e in the world. There are five
lakes here lying together, and the three largest--Superior, Michigan,
and Huron--spring from a common centre and stretch out just like the
fingers of a horse-chestnut leaf, but you will find out all this
to-morrow.

It is a glorious afternoon the next day when we first catch sight of the
steamer waiting to take us across Lake Superior. She is more like an
ocean liner than anything else. She is called the _Hamonic_, and is
indeed as large as many of the ships of well-known lines running out to
the East from England, for she is five thousand tons, with accommodation
for four hundred first-class passengers. On the upper deck is an
observation room with windows along the whole length of each side. For
all we can see, when once we are out of sight of the shore, we might
have left Canada for ever and be taking our final plunge across the
Atlantic homeward. And it is the same thing all the next day. We see no
land and might as well be on the broad ocean, until, after luncheon, we
come to the great lock, or canal, which joins the two lakes of Superior
and Huron. It is nine hundred feet long, and had to be made because the
levels of the two lakes are different, and no steamer could have come
through the rapids which the Indians used to love to shoot in their
canoes. When we are through the lock we stop at a large and flourishing
place called Sault Ste Marie, and then get into far the prettiest part
of the route among the islands, where we see fine trees already turning
crimson and gold. Right across Lake Huron we go, passing the entrance to
Lake Michigan, and reach Sarnia at one o'clock the next day. Sarnia
stands on a narrow strait, and just opposite is part of the territory of
the United States of America.

If Canadians are sons and daughters of Great Britain, the Americans are
first cousins, for there is no other country in the world, outside the
British Empire, of nearer kin to us than the mighty nation which leads
in the van of progress in all manufactures and enterprise.

[Illustration: A GATEWAY IN QUEBEC.]

CHAPTER XXXIII

OLD FRIENDS AGAIN

Supposing that some of our friends in Britain, who are expecting to
greet us at home in a week, could see us now, suddenly, I wonder where
they would think we had got to! Covered in borrowed oilskins, we stand
in a mighty cavern, whose vast stone roof reaches up to a hundred feet
or more, though in width it is comparatively narrow, like a