The gulf is as smooth as a mill-pond. We glide along, almost without being sensible that we are on shipboard. We passed yesterday the Bird Rocks, so called from the great number of sea fowls which resort to them. These rocks are not very distant from the Magdalene Islands, to which they are considered to belong. The whole of the rocks and islands were lately granted by government to admiral Sir Isaac Coffin. The islands are valuable only as a fishing station.

These islands are inhabited by the French who left Acadia (now Nova Scotia) after it was secured by France to Britain by the peace of 1763. I am told they are naturally a quiet, good sort of people. İndeed it is well they are so, for they have never been considered of sufficient consequence to give them either laws or a government. They carry on, however, a considerable trade in oil, seal-skins, cod-fish, &c. which they send to Europe, or to Quebec, whence they receive in return the various articles they have occasion for, such as flour, liquors, clothing, &c.

Sir Isaac has lately made an attempt to

bring them under his authority as their lord and master. He has paid them a visit: how far he may succeed, time only can shew; but I understand they would rather be left to themselves than be governed by any body.

To the southward of our course lies Prince Edward's Island, near the coasts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. It is a fine island; the soil is rich, and fit for every sort of grain. It abounds with timber of a variety of kinds, fit for the shipbuilder, carpenter, and cabinet-maker.

We are now in sight of the island of Anticosti, which lies at the mouth of the river St. Lawrence; it is about one hundred and thirty miles in length, and about thirty in breadth. This extensive tract of country is not inhabited: the length and severity of its winters, and the sterility of its soil, have rendered abortive some attempts that have been made to settle on it; and it will not probably be again attempted, while so much good terra firma remains uncleared and unappropriated. At present the whole island might be purchased for a few hundred pounds. It belongs to

some gentlemen in Quebec, and you might, for a very small sum, become one of the greatest landholders in the world, and a Canadian Seignor into the bargain.

When you have passed the island of Anticosti, you may be said to be in the river St. Lawrence; but from its great breadth (being about ninety miles), you still conceive yourself to be in the gulf. The channel between Anticosti. and the main land on the south is about fifteen leagues. We have a fine favourable breeze, and in mid-channel we can see both coasts. The mountains appear to be of great height, and they are all covered with snow. They are probably a great way inland; for although we have been directing our course towards those on the south shore the whole day, there seems little or no change in their appearance as to size and height-a proof that both are very great.

I am informed their elevation has never been accurately ascertained; but, if any regard is to be had to appearances, I should suppose they are fully as high as the Pyrenees. The captain of our vessel imagines that we are at least a hundred miles

from them. From this circumstance, a tolerably correct idea may be formed of their height. Sir Isaac Newton has given us principles by which an accurate estimate may be made of the height of an object if you know its distance, and of the distance of an object if you know its height.

When two vessels approach each other at sea, the top-gallant sails are, at first, all that is seen; the nearer they approach each other, the more they seem to rise out of the water. Seamen discover, from the squareness of the yards, what sort of vessel it is ; they can judge pretty correctly what height of masts she should have, and, therefore, can nearly determine her distance; a very important matter in time of war, and in case of being chased.

If, according to your reckoning, you run ninety-six miles from the time you first see the top of a mountain until you come near it, you may calculate that mountain to be about a mile in height; and if you know the height of the mountain, you can ascertain your distance as soon as you see it. Increase the height, and the distance at which the object may be seen increases

in the following proportion: At the distance of 4.18 miles, looking over a smooth surface, you can see the top of an object 10 feet high; at 8.37 miles you can see the top of an object 40 feet high. In order that one object may be seen at double the distance of another, it must be four times higher. The Peak of Teneriffe is from thirteen to fourteen thousand feet high, so that it will be seen just appearing above the horizon at the distance of about 150 miles.

When people on the sea-shore talk of immensely extensive views on the boundless ocean, they are not aware, that these immensely extensive views, reach but a few miles, unless they are on a very elevated situation.

On the south side of the river St. Lawrence, the province of Canada extends to the entrance of the river at Cape Rosier, where you have the district of Gaspé, and a bay of that name a few leagues to the south of Cape Rosier. This part of Canada is still inhabited by a few Indians.

On the north side of the entrance of the river you have the Labrador coast, and the