considerable more forward, below the Thousand Islands than above them.

"From Sackets Harbor to the entrance into the St. Lawrence, the shores presented all the desolation of Winter; the birch was the only forest-tree that indicated approaching Spring; but below the Islands, advancing northward, an evident change was visible. The sugar-tree, willow, birch, and many shrubs were in considerable advance, and the fields on the Canadian shore more so than on the New York side, from greater exposure to the sun."

In fact, he was quite charmed with the appearance along the North shore, of which, after quoting the description of the country from Bouchette, he says:

'The rapid change made upon an uncultivated country by the introduction of the necessary arts of civilized life, never did receive a more striking exemplification than is now given by the left shore of the St. Lawrence, below the Thousand Islands, as far down as Hamilton (Waddington). Fields joining to fields, farm-houses with their most attractive decoration, garden, meadows and orchard, smile along this truly elegant slope. Villages, with many of the highest traces of cultivated life, with all the first principles of civilization, rise along this once desolate waste. Brockville, Prescott and Johnstown, are now what were once New York and Philadelphia; what were once Quebec and Montreal; and ranging further back in the lapse of ages, what were once Athens, Rome, Paris and London.

"Many times, when the rising and setting sun spread a glow of golden lustre over this attractive picture, have I demanded of myself, Was this country a gloomy forestscene only five and thirty years past? The rich lustre of harvest would have answered, that upon this expanse, the labor of ages had been expended, but history faithfully points to the contrary. In 1783, the axe first resounded on these shores; and now, in 1818, the world can present but few, if any, regions of equal extent, where all that can allure the eye or gratify the mind, can be found more condensed into one view. Savage life has disappeared forever, and in its place now stands the residence of the instructed Man."

AUTUMNAL SCENERY OF THE NORTHERN

STATES AND OF CANADA.

We have noticed in the descriptions of several travellers in the preceding pages, an allusion to the coloring of the forests of this region towards the close of Autumn, forming, indeed, one of the attractions most likely to fix itself in the memory, in the declining season of the year. This was most fully given by the German traveller, Dr. Kohl, whose account of the Islands will be found on pages 166174 of this volume. We will commence the description with his arrival at Kingston, late on a warm, bright, richlycolored Autumnal afternoon, when the setting sun presented a most imposing appearance. There was still enough of daylight left to get a fine view of the City, and its suburbs, and he departed by Steamer for Toronto the same evening. He describes the passage as one of exquisite beauty, the last glow of twilight shedding a glory over the apparently boundless water, which seemed like the Sea without limit. As it grew dark, the waters presented the novel spectacle af moving lights near the shore, where the fishermen were following their business by torch-light; and later in the night, the heavens were lit up by the Aurora Borealis with unusual splendor.

It may almost be questioned as to whether, amid these shifting scenes of novelty, our worthy traveller got time for a moment's repose, for his description of the midnight

Aurora, with its gleaming pencils of light, its corona and its dazzling arch, passes directly into the picture of a morning on the Lake, that follows:

"But its splendors were far exceeded in beauty by the tender tints of the Aurora Orientalis that afterwards showed themselves on the Eastern horizon, and then filled the whole atmosphere with its light. A delicate mist had risen toward sunrise, and the sun had made use of this gauzy veil to paint it with the loveliest pale tints. I do not wonder that the taste for coloring should develop itself in such a land of mist, where the palette of Nature is provided with such a variety of finely graduated hues. The eye is sharpened to their differences, while in tropical regions, where the chief colors appear most strikingly, the senses are dazzled. As the sun rose, I remarked to my surprise that the redness of the morning dawn had not passed from the horizon, as it commonly does, but remained hanging as a very decided red segment of a circle, and the higher the sun rose, the further it stretched, till towards eleven o'clock it occupied one-half of the horizon, while the opposite side, which was of a light grayish tint, lost ground more and more, and at length the sun appeared as a radiant focus in the centre of an atmosphere of light, which, with few variations, passed into red all round the horizon. I saw this remarkable phenomenon here for the first time, but afterwards frequently, and learned that it especially belonged to the 'Indian Summer,' and was known under the name of 'the pink mist." "

A short time after, our traveller, in passing northward from Toronto, on the route to Lake Simcoe, had occasion to again revert to the glories of the Autumnal forest, which he had already noticed in passing among the Thousand Islands. His description has no local application, but will faithfully represent the impressions of an intelligent observer in the deciduous forests of any part of the Northern States, and of Canada, in the fading season of the year :

"The trees here still gloried in the rich coloring of their leafage, although in Quebec, a fortnight before, the vege

tation had assumed a bare and wintry aspect. The elegant and much-prized maple was conspicuous among them, as it mostly is in Canada, and its leaves exhibited more shades and gradations of golden-yellow and crimson than can be found in the best furnished color-box. Even when you walk on dark cloudy days in the forest, the trees shed around you such gorgeous colors, that you might imagine it was bright sunlight. You seem to be walking in the midst of some magic sunset of the declining year. The leaves of the maple are too as elegantly cut as they are richly adorned with color, and the Canadians pay them the same homage as the Irish do their green immortal Shamrock. They are collected, pressed and preserved; ladies select the most beautiful to form natural garlands for their ball-dresses. You see in Canada tables and other furniture inlaid with bouquets and wreaths of varnished Maple leaves, and you see an elegant Steamer with the name MAPLE LEAF painted in large letters on the side. Sometimes the Canadians would ask me, in their glorious woods, whether I had ever seen anything like them in Europe, and if I answered that, though their woods were especially beautiful, I had elsewhere observed red and yellow autumn leaves, they would smile and shake their heads, as if they meant to say that a stranger could never appreciate the beauties of a Canadian forest thus dying in golden flame. I have seen a Swiss, born and bred among the Alps, smile just as pityingly at the enthusiasm of strangers for their mountains, evidently regarding it as a mere momentary flare, and that they only could know how to value the charms of their native land.

“The magnificent coloring of these trees strikes you most, I think, when the gilding has only just begun, and the green, yellow and scarlet tints are mingled with the most delicate transitions. Sometimes it seems as if Nature were amusing herself with these graceful playthings, for you see green trees twisted about with garlands of rich red leaves, like wreaths of roses, and then again red trees, where the wreaths are green. I followed with delight, too, the series of changes, from the most brilliant crimson to the darkest claret color, then to a rich brown, which passed into the cold pale grey of the winter. It seems to me evident that the sun of this climate has some quite peculiar power in its beams, and that the faintest tint of

the autumn foliage has a pure intensity of color that you do not see in Europe. Possibly you see the climate and character of Canada mirrored in these autumn leaves, and it is the rapid and violent transitions of heat and cold that produce these vivid contrasts.

"The frost that sometimes sets in suddenly after a very hot day, is said to be one of the chief painters of these American woods. When he does but touch the trees they immediately blush rosy red. I was warned, therefore, not to regard what I saw this year as the ne plus ultra of his artistic efforts, since the frost had come this time very gradually. The summer heat had lasted unusually long, and the drouth had been extraordinary, so that the leaves had become gradually dry and withered, instead of being suddenly struck by the frost while their sap was still abundant, a necessary condition, it appears, for this brilliant coloring."1

As if quite unable to tear himself from a subject that had so thoroughly awakened his attention, our keenly observant traveller, after describing many other scenes of Indian and Pioneer life, presented in his northern journey, many pages further on, again recurs to his favorite impressions. He had been so often interrupted by impertinent inquiries, as to who he was-where he was going-on what business -where he intended to buy land-and where he meant to settle, that he had devised a ready means for getting rid of these annoyances-for when he saw one of these inquisit

(1) It is more probable that these gaudy tints of the maple forests are due to a ripening process, analagous to that which gives color to many kinds of ripening fruit. We find the colors come before frost, and on some branches of a tree before others on the same tree, as the leaves happen to be more mature, or exposed to the ripening influences of autumn. In some years the display is more brilliant than in others; particularly where a series of rainy days, or period of damp foggy weather, is followed by bright clear sunshine, and cold, but not frosty nights.-ED.