EMMA.  “What extraordinary things we meet with in our travels!  May we, before crossing the equator, visit the lakes, mamma?”

MRS. WILTON.  “I am quite agreeable.  Who wishes to go to the lakes?”

CHARLES.  “I do, and will start directly I have prepared the necessary documents.  Oh! here they are; Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron, are considered as forming one large inland sea, dividing the United States from Canada.  There are several islands in these lakes, particularly in Lake Superior, which islands the savages believe to be the residence of the Great Spirit.  It is strange that these lakes are never frozen over, although the entrances are frequently obstructed with ice.”

EMMA.  “Lake Superior is more than 500 leagues in circumference; its clear waters, fed by forty rivers, are contained in extensive strata of rocks, and their surges nearly equal those of the Atlantic Ocean.  Lake Huron is connected with Superior, by the Straits of St. Mary.  Lake Michigan communicates with Huron by a long strait, and the country around its banks belongs exclusively to the United States.”

CHARLES.  “Lake Erie is my favorite, because it communicates with the river Niagara, and with those celebrated cataracts of which so much has been written.”

GEORGE.  “For the same reason then, you should patronize Lake Ontario.  It is 170 miles long, and 60 miles broad, at its widest part, and empties itself through the romantic ’Lake of a thousand Isles,’ into the St. Lawrence.”

EMMA.  “Lake Winnipeg is the next nearest; it is more than sixty leagues in length, by thirty or forty broad.  Its banks are shaded by the sugar-maple and poplar, and it is surrounded by fertile plains, which produce the rice of Canada.

“The Great Slave Lake is quite north, and the last of any consequence.  It is more than a hundred leagues in length, and sprinkled with islands, covered with trees resembling the mulberry.  Mackenzie found them loaded with ice in the middle of June.”

MRS. WILTON.  “There is nothing in other parts of the globe which resembles the prodigious chain of lakes in North America.  They may properly be termed inland seas of fresh water; and even those of second and third class in magnitude, are of larger circuit than the greatest lake in the old continent.  They all unite to form one uninterrupted current of water, extending above 600 leagues in length.  The country around is intersected with rivers, lakes, and marshes to a greater extent than any other part of the world:  but few mountains rise above this savage icy plain.  One is tempted to inquire, why do such superb streams waste their fertilizing waters upon these frozen deserts?  We only know they manifest the Power, and we must not doubt the Wisdom of their Creator.”

MR. WILTON.  “Now, Emma, return to our former situation in the Bay of Honduras.  What of that bay?”

EMMA.  “Only this, papa, that it washes the shores of Yucatan, which has already been described, and runs into the Caribbean Sea.  Mamma will help me here.”