Toronto.]

No. XXI.

"On the 5th of February, 1663, about half past five o'clock in the evening, a great rushing noise was heard throughout the whole extent of Canada. This noise caused the people to run out of their houses into the streets, as if their habitations had been on fire; but, instead of flames or smoke, they were surprised to see the walls reeling backward and forward, and the stones moving as if they were detached from each other. The bells sounded by the repeated shocks. The roofs of the buildings bent down, first on one side, and then on the other. The timbers, rafters, and planks cracked. The earth trembled violently, and caused the stakes of the palisades and palings to dance, in a manner that would have been incredible had we not actually seen it in many places. It was at this moment every one ran out of doors. Then were to be seen animals flying in every direction; children crying and screaming in the streets; men and women, seized with affright, stood horror-struck with the dreadful scene before them, unable to move, and ignorant where to fly for refuge from the tottering walls and trembling earth, which threatened every instant to crush them to death, or sink them into a profound and immeasurable abyss. Some threw themselves on their knees in the snow, crossing their breasts, and calling on their saints to relieve them from the dangers with which they were surrounded. Others passed the rest of this dreadful night in prayer; for the earthquake ceased not, but continued at short intervals with a certain undulating impulse, resembling the waves of the ocean; and the same qualmish sensations, or sickness at the stomach, was felt during the shocks as is experienced in a vessel at sea.

"The violence of the earthquake was greatest in the forest, where it appeared as if there was a battle raging between the trees; for not only their branches were destroyed, but even their trunks are said to have been detached from their places, and dashed against each other with inconceivable violence and confusion--so much so, that the Indians, in their figurative manner of speaking, declared that all the forests were drunk. The war also seemed to be carried on between the mountains, some of which were torn from their beds and thrown upon others, leaving immense chasms in the places from whence they had issued, and the very trees with which they were covered sunk down, leaving only their tops above the surface of the earth; others were completely overturned, their branches buried in the earth, and the roots only remained above ground. During this general wreck of nature, the ice, upward of six feet thick, was rent and thrown up in large pieces, and from the openings in many parts there issued thick clouds of smoke, or fountains of dirt and sand, which spouted up to a very considerable height. The springs were either choked up, or impregnated with sulphur; many rivers were totally lost; others were diverted from their course, and their waters entirely corrupted. Some of them became yellow, others red, and the great river of the St. Lawrence appeared entirely white, as far down as Tadoussac. This extraordinary phenomenon must astonish those who know the size of the river, and the immense body of waters in various parts, which must have required such an abundance of matter to whiten it. They write from Montreal that, during the earthquake, they plainly saw the stakes of the picketing or palisades jump up as if they had been dancing; and that of two doors in the same room, one opened and the other shut of their own accord; that the chimneys and tops of the houses bent like branches of the trees agitated with the wind; that when they went to walk they felt the earth following them, and rising at every step they took, something sticking against the soles of their feet, and other things in a very forcible and surprising manner.

"From Three Rivers they write that the first shock was the most violent, and commenced with a noise resembling thunder. The houses were agitated in the same manner as the tops of trees during a tempest, with a noise as if fire was crackling in the garrets. The shock lasted half an hour, or rather better, though its greatest force was properly not more than a quarter of an hour, and we believe there was not a single shock which did not cause the earth to open either more or less.

"As for the rest, we have remarked that, though this earthquake continued almost without intermission, yet it was not always of an equal violence. Sometimes it was like the pitching of a large vessel which dragged heavily at her anchors, and it was this motion which occasioned many to have a giddiness in their heads and a qualmishness in their stomachs. At other times the motion was hurried and irregular, creating sudden jerks, some of which were extremely violent; but the most common was a slight tremulous motion, which occurred frequently with little noise. Many of the French inhabitants and Indians, who were eye-witnesses to the scene, state that, a great way up the river of Trois Rivieres, about eighteen miles below Quebec, the hills which bordered the river on either side, and which were of a prodigious height, were torn from their foundations, and plunged into the river, causing it to change its course, and spread itself over a large tract of land recently cleared; the broken earth mixed with the waters, and for several months changed the color of the great River St. Lawrence, into which that of Trois Rivieres disembogues itself. In the course of this violent convulsion of nature, lakes appeared where none ever existed before; mountains were overthrown, swallowed up by the gaping, or precipitated into adjacent rivers, leaving in their places frightful chasms or level plains; falls and rapids were changed into gentle streams, and gentle streams into falls and rapids. Rivers in many parts of the country sought other beds, or totally disappeared. The earth and the mountains were entirely split and rent in innumerable places, creating chasms and precipices, whose depths have never yet been ascertained. Such devastation was also occasioned in the woods, that more than a thousand acres in our neighborhood were completely overturned; and where, but a short time before, nothing met the eye but one immense forest of trees, now were to be seen extensive cleared lands, apparently cut up by the plow.

"At Tadoussac (about 150 miles below Quebec, on the north side) the effect of the earthquake was not less violent than in other places; and such a heavy shower of volcanic ashes fell in that neighborhood, particularly in the River St. Lawrence, that the waters were as violently agitated as during a tempest. The Indians say that a vast volcano exists in Labrador. Near St. Paul's Bay (about fifty miles below Quebec, on the north side), a mountain, about a quarter of a league in circumference, situated on the shore of the St. Lawrence, was precipitated into the river, but, as if it had only made a plunge, it rose from the bottom, and became a small island, forming with the shore a convenient harbor, well sheltered from all winds. Lower down the river, toward Point Alouettes, an entire forest of considerable extent was loosened from the main bank, and slid into the River St. Lawrence, where the trees took fresh root. There are three circumstances, however, which have rendered this extraordinary earthquake particularly remarkable: the first is its duration, it having continued from February to August, that is to say, more than six months almost without intermission! It is true, the shocks were not always equally violent. In several places, as toward the mountains behind Quebec, the thundering noise and trembling motion continued successively for a considerable time. In others, as toward Tadoussac, the shock continued generally for two or three days at a time with much violence.

"The second circumstance relates to the extent of this earthquake, which, we believe, was universal throughout the whole of New France, for we learn that it was felt from L'Isle Perce and Gaspe, which are situated at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, to beyond Montreal; as also in New England, Acadia, and other places more remote. As far as it has come to our knowledge, this earthquake extended more than 600 miles in length, and about 300 in breadth. Hence 180,000 square miles of land were convulsed in the same day and at the same moment.

"The third circumstance, which appears the most remarkable of all, regards the extraordinary protection of Divine Providence, which has been extended to us and our habitations; for we have seen near us the large openings and chasms which the earthquake occasioned, and the prodigious extent of country which has been either totally lost or hideously convulsed, without our losing either man, woman, or child, or even having a hair of their head touched."--_Jesuits' Journal_, Quebec, 1663.

No. XXII.

"The principle in both instances is alike: in the former, the caloric or vital heat of the body passes so rapidly from the hand into the cold iron as to destroy the continuous and organic structure of the part; in the latter, the caloric passes so rapidly from the hot iron into the hand as to produce the same effect: heat, in both cases, being the same; its passing into the body from the iron, or into the iron from the body, being equally injurious to vitality. From a similar cause, the incautious traveler in Canada is burned in the face by a very cold wind, with the same sensations as when he is exposed to the blast of an eastern sirocco. Milton thus alludes to the effects of cold in his description of the abode of Satan and his compeers. After adverting to Styx, he says,

'Beyond this flood, a frozen continent Lies, dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice; A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old, Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air Burns frore (frozen), and cold performs the effect of fire.'

_Paradise Lost_, B. 2.

"We also find in Virgil, Georg., i., 93,

'Borea penetrabile frigus adurat.'"--Gray's _Canada_, p. 290.

No. XXIII.

"This meteor is strongest and most frequent about the arctic circle, or between that and the parallel of 64 deg. It is now ascertained, we think, beyond all doubt, that the height of the Aurora, instead of being, as supposed by Mr. Dalton and others, above the region of the atmosphere, is, in fact, rarely above six or seven miles. This was satisfactorily proved by angles taken in the same moment at two distant places, always exceedingly small at one or both stations; by the extreme rapidity with which a beam darts from one side of the horizon to the opposite side, which could not happen if 100 miles high or upward; by its frequently darting its beams _beneath_ the clouds, and at very short distances from the earth's surface, and by its being acted upon by the wind. Mr. Hood was told by one of the partners of the Northwest Company that he once saw the coruscations of the Aurora Borealis so vivid and low that the Canadians fell on their faces, and began crying and praying, fearing lest they should be killed; that he threw away his gun and knife, that they might not attract the flashes, for they were within two feet from the earth, flitting along with incredible swiftness, and moving parallel to the surface; he added that they made a loud rustling noise, like the waving of a flag in a strong breeze. This rustling noise, which is universally asserted by the servants of the Northwest Company, was not heard by any of the officers of Captain Franklin's expedition, but he says that it would be an absurd degree of skepticism to doubt the fact any longer, for their observations had rather increased than diminished the probability of it. It has hitherto been supposed that the magnetic needle was not affected by the Aurora; but a vast number of experiments given in the tables prove that, in certain positions of the beams and arches, the needle was considerably drawn aside, and mostly so when the flashes were between the clouds and the earth, or when their actions were quick, their light vivid, and the atmosphere hazy."--Franklin's _Journey to the Polar Sea_, Nos. II. and III. of the Appendix.

The following is Charlevoix's description of the Aurora Borealis, never before witnessed by the French colonists:

"Un autre phenomene, qui paroit dans l'air, meriteroit bien qu'on s'etudiat a en decouvrir la cause. Dans le tems le plus serein, on appercoit tout a coup au milieu de la nuit de nuages d'une blancheur extraordinaire, et au travers de ces nuages une lumiere tres-eclatante. Lors meme qu'on ne sent pas un souffle de vent, ces nuages sont chasses avec une tres-grande vitesse, et prennent toutes sortes de figures. Plus la nuit est obscure, plus la lumiere est vive: elle l'est meme quelquefois a un point, qu'on peut lire a sa lueur beaucoup plus aisement, qu'a celle de la lune dans son plein.

"On dira peut-etre que ce n'est qu'une refraction des raions du soleil, qui par cette hauteur ne s'eloigne pas beaucoup de l'horison pendant les nuits de l'ete, et qu'encore qu'il n'y ait point de vent dans la basse region de l'air, il peut y en avoir dans la superieure, ce qui est vrai; mais ce qui me fait juger qu'il y a encore une autre de ce meteore, c'est que pendant l'hyver meme, la lune paroit souvent environnee d'arc-en-ciel de couleurs differentes, et toutes tres-vives. Pour moi je suis persuade que ces effets doivent etre attribues en partie a des exhalaisons nitreuses, qui pendant le jour ont ete attirees et enfluencees par le soleil."

No. XXIV.

"Very distant posterity will one day decide whether, as Mr. Leslie has endeavored to prove by ingenious hypothesis (_An Experimental Inquiry into the Nature and Propagation of Heat_, 1804), 2400 years are sufficient to augment the mean temperature of the atmosphere a single degree. However slow this increment may be, we must admit that an hypothesis, according to which organic life seems gradually to augment on the globe, occupies more agreeably our imagination than the old system of the cooling of our planet and the accumulation of the polar ice."--Humboldt's _Personal Narrative_, vol. ii., p. 83.

"A point of much interest is the comparison of the actual temperature of the globe with that of the same regions in former ages. The evidence which justifies the conclusion that no change has occurred but from local or superficial causes, is worth studying, were it only for its variety and singularity. We might begin with Laplace's conclusion, that the mean heat can not be altered by 1 deg. of Reaumur since the time of Hipparchus, inasmuch as the dimensions of the globe would be thereby changed in a small amount, its angular velocity be increased or diminished, and a sensible difference be made in the length of the day, which difference does not exist. We might then proceed to the argument urged by Biot and Champollion, from the identity of the time of inundation in the Nile, 5000 years ago, the periodical rains producing which depend upon and indicate the degree and distribution of heat over a vast equatorial region. Next we might turn to the method of Professor Schaw, in his work on the comparative temperature of ancient and modern times, founded on the northern and southern limits of production of different animals and plants in any given country, as they come recorded to us by ancient writers, compared with the observations of our own day. The result of general identity is obtained by this method also; and the same remark may be extended to the miscellaneous proofs derived from other passages in ancient writers, numerously collated, respecting the climate of particular regions and localities. There is no amount of diversity shown by this evidence which does not admit of explanation from local and accidental causes, many of them belonging to the agency of man himself, on the surface of the earth."--_Quarterly Review_, September, 1848.

"Several planters attribute the failure of the cotton crop this year (1842) to the unusual size and number of the icebergs, which floated southward last spring from Hudson's and Baffin's Bays, and may have cooled the sea and checked the early growth of the cotton plant, so numerous and remote are the disturbing causes of meteorology! Forty degrees of latitude intervene between the region where the ice-floes are generated and that where the crops are raised, whose death-warrant they are supposed to have carried with them."--Lyell's _America_, vol. i., p. 174.

No. XXV.

The theory by which Dr. Brewster seeks to account for the peculiarities of the American climate is the following: "He supposes that the poles of the globe and the isothermal poles are by no means coincident, and that, on the contrary, there exist two different points, within a few degrees of the poles, where the cold is greatest in both hemispheres. These points are believed by Dr. Brewster to be situated about the eightieth parallel of latitude, and in the meridians of 95 deg. east and 100 deg. west longitude. The meridians of these isothermal poles[223] he considers as lying nearly at right angles to the parallels of what might be called the meteorological latitudes, which, according to his theory, appear to have an obliquity of direction as regards the equator something like the zodiac. Thus the cold circle of latitude that passes through Siberia would be the same that traverses the frigid atmosphere of Canada. This theory would go some length toward explaining the causes of the gradual decrease of the severity of cold in the south of Europe, and lead us to the conclusion that eventually the cold meridian of Canada may work its way westward, and leave that part of America to an enjoyment of the same temperature as those European countries situated in corresponding latitudes. That the temperature of the air has been modified by agricultural operations can not be denied, but that these operations should of themselves be capable of producing the changes known to have taken place in the course of ages in Europe, where formerly the Tiber used to be often frozen, and snow was by no means uncommon at Rome;[224] when the Euxine Sea, the Rhone, and the Rhine, were almost every year covered with ice, of sufficient thickness to bear considerable burdens, it is scarcely possible rationally to admit; and, indeed, the meteorological observations, as far as they go in Canada, serve rather to disprove than to establish the fact."--Bouchette, vol. i., p. 335.

"The earliest record of the climate of Canada is that contained in the 'Fastes Chronologiques,' and refers to the period of Cartier's second voyage. On the 15th of November, 1535, Old Style, the vessels in the River St. Charles were surrounded by ice, and the Indians informed Cartier that the whole river was frozen over as far as Montreal. On the 22d of February, 1536, the River St. Lawrence became navigable for canoes opposite to Quebec, but the ice remained firm in the St. Croix harbor. On the 5th of April his vessels were disengaged from the ice. To obtain the modern dates, it will be necessary to add eleven days to each period.

"The later meteorological statistics do not prove that the progressive opening of the country has had so powerful an influence upon the temperature of the atmosphere as is generally supposed. Its chief tendency seems to be to lengthen the summer, and thus abridge the duration of winter. That the gradual removal of the forests to make room for open fields contributes to augment the summer temperature, is undoubtedly true, since it is well known that the atmosphere itself is not heated by the direct rays of the sun, but that its warmth springs from the earth, and that the degree of this warmth is entirely governed by the quantum of heat absorbed through the earth's surface. The progressive settlement of the country may then be expected to benefit the climate, by its throwing open to the direct action of the sun a more extended surface of territory; and this benefit will be more sensibly felt at night, from the earth's having imbibed a sufficient quantity of caloric to temper the coolness of the air between the setting and rising of the sun. In an agricultural point of view, such an improvement in the climate of Canada will be of great moment, as the coldness of the nights is generally the cause of blight in tender fruits and plants; and from its equalizing the temperature, probably render the climate capable of maturing fruits that are indigenous to warm countries.

"Notwithstanding the opposing testimony of meteorological data, we have the assertion of some of the oldest inhabitants of the country that the climate of Canada has become perceptibly milder within their recollection, and are thus left to conciliate this traditional record with contradictory facts, and the only mode of doing so appears to be the application of their remarks, more to the duration of the mild season than the degrees of cold that were indicated by the thermometer in the course of the year."--Bouchette, vol. i., p. 334, 340, 1831; Lambert's _Travels through Canada_ in 1808, vol. i., p. 119.

Kalm says in 1748, September 12th, "The weather about this time was like the beginning of our August, Old Style. Therefore it seems that autumn commences a whole month later in Canada than in the midst of Sweden."--P. 682.

[Footnote 223: On the theory of the isothermal lines, see the papers of Kupfer in Poggend., _Ann._, bd. xv., s., 184, and bd. xxxli., s. 270, in the _Voyage dans l'Oural_, p. 382-398, and in the _Edinb. Journal of Science_, new series, vol. iv., p. 355. See, also, Kamtz, _Lehrbuch der Meteor_, bd. ii., s. 217, and on the ascent of chthon-isothermal lines in mountainous countries, Bischoff, s. 174-197; Humboldt's _Cosmos_, vol. i., p. 347.]

[Footnote 224: Quebec lies nearly in the same latitude as Paris, and from the description which the Emperor Julian has given of the winters he quartered there during his command in Gaul, there seems to be little difference between the winters of France in this respect and the present winters of Canada.--Juliani Imper., _Opera_.

The author of _Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains_ supposes the difference in heat between the two continents to be equal to 12 degrees; that a place 30 degrees from the equator in the Old Continent is as warm as one situated 18 degrees from it in America, tom. i., p. 11. Dr. Mitchell, after observations carried on during thirty years, contends that the difference is equal to 14 or 15 degrees of latitude, p. 257.--Heriot's _Travels through the Canadas_, p. 117.]

No. XXVI.

The Vitis vinifera is found in America in its wild state; in James's "Expedition to the Rocky Mountains" it is thus described: "The small elms along this valley were bending under the weight of innumerable grape vines, now loaded with ripe fruit, the purple clusters crowded in such profusion as almost to give a coloring to the landscape. On the opposite side of the river was a range of low sand-hills, fringed with vines, rising not more than a foot or eighteen inches from the surface. On examination, we found these hillocks had been produced exclusively by the agency of the grape vines, arresting the sand as it was borne along by the wind until such quantities had been accumulated as to bury every part of the plant except the end of the branches. Many of these were so loaded with fruit as to present nothing to the eye but a series of clusters, so closely arranged as to conceal every part of the stem. The fruit of these vines is incomparably finer than that of any other native or exotic which we have met with in the United States. The burying of the greater part of the trunk with its larger branches produces the effect of pruning, inasmuch as it prevents the unfolding of leaves and flowers on the parts below the surface, while the protruded ends of the branches enjoy an increased degree of light and heat from the reflection of the sand. It is owing, undoubtedly, to these causes that the grapes in question are far superior to the fruit of the same vine under ordinary circumstances. The treatment here employed by nature to bring to perfection the fruit of the vine may be imitated, but, without the peculiarities of soil and exposure, can with difficulty be carried to the same magnificent extent. Here are hundreds of acres, covered with a movable surface of sand, and abounding in vines, which, left to the agency of the sun and of the winds, are, by their operation, placed in more favorable circumstances than it is in the power of man to so great an extent to afford."--Vol. ii., p. 315, 316.

No. XXVII.

"Fir-trees, Thuja, and Cypress-trees are a northern type, which is very rare in the tropical regions. The freshness of their evergreen leaves cheers the desert winter landscape; it proclaims to the inhabitants of these regions that although snow and ice cover the earth, the internal life of the plants, like the fire of Prometheus, is never extinguished."--_Cosmos_, vol. ii., p. 90.

"There are upward of twenty species of Pinus, of which one half are natives of Canada, Nova Scotia, or Newfoundland.

"_Pinus Balsamea_ (Balm of Gilead Fir, or American Silver Fir) grows to the height of fifty feet, and is an elegant tree, resembling the silver fir of Europe. The resin of this species is the common Canada Balsam, which is often substituted for the Balm of Gilead. It is found in small blisters on the bark, extracted by incision, and received in a limpid state into a shell or cup. This tree has long been cultivated for curiosity in England, but in general, though it grows to a considerable size and height, scarcely survives above twenty years, which seems to be the natural period of its existence. Mr. Lambert mentions some older trees of this species at Woburn and Warwick Castle.

"_Pinus Canadensis_ (Hemlock Spruce) is a beautiful and very large tree, bearing some resemblance in its foliage to the common yew. Peter Collinson records his having introduced this tree to the English collections in 1736, and a fine specimen of it is, or was, in his garden at Mill Hill.

"_Pinus Nigra_ (Black or Double Spruce) is found from Canada to Nova Scotia, and terminates in latitude 65 deg. It was introduced into England about the year 1700, but not much cultivated there.

"_Pinus Alba_ (White Spruce) flourishes from latitude 43 deg. northward. Its growth is nearly equal to that of the European silver fir, 140 feet in height. It is one of the most ornamental of the _Abies_ tribe (those having single, not fasciculated leaves); the branches feather down to the ground, and the leaves have a beautiful and peculiar glaucous hue. From the young shoots of this tree (also from Pinus Nigra) is obtained the resinous extract from which spruce beer is made: good turpentine is obtained from the bark. This tree was cultivated in England by Bishop Compton before 1700.

"_Pinus Resinosa_ (Pitch Pine) grows in Canada in close forests, and is distinguished for its great height and smooth red bark, whence it is often called Red Pine by the French population. This tree is the glory of Canada. Its timber, in color, quality, and durability, appears to be in every respect equal to the best Riga, and in one particular superior, that of being quite free from knots. It was first raised in England by the Duke of Northumberland at Zion House, where many of this species are still to be seen flowering in May.

"_Pinus Banksiana_ (Labrador Scrub, or Gray Pine) inhabits cold, barren, and rocky situations. The finest trees of this species in England are at Pain's Hill and Kew.

"_Pinus Strobus_ (White, or Weymouth Pine) is the largest species on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, being sometimes 200 feet high, and the trunk five feet in diameter. The attention which Lord Weymouth, afterward Marquis of Bath, gave to the cultivation of this valuable tree has justly stamped it with his name. It is now generally diffused through every considerable plantation in England. When growing in open situations, it is feathered to the ground; but, as generally found in the Canadian forests, it is little more than an immense stick with a quantity of brush at its head, in about the same proportion as the hair on the tail of an elephant. It is of this tree that in general the forests of all British America are composed, and it is, in fact, peculiar to America. It is called in commerce White Pine, Yellow Pine, or American Pine. The timber is very valuable for masts. The age to which this tree arrives is not known: 1500 annular divisions have been counted.

"_Pinus Pendula_ (Black Larch, or Hackmatack) is a beautiful and large tree, generally resembling the larch of Europe. The buds are black, and yield a fine turpentine. This tree was first raised in England by the celebrated Peter Collinson, whose original tree, one of the treasures of the Mill Hill garden, was cut down about the year 1800 to make a rail! Few exotics are more worthy of general cultivation. The wood is at least equal to the European larch.

"_Pinus Microcarpa_ (Red Larch) resembles the preceding so much, that Michaux and Wildman confounded the two species together. The red larch, however, is now clearly distinguished as a distinct kind. It is named by the voyageurs L'Epinette Rouge, and by the Hudson's Bay men Juniper."--H. Murray's _British America_, vol. iii., p. 328; R. M. Martin, p. 254; Rees's _Cyclopaedia_, art. Pinus.

No. XXVIII.