234 SAY OF CHALEUR. 



even when they themselves were homeless. It was built 

 of logs, with a birch-bark roof; the altar was pasted over 

 with scraps of paper of different colours and patterns, and 

 ornamented with four brass candlesticks, placed on a 

 similar number of empty cigar-boxes. Underneath the 

 altar was a homespun rug, and a'large cow-horn suspended 

 over the door served to summon the congregation to mass 

 when the priest paid his fortnightly visit to his flock. 

 Even those who see least to admire in the Roman Catholic 

 religion, cannot help being struck with its wonderful 

 vitality, and the strong hold it has on the affections of its 

 adherents, whether they live in palaces or in log huts. 



Fifteen miles from Dalhousie there is a small emigrant 

 settlement in the wilderness, called Balmoral. Twenty or 

 thirty English families settled here two or three years ago. 

 Besides free grants of land, government provided them 

 with log huts, and provisions for a winter. Nevertheless, 

 they suffered great hardships at first. Many of them were 

 mill hands and small tradesmen, and therefore quite unfit 

 for roughing it in the bush. It cannot be too often re- 

 peated that the only men to make new farms in the 

 wilderness are the Canadian-born people. Among these 

 there exists considerable dissatisfaction at the system of 

 restricting free grants of land to immigrants. The old 

 settlers cannot see why their sons should not have equal 

 privileges in the acquisition of land as the stranger. In 

 my opinion the old settlers in this part of Canada at least, 

 have more land than is good for them. Smaller farms in 

 a higher state of cultivation would pay them better than 

 large tracts of half-wilderness land. The land about Resti- 

 gouche and the New Brunswick side of the Bay of Chaleur 



