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ture, have alternately been followed by the inhabitants.

From St. John Harbour, along the coast, sup the Bay of Fundy, a distance of about eighty miles, to Shepody Bay, small settlements are scattered. The principal of these is Quaco.

The lands near the sea-coast, along this extensive distance, are remarkably stubborn, and difficult to cultivate, but not unfruitful in producing barley, oats, potatoes, &c. The ripening of wheat crops cannot be depended on. The shores of Shepody Bay, which receive the Rivers Petit Coudiac and Memramcook, are thickly settled. The Petit Coudiac is a rapid river, and, following its winding course, is about seventy miles long, up which the tide flows forty miles. It has excellent marshes, and remarkably fine lands, well wooded along its banks, which are in many places, particularly at the beautiful settlement of Dorchester, thickly inhabited. Ships occasionally proceed as far up as Dorchester for timber; but the impetuous tides of the Bay of Fundy render the navigation difficult. The river Memramcook has fine extensive diked marshes, and is settled by Acadian French. Large clearings abound along the river, and many farmers, living a great way up, follow agriculture alone; but most of the inhabitants have devoted their time occasionally to the timber business.

In that part of the province comprehended within the county of Charlotte, the spirit of agriculture appears lately to have acquired fresh animation; and the cultivation of the soil is followed with greater attention than before the eventful commercial crisis of the year 1826.

The country bordering on Shepody Bay, Cumberland Basin, and the rivers which fall into them, and which are included in the county of Westmoreland, is equal in respect to population, soil, and cultivation, to any part of the province. It was formerly comprehended in the county of Cumberland, as belonging to Nova Scotia, which it adjoins. The inhabitants are principally farmers and graziers; among whom are several settlements of industrious Acadian French. The most thriving settlers, however, are Englishmen from Yorkshire, or their descendants, who rear large herds of cattle, and raise luxuriant crops of grain and hay on their fine diked marshes. They export their overplus butter and cheese, and drive their fat cattle to the markets of Halifax, St. John, and Miramichi. Great quantities of grindstones are sent from the county of Westmoreland, most of which find their way to the United States.

Along the principal roads of this province settlements are gradually forming; accordingly, while travelling along, we pass by farms and houses in all the various gradations of improvement, from the miserable rude hut, and the first few trees felled in the forest, to the handsome, clap-boarded, shingled, and painted house, and large barn, amidst several acres of land cleared of the stumps, and under grass, grain, and potatoes.

The roads in New Brunswick were, with scarcely ten miles in one place of an exception, worse than the generality of those I have travelled over in any of the other colonies, always leaving Newfoundland, which can only boast of one short road, out of the question.

The road from Fort Cumberland, through Westmoreland, and along the River Petit Coudiac, and thence through Sussex Vale, and across Hammond river to St. John, is the best I know of, and the bridges it crosses are tolerable.

The road from St. John to St. Andrew is truly bad and dangerous. The road opened at Carleton, opposite St. John, by the way of the River Nerepis, to Fredericton, is particularly bad from the Nerepis to Oromucto; and from Fredericton to the Canada line there is only about 65 miles on which we can attempt to drive any sort of carriage. The distance from St. John by this route, which follows the river to the falls of Madawaska, and from thence across the high lands to the St. Lawrence below Kamouraska, is 347 miles, from which, by an excellent road along the banks of the St. Lawrence, the distance to Quebec is 107 miles.

The road from opposite Fredericton, along the Nashwaak, and thence to Miramichi, is also very bad; as is also the road from Fredericton to St. Andrew. There is a pretty good road from the Petit Coudiac to Chediac, on the gulf coast, by which hay is frequently hauled to the latter place. The road from Chediac to Miramichi is, particularly from Richibucto to the last place, abominable. Several paths, which are misnamed roads, have also been opened between the various settlements.

The Legislative Assembly have certainly at different times appropriated large sums in aid of the statute labour, for the purpose of opening and improving the roads of the province. But, somehow or other, roadmaking was, until lately, either not understood, or the labour and money must have been misapplied, as good leading roads were, at least three years ago, an essential desideratum in New Brunswick. The ex

pense of making a good road through a forest will be about 100l. per mile.

An object of paramount importance and convenience to the lower and upper colonies, would be to open a good carriage road from Nova Scotia to Fredericton, and thence to the River St. Lawrence. It should be made at the joint expense of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, as all would derive equal advantage from accomplishing an undertaking that would open a direct line through all the British colonies. The tardy conveyance of the mails is one of the great evils under which Canada and the lower province labours, in consequence of there being no proper route for travelling rapidly from Nova Scotia to the St. Lawrence.

Another line of road, and certainly a most desirable one, was pointed out by Governor Sir Howard Douglas, as a great military road from Halifax to Quebec. This line would be a continuation of the road from Halifax to the bend of the River Petit Coudiac, thence to the gulf coast, to the River Miramichi, and thence, by the way of the River Ristigouche, to the St. Lawrence at Metis, about 200 miles below Quebec.

The benefits of such roads would be great. The colonies would be connected so much closer in their interests by greater facility of communication; the military forces could easily and speedily move whereever required; the crown lands would be disposed of at a much better price; and, by throwing open the rich lands of the interior, they would be settled upon rapidly.*

* Since I formerly travelled in New Brunswick, the roads have been wonderfully improved. The most abominable of them,

Several small settlements along the roads in New Brunswick appear to be in a flourishing condition. Disbanded soldiers do not generally make good settlers, unless placed under proper officers or superintendents. On the woodlands, along the road from the Nashwaak to Miramichi, I observed several untenanted huts, which were occupied by disbanded soldiers, who had the lands granted them, but who deserted their habitations as soon as they expended the rations received from government.

While travelling over this province we cannot help being amused at the names given to many places in the colonies by the whim of the first settlers. It is natural for people to cherish associations connected with their birthplace, and we are not surprised, on arriving at a fine thriving settlement, inhabited by Welshmen, who 'planted themselves amidst the forest about fifteen miles from Fredericton, that it is named Cardigan; nor that an equally thriving settlement of industrious Irish, on the shores of the Bay Chaleur, is called New Bandon; but we can hardly repress a smile on hearing places through or by which we pass, called Canaan, Mount Pisgah, &c.

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that from Westmoreland to Miramichi, and that by the Nerepis to Fredericton, are made fit for carriages. Since the appointment of Sir Archibald Campbell to the government, a great military road, which passes through the New Brunswick Company's lands, has been partially opened, and several miles completed. Another road through the same territory to Miramichi is marked out, and will be completed by the government. It to 六

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