But if the mountains of South excel those of North America in altitude and extent, the North American lakes are unique of their kind upon the earth. We will mention only the five largest : Lake Ontario has a superficies of 11,640 miles, Lake Erie of 7,940, Lake Huron of 1,520, Lake Michigan of 14,880, and Lake Superior of 36,000. They exhibit for the most part a prodigious depth, so that in several places no bottom has been found with 1800 feet of line. Hence they, together with their outlet the St. Lawrence, contain, as has been estimated, more than one half of the fresh water on the globe. They are girt with hills and sandy ridges, but not with mountains properly so-called.

The bottom of Lakes Huron and Michigan is estimated to be at an average 300 feet below, and their surface at 618 feet above. the level of the sea.

An outlet for this enormous mass of water is furnished by the river St. Lawrence, running from west to east. Its sources lie very near those of the Mississippi; and so far are they from being separated from each other by high mountain-ridges, that when the waters have been unusually high, boats of from 70 to 80 tons burthen have passed from Lake Michigan through the Illinois into the Mississippi: consequently but little assistance would be required at this place to establish a natural water communication between the Atlantic ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. It has been estimated that every hour 1,672,704 cubic feet of water are poured into the Atlantic through the St. Lawrence. The tide ascends the stream about 400 miles, or half-way between Quebec and Montreal. Vessels of 600 tons sail up to the latter city, and ships of the line as far as Quebec.

Although the valley of the St. Lawrence exceeds in extent every thing of the kind in Europe, this stream is far inferior to the Mississippi, and still more so to the Missouri. The former takes its rise in about 48° N. lat. and 95° long. west of Ferro; the latter in 43° N. lat. and 110°W. long. The Missouri is wrongfully deprived of its name at its confluence with the Mississippi: that of the latter prevails through several zones, although the former brings down four times as much water and is twice as long as the Mississippi ;* it is in fact one fourth longer than the River Amazon, and if not robbed of its name, is the longest river in the world. It flows through a distance of 3,100 miles before reaching the Mississippi; and consequently down to this point it is about seven times as long as the Rhone. In common with the Mississippi, it moves from north to south in so many windings, that it is difficult to calculate its length. They receive about 200

*North Amer. Review, 1823, p. 60. Mexico has fewer navigable streams and fewer serviceable harbors than the United States.

The Encyclop. Americana, art. Missouri, estimates its length to the Gulf of Mexico at 4,400 English miles. Lewis and Clarke navigated it above St. Louis 3096 miles. (Travels, p. 21.)

If the

tributaries, and water a region of immeasurable extent. Raab, which rises in the Fichtel-Gebirge, emptied in the African kingdom of Fezzan, it would still not have by far the length of the Missouri, but only that of the Mississippi.

Between this stream and the St. Lawrence many essential differences and contrasts present themselves. The Mississippi runs from north to south in a regular stream; the St. Lawrence from west to east, forming or passing through many lakes. The former comes from an almost polar region of perpetual ice, and descends into the country of the fig, the orange, and the sugarcane; the latter flows almost wholly through the same degrees of latitude. The Mississippi rises and falls to an uncommon extent at different periods of the year; the St. Lawrence remains constantly at the same height, and causes no inundations. Although it receives innumerable tributaries, the Mississippi becomes no broader, but constantly deeper and deeper (or the water is dispersed by running over its banks); while the St. Lawrence widens into a large bay, and its bed is interrupted and embellished with countless islands. From its confluence with the Missouri, the Mississippi becomes turbid, and is constantly adding to the deposit at its mouth, which renders it difficult of entrance* the St. Lawrence, on the contrary, is and remains throughout, pure and clear, and is bordered on its banks by woods and fields, while the Mississippi winds its way, less picturesquely, through tracts of meadow-land and swamps. Trunks of trees, floating timber, and even whole islands torn from its banks, drive down its current or assume a fixed position; so that a voyage down the Mississippi was for a long time regarded as more dangerous than one across the Atlantic. But by means of steamboats and machines of different kinds, an immense number of trees have been removed from the river, others that threatened to fall in have been cut down, sandbanks have been washed away by the application of dams; and thus the dangers of its navigation, though not yet wholly removed, have been greatly diminished.

Among all the lateral streams of the Mississippi, the Ohio is as yet by far the most important. Through a long extent of its course, mountains appear at its side; but in fact these are only the margin of a level highland, and the deep-cut bed of the river has from Pittsburg to the Mississippi a fall of only about 400 feet in 1000 miles; so that obstacles presented to navigation by the low state of the water in summer, may mostly be removed by artificial means.

These and other giant streams of North America, as the Mississippi, either do not burst forth from lofty Alps; or else, like the Missouri, after breaking from the mountains, they flow through

* At New Orleans, the river is 158 feet deep, while there are only 12 feet over the bar.

and thus present but few Yet this very peculiarity of much the more useful, as of country, as the highways

tedious plains of the same aspect, images of beauty to the artist's eye. their conformation makes them so bonds of union between great tracts of a daily increasing commerce. In what manner the industrious exertions of a shrewd and active people have profited by, and even greatly enhanced these natural gifts of rivers and lakes, will be seen hereafter. It is sufficient here to indicate the natural peculiarities of the principal streams, and at the same time to observe that, by the settlement on their banks of an enterprising race of men, the beautiful and commercially important Hudson, Delaware, Potomac, Susquehanna, &c., have been raised far above their primitive natural condition.

It is an indubitable fact, that in the same degrees of latitude, the winters are colder and the summers warmer in North America than in Europe. To this general observation, important with respect to living, to commerce, and to navigation, I will add a few particulars chiefly respecting the climate of the United States.*

Hudson's Bay, in the same latitude as the Baltic sea, is even in summer full of ice. In New York (in the latitude of Madrid and Naples) the winter accompanied with ice lasts on an average one hundred and sixty-four days; and the Delaware is frozen over for five or six weeks. New York has the summer of Rome and the winter of Copenhagen; Quebec, the summer of Paris and the winter of St. Petersburgh.

In America, too, the climate by no means depends altogether on the degrees of latitude, but is influenced more or less by the winds, the lakes, the great tracts of land in the north, the ocean, the gulf stream, &c.

In the northern parts of the United States, the medium temperature amounts to about 45°, and in the southern to 68° Fahrenheit. Here the difference between summer and winter is but slight, while in the north it is immense. It amounts for instance in Florida to 10°, and at Fort Snelling in the north to 56°. At Key West, the southernmost extremity of Florida, the medium temperature amounts in winter to 70°, and in summer to 81° Fahrenheit. At Fort Snelling, it is in winter only 16°, and in summer 72°. In the month of July, the heat is sometimes five degrees higher than it is even at Key West.

Winter.

Summer.

63°

30°

72°

59°

83°

70°

81°

*Chiefly from the instructive work of Dr. Forry.

↑ Long's Second Expedition, ii. 466. Poussin, Puissance Américaine, ii. 200.

In Quebec the thermometer sinks to 30° below zero, and rises in summer to 95° above zero. In Baltimore the thermometer rose twice in the course of eight years to 98°, and sank four times below zero.* In an elevated part of the Oregon territory, the thermometer stood at sunrise at 18°, and at noon at 92°; while a difference of 40° Fahrenheit was quite common. In Alabama it amounted in one day to 50°.

The quantity of rain in different months and years is very different. Thus there fell:

In Baltimore, in August, 1817, 103 inches.

In Europe it rains oftener,† but not so much as in America.‡ Notwithstanding the great difference above noted in the temperature of the atmosphere, the climate (with the exception of some parts along the sea-coast and in the vicinity of swamps) is not prejudicial to the duration of life; or else the injurious effects diminish with the progress of cultivation,§ and through the adoption of judicious precautionary measures. A high degree of longevity is established by the statement, that in 1835 there were in the United States:

33,517 persons between 80 and 90 years of age.

If North America is far behind the southern continent as respects the discovery of the precious metals, it abounds to superfluity in all the indispensable and generally useful treasures of the mineral kingdom. Thus there is found:

Platina, none at all.

Silver, very little. Ponly in havada

Gold, in great abundance, especially in Georgia and North and South Carolina, east of the mountains.

Copper, in plenty near Lake Superior, and at different places in the Mississippi valley.

*Darby's View of the U. States, p. 389. Buckingham's Slave States, i. 243.

† Greenhow's Memoir on the Northwestern Coast, p. 17. Warren's Account of the United States, i. 164.

In the northern half of the United States, the days in a year were:

Ibid., p. 273.

|| Amer. Almanac for 1835, p. 91.

¶ Trans. of Geological Society of Philadelphia, i. 1–16.

Lead, in the neighborhood of the lakes,* in Missouri, Wisconsin, and Arkansas, in prodigious quantities.

Iron, to superfluity in New England, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Tennessee. In Missouri there are even whole mountains of almost pure oxide of iron.

Salt, in abundance in Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and other parts; although a considerable quantity is still imported from Portugal, Spain, Sicily, England, and other countries.

Coal, in many places in very great quantities, e. g. in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, &c. The beds in Pittsburg alone, the American Birmingham, appear to be inexhaustible.

The vegetable kingdom has reigned and still reigns in America under two great aspects, those of forests and prairies. The forests extend from the river St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, over plains, declivities, and mountains. In Europe one can hardly form an idea of the magnitude and beauty of the American primeval forests and trees; and while in France there are reckoned only 37 kinds of trees that grow to the height of 30 feet, there are in America 130 kinds which exceed this measurement, and which with the variety of their growth and foliage surprise and enchant every beholder. The diversity and beauty of the colors of autumn are especially celebrated.

The practice of burning down the trees, which the first settlers found necessary, is constantly diminishing; since the increasing water communications facilitate transhipment, and give the formerly worthless timber a daily increasing value.

Although it may be contended that the cultivation and consumption of tobacco is not beneficial to the human race, yet the universal diffusion of the American potato is an undeniable blessing. Without it, many of the countries of Europe would be entirely incapable of supporting their present population, and the poorer classes would often be left a prey to hunger.

Those seas of meadow-land, the prairies, which lie southwest of the great lakes and along the banks of the Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, &c., are for the most part entirely destitute of trees, having been so from the beginning, or made so in consequence of natural or violent changes. For while some maintain that many forests, both in ancient and modern times,† have been purposely or accidentally burnt down, others deny the fact, because traces of coal are nowhere to be met with. I regard it as indubitable that the prairies on the Illinois and towards Chicago, have

*On the upper Mississippi, too, 35,000,000 pounds of lead were obtained in a sin gle year.

↑ Lewis and Clarke's Travels, p. 3.

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