Page images
PDF
EPUB

returning to their summer quarters; and vegetation about the 10th of May is very strong. The snow is nearly gone, and the frost is sufficiently out of the ground to allow the farmer to commence his operations. This takes place after the snow is gone, sooner than one would imagine. The frost does not penetrate so deep into the ground, as from the intenseness, and long continuance of the cold, might be expected.

In countries where you have six months frost, were the soil exposed to its influence all the while, it would have penetrated so deep, that I question if the heat of a whole summer would eradicate it. But Providence has furnished a remedy: it has kindly decreed, that when water is cooled down to 32o. it shall freeze, and be converted into ice and snow. The rivers become covered with ice, the surface of the earth becomes hardened, snow falls to a considerable thickness, and by these means the water and the land are protected from the influence of that immense volume of cold, dense atmosphere, which presses on, from the polar regions towards the south,

when the sun retreats after the solstice. The natural heat of the earth is about 42; the thermometer stands at this point in the deepest mines that have been sunk. This natural heat, as well as the heat accumulated in the earth and water during summer, is prevented, by the ice and snow, from making its escape; and as soon as the return of the sun has brought warmth enough to banish the frost from the asmosphere, the latent heat of the earth and water lends its aid in dissolving the snow and ice, and forwarding vegetation. Snow is peculiarly well calculated for preserving warmth in the earth; because it is full of air, which is known to be a very bad conductor of heat, and will, of course, the more effectually prevent its escaping from the surface. It is a thing very well ascertained here, that vegetation has made some progress under the snow, before it has deserted the ground.

The long continuance of winter in Canada is certainly a circumstance which must retard its progress in improvement, and the increase of its trade. Some people pretend to say, that it must ever prevent its becoming a great, populous, and

trading nation. I cannot go so far. We have seen Russia, in the course of a century, become a great, populous, and trading nation. We have seen a splendid capital city, and many respectable towns, raised by the magical powers of commerce, and domestic industry; and yet the Russian winter is as long as the Canadian winter. The communication of the Russians, by water, with the rest of the world is cut off, and that element confounded, as it were, with the land, from the 27th of November, to the 19th of April (upon an average calculation of 15 years), which is nearly five months. Now vessels some→ times leave Quebec as late as the begin ning of December, and arrive sometimes in the end of April, so that the Neva is as long shut up as the St. Lawrence; yet nobody ever doubts that Russia is a rising country, and may become the most powerful in Europe.

It is worthy of remark, and not a little surprising, that so large a river as the St. Lawrence, in latitude 47, should be shut up with ice as soon, and continue as long shut up, as the comparatively small river, the Neva, in latitude 60.

Could the husbandman, the labourer, and all those whose trade or profession in Canada lead them to work in the open air, follow their occupations all the year round, it certainly would be of great advantage to the country, and to the people. At present, a great proportion of the people are obliged to live twelve months on six months work, which implies their receiving double wages. This is certainly the case; wages are very high; 4, 5, to 6s. a day are given, according to the kind of work, and merit of the workman. The idleness of their winter life has other bad effects. It generates habits prejudicial to exertion; so that, in summer even, they do not perform so much work as men who are in habits of industry all the year round. At the same time I must say, that the lower classes in this country dress as well, and appear to live as comfortably, as the same classes of people do in any country in Europe.

Y

LETTER XXII.

I

Quebec, 1808.

HAVE now, my worthy friend, been a sojourner in Canada for a considerable length of time.. If it is not a land abounding in all the luxuries and elegancies of life, it undeniably is a land of peace and plenty.

My further experience has enabled me to confirm the truth of the statements I have already sent you, relative to the commerce of Canada; and to verify the observations I have ventured to make on the country, and its inhabitants, in physical and moral points of view.

I did not imagine that my letters would have reached the extent they have done. One thing leads on to another; and it is difficult to know where to stop. Perhaps you could have told ine very easily be that as

« PreviousContinue »