72 TOWN OF EDMONSTON. 



Its banks are settled for about twelve miles above its 

 mouth, along' the road to Canada. From Edmonston to 

 the mouth of the Bivl^re de Loup on the St Lawrence, 

 is about seventy-six miles. Along this line of road, the 

 provincial mails are carried, and it is the usual route of 

 travellers from the one province to the other. 



Edmonston is a small village, with a comfortable inn, 

 which will hereafter, from its position, rise into conse- 

 quence. Being so near the border, it is an important 

 military position, and is therefore nominally protected 

 by a block-house, perched on the top of a rock. Above 

 it, on the St John, there is some rich intervale land. I 

 walked out to one farm upon this land, and found beautiful 

 crops of wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat, and potatoes. 

 The upland, immediately bounding the valley, is rocky 

 and forbidding 5 but, as on the lower part of the Mada- 

 waska district, the land is said to improve on going 

 farther inland. This inland country, however, is at 

 present inaccessible for want of roads. 



August 21st. — At six in the morning, we started on 

 our return, and drove half-way to the Grand Falls to 

 breakfast. Farms in this part of the valley, with one- 

 half cleared, may be had for about a pound an acre. That 

 of Mr Cyr, who gave us breakfast, consists of 350 acres, 

 with 150 cleared, and he valued it at £300 to £400. We 

 found a new house building here by a respectable Aca- 

 dian, who has hitherto lived and farmed on the American 

 side. On the settlement of the boundary, he became a 

 citizen of Maine, and was sent by his neighbours to the 

 state legislature. But he is tired of the new dominion, 

 and is building himself this house on the British side, that 

 he may live again under provincial laws and among his 

 own people only. 



The houses of the Acadian farmers look cleaner and 

 more comfortable without than they often do within. I 

 here entered one of them, and found myself in a large 



