THE Sketch Map, which fronts the Title of this Volume, was designed to have accompanied a little Work on Emigration, and a larger one, narrating my personal History, Travels in Canada, the United States, &c.; both of which should have appeared long before now, but for the melancholy and disastrous circumstances by which I have been surrounded and held down. Upon a future occasion, I shall refer to this Map. A few words will suffice to give it sufficient consequence where it is now placed.

The climate of America undergoes a great change, as we proceed from the sea, inland. The air becomes much more dry, and though the cold of winter, by the thermometer, increases, it is less disagreeable to the feelings; while the seasons throughout are improved. At Quebec the mercury falls to 30° below Zero, in winter. At Lord Selkirk's settlement, on the Red River, only a little further north, but far to the west, it falls to 50°. And Mr. Birkbeck has written to me from Illinois, that he "shrinks a little at the extremes of the climate, though the mercury has not yet fallen to Zero." The climate of Lord Selkirk's settlement is much superior to that of

Quebec. The greater degree of dryness qualifies the increased cold of winter. People accustomed to the country, find no inconvenience in this; and, the cold easily endured, leaves a mighty balance of enjoyment in the clear, the healthy, and the bracing air. The summer is long enough, in these parts, for the purposes of vegetation, especially on the Red River, where melons come to perfection without forcing; but spring and autumn afford too little time for the labours of the husbandman; and the weight of snow is apt to rot out wheat sown in the fall, which are serious disadvantages. While the climate of Illinois is severe to the feeling in winter, even below lat. 38°, it yields no snow for the pleasure and profit of sleighing: neither is it so healthy as the north. The plough may be employed in every month of the year; but during the winter half, the surface of the earth is too often plashy and comfortless. Taking all things into consideration, I should doubt which was to be preferred-the climate of the Red River, or that of the Wabash.

In the centre, between the three points now spoken of, lies Upper Canada, the pink of America. Ten weeks of sleighing is just sufficient for the conveyance of produce to market; for the interchange of visits; for "daffen and de-*· ray*.” March is the most unpleasant month in Upper Canada. The plough cannot yet move: sleighing is over: wheels sink in the mud; and the eye is out of humour with a piebald world; yet, even in this month, the industrious can find profitable employment. They can betake themselves to the maple busht, and secure an abundance of sugar for the consumption of the year, while the cattle rest a little from their labour, to gain strength for the push

* King James's Poem of Leslie on the Green.

+ The bush in America is a term often used to express the wood, the forest, or the grove.

of seed-time. The Canadian April is inferior to the sweet April of England, with its sunshine and its showers; but then the buds begin to swell, and towards the close are ready to unfold. During the beginning of May the leaves suddenly burst from confinement, and clothe the forests in their liveliest attire. Nature now strives amain, and before June the grass may almost be seen to grow. But one charm is wanting, and is sadly missed by the native Briton in America. There is no music in the sky-no chorus in the grove. The birds are mute in comparison with the feathered songsters of England. No lark-no linnet-no black bird-no thrush-no nightingale-no robin, but by name. Chirp, chirp, chirp; and but little of that.

The summer of Upper Canada is spoken of pages 181, 393, and 401: the autumn is equal, if not superior to that of England; and the months of November and December are certainly so. The first two weeks of November are generally delightful. The ruddy sun shines through a close and hazy atmosphere, delightfully warm. This period is called the Indian summer *.

Upper Canada can now communicate with the ocean by her own grand outlet. In three years hence she will have a good water conveyance and a kind welcome by New York; and within the limit of my own far-spent existence, steamboats may be regularly trading between Lake Erie and the Mississippi. Hail, times of peace to man! Once quit of tyranny and long established power-the power from ignorance alone endured!

I have coloured the most desirable parts for settlement in America with pink and green. I should have spread the green all over Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, but for

It has been ascribed to the burning of the grass along the banks of the Mississippi; hundreds of miles of rank prairie grass, I have been told, is sometimes in a blaze. My opinion is not made up on the question.

the breath of slavery. From that I would always wish to be a hundred miles removed; and, perhaps, my excellent friend, Mr. Birkbeck, may yet be prevailed upon to meet me on the banks of Lake Erie. West of Albany, and from the 41° to the 45° of latitude, is unquestionably the best of all for the settlement of Europeans. Farther north, winter becomes too long and severe. Farther south, we not only approach to the abodes of slavery; but to pale faces, and bad teeth, yellow fever, and General Jackson*.

There is a tract yet to be noticed worthy of a British monarch's care. Captains Ross and Parry have conversed with the men of the distant north, and found them gentle and well disposed. Far beyond where vegetation has ceased, we find that the human species may be cultivated: -that, even there, we may increase and multiply. The idea gives expansion to the generous heart. It attunes in us a song of hope and praise to the Almighty, whose goodness waits only for that of his creatures. Let us then strive to excel in goodness, and lay the foundation of a scheme by which the vast regions now pointed to may be quickly and thickly peopled-peopled for the glory of Him" in whom we live, move, and have our being."

It was a saying, often repeated by my father, that "the first improvement of any country should be the malang of good roads," and in conformity with this maxim. I have lined out roads over the yet trackless waste lands of the British crown. This may give a hint for commencing work worthy of the greatest nation on earth-worthy of an age bursting forth into light, and literature, and liberty So far as the British sceptre sways, even to the poles,

a

* But yesterday this man has again been reported to us as playing the tyrant,-seizing the papers of the Spanish Ambassa dor, and throwing him into jail!! Will Americans again authorize his arbitrary decrees?