No. XX. "Upper Canada, down to the period when it was conquered by England, was in a very wild and unreclaimed condition. With the exception of the small location on the banks of the Detroit, it contained only detached posts at great distances, formed for military defense and the prosecution of the fur trade. The real settlement of Upper Canada took place in 1783, at the close of the first American war; at that time, not only a large body of troops were disbanded, but many inhabitants of the United States, who had adhered to Britain during this unfortunate contest, sought refuge within her colonies; and as these last were generally in a state of great destitution, the government felt disposed to treat them liberally, and afford the utmost possible compensation for their losses and sufferings. With this view, the whole land along the St. Lawrence above the French settlements, and also on Lake Ontario, to and around the Bay of Quiete, for the space of 150 miles, was formed into townships, originally entitled First, Second, Third, but to which regular names were afterward attached. These settlements were termed the United Empire Loyalists, and not only received an ample supply of land, but farming utensils, building materials, and subsistence for two years. A further engagement was made that every member of their families, on attaining the age of twenty-one, should have a fresh donation of 200 acres, which engagement has been strictly fulfilled. Military grants were at the same time bestowed at rates varying from 5000 for a field officer, to 200 for a private soldier. 'In 1791, Upper Canada had attained to such importance, that when Mr. Pitt determined to bestow a constitution on the colony, he formed this part into a separate government, giving to it the name of Upper, and to the early-settled districts that of Lower Canada. The former was not supposed, after all, to contain at that time above 10,000 inhabitants. General Simcoe, however, in 1794, founded the town of York,* which was fixed on as the seat of government, and made the most strenuous efforts to encourage colonists to settle in the neighborhood. They came in considerable numbers, though chiefly from the United States. It was not till 1803 that, through the exertions of Colonel Talbot, emigration from Britain was commenced on any large scale. The result of these measures was, that in 1811 the country was found to contain about 9623 persons paying taxes. Lower Canada is comprised within the parallels of 45° and 52° north latitude, and the meridians of 59 50° to 80.6° west of Greenwich; the entire province, as far as its boundaries will admit of estimation, contains about a quarter of a million square miles, or 160,000,000 of acres. Upper Canada is comprised within the parallels of 41° to 49° north, and the meridians of 74° to 117° west of Greenwich, embracing an area of about 100,000 square miles, or 64,000,000 acres. It has now assumed the Indian name of Toronto. The following are the words of the order in council by which Canada was in 1791 divided into two provinces. "To commence at a stone boundary on the north bank of the Lake St. Francis, at the cove west of Point au Baudet, in the limit between the township of Lancaster and the seigniory of New Longueuil, running along the said limit in the direction of N. 34 W. to the westernmost angle of the said seigniory of New Longueuil; then along the N.W. boundary of the seigniory of Vaudreuil, running N. 25 E. until it strikes the Ottawa River; to ascend the said river into the Lake Temiscaming, and from the head of the said lake by a line drawn due N. until it strikes the boundary of Hudson's Bay, including all the territory to the westward and southward of the said line to the utmost extent of the country commonly called or known by the name of Canada.” The want of clearness in the above delineation, added to the imperfections of the map on which it was drawn, particularly as regarded the westwardly angle of the seigniory of New Longueuil, and the S.W. angle of Vaudreuil, which are represented as coincident, when, according to Colonel Bouchette, they are nine miles distant from each other, has naturally caused disputes as to the boundaries between Upper and Lower Canada.-Montgomery Martin's Hist. of Canada, p. 62; Murray's British America, vol. i., p. 287. No. XXI. The "On the 5th of February, 1663, about half past five o'clock in the evening, a great rushing noise was heard throughout the whole extent of Canada. This noise caused the people to run out of their houses into the streets, as if their habitations had been on fire; but, instead of flames or smoke, they were surprised to see the walls reeling backward and forward, and the stones moving as if they were detached from each other. The bells sounded by the repeated shocks. roofs of the buildings bent down, first on one side, and then on the other. The timbers, rafters, and planks cracked. The earth trembled violently, and caused the stakes of the palisades and palings to dance, in a manner that would have been incredible had we not actually seen it in many places. It was at this moment every one ran out of doors. Then were to be seen animals flying in every direction; children crying and screaming in the streets; men and women, seized with affright, stood horror-struck with the dreadful scene before them, unable to move, and ignorant where to fly for refuge from the tottering walls and trembling earth, which threatened every instant to crush them to death, or sink them into a profound and immeasurable abyss. Some threw themselves on their knees in the snow, crossing their breasts, and calling on their saints to relieve them from the dangers with which they were surrounded. Others passed the rest of this dreadful night in prayer; for the earthquake ceased not, but continued at short intervals with a certain undulating impulse, resembling the waves of the ocean; and the same qualmish sensations, or sickness at the stomach, was felt during the shocks as is experienced in a vessel at sea "The violence of the earthquake was greatest in the forest, where it appeared as if there was a battle raging between the trees; for not only their branches were destroyed, but even their trunks are said to have been detached from their places, and dashed against each other with inconceivable violence and confusion-so much so, that the Indians, in their figurative manner of speaking, declared that all the forests were drunk. The war also seemed to be carried on between the mountains, some of which were torn from their beds and thrown upon others, leaving immense chasms in the places from whence they had issued, and the very trees with which they were covered sunk down, leaving only their tops above the surface of the earth; others were completely overturned, their branches buried in the earth, and the roots only remained above ground. During this general wreck of nature, the ice, upward of six feet thick, was rent and thrown up in large pieces, and from the openings in many parts there issued thick clouds of smoke, or fountains of dirt and sand, which spouted up to a very considerable height. The springs were either choked up, or impregnated with sulphur; many rivers were totally lost; others were diverted from their course, and their waters entirely corrupted. Some of them became yellow, others red, and the great river of the St. Lawrence appeared entirely white, as far down as Tadoussac. This extraordinary phenomenon must astonish those who know the size of the river, and the immense body of waters in various parts, which must have required such an abundance of matter to whiten it. They write from Montreal that, during the earthquake, they plainly saw the stakes of the picketing or palisades jump up as if they had been dancing; and that of two doors in the same room, one opened and the other shut of their own accord; that the chimneys and tops of the houses bent like branches of the trees agitated with the wind; that when they went to walk they felt the earth following them, and rising at every step they took, something sticking against the soles of their feet, and other things in a very forcible and surprising manner. "From Three Rivers they write that the first shock was the most violent, and commenced with a noise resembling thunder. The houses were agitated in the same manner as the tops of trees during a tempest, with a noise as if fire was crackling in the garrets. The shock lasted half an hour, or rather better, though its greatest force was properly not more than a quarter of an hour, and we believe there was not a single shock which did not cause the earth to open either more or less. 66 As for the rest, we have remarked that, though this earthquake continued almost without intermission, yet it was not always of an equal violence. Sometimes it was like the pitching of a large vessel which dragged heavily at her anchors, and it was this motion which occasioned many to have a giddiness in their heads and a qualmishness in their stomachs. At other times the motion was hurried and irregular, creating sudden jerks, some of which were extremely violent; but the most common was a slight tremulous motion, which occurred frequently with little noise. Many of the French inhabitants and Indians, who were eye-witnesses to the scene, state that, a great way up the river of Trois Rivières, about eighteen miles below Quebec, the hills which bordered the river on either side, and which were of a prodigious height, were torn from their foundations, and plunged into the river, causing it to change its course, and spread itself over a large tract of land recently cleared; the broken earth mixed with the waters, and for several months changed the color of the great River St. Lawrence, into which that of Trois Rivières disembogues itself. In the course of this violent convulsion of nature, lakes appeared where none ever existed before; mountains were overthrown, swallowed up by the gaping, or precipitated into adjacent rivers, leaving in their places frightful chasms or level plains; falls and rapids were changed into gentle streams, and gentle streams into falls and rapids. Rivers in many parts of the country sought other beds, or totally disappeared. The earth and the mountains were entirely split and rent in innumerable places, creating chasms and precipices, whose depths have never yet been ascertained. Such devastation was also occasioned in the woods, that more than a thousand acres in our neighborhood were completely overturned; and where, but a short time before, nothing met the eye but one immense forest of trees, now were to be seen extensive cleared lands, apparently cut up by the plow. tr At Tadoussac (about 150 miles below Quebec, on the north side) the effect of the earthquake was not less violent than in other places; and such a heavy shower of volcanic ashes fell in that neighborhood, particularly in the River St. Lawrence, that the waters were as violently agitated as during a tempest. The Indians say that a vast volcano exists in Labrador. Near St. Paul's Bay (about fifty miles below Quebec, on the north side), a mountain, about a quarter of a league in circumference, situated on the shore of the St. Lawrence, was precipitated into the river, but, as if it had only made a plunge, it rose from the bottom, and became a small island, forming with the shore a convenient harbor, well sheltered from all winds. Lower down the river, toward Point Alouettes, an entire forest of considerable extent was loosened from the main bank, and slid into the River St. Lawrence, where the trees took fresh root. There are three circumstances, however, which have rendered this extraordinary earthquake particularly remarkable: the first is its duration, it having continued from February to August, that is to say, more than six months almost without intermission! It is true, the shocks were not always equally violent. In several places, as toward the mountains behind Quebec, the thundering noise and trembling motion continued successively for a considerable time. In others, as toward Tadoussac, the shock continued generally for two or three days at a time with much violence. "The second circumstance relates to the extent of this earthquake, which, we believe, was universal throughout the whole of New France, for we learn that it was felt from L'Isle Percé and Gaspé, which are situated at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, to beyond Montreal; as also in New England, Acadia, and other places more remote. As far as it has come to our knowledge, this earthquake extended more than 600 miles in length, and about 300 in breadth. Hence 180,000 square miles of land were convulsed in the same day and at the same moment. {t The third circumstance, which appears the most remarkable of all, regards the extraordinary protection of Divine Providence, which has been extended to us and our habitations; for we have seen near us the large openings and chasms which the earthquake occasioned, and the prodigious extent of country which has been either totally lost or hideously convulsed, without our losing either man, woman, or child, or even having a hair of their head touched.”—Jesuits' Journal, Quebec, 1663. No. XXII. "The principle in both instances is alike in the former, the caloric or vital heat of the body passes so rapidly from the hand into the cold iron as to destroy the continuous and organic structure of the part; in the latter, the caloric passes so rapidly from the hot iron into the hand as to produce the same effect: heat, in both cases, being the same; its passing into the body from the iron, or into the iron from the body, being equally injurious to vitality. From a similar cause, the incautious traveler in Canada is burned in the face by a very cold wind, with the same sensations as when he is exposed to the blast of an eastern sirocco. Milton thus alludes to the effects of cold in his description of the abode of Satan and his compeers. After adverting to Styx, he says, 'Beyond this flood, a frozen continent Lies, dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old, Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air Burns frore (frozen), and cold performs the effect of fire.' "We also find in Virgil, Georg., i., 93, Paradise Lost, B. 2. "Borea penetrabile frigus adurat.'"-Gray's Canada, p. 290. No. XXIII. "This meteor is strongest and most frequent about the arctic circle, or between that and the parallel of 64°. It is now ascertained, wo think, beyond all doubt, that the height of the Aurora, instead of being, |