The rapid progress of vegetation in Canada, as soon as the winter is over, is most astonishing. Spring has scarcely appeared, when you find it is summer. In a few days the fields are clothed with the richest verdure, and the trees obtain their foliage. The various productions of the garden come in after each other in quick succession, and the grain sown in May affords a rich harvest by the latter end of July. This part of the year, in which spring and summer are so happily blended together, is delightful beyond description; nature then puts on her gayest attire; at the same time the heat is never found oppressive; it is seldom that the mercury in Fahrenheit’s thermometer then rises above 84°: in July and August the weather becomes warmer, and a few days often intervene when the heat is overcoming; during these months the mercury sometimes rises to 96°. There is a great difference, however, in the weather at this season in different years: during the whole of the time that I was in the country, I never observed the thermometer higher than 88°; for the greater part of the months of July and August it was not higher than 80°, and for many days together it did not rise beyond 65°, between Quebec and Montreal. The fall of the year is a most agreeable season in Canada, as well as the summer. It is observed, that there is in general a difference of about three weeks in the length of the winter at Montreal and at Quebec, and of course in the other seasons. When green peas, strawberries, &c. were entirely gone at Montreal, we met with them in full season at Quebec. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ +LETTER + XXVII. _Inhabitants of Lower Canada.—Of the Tenures by which Lands are held.—Not favourable to the Improvement of the Country.—Some Observations thereon.—Advantages of settling in Canada and the United States compared.—Why Emigrations to the latter Country are more general.—Description of a journey to Stoneham Township near Quebec—Description of the River St. Charles—Of Lake St. Charles—Of Stoneham Township._ Quebec. ABOUT five-sixths of the inhabitants of Lower Canada are of French extraction, the bulk of whom are peasants, living upon the lands of the seigniors. Amongst the English inhabitants devoted to agriculture, but few, however, are to be found occupying land under seigniors, not withstanding that several of the seigniories have fallen into the hands of Englishmen; the great majority of them hold the lands which they cultivate by virtue of certificates from the governor, and these people for the most part reside in the western parts of the province, bordering upon the upper parts of the river St. Lawrence.