and a half miles broad. The windows of our room open upon a fine terrace, from which there is a charming and extensive view of the distant country. In the evening, this is a very favourite promenade, with the inmates of the house.

I am delighted to sit down once more under the British flag, which is waving over us; for Lord Dalhousie, the Governor, is staying in the house; and I am gratified by the sight of our own red coats, who have mounted guard.

Letter XXH.

Montreal, 23rd August, 1822.

I HAVE just received your letter of the 19th ult. The uncommon cold of the last winter, and the unusual heat of the present summer, appear, in some degree, to have extended to you. Individually, I am not sorry to have the opportunity of experiencing, in the course of the year I have passed in America, a range of temperature, beyond even the ordinary limits of the country. The great and sudden changes, however, continue to strike me more than even extremes of cold and heat, so much beyond those we experience in England. After a week of the hottest weather they have had here this summer, (the other morning the thermometer was currently reported, and I believe, correctly, to be 98° of Fahrenheit, in the shade,) thin clothes of every description have disappeared, and last night, when I sat down to write to you, I found it too cold to proceed. The oppressive heat of the summer here and in the United States, is alleviated in some degree, by the liberal use of ice. We see

it in every form, and use it with the utmost profusion. The butter regularly comes to table, with a fine thick transparent piece of ice upon it; large pieces are generally floating in the water-jugs at dinner, or in your chambers, and it is often handed round on plates, in small pieces, to be used at dinner. The plan of preserving ice in this country and the United States is much more simple than with us; and I have no doubt more judicious, as notwithstanding the superior heat of the climate, it is so much more. cheap and plentiful. Almost every farmer has his ice-house.

I have already given you some account of our sail down the rapids. It was extremely pleasant; and although we were becalmed for many hours, we descended on the St. Lawrence in less than two days, a distance which the boatmen seldom re-ascend in less than nine or ten, even with the occasional assistance of locks, at the side of the river. I am surprised we hear so little of this noble river. It is computed, I do not know with what accuracy, to discharge one-half more water than the Mississippi. Its depth, between Ogdensburgh and La Chine, 130 miles, seldom varies more than three feet, in the course of a year; while

2. B

the Mississippi was falling one foot each day, when I ascended it. The St. Lawrence is much clearer than the Mississippi, and its current much more rapid; so rapid, indeed, that the Lake Erie steam-boat, which has been in operation for three years, has not been able to ascend from Black Rock to Lake Erie more than twice without twelve oxen. The banks of the St. Lawrence do not present the rich and beautiful cultivation which adorns the banks of the Mississippi in Louisiana; but if they do not exhibit extensive and highly-dressed plantations of

sugar and cotton, or the magnificent foresttrees, peculiar to the south and west, the prospect is never blackened by a range of miserable slave-cabins, or gangs of negroes working like cattle in the field. I cannot describe to you the pleasure I derive from contrasting the various scenes through which I am passing, with each other; they have so many peculiar features, and all so highly interesting.

It is remarkable, that, rising from the same Table-land, and so intimately connected by intersecting branches, which occasionally flow into each other during periods of inundation, the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence present the most striking contrast, in their general features. Many of these are mentioned in the observa

tions I will copy for you from Darby, but others, not much less interesting, might be added.

"The Mississippi is turbid, in many parts to muddiness; the St. Lawrence unusually limpid. One river is composed of almost an unbroken chain of lakes; the other, in all its vast expanse, has no lakes that strictly deserve the name. Annually the Mississippi overleaps its bed, and overwhelms the adjacent shores to a great extent; an accidental rise of three feet, in the course of fifty years, is considered an extraordinary swell of the waters of St. Lawrence; this circumstance has occurred the present season, for the first time within the lapse of forty years past. The Mississippi, flowing from north to south, passes through innumerable climes; whilst its rival, winding from its source, in a south-east direction, to near north latitude 41°, turns gradually north-east, and again flows into its original climate of ice and snow. The Mississippi, before its final discharge into the Gulf of Mexico, divides, into a number of branches, having their separate egress; the St. Lawrence imperceptibly expands to a wide bay, which finally opens into the gulf of the same name. The banks of the Mississippi present a level, scarce rising