THE RESTKiOUCHE — WITH NOTES ON ITS FLORA. 13 



with our canoe and baggage, while we brought up the 

 rear in a light wagon. The remaining thirteen miles we 

 made mostly on foot over a very rough road. 



The morning was bright and beautiful, and for two 

 or three miles we drove along the banks of the St. John 

 until we came to the Grand River, up the ridge bordering 

 on whose valley we were soon Avinding by a succession 

 of hills that brought us gradually to the northern water- 

 shed of New Brunswick. The view from one of the 

 highest of these hills is strikingly picturesque. Behind 

 us lay the broad valley of the St. John flowing with 

 sweeping majestic curves from its home in the northern 

 wilderness, passing the quiet villages of St. Leonard's 

 and Van Buren, and then continuing in a long, quiet 

 stretch as if preparing for the rush and leap at the Grand 

 Falls. On the opposite side of the St. John lay the 

 highlands of Maine. On our right was the narrow gorge 

 of the Grand River, and on our left the valleys of the 

 Siegas and Quisibis with the lofty peaks of Green River 

 and Quisibis Mountains in the distance. Except the 

 narrow settlement we were going through, all around 

 was an unbroken wilderness. Along the Grand River 

 Settlement there were three grades of settlers, nearly all 

 French, or descendants of French, from the l*rovince of 

 Quebec and Madawaska County. The first grade in- 

 cluded the oldest settlers, with passably comfortable 

 houses, a considerable acreage of land reclaimed from the 

 forest, with fields showing a more or less scientific 

 attempt at cultivation. The second grade sho'\\ed a link 

 between the modern and the settler of bygone years. 

 There was the frame house, and near by the tottering 

 remains of the old log cabin where the " rude forefathers 

 of the hamlet" dwelt, now a picture of ruin and distress. 

 For what more distressed picture is there than an old 



