It has been already mentioned, that the climate of this country is reckoned more mild in Winter, and less sultry in the summer, than the same latitudes nearer the atlantic ocean ; and as agriculture advances, and the country becomes more open, the climate will improve. At present it is extremely healthy, and none of those periodical disorders are known among the settlers which prevail in those parts of America which are nearer the sea such as intermitting fevers, agues and bilious complaints.

The severe weather generally sets in about the beginning of December, with sharp cold, black frost, and falls of snow. About Christmas the grounds are covered with snow, which continues about two months, or till the first week in March, during which interval there is a clear serene sky with fine weather. It is then that the farmer transports his corn and other produce to the market, or to the granaries and stores at the landing-places, to be in readiness when the weather opens for water communication. This transportation is managed with great ease by means of slays over the snow, where one horse will perform more than four times the

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number in those latitudes in North- Am erica, where snows do not he in the winter.

This period, when the snows are upon the ground, is also the season of festivity with the American farmers, as it affords an easy and expeditious, as well as a cheap mode of travelling, and of paying visits to one another, and in holding a friendly intercourse with their relations at a distance, in which they appear to have more real enjoyment than the same class of people in any other country in the world.