evate
them, and worship him who would sink them deeper in baseness and
bondage;--when we reflect on this almost hopeless darkness of soul that
has marked the history of the past, and is too much the character of the
present, we need not wonder that so few have had either leisure or
inclination to yield themselves to the acquirement or prosecution of
scientific knowledge. "The winds have blown where they listed, and we
have heard the sound thereof," but men absorbed in the hard struggle of
life have found but little time to inquire "whence they come or whither
they go."

The people of the United States are yet but partially free. They still
inherit, from customs and prejudices, the fruits of an ancestral
oppression, and a bondage of centuries of duration. But even their
_partial_ freedom has already shown its good effects. At this moment
knowledge is progressing faster among these people than any other on the
face of the earth. Meteorology begins to assume the palpable shape of
an exact science. The winds are being traced in their currents, and
followed through all their windings, by Maury and other men of talent;
and if you live twenty years longer (and I hope you may live three times
as many years), you will no doubt be able to tell "whence the wind
cometh and whither it goeth."

Well, we began this politico-scientific discussion by observing that it
was very cold in the latitude of Lake Winnipeg, even in late spring.
Only at night though; the days are sometimes so hot there that you might
fancy yourself in the tropics. These extremes are characteristic of the
climate of all American countries, and particularly those that lie at a
distance from the sea-coast.

Our voyageurs were chilled to the very bones, and of course glad to see
the daylight glimmering through the tops of the trees that grew upon the
banks of the river. As soon as day broke, they began to consider how
they would reach those trees. Although swimming a river of that width
would have been to any of the four a mere bagatelle, they saw that it
was not to be so easy an affair. Had they been upon either bank, they
could have crossed to the other without difficulty--as they would have
chosen a place where the water was comparatively still. On the rock
they had no choice, as the rapids extended on both sides above and below
it. Between the boulders the current rushed so impetuously, that had
they attempted to swim to either bank, they would hav