390 BURNED BRIDGES. 



bridge of logs, and then a steep climb, we gained the 

 road on the opposite side of the ravine. I was congra- 

 tulating myself that this difficulty had been got over 

 before the darkness had become more intense, when we 

 arrived at the top of a much steeper bank above another 

 burned bridge, and had again to grope our way on foot, 

 down one precipitous bank and up another — a labour 

 which, with the waggon behind it, our active and will- 

 ing little horse, much to my surprise, though with con- 

 siderable difficulty, accomplished. It was the steepest 

 breasting of a bank by a horse with anything behind 

 it I have ever seen, either before or since. It was a 

 help to us, in these difficult circumstances, that the 

 bridges along this road were all painted white, a cir- 

 cumstance known to my conductor, and which enabled 

 him to discover, before we came to the burned places, 

 that something was not as it should be in advance. I 

 was not sorry, however, when, in about half-an-hour 

 from this last bridge, through the midst of to me im- 

 penetrable darkness, the sound of a dog barking, and 

 soon after the gleam of a blazing fire through an open 

 door, announced that we had reached the end of this 

 long day's journey. 



The burning of the forests through all this country, 

 along the borders of the Metapediac Eiver, not only 

 renders it black and melancholy to look upon, but 

 actually injures the surface-soil in quality, renders it 

 incapable of easy settlement, and prevents the explorer 

 from judging, by the nature of the timber, what the 

 prospects of a cultivator on such land would be. 

 Through the carelessness of lumberers, Indians, and 

 other rovers in the woods, these forests have been 

 burned over and over again. This want of care there 

 is as yet no law to punish. The extraordinary heat 

 and drought of the present summer have particularly 

 favoured the spread of fires, and increased, beyond their 



