Excerpt from Sketches of Canada and the United States A book about America might be written every six months, by the same traveller, periodically revisiting the same scenes, and yet possess in a high degree the charm of novelty, so' rapid is the career of improve ment, and so interesting and extensive are the changes Which the agency of man is continually effecting in the western world. But, although I have travelled at least forty thousand miles on the North American continent, and seen much of the manners and customs of its inhabitants, within the last fourteen years, I am sensible that I do not possess sufiicrent skill and ability, as a writer, to command the attention of the public to any systematic and elaborate work 1 might prepare for the press. Even this little book is ex ceedingly defective in its style and composition; nor' About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.