quantity of butter made was 237,172 pounds; of maple sugar, 37,520 pounds; of iron smelted, 770 tons; and of lime burned, 840 casks.

The completion of the railway from St. Andrews to Woodstock, by giving ready access to the sea at all seasons, will throw open the resources of this county in timber and iron, and rapidly develop its great agricultural capabilities.

VICTORIA.-Next to Northumberland, this is the largest county in the province. It comprises all the land on the St. John and its tributaries, above Carleton county, which belongs to New Brunswick, and a large portion of territory watered by the upper tributaries of the Restigouché. It is bounded by the State of Maine on the west, by Canada to the north, and by the counties of Northumberland and Restigouché on the east.

Victoria contains 2,872,000 acres, of which only 345,600 acres are granted; the remaining 2,526,400 acres are still vacant. The quantity of cleared land in 1851 was but 26,834 acres, and the population 5,408 souls.

The ranges of high land which cross this county, are generally of the primitive rocks; bold and rugged in their outlines, they give the country a wild and romantic aspect. But although much of the surface is elevated, and rises into lofty eminences, there are not many abrupt precipices, and in general the slopes are not too steep for cultivation. Along the St. John, the belts of alluvial land become more and more narrow; but there are terraces along the whole course of the river, composed of successive deposits of alluvium, sometimes consisting of five different steps, indicating that number of changes in the level of the

stream.

There are six parishes in Victoria, thus designatedAndover, Madawaska, Perth, Saint Basil, Saint Francis, and Saint Leonard. The shire town is Colebrooke, a village situate at the Grand Falls of the St. John, which are about 200 miles from the sea. A sudden turn in the river

at this place, forms a little peninsula, upon which the village is placed. The whole waters of the St. John are precipitated over a ledge of rocks seventy-four feet in height, and then rush wildly through a narrow rocky gorge of three-quarters of a mile, descending in that distance forty-five feet. The difference of level between the waters in the basin at the head of the falls, and the waters of the basin at the foot of the rocky gorge, up to which the lower St. John is navigable for tow-boats, and sometimes for small steamers, is 119 feet. Squared timber and round logs, from the extensive forests on the upper St. John and its numerous tributaries, are passed over the falls and down the rocky gorge, but not without considerable loss and damage, even under the most favorable circumstances. All merchandise and supplies for the upper country are hauled by horses across the portage between the upper and lower basins, and this is attended with great labor and expense. A railway has been projected to overcome the difficulties of transit at this point, to be worked by a stationary steam-engine at the summit level, with inclinedplanes to the water in either direction, and it is believed that this undertaking, when completed, will be of great public and private benefit.

The Tobique River, which enters the St. John about twenty miles below the Grand Falls, is almost wholly within the county of Victoria. It is a river of large size, and the land along its valley is reported to be of excellent quality; as yet it is in a state of complete wilderness, and almost wholly destitute of settlers. The ledges of red sandstone, and the cliffs of gypsum, in the valley of the Tobique, with other rocks of a favorable character, combine to form an admirable soil along the river, exceedingly well adapted for cultivation. There is here good land sufficient for a large county, needing only the labor of men to bring it into profitable cultivation.

In the upper part of Victoria, at the mouth of the Madawaska river, stands the rising village of Edmundston.

From its position on the St. John, at the outlet of a navigable river flowing from extensive chains of lakes, extending to within sixteen miles of the St. Lawrence, and watering a wide extent of timber country, this village bids fair to become a place of some importance and considerable trade.

The population of Victoria is yet too scanty to have done much towards developing its agricultural capabilities. But considering the large proportion of its inhabitants who are engaged in lumbering, the following return of the crops of 1851 is worth notice:-hay, 6,961 tons; wheat, 5,262 bushels; barley, 7,979 bushels; oats, 59,163 bushels; buckwheat, 44,730 bushels; Indian corn, 824 bushels; peas and beans, 7,824 bushels; turnips, 9,195 bushels; potatoes, 84,527 bushels. The quantity of butter made in 1851, was 78,467 pounds; of maple sugar, 55,685 pounds; of gypsum quarried, 4,075 tons.

The Grand River, the Quisibis, and the Green River, are three considerable streams in this county, flowing into the St. John from the eastward; they interlock the Restigouché and its upper tributaries, which flow in the opposite direction. The various streams thus interlaced, drain a tract of country containing more than a million of acres, of which very little is known, the whole being yet in a state of nature, and heretofore visited only by some exploring lumberman, or an adventurous hunter and trapper. The reports of explorers state that there are in this tract thousands of acres of deep rich soil, covered with the finest timber, standing more widely apart than is usual in the forests of New Brunswick, and giving to the country a park-like character.

THE PROGRESS OF NOVA SCOTIA,

WITH A BRIEF VIEW OF ITS

RESOURCES, NATURAL AND INDUSTRIAL.

CHAPTER I.

DISCOVERY AND EARLY FORTUNES OF NOVA SCOTIA.

On the 6th of March, 1496, John Cabot, a Venetian mariner, already somewhat distinguished for skill and enterprise, obtained from Henry VII. of England a patent, in favor of himself and his three sons, to fit out a small squadron, "for the conquest, discovery, and occupation of the lands beyond the western ocean, inhabited by heathens and infidels, and till those times unknown to Christians."

In the early part of May, the following year, this small squadron, consisting of one larger and three small ships, sailed from the port of Bristol for the regions of the setting

sun.

On the 24th day of June, 1497, they caught the first glimpse of land in the Western World. They named the spot they had first sighted Prima Vista. There is some doubt as to whether this land which they first sighted was the coast of Newfoundland, Labrador, or Nova Scotia. The best authorities, while admitting the doubt, favor the opinion that it was Nova Scotia. During that and the following year, John Cabot and his son Sebastian explored a great part of the coast of North America. For nearly a century after these discoveries, the English bestowed hardly any attention on North America.

Newfoundland, on account of its valuable fisheries,

formed the only exception. It was visited yearly by the ships of English merchants, and attempts were made at an early period to colonize it.

Cape Breton was resorted to by Englishmen, in the year 1590. The earliest attempt to colonize Nova Scotia proper, was made in the year 1598, by the Marquis de la Roche, under the direction of Henry IV. of France. Five years subsequently, M. De Monts was appointed, by the same monarch, governor-general of La Nouvelle France, which embraced Nova Scotia, and extended from 40 to 54 degrees north latitude. He sailed from Havre de Grace on the 17th March, 1604, and arrived at a harbor on the southeast side of Acadia on the 16th of May following. The first European settlement was formed at this date, on the shore of the Bay of Fundy, and on the Annapolis River. They called their headquarters Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal).

Newfoundland was taken formal possession of by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, on behalf of the crown of England, twenty-one years prior to this date.

In the year 1613, the French settlement at Port Royal (Annapolis) was broken up by Sir Samuel Argall, governor of Virginia, in the name of the English, who considered the French as intruders upon British possessions. In 1621, James I. of England granted the whole country called by the French Acadia, by letters patent, to Sir William Alexander. Sir William was a Scottish nobleman, and in the patent the country is named Nova Scotia. He, with several of his countrymen-men of distinctionfitted out fourteen vessels, and effected some settlements. Knights-baronets of Nova Scotia were founded in the year 1624.

Shortly after this date, Sir David Kirk effected the conquest of Canada and Cape Breton.

But just as the British were beginning to establish themselves in the country, Charles I., in the year 1632, in the most unceremonious manner, by the treaty of St.