erest the family
circle rather than one of scientific pretensions. I have endeavoured to
impart, in an attractive manner, information about its physical
geography, mineral riches, vegetable productions, and the appearance and
customs of the human beings inhabiting it. But the chief portion of the
work is devoted to accounts of the brute creation, from the huge stag
and buffalo to the minute humming-bird and persevering termites,--
introduced not in a formal way, but as they appear to the
naturalist-explorer, to the traveller in search of adventures, or to the
sportsman; with descriptions of their mode of life, and of how they are
found, hunted, or trapped. I have described in the same way some of the
most remarkable trees and plants; and from the accounts I have given I
trust that a knowledge may be obtained of the way they are cultivated,
and how their produce is prepared and employed. Thus I hope that, with
the aid of the numerous illustrations in the work, a correct idea will
be gained of the wilder and more romantic portions of the great Western
World.

William H.G. Kingston.

PART ONE, CHAPTER ONE.

NORTH AMERICA.

INTRODUCTORY.--PHYSICAL FEATURES OF NORTH AMERICA.

The continent of America, if the stony records of the Past are read
aright, claims to be the oldest instead of the newest portion of the
globe. [According to some geologists, Labrador was the first part of
our globe's surface to become dry land.] Bowing to this opinion of
geologists till they see cause to express a different one, we will, in
consequence, commence our survey of the world and its inhabitants with
the Western Hemisphere. From the multitude of objects which crowd upon
us, we can examine only a few of the most interesting minutely; at
others we can merely give a cursory glance; while many we must pass by
altogether,--our object being to obtain a general and retainable
knowledge of the physical features of the Earth, the vegetation which
clothes its surface, the races of men who inhabit it, and the tribes of
the brute creation found in its forests and waters, on its plains and
mountains.

As we go along, we will stop now and then to pick up scraps of
information about its geology, and the architectural antiquities found
on it; as the first will assist in giving us an insight into the former
conditions of extinct animals, and the latter may teach us something of
the past history of the human tribes now wandering as savages i