happens. They also make use of sledges drawn over the ice by 6 and sometimes 12 dogs; and so rapid is this conveyance, that they are said to be frequently carried over a space of 100 miles in nine or ten honrs by a full team.

In their marriages the Greenlanders seem to be guided entirely by the dictates of nature. The parents are said never to interfere: the bridegroom pays no regard to dowry, and the only thing that can recommend the bride is good housewifery, to which all the females are assiduously trained from their tenderest years. The rules of gallantry require that the bride be taken by force from her father's house, and carried by the bridegroom to his own, and this forms the marriage ceremony. Polygamy is sometimes, though rarely, practised by such as have not embraced Christianity. The wife is sometimes put away by her husband, and if she is dissatisfied she usually elopes, and returns to her parents.

The heathen natives of Greenland haveno worship or religious ceremonies, but believe in the existence of a Supreme Being, and besides this Being, they have an idea of certain subordinate spirits, each of whom has its separate locality. The Angelkut are the philosophers and physicians of the Greenlanders, and are thought to be the only persons admitted to the Divine Being. These men impose on the superstitious, by pretending to cure diseases by magic, and to preserve health by certain charms. The dead, dressed in their finest clothes, and covered with seal-skin, are buried on an eminence; the grave is built of stone above ground, the body placed in a sitting posture, and the canoe, weapons, and utensils of the deceased, are laid by the side of the grave. The language of the Greenlanders, which has little variety of dialect, abounds with gutturals and double consonants. The letters r, h, and t, predominate in it. Participles are usually substituted for adjectives; augmentatives and diminutives are very numerous, and each verb has its negative attached to it, and every flexible word its dual. Their numerals are only five; and numbers above five are expressed by addition, as five and one, five and two, &c. The Greenlanders of the north speak a dialect almost unintelligible to those of the south. The women employ words and inflexions which none but themselves are permitted to use.

Commerce.] The trade to Greenland has always been a monopoly. At first it was conducted by a company of merchants, but it is now carried on by the Danish government. Each settlement is managed by a trader and his assistant, who are paid by the government. The exports from Greenland are feathers and eider-down, horns of the sea-unicorn, skins of seals, foxes, bears, hares, and rein-deers, whalebone, and oil of all kinds. The imports from Copenhagen are guns and ammunition, all sorts of ironmongery, various sorts of cloth-manufactures, looking-glasses, snuff-boxes, &c. Five or six vessels, whose cargoes have been estimated at £13,000 sterling, go out from Copenhagen to Greenland every year, about the beginning of May. The productions carried back are supposed to average £17,000 sterling.

The

Whale-Fishery.] The whale-fisheries are chiefly carried on by the settlers, and for the Danish government. The British whale-fishers visit Disko yearly, about the end of April, and leave it in June. The balana mysticetus, or great Greenland whale, only is caught at this season. smaller species of whale, balana boops, which regularly visits the coo about the end of July, is then caught by the native Greenlanders. are indebted for the following details to the Edinburgh Cabinet Lib

"The whale-fishery, for one ship and one season, is a complete lottery, the result of which, according to the skill and good fortune of the persons employed, fluctuates between a large profit and a severe loss. Sometimes a vessel is so unlucky as to return clean; another brings only one fish ; while eight or nine, producing about ninety tuns of oil, are considered necessary to make an average voyage. There are fortunate instances of a much larger produce. The greatest cargo ever known by Scoresby to have been brought from the northern seas was that of captain Souter, of the Resolution of Peterhead, in 1814. It consisted of forty-four whales, yielding 299 tons of oil, which, even at the reduced rate of L.32, sold for L.9,568, raised by the whalebone and bounty to about L.11,000. In 1813, both the elder and younger Mr Scoresby brought cargoes less in quantity, less in quantity, indeed, but which, from the oil selling at L.60 per tun, yielded a still greater return. The former, in the course of twenty-eight voyages, killed 498 whales, whence were extracted 4,246 tuns of oil, the value of which and of the whalebone exceeded L.150,000; all drawn by him out of the depths of the northern ocean.

"The British fishery has lately yielded a produce and value much exceeding that of the Dutch during the period of its greatest prosperity. In the five years, ending with 1818, there were imported into England and Scotland 68,940 tuns of oil, and 3,420 tons of whalebone; which, valuing the oil at L.36 10s., and the bone at L.90, with L.10,000 in skins, raised the entire produce to L.2,834,110 sterling, or L.566,822 per annum. The fishery of 1814, a year peculiarly fortunate, produced 1,437 whales from Greenland, yielding 12,132 tuns of oil, which, even at the lower rate of L.32, including the whalebone and bounty, and added to the produce from Davis's Strait, formed altogether a value of above L.700,000.

"The following has been furnished to us from an authentic source as the result of the fishery of the year 1829, distinguishing the ports:

"In the Commercial Tables presented to the House of Commons in 1830, the entire proceeds of last year are stated at L.428,591 6s. 6d.; but this, of course, includes also the southern fishery. Of this amount there were exported to foreign countries, oil to the value of L.73,749 10s. 6d.,

and whalebone amounting to L.40,666 15s. 6d.; making in all, L.114,416, 6s. It may be mentioned, that this trade is now carried on entirely without legislative encouragement, the bounty having ceased to be granted since the year 1824.”

Settlements.] The Danish establishments consist of about 20 factories scattered along the coasts. The principal settlements for the fisheries on the western coast of Greenland are: Holsteinburg, in 67° 10′; Egedesminde and Wester island, on the south of Disko bay; Hunde island and Crown Prince island in Disko bay; Christianshaab, Claushavn, and Jacobshavn, on the continent of Disko bay; Godhavn on Disko island, and Klokkerhuck on Arve Prince island. Besides those for the fishing trade, several missionary settlements have been established in different districts of the country by the Moravian brethren, who have long persevered with unceasing assiduity in their pious labours in that dreary and inhospitable region. In 1802, including the Moravian settlements and the natives, mostly converted to Christianity, the total population of the west coast of Greenland was supposed to amount to 20,000 souls. It is only the coast, for an extent of 300 leagues, that is inhabited; neither the Danes nor the Greenlanders have yet crossed the chain of mountains which cuts off their access to the interior.

ADJACENT ISLANDS.] Greenland is surrounded by many thousands of islands, which are mostly barren rocks interspersed with valleys covered with perpetual ice. They are visited by the Greenlanders, during the spring, for the purpose of catching seals. In 61° 21', an uninhabited island, of considerable magnitude, called by some navigators, from its terrific appearance, the Cape of Desolation, is always surrounded to a great extent with masses of floating ice.-Disko, the largest island on the coast, measures a degree from north to south.-All the islands from 71° northwards are small, and are generally denominated Women's islands.—Spitzbergen was long considered as united to, and forming a part of Old Greenland; but is now ascertained to be a cluster of islands, scattered between 76° and 80° N. lat., and 9" and 24° E. long. The principal, or mainland of these islands, is 300 miles in length, and presents to the eye numberless peaks, ridges, and precipices, rising from 3,000 to 4,500 feet above the sea level. According to some, it was discovered by Sir Hugh Willoughby, in 1553; according to others, by the Dutch navigator Barentz, in 1596. The Russians claim this dreary country, and maintain a colony from Archangel. Its general appearance in all respects resembles Greenland; the whalefishery is carried on along the coasts; in open seasons, when the ships find a channel from 20 to 50 leagues wide, through which they proceed along the shores of Spitzbergen till they reach the latitude of 78° or 79°, where the whales are most abundant.

"The Dutch have published tables, exhibiting the results of their fishery for the space of 107 years, between 1669 and 1778, both inclusive. During that period they sent to Greenland 14,167 ships, of which 561, or about four in the hundred, were lost. They took 57,590 whales, yielding 3,105,596 quardeelen of oil, and 93,179,860 pounds of bone, which yielded a value of L.18,631,292. The expense of fitting out the ships amounted to L 11,879,619. Value of ships lost, L.470,422. Expense of preparing the oil, bone, &c. L.2,567,109. Total expenses L. 14,917,150; leaving a profit of L.3,714,142. The Davis's strait fishery, between 1719 and 1778, employed 3,161 vessels, of which 62 were lost. The produce was L. 4,288,235, which, deducting L.3,410,987 of expenses, left a profit of L.877 248. The Greenland fishery would thus have yielded a profit of about 25 per cent., and at Davis's strait about 26 per cent.; but it may be observed, that the Dutch in their estimate of expenses have not included the original cost of the vessels. In the subsequent years, from 1785 down to 1791, the number of ships was reduced to sixty, and the trade is said to have been carried on with absolute loss."-Edinburgh Cabinet Library.

BRITISH AMERICA.

THAT part of North America claimed by Great Britain is of very great and undefined extent. It lies between 42° 30′ and 70° N. lat., and between 55° and 105° W. long.; and is bounded on the N. by the limits of the Hudson's Bay charter; on the E. by the Atlantic ocean and Davis's straits; on the S. by the Atlantic and the United States; and reaches westwards to an extent that has never been properly ascertained. Its divisions are as follows:

1. New Britain, including New North and South Wales and Labrador. 2. Canada in general, comprehending Upper and Lower Canada. 3. Nova Scotia, including New Brunswick, and the islands of Newfoundland, Cape Breton, and St John's.

In the map attached to the report on emigration, the following table appears of the population of the British North American possessions:

Boundaries and Extent.] This country, which is annexed to the government of Lower Canada, extends from Canada, in the 50th degree of northern latitude, to the northern limits of the Hudson's Bay charter, in the 70th degree; and from 55° to 105° W. long.; being about 1,350 miles in length, and nearly as much in utmost breadth. On the S. it is bounded by the gulf of St Lawrence and Canada; and on the E. by the Atlantic ocean; but the lands on the northern and western boundaries are entirely unknown. It contains the districts called New North Wales, New South Wales, and Labrador.

Lakes, Rivers, and Straits.] New Britain contains several lakes; one called Winipeg, or 'muddy water,' is not much inferior in size to Lake Huron. In the late maps it is laid down between 51° and 54° N. lat., and between 96° and 99° W. long. Its banks are shaded by the sugar-maple and poplar, and it is surrounded with fertile plains, which produce the rice