90 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



The importance of these roads from our present point of view- 

 consisted in this, that many of the early settlements were located upon 

 them. This had the double advantage of providing the settlers with 

 roads ready built, and of providing the roads with settlers who w^ould 

 offer accommodations for travellers, keep them broken open during 

 the snows of winter, and steadily work to improve them in summer. ' 

 Communication was also improved in this period in another way, 

 namely by the establishment of steamljoat lines, not only to the Unitpd 

 States and neighbouring provinces, but to St. Andrews and along the 

 entire length of the St. John, from its mouth to Edmundston.^ Indi- 

 rectly these lines had an effect upon the distribution of settlements, 

 since they made more distant parts of the St. John accessible, and 

 hence allowed some of the new settlements to be formed some distance 

 up its course. Plans were made to improve the navigation of the upper 

 St. John in this period by the removal of various obstructions to 

 navigation,^ and plans were 'even considered for a canal connecting 

 the waters of the St. Croix with those of the St. John,^ as well as for 

 a canal across the Isthmus of Chignecto. But none of the canal plans, 

 ■except for the small canal across the neck at Gagetown (recommended 

 1836, finished 1854), were carried to completion. 



B. Sociological Factors. 



These were practically identical with those of the preceding period, 

 since the new settlers were in general of the same origins as the old. 

 The large influx of immigration from Great Britain undoubtedly pro- 

 duced its effect in swinging New Brunswick institutions towards 

 British, rather than American ideals. This, however, hardly has a 

 bearing upon our present subject, though it must be taken into account 

 in a study of the development of the New Brunswick people as a 

 whole. Furthermore, in this period the racial character of the New 

 Brunswick people was being inifluenced and altered by environmental 

 conditions, a feature which became more pronounced in the next period. 

 In this period certain new counties were established involving the selec- 

 tion of shire towns, with their adventitious advantages, — Batliurst for 

 Gloucester, RicWbucto for Kent, ^Yoodstoc'k for Carleton, Grand Falls, 



^ A good account of the steamboat navigation of the upper St. John is in Ray- 

 mond's Carlcton County, 87-89, and Baird's Seventy Years, 52. 



" A survey of the river, with levels, from Frederlcton to Grand Falls was 

 made by Foulis in 1826, and a detailed report on the improvement of th« 

 river was made by Bent and Grant in 1850. 



" The Report by Bradbury is in an appendix to the journals of the House 

 of Assembly for 1836-37. 



