Bedeque. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The trees at 
     
    
   
   
    
     Mount Stewart. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Western Prince. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The soil. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The woods as 
     
     indicators of 
     
     soil quality. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Bogs and 
     
     swamps. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The barrens. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Forest fires. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Succession 
     
     after fire. 
     
    
   
   
    
     many years afforded employment to a number of people. [p.13] 
     
    
   
   
    
     Bedeque There are two or three ship-building establishments here, and it has for 
     
     some time been a shipping port for timber. [p. 14] 
     
    
   
   
    
     Mount Stewart, the property and present residence of John Stewart, Esq. is a 
     
     charming spot, and the prospect from the house, which is on a rising ground, about 
     
     half a mile from the river, is beautiful and interesting. The view downwards 
     
     commands several windings of the Hilsborough and part of Pisquit Rivers; the edges 
     
     of each are fringed with marsh grass, and a number of excellent farms range along 
     
     the banks, while majestic birch, beech, and maple trees, growing luxuriantly on the 
     
     south side, and spruce fir, larch, beech, and poplar on the north side, fill up the back 
     
     ground. lp. 15] 
     
    
   
   
    
     The only tract of any extent bordering on the sea, without settlers, is that between 
     
     the north cape and west point. There are a number of fine streams of waters and 
     
     ponds in this district; the soil is rich, and the land is covered with lofty trees. 
     
    
   
   
    
     [p- 16] 
     
    
   
   
    
     CHAPTER II. Structure of the soil, and natural productions. [pp. 17-23] 
     
    

    
     The general surface of the soil is, first, a thin layer of black or brown mould, 
     
     composed of decayed vegetable substances; then, to the depth of a foot or a little 
     
     more, a light loam prevails, inclining in some places to a sandy, in others to a clayey 
     
     character; below which, a stiff clay resting on a base of sandstone predominates. 
     
     The prevailing colour of both soil and stone is red. There are only a few exceptions 
     
     to this general structure of the soil: these are the bogs or swamps, the formation of 
     
     which is either a soft spungy turf or a layer of black mould resting on a bed of white 
     
     clay or sand. 
     
    
   
   
    
     In its natural state, the quality of the soil may be readily ascertained by the 
     
     description of wood growing on it: being richest where the maple, beech, black birch, 
     
     and a mixture of other trees grow; and less fertile where the fir, spruce, larch, and 
     
     other species of the pine tribe are most numerous. 1 
     
    
   
   
    
     On some of the bags, or swamps, there is scarcely any thing but shrubs and moss 
     
     growing; these are rather dry, and resemble the turf bogs in Ireland. Others again are 
     
     wet and spungy, producing dwarf spruces, alder, and a variety of shrubs. Such 
     
     portions of these bogs as have been drained and cultivated form excellent meadows. 
     
     There are other tracts, called in the island barrens, some of which, in their natural 
     
     state, produce nothing but a dry moss, or a few shrubs. The soil of these is a light 
     
     brown or whitish sand; some of the lands laid formerly waste by fire, being naturally 
     
     light and sterile, incline to this character. Both the bogs and swamps, as well as the 
     
     barrens, bear but a small proportion to the whole surface of the island; and, as they 
     
     may all, with judicious management, be improved advantageously, it cannot be said 
     
     that there is an acre of the whole incapable of cultivation. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Large tracts of the original pine forests have been destroyed by fires, that have raged 
     
     over the island at different periods; in the place of which, white birches, spruce firsz, 
     
     poplars and wild cherry trees have sprung up. The largest trees of this second growth 
     
     that I have seen were from ten to twelve inches diameter 3, and growing in places laid 
     
     waste by a tremendous fire that raged in 1750. It seems extraordinary, that where 
     
     the original forest is destroyed in America, trees of a different species should start up. 
     
     The naturalist will perhaps doubt the accuracy of this circumstance, as tending in 
     
     some measure to derange his system; but such however is the case, without 
     
     exception, wherever the woods have been destroyed by fire, or otherwise, and the 
     
     land allowed to remain uncultivated. At its first settlement. and previous to the fires 
     
    
   
   
    
     112