A DISCONTENTED SCOTCHMAN. 93 



is much excellent intervale land ; and for upwards of 

 twenty miles above its mouth, the cleared lands are 

 occupied by the descendants of old soldiers of the Black 

 Watch, (42d,) who obtained grants here in 1783, at the 

 end of the American war. They have among them many 

 fine farms, but their clearings have as yet extended only 

 a short distance into the upland. 



Across the portage to Boistowm — about twenty miles 

 — the country is comparatively level, and the soil is light, 

 sandy, stony, and often poor. Its appearance was injured 

 by the excessive drought, and the real agricultural 

 value of the surface has been lessened by the frequent 

 forest-burnings. At present it is almost naked of trees, 

 and in many places forms for miles one continued fern 

 brake. 



After leaving the banks of the Nashwauk, we crossed 

 some miles of a bilberry swamp — in other words, a bog 

 on which bilberries grow. Half-way, we stopped to bait ; 

 and, on indifferent land, found, among other settlers, a 

 Mr Duncan, a Scotchman. His farm consists of two 

 hundred acres, for w^hich he paid, when he came here, 

 £100, ten acres being in crop. " I have plenty to eat," 

 he said, " but I would rather pay £4 an acre for land in 

 Aberdeenshire than be here on my own land. A man who 

 w^ould make his living by clearing land, in this country, 

 must work more like a slave than a farmer." 



Mr Duncan had settled himself on an unfavoured spot, 

 and was naturally enough dissatisfied. And many such 

 discontented and disappointed, and therefore restless and 

 unhappy people, are to be found in all the newly-settled 

 countries of North America, whether in the British pro- 

 vinces or in the United States. 



Two things, indeed, cannot be too strongly impressed 

 upon those who are about to emigrate. First^ That those 

 w^ho wish to get through the world easily — who are not 

 prepared both for privations and for very hard w^ork — had 



