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.

Mr. Lally reports that—­

“In the valley of Green River there are some tracts of land capable of cultivation, but the greater portion of it is a hard, rocky soil, covered with a growth of poplar and trees of that description.  Some of the most desirable spots for farms had been formerly taken up by settlers from the Madawaska settlement, but although the land is as good as that on the river St. John, they were obliged to abandon their clearings on account of the early frosts and the black flies.  It can hardly be conceived that the latter would be a sufficient cause for leaving valuable land to waste, but such is the fact, as I have been informed by some of those who made the attempt to settle, and I can well believe it from my own experience there.”

3.  The explorations of 1840, in which the ground lying between the western sources of Green River and Squattuck, a branch of Tuladi, was traversed, showed a considerable extent of better land than any other in the ceded territory.  The commissioner traveled for a part of two days along a table-land of no great elevation, covered with rock, maple, and a thick undergrowth of moosewood, both said to be signs of good soil; of this there may be from seven to ten thousand acres, and it is a far larger body of tillable land than is to be found in any other part of the country north of the settlements on the St. John.