The Conquest of Canada, Vol. 1. George Warburton

148

"Many of these mountains are very high. During my stay in Canada, I asked many people who have traveled much in North America whether they ever met with mountains so high that the snow never melts on them in summer, to which they always answered in the negative. They say that the snow sometimes stays on the highest, viz., on some of those between Canada and the English colonies during a part of the summer, but that it melts as soon as the great heat begins."—Kalm, p. 671.

149

"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°."—Gray's Canada, p. 320.

150

"The following curious experiments were made some years ago at Quebec, by Major Williams, of the Artillery. Iron shells of different sizes, from the thirteen-inch shell to the cohorn of four inches diameter, were nearly filled with water, and an iron plug was driven in at the fuse-hole by a sledge-hammer. It was found, however, that the plug could never be driven so firmly into the fuse-hole as to resist the expanding ice, which pushed it out with great force and velocity, and a bolt or cylinder of ice immediately shot up from the hole; but when a plug was used that had springs which would expand and lay hold of the inside of the cavity, so that it could not possibly be pushed out, the force of expansion split the shell. The amazing force of expansion is also shown from the distance to which these iron plugs are thrown out of the fuse-hole. A plug of two pounds and a half weight was thrown no less than 415 feet from the shell; the fuse axis was at an angle of 45°; the thermometer showed 51° below the freezing point. Here you see ice and gunpowder performing the same operations. That similar effects should proceed from such dissimilar causes is very extraordinary."—Gray's Canada, p. 309.

151

See Appendix, No. XXII. (vol. II.)

152

"These mountains were known to the French missionaries by the name of Montagnes des Pierres Brillantes."—Chateaubriand.

153

See Appendix, No. XXIII. (vol. II.)

154

See Appendix, No. XXIV. (vol. II.)

155

See Appendix, No. XXV. (vol. II.)

156

"In Europe, in Asia, in Africa, and even in South America, the primeval trees, however much their magnitude may arrest admiration, do not grow in the promiscuous style that prevails in the general character of the North American woods. Many varieties of the pine, intermingled with birch, maple, beech, oak, and numerous other tribes, branch luxuriantly over the banks of lakes and rivers, extend in stately grandeur along the plains, and stretch proudly up to the very summits of the mountains. It is impossible to exaggerate the autumnal beauty of these forests; nothing under heaven can be compared to its effulgent grandeur. Two or three frosty nights in the decline of autumn transform the boundless verdure of a whole empire into every possible tint of brilliant scarlet, rich violet, every shade of blue and brown, vivid crimson, and glittering yellow. The stern, inexorable fir tribes alone maintain their eternal somber green. All others, in mountains or in villages, burst into the most glorious vegetable beauty, and exhibit the most splendid and most enchanting panorama on earth."—M'Gregor, p. 79, 80.

Mr. Weld says, "The varied hues of the trees at this season of the year (autumn) can hardly be imagined by those who never have had an opportunity of observing them; and, indeed, as others have often remarked before, were a painter to attempt to color a picture from them, it would be condemned in Europe as totally different from any thing that ever existed in nature."—Weld, p. 510.

"I can only compare the brightness of the faded leaves, scarlet, purple, and yellow, to that of tulips."—Lyell's America, vol. i., p. 107.

157

See Appendix, No. XXVI. (vol. II.)

158

"One of the most striking features in the vegetation of Canada is the number of species belonging to the genera Solidago, Aster, Quercus, and Pinus. It is also distinguished for the many plants contained in the Orders, or natural families—Grossulaceæ, Onograceæ, Hypericaceæ, Aceraceæ, Betulaceæ, Juglandaceæ, and Vacciniaceæ; and for the presence of the peculiar families—Podophyllæ, Sarraceniaceæ, and Hydrophyllaceæ. There is, on the contrary, the climate being considered, a remarkable paucity of Cruciferæ and Umbelliferæ, and, what is most extraordinary, a total absence of the genus Erica (heath),[ Seven hours' journey above the sources of the Bow River, Sir George Simpson mentions meeting with "an unexpected reminiscence of my own native hills, in the shape of a plant which appeared to me to be the very heather of the mountains of Scotland; and I might well regard the reminiscence as unexpected, inasmuch as in all my wanderings, of more than twenty years, I had never found any thing of the kind in North America. As I took a considerable degree of interest in the question of the supposed identity, I carried away two specimens, which, however, proved, on a minute comparison, to differ from the genuine staple of the brown heaths of the 'Land o' Cakes.'"—Vol. i., p. 120.

"We missed, also, the small 'crimson-tipped daisy' on the green lawns, and were told that they have been often cultivated with care, but are found to wither when exposed to the dry air and bright sun of this climate. When weeds so common with us can not be reared here, we cease to wonder at the dissimilarity of the native Flora of the New World. Yet, wherever the aboriginal forests are cleared, we see orchards, gardens, and arable lands filled with the same fruit-trees, the same grain and vegetables, as in Europe, so bountifully has Nature provided that the plants most useful to man should be capable, like himself, of becoming cosmopolites."—Lyell's Travels in North America, vol. i., p. 5] which covers so many thousands of acres in corresponding latitudes in Europe. Mrs. Butler mentions, in her Journal, 'that some poor Scotch peasants, about to emigrate to Canada, took away with them some roots of the "bonny blooming heather," in hopes of making this beloved adorner of their native mountains the cheerer of their exile. The heather, however, refused to grow in the Canadian soil. The person who told me this said that the circumstance had been related to him by Sir Walter Scott, whose sympathy with the disappointment of these poor children of the romantic heather-land betrayed itself even in tears.'

"Canada is not rich in roses; only three species occur throughout the two provinces. Among the Ribes and the Ericaceæ, however, are found many of the most beautiful ornaments of the English garden: Andromedas, Rhododendrons, Azaleas, and Kalmias belong to the latter order. The Azalea was thus described by one of the earlier European botanical travelers. Professor Kalm[The Kalmias were so named by Linnæus in honor of Professor Kalm, a favorite pupil of the great botanist] (in 1748): 'the Mayflowers, as the Swedes call them, were plentiful in the woods wherever I went to-day, especially on a dry soil, or one that is somewhat moist. The Swedes have given them this name because they are in full blossom in May. Some of the Swedes and the Dutch call them "Pinxter Bloem" (Whitsunday flowers), as they are in blossom about Whitsuntide. The English call them wild honeysuckles, and at a distance they really have a resemblance to the honeysuckle or lonicera. Dr. Linnæus and other botanists call it an Azalea (Azalea Nudiflora, Linn. Spec. Plant., p. 214.) Its flowers were now open, and added a new ornament to the woods, being little inferior to the flowers of the honey-suckle and hedysarum. They sit in a circle round the stem's extremity, and have either a dark red or lively red color; but by standing some time, the sun bleaches them, and at last they get a whitish hue. The height of the bush is not always alike. Some were as tall as a full-grown man, and taller;