9 



In order to establish communication between Ste. Angele and the 

 interior of the region, the Provincial Government, at the request of Dr 

 Fiset, M. P. and H. E. Monsignor C. Gruay, A. I'., a new apostle of coloni- 

 zation, had a road opened as far as lac il CAnguille, twenty one miles from 

 the village of Ste-Angele, following, as closely as possible, the course of 

 the Kiver Metis. 



Last summer, in the space of five weeks only, Messrs Corriveau and 

 Elzear Pelk^tier, who were entrusted with the undertaking, succeeded 

 in making seventeen miles of excellent road and had to give up the work 

 from want of funds after having exjiended the sum of ijiiOOJ, whii'h is 

 assuri'dly very slight in comparison with a work of such importance. 



I went over this road and I found isolated settlements such as those 

 I have already mentioned. Hitherto the pi'0V>le living there could ojily 

 get to kSainte Angele in winter on the ice of the liiver Metis, to take their 

 produex' down and bring back their supplies. 



Most of them are emi)loyed by the firm of Price Brothers & Co., who 

 carry on lumbering on the river and throughout the adjoining country. 



Although pine has been pretty well exh.iusted, there still remains a 

 great deal of spruce which the Messrs Price export laru<'ly. 



About thirty vears ago this section was ravaged by fire and the 

 forests burned leavinu' here and there some i^iant trees vvhosi^ trunks can 

 still be seen along the new road which, with the permission of the 

 Premier, we will call the Fis^a road. These trees are generally black 

 birch and their compaiiious were fine maples, large l)ass-wood trees and 

 elms with wade-spreading branches. They have all disappeared and are 

 replaced by a second growth which, unfortunately, will never have the 

 vigour nor the value of that which precedvd it. 



We are hardly out of the ibri'st through which we have driven for 

 sevenieini miles over a colonization road, than we experience a great relief. 

 We l)reathe freely as if we had emerged from a tunnel and it is with 

 undisguised i)leasurc that we again see the open country, the long fields 

 with abundant crops and the white houses w^hich appear in the valley. 



The next day after a good night's rest and a breakfast at which 

 proudly figured the enormous new potatoes from Francois Corriveaxx's 

 lields, and his exoellent-home made bread which was remarkably light 

 and appetizing, we bade a-lieu to the parish of t^ainte Angele and at once 

 commenced a stories of formidable ascents interspersed with almost as 

 perilous descents, in order to reach the next parish of Saint Gabriel over 

 the exctdlent Tache road which was opened some years ago to enable 

 persons to settle in rear of the old seigniories. Unfortunately no sufficient 

 preliminary surveys were made in order to find a good line for this road, 

 so it has been run through a region full of interminable hills, while if it had 



