simple mode of bringing the land first into cultivation. It seemed to me almost incredible, that corn could be grown in a forest of stumps for several succeeding years, merely on the strength of the land, without amendment, except the ashes of the burnt trees; that by merely scratching the surface with a light plough, it could be prepared for the next crop; and that agricultural operations could be carried on with success for a period of ten or twelve years, till the roots of the trees rotted out of the ground of themselves. What if the life of the husbandman be a laborious one!-if a man be obliged to work hard for his bread, so long as he has youth and strength, and breathes the air of a bracing climate, why should he not?

'The neighbourhood of Digby appeared to me particularly eligible; for the town was a thriving little sea-port: boats of a large size were built in her docks, and the sea abounded with several good sorts of fish. A small species of herring afforded the inhabitants almost a staple commodity. They are extremely delicate, and are salted in great quantities every year. They have gained the nick-name of Digby chickens, and are exported to different parts of the province in barrels.'-pp. 37-40.

Nova Scotia, then, to one who saw it under all the discomforts of a December journey, appeared no undesirable country for an emigrant. Of its value, indeed, as a colonial possession, the frequent contests in which France and England were engaged for it, are sufficient proof. Happily for the inhabitants, it is long since their well-being has been disturbed as in former times, and they have prospered accordingly. Within the memory of Mr. Uniacke, the attorney-general of that province, they have increased from eleven thousand to one hundred thousand, although the facilities of emigrating thither have been greatly impeded, by some regulations for the conveyance of passengers, humanely intended for their protection. These regulations required that in every ship which took out emigrants, there should be a medical man on board, a medicine chest, and a certain quantity of pork and bread provided, according to the numbers; but an enactment, which originated in benevolence, has, by raising the expense of the passage from 31. 10s. or 4l., to 9l. or 10., had the effect of keeping people at home' in a state of actual starvation, whose little means, if left to themselves to make use of, would have enabled them to escape from that state.' It has, in fact, almost put an end to the voluntary emigration, except by way of Newfoundland, to which country the regulations do not extend, or from ports where they are not enforced. The Irish emigrant,' says Mr. Uniacke, in his evidence before the committee on emigration, has not been accustomed to pork, and knows not what it is to be in a bed; if you put him in a bed and give him pork and flour, you make the man

G 2

sick;

sick; but when he comes out to Newfoundland, he gets no more than his breadth and length upon the deck of the ship; he has no provision but his bag of oatmeal, some potatoes, and a few herrings, and he comes out a hearty man.'* In the year 1824-5, some three hundred settlers from the north of Scotland, found means to evade the regulations which were designed for their benefit, and their passage to Cape Breton did not cost them more than 50s, or 3l. each, for they provided for themselves; all that the master of the vessel looks to, is to see that they have a pound of oatmeal for every day he calculates the passage to run,-from four to five weeks; every man brings a pound of oatmeal for every day, and half that quantity for a child, with, perhaps, about half a pint of molasses, a little butter, and a few eggs; the master provides them with water, and they pay from 30 to 35s.' These settlers went out at their own expense; not a mouthful of provisions, nor any assistance of any kind was given them by government, except the land which was allotted them by Sir James Kempt; and they prospered so well and so soon, that in 1826 it was said, there was not a happier set of people in Scotland, than those who had so lately left it under the pressure of extreme penury.

Irish emigrants are settled in this province as cheaply as they used to be transported thither. About fifty bushels of potatoes, and half a barrel of herrings, will subsist a family (and well,' Mr. Uniacke says) for a year, and the next, they are able to provide for themselves. The first five families that he settled at a place called Irish Town, had not five shillings amongst them; those families were increased five-fold in the course of five years, for they wrote home to their friends, saying how comfortably they were placed, and those friends then raised heaven and earth' to join them.

Every year brings out an addition; the old settlers can now receive their countrymen and relations that come out; there are potatoes and provisions for them, and the colony is increasing at the rate of about seven or eight families every year. They have given me,' says this gentleman, I believe between 70l. and 80%., which they have saved out of their earnings, to apply in sending out their relations and friends. The last time I visited that place, I asked them how they were situated, and they said, "Tell our old masters at home that we would not exchange situations with them!"'

These poor people, who dispose thus generously of their first earnings, would, in all likelihood, have been Rockites had they remained in their own country, engaged in conspiracy, arson, and murder, in obedience to that secret tribunal which defies the go

First Emigration Report, p. 38.

vernment,

vernment, and sits in judgment upon its magistrates and those who dare attempt to execute the laws. From how much guilt as well as misery are such persons saved by emigration! The orphan children, who are thrown upon the poor list at Halifax by the army and navy, are even more easily provided for; at four or five years old the farmers gladly take them as apprentices, and treat them in all respects as their own children; the girls are brought up to spinning, milking, and the work of the dairy, the boys in all kind of agricultural business. The stipulation is, that the farmer gives the child a ewe for the first year, and a heifer calf for the second, keeps that sheep and heifer, with all their produce, till the apprentice comes of age, and the apprentice has then a portion, of cattle in both kinds to settle with, on her marriage, if a girl, if a male, in farming stock. Numerous as are such orphans, the demand for labourers is so great, that half the numbers which are applied for cannot be supplied. How beneficially for themselves, and advantageously for their parishes, might many of our friendless orphans be thus disposed of!

From Digby Mr. Head crossed to St. John's, and found, at so short a distance as six-and-thirty miles, a very perceptible difference of climate,-the inhabitants themselves estimate a fortnight's difference in the season. The next point of his journey was Fre dericton (eighty-one miles) on the river St. John's; the usual winter route is upon the frozen river, but the season, though particularly severe, was not sufficiently advanced for travelling with any confidence upon the treacherous ice. A two-horse sleigh was hired for seven pounds, and he provided himself with a buffalo apron, consisting of two skins sewed together and lined with baize; this, which was warm as sheepskin, and of very large dimensions, was to be his friend by day and by night;' by day to defend his knees and feet from the weather, by night to supply the insufficiency of covering in the beds and places where he might have to lie down. This was a journey of two days, in part through the forest, but mostly on the river.

Large serpentine tracts of water were to be seen in many parts, and heaps of broken ice, forced up by the strength of the current, lay ranged on each side in considerable profusion. From some country people whom we met we were told, that the passage was not safe; but that the road on the opposite bank was already sufficiently broken to render it tolerably good. The driver, therefore, bore away for the shore, which we were some time in reaching, being obliged to go out of our way frequently to avoid the weak and unsafe places. At last, when within about a couple of hundred yards from the land, there seemed a clear sheet of ice, over which the driver urged his horses at a brisk trot; when all at once the ice suddenly gave way, and down

went

went the horses head foremost into a hole. We were going so fast, that I was flung out a long way clear of the water; and as soon as I could get up, I ran back to render my assistance. One of the horses had already scrambled out, but the other was lying on his side in the water, with his head stretched out over the forward end of the hole, and supporting himself by his cheek and all the strength of his neck on the ice. The hole was nearly round, and the diameter rather more than the length of the horse; but as the ice about it was full a foot and a half thick, the sleigh had jammed at the other end, and his hind quarters were supported by the breeching. The poor creature lay without struggling, although the day was bitter cold, and he had sunk so low, that his head only was above the surface of the water. In this dilemma the driver, having freed the other horse from his harness, slipped a noose of rope round the drowning animal's neck, upon which we pulled till he seemed nearly strangled: and this operation is called in the country, very properly," choking." Whether it was that he floated by means of the air thus forcibly retained in his lungs, as the driver asserted, or whether our united efforts caused him to rise, I cannot say, but so he did: and we had not continued to tug long, before out he slipped on his side, and, after a few kicks and struggles, stood frightened and shivering once more on his feet on the ice. We got to the shore after all with some difficulty; for the ice was broken away for so great a distance from the edge of the river where we attempted to land, that it was with very great labour that the horses could drag the vehicle over the hard snow and shingle which obstructed their progress. Although the poor horse had been nearly a quarter of an hour in the water, and the other also was perfectly wet from the accident, both soon recovered themselves, and before we had gone a couple of miles were quite as well as ever.

"The above may be cited as an instance of the hardihood of the North American horse, of which less care is taken, notwithstanding the severity of the climate, than in England. The cold, severe as it is, seems to agree with them very well, and they are continually kept standing out of doors, without mercy, after being violently heated. The fact is, that the cold keeps down all tendency to inflammatory attacks, and a striking instance of this occurs with regard to flesh wounds. They are frequently receiving injuries between hair and hoof from the calk or spike of the frosted shoe, so severe as would be reckoned a serious accident in England; however, they are worked invariably without bad consequences, and few of the farmers' horses are to be met with whose hoofs do not show a succession of scars, which remain till pared away in process of time, at the bottom, by the blacksmith. Many of the horses of the country have good blood, being the progeny of stock formerly imported by the Duke of Kent; and others of good substance and action are now and then brought from the United States. The hay is bad everywhere,-like Irish hay, dried without being allowed to heat, and then thrown into a barn or stacked under an open shed. Notwithstanding all these disadvantages,

to

to which it may be added, that the stables generally are miserably protected from the weather, horses now and then arrive from England, very soon become perfectly reconciled to all their difficulties, and thrive as well as the rest.—p. 54-58.

Man, as well as horse, bears transplantation to this rigorous climate without injury. Rheumatic diseases, which are of all others most prevalent in England, are not frequent there, though little precaution is taken against them in the way of clothing, flannel being less worn than in this country. Nor are the inhabitants, as in remoter regions of the north, stunted in their growth: in stature, Mr. Head says, they certainly exceed Englishmen ; and he calls them a fine, healthy, hardy race. In two respects only the climate seems to injure them; wrinkles are early formed, especially about the eyes, which he imputes to the increased action of the muscles in that part occasioned by cold, and by the glare of sunshine reflected from snow; and the teeth decay very soon: this he ascribes to the cold; but there must be some other cause, because the Indians, in the same climate, are not thus affected, and the Americans, in a milder part of the adjoining states, are.

At Fredericton it was necessary to equip for the remainder of his journey, there being no place on the way before him where the necessary articles for such a journey could be procured. These were rackets or snow shoes; mocassins, the well-known skin sandals, so made for travelling, that with a piece of blanket by way of sock, they protect well both from wet and cold; and tobogins, which are small sledges, for the conveyance of baggage drawn by men, and so well contrived, that the load (from one hundred to one hundred and forty pounds) being laced tightly on it in a tobogin bag, the whole forms a compact mass, that may be dragged among stumps of trees, and rolled over in the snow without injury. The next point upon his journey was Presque Isle, eightythree miles distant, farther than which there was no proceeding by any kind of carriage, but to that place a French inhabitant agreed to take him with a two-horse sleigh for eight guineas. From thence the usual route to the St. Lawrence is along the bed of the river St. John's, which is so wide and so exposed to the wind, that the snow is far too deep to be passed in any other way than on foot in snow shoes. This way the mail is conveyed, and Mr. Head intended, as the best and safest mode, to accompany it, and travel with the postmen from Presque Isle to Quebec, the usual mode for those whom urgent business induces to undertake so dreadful a journey.

On new year's day, he started from Fredericton,-along the bank of the river, through deep, untrodden snow, and, at a ploughing pace, delayed occasionally by drifts, through which the

horses