18 INHOSPITABLE QUARTERS. 



should have passed an agreeable evening ; but from that 

 day we always looked forward with dislike to the neces 

 sity, which occasionally occurred, of lodging in the 

 houses of persons who were too proud to receive us in 

 the character of public entertainers. We always found 

 ourselves on such occasions most uncomfortable, worst 

 served, and at the greatest cost. But this is an evil which 

 is incident to every new and little-travelled country. 



Oct. 16. After an early breakfast we left Ritchie s. 

 He had a farm of good land, of great capabilities, bear 

 ing, among other crops, an excellent field of turnips, but 

 partaking of the character of over-wetness, which dis 

 tinguishes the district. 



After a drive of six miles, we ascended a hardwood 

 ridge of fine land, where the village of Grande Ance is 

 situated. It is occupied by French habitants, who hold 

 nearly the whole of the extreme north-eastern part of 

 the province we are about to pass through. They are a 

 better-looking body of men, are better farmers, and have 

 better houses, than the majority of those of the same 

 blood we had seen on our way to Bathurst from Dal- 

 housie, or than I passed through last week on the Lower 

 St Lawrence. This is no doubt to be ascribed in some 

 measure to the superior quality of the land held by them 

 here, and to the other advantages they enjoy along the 

 shore. It is easily worked, and they have abundant sup 

 plies of sea-weed and of fish-refuse. They have good 

 ploughmen among them, they fish a little, and they pay 

 some attention to manuring the land with the products 

 of the sea. 



Man can perform wonders on the soil, but the 

 character of the soil also not always, but often reacts 

 upon him, and depresses or exalts his intellectual and 

 social position according as its capabilities may be. Too 

 profuse in its productions, or too stinted, it equally tends 

 to debase, while moderate fertility keeps both the body 



