THE SAGUENAY. bo 



find a ready market for their produce in the lumber woods, 

 where hay, oats, pork, &c., command higher prices than in 

 the cities. I said the valley of the Saguenay was a 

 " doubtful " exception, and for this reason, that a place in 

 which the welfare of agriculturists depends upon lumber- 

 ing cannot be called a good farming district. But the 

 farms, such as they are, on the upper waters of the 

 Saguenay, surprise the tourist, who sees on his way up 

 that river from the sea nothing but barren rocks and 

 inaccessible cliffs until he comes to Ha Ha bay, a distance 

 of 60 miles. From here to Lake St. John and all round 

 the shores of the latter large sheet of water there is good 

 land which can be bought for about a shilling an acre. 

 Here the hardy French Canadians, who are at home in the 

 woods, can, with the help of lumbering, make a good 

 living, but it is not a place for the old-country immigrant 

 to settle in. Below the mouth of the Saguenay there 

 is positively no land fit for farming, and no roads. The 

 inhabitants of this country, fishermen and trappers, are 

 entirely dependent upon water communication, and for 

 six months in the year are shut off from the world. But 

 although the land is rocky and sterile along the lower 

 St. Lawrence, the waters are rich beyond conception- 

 From the whale down to the capelin the quantities and 

 varieties of fish are amazing. This wealth ol the waters 



o 



amply compensates for the sterility of the soil, and renders 

 the lower St. Lawrence by no means the least valuable 

 part of the Dominion. 



It would be of great advantage to Canada and to 

 Canadian farmers if some industry could be originated 

 and carried out which would give employment to hands in 



