14 
r 
must be noticed for tbeir magnificent scenery. But soon the defiles open* 
and the road loses its wild character as it enters Welsford and Douglas 
valleys. A few miles more brought the party to its destination, the 
log huts at Petersville. There are here only two huts, one for the 
officers and another for the men, and a cook house. The men's hut 
could only accommodate 120 men, so forty men were sent on about 
half a mile further, to an inn on the road where accommodation was 
provided for them. Officers and men slept on beds of young spruce 
boughs, and as there were stoves in both the huts, did not suffer much 
from the cold. 
At the end of this day's march, the Assistant-Quarter-Master-General 
at St John w r as informed by telegraph, of the safe arrival of the party. 
This was done (by order) every day. To the existence of the telegraph, 
along the whole line of march, must be attributed no small share of the 
success with which everything was carried out. If a detachment was 
detained at any place, by severe weather, it was telegraphed to all the 
halting places on the road, and all the detachments were delayed, till the 
stoppage was removed. In this way any overcrowding at any one 
station was prevented. Besides this the telegraph was of the greatest 
use on many occasions. 
Second Second day. —Fetersville to Fredericton, 38 miles . 
march. The two parties started at 7 and 8 a.m., the weather being 
a little overcast and milder, but the roads were still very heavy from 
the quantity of drift. The first ten miles of this day's journey was 
over a very hilly country ; on each side of the road for about one mile, 
the land is cleared and occupied by settlers. The greater part of these 
clearings, however, are only “ first clearings;" that is to say, the trees 
have been felled and burnt, the stumps being left in the ground, and a 
crop got off the land. The second clearing does not generally take 
place till eight years after the first, when the stumps being rotton they 
are easily removed. The houses occupied by the settlers are log huts, 
formed of rough logs placed one above another, the ends crossing. 
Behind the cleared land all appears to be forest, and forest which 
indicates poor land, viz. “ soft wood," that is to say, evergreen; viz. 
firs, spruce, pine, hacmatac or larch, and cedar. Good land is always 
indicated by the presence of “ hard wood," as it is called ; that is to say, 
trees which drop their leaves in autumn, viz. rock and white maple, oak, 
elm, ash and hazel. This appears to be caused by the nutriment 
afforded to the soil by the fallen leaves. 
After the first ten miles the clearings become less frequent, till at last 
the road passes through the forest, which is here all soft wood. About 
twenty miles from Petersville there are a few more clearings, and at 
twenty-two, a miserable inn called “ Perry's " from the name of the pro¬ 
prietor. Here the mid-day halt was made. The weather was now much 
overcast, and a slight fall of snow commenced which lasted the remainder 
of the day. After leaving the halting place, the character of the road 
continued much the same,—long stretches of woods with occasional 
clearings, till it strikes the St John river, at the village of Oromocto, 
situated at the mouth of the river of the same name, about eleven miles 
