the terms of the ordinance. With great difficulty the Haytian commissioners negotiated a loan with an association of bankers for payment of the first instalment of the price of the national independence. The almost extinguished party of Christophe took advantage of the partial discontent excited by this treaty, the terms of which were considered extravagant by many, to hatch a con spiracy at the Cape against the existing government. Boyer, hearing of it, repaired to the Cape, where he caused the commander of the place, General Toussaint, and other officers who were implicated, to be arrested. Toussaint. blew his brains out; the rest were delivered over to military commissions, by which the greater part of them were banished from the island. PART II. LITERARY AND MISCELLANEOUS. CHAPTER I. REMARKS ON THE CLIMATE AND VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COUNTRIES. BY JOHN RICHARDSON, M. D., MEMBER OF THE Wernerian society. THE following observations have been The expedition landed at York Factory, Hudson's Bay, in lat. 57° long. 92°, (a few miles to the westward of the line of no variation of the magnetic needle, and nearly in the longitude assigned by Dr Brewster to one of the poles of cold, but 23° to the southward of it,) and travelling on a W.S.W. direction, reached Carlton House, on the Saskatchawan, distant in a direct line about 430 geographical miles. This place is in lat. 53° long. 106° W., and lies nearly midway between the Pacific and Hudson's Bay; the Continent here being about 33° of long., or 1000 miles wide. From Carlton House, the course, for 1000 miles, was north, inclining to the west, to the mouth of the Coppermine River, in lat. 67° 47' N. long. 115 W. All the plants collected up to this point, amounting, Agama inclusive, to nearly 700 species, and to at least 5000 specimens, were brought home, and form the ground-work of the subjoined tables of natural families. About 500 * Read before the Wernerian Natural History Society, 8th and 22d January, 1825. miles of sea-coast, including the circumnavigation of the bays and inlets, were visited to the eastward of the Coppermine River, and the latitude of 68° 18′ N. attained at Point Turn-again; but the whole of the plants collected during this part of the voyage were left behind, owing to the hardships encountered in the subsequent return across the barren grounds. This loss has been supplied, as far as regards the purpose of the present paper, by the collections made during Captain Parry's second voyage in the same parallels of latitude, and at no great distance to the eastward. In making a few desultory remarks upon the circumstances which are likely to influence the vegetation of the districts, I shall begin with their altitude above the sea; and it is almost superfluous to remark, that we have few precise data on this subject, and must for the present be content with rude approximations. The line of country travelled through is destitute of lofty mountains, table-lands, or great plains; except that Carlton House may be said to stand on the northern boundary of a sandy plain, which, opening to the south, and extending to the confines of Mexico, is favourable to the migration of plants to the northward; but our stay in that quarter being confined to ten days at the commencement of spring, during which only thirty species of plants were gathered, few of these southern plants find a place in our list. Few hills were seen during the whole voyage, rising beyond 300 or 400 feet above the level of the surrounding country, and none exceeding 800, except on one part of the Copper mine River, where a range was observed to rise, on a rough estimation, to 1200 or 1500 feet; but even this was free from snow in the beginning of July. Indeed our route, being by the great rivers, and almost uninterrupted water, communications of the districts, was necessarily through the lower part of the country. Our barometer was rendered useless soon after leaving York Factory; so that I can only state in general terms, that, from the shores of Hudson's Bay to the Rocky Mountains, (a continuation of the Andes,) the ascent appears to be gentle, most rapid, however, about fifty miles from Hudson's Bay, where the rivers, in crossing a ridge of primitive mountains, form a quick succession of cascades and rapids. Carlton House, the south-west limit of our journey, I estimate to be 1000 feet above the sea of Hudson's Bay. From this spot, our route to the north lay nearly parallel to the Rocky Mountain chain. The summit of Portage La Loche, or Methy Portage, which lies in 56° 43′ N. lat., and 109° 52′ W. long., and is about 250 miles from Carlton House, I estimated at 1500 feet. Methy Lake, the commencement on the south of this portage, of the water communication with Hudson's Bay, at 1000 feet, and Clearwater River, which flows from the north side of the Portage uninterruptedly to the Arctic Sea, under the names of Athabasca, Slave River and Lake, and Mackenzie's River, at 800 feet. Slave Lake at 400 feet above the Arctic Sea. The height of land to the north of Fort Enterprise, from whence the descent of the Coppermine River to the Arctic Sea, is gradual, at 900 feet. The data from which these altitudes have been deduced are not precise enough to be worthy of detail; but the results, imperfect as they are, may be sufficient to show that the elevation alone of these districts is not great enough to give a decided character to their vegetation. The peculiarities of the Hudson's Bay climate, which have a more marked influence on the vegetable productions, may be, in some measure, collected from the following tables, and |