UNEASINESS IN NEW BRUNSWICK.

41

It was natural, therefore, that all parties should feel uneasy at such a state of things-a falling off in the revenue of nearly one-third-and I was not surprised to hear charges of the gravest nature occasionally made against the competency, and even the honesty, of the existing provincial Government; or the Canadian grumblings re-echoed, that connection with England, after all, was the main source of colonial sufferings. It is human nature, and especially the nature of political parties, to ascribe to neglect or unskilfulness on the part of man what physical or moral laws render it impossible to prevent.

I shall have occasion hereafter to speak of the extensive diminution of the wheat crops in North America ; but I may here merely mention, in connection with the other causes of colonial depression, that the united failures, for a succession of years, of the wheat and potato crops were further just causes of disquietude to the provincial population. It must have alarmed those who were not themselves possessed of agricultural skill, or who had not had an opportunity of looking at the whole province with an agricultural eye, to learn from the published returns that, in 1847, wheat and flour, to the amount of about 240,000 bushels, were imported into New Brunswick, and that the estimated value of all the bread stuffs imported during that year was £280,000

currency.

Reckoning all the grain imported at the average high price of 40s. a quarter, this sum would imply, that at least 140,000 quarters of grain, or their equivalent in flour, were imported in 1847-a quantity sufficient to feed at least one-half of the whole population of the province. It was natural, therefore, to say-if the lumber-trade fail, and we can raise at home only enough of food to support one-half of our population, where are the means to be obtained by which the other half is to be kept

42

THE RIVER ST JOHN.

alive? In such circumstances of doubtful anxiety, the political condition of the province must, on the whole, have been satisfactory to have given rise to the very small measure of excitement which it was my fortune to meet with during nearly four months that I spent in the province.

The river St John empties itself into the harbour through a narrow passage between high opposing cliffs of metamorphic-slate and limestone rocks. At low tide, a long rapid and a considerable fall exists at the mouth of the river; but the tide rises twenty-six feet, which is sufficient to equalise the level of the outer and inner waters, so as, for a brief space before and after high water, to allow vessels of considerable tonnage to ascend and descend with safety. Well-appointed steamers ply upon the river between St John and Fredericton, the seat of Government—a distance by land of sixty-five miles, and by water, I believe, of about ninety. In spring and autumn, when the water is deep, they ascend to Woodstock, which is sixty-two miles higher; and when the contemplated improvements are made in the river, small steamers are expected to mount as high as the grand falls, which are seventy-three miles above Woodstock. This extensive natural inland navigation-nearly equal in length to that possessed by the state of New York—will every year become more valuable to the colony.

14th August.-At one P.M. I embarked on board the steamer for Fredericton, where I arrived at 8 P.M., being at the rate of about twelve miles an hour. The day was fine, and the sail very beautiful. For the first thirty miles the river is wide, and has rocky banks of varying height and form, covered with a natural forest growth, except where the hand of man has been busy in partially clearing and establishing farms. The rocks, at the outset, consisted of mixed limestone and slate, then, for a considerable distance, of trap and metamorphic

ASCENT AND SCENERY.

43

slates, as far as the head of what is called the Long Reach. Then turning us sharply to the left, and narrowing the river for a few miles, a ridge of granite, visible only on one side of the stream, succeeded to the trap; after passing which we emerged into an open and flatter region, over which grey sandstones, of the coal formation, extended and accompanied us all the way to Fredericton.

The trap country reminded me of some of the thinlypeopled districts on our Highland lakes. It was covered in many places with a sandy drift, and bore, in general, a mixture of broad and narrow leaved trees. On the granite, broad-leaved or hard wood prevailed, the poorest soils bearing only the white birch. Endless pine forests covered the sandstone soils, where drift from other formations, or the sorting action of flowing water, had not modified their natural character.

Through the first twenty miles of this sandstone formation extends a very beautiful portion of the river. From the north-east enters the Washademoak River; and fifteen or twenty miles above its mouth, the Salmon River, after traversing the Grand Lake, escapes into the St John. At the mouths of both these rivers, the St John widens, and is studded with several large and fertile islands; while the low intervale land, as it is called, stretches sometimes a couple of miles from its banks. Gagetown and Scovell's Point, on its opposite shores, are centres of rich land, which appeared to be tolerably well farmed.

Many emigrants, with money to purchase farms at two to four pounds an acre, might settle comfortably here. This alluvial land has been long famed for its grass and its produce of hay. In this country, where hay has hitherto been the chief reliance for the winter food of stock, the produce in hay is generally considered a test of the value of a farm, either to rent or to buy. In renting land, not a very frequent practice, a pound of rent for

44

SOILS AND AVERAGE PRODUCE.

each ton of natural hay produced by the farm is, on the St John, considered a fair equivalent. The produce in grain is not taken into account. Hay sells, according to the season and locality, at 35s. to 50s. a ton.

These low lands are liable to be flooded when the ice melts in spring, but they are, nevertheless, very healthy. There are no agues in the country! I have heard of none, indeed, in the whole province, even where waters and bogs and marshes most abounded. These spring floods, no doubt, contributed to the richness of the land; but the best situated or most esteemed farms here are those which consist partly of this low intervale and partly of upland.

The soils in general are light and loamy, as we should expect in a sandstone country; and, therefore, adapted to the culture of Indian corn, which in this part of the province has been considerably extended during the last seven years I suppose since the wheat crop became less certain. From the mouth of the Washademoak river, in ascending to within a dozen miles of Fredericton, the St John carries us through the centre first of Queen's, and afterwards of Sunbury county. Much of these counties is still in native forest; but the general productiveness of the cultivated land, and something of the husbandry and cultivation, may be judged of from the following returns as to the maximum, minimum, and average produce, in imperial bushels, of the crops usually

cultivated in these two counties.

BEAUTY OF PARTS OF THE RIVER.

45

The produce of the potato in this table is small, because of the failure of this crop during the last few years. The turnip culture is not general as yet, but is extending. The intervales of Sunbury county are especially productive in Indian corn.

I have seldom seen anything of its kind, which, as the sun declined, seemed to me more beautiful than the banks of the St John in this county, as we passed Majorville and Sheffield, and approached the mouth of the Oromucto river. The river, full to the lip, reflecting the light of the western sun towards which we were steaming, shaded on either bank by rows of the American elm—which I here saw in its great beauty for the first time, and which, every time I have since seen it growing wild in its favourite localities, has always struck me as the loveliest of American trees-and beyond the banks broad fields of Indian corn in the full rich green of its still unripe growth. In this there was newness enough, perhaps, to give it a charm to my eye, which would not have been seen by one more familiar with the country; but, after making a large deduction for this, there remained beauty enough over to make this part of the river, at this season, interesting to the oldest dweller in the province. I have since seen no river scenery in America which has left on my mind a livelier impression than this part of my voyage on the St John.

Fredericton is the seat of Government. It stands on a flat of level intervale land, in some places nearly a mile in width, and raised about thirty feet above the river. Upon this level, thirty years ago, there were only two or three houses, surrounded by thickets and cedar swamps. It is now a considerable town with five or six churches, besides a cathedral, built under the auspices and by the exertions of the present bishop. It has a University, (King's College,) a dissenting academy, a grammar school, normal school, court houses, Government offices,