e 



methods, by the impedimeuts raised by iutereyted persons who ure preju- 

 diced and easily ahirmed at the idea oi' any improvement or transforma- 

 tion, they set up a new state of alFairs based iipon the new processes of 

 .farming and the recent progress therein. 



You fear that, at the furthest habitations, you will meet with people 

 who have lost all recollection of their iormer existence or who have 

 always led a solitary and wild life. Yoii imagine that they will be awe- 

 struck ns you approach thom and hardly know how to answer or receive 

 you. 



Undeceive yourself. The people consist precisely, with but few 

 exceptions, of those who were most active and energetic in the old parishes. 

 Eather than emigrate to the United States, these sftthrs have resolved 

 first to try all they can do in the land of their i'orellithers and they haA'e 

 bravely and hardily penetrated into the heart of the forest. Tliey l)ring 

 with them ncw^ methods and new minds, and we see the settlements tliey 

 h;ive founded prospering much more rapidly than the old ones, endowed 

 as th(>y are with those modern improvements which sini})lii'y and fainlitato 

 agricultural operations. 



At Ste. Angele there are at least thirty mowers in use, besides other 

 agricultural implemt>nts, and this amongst a popul: ion which, l)arely 

 thirty years ago, Avas entirely without n'sources an.; greatly scattered. 



At that time the Matapedia road, which h;; < opened up to agricul- 

 ture the whole of the valley ol that name, had not yet been begun as it 

 dates only from i863. 



At present there are settlements on almost its entire length, and from 

 Sainte Flavie, which at that time was abi,u; the fnrthest inhabited point, 

 to Amqui, tin- last township of Mataiie. there are several parishes b ! ween 

 the Matapedia road and the line of the Inter(;olonial While on the siibject 

 of the Matapedia road, we may say that its construction in certain parts 

 was a very long and arduous undertaking. In some places it has cost 

 as uiUvh as four hu:idvcd dollars an acre owing to the diificnlr nature of 

 the work in consequence of the configuration of th' soil and the olisiacles 

 of all kinds which it presented. At the present day it is a lony- and 

 splendid means of communication and colonization, v.hich has contributed 

 at least as much as the Intercolonial itself towards the openiiig up of this 

 region. 



Not only w.is the Mataix.dia road, which preceded colonisation, not 

 in existence thirty years ago, but moreover there VTas no road, not even 

 a path, leading from the shore of the Saint Lawrence to the interior. 



Those who had horse's and vehicles with them were obliged to ferry 

 them aeross uniordable rivers upon planks laid acro.^s two canoes. 

 Thi'y went about at haphazard, selecting land as best they might from 



