great banks, extending south and east from the island, is carried on the extensive cod-fishery, which has for many years proved truly a gold-mine to those concerned in it. The depth of water on the great banks is from 22 to 50 fathoms, while that off the banks is from 60 to 80. A great swell of the sea and thick fogs generally point out the situation of the great banks, which stretch from N. E. to S. W. about 200 leagues. The great fishery begins towards the middle of May, and continues to the end of September,

Anticosti-A considerable island, dividing the broad mouth of the river St. Lawrence; possesses no convenient harbour, and is uninhabited; but it abounds with wood, and coal has been discovered in it.

Hudson's Bay.-Adjoining to Canada on the E. is a vast triangular peninsula, generally called Labrador, or the country of the Esquimaux, or Iskimos, from the name of the few wretched natives by whom its deserts are inhabited. This peninsula forms the separation between the Ocean and the great inlet called Hudson's Bay, on whose southern and western shores are some settlements for the purpose of carrying on the fur and other articles of trade with the natives of the northern and western parts of America: of these settlements, Albany Fort, Brunswick, York, and Churchill, are the chief.

The climate of this tract is extremely rude, the ice on the rivers being often eight feet thick, and even brandy freezing. Whales, salmon, and sturgeon, are frequent in the bay and rivers. The rein-deer and great northern bear wander in herds along the shores, and the latter, for a great part of winter and spring, rove cut to sea on the ice, while the famales, with their cubs, are concealed in the woods or banks of rivers till March, when they move down to the shore in search of their mates.

The chief produce of these barren or at least uncultivated tracts consists in the furs or skins of beavers, bears, foxes,

otters,

otters, martins, buffaloes, lynxes, wolverines, racoons, wolves, elks, deer, and other natives of the cold regions of the north.

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.-These states are separated from the British possessions on the N. by an imaginary line passing through the middle of the great Canadian lakes and along the river St. Laurence to the parallel of 45%, which it follows due E. to a chain of mountains running N. E. and soon quitting them, it stretches S. E. to the river St. Croix, which it follows down to the sea. On the W. the boundary was formerly the course of the Mississippi; but the late acquisition of the wide plains of Louisiana has carried the boundary far beyond that river. Another imaginaline on the S. about the parallel of 30' divides the United States from the Spanish provinces of Florida, while Louisiana extends along the gulf of Mexico: On the E. they are washed by the Atlantic Occean.

ry

The extent of these states from W. to E. along the northern frontier, is about 1,800 miles, nearly equal to that along the Atlantic; but the distance from N. to S. between the lakes and Florida, is only about 1,000 miles. The li. mits of Louisiana and the more northerly acquisitions be yond the Mississippi are in a great degree indeterminate.

According to a numeration made in 1801, the population of the several United States, including the slaves, who are chiefly to be found in the southern states, was as appears in the following Table.

Some idea of the rapid increase of the population of the United States may be formed by comparing this total with that of 1791, which amounted only to 3,925,253, the augmentation in ten years exceeding one-third of the number in 1791. In 1801, the number of slaves in the whole Union was calculated to be 894,452.

The principal city or capital of the whole United States is Washington. This city, so named to preserve the mcmory of the illustrious founder of the Union, is situated in the midst of the country, in N. lat. 38°. 53′. within the territory of Columbia, at the junction of the river Patomak with the eastern branch, and intended to extend about four miles along each, including a tract of country exceeded in convenience, beauty, and salubrity, by none in America. The rivers afford excellent havens for any number of the largest ships. The town is to be laid out agreeably to a determined plan; the streets of a great breadth, straight, and crossing each other at right angles. The Capitol, or edifice, where the national councils are to be held, is projected on a very magnificent scale, on an elevated position in the heart of the town.

Philadelphia, the capital of Pennsylvania, is a handsome

town

town, with 50,000 people, on the W. banks of the river Delaware, which brings large vessels up to the wharfs. New York, situated on a point of land at the mouth of the noble river Hudson, contains about 35,000 inhabit ants, and from the advantages of its harbour and position is considered to be the first commercial town in the states. Boston, the capital of the different districts all known by the name of New England, contains about 20,000 people; the harbour on a spacious bay is capacious and secure, with a narrow entrance defended by forts; the town occupies a peninsula connected with the main land by an isthmus only 40 or 50 yards in breadth. Baltimore, in Maryland, contains 14,000 people. Charlestown, the capital of South Carolina, at the meeting of two considerable navigable rivers, is an agreeable trading town, containing about 16,000 inhabitants, of whom nearly one-half some years ago were slaves. The other towns of the Union are of less importance; but New Orleans, the capital of the newly acquired territory of Louisiana, may, from its position towards the mouth of the principal channel of the Mississippi, become a place of the greatest commercial importance in North America.

Christianity in many various modifications is universally professed in the American states; for the Jews are not numerous: but as the constitution of the country pro vides against the making of laws tending towards an establishment of any religious system, or prohibiting the free exercise of it, perfect religious liberty is a fundamental principle by which the American government is distinguished from that of any other on the globe. Religion in the United States is placed on a proper basis, without the aid of the civil power, to be supported by its own evidence, by the lives of its professors, and by the care of its divine author.

The

The government consists of a president and vice-president, chosen for the term of four years; a senate or superior council, composed of two senators from each state in the Union, chosen every six years; and a house of representatives, elected every second year. The legislative power is vested in the two councils, and the executive in the president. The laws, both in their spirit and their application, have been retained from the system established before the separation of these states from Britain, with many excellent modifications adapted to the circumstances of the country and its inhabitants. It is highly worthy of notite, and of serious consideration, that since 1794, when in the state of Pennsylvania capital punishment was abolished for all offences, excepting wilful premeditated murder, the offences of every discription have not exceeded one half of the number committed before that period.

SPANISH DOMINIONS.-That part of North America belonging to Spain, since Louisiana has been ceded to the United States, may be considered as occupying the long irregular isthmus connecting the northern and southern portions of the New World. It is washed on one side by the gulf of Mexico, and on the other by the great Pacific Ocean. These dominions are divided into the following provinces, or kingdoms, as they are sometimes called, viz. California, New Mexico, New Leon, New Biscay, Mexico, Guatimala.

The climate of this extensive country, lying between N. lat. 5. and 40°, is of course very various; rain is so frequent as greatly to moderate the natural heat. The face of the country is at once variegated and singular. Ranges of lofty mountains, many of them volcanoes and covered with snow, separated by rich vales and beautiful streams, every where present themselves. The soil is singularly fertile, furnishing in abundance corn, cattle, cotton, sugar, indigo, tobacco, and wine. The incomparable red dye, called cochineal,