St. Maurice and Sas,ucnai/. 217 



oftliat liver with the Ottawa. I shall therefore confine 

 myself in this paper to that interestiiiij portion contained 

 between tlie St. Miuuiee and Sagiienay. 



Having in my possession several private journals of 

 surveys, as well as the maps and reports of the few public 

 expeditions which have traversed this section of the country, 

 1 hasten to lay before the society my gleanings from the 

 works above alluded to, trusting the icw observations I 

 have nmde may be the means of eliciting still further infor- 

 mation on a subject that must.be of the deepest interest to 

 every well wisher of Lower Canada. 



Theaccon)i)auyiiig map I con)piled from plans of actual 

 surveys, as well as various Indian documents, and I trust 

 it will be found suflicient to answer the purposes of this 

 paper. 



Tradition states that as long since as the time of the 

 Jesuits, the country between lake St. John and Quebec 

 contained foot-paths frequently used by the early French 

 settlers, but if this be correct, the xmnCL^oi these men were 

 so intent on the fur trade, then in its prime, that they 

 cared or knew little abont the agricultural resources of the 

 country through which they travelled. Geological science 

 at that period was so far behind the present day, that little 

 on that head could be hoped for from the (iiw Europeans 

 then thinly scattered along the shores of this noble river. 



At length the attention of the Provincial Governnjent 

 wa* called to this important subject, by the circumstance of 

 the amazing iiilhix of intelligenf, enterprising emigrants, 

 who antnnilly arrived at Quebec, and almost invariably 

 bent their steps cither to tiie United States or the upper 

 province. 

 Fully aware of the luperior healtluucM of the I^ower 



3 n 



