82 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. chap. xxv. 



enter it ; and the navigation is by no means difficnlt.* 

 The scenery on the Eistigouche is superb. On the north 

 side of the valley, mountains rise to the height of 1,745 

 feet above the sea at a distance of only two or three miles 

 from tlie coast. On the southern or New Brunswick 

 shore, they reach nearly 1,000 feet. The moutli of the 

 Eistigouche is destined to become of great importance, as 

 it Hes near to the coal-field of New Brunswick ; and when 

 the international raikoad is constructed, one point ought 

 certainly to touch the head of the fine harbour of the Bay 

 of Chaleurs. It is a work which would easily and speedily 

 be accomphshed, and it would insure steam communication 

 between Canada and Britain for ten months in the year 

 at least, as there are many safe harbours and roadsteads 

 in difierent parts of the bay, and the largest ships of the 

 Hue "f may ascend ten miles up the river Eistigouche, or 

 nearly to Point Garde, with the assistance of buoys and a 

 good pilot. J 



Eecent explorations prove that there is a considerable 

 quantity of good timber on the island fit for ship-building 

 and exportation. Water power is abundant, and it could 

 easily be manufactured on the spot. The manufacture of 

 salt in the extensive lagoons on part of the south shore 

 might be very profitably carried on by following the 

 methods pursued m the south of France, or in the northern 

 part of Eussia, where advantage is taken of the cold of 



* Bayfield. 



f Some fisliermen at Mingan from tlie Bay of Chaleurs told me tliat in 

 the summer (1861) a French man-of-war was busily engaged in taking 

 soundings in the Bay of Chaleurs. Her movements excited much cm-iosity 

 and speculation among the Canadians and Acadians of this magnificent bay. 



X Admiral Bayfield. 



