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Boston on the improvement of the neighbourhood.-Taxation
in this State compared with that of Great Britain. — Harvard
University.-Colleges in this State.-Views propounded by
Agassiz on the plurality of the human race. - Infidel nature

of these views.-Necessity of looking these opinions in the
face, and of being able to combat them,

BOSTON, PLYMOUTH, AND PROVIDENCE.

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NOTES

ON

NORTH AMERICA

CHAPTER XV.

Dalhousie to Bathurst.-Red land and thriving farms.-Free Church minister from the island of Arran in Scotland.-His dissatisfaction with the country.-The system of barter a necessity of a new country.-Settlers from Ayrshire.—Their prosperity, and opinion of New Brunswick.-Petit Rocher.-Kind of land possessed by the Acadian French. Their retirement to the back Concessions.-Contentment of the Acadian French.-Bathurst; its situation, bay, and bridge.—Mr Francis Ferguson's farm.-Large crops of hay.-Wages of farm-servants.-Advice to emigrants with capital, never to bring out labourers engaged for a term of years.-Connection of commercial prosperity with agricultural improvement.-Successful merchants often ardent improvers of the land.-The wheat-midge.-Substitution of the oat for the wheat crop.-Increased consumption of oatmeal.-Fall, and land on the Tatagouche River.-Rights of squatters.-Unsteadiness of the French as labourers.-Interference of church holidays with regular employment.-Falls of the Papineau.-Good land on the upper waters of the Nepisiguit.-Future prospects of this district.Blazing the bark of the birch-trees.-Resin in the birch-bark.—Value of farms about Bathurst.-Causes of the bad farming in these countries.-Evil consequences of knowing only how to farm badly.— Exceeding healthiness of the climate.-—-Use of salt mud as a manure. -Myrica cerifera abundant on the sands.-Wax extracted from it by the French habitants.-North-east horn of the Province of New Brunswick.-Red land along this coast.-Relation of human art to VOL. II.

A

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DALHOUSIE TO BATHURST.

natural capability.-Level and swampy surface. - Arterial and thorough drainage suggested.-Roman Catholic Ireland transplanted to the settlement of New Bandon.-Clearing land close to the sea.— Cold winter winds of the Bay de Chaleur.-Greater warmth of the inner Concessions.-Mr Ritchie's private transition hotel.-Discomfort of such hotels.—Superior character of the French population in this north-eastern part of the province.-Relation of the soil and rocks of a new country to the intellectual and social character of its future inhabitants.-Element of race.-Intermixture of Indian blood. -Caraquet settlement.-Improvement in rural practice among the French.-Hospitable reception of Mr Collector Blackhall, an old Aberdonian settler.-His opinion of the health of the country.-Influence of early associations in the choice of a new home.-Sullivan's boggy corner, and Mr Blackhall's rocky selection.-Attempering of man and circumstances to each other.-Amusing prejudice of one of my fellow-travellers.-Its early source.-Travelling thrashingmachines. Pocmouche River and Ferry.—Fire-making in the woods. -Carriboo Plains.-Little Tracadi.-Tracadi Lagoon.-Leper hospital. Singularity of the disease here called leprosy.-Opinions of the medical profession regarding it.-Scrub-pine barren, and sweet fern country between Big Tracadi and the Tabusintac River.-Pitchy darkness of moonless cloudy nights in the forest.-Excellence of the roads in New Brunswick.-Annual Government expenditure upon the roads of this province, compared with similar expenditure in the East Indies.

OCTOBER 12.-This morning I started early for Bathurst, a distance of fifty-two miles along the coast of the Bay de Chaleur. The country over which we passed consisted of the highly-inclined upper Silurian beds, with occasional limestones occurring among them, especially about half-way to Bathurst. Over these rocks, in many places, were spread, in patches more or less extensive, horizontal old red-sandstone beds, and, for the first twenty-five miles, red drift covered the surface, forming a light red land, easily worked, in many places cleared, and covered with thriving farms.

I had, during the forenoon, an opportunity, which rarely occurred, of comparing together the opposing sentiments of different persons in regard to this country as a place for the settlement of our home population.

OPINION OF A FREE CHURCH MINISTER.

3

Nineteen miles from Dalhousie, we stopped to refresh ourselves and rest our horses. The settlers thus far are mostly from Arran; and here I met with a Free Church minister from the same island, who had been in the province for a couple of years, and occasionally preached in Gaelic. Most of the Scotch settlers, he informed me, had joined the Free Church. They had already one church twelve or fifteen miles on this side of Dalhousie, and are about to build another in the town itself, where there is already one belonging to the Scottish Establishment. He was the only person I had hitherto met with who, though he did not speak distinctly out, showed, by his manner and conversation, that he was dissatisfied with the country—perhaps it might be with his situation in it. He acknowledged that the climate was very healthy, and that all the settlers were prospering, but that he would not encourage any persons to come out and settle here. His chief grievances were, that the winter was very cold, and that the farmers could get no money for their grain and other produce from the merchants.

It is possible that the peculiarities of his situation, or his recent arrival in the country, may make this gentleman think more of these two difficulties than they deserve. His profession may expose him more to the cold in winter, or he may feel it more, from being already beyond the middle of life when he arrived, and having less of the bodily exercise which the farmer is obliged to take. And as he has to depend on his farming friends, I suppose, mainly for his support, he may suffer more than others from the system of barter, which is almost a necessity in a new country like this, and must, for a long time, be the chief mode of conducting business between the cultivator and the importer. The farmer gives his grain to the country-merchant, and gets tea, sugar, cloth, and leather in return. The latter

OPINION OF TWO AYRSHIRE BROTHERS.

sends the same grain to the town-merchant in St John or Quebec, and, like the smaller dealer, obtains also in return the same or other West Indian and manufactured articles. It is only after a country has become so rich or so densely peopled that several merchants can obtain a living in the same neighbourhood, and, by doing much business, can afford to take smaller profits and to outbid each other, that money is easily obtained, and is diffused readily among the community. Such a period will arrive, without doubt, in this and most other parts of these northern provinces; but that it has not yet arrived in any special locality, is not to be considered as a peculiar drawback to that locality, or as a grievance which will not disappear from all new settlements as age creeps upon them, and their population and products increase.

Twelve miles further on we stopped at Chalmers's, (Belledune.) Two brothers live at this way-side inn and farm, and the settlers around are chiefly from Ayrshire. These brothers had been eighteen years in the country, and they differed altogether from the minister as to the evils of the New Brunswick winter. That it was cold, they did not deny; but it was dry, they said, and bracing, and more easily borne than a winter at home, “ because a man never gets his feet wet, and, except when the winter is melting off into spring, is seldom exposed to damp weather, or to the danger of taking cold.” They agreed also—and many others have told me the same-that if a man is comfortable at home, he ought not to come out here ; but that if he does come out, and is inclined to work with

perseverance, he will surely prosper. The difficulties of the settler are chiefly experienced during the first two years, after which they are gradually got over, and he becomes first reconciled, and finally attached to the country in which he is prosperous and independent.

In this north-eastern part of New Brunswick, there

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