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to the lake, and mount one of its most projecting branches. He sat astride upon this, almost beyond the reach of the surges, while she continued watching him in an agony of grief, hesitating whether she should endeavour to find her way to the camp, and procure assistance, or remain near her boy. However, evening was now about to close, and as she could not proceed through the woods in the dark, she resolved at least to wait till the moon rose. She sat on the top of the precipice a whole hour, and, during that time, occasionally ascertained that her son was alive, by hearing his cries amidst the roaring of the waves; but when the moon appeared he was not to be seen. She now felt convinced that he was drowned, and, giving way to utter despair, threw herself on the turf. Presently she heard a feeble voice cry, (in Indian,)" Mamma I'm here, come and help She started up, and saw her boy scrambling upon the edge of the bank-she sprang forward to catch his hand, but the ground by which he held giving way, he was precipitated into the lake, and perished among the rushing billows.

me."

LAKE ONTARIO.

(THE SAME.)

LAKE ONTARIO is two hundred and thirty miles

long, and sixty broad at its widest part. Its waters are quite transparent and colourless, but vapid and unpleasant to the taste. Soundings are rarely to be met with, except near the shore; and as very few islands or points of land present themselves upon its expanse, it is adapted for every kind of navigation, and will, of course admit vessels of the largest size. The current which, moves forward this immense body of water is distinctly perceptible, being, on an average, at the rate of half a mile an hour, but varying with the direction and strength of the wind.

The most remarkable phenomenon which this and the other lakes exhibit, is that increase and rise of their waters, which is said to take place at regular periods. It occurs, in a moderate degrée, every seven years, and

to a very great extent once in thirty or forty. In the year 1816, the waters of Lake Ontario were seven feet and-ahalf perpendicular above their average height, and Lake Erie was affected in a similar way. I have visited the shores of Lake Ontario several times, accompanied by a person who resides upon them, whose intelligence and indisputable veracity made me put full confidence in the information he gave, and from whom I received proofs of the accuracy of what I have stated. I likewise saw the remains of a large storehouse which had been built a few years before, in a situation that seemed quite inaccessible to the lake although the waters have surrounded and nearly demolished it.

This singular phenomenon affords a problem very difficult to solve. The quantity of water that must be required to increase the depth of Lake Ontario, and all the other lakes, seven and a-half feet perpendicular, is so vast, that it is impossible to conceive where its source can lie. The height of the waters of the lakes, indeed, varies a few inches almost daily; but this is occasioned by changes in the direction of the wind. When it is east or north-east, the waters are driven back, or at least impeded in their course, and consequently an accumulation takes place, which makes the lakes rise; but if it blows from the south, or south-west, the direc tion in which they flow, their waters are hurried towards the St. Lawrence, and, of course, decrease in height in proportion to the strength of the wind.

SOUTH AMERICAN LAKES.

(Pinkerton's Geography.)

No part of the globe displays so great a number of

lakes as North America; and the southern part of the new continent is perhaps equally remarkable by their rarity. Many supposed lakes, as that of Zarayos or Sharayos, in the course of the river Paraguay, only exist during the annual inundations, which are on a far grander scale than those of the Ganges, and may be said to deluge whole provinces. The Lagoon of Maracaybo

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is remarkable, being a circular bason about 100 B. miles in diameter, receiving numerous rivers and rivulets, and communicating with the sea by a considerable creek. The Parima also gives source to the great river of the same name, likewise called the Rio Blanco, which joins the river Negro, and great river of Amazons. In this part of South America there is, as it were, a contest betwixt land and water and so level and mutable is the soil, that the rivers seem dubious what course to pursue, as they flow in every direction, and branches of the Orinoco communicate with the tributary rivers of the immense Maranon.

In Amazonia and Brazil there do not appear to be any lakes of consequence: but the Portuguese are inferior even to the Spaniards in geography and natural history, and many discoveries remain to be made in their ample possessions. The lake of Titicaca, nearly in the same parallel, and in the kingdom of Peru, is regarded as the most important in South America. Ulloa says that it is of an oval figure, the circumference about 240 miles; and the depth 70 or 80 fathoms. It receives ten or twelve rivers and several rivulets; but the water, though not saline, is nauseous, being probably tainted with sulphur or bitumen. It contains two kinds of fish, and is frequented by geese and wild fowl. In an isle of this lake Mango Capac, the founder of the Peruvian monarchy, reported that the sun, his father, had placed him, with his sister and consort, Oello: and here a tem. ple was dedicated to the sun, the most splendid in the kingdom, and profusely decorated with plates of gold and silver. On the Spanish invasion these treasures are said to have been thrown into the lake.

CATARACTS.

LITTLE FALLS.

UNITED STATES.

(Rev. J. Marsden's* Journal.)

THE Mohawk is full of violent rapids; hence, the bargemen who navigate between Schenecdady and Utica, have to pole along most of the way; this is both a tedious and laborious process: sometimes the river winds amongst steep hills and rocky declivities, where it breaks with abrupt violence through the converging granate,

• Previous to Mr. Marsden leaving England on his Mission to British North America, he resided and preached in Manchester and its neighbourhood, where he was greatly esteemed, and where the Editor had the happiness of some acquaintance with him. He left England in August, 1800, and after sustaining many perils and privations, returned in safety, November, 1814.

Page 10 of his Journal, speaking of the providential eare of Heaven manifested towards Christian Missions he says: "From the year 1770, the period when the first Wesleyan Missionaries sailed, to the present time; not an instance has occurred of one of them being lost at sea; either by shipwreck or storm. It is true some have seen death in the hurricane,-death in the lee shore-death in the sunkenledge; in the white winged squall: and in the thunder of an enemy's guns; but not one instance is recorded of a single person having fallen a victim to any of these ministers of mortality. They have sailed in all seasons of the year; in all kinds of vessels; with all sorts of captains: and under all parallels of latitude; and yet providence has preserved them from violent death: they have gone to the east, to the west, to the north, and the south, and save in one or two cases of natural death; which might as certainly have happened on shore; they have generally arrived in safety."

and, to use the words of Thomson, it "wheels, and foams, and boils, and thunders through." On the 2nd of June we arrived at the little falls, where we stopped at the house of Mr. Morale, to whom we had letters. In the morning Mr. Bakewell and myself walked round the place, which contains some of the wildest and most romantic scenery that nature ever drew. The Mohawk, after winding through a fine plain of twenty or thirty miles extent above the falls, is all at once stopped by a vast ridge of rocks, probably 300 feet above the level of the river below, through which, with violent force, he breaks his way, foaming, dashing, and roaring, from one descent to another, until, finally having gained the bottom, he glides through an immense chasm, seemingly cut out of the solid rock by art; we sat down upon a rock, and I wrote with my pencil the following lines: Nature with giant pencil here has drawn, Not the soft landscape, nor enamel'd lawn; But ridges, crags, and rocks, in daring style, At whose wild base the hurrying waters boil: Down from his lake, fed source, the Mohawk pours, And through the riven gap escapes and roars.

I preached at the Little Falls (for this is the name of the village through which the canal runs, that interlocks with the upper part of the Mohawk) and had the pleasure of dispensing the mysteries of the gospel in the Free Mason's Lodge from the Grand Master's chair. From hence we rode to Herkemer, a lovely little town, situated upon the German Flats, a large tract of level land, which it is more than probable was once an immense lake, till the disrupture of the ridge at the little falls, afforded a vent for the waters of the Mohawk: here, at the request of Mr. Whittlesey, the Presbyterian minister, I preached in the court-house, a more commodious place than the church; we had most of the inhabitants of the village present. The following morning we rode to Utica, the emporium for the interior of the state of New York; this is just 100 miles from Albany, and 260 from the sea; it is built upon the scite of Old Fort Schaylee. The houses are in the first style of elegance; and the town contains about three thousand inhabitants, who are remarkably dressy, courteous, and polite: I preached here on the Saturday evening, and on

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