Lganong] origins of SETTLEMENTS IN NEW BRUNSWICK 93 



Shannon, Henderson, Waterloo, Irishtown (Westmorland), New Scot- 

 land, Emigrant Settlement, and a few others of lesser importance, while 

 the immigrant expansion settlements of the period had this situation 

 also. It is notable that the back-land immigrant settlements of this 

 period are very largely in the southern part of the province, in the 

 vicinity of the navigable waters of Passamaquoddy Bay and the lower 

 St. John and its branches, while practically none were anywhere on the 

 North Shore, a fact showing that the factor of accessibility was still 

 powerfully operative. 



During this period lumber continued to form the great staple 

 of New Brunswick export, and the lumber trade of the province, with 

 shipbuilding, rose to its culmination. The centre of the trade, how- 

 ever, shifted gradually during the period from the Passamaquoddy 

 region, in which the best of it had been exhausted from the smaller 

 rivers, to the St. John, and especially to the North Shore, where, after 

 the introduction of steam mills (about 1825) an immense development 

 on the Kichibucto, Miramichi and Eestigouche took place, temporarily 

 checked on the Miramichi by the great fire in 1825. It was under the 

 stimulus of this trade that St. Stephen, St. George and St. John rose 

 greatly in importance and also Fredericton, Woodstock, Andover, while 

 Edmundston, Ricliihiicto, Chatham, Newcastle, Bathvrst, Dalhousie and 

 Campbellton rose into places of considerable importance. In this period 

 the water powers became more fully developed, and in Charlotte, not 

 only St. Stephen, Milltown and St. George thus became important, but 

 St. Patrick, Neiv River and Lepreau, now decadent, were of some con- 

 sequence, while along the St. John many water powers became utilized 

 for lumbering purposes, especially those at Blake's Mills (^Marvdville), 

 Coak, Pokiok, and elsewhere, and attempts were made to utilize Grand 

 Falls and the Eed Ptapids of Tobique. The introduction of large steam 

 mills, however, at or near the shipping places for lumber, combined 

 with its exhaustion on those rivers with the larger water powers, 

 gradually combined to render these of diminishing value.^ 



The other environmental factors continued to promote the older 

 settlements, but hardly formed any new ones in this period. The free- 

 stone trade with the United States gradually developed villages at St. 

 Mary's Point, places on Meringuin, Rockland, and elsewhere, now 

 mostly abandoned, though the export of gypsum still continues at Ilills- 

 horovgh, adding much to the importance of that place. There was a 

 steady development of the fishing centres, and the trading or dis- 

 tributing centres, mostly coincident with the lumbering centres, con- 



* A valuable work on the lumber trade in New Brunswick, with a few notes 

 on its history, is contained in " The Wood Industries of Canada," London, The 

 Timber Trades Journal. 1897. 



