ISTHMUS OF THE BAY VERTE. 73 



below, a considerable tract of which is attached to each 

 farm. Darkness came on at this period of our journey, 

 so that we could not judge of the farming upon this 

 good land. We stopped for the night at Henderson s, 

 near the extremity of the settlement. 



26th. We were now on one of the head-branches of 

 the Bay of Fundy, and among marsh-lands enriched 

 by the mud with which the upper waters of this bay are 

 loaded. A narrow neck of land, only fifteen miles in 

 width, separates Bay Verte, on Northumberland Straits, 

 from Cumberland Bay, which is an arm of the Bay of 

 Fundy. This neck of land is low, not, if I am rightly 

 informed, exceeding at its highest point 18 to 20 

 feet above high-water on the Bay of Fundy side. 

 Across it, from some small marshy lakes, which stand 

 at the highest level, flows the Missiquash, in one direc 

 tion, towards the Bay of Fundy ; and in the contrary 

 direction, a small stream, which is sometimes dry in 

 summer, towards the Bay Verte. The union of the two 

 seas across this neck has been often projected, by canals 

 and by railways. Projects have even been seriously 

 entertained, and surveys made, but nothing has yet 

 been done to carry them into effect. That such a junc 

 tion would greatly benefit both the adjoining provinces, 

 there can be no doubt; and that it will be hereafter 

 executed, there can be as little. Perhaps, in the compa 

 ratively infant state of the district, and of those which 

 adjoin it, any project of an independent and isolated 

 kind is still premature. But, should the great scheme 

 now in agitation for the formation of what has been 

 called the European and North American Railway to 

 connect all the provinces with the railways in Maine, 

 and with the point in Nova Scotia which lies nearest to 

 Ireland be carried into effect, it will pass across this 

 isthmus, and, touching the Bay Verte, will be connected, 

 by a short branch, with the head-waters of the Bay of 



