Voyage. Harbour of Halifax.-Excursions near Boston.-Difference of Plants from European Species, and Correspondence of Marine Shells.-Resemblance of Drift, Erratics, and furrowed Rocks, to those of Sweden.-Springfield.-New Haven.-Scenery of the Hudson.—Albany.—Geological Surveys.—Mohawk Valley.— Ancient or Silurian Formations.—Prosperity and rapid Progress of the People.-Lake Ontario.-Tortoises.-Fossil Remains of Mastadon.

July 20, 1841.-Sailed from Liverpool for Boston, U. S., in the steam-ship Acadia, which held her course as straight as an arrow from Cape Clear in Ireland to Halifax in Nova Scotia, making between 220 and 280 miles per day.

After the monotony of a week spent on the open sea, we were amused when we came near the great banks which extend from the southern point of New. foundland, by the rapid passage of the steamer through alternate belts of stationary fog and clear spaces warmed and lighted up with bright sunshine. Looking at the dense fog from the intermediate sunny

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HARBOUR OF HALIFAX.

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regions, we could hardly be persuaded that we were not belfolding land, so distinct and well-defined was its outline, and such the varieties of light and shade, that some of our Canadian fellow-passengers compared it to the patches of cleared and uncleared country on the orth shore of the St. Lawrence. These fogs are caused by the meeting, over the great banks, of the warm waters of the gulf stream flowing from the south, and colder currents, often charged with floating ice, from the north, by which very opposite states in the relative temperature of the sea and atmosphere are produced in spaces closely contiguous. In places where the sea is warmer than the air, fogs are generated.

When the eye has been accustomed for many days to the deep blue of the central Atlantic, the greener tint of the sea over the banks is refreshing. We were within 150 miles of the southern point of Newfoundland when we crossed these banks, over which the shallowest water is said to be about thirty-five fathoms deep. The bottom consists of fine sand, which must be often ploughed up by icebergs, for several of them were seen aground here by some of our passengers on the 31st of July last. The captain tells us that the worst months for crossing the Atlantic to and from Halifax are February and March, and the most agreeable ones, July, August, and September. The nearer we approached the American coast, the more beautiful and brilliant were the sunsets. We sometimes compared the changing hues of the clouds and sky to the blue and red colours in a pigeon's neck.

July 31.-On the eleventh day of our voyage we sailed directly into the harbour of Halifax, which by its low hills of granite and slate, covered with birch and

spruce fir, reminded me more of a Norwegian fiord, such as that of Christiania, than any other place I had seen. I landed here for six hours, with my wife, during which we had time to drive about the town, and see the museum, where I was shown a large fossil tree filled with sandstone, recently sent from strata containing coal in the interior. I resolved to examine these before returning to England, as they appeared, by the description given us, to afford the finest examples yet known in the world of petrified trees occurring in their natural or erect position.

Letters, which we had written on the voyage, being now committed to the post-office at Halifax, were taken up next day by the Caledonia steam-ship for England, and in less than a month from the time of our quitting London, our friends in remote parts of Great Britain (in Scotland and in Devonshire) were reading an account of the harbour of Halifax, of the Micmac Indians with their Esquimaux features, paddling about in canoes of birch bark, and other novelties seen on the shores of the New World. It required the aid of the recently established railroads at home, as well as the Atlantic steam-packets, to render such rapid correspondence possible.

August 2.-A run of about thirty hours carried us to Boston, which we reached in twelve and a half days after leaving Liverpool. The heat here is intense, the harbour and city beautiful, the air clear and entirely free from smoke, so that the shipping may be seen far off, at the end of many of the streets. The Tremont Hotel merits its reputation as one of the best in the world. Recollecting the contrast of every thing French when I first crossed the straits of Dover, I am aston

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EXCURSIONS NEAR BOSTON.

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ished, after having traversed the wide ocean, at the resemblance of every thing I see and hear to things familiar at home. It has so often happened to me in our own island, without travelling into those parts of Wales, Scotland, or Ireland, where they talk a perfectly distinct language, to encounter provincial dialects which it is difficult to comprehend, that I wonder at finding the people here so very English. If the metropolis of New England be a type of a large part of the United States, the industry of Sam Slick, and other writers, in collecting together so many diverting Americanisms and so much original slang, is truly great, or their inventive powers still greater.

I made excursions to the neighbourhood of Boston, through Roxbury, Cambridge, and other places, with a good botanist, to whom 1 had brought letters of introduction. Although this is not the best season for wild flowers, the entire distinctness of the trees, shrubs, and plants, from those on the other side of the Atlantic, affords a constant charm to the European traveller. We admired the drooping American elm, a picturesque tree; and saw several kinds of sumach, oaks with deeply indented leaves, dwarf birches, and several wild roses. Large commons without heaths reminded me of the singular fact that no species of heath is indigenous on the American continent. 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 cannot be reared here, we cease to wonder at the dissimilarity of the native flora of the New World. Ye whenever the aboriginal forests are