the valleys. A single day’s journey in that direction will suffice 
to advance from the cultivated parts on the shores of Blind Bay in 
a southerly direction into those districts, where wood-cutters and 
shepherds form the farthest outposts of civilization, and a wilder- 
ness commences, the virgin-soil of which man has scarcely ever 
set foot upon , — a wilderness of bush , swamp , and rock. Each 
wood-cutter’s or shepherd’s hut, however scanty, which offers a 
hospitable shelter to the way-worn traveller, is valued as highly 
at these borders of an uninhabited wilderness as the Oases in the 
desert or a solitary island in the ocean. With peculiar feelings 
one loaves the last inhabited hut, for the purpose of exploring 
unknown regions, thence taking a direction, where there is no 
path to lead one on; and whereever the eye roves into the distance 
over hill and dale, no vestige of human beings is seen. With dif- 
ficulty one works a Avay through woods and thicket, and follows 
the river-banks across uniform grass-plains; with great trouble, and 
even with danger one crosses rapid mountain-streams, climbs over 
rocks and mountains, and in short, has all sorts of obstacles to 
encounter. No one can tell to where one will come , and with 
joyful surprise one views from open heights the novel landscape. 
Mountains, valleys and rivers are as yet without names; they are 
named according to the accidental notion or taste of the explorer, 
according to recollections from the dear old home, or after distant 
friends and acquaintances ; he fancies himself living in future periods, 
when all those plains and valleys will be inhabited even to the 
remotest snow-mountain, the hoary peaks of which are . looming up 
on the horizon; when commodious roads and lanes will enable the 
traveller to reach in one day the same point , to arrive at which 
weeks of toilsome and dangerous journey are required at present. 
H aving already given a detailed account of the coal-beds and 
gold-fields of the Province in former chapters, I shall here limit my 
remarks respecting the mineral treasures of the province to the copper 
and chrome-ore mines on the Dun Mountain, a few miles Southeast 
of the town. On approaching the harbour of Nelson from the high 
sea, a bare mountain ridge is seen rising to a height of about 
