Lin-sin-choo, where it joins the river Euho, and extends to Han-choo-foo, in an irregular line of about 500 miles.

The river Kan-Kian facilitates the navigation of the southern provinces; and all kinds of merchandize entering Canton, can be conveyed directly to Pekin, a distance of 825 miles.

In Hindostan, the river Ganges is uninterruptedly navigable for the distance of 500 miles from the sea; its medium breadth is three quarters of a mile, and the depth of its channel 30 feet.

The Indus admits of an uninterrupted navigation from the Gulf of Cutch to Lahore, for vessels of 200 tons, a distance of nearly 800 miles.

CANALS IN AMERICA.

No country can boast of superior means for inland navigation than the United States. An extensive sea coast, with many large bays, on the east; Lake Superior, Michigan, and Huron, forming one large sea, on the north; and the river Mississippi, into which the Ohio runs, on the west. The internal parts of the country are also intersected with the noblest rivers, many of which are navigable for some hundreds of miles; and very little assistance is wanting from canals to render this country the most convenient, for commerce and inland navigation, of any on the globe.

By means of the Lake Nicaragua, whose length is 170 miles, and which has a great outlet, the river of St. Juan, flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, an easy passage might be made from the Atlantic into the Pacific, and in the most direct course that could be desired.-Were any enterprising nation, instead of Spain, in possession of this part of America, this improvement would probably soon be made.

A canal in Africa, between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, would open a shorter way to India.

WINDS.

Wind is a current of air produced by a partial rarefaction of the air by heat. Winds may be divided into constant, periodical, and variable.

Constant winds blow always in one direction; periodical winds blow half a year in one direction and half a year in a contrary direction, and are called monsoons; the constant and periodical winds have also obtained the name of trade winds. Variable winds are subject to no rules.

In the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, under the equator, there is a constant east wind. To about 28 degrees on the north of the equator the wind blows constantly from the north-east; and to as many degrees south, it blows from the south-east. Hence, in these oceans, it is easy for ships. to sail westward; but to sail eastward, it is necessary to go into higher latitudes to meet with variable winds.

In the Indian Ocean the wind blows one half of the year in one direction, and one half in an opposite direction. During the months of May, June, July, August, September, and October, the wind blows from the south-east; and

during the rest of the year, a north-west wind prevails from 3 degrees to 10 degrees S. latitude.

From 3 degrees S. latitude, over the Arabian and Indian Seas, and Bay of Bengal, there is another monsoon, blowing from October to April, from the north-east; and during the other six months, it blows from the opposite or

south-west points.-The shifting of these winds is attended. with great hurricanes.

The constant and periodical winds blow only at sea, and never extend beyond 30 degrees of latitude; on land the wind is generally variable.

Besides the winds already mentioned, there are others called land and sea breezes: These are chiefly felt in islands situated between the tropics. The air over the land being hotter during the day than the air over the sea, a current of air will set in from the sea to the land by day; but the air over the sea being hotter than that over the land by night, the current at night will be from the land to the sea.

The sea breeze in the West-Indies begins about nine in the morning, increases till noon, and dies away at four or five in the afternoon: about six in the evening it changes to a land breeze, which blows from the land to the sea till eight in the morning. These breezes moderate very much the heat of the islands situated in the torrid zone.

-In

The velocity of wind has been estimated as follows:a storm, at the rate of 63 miles in an hour; when it blows a fresh gale, at the rate of 21 miles in an hour; and in a small breeze, at the rate of 10 miles in an hour.

It is stated in the Edinburgh Review, vol. xiii. page 284, that, in the Pacific Ocean, beyond 40 degrees latitude, north and south, a constant west wind blows ten months in the year: and that the voyage across this ocean, from the west coast of America to the East-Indies, or from the East-Indies to America, may be made in so expeditious and steady a manner, that the arrival of ships may be calculated almost with the accuracy of a mail coach.-In the western passage, ships keep within the tropics, to avail themselves of the constant east wind, prevalent in all tropical regions; and in the eastern passage, they must sail north or south till they arrive in 40 degrees of latitude, where they will meet with a constant west wind.

OBSERVATIONS

On the Seasons and Climates of the different Regions of the Earth.

The seasons in the torrid zone being very different from what we observe in the temperate zone, a short account of them will be necessary.

As it is summer with us when the sun is nearest our zenith, it has by some been imagined that the inhabitants of the torrid zone have double seasons: namely, two summers, because the sun is twice vertical to them,-two autumns, when he is retiring, &c. But in many places a torrent of rain follows the course of the sun, and the worst season is when the sun is vertical; the only distinction of seasons within the tropics, therefore, is from hot and dry to hot and rainy; most countries in the torrid zone having six months inclining to a wet, and six months inclining to a dry air.

On the western coast of Africa, at Sierra Leone, the dry season is from September to June, and the wet from June to October. About the end of June the rains increase, accompanied with dreadful storms of thunder and lightning.

On the gold coast, the rainy seasons last from April to October; and in the kingdom of Congo, from the end of March to the middle of September. The greatest quantity of rain generally falls about mid-day.

The seasons on the eastern coast are opposite to those on the western: the winter, or rainy season, in Sofala, Mozambique, and Zanguebar, is from September to February. In Egypt rain is a very uncommon phenomenon. In Abyssinia, the climate, though hot, is tempered by

the mountainous nature of the country. From April to September there are heavy rains. These rains, added to the melting of the snows on the mountains, occasion the overflowing of the Nile.

In Bengal the hot or dry season begins with March, and continues to the end of May: the intense heat is sometimes interrupted by violent thunder storms. The rainy season continues from June to September; the three last months of the year are generally pleasant, but excessive fogs prevail in January and February. By the latter end of July, all the lower parts of Bengal are overflowed, and form an inundation of more than a hundred miles in width, nothing appearing but villages and trees, excepting, very rarely, the top of an elevated spot appearing like an island.

The chains of the Gauts, running from north to south along the western peninsula of India, intercept the great mass of clouds, and produce opposite seasons on the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel. The rainy season, on the coast of Coromandel, is with the N. E. monsoon, or from October to April: and on that of Malabar with the S. W. monsoon, or from May to September. In the month of September the navigation on the Malabar coast is open, and ships begin to sail from the Malabar shore to all parts of the world. The rains are not continual during the wet season, but pour down in floods for several days together, or for several hours in a day.

Peru is divided into two different climates by the Andes, for whilst it is summer in the mountainous parts, it is winter in the vales. Winter, on the mountains, begins in December-but this in the vales is the first summer month; and a journey of four hours conducts the traveller from one season to another.