MONEY EXPENDED ON ROADS. 29 



reached Douglastown before midnight. I have on one 

 occasion, in England, been out in an open carriage when 

 it was found impossible to proceed on account of the 

 darkness ; but in our open country we cannot understand 

 the utter blackness which descends upon a narrow road, 

 bordered by a thick natural forest of lofty trees, when 

 the short twilight of this season passes away, and clouds 

 obscure the sky. Fortunately our road was good, and 

 tolerably level, and the eyes of both our driver and his 

 horses were more accustomed to such wood-travelling 

 than myself; so that we crossed the Bartibog River in 

 safety, and reached our destination before midnight 

 without serious interruption. 



One observation is due to the colony, that in this 

 week s excursion I have found the roads everywhere 

 surprisingly good for so remote a district of so thinly 

 peopled a province. Indeed, for the large amount of 

 their expenditure on roads and bridges, the provincial 

 authorities are deserving of the highest commendation. 

 In the province of New Brunswick there are at present 

 upwards of 1270 miles of great or high roads, which are 

 entirely constructed and maintained out of the provincial 

 chest, and an indeterminate length of bye-roads, which 

 are maintained by local assessment more or less aided, 

 in the thinly-peopled districts, by legislative grants. 

 The sums expended for these purposes by authority of 

 the legislature, in the years 1847 and 1848 respectively, 

 were as follows : 



1847. 1848. 



Great roads, . 22,250 24,622 



Bye-roads, . 16,111 13,753 



38,361 38,375 



If, as I have elsewhere said,* the roads are, in all 

 countries, not only the most important agents in 



* Report on Agricultural Capabilities of the Province of New 

 Brunswick. Fredericton, 1850. 



