and St. Clair the Detroit, between Lake St. Clair and Lake Huron the river St. Clair, between Lakes Huron and Superior the Narrows or Sault St. Marie-all which sections form, united, a waterway of 2384 miles; the rapids in the section between Montreal and Kingston, and again between Lakes Ontario and Erie, where the Falls of Niagara intervene, being surmounted by canals.

Lake Superior may be considered as the inexhaustible spring whence the St. Lawrence has continued to derive its ample and pure waters, which have the azure tint of those of the ocean. Issuing from this lake with a rapid current, it rushes through the narrows of the Sault St. Marie for a distance of twenty-seven miles, and, tumbling over a rocky bed, enters Lake Huron. Lake Huron is united at its western extremity with Lake Michigan, a lake lying entirely within the United States, and separated from Lake Huron by the Straits of Mackinaw and by a peninsula of about 150 miles across at its widest part. It is fed by many considerable rivers and several inferior streams from the height of land on this peninsula, as well as by several large rivers which enter it on its north shore and through the Georgian Bay-a large bay on its north-eastern side. Of these latter rivers the French river is an important one, as it connects with Lake Nipissing, and by a succession of smaller lakes affords an easy means of making the communication by water complete, from Lake Huron to the Ottawa River, and thence to the St. Lawrence at Montreal.

From the extremity of Lake Huron to the southward, the channel contracts into the St. Clair River, which, after flowing nearly due south for sixty miles, between moderately high banks adorned by many natural beauties, expands into the small lake of the same name.

Issuing from this lake the river continues its course southwardly for forty miles under the name of the Detroit

There are many

River, and there falls into Lake Erie. islands in this part of the river, some of them of considerable size, and the scenery on the east side is diversified and agreeable.

From the north-east end of Lake Erie the connection with Lake Ontario is by the Niagara River thirty-six miles in length, and from half a mile to three miles in width. Its course is nearly north, and the stream is divided in several places by islands, the largest of which, Grand Island, is seven miles in length.

The levels of the country here change by a sudden drop to the lower plateau on which Lake Ontario lies, and as the Niagara River approaches its fearful leap at the "Falls" its waters appear to lash themselves into a fury, and surge like the breakers on a rock-bound coast. This portion of the river, by its picturesqueness and "life of waters," must ever attract the admirer of nature. Having now reached the great Falls of Niagara, a short description will be given of them, as they are looked on by Europeans as the central point from which the continent

of America radiates.

N. P. Willis, in Bartlett's Illustrated Canada, says:— "The Falls of Niagara impress travellers very differently. Most persons, having heard of this wonder of the world from their childhood, have aggrandised their imagination of its appearance in proportion with the growth of their minds, and visit Niagara, at last, with the expectation of seeing an ocean poured from the height of the clouds." He quotes a description by a traveller who remarks:

"I first visited these celebrated Falls in the month of September-a season of the year which in America is peculiarly pleasant. Until I arrived within a mile of the Falls, the sky was perfectly clear, the sun shone with his wonted splendour, and the atmosphere

But no

was remarkably dry and uncommonly lucid. sooner had I approached their immediate vicinity, than a sudden and singular change took place in the whole aspect of nature. The earth, before parched and immovable, became damp and tremulous, and the sky, till then unsullied by a single cloud, assumed a frowning, dark, and portentous appearance. The atmosphere, previously dry and rarefied, now presented a dense and humid visage; and my fancy, unreined by my reason, transported me into a world essentially different from that in which, a few minutes before, I lived and moved and had my being.

"Still, however, I pursued my course, and at length gained the summit of the craggy hills which flank this noble river. My increased elevation did not contribute to dissipate the preconceived delusion, and I still felt inclined to doubt of my own or the world's identity. Mountains of water, belching forth the most appalling sounds; globes of foam, boiling with rage; rainbows, embracing within their numerous and splendid arches a surprising variety of newly formed impending clouds; rocks, boldly projecting over the tumultuous abyss; and spray-covered forests, decorated with pearly drops, now rendered more brilliant than crystal by the reflected rays of the setting sun, and now blown into feathery streams by sudden gusts of the impetuous wind. These were some of the most striking features of the gorgeous scenery by which I was surrounded. Long did I luxuriate in pleasing contemplation, admiring its peculiar grandeur; and still did I find myself lingering amidst these stupendous and matchless displays of creative excellence, until the sun, wearied with shedding his beams on the transAtlantic wilds, had retired, in all his glory, 'to rove o'er other lands, and give to other men the kindest boon of Heaven."