308 LIFE OP AUDUBON. 



whole country is poor, very poor, yet under tolerable cultiTation 

 all the way. We passed the seat of Mr. Jeffries, the President 

 of the Assembly, now Acting Governor ; his house is good-looking, 

 large, and the grounds around it are in fine order. It is situated 

 between two handsome fresh-water lakes; indeed the whole 

 country through which we travelled is interspersed with lakes, all 

 of them abounding in trout and eels. 



"We passed the college and common school, both looking 

 well, and built of fine freestone ; a church and several other fine 

 buildings line the road, on which the president and rector reside. 

 We crossed the head of the St. Croix Kiver, which rolls its 

 waters impetuously into the Bay of Fundy. Here the lands were 

 all dyked, and the crops looked very well, and from that river to 

 Windsor the country improved rapidly. 



" Windsor is a small and rather neat village, on the east side 

 of the Eiver Windsor, and is supported by the vast banks of 

 plaster of Paris around it. This valuable article is shipped in 

 British vessels to Eastport and elsewhere in large quantities. 



" Our coach stopped at the door of the best private boarding- 

 house, for nowhere in this province have we heard of hotels. 

 The house was full, and we went to another, where, after waiting 

 two hours, we obtained an indifferent supper. The view from 

 this village was as novel to me as the coast of Labrador. The 

 bed of the river, which is here about one mile wide, was quite 

 bare as far as the eye could reach, say for ten miles, scarcely any 

 water to be seen, and yet the place where we stood was sixty- 

 five feet above the bed, which plainly showed that at high tide 

 this wonderful basin must be filled to the brim. Opposite us, 

 and indeed the whole country, is dyked in ; and vessels left dry 

 at the great elevation, fastened to the wharves, had a singular 

 appearance. We are told that now and then some vessels have 

 slid sideways from the top of the bank down to the level of the 

 gravelly bed of the river. The shores are covered for a hundred 

 yards with a reddish mud. This looks more like the result of a 

 great freshet than of a tide, and I long to see the waters of the 

 sea advancing at the rate of four knots an hour to fill this basin, 

 a sight I hope to see to-morrow." 



August 28. Here follows the description of the extraordinary 

 rise and fall of the waters, and they are evidently the notes 



