BLACK AND BUENED COUNTRY. 389 



hour, we started again for John Low's, on the small or 

 lower lake. This part of the road is not beset by so 

 many high hills and steep descents as between Mitis 

 and Frazer's ; but it is in many places nearly overrun 

 again with a natural growth of young trees, and the 

 roads are deep, stony, and full of holes, so that our pro- 

 gress was slow, and shaky in a very unpleasant degree. 

 The borders of this lower lake are not void of beauty ; 

 but it is a solitary abode for a small family, and neither 

 man nor wife in this hut looked as if they were spending 

 a happy life. 



From Low's to Noble's, a distance of eight miles, 

 though not hilly, was the most disagreeable of the 

 whole traverse. After a mile of tolerable road, came 

 two miles of the roughest and stoniest I ever travelled. 

 Every yard had its own jolt and shake in store for us, 

 which sixteen hours upon a hard seat had not prepared 

 me, at least, to undergo with a great degree of equani- 

 mity. And when we were clear of this bed of stones, 

 and were beginning to mend our pace a little, the sun 

 set, and the brief twilight had already nearly passed 

 away, when we came upon a gloomy, miserable-looking 

 burnt tract of land, sloping rapidly towards the Meta- 

 pediac River, blackened by thousands of charred stumps, 

 and intersected by numerous deep narrow valleys, often 

 mere gullies, with little streamlets descending through 

 the dark peaty soil which covered their bottoms. 



As we almost groped our way over this melancholy 

 tract, we found ourselves suddenly upon one extremity 

 of a bridge, the other end of which yawned like a black 

 gulf before us, and proved to have been burned. The 

 eyes of my Canadian companion were fortunately better 

 than my own, and the horse was pulled up in time to 

 prevent our being all precipitated into the brook below. 

 Having dismounted, we found an awkward steep descent 

 to the edge of the water, and by means of a temporary 



