season of sottal intercourse and festivity. The
basis of the commerce of Canada is in the produce
of its forests, which, since 1817, have supplied
England and the West Indies with an average
of about 300,000 loads (of 50 cubic feet each)of
timber annually, jts next source of supply for
export is the skins of the innumerable wild ani-
mals which inhabit the forests, comprising the
bear, stag, elk, deer, fox, marten, wild cat, and*
various others, including hare and rabbit, as well
as a great variety of the weasel species, and the
banks of the numerous lakes and rivers supply
large quantities of otter and beaver skins. ' The
aggregate value of this branch of commerce to
Canada may -be estimated at from xc2xa3100,000 to
xc2xa3150,000 annually, varying, in some measure,
according to the caprice of fashion. Fox and
otter skins, which at one time sold in London for
xc2xa310 to xc2xa315 a skin, at other times obtain only two
or three to five pounds each; the others occasion-
ally varying in nearly like proportion. Another
great article of production for export is pot and
pearl ash, which, with a few other articles of mi-
nor importance, constitute the whole of the ex-
ports ; amounting in the aggregate, including
the freight of a portion of the wood in Canadian
built vessels, to a money value of about xc2xa3800,000,
which might and would be considerably augment-
ed by an export of grain, did not the selfish and
blind policy of the British legislature prefer con-
fining the manufacturing population of England
as well as of Ireland to a potato diet, and that in
the most sparing supply, lest any grain of foreign

!>roduction should be admitted into England, and
ower the money price, and thereby preclude a
high money rent tax. The exclusion of a market
for the surplus of grain, which would easily be
supplied, is, however, more than counterbalanced
to Canada by a large military force and civil es-
tablishment, which is maintained in that country
out of the taxes levied on the people of England.
These maintenances, in addition to its exports,
whilst the system subjects the people of England
to increasing privation, enables the Canadians to
draw from England a supply of manufactured and
Asiatic productions to the amount in money value
of about xc2xa31,400,000 annually, whilst the direct
intercourse of Canada with the British West In-
dia Islands enables it to obtain a liberal supply of
the products of those luxuriant climes. From
these circumstances, it is easy to conceive that
Canada affords great advantage to agricultural
enterprise, and well-directed exertion.

The civil government consists of a governor,
who is uniformly a military man and commander-
in-chief of all the forces in British America, and
an executive council of fourteen other members,
who are all appointed by the governor for the
approval of the king. The House of Assembly
consists of fifty two members, elected for four
years in due proportions from each district of the
country by the freeholders of forty shillings a
year and upwards, or renters of xc2xa310 per annum
and upwards. There is also a legislative council,
consisting of not less than fifteen members. The
legal establishment consists of a court of King’s
Bench, Coipmon Pleas, and court of Appeal; and
the civil and criminal law is administered by a
chief justice and two puisne judges: the chief
justice is also president of the legislative council.
The ecclesiastical affairs of this country are under
the superintendence of a catholic bishop resident
at Quebec, and an assistant bishop, nine vicars-
general, and about 200 cures, who are supported
chiefly out of grants of land made under the
French government, and an assessment of one
twenty-sixth part of all grain produced on the
lands held by catholics. The protestant estab-
lishment consists of a lord bishop, also resident at
Quebec, nine rectors, and several curates or cler-
gymen supported in part out of the civil list, and
an appropriation of one-seventh of all the lands
held by protestants. The protestant bishop has
also a seat in the legislative council by virtue of
his appointment: no distinction is otherwise made
on account of religious profession, catholic and
protestant being alike eligible to a seat in the ex
ecutive or legislative council and assembly, as
well as to all other civil or military appointments
Numerous tribes of native Indians still inhabit all

the western and interior parts of this vast coun-
try, though their number has been much reduced
since 1780, about which period the small-pox
raged with such destructive fury as to entirely
depopulate several hundred thousand square miles
of territory. Since the abatement of that dreadful
catastrophe, and the conciliatory measures of the
Canadian government towards them, although
they still withhold themselves as much as ever
from the society of the settlers, they have main-
tained a much more social intercourse, with but
few attempts at open hostility ; and it is the In-
dian population who contribute so essentially to
the traffic in furs. The principal towns in Lower
Canada are Quebec, Montreal, and Trois Rivieres.

The pine forests of this region are inhabited by
vast numbers of martens, who live in the lofty

-mm.iti*

tops of the trees. Their fur is highly esteemed,
and great numbers of them are hunted for their
skins. This animal destroys great quantities of
small quadrupeds and birds. He frequently makes
his nest in the hollow of a tree, but commonly
seeks for a squirrel’s nest, drives away or kills
the owner, and takes possession.

The wolverene inhabits the northern parts of
Canada and America generally, quite to the Arc-
tic Sea, and it is probable that its visits extend
beyond the continent towards the Pole, as a skull
of this animal was found on Melville Island by
Capt. Parry. It is an inhabitant alike of the
woods and barren grounds, and is capable of en-
during the severest cold. The motions of the
wolverene are necessarily slow, and its gait