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CHAMBLY CANAL AND LAKE CHAMPLAIN.

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which castaway mariners can be subjected. expense of such winter depôts would be only small, while they would create in the breasts of seamen such a feeling of confidence as would often prevent the disasters, the consequences of which they are designed to relieve.

No legislative interference, of course, can ward off icebergs from the banks of Newfoundland, or make the seas more safe in the bay of the St Lawrence, in early spring, and when winter approaches; but greater skill and care in the masters of vessels may lessen the casualties arising from these sources. The proposed examination of master mariners, the advantages of which have already been frequently discussed in the Home Parliament, will go some way towards securing this greater care and skill.

There is still one branch of the internal navigation of Canada which is likely to tend not only to the extension of the traffic on the St Lawrence, but to the improvement also of the general commerce of the province.

I have already spoken of the river Richelieu as flowing from Lake Champlain, in a northerly direction, through the once fertile flat country in which Chambly, St Hilaire, and other villages stand, and out of which rises Beloeil, and the other isolated mountains, which add so much to the picturesque character of the district. This river falls into the St Lawrence at Sorel, forty-five miles below Montreal. From this point upwards to Lake Champlain, the Richelieu has been made navigable by the lock or dam of St Ours, and the canal of Chambly, extending a distance of eleven and a half miles from the town of Chambly to St John, between which places considerable interruptions occur in the bed of the river. This canal cost £120,000; and though it has hitherto returned comparatively little revenue, the state of the trade on the Erie Canal is likely very soon to give it an

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FUTURE INFLUENCE OF CANADA.

important part of the traffic between the western country and New York.

I have already adverted to the excessive crowding of the Erie Canal, and the delays to which merchandise is occasionally in consequence subjected. But to descend to Montreal and Sorel is easy, and can be done without transhipment; and, in consequence of this and other advantages, it has been found that goods can by this route-down the St Lawrence, then up the Richelieu to Lake Champlain, and thence by canal to the river Hudson-be carried to New York as cheaply, and with more certainty as to time, than by the hitherto exclusive line of the Erie Canal. It may, therefore, be confidently predicted, that a portion of the internal traffic of the States will hereafter pass by the river Richelieu, and enrich and increase the value of land in the district through which it passes.

A shorter ship-canal has also been projected direct from Caughnawaga-opposite to Montreal, but above the rapids-direct to Lake Champlain. Should this be executed, there can be no doubt that much of the traffic between the western regions and the Atlantic borders would pass, without changing bottoms, in this directiongreatly adding, of course, to the income of the provincial canals, and to the commercial establishments and intercourse along the river.

On the whole, therefore, it appears certain that the river St Lawrence is destined ere long to become a most important medium of intercourse between the various sections of the New World, as well as between the Old World and the New, and to give to the province of Canada a far more extensive and commanding influence over the commercial operations of North America than any State east of Louisiana can ever aspire to.*

* I am happy to learn that, so far as the present year 1850 is concerned, the anticipations of the text have been fully confirmed. The revenue

FUTURE INFLUENCE OF CANADA.

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I do not in this place introduce any remarks in relation to the railroad communications with the Atlantic which are now projected or in progress, as the observations I subsequently made in New Brunswick will naturally suggest some considerations in connection with this important means of colonial development.

from public works, during the first ten months of 1849, was £64,601, while, during the same ten months of 1850, it has been £76,672, an increase of nearly one-fifth. This, with the other abundant symptoms of prosperity experienced in the colony during the present year, will, I hope, hush the cry of discontent and disloyalty for some time to come.

CHAPTER XIV.

Leave Mitis for the Restigouche.-Nature of the road through the forest.-Clearings and accommodation by the way.-Mountainous character of the country.-Frazer's.-Elevated table-land.-Great Metapediac Lake.-Rich flat land around it.-Brechut's.-Little Metapediac Lake.-John Low's.-Rough road.-Dark night.-Burned forests. Burned bridges.-Cause of the burnings. Their effect on the landscape and on the soil.-Noble's.-Evans's Hollow.-Solitary life in the forest.-Hardwood ridges.-First green fields and clearings. Home thoughts and associations.-Scottish settlers twelve hundred feet above the sea.-How such spots become known at home.—Beautiful scenery.—Fine land and farms.-Dixon's.—Abundant wheat a thousand feet above the sea.-Yankee phrenologists, soapmakers, and other adventurers; their luck in the provinces.— Campbelton.--Mr Ferguson of Atholl House.-Changes in a new country during a single lifetime.—River Restigouche.—Good land on either side.-Excursion up the river. Flat lands.-Views on the river. Scottish settlers from Arran.-General prosperity of these settlers.-Attachment to home recollections.-Goatfell.-Ilfracombe and the Causeyside. - Good land on the Upper Restigouche. — Alleged home ignorance of provincial geography.— Similar real ignorance in the colonies.-Indian settlement opposite Campbelton. -Progress of the Indians in farming.-Their winter employments.— Want of a school.-Sugar-loaf Mountain, and the view from it.— Geological reason for the quality of the land.-Good land on the Canadian side, in the county of Bonaventure.-Agricultural societies in this remote region.-Encouragement given to such societies by the Canadian Legislature.-Agricultural show on the Restigouche.Prosperity of the lumber trade on this river.-Historical recollections of the river and bay.-Old French settlements.-Town of Dalhousie. -Increase in the growth of wheat in this district.—High price of Canadian flour.-Fossiliferous limestone at Dalhousie.-Settlers on the Eel River.-Their prosperity.-Great success of the potato culture. Supposed superiority of the lumberer over the farmer.— Greater value of the resident farmer to the province.-Effects of a

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ROAD FROM MITIS TO CAMPBELTON.

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failing lumber-trade on the permanent welfare of the country. Illustration of certain social and domestic differences between the United States and the colonies.

OCTOBER 6.-Having yesterday arranged with a habitant, bearing the illustrious name of Dumas, to convey me across the peninsula of Gaspé for £5 currency, I rose from a short sleep at one o'clock this morning, and, after a drive of three miles inland from Mitis-for a considerable part of the way over a bog, upon a fearful corduroy road-reached the house of Dumas. Having transferred myself and luggage into the waggon I was to occupy for the next two days, we ascended a hill which separated us from all further communication, even by sight, with the river St Lawrence, and in about half-an-hour had entered the forest. Under the shadow of perpetual trees we continued, from this point, for a distance of eighty miles, emerging only to come within sight of the river Restigouche.

This road between the two rivers is a very rude and difficult one. It is barely blocked out of sufficient width to allow a waggon with one horse to pass. The trees are cut down and hauled off, boulder-stones and small inequalities removed, and bridges built where they are absolutely necessary. Only the horses of the country, which all their lives have been trained to it, could conduct even light waggons across the numerous steep hills over which the road passes. I had been told in New Brunswick that the road was impassable for carriages, and that my portmanteau would have to be carried, while I walked on foot myself a considerable part of the way; and I did think that my luggage, my conductor, and myself were a very heavy load for the little Canadian horse, till I afterwards saw other horses compelled to drag at least twice the load along the same road.

VOL. I.

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