e fell several degrees, and lake closed, as seen
at a distance. I finished my remarks for the American Lyceum.

_18th_. Engaged in pursuing Mr. F.'s lectures, delivered at a prior
time, on the character and differences between the Protestant and
Romish Churches.

_19th_. The weather assumes a milder turn, and gives us rain. Messrs.
F. and D., having called on Mr. Mitchell, renew their meeting at
my house.

_20th_. Rain and thunder.

_21st_. Temperate; sinks and turns cold in the evening.

_22d_. Cold, with some snow.

_23d_. Thermometer continues to sink, and the ice is reported as having
become strong everywhere.

_24th_. The third express from Detroit came in at an early hour, and my
letters and papers were brought in before breakfast. During breakfast I
opened a letter, announcing the death of my sister Catharine, on the 9th
of January, at Vernon, N. Y.

Mr. Agnew and Mr. Chapman, who have been guests on the island, set out
for the Sault. The lake is now finally and strongly closed by a covering
of solid ice. Trains cross to-day, for the first time, to Point
St. Ignace.

_25th_. Mr. Levake, another guest on the island, called at eight o'clock
for my letters, with a view of overtaking the party who left yesterday.

_26th_. Wind west, and so strong as to drive the ice out between the
harbor and the light-house, but did not affect the harbor itself, nor
the straits.

_27th_. Snow and rain. Richardson May, a discharged soldier, and Manito
Geezhig (Spirit-sky), a Chippewa Indian, arrived with the express mail
for Saginaw.

_28th_. The weather is mild again. An express from the Hudson's Bay
Company departed for Saginaw, at seven o'clock A.M. The adverb
"fiducially" first brought to my notice, as the synonym of confidently,
steadily. Finished the perusal of Mr. F.'s manuscript lectures, on the
Romish Church. Think them an offhand practical appeal to truth, clear in
method, forcible in illustration. Learning and research, such as are to
be drawn from books other than the Bible, have not been evidently relied
on. They might not do to print without revision. The New Testament does
not, as an example, declare that Peter ever was at Rome, and yet that
fact, got from other sources, is much relied on by that Church.

_March 1st._ The change in temperature continues. It is so mild and warm
that the snow melts.

_2d_. S. Mild, and Sabbath exercise as usual.

_3d_. The temperature falls, and it becomes sensibly co