the hotel until near midnight with a charivari of all the most discordant noises, vocal and instrumental, which the tongs, kettles, saucepans, and throats of Woodstock could produce. There were also tar-barrels and bonfires on the occasion, and finally a burning in effigy. Fortunately the budding Orangemen did not personally know the man they thus delighted to honour; so that Mr Brown himself flitted about the blazing barrels, and enjoyed the burning fun as much as any of them.

18th Aug.-Though a little tired with the dissipation of the previous night, we started by half-past seven A.M., to proceed up the river as far as the Grand Falls.

On leaving the town we turned to the left, forsaking the river, and taking an inland road, for the purpose of passing through some of the new settlements in this county. Jacksontown, at the distance of five or six miles, was the first settlement we entered upon. It is about fifteen years since it was first commenced. The land is good, though now and then patches overspread with sandy drift occur, bearing the ill-omened Everlasting as their natural produce.

I stopped a few minutes at Hannah's farm, on which reapers were at work. It consisted of 200 acres, of which 80 were cleared. This, besides building a nice house, he had cleared with his own hands in thirteen years. The cradlers, who were cutting his grain, received from 1 to 1 dollars a day, besides their victuals. They were lumberers, who at this season of the year are usually at home.

Most of the land in this region is granted; and here I first began to hear from the mouths of working farmers the complaint which has been made successively in all the provinces, and is not unknown in the newer States of the Union, that large portions of the best land have been granted that is, sold at the Government price-to speculators, who buy for the purpose of holding on till the

IRON ORE AND SMELTING FURNACES.

57

neighbourhood is improved, and then selling at an increase of price. This is provoking to poor men who wish to buy farms, and settle near their friends; but it is injurious to the whole community, in a country where roads are comparatively few, and desirable lands in many localities are at present worthless, because miles of tangled forest shut them out from communication with the world.

It is very difficult either to remedy or to prevent this evil. The provincial Government are endeavouring to make it less frequent in future, by limiting the extent of individual grants, and by requiring that a certain proportion of each grant shall be cleared within an assigned number of years.

Notwithstanding the obstacle presented by the preemption of so much of the good land, in this neighbourhood, by persons who do not intend to improve it, the extension of this settlement has proceeded rapidly of late. The failure of the lumber-trade is inducing more young men to adopt what is, after all, a surer mode of living; and back lots are taken up and being cleared, where the line of farms next the road is already disposed of. The same is the case on the Maine side of the boundary line, where the land is also good and settlers fast pouring in.

Iron ore is abundant in this neighbourhood. It is of the hematite variety, and a smelting furnace has lately been erected within a short distance of Woodstock, for the purpose of smelting it. It is reduced by means of charcoal, and the hot-blast is employed. The iron obtained, up to the time of my leaving the province, was too brittle for casting, but it was said to make good malleable bars and steel. I visited the works on my return down the river, and it appeared to me, considering all the circumstances, that the company had begun their works on too large and expensive a scale. Some of the less ambitious establishments on the Housatonic river, in Connecticut, would have probably been safer models for

58

ITINERANT LECTURERS.

them at first, than the huge smelting-furnaces of Scotland and Wales. The success of these works, however, is of great moment to the province, inasmuch as their failure would be a serious check to future adventures of capital in similar undertakings.

The land on this day's journey continued good nearly the whole way; and the crops of oats and potatoes were more like good crops in Scotland than anything we had yet seen. The English or Scottish farmer who may think of settling in this country must not consider himself as quite out of the world in these parts. There are wandering teachers, who supply with knowledge the thirsty cultivators in the humblest villages. Notices are stuck up in the inns, or are printed in the newspapers, or are spread in the form of handbills, such as two I met with to-day-" Mr Humphreys intends to lecture in this village, during the current week, on electricity and the electric telegraph."—" Mr Dow intends to lecture on physiology and anatomy during the present week; we hope our friends will give him full houses during his stay among them."

That these wanderers receive encouragement, not only here but on the other side of the border, is shown by an amusing circumstance told me subsequently by a fellowtraveller, when on my way, through Maine, from Bangor to Boston. Though a Bangor man, he had property and business which took him frequently into Georgia. "When on his way to Boston, on one occasion, with a friend, who had also been with him in Georgia, they dined at a hotel, where they saw opposite to them at table two New Englanders, whom they had last seen peddling in Georgia. 'Well,' says his friend to one of them, 'when did you quit your peddling in Georgia?' The questioned made no reply, but, swallowing his dinner expeditiously, as a New Englander can, he went out of the room, and, waiting for my friend and his companion,

MOUTH OF THE TOBIQUE.

59

accosted them with, 'For heaven's sake, say nothing about the peddling. We have have been up to Maine, and, as our wares were out, we took to the lecturing. It's not a bad trade; we have made sixteen dollars a-day since we began. I take astronomy, and he does the phrenology. We have been lecturing in Bangor, and we have promised to go back. We had an invitation to go down to Bucksport, but we heard of some people there who knew quite as much as ourselves, so we declined. Now, you won't say anything about the peddling.'

We had returned to the St John, dined on its banks at an inn, situated at the mouth of what is called Buttermilk Creek, and had driven nearly thirty miles further, when we found ourselves at the mouth of the Tobique, a river which comes from the east, and falls into the left side of the St John. This position is remarkable for an extensive second interval or terrace, of great extent, and of comparatively rich land, which is all cleared and settled, is finely cultivated and improved, and is pleasant to the European eye, from the number of well-built, clean, comfortable-looking houses, which are spread over the flat. The place has also its Episcopal church, and, on the whole, appeared to me rather an enviable locality, though at present a considerable distance from the world. It is opposite the mouth of the river Tobique, which flows through a still, wild, but agriculturally capable country, which fifty years hence will sustain a considerable population. This flat, therefore, is likely to be the site of a future town of some importance.

The upland here is also of good quality. A farm of 200 to 250 acres upon it, with 40 or 50 cleared, and a good house, will sell at present for about a pound currency an acre.

Three or four miles further of a pleasant drive brought us to the mouth of the Aroostook river, which flows from

60

VALLEY OF THE AROOSTOOK.

the interior of Maine, and empties itself into the right side of the St John. This is an important river, as, in seasons of high water, it admits of about 400 miles of inland and lake navigation, (Gesner,) and passes through a rich valley, forming one of the best farming regions of the State of Maine. The valley of the Aroostook was one of the most valuable portions of the disputed territory, and one which both New Brunswick and Maine desired to possess. At present, this valley forms a rich and almost untouched lumber country, from which large ✓quantities of timber are floated down to the St John on the waters of its river. By treaty, the free navigation of the St John is secured to the produce of the Aroostook. We stopped for the night at an inn at the mouth of this river, which, in the height of the lumbering season, is alive with swarms of lumberers, whose hobnailed shoes had everywhere indented the wooden floors of the rooms and passages. A few scattering men were already on their way up to the woods.

Sunday, 19th August.—The English traveller, who starts on a North American tour, must shake off some of his home habits and notions. Potatoes to breakfast, which he will see everywhere—without which, I believe, in these provinces, a breakfast would be considered incomplete-is not an American custom solely, as I have met them many years ago in the west of Scotland, and, if not of Irish descent, is probably a home provincial custom, extended, by the necessity of circumstances, in the foreign provinces. A common table for all will at first surprise him more. The driver and his passengers, the hired and the hirer, and the humblest wayfarer who may desire to dine when your dinner is ready, sit down together. We had ordered our own meal to-day in our own sitting-room, but we found ourselves, after a time, seated side by side with ill-appointed lumberers, in fustian jackets, without any one, except myself, appearing even