1. The operations of this division during the three seasons which it has
been engaged in field duties have given a view of nearly every part of
the country which has now been ceded to Great Britain to the north of
the St. John River and the Temiscouata portage. During the year 1840
the commissioner proceeded in person by the wagansis of Grand River to
the waters of the Bay of Chaleurs, ascended the Grande Fourche of the
Restigouche to Lake Kedgwick, and then traversed the country from that
lake to the Tuladi by a route never before explored. In 1841 the
Rimouski and Metis were both ascended--the first to the limits of its
navigation by canoes, the latter to the lake in which the waters of its
western branch are first collected. From this lake lines of survey
repeatedly crossing the boundary claimed by the United States were
extended to a great distance in both directions. The operations of the
year were closed by a survey of so much of the boundary as incloses
the basin of Lake Temiscouata and intersects so frequently the great
portage. These latter surveys covered in some degree the explorations
of one of the parties in 1840, which, therefore, are not quoted as a
part of the work of that year. In 1842 the valley of Green River was
explored, that stream was carefully surveyed, and the remainder of the
boundary line dividing the sources of Rimouski from those of Green River
and the eastern branches of Tuladi run out with chain and compass.
In these surveys and explorations the character of the country, its
soil, climate, and natural productions, have been thoroughly examined,
and may be stated with full confidence in the accuracy of the facts.
2. Beginning on the southern side of the ceded territory, the left bank
of the St. John is for a few miles above the Grand Falls uncultivated
and apparently barren. Thence to the confluence of the Madawaska it
presents a continued settlement upon land of good quality, producing
large crops of potatoes and grass. It also yields wheat, oats, and
barley, but the crops are neither abundant nor certain. The Madawaska
River presents but few attempts at settlement on either of its banks.
Its left bank is represented to be generally barren, but some good
land is said to exist on its southwestern side. The shores of Lake
Temiscouata are either rocky or composed of a light, gravelly soil,
which is so poor that it will not repay the labor of cultivation, even
when newly cleared, without the aid of manure. Some tolerable meadows
are found, which are at the moment highly valued in consequence of a
demand for forage by the British troops. The valley of Green River has
in some places upon its banks intervals of level alluvium which might be
improved as meadows, and it has been represented as being in general
fertile. A close examination has not confirmed this impression.