will subdue, inhabit, and cultivate the far western wilderness is not to be doubted. We have only to reflect on the progress made by Europeans, in defiance of the most formidable difficulties, in penetrating and subduing the wilderness, from the time the first permanent settlement was formed at James River to the present day, to agree with the following observations which I extracted from a paper printed at Buffalo. "The Far West' - where is the west, and what are its bounds? But a few years have passed since our thriving town (then a rude hamlet) stood upon the further confines of the rising west. Still beyond there did indeed exist an ideal realm of future greatness-a matted and mighty forest, but 'clouds and thick darkness rested on it.' Here and there it was dotted with a settlement of whites, clustered together for mutual assistance and mutual defence. These were few, and far between,' and still beyond, and deeper sunk in the murky shadows of the wilderness, roamed the border band of lawless and outlawed whites - a race of men found only upon the line of frontier territory, between savage and civilised life, to neither of which they have any affinity, and whose anomalous character, rejecting the virtues of either, embodies in one the vices of both. " But the solitude has been penetrated, the forest has been overwhelmed by the towering wave of emigration. That wave but recently spent its utmost fury, ere it reached even here, and its last and dying ripple was wont to fall gently at our feet; but not so now: it has risen above - it has swept over us, and while its mighty deluge is yet rushing past in one undiminished current, the roar of its swelling surges, repeated by each babbling echo, is still wafted back to us upon every western breeze. Ours is no longer a western settlement; our children are surrounded by the comforts, the blessings, and the elegances of life, where their fathers found only hardship, privation, and want. The westward' is onward, still onward, - but where? Even the place that was known as such but yesterday, to-morrow shall be known so no more. The tall forest, the prowling beast, and "The Stoic of the woods - the man without a tear,' are alike borne down, trampled and destroyed by this everlasting scramble for the west. This course of empire may, must be stayed, when the shore of the Pacific has been reached, and the intermediate distance reclaimed and populated. But before these are effected, how mighty must be the growth of our republic! Already the annual tourist, who was wont to exhaust all his rambling desires in reaching the Falls,' disdains so slight an excursion; he must visit 'the west,' and Green Bay or Fort Winnebago is now his resting-place. Another year and even these will be left behind, and the ever-receding west must be pursued over succeeding rivers, and mountains, and plains, until the 'western tour' shall terminate, by necessity, at the mouth of the Oregon." CHAP. XI. LAKE HURON. - GEORGIA BAY. - MAKILLIMAKINAK. - MICHIGAN LAKE AND TERRITORY. STRAITS OF ST. MARY AND FALLS. - LAKE SUPERIOR. — DEPTH OF THE LAKES, ETC. LAKE Huron is 250 miles long, 120 broad, and 860 feet deep, without comprehending a branch of it called Georgia Bay, which is 120 miles long, and fifty miles broad. Near the head of the latter at Pentagushine, there is a small naval depôt. It receives several rivers. The Severn, flowing over a rocky bed from Lake Simcoe; the Maitland, at the mouth of which is the town and harbour of Godrich, and which flows through the Huron tract; the river Moon, flowing from lakes lying between the Georgian Bay and the Ottawa; and the French River, a large stream flowing from Lake Nippissing, which a very narrow portage divides from a rapid river falling into the Ottawa. This was formerly the grand route of the north-west voyageurs. The lands on the east and west coasts are generally fit for cultivation, and covered with heavy timber, presenting clay cliffs, rocks, and woody slopes along the shore. The north coast exhibits a rugged, formidable, and barren aspect. The Cloche mountains are behind this shore, and very little is known of the interior. A multitude of islands, called the Manitoulins, or Islands of Spirits, extend from the northern extre mity of Georgian Bay, to the détour between the continent and Drummond's Island. The largest of these is eighty miles long. The Indians attach a religious veneration to them, as being consecrated by the great spirit, Manitou. Through the Strait of Makillimakinak, the fort of which the Americans claim, the navigation to Lake Michigan is deep and safe. This lake is within the United States' boundary. It is, without including Green Bay, a branch of it, 400 miles long, and fifty broad; and Green Bay is 105 miles long, and twenty miles broad: both are on a level with Lake Huron. The Michigan territory, lying between Lake Huron, the River Detroit, and Lake Michigan, is a valuable and extensive region, in which settlements forming with extraordinary rapidity. are The passage to Lake Superior, by the strait of St. Mary, 40 miles long, is interrupted by the rapids or falls of St. Mary, which occur about mid-distance between both lakes. The appellation of fall is, however, improper. About midway between both lakes, the banks of the strait contracts the channel, which also descends, altogether, in the course of the rapid, about twenty-three feet, and the vast discharge of Lake Superior rolling along impetuously over and against natural irregularities, renders the navigation upwards altogether impracticable. Canoes have descended, but the exploit is hazardous. A canal two miles long would avoid this rapid, and connect the navigation of Lake Superior with that of Lake Huron, and Michigan and Erie. Lake Superior, the great source of the St. Lawrence, is about 360 geographical or 417 statute miles long, and 140 geographical or 162 statute miles broad; its circumference round its shores about 1600 miles, and its depth about 900 feet. Its waters are pure and astonishingly transparent, and this inland ocean is not surpassed in turbulent commotion, during tempests, by the most violent agitation of the Atlantic. It receives numerous rivers, but none of them are remarkably large. Lowlands, lying between the lake and the ramps and mountains, are considered to have been formerly covered by the waters of the lake. The elevations rise, in some parts, to 1500 feet above the level of the lake. In other places a flat country extends back from fifty to seventy miles. The largest of its islands, near the British side, Isle Royale, is about 100 miles long by forty in breadth. The lands fit for settlement and agriculture may be considered to be nearly altogether within the boundaries of the United States. Tracts of good land may occasionally occur, or be found, on the British side; but, as far as we know, chiefly from the fur traders, the northern shores are forbidding and sterile, and the whole country between this lake and Hudson Bay is of little value, except for the furs of the wild animals, or the fish that may be caught in its rivers. Salmon of great size, herring, black bass, sturgeon, and all the lake fish, are abundant. It is said that neither salmon nor herring are caught in any of the lakes, except those communicating with the St. Law rence. How either herring or salmon got into those lakes is a question to puzzle the naturalist. The comparative depths of the lakes form another extraordinary subject of enquiry. The bottom of Lake Ontario, which is 452 feet deep, is as low as most |