LAND OF THE ACADIAN FRENCH. 5 



are many French settlers, the descendants of the old 

 Acadians. In the latter half of this day s journey we 

 passed many of their farms, and a few villages inhabited 

 by them. 



At one of these Petit Rocher, or Little Rock Point 

 we stopped a few minutes and visited a farm by the road 

 side, which a Mr Woolrner, a person engaged in the 

 fishing trade, had begun to cultivate on an improved 

 method. Some of the French ploughmen here were 

 turning over straight deep furrows, and making very 

 good work. With the aid of lime and fish-refuse, the 

 owner of this farm promises not only to raise good 

 crops, but to exercise a beneficial influence over the 

 neighbouring proprietors. 



In parts of the country which, like the neighbourhood 

 of Petit Rocher, are still somewhat remote, the French 

 are collected in the greatest numbers, and are most 

 unmixed. In such localities they possess soils of 

 different qualities as they occur naturally intermingled 

 over the surface they inhabit. But as we approach the 

 centres of commerce, or the points towards which emi 

 gration tends, the population begins to be mixed, and 

 the inferior land only is in the hands of the native 

 Acadians. 



This began to be the case as we came within eight or 

 ten miles of Bathurst. Immediately north of the Tata- 

 gouche River, we passed through much swampy land, 

 and much poor, hungry, gravelly soil, intermixed with 

 occasional patches, more or less extensive, of deep red 

 loam. In this region, the poorest, most stony, least 

 capable, and worst-cultivated land is in the hands of the 

 French the best land, and the best cultivated, being 

 possessed by those of British descent. I have already 

 mentioned that, in the neighbourhood of the brothers 

 Chalmers, at Belledune, the present settlers are chiefly 

 Ayrshire men. The French formerly occupied exten- 



