78 TOWN OF AMHERST. 



that New Brunswick was barely able to produce food 

 enough for its existing population, and could of itself 

 sustain no increase of inhabitants. The limited tract 

 before me, rightly treated, was sufficient alone to supply 

 all the shipping, and to feed half the people now living 

 in the province of New Brunswick. 



Leaving Fort Cumberland, another hour s pleasant ride 

 over the marsh, the intervening Fort Lawrence Ridge, 

 and the rivers Missiquash and La Planche brought 

 us to Amherst. This town, which is in the province of 

 Nova Scotia, is beautifully situated on the slope of the 

 high-lands which bound the marshes on the south 

 eastern side. Though small, it possessed the air of 

 cheerfulness which attends all the settlements we have 

 seen since we crossed the Gaspereau River, at the head 

 of the Bay Verte. The taste for external decoration 

 which is visible in the houses of the French habitants, in 

 their more prosperous settlements, seems to have sur 

 vived the old Acadian race by whom this district was 

 originally held. Neat houses and white-washed walls, 

 with occasional balconies and porticoes, give a pleasing 

 character to the rural architecture of the settlements 

 and villages which are scattered around the head-waters 

 of the Bay of Fundy, and on the isthmus which sepa 

 rates them from the Gulf of St Lawrence. 



South of Amherst a few miles, the rivers Hebert, 

 Macan, and Napan fall into the Cumberland Basin ; 

 and where their united mouths open into the Basin, 

 stands the small town of Minudie, which is accessible 

 by a ferry-boat from the Amherst marsh. With the 

 intention of crossing to this place, and of proceeding 

 afterwards to the well-known cliffs called the Joggins, 

 some miles beyond, we drove down to the ferry along 

 some miles of beautiful upland, and then across the 

 alluvial dyked marsh. The flat consisted of rich heavy 

 clay, dried partially by open ditches, and mostly under 



