334 VALUE OF LAND AND LABOUR. 



Saturday. During the latter half of the first stage, as I 

 descended towards the Isle d'Orleans, the mouth of this 

 river gradually opened on the other side of the St 

 Lawrence, and the morning sun, shining on the broad 

 white sheet of its falling waters, made it, in some respects, 

 a more striking and impressive feature in the land- 

 scape, than when seen, with its accompanying roar and 

 mist, from the immediately adjoining rocks over which it 

 is precipitated. 



By half-past two, I had reached St Thomas — a 

 distance of thirty miles. The land, in general, was 

 good ; for the most part lig' t, and easily worked, but 

 sometimes of a stiff clay. As I passed through the 

 parish of St Michel, eight or ten miles below Point Levi, 

 I was informed that the crops it yielded were somewhat 

 less than two hundred bushels of potatoes, or a ton of 

 hay, an acre, and that it sold from four to four and a half 

 dollars. It is let sometimes on halves, or for a money 

 rent of eight shiUings an arpent. Labour costs one 

 shilling and eightpence to two shillings currency a-day 

 in summer ; but in the short days of winter not more 

 than one shilling a-day. Men are hired by the year at 

 eight to ten pounds currency, with board and lodging. 

 Labour, therefore, is cheaper here than in either Upper 

 Canada or New Brunswick — perhaps the services of 

 French Canadians are in reality not so valuable. 



In the back or more inland country, where the land 

 belongs to the province, new Concessions are being 

 established by the Government, in which sixty-acre farms 

 — two acres in front and thirty backwards — are offered 

 in fee-simple for thirty dollars, or at the rate of two 

 shillings sterling an acre. There are no new settlers 

 in these counties ; but the native proprietors, as my 

 informant stated, readily save money enough to establish 

 their sons on such new farms. Where a man has 

 several sons, he is allowed to select adjoining grants for 



