y respectable authorities
dispute that the nature of the timber can be fully relied on as a guide
to the value of the land. The variety of trees found in the Canadian
forest is astonishing, and it is supposed that many kinds still remain
unknown. Of all these, none is more beautiful and useful than the maple;
its brilliant foliage, changing with each season of the year, is the
richest ornament of the forest. The timber is valuable for many
purposes, and from the sap might be produced an immense quantity of
excellent sugar. A great deal is at present made, but, like all the
other resources of this magnificent country, it is very partially turned
to the use of man: the sap of the maple is valuable also for
distillation.

There is a considerable variety of climate in Canada, from the
northeast, chilled by the winds of the Atlantic,[156] to the southwest,
five degrees lower, and approaching the center of the continent; the
neighborhood of ranges of bare and rugged mountains,[157] has also a
marked effect upon the temperature of different localities. However, in
all parts the winters are very severe, while the heat of summer is
little inferior to that of the tropics. But, on the whole, the clear
blue sky, unobscured by fog or mist, and the pure elastic air, bespeak
the salubrity of these provinces in all seasons.

In Lower Canada the extreme severity of the winter is, in a measure,
caused by the vicinity of the range of lofty and rugged mountains, as
well as by its more northern position. The fall of snow commences in
November, but seldom remains long on the ground till December; in that
month constantly successive falls of snow rapidly cover the whole
surface of the country. Toward the end of December the heavy clouds
disperse, and the rude storm is followed by a perfect calm; the air
becomes pure and frosty, and the skies of a clear and beautiful azure.
The River St. Lawrence[158] is frozen over every winter from Montreal to
the Richelieu Rapids, but from thence to Quebec only once in about five
years; at other times, however, enormous fields and masses of ice drift
up and down with the changing tides, increasing or diminishing with the
severity or mildness of the weather; where the Island of Orleans divides
the Great River into two branches, the northern channel is narrow and
less acted upon by tides; here these huge frozen masses are forced
together by the winds and waters, and form an enormous bridge from shore
to sho