46 PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF A COUNTRY. 



between the little Tracadi and the Tabusintac, on the 

 south-eastern shores of Gloucester County. 



Along either side of the Kouchibouguac the land is 

 good and strong ; but immediately south of this fringe it 

 resumed the light, sandy, impervious, and often wet and 

 boggy character I have already described bearing 

 stunted pines and rhodora, and, where free from water, 

 the sweet fern. And so it continued as we successively 

 crossed the rivers the Kouchibouguasis and the 

 Aldouane, all the way to Eichibucto. These two 

 streams, where the road passes over them, exhibited 

 less of that good land which is usually seen along the 

 banks of the rivers. 



1 may advert here to a reflection which frequently 

 crossed my mind, as I travelled over this and other parts 

 of the newer countries of North America, that an impor 

 tant distinction must often be drawn between the actual 

 or present and the future or possible capabilities of 

 tracts of land which lie on the same geological forma 

 tion, and of which the soils possess the same chemical 

 and mechanical characters. Absolutely considered, soils 

 which have the same geological, chemical, and mechani 

 cal relations ought to be equally productive. But if their 

 natural conditions be unlike in respect, for example, 

 to the drainage of water one may be of great imme 

 diate value, and be in little time, and with little cost, 

 rendered capable of supporting a large population 

 the other may be wholly useless, and may lie barren 

 and unimproved for numerous centuries. 



Thus, much of the absolutely good and capable red 

 land of the New Bandon district in the Bay de Chaleur, 

 and still more, perhaps, of the heavier land between the 

 Napan River and that of the Bay du Vin, is too wet for 

 cultivation, and often covered with swamps, because it is 

 too level to allow the surface-water a ready means of 

 escape. Yet this swampy and inhospitable tract, if laid 



