62 BUCTOUCHE AND OHIO SETTLEMENTS. 



properly laboured, it was described as certain for potatoes 

 and grain, though inferior for grass. It is a country for 

 high-farming and a skilful rotation of crops. But the 

 farmers, chiefly native-born, (Blue-noses,) mixed with a 

 few Irish, were much in the condition of the Macintoshes 

 of the settlement of Glenelg. They had engaged in 

 lumbering to the neglect of their farms, and were suffer 

 ing in consequence ; but the conviction was now spread 

 ing among them that farming is a more certain means of 

 livelihood, in this country, than any other in which they 

 had hitherto been engaged. 



South of the Buctouche the country is occupied almost 

 solely by the Acadian French, .who are numerous in this 

 district, but, as elsewhere, are not great farmers. Instead 

 of proceeding by the direct post-road, as in our previous 

 journey, we turned to the left and rounded the coast. 

 The soil proved to be light ; and though it was usually 

 formed of red drift, the grey sandstone rocks come often 

 to the surface, and make it in many places difficult to cul 

 tivate, and poor in the returns it yields. Some ten miles 

 inland, and west of the post-road, the land improves ; 

 and a new French settlement the Ohio Settlement is 

 rapidly extending itself. From what I heard of the 

 rapidity with which the French are taking up and occu 

 pying this country, I suppose they must have something 

 of the faculty of family increase which distinguishes the 

 same race on the Lower St Lawrence.* 



On the right bank of the Cocagne Eiver, we found a 

 few English settled ; but the rest of the country, as far as 

 Shediac chiefly a rich red loam was in the hands of 

 the French. 



Shediac, as I have already said, is a scattered village 

 of about twenty good houses, occupied by storekeepers 

 and lawyers. It is a sea-port, also, with little trade, 

 and is chiefly famed for its oysters.f 



* See vol. i. p. 340. t Vol. i. p. 115. 



