GLOOM OF THE BURNED LAND. 95 



Boistown, on the South-west MiramlchI River, which 

 runs eastward and falls into Miramichi Bay, an inlet of 

 the Gulf of St Lawrence. This place was formerly the 

 seat of a thriving lumber-trade, which has now almost 

 ceased, owing to the failure of the principal adventurer 

 by whom it was carried on. A scattering of the popu- 

 lation has in consequence taken place, and many indi- 

 vidual losses and social derangements have been occa- 

 sioned, which it will require a considerable time to repair 

 and adjust. Thirteen miles farther brought us to Nel- 

 son's, through virgin forests of pine growing on a poor 

 sandy soil. The straw of the grain crops was every- 

 where short, and the rain had not reached the roots of 

 the potatoes since they were planted. It was no season 

 forjudging fairly of the capabilities of the soil. 



August 26th. — After breakfast, we left Nelson's for 

 Chatham. The country continued poor, gravelly, sand}^, 

 or stony, with occasional boulders, sometimes of granite, 

 but chiefly of the grey sandstone of the coal measures, 

 which extend across the province from the St John at 

 Fredericton to the Gulf of St Lawrence. 



Throughout the whole of this day's journey, the effects 

 of the dreadful fire of 1825 were visible in the blackened 

 stems of the tall upright dead trees, which still stood 

 undecayed, as far as the eye could see, over the gloomy 

 hills and flats. On newly burned land the purple Epilo- 

 hium waved its graceful leaves and purple flowers around 

 the blackened trunks, and concealed in beauty the 

 scorched underwood and fallen branches. But on these 

 old burned lands the desolation was more complete, and 

 a more sullen gloom still rested over the doomed surface. 

 The substance of the soil is gone, it is said, where the 

 burning has been too severe. The vegetable matter, I 

 suppose, is consumed ; and this, where no living trees are 

 shedding their annual leaves, it must take many years to 

 restore. Many striking facts were told us regarding this 



