61 



January and February, the labour of artisans in 

 out-door employments is rarely suspended many 

 days in succession. 



From the climate of a country, its soil comes 

 under notice by a sort of natural transition. 

 On making a calculation of the superficial con- 

 tents of the area enclosed between the two 

 principal ranges of mountains before spoken of, 

 about l6,028,000square acres may be computed 

 to include the greater part of the land in the lower 

 province yet surveyed that is capable of being 

 turned to any favourable account in an agricul- 

 tural point of view. In so great an extent un- 

 doubtedly every gradation of quality between 

 very bad and very good is to be found ; but it 

 would be attended with some difficulty to state 

 with tolerable correctness the relative proportion 

 of each kind. Sensible that, in thus generalising 

 the whole, only an imperfect sketch can be 

 given, it is my intention that as much care as 

 possible shall be used to render the subject 

 more clear and familiar when treating the dif- 

 ferent districts and divisions topographicallj^ 

 For the present then it may suffice to say, that 

 with respect to goodness, the eastern parts are 

 inferior to the western, being of a more irre- 

 gular and uneven surface, in many places con- 

 sisting of a light soil of a sandy nature laid upon 

 a stratum of perfect sand or gravel ; in others it 



