20.  Under the direction of Mr. H.B.  Renwick, a party led by Mr. Lally set off from Mount Biort on the 7th October, and, proceeding westward along the portage road to the ridge of Mount Paradis, turned to the south along the dividing ridge.  This being pursued led them back to the portage at a point about 21-1/2 miles from the river Du Loup on the 10th.  The dividing ridge was now found for some distance to coincide nearly with the portage road and to pass over the summit of the Grande Fourche Mountain, a fact which had not before been suspected.  The source of the Grande Fourche of Trois Pistoles having been headed, the party reached a station which the commissary had now established at the river St. Francis on the 13th October.  Departing from this, the basin of the St. Francis to the north of the portage road was explored, and the survey finished on the 17th October.

Operating from the St. Lawrence as a base, and within reach of a cultivated country, whence numerous roads are cut to the height of land, it would have been possible to have kept the field for perhaps a fortnight longer.  The plans and estimates of the division had been made with this view, and it was anticipated that the height of land might have been surveyed 30 miles to the south of the Temiscouata portage.  Although this would have been practicable, it would have been a service of hardship.  The necessity for this was obviated by the progress of the parties of A. Talcott, esq., which completed their surveys up to the portage on the same day that the surveys of this division were finished.

22.  The circumstances under which the latter part of the survey was performed from the time of leaving the river Du Loup, on the 3d September, were far less favorable than had been experienced on the Metis and its branches.  The continual drought had at the beginning of this part of the duty affected the streams and springs in such a way as to render navigation difficult and water for drinking scarce on the heights of land to which the survey was necessarily directed.  On the eastern side of Lake Temiscouata a large fire had extended itself into the woods.  On the Temiscouata portage the persons in charge of that road had set fire to the brush and wood cut in opening it out to an increased breadth, and a belt of flame 30 miles in length was at each change of wind carried in some new direction into the dry forest.  The camp and collection of stores on Mount Biort were thus threatened for several days, and only saved by great exertions.  Serious apprehensions were entertained lest the return of the parties in the field might be obstructed by the spreading of their own fires.  The smoke of this vast extent of combustion obscured the heavens and rendered astronomic observations difficult or prevented it altogether.  Finally, a season of unprecedented drought was closed on the 24th of September by the setting in of the equinoctial storm, and from this day until that on which the survey terminated few hours elapsed without rain, sleet, or snow.  In spite of these obstacles, it is believed that the State Department will have no reason to be dissatisfied with the results of the campaign.