376 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
of New Brunswick to be at the Grand Falls on July 15 next (1787) to 
meet the Surveyor-General of Quebec for the purpose of settling the 
boundaries between the two provinces. It seems at first surprising that, 
with the multiplicity of important public matters pressing upon him, 
Lord Dorchester should have been so desirous for the settlement of a 
boundary in a country still almost an unexplored wilderness. But the 
explanation is given in this letter, namely, the necessity for the forma- 
tion of settlements along the upper St. John in order to keep open the 
communication between New Brunswick (and thence Nova Scotia) and 
Quebec, and such settlements could not be made until it was known by 
which province grants should be made, and under the jurisdiction of 
which the settlers should live. It is no doubt very difficult for us in 
these days to understand the importance attributed in all the early 
records to the communication along the St. John. We must, however, 
remember that in those days the rivers were the only highways, and that 
the St. John and Madawaska afforded the only practicable river route 
between Quebec and New Brunswick, and through that province with 
Nova Scotia. Not only was the river route far shorter, safer and 
cheaper than the water route around by the Gulf and River St. Law- 
rence in summer, but it afforded the only possible route in winter. It 
is to be remembered, moreover, that settlements, affording shelter and 
food for travellers, were not only desirable for comfort in travel, but 
even, in winter, indispensable for safety. Keeping these facts in mind, 
we can understand somewhat better the importance laid upon the St. 
John as a line of communication and the part played by it in the inter- 
provincial and international boundary discussions.* 
The meeting of the representatives of the two provinces took place 
apparently at Madawaska in July, George Sproule, Surveyor-General 
of New Brunswick, representing New Brunswick, and J. Frederick Hol- 
land, Surveyor-General of Quebec, accompanied by Hugh Finlay, Post- 
master-General,”? representing Quebec. But the views of the representa- 
tives proved irreconcilable. Mr. Sproule maintained that the boundary 
must run along the watershed between Lake Temiscouata and the St. 
Lawrence, and in support of this contention produced his instructions 
from Governor Carleton, which read as follows :— Q 
By His Excellency Thomas Carleton, Lieut.-Govr., Commander-in-Chief of 
the Province of New Brunswick, &c., &c. To George Sproule, Esq., Sur- 

1 A post route was established by the Madawaska prior to 1783 (see The 
Early Postal Service in British North America, by E. Cruikshank, Canadian 
History Readings, 211). The route was surveyed crudely by Peach in 1761, 
accurately by Sproule in 1785, and several early maps of it exist. 
? After his return, Finlay made a Report to Lord Dorchester, 30 Aug., 
1787, on the Post route from Quebec to Halifax, and this is in the British 
Museum, King’s Library, CXIX, 59, 2 V. 
