on four or five great divisions, though with some differences. Thus the waders, or those birds having the tarsus and a space above it naked, are put in one group by some, and by others made into two. The arrangement of the water birds now most generally admitted is: Palmipedes: with the feet united, except in one group, (the grebes, &c.) This division, I incline to think, is made on an insufficient consideration of their true affinities. Grullatores: with three toes before, and one behind. The gallinaceous birds form a very natural group, having the upper jaw arched, and feet like those of the grallatores, but with short and curved claws. The climbers have two toes before and two behind, of which one may generally be moved in either direction. Sometimes there is only a trace of this arrangement, in a closer union of two of the toes with each other than with the rest. The passerines have curved claws, or sometimes the hind-claw is straight; three toes before and one behind. Some make three groups of them, bringing together those with flattened bills, (Insectivora ;) those with conical bills, (Granivora,) and those with the upper mandible much stronger than the lower, (Omnivora.) Some again separate from these the swallows, pigeons, &c.

The hind toe

"The toes in all birds have the same number of joints. always consists of a single joint, the inner toe of two, the middle of three, and the outer of four. This arrangement is important in distinguishing the fossil tracks of birds from those of other animals, it being peculiar to them.

"In examining birds within the egg, I have recently found some characters to be less important than has been supposed. Thus the foot of the embryo robin is webbed, like that of the adult duck; so also in the sparrow, swallow, summer-yellow-bird, and others, in all of which the adult has divided. toes. The bill also is crooked and the point of the upper mandible projecting, as in the adult form of birds of prey. These latter, then, it would seem, should be brought down from the high place assigned to them on account of their voracious and rapacious habits, as if these would entitle an animal to a higher rank. For the resemblance of an adult animal to the embryo of another species, indicates a lower rank in the former.* Probably the true classification of birds would include various series, each embracing representatives of all the various types now admitted as distinct."

Mr. Ballenden, of the Hudson's Bay Co., to whom the Professor had letters, paid him a visit to-day, and showed the most obliging

For further details see Prof. Agassiz's Lectures on Comparative Embryology, delivered at the Lowell Institute, January, 1819; published in the Daily Evening Traveller, and afterwards in a pamphlet form by the same publishers.

readiness to forward his plans, giving him letters to the gentlemen in charge of the various posts on the lake, which were highly serviceable to us.

Dr. C. T. Jackson and the gentlemen engaged with him in the geological survey of the copper region of the south shore of Lake Superior, also arrived to-day, and his assistant, Mr. Foster, gave the Prof. some valuable information, particularly concerning Neepigon Bay, which he had visited.

Mr. McLeod, of the Sault, lent to the Professor Bayfield's large map of the Lake, (which we had not been able to procure,) enriched with manuscript notes, and gave him the results of various geological excursions on the lake.

June 30th.-Rainy. Nevertheless, our preparations being made, we decided to start. It was necessary to convey our multifarious luggage to the upper end of the portage, above the rapids, a distance of about two-thirds of a mile. Walking thither in the rain, over a road made across the swamp, the surface of which is strewed with bowlders of various sizes, we found a collection of warehouses and a few log-cabins, just at the commencement of the rapids. Here our boats were moored at a wharf at the extremity of which was a huge crane for unloading copper ore. Here also lay at anchor several schooners, and a propeller that runs along the south shore, and occasionally crosses to Fort William.

Our boats were three in number; one large Mackinaw boat and two canoes of about four fathoms' length. One of these canoes was kindly lent to us by Prof. James Hall, of Albany, the other we hired; the boat we had been obliged to buy, giving eighty dollars for it. It proved a considerable hindrance to speed, being always behind, except when the wind was aft and fresh. Our luggage, however, with the collections of specimens and the apparatus for collecting, could not be carried in canoes without uncomfortably loading them. From my own subsequent experience I should say that what is called a "five-manboat," is the craft best adapted for such an occasion as ours, and this opinion was confirmed by a gentleman at the Sault who had tried the experiment. The canoes were precisely what one sees from Maine to Michigan, birch-bark stretched by two layers of thin, flat, wooden ribs, one transverse, the other longitudinal, placed close together, with a strip of wood round the gunnel, and the whole

sewed with pine-roots. It is said that after the materials are cut out and fitted, two men to put them together, with six women to sew, can make two seven-fathom canoes in two days. While on the lake the canoes are not usually paddled, but rowed, the same number of men exerting greater force with oars than with paddles. By doubling the number of men, putting two on a seat, more of course can be accomplished with paddles. The gunnel of a canoe is too slight to allow of the cutting of rowlocks, or the insertion of thole-pins: so a flat strip from a tree, with a branch projecting at right angles, is nailed to the gunnel, and a loop of raw hide attached, through which the oar is passed.

Our boats were stowed as follows: On the bottom were laid setting-poles and a spare paddle or two, (to prevent the inexperienced from putting their boot-heels through the birch-bark,) and over these, in the after part, a tent was folded. This formed the quarter-deck for the bourgeois, (as they called us,) and across it was laid the bedding, which had previously been made up into bolster-like packages, covered with buffalo-robes, or with the matting of the country, a very neat fabric of some fine reed which the Indians call paquah. These bolsters served for our seats, and around them were disposed other articles of a soft nature, to form backs or even pillows to our sitting couches. The rest of the luggage was skilfully distributed in other parts of the canoe, leaving room for the oarsmen to sit, on boards suspended by cords from the gunnel, and a place in the stern for the steersman. The cooking utensils were usually disposed in the bow, with a box of gum for mending the canoe and a roll or two of bark by way of ship-timber. Our canoe

was distinguished by a frying pan rising erect over the prow as figure-head, an importance very justly conferred on the culinary art in this wilderness, where nature provides nothing that can be eaten raw except blueberries.

The voyageurs (some ten or twelve in number,) were mostly halfbreeds, with a few Canadian French and one or two Indians. All except the Indians spoke French, and most of them more or less English, but there were only two who spoke English as well as they 'did French. The half-breeds were in general not much if at all lighter in complexion than the Indians, but their features were more or less Caucasian, and the hair inclining sometimes to brown. They were

rather under medium height, but well made, particularly the chest and neck well-developed. The Indians were Ojibwas (ŏjíb-wah), and had the physical peculiarities of their tribe, viz.: a straighter nose, rather greater fulness of the face, and less projecting cheek-bones, than the Western Indians. But I was most struck with the Irish appearance of the Canadians, and though I ascertained that they had no Irish blood in their veins, yet the notion often recurred during the trip, and I found myself several times surprised at missing the brogue. They were blue-eyed, with flaxen hair, a rather low and square head, and high-pitched voice. This resemblance, which also struck others of the party, is interesting as showing perhaps the persistance of blood and race. It was not until afterwards that I was informed that the French of Canada are Bretons and Normands by origin; thus coming from that part of France in which, whether as most remote from invaders, or from having been recruited from the British Isles, the Celtic blood is best preserved. I do not know whether the Celtic features are so noticeable at this day in that part of France, but no one would have ever taken these men for Frenchmen.

Our preparations occupied some time; finally, just as we were about to start, it was suggested and on short consultation decided that we must have an additional canoe; those provided proving insufficient to hold us all comfortably. Two of the party accordingly remained behind to attend to this matter, and we got under weigh. We had but three in the canoe besides the boatmen, which gave us an advantage over the others, so that we immediately took the lead, and soon ran the other boats out of sight. The rain ceased, but the weather was still unsettled, and the wind, strong down the river, much retarding our progress. Our men had a hard pull of it, yet they kept up an unceasing chatter in Ojibwa, (which sounded occasionally much like Platt-Deutsch,) interspersed with peals of laughter. About five o'clock we reached the Pointe-aux-Pins, about six miles from the Sault, and as the wind had become very strong, and the other boats were far behind, we decided to wait for them.

The Point is a mass of sand and gravel, mingled with large stones; towards the main land are a few pitch-pines and willows; the ground covered with moss and low bushes, and a few strawberries. Some flocks of pigeons were whirling about, at times dashing down to the ground, and then rising high in the air; a couple of these

were shot, as well as a young creek-sheldrake, (Mergus cucullatus,) from a small flock in a creek emptying into the river. On returning to the neighborhood of the boat, we found a fire lighted and preparations making, under the superintendence of Henry, the steersman, for getting a supper from a ham and some flour which had been providently stowed in our canoe. The process of frying the ham, and roasting the birds on a spit stuck in the ground, was neither new nor interesting to me otherwise than as conducive to supper. But the process of making bread with mere flour, water, salt, and a fryingpan, excited my curiosity. Nothing to my knowledge was put in to make the bread rise, neither had anything been provided by us for that purpose, yet the dough, after having been kneaded for a long time, pressed down into the frying-pan and toasted before the fire, turned out excellent bread, perfectly light and well-tasted. By what mystery the fermentation was accomplished or gotten over, I leave to the initiated to make out. Perhaps the vigorous and long-continued kneading may have supplied the place of yeast; at all events, some of the party, whose cooks were more sparing of their labor than ours, used to have heavy bread, a misfortune that never befell us.

Shortly before dark the other canoe arrived, and we learned that the bateau had been driven back by the force of the wind, and had put in for the Canada shore.

We were now established for the night. There was nothing very cheery about the aspect of the Pointe-aux-Pins; -a desolate mass of sand, with the tent standing out against the bleak sky, backed by a few stunted willows, the river a couple of hundred yards in front, and a horizon of forest beyond.

A bleak, desert situation, so exposed to the wind that we had to carry a guy far to windward, attached to the peak of the tent, to prevent it from being blown over. No vestige of human habitation in sight, and no living thing, except the little squads of pigeons scudding before the wind to their roosting place across the river. Yet I felt as I stood before the camp-fire, an unusual and unaccountable exhilaration, an outburst, perhaps, of that Indian nature that delights in exposure, in novel modes of life, and in going where nobody else goes. We slept comfortably on the sand, which makes a good bed, easily adapting itself to the shape of the body, with the drawback however of getting into one's hair and blankets.