ter
in the world, which is connected with Lake Nipigon on the north. The
waters of Lake Superior are carried over the Sault Ste. Marie rapids
into Lake Huron and find a huge backwater in Lake Michigan.[9] Out of
Lake Huron again they flow past Detroit into Lake Erie. From Duluth,
at the westernmost extremity of Lake Superior, to Buffalo, on the
easternmost point of Lake Erie, including all Lake Michigan and Lake
Huron, with its bays and channels, a steamer can pass with just the
one difficulty (easily surmounted) of the rapids at Sault Ste. Marie
between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. But after you have left Lake
Erie on the east you find yourself in the Niagara River, which at the
Niagara Falls plunges several hundred feet downwards into Lake
Ontario. From Lake Ontario to the sea along the St. Lawrence there is
uninterrupted navigation, though there are rapids that require careful
steering both with steamers and boats. Quebec marks the place where
the St. Lawrence River suddenly broadens from a river into a tidal
gulf of brackish or salt water. Ocean steamers from all over the world
can come (except during the height of the winter, when the water
freezes) to Quebec. But for the ice in wintertime Quebec would be
_the_ great sea-port of eastern Canada.

[Footnote 9: The south shore of Lake Superior, the whole of Lake
Michigan, the west shore of Lake Huron, and the south coasts of Lake
Erie and Lake Ontario are within the territories of the United
States.]

"If pitiless rock is commonly understood by an 'iron-bound shore',
then the coasts of the River St. Lawrence along the northern side of
the Gulf may truly be so styled, as nothing scarcely is to be seen
for hundreds of leagues but bare rocky mountains, capes and cliffs in
various shapes and figures, some of which are dotted with a few spruce
firs, while others present their bald pates deprived of covering by
the unmerciful hand of time." (James M'Kenzie).

The winters of the Quebec province are extremely cold, but the summer
and autumn are warm and sunny. The best winter climate, possibly, in
all Canada (though not as good as that of Vancouver Island, British
Columbia) is to be found in the small peninsula region, on the shores
of Lakes Erie and Huron, between Toronto and Detroit. This is the
district which the Jesuit missionaries described as "an earthly
paradise" even during the winter-time.

The following extracts, mostly from the journals of Alex. Henry, jun.,