Gaspè Harbour is one of the best in the world; it is situated immediately below the entrance of the River St. Lawrence. The inhabitants are thinly settled in three or four places, and are employed chiefly in the cod and herring fisheries. Little cultivation appears, and there does not seem to be any great extent of good land, about the harbour: farther back, in the valleys, excellent soil, covered with large trees, is met with. A few cargoes of timber have been shipped here for England; and some of the inhabitants pursue the whale-fishery, which has for some years been carried on at Gaspè.

The whales caught within the Gulf of St. Lawrence are those called "hump-backs," which yield, on an average; about three tons of oil; some have been taken seventy feet long, which produced eight tons. The mode of taking them is somewhat different from that followed by the Greenland fishers; and the Gaspè fishermen first acquired an acquaintance with it from the people of Nantucket. An active man, accustomed to boats and schooners, may become fully acquainted with every thing connected with this fishery in one season. The vessels best adapted for the purpose are schooners of from seventy to eighty tons burden, manned with a crew of eight men, including the master. Each schooner requires two boats, about twenty feet long, built narrow and sharp, and with pink sterns; and two hundred and twenty fathoms of line are necessary in each boat, with spare harpoons and lances. The men row towards the whale, and, when they are very near, use paddles, which make less noise than oars. Whales are sometimes taken fifteen minutes after they are struck with the harpoon. The Gaspè fishermen never go out in quest of them until some of the small ones, which enter the bay about the beginning of June, appear; these swim too fast to be easily harpooned, and are not, besides, worth the trouble. The large whales are taken off the entrance of Gaspè Bay, on each side of the Island of Anticosti, and up the River St. Lawrence as far as Bique.*

The district of Gaspè affords many tracts of soil fit for the raising of wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, turnips, flax, hemp, &c.; and the climate, although nearly as cold in winter as in Sweden, is, in summer and harvest, very warm, and of sufficient length to ripen to perfection all the kinds of grain and vegetables that grow in England. The interior is little known. The Indians and furriers have represented it to me, as traversed by valleys, rivers, and lakes. The whole country is thickly wooded, and the highest mountains appear to approach the shores of the St. Lawrence on the north, and the Bay de Chaleur on the south; bounding, as it were, a great valley in the middle of the district.

The want of roads will long prevent its settlement. With the exception of a few miles occasionally along the Bay above Little Nouvelle, there are no roads except bridle paths. Granite, limestone, freestone, are the principal rocks. Indications of coal appear frequently. Carnelian, jasper, agate, and some other varieties of beautiful pebbles are often picked up.

The soil, west of Port Daniel, is generally a red clayey loam. Marl occurs but seldom.

The population of the north coast of the bay may be estimated at about 9000, exclusive of about 350 Micmac Indians at Cascapedia and the Rustigouche. Timber, fish, oil, and furs form the exports.

CHAP. X.

TRADE. - IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. - TIMBER TRADE.

THE trade of New Brunswick consists chiefly in exporting square timber, deals, spars, staves, and a few firs, to Great Britain and Ireland, in return for British manufactures; and in shipping boards, shingles, scantling, and fish, to the West Indies, for which rum, sugar, tobacco and dollars, are brought back. Gypsum and grindstones are shipped on board of American vessels, from the free ports of St. John and St. Andrew; and, to the disgrace of the inhabitants of the province, who might be independent of others for bread stuffs by more industrious attention to the cultivation of the soil, from 50,000 to 60,000 barrels of flour and meal, and from 3000 to 4000 quintals of bread, besides Indian corn, have been for some years annually imported from the United States, for which scarcely any thing but Spanish dollars is paid.

The imports during the speculative year 1824 were in 1273 vessels, measuring 262,294 tons, and navigated by 12,271 men. The estimated value of their cargoes was 614,5571. sterling. The exports during the same period were in 1265 ships, measuring 260,154 tons, navigated by 12,214 men. The value of their cargoes was estimated at 432,0481. sterling; and to this amount must be added 74 new ships, which were built during the year within the province, and sent to the United Kingdom for sale as remittances for British merchandise. These vessels measured 20,621 tons, which, at the estimated value of 10l. per ton, amount to 206,210l. sterling, which, added to the value of the cargoes, 432,0481. makes the whole 638,2581.; an extraordinary amount for a population then not above 80,000.

The average number of vessels entered and cleared at the different ports in the province, for the years 1827, 1828, 1829, shows an increase in the number of vessels, but a decrease in the amount of tonnage. The average of these years gives 2071 vessels, 237,189 tons, and 11,769 men. This difference arises, first, from the circumstance of the timber trade, in which the largest ships, and consequently a greater number of men, were employed, having, in the years 1824 and 1825, been carried on to an extraordinary extent, which, after the repeal of the navigation laws, suddenly diminished; and, secondly, from the great increase in the number of smaller vessels employed in the trade with the West Indies, in the coasting trade, and in the fisheries. The average imports for the last three years amount to about 550,000l. sterling; and the exports, exclusive of about 120 new ships, measuring 24,000 tons, built during the whole period, amount to about 460,000l. sterling; the balance being partly paid for in dollars to the Americans, and partly by freight of new ships sold in England.

The fisheries have for some time received encouragement in the shape of bounties from the legislature,