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advance to those parts of America which lie in the same parallel with provinces of Asia and Africa blessed with an uniform enjoyment of such genial warmth as is most friendly to life and to vegetation, the dominion of cold continues to be felt, and winter reigns, though during a short period, with extreme severity. If we proceed along the American continent into the torrid zone, we shall find the cold prevalent in the New World extending itself also to this region of the globe, and mitigating the excess of its fervour. While the negro on the coast of Africa is scorched with unremitting heat, the inhabitant of Peru breathes an air equally mild and temperate, and is perfectly shaded under a canopy of grey clouds, which intercepts the fierce beams of the sun, without obstructing his friendly influence.

Various causes combine in rendering the climate of America so extremely different from that of the ancient continent. America advances nearer to the pole than either Europe or Asia. Both these have large seas to the north, which are open during part of the year, and even when covered with ice, the wind that blows over them is less intensely cold than that which blows over land in the same high latitudes. But in America the land stretches from the river St. Laurence towards the pole, and spreads out immensely to the west. A chain of enormous mountains, covered with snow and ice, runs through all this dreary region. The wind, in passing over such an extent of high and frozen land, becomes so impregnated with cold, that it acquires a piercing keenness, which it retains in its progress through warmer climates, and is not entirely mitigated until it reach the Gulf of Mexico. Over all the continent of North America a north

westerly wind and excessive cold are synonymous terms. Even in the most sultry weather, the moment that the wind veers to that quarter, its penetrating influence is felt in a transition from heat to cold, no less violent than sudden. To this powerful cause may be ascribed the extraordinary dominion of cold, and its violent inroads into the southern provinces in that part of the globe.

After contemplating those permanent and characteristic qualities of the American continent, which arise from the peculiarity of its situation and the disposition of its parts, the next object that merits attention is its condition when first discovered as far as that depended on the industry and operations of man. The effects of human ingenuity and labour are more extensive and considerable than even our own vanity is apt at first to imagine. When we survey the face of the habitable globe, no small part of that fertility and beauty which we ascribe to the hand of nature is the work of man. His efforts, when continued through a succession of ages, change the appearance, and improve the qualities of the earth. As a great part of the ancient continent has long been occupied by nations far advanced in arts and industry, our eye is accustomed to view the earth in that form which it assumes when rendered fit to be the residence of a numerous race of men, and to supply them with nourishment. But in the New World the state of mankind was ruder, and the aspect of nature extremely different. Im mense forests covered a great part of the uncultivated earth; and as the hand of industry had not taught the rivers to run in a proper channel, or drained off the stagnating water, many of the most fertile plains were overflowed, or converted into

marshes. When the English began to settle in America, they termed the countries of which they took possession, The Wilderness. Nothing but the eager expectation of finding mines of gold could have induced the Spaniards to penetrate through the woods and marshes of America, where, at every step, they observed the extreme difference between the uncultivated face of nature, and that which it acquires under the hand of industry.

The labour and operation of man not only improve and embellish the earth, but render it more wholesome and friendly to life. All the provinces of America when first discovered were found to be extremely unhealthly. Great numbers of the first settlers were cut off by the unknown and violent diseases with which they were infected. Such as survived the rage of malady, were not exempted from the noxious influence of the climate. They returned to Europe feeble and emaciated, with complexions that indicated the unwholesome temperature of the country where they had resided.

The uncultivated state of the New World affected also the qualities of its productions. The principle of life seems to have been less active and vigorous there than in the ancient continent. The different species of animals are much fewer in America than those of the other hemisphere. In the islands there were only four kinds of quadru. peds known; the largest of which did not exceed the size of a rabbit. Of two hundred different kinds of animals spread over the face of the earth, only about one third existed in America at the time of its discovery. The same causes which checked the growth and the vigour of the more noble animals, were friendly to the propagation and increase of reptiles and insects: the active principle of life

seems to waste its force in productions of the infe rior form. The air is often darkened with clouds of insects, and the ground covered with shocking and noxious reptiles. The country around Porto Bello swarms with toads, in such multitudes as hide the surface of the earth. At Guyaquil, snakes and vipers are hardly less numerous. Carthagena is infested with numerous flocks of bats which annoy both men and beast. In the islands, legions of ants have at different times consumed every vegetable production, and left the earth entirely bare, as if it had been burnt with fire.

The birds of the New World are not distinguished by qualities so conspicuous as those which we have observed in its quadrupeds. Birds are more independent of man, and less affected by the changes which his industry and labour make upon the face of the earth. They have a greater propensity to migrate from one country to another, and can gratify this instinct of their nature without difficulty or danger. Hence the number of birds common to both continents is much greater than that of quadrupeds; and even such as are peculiar to America nearly resemble those with which mankind were acquainted in similar regions of the ancient hemisphere. The American birds of the torrid zone, like those of the climate of Asia and Africa, are deckt in plumage which dazzles the eye with the beauty of its colours; but nature, satisfied with clothing them in this gay dress, has denied most of them that melody of sound and variety of notes which catch and delight the ear. The birds of the temperate climate there are less splendid in their appearance, but they have voices of greater compass, and more melodious. In some districts of America the unwholesome temperature VOL. XXIV.

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of the air seems to be unfavourable even to this part of the creation. America however produces the Condor, which is entitled to pre-eminence over all the flying tribe, in bulk, in strength, and in

courage.

The soil in America must of course be extremely various, but the cold and moisture which prevail there have considerable influence over it. If we wish to rear in America the productions which abound in any particular district of the ancient world, we must advance several degrees nearer to the line than in the other hemisphere, as it requires such an increase of heat to counterbalance the natural frigidity of the soil and climate. At the Cape of Good Hope, several of the plants and fruits peculiar to the countries within the tropics are cultivated with success; whereas in Florida and South Carolina, though considerably nearer the line, they cannot be brought to thrive with equal certainty. But if allowance be made for this diversity in the degree of heat, the soil of America is naturally as rich and fertile as that in any part of the earth. As the country was thinly inhabited, the earth was not exhausted by consumption. The vegetable productions to which the fertility of the soil gave birth, being suffered to corrupt on its surface, returned with increase into its bosom. As trees and plants derive a great part of - their nourishment from air and water; if they were not destroyed, they would render to the earth more, perhaps, than they take from it, and feed rather than impoverish it. The vast number, as well as enormous size of the trees in America, indicate the extraordinary vigour of the soil in its native state. When the Europeans first began to cultivate the New World, they were astonished at the luxuriant power of vegetation in

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