VALLEY OF MADAWASKA. 71 



old Acadian French. Driven successively from one set- 

 tlement to another, during our struggles on the American 

 continent, the original French settlers in Nova Scotia had 

 finally found refuge in this remote district. They are 

 four or five thousand in number ; and as they occupied 

 both sides of the river, a portion of them were transferred 

 to Maine, when the river became the boundary. They 

 are all Eoman Catholics, and have three large chapels in 

 the district. 



It was pleasant to drive along the wide flat intervale 

 which formed the Madawaska Valley, to see the rich 

 crops of oats, buckwheat, and potatoes ; the large, often 

 handsome, and externally clean and comfortable-looking 

 houses of the inhabitants, with the wooded high grounds at 

 a distance on ourright,and the river on our left — on which 

 an occasional boat, laden with stores for the lumberers, 

 with the help of stout horses, toiled against the current 

 towards the rarely visited head-waters of the tributary 

 streams, where the virgin forests still stood unconscious 

 of the axe. 



Twelve miles below Edmonston, we dined at Kelly's. 

 We found him selling mixed white and black oats to 

 the lumberers at 2s. a bushel. He said Is. 3d. a bushel 

 would pay the cost of raising them. A little farther on, 

 we crossed the mouth of the Green Kiver, which comes in 

 from the north, and opposite to which, on the American 

 side, we saw the first of the large Roman Catholic chapels 

 of the district, beautifully situated at the foot of a cliff. 

 Within four miles of Edmonston, we passed the Mada- 

 waska chapel, a large and fine old building, with a com- 

 fortable preshyiere close by ; and soon after we met the 

 cheerful-looking, fatherly, fat old priest driving home in 

 his gig. About eight in the evening we reached Edmon- 

 ston, or the Little Falls, which was the limit of my 

 travels in this direction. 



The river Madawaska here comes in from the north. 



