14 DR BISHOP S OPINION. 



an emigrant should know nothing of rural affairs when 

 he arrives in a new country, than that he should be 

 furnished with knowledge so little desirable as this. 



In my excursion to-day I had the pleasure, among 

 other persons, of the company of Dr Bishop, a practi 

 tioner at Bathurst of seventeen years standing. He 

 assured me, as the result of his experience, that this 

 country was one of the most healthy in the world ; that 

 during his seventeen years residence at Bathurst, severe 

 as the winters are, he had not known more than twenty 

 persons who had died of consumption ; that there were 

 no epidemics, that few children died, and that the greater 

 part of those who died in middle life were carried off by 

 accidents. 



Oct. 15. After breakfasting with Mr Ferguson, 

 going over his extensive saw-mills, and seeing a gang of 

 his lumberers depart on their winter s expedition stout 

 able men walking alongside of a large sledge laden with 

 stores, and drawn by four magnificent horses we drove 

 down the west side of the harbour to what is called 

 Youghal Point, at its mouth, where we intended to ferry 

 over and proceed on our journey along the Bay de 

 Chaleur, through the parish of New Bandon. 



Along the shore of Bathurst Bay we passed through 

 some good farms, tolerably cultivated, very respectably 

 ploughed, and occupied generally by thriving and con 

 tented settlers. They are chiefly Scotch and Protestant 

 Irish from the north of Ireland. The use of lime and 

 salt mud, from the head of the harbour and the river- 

 mouths, shows that some ideas of improvement are 

 making their way among them. This salt black mud is 

 often really enriching, and is esteemed more highly than 

 the farmyard manure which the Saxons settlers here 

 are beginning to collect and apply to their land. 



On the sands which border the shore at Youghal 

 Point, I gathered the Myrica cerifera^ which is so abun- 



