A line of railway, nearly completed, extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast of the Dominion.

New Brunswick lies between the 64th and 69th degrees of west longitude (from Greenwich) and between the 45th and 48th parallels of north latitude; that is to say the latitude of the Province is the same as that of Central France, Fredericton, the Capital, and nearly the geographical centre of the Province, being in the same latitude as the city of Lyons, France. The whole Province lies in a more southerly latitude than any part of the British Isles.

In shape New Brunswick is an irregular quadrilateral. Its greatest length from north to south and its greatest width from east to west are each about 200 miles.

Its area in square miles is 27,322; in acres, 17,394,410, or about the same as that of Scotland.

The population of the Province was 321,233 by the census of 1881.

ESTIMATE CONTENTS IN ACRES OF THE SEVERAL COUNTIES IN THE

THE COAST.

The Atlantic Ocean, or more properly speaking, arms of that ocean, wash the Province of New Brunswick on the north, east and south. On the south the Bay of Fundy, having an average width of about forty miles, separates New Brunswick from Nova Scotia, the two Provinces being united by the narrow Isthmus of Chignecto. The navigation of the Bay of Fundy is esteemed safe at all seasons of the year. On the east of the Province are the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Northumberland Straits; the width of the latter varying from ten to thirty miles. The Straits of Northumberland separates New Brunswick from Prince Edward Island. On the north of the Province is the Bay of Chaleur (Baie des Chaleurs) with an average width of twenty miles, separating New Brunswick from the peninsula of Gaspe, Quebec. The waters on the west and north are not navigable during the winter season, or on an average from December to April, because of the ice; but communication is maintained, more or less regularly, with Prince Edward Island at all seasons of the year.

The coast of New Brunswick is indented with many excellent harbors, some of them being of great capacity. Among those on the Bay of Fundy Coast are St. John, St. Stephen, St. Andrews, St. George, Lepreaux, St. Martins, Musquash, and the estuary of the Petitcodiac. On what is called the North Shore are Baie Verte, Shediac, Buctouche, Richibucto, Miramichi, Shippigan, Caraquet, Bathurst, Dalhousie and others. Besides those named there are numerous minor ports, and the principal rivers are navigable for oceangoing vessels for a considerable distance from the sea.

The coast of New Brunswick is supplied with an excellent system of lights and fog alarms, and shipwrecks are very

rare.

The Bay of Fundy and all ports upon its borders are open

for navigation at all seasons of the year. The harbor of St. John has never been known to freeze over, and the other bay harbors are rarely, if ever, obstructed by ice. These New Brunswick ports are the only harbors in America, north of Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, of which this can be said, and the fact is regarded as likely to be important in determining the Atlantic terminus of the Canadian transcontinental railway system, which is now on the eve of completion, and will unite the harbors on the Pacific with those on the Atlantic Coast of America, thereby affording a route from Great Britain to Eastern Asia more than one thousand miles shorter than any other. It is confidently hoped that a large portion of the trans-continental trade will be done by New Brunswick ports, in which event the commercial importance of the Province will be very greatly enhanced.

Among the harbors of New Brunswick, which have been looked upon as likely to become very important termini of ocean and continental traffic are those of Shippegan, in Gloucester County, Chatham and Newcastle in Northumberland County, St. John and St. Andrews.

Lying off the Coast of New Brunswick are numerous islands, which are included in the Province. Of these the principal are Grand Manan, Campobello and the West Indies in the Bay of Fundy; and Shippegan and Miscou, which separate the Bay Chaleur from the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

CHAPTER V.

THE SURFACE OF THE COUNTRY.

The surface of New Brunswick is undulating. There are no extensive level plains, and no high mountain ranges. Along the river valleys are low, flat areas, of alluvial deposit, known as intervals, and from these the country rises to what would be a low table land, if it were not intersected in all directions by the courses of streams, which give a succession of gently rising hills and broad valleys. A few isolated mountain peaks break the otherwise smooth. outline of the landscape, but they are never of great altitude. The highest known elevation in New Brunswick is Bald Mountain, treeless, on the shore of Nictau lake, in the central part of the Province. Its summit is less than three thousand feet above the sea level. Immediately to the south of Bald Mountain is a rough and broken area, by estimation forty miles square, containing a large number of elevations generally conical in shape and none known to exceed 3,000 feet in height; but outside of this there is no large consecutive area in the Province not adapted for settlement. Tracts of rough and broken land, on which the soil is thin, are met with in other parts, but they are of comparatively small extent. The proportion which the waste land, that is land not suited for agriculture, bears to the whole area of the Province is not more than one quarter, or in other words, the area of arable land may be estimated at 13,000,000 acres.

The remainder is not to be considered as valueless, as much of it is covered by forests of commercial value, and a large part of it has been pronounced by competent authority to be well suited for sheep-raising. There is, practically speaking, no barren, or absolutely waste land in New Brunswick.

In 1849, Prof. J. F. W. Johnston, F. R. S., made a report upon the agricultural capabilities of the Province. He estimated the area, including the best upland, capable of producing two tons of hay or forty bushels of oats to the acre at 1,000,000 acres. At this time a large section of the Province had not been explored, and Prof. Johnston qualified his estimate by saying that a fertile belt of first-class upland might be found to extend across the northern portion of the Province. It is now known that such a belt does exist, althought its exact area is not ascertainable, in the absence of accurate surveys; but enough is known of it, and sufficiently large areas of first-class land, unknown thirty years ago, are to be found in other parts of the Province to warrant an estimate of 3,000,000 acres as the extent of land of this quality in New Brunswick.* Of this area less than

one-half has been taken up by settlers, and the remainder is now open, and will be made available for settlement by the construction of roads through it, as rapidly as the demand justifies.

Of second-class upland, that is of land capable of producing one and a half tons of hay or thirty bushels of oats to the acre, Prof. Johnston estimated that there was an area of 7,000,000 acres; and this is probably quite accu-·

*This is my own estimate made from data of my own collecting. I have found that it agrees with the estimate made by Prof. Hind, F. R. G. S., in 1865. He says in his report to the Government of New Brunswick: "The area of first-rate upland soil within the limits of the Province was estimated by Prof. Johnston to be about one million acres; it is satisfactory to know that further experience suggests the idea that this estimate is too low, and that in the almost inaccessible river valleys, respecting which Prof. Johnston could obtain no information, sixteen years since, without undertaking a journey through an unbroken wilderness, there is an available area of upland soil which will increase his estimate at least one-half, and an area of interval and valley land which may be reasonably assumed not less than 3,000,000 acres, instead of 1,050,000, as estimated by Prof. Johnston."