APPENDIX THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 153- 



APPENDIX. 



THE PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 



A WILDERNESS JOURNEY — WITH SUGGESTIONS. 



By G. U. Hay. 



Read at the Annual Meeting, January 17th, 1899. 



To-night I shall depart, to some extent, from the usual order of 

 an annual address and first take you with me in imagination on a 

 canoe trip one hundred miles across northern New Brunswick — from 

 the Bale de Chaleur to the St. John River. I would like to impart 

 to you some of the pleasures of that trip, — the exhilaration that comes 

 from poling a canoe up a rocky and swift stream and then dashing 

 down long stretches of rapids, breathing the free air and taking in the 

 glorious scenery of our northern woodlands. But no description of 

 mine, I fear, can give any adequate idea of the reality of such a trip 

 through the entire length of two of our most beautiful rivers — the 

 Nipisiguit and Tobique — rivers whose windings among leafy woods 

 bring into view at every turn such matchless scenery that I shall 

 always feel my blood move more quickly at the recollection of that 

 journey, with its pleasures as well as its trials. 



No country of the world, perhaps, presents a greater variety and 

 beauty of river-scenery than New Brunswick. From the tidal streams 

 of Westmorland and Albert rushing in from the Bay of Fundy with 

 impetuous haste to cover up muddy flats, on past the stretches of the 

 lower St. John and Kennebecasis winding smoothly among green 

 fields and meadows, we come to our northern rivers — the Miramichi, 

 Nipisiguit, Tobique and Restigouche, leaping down from their mountain 

 homes and running races with each other to the sea. Every river 

 and stream has numberless tributaries, cradled among forests of pine 

 and spruce and maple, rushing down the mountain sides, resting 

 occasionally in quiet lakes, and gathering strength and volume from 

 other tributaries as they sweep onward toward the sea. These streams 



