instead of running out, would have become yet richer and more productive under a proper course of tillage.

In every part of America, the quality of the soil is ascertained, more by the timber which it produces, than by the appearance of its surface or the nature of its substrata. Land, upon which black and white Walnut, Chesnut, Hiccory, and Basswood, grow, is esteemed the best on the continent. That which is covered with Maple, Beech, and Cherry, is reckoned as second-rate. Those parts which produce Oak, Elm, and Ash, are esteemed excellent wheat-land, but inferior for all other agricultural purposes. Pine, Hemlock, and Cedar land is hardly worth accepting as a present. It is however difficult to select any considerable tract of land, which does not embrace a great variety of wood; but, when a man perceives that Walnut, Chesnut, Hiccory, Basswood, and Maple, are promiscuously scattered over his estate, he need not be at all apprehensive of having to cultivate an unproductive soil. While on the other hand, he whose unlucky stars have set him down amid huge Pines, wide-spreading Hemlocks, slender Cedars, and stunted Oaks, will do well to accede to the advice of the poet,

To-morrow to fresh fields and pastures new!

Along the banks of the St. Lawrence and on the shores of Lake Ontario, particularly, between York and the Western extremity of the Lake,

the barren sort of soil preponderates. In the London and Western Districts, and in many of the new townships in the Gore, Home, and Newcastle Districts, there are not more Pines and Cedars than suffice for building materials and fencing timber for home-consumption. Indeed there are several townships in the Western Districts, entirely destitute of Pine timber,-a circumstance, which, though it argues much in favour of the soil, is nevertheless attended with many serious inconveniences.

:

LETTER IX.

MORE PARTICULAR SKETCH OF THE DIFFERENT DISTRICTS EASTERN, INCLUDING JOHNSTOWN AND BATHURST-ITS COMMERCIAL AND AGRICULTURAL ADVANTAGES -MILITARY

SETTLE

MENT ATTENTION OF THE GOVERNMENT TO ITS IMPROVEMENT AND PROSPERITY - VILLAGE OF PERTH THE CHARACTER OF ITS POPULATION-MIDLAND DISTRICT-NEWCASTLE DISTRICTHOME DISTRICT EXQUISING, CHINGUACOUSY, AND NASSAUCYA -INHABITANTS AND POPULATION - GORE DISTRICT

DISTRICT-ITS PROXIMITY

- NIAGARA

TO THE UNITED STATES LONDON

CALLED PLAINS -OPINIONS OF THE INDIANS ABOUT THEM, &C.

HAVING given you a slight sketch of the whole Province of Upper Canada, I shall now attempt a more particular description, and speak of each District separately. This is the more necessary as they differ greatly in their soil and climate, as well as in their commercial and agricultural advantages.

In the EASTERN DISTRICTS, including those of Ottawais, Johnstown, and Bathurst, the soil is in general of an inferior quality: Yet those townships which are watered by the Grand River and the St. Lawrence, are said to be exceedingly fertile. In many parts, however, the land is much

too swampy, and composed of a cold clayey loam, -circumstances which, in Canada, wholly preclude the possibility of making good roads. The proximity of these districts to the Montreal market, and the facilities which their direct watercommunication with the Atlantic affords, would, in the eyes of a superficial observer, give them a decided preference to every other district in the Province; but the severity of the climate more than counterbalances these great advantages, and renders them far less desirable, as places of residence for agriculturists, than many of the more remote townships on the shores of Erie and St. Clair. It is of little advantage to a farmer to find a convenient market, if he has nothing to dispose of; and from the general character of the Eastern districts, there is no great probability that the inhabitants will ever have a surplus produce of any considerable amount. Winter-wheat is a very uncertain crop, ever in their best soils, and Indiancorn seldom arrives at maturity: Both these unpropitious results are owing to the severity of the climate. Early frosts in the Autumn, and late ones in the Spring, too frequently render abortive the exertions of persevering industry. I am intimately acquainted with a gentleman, who for more than 20 years resided in one of these Districts, and who is now in that of London. He has repeatedly declared to me, that he would rather have 50 acres of land in either of the Western districts, than 500 in the most productive townships in that

of Ottawais, Johnstown, or Bathurst. He says, few farmers in those districts, on an average of ten years, succeed in raising a sufficient quantity of "bread-stuff" for their own consumption, and consequently never think about cultivating any for market.

The MILITARY SETTLEMENTS of Perth, Richmond, and Lanark, comprising some of the best townships in the District of Bathurst, have been so fortunate as to engross the almost exclusive attention of Government. Assistance has, in various ways, been afforded to the settlers, who are not subject to many of those enormous fees which are exacted from the inhabitants of other townships. The Government selected this spot as a settlement for several half-pay officers, and soldiers discharged from the various regiments that had served in the Canadas. I dare say, they are sufficiently contented with the allotments assigned; and most heartily do I wish them all the happiness which they can derive from contemplating poisonous swamps, blighted corn, and frozen cucumbers. Such sights are, to say the least, as well calculated to cheer and elevate the spirits of men,

As stormy floods and carnage-cover'd fields:

But the ameliorating effects which human industry gradually produces on the rugged face of nature, are beheld with satisfaction in several parts of this District. Already have the fields begun to wear a more smiling aspect; the woods disappear, and