t year on
a shoal in that harbour, which was not known to the oldest pilot.

By the bye, talking of this vessel, which is a steamer built of iron,
and fitted with masts and sails, the same as any other sea-going vessel,
can it be requisite, in order to protect a commerce which she cannot
control beyond the line drawn through the centre of the lakes, to have
such a vessel for revenue purposes? or is she not a regular man-of-war,
ready to throw her shells into Kingston, if ever it should be required?
At least, such is the opinion which the good folks of that town
entertained when they saw the beautiful craft enter their harbour.

The worst, however, of these iron boats is that two can play at shelling
and long shots; and gunnery-practice is now brought to such perfection,
that an iron steamer might very possibly soon get the worst of it from a
heavy battery on the level of the sea; for a single accident to the
machinery, protected as it is in that vessel, would, if there was no
wind, put her entirely at the mercy of the gunners. The old wooden
walls, after all, are better adapted to attack a fortress, as they can
stand a good deal of hammering from both shot and shells.

But to revert to matters more germane to the lakes.

Volney, the first expounder of the system of the warm wind of the south
supplying the great lakes, has received ample corroboration of his data
from observation. The fact that the deflection of the great trade-wind
from the west to a northern direction by the Mexican Andes Popocatepetl,
Istaccihuetl, Naucampatepetl, &c., whose snowy summits have a frigid
atmosphere of their own, is proved by daily experience.

Whenever southerly winds prevail--and, in the cycle of the gyration of
atmospherical currents, this is certain, and will be reduced to
calculation--the great lakes are filled to the edge; and whenever
northern and northeasterly winds take their appointed course, then these
mediterraneans sink, and the valley of the Mississippi is filled to
overflowing.

But the most curious facts are, that the different lakes exhibit
different phenomena. The Board of Public Works of Ohio states that, in
1837-38, the quantity of water descending from the atmosphere did not
exceed one-third of that which was the minimum quantity of several
preceding years.

Ontario, from the reports of professional persons, has varied not less
than eight feet, and Erie about five. Huron and Superior being
comparatively unkno