16 NEW BANDON SETTLEMENT. 



fifty to one hundred feet above the level of the sea, 

 which beats against lofty cliffs, yet in many places this 

 land is so flat that the water rests upon- it, and alders 

 and puny spruce cover its often swampy surface. Where 

 the surface undulates, or gentle slopes prevail, hard 

 wood forests cover it, or clearings more or less extensive 

 show what all the district will become when arterial 

 drainage shall provide general outlets to the sea, and 

 thorough-drainage shall convey into these greater out 

 lets the superfluous water from the cleared and culti 

 vated fields. The fine soils I passed in many places 

 wholly unfit to bear, in others capable of bearing only 

 half a crop, from this natural superabundance of water 

 reminded me often of the rich red lands of the 

 Lothians, and of other parts of Scotland, to which 

 intelligent industry has imparted a material value, which, 

 through the aid of human skill, the Deity, no doubt, 

 intended it should attain. 



Immediately along the coast, the land is generally 

 cleared and cultivated. The New Bandon Settlement 

 was the first we passed through. The crops of oats 

 and potatoes were good and large, and the stubble- 

 ploughing which we saw very creditable. The settlers, 

 chiefly Roman Catholic Irish, originally from Bandon in 

 the county of Cork, are for the most part miserably 

 clothed, keeping wretched-looking houses, have much 

 dirt about themselves and their holdings, nasty-looking 

 pigs running about the doors of their dwellings, and 

 their land and fences, for the most part, in an untidy 

 condition. It is u Odd Ireland&quot; over again transplanted 

 here, little altered from its home appearance and fashions. 

 And it is so, most probably, because the settlers came 

 direct from their own country to this, and have had little 

 opportunity, since they left their island homes, of either 

 seeing or being taught anything not practised there. 



The farms of the first concession, through which the 



