I think the notion entertained by some travellers, that the Indian summer is caused by the annual conflagration of forests by those Indians inhabiting the unexplored regions beyond the larger lakes is absurd.  Imagine for an instant what immense tracts of woods must be yearly consumed to affect nearly the whole of the continent of North America:  besides, it takes place at that season of the year when the fire is least likely to run freely, owing to the humidity of the ground from the autumnal rains.  I should rather attribute the peculiar warmth and hazy appearance of the air that marks this season, to the fermentation going on of so great a mass of vegetable matter that is undergoing a state of decomposition during the latter part of October and beginning of November.  It has been supposed by some persons that a great alteration will be effected in this season, as the process of clearing the land continues to decrease the quantity of decaying vegetation.  Nay, I have heard the difference is already observable by those long acquainted with the American continent.

Hitherto my experience of the climate is favourable.  The autumn has been very fine, though the frosts are felt early in the month of September; at first slightly, of a morning, but towards October more severely.  Still, though the first part of the day is cold, the middle of it is warm and cheerful.

We already see the stern advances of winter.  It commenced very decidedly from the breaking up of the Indian summer.  November is not at all like the same month at home.  The early part was soft and warm, the latter cold, with keen frosts and occasional falls of snow; but it does not seem to possess the dark, gloomy, damp character of our British Novembers.  However, it is not one season’s acquaintance with the climate that enables a person to form any correct judgment of its general character, but a close observance of its peculiarities and vicissitudes during many years’ residence in the country.

I must now tell you what my husband is doing on our land.  He has let out ten acres to some Irish choppers who have established themselves in the shanty for the winter.  They are to receive fourteen dollars per acre for chopping, burning, and fencing in that quantity.  The ground is to be perfectly cleared of every thing but the stumps:  these will take from seven to nine or ten years to decay; the pine, hemlock, and fir remain much longer.  The process of clearing away the stumps is too expensive for new beginners to venture upon, labour being so high that it cannot be appropriated to any but indispensable work.  The working season is very short on account of the length of time the frost remains on the ground.  With the exception of chopping trees, very little can be done.  Those that understand the proper management of uncleared land, usually underbrush (that is, cut down all the small timbers and brushwood), while the leaf is yet on them; this is piled in heaps, and the