388 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



"The climate not udmitting the use of instruments moi-e than six: 

 months of the year, added to the frequent interruptions from fogs and 

 precarious weather, unavoidably made tedious a performance in which 

 accuracy was the chief thing desired, and has rendered many years 

 necessary to complète it for publication. But when the author reflects^ 

 that the accuracy and truth of the work Avill stand the test of ages and 

 preserve future navigators on the coast from the horrors of shipwreck 

 and destruction, he does not repine at its having employed so large a 

 portion of his life." 



The beautiful charts containing the results of his surveys, togethei- 

 with the manj?- views, were issued at intervals, those of New Brunswick 

 from 17*76 to 1781, some of them in more than one edition. They werfr 

 later collected into three great volumes under the title, " The Atlantic- 

 Neptune." Omitting the views, some of which, such as that of Campo- 

 bello, are of much historic importance, the New Brunswick maps are 14 

 in number, and they will be found listed in a later part of this paper.^ 

 They include the entire New Brunswick coast and the lower St. John,, 

 and one of them shows the interior in an altogether remarkable manner, 

 but of this I shall speak later. The charts are fairly accurate. A chief 

 peculiaritj^ of them is their copious introduction of new names for 

 places, seen especially in his 1776 chart of the entrance to the Kiver St. 

 John. These are mostly those of persons, but of these ver}^ few indeed have^ 

 persisted, except Courtenay bay. Cape Spencer, Salisbury and, possibly,. 

 Fox Island, Miramichi.^ These charts were, of course, the standard for the 

 time, and have only been superseded by the more perfect ones of the 

 Admiralty in this century. In 1790, however, appeared a " New Chart 

 of the Gulf of St. Lawrence," by Wright, which, for our North Shore, is 

 little or no improvement upon DesBarres, though upon a smaller scale, 

 and probably is based upon DesBarres' without new surveys. 



In following DesBarres' work to the end, I have omitted an interest- 

 ing French series of charts, which, however, are far behind the dates of" 

 their appearance, and which exerted little or no influence upon our carto- 

 graphy. In Paris were published four charts of parts of New Bruns- 

 wick — one of Baye de Chaleur (" Levée par le Norwich en 1760, publiée- 

 à Londres en 1775 "), Paris, 1778 ; another, of Port Ristigouche, from 

 the same source, probably- in the same year. These charts are especially 

 interesting from their connection with the attack by Byron upon the 

 French fleet and settlement there in 1760 ; the names of Byron's ships arc^ 

 all given to places upon them. In 1779, also, was published by the French 



1 Different .sets of the Atlantic Neptune differ considerably in their make-up 

 There is a collation of them iti the Doniinion Archives Volume for 1<SS2, 92-O.î. See. 

 also, Winsor, America, VII., l^'-i. 



'■^AU of DesBarres names are given in my Place-Nomenclature under their 

 modern equivalents. 



