The gulf of St. Lawrence is enclosed by the island of Newfoundland and several sand banks; it receives the river St. Lawrence, and is generally frozen from December to April. It is more than 400 miles long, and 140 broad; the water is from 22 to 50 fathoms deep, with a great swell, and generally covered with a thick fog. This gulf is a vast storehouse of provisions for America and Europe. More than 500 English vessels fish here every summer. Formerly, the French often equalled them.

The number of American vessels is some years a thousand. The many thousand people every year employed in the business do not seem to diminish the number of the fish. At the close of the American revolutionary war, when none had been taken for a number of years, the fish were neither larger nor more numerous, than they had been before, or have been since.

Hudson's Bay lies between 51 and 69 degrees of north lat. and 00° 17' 30" of west long. In its waters are abundance of sturgeon, whales, and other fish. This bay, or rather sea, is larger than the Baltic, and in a lower latitude; yet it might perhaps be thought romantic to imagine, that in some future period, a St. Petersburgh, a Stockholm, and Copenhagen, capitals of powerful nations, with their royal palaces, holy temples, and glittering spires, may give splendor to her harbours, enriching her populous shores by the extent of their commerce and the perfection of their arts.

Lake Winnipeg, or Winipic, is a large piece of water in Upper Canada, extending from lat. 51° to 54° north, receiving a number of large rivers, and emptying its waters into Hudson's Bay by Nelson River. Slave Lake is 200 miles in length, and 100 in breadth, between lat. 61° and 63 north; it is northwest from Winnipeg.

Lake Superior is 1500 miles in circuit; this and the other great lakes, lying partly in Canada and partly in the United States, will be described in their proper places.

The St. Lawrence is one of the largest rivers in North America. From Ontario it receives the waters of the immense lakes, which separate Canada from the United States; at Montreal it assumes the name of St. Lawrence. It meets the tide below lake St. Peter, about 400 miles

from the sea; passing Quebec it falls into the gulf of its own name at Cape Rosieres, where it is 90 miles broad.

DIVISIONS OF NORTH AMERICA.

NEW-MEXICO, California, East and WestFlorida, belong to Spain. Great-Britian claims all the countries inhabited by Europeans north and east of the United States, excepting Greenland, which belongs to Denmark. The country between Canada and Florida is the territory of the United States. Immense tracts are yet possessed by the Indians.

GREENLAND.

IT has never been ascertained to which continent this country belongs, or whether to either; but geographers describe it, as belonging to America. This region was discovered in the 10th century, by people from Iceland; its distance from which is about 200 miles. An intercourse was continued between this colony and Denmark, till the beginning of the 15th century, when, by the gradual increase of the arctic ice, the colony became completely imprisoned on the side of the ocean, while a range of mountains and plains, covered with ice, precluded all access from the west. These settlements, when they became thus concealed from the rest of the world, contained a number of churches and monasteries, and were about 200 miles in extent, in the southeast extremity. The Moravians have formed establishments in the southwest, and have had a factory as far north as 73° north latitude.* The present number of their missionaries in these dismal regions is 16,† who have lately had great success. The population of West Greenland has been estimated at 10,000.‡

Boundaries and extent.-Greenland is bounded west by Davis's strait; north by the pole, or an ocean unknown; east by an icy sea; south it terminates at Cape Farewell in the Atlantic, lat. 59° north. Its shores have been explored on the eastern part to lat. 80° north, and * Pinkerton. + Evan. Mag. + Cottineau.

on the western to 78°. The Greenlanders say, that on the western side the strait becomes so narrow, that they can converse with the inhabitants on the opposite side.

Character. They are a sprightly, good natured people: when two persons quarrel, one challenges the other to contend in verse. He, who first wants words to express himself in this duel of harmony, is vanquished. In this way quarrels end without blood, or lawyers' fees.*

BRITISH AMERICA.

Situation and extent.

THESE extensive provinces are bounded south by the United States and the Atlantic ocean; east by the same ocean and Davis's strait; north and west by regions unknown; lying between lat. 42° 30′ and 70° north, and between long. 20° east and 16° west.

Divisions. The British possessions are divided into Upper and Lower Canada, New-Britain, Cape Breton, or Sidney, New-Brunswick, and Nova-Scotia ; to which are annexed the Isle of St. John's, and Newfoundland. The population of these provinces is probably 200,000, and constantly increasing.

NEW-BRITAIN.

Situation and extent.

THE country, which lies round Hudson's bay, including New North and South Wales, is called NewBritain, and annexed to Lower Canada. The length is 850 miles, the breadth 750,t between lat. 50° and 70° north, long. 20° east and 25° west, bounded south by Upper and Lower Canada, east by Davis's straits, north and west by unknown forests.

Climate. The whole of this country lies in a cold region. In lat. 57° the cold becomes intense; ice on the rivers is eight feet thick; rocks burst with the frost, and brandy coagulates. In lat. 60° no kind of herbage is Here the wretched Esquimaux build their huts

seen.