casual and territorial revenues.

Since that period, the salary of the

Surveyor-General and Commissioner of Crown Lands has been re

duced, and the excess of the grant is applied to other objects.

The following was the Civil List of the Province for the year ending

The taxes are so light in New Brunswick, that they are scarcely felt. The taxes for keeping the roads in repair are paid in labour in the country upon the roads, and the amount is regulated by the amount of property possessed by each inhabitant. There are also light taxes for keeping county buildings in repair, and for other local objects. The General Sessions of the Peace appoint assessors, who levy rates for the support of the poor. All these taxes are very inconsiderable, when brought into comparison with those of other countries. The highest taxes are paid by the citizens of St. John; and they are likely to be much increased at that place, in order to defray a heavy debt in which the city is involved.

The whole cost of defending the Colonies is defrayed from the Imperial finances, and amounts to from £130,000 to £160,000 per annum. The General Government has commenced a chain of fortifications of the strongest description along the line of the American frontier, and the opening of a military road from Nova Scotia to Quebec. It is now proposed to make the latter a railway, which would at once afford great power in the event of a war, unite the Provinces, and open a vast field for commerce, emigration, and Colonial industry.

The number of Militia in 1834 was 30,000: it is now upwards of 55,000. They are regularly organised, and a number of volunteer companies at St. John, Fredericton, and other places are armed and trained. The habits of shooting have made many of the country Militia very expert marksmen, and, in a new country, they would be found dangerous adversaries to an invading enemy.

CHAPTER XI.

GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY OF NEW BRUNSWICK.

THE objects of the present work will not admit of giving an extended account of the geology of the Province. A Geological Survey of the chief part of New Brunswick was made by the Author between the years 1838 and 1844, by the order of the Colonial Government, and a full description of the rocks, minerals, and fossils is given in the Reports published by the Legislature. It is to be regretted that the embarrassed state of the finances of the Province prevented the completion of that work, especially as the exploration of another year would have rendered the Geological Map of the whole country perfect, and discovered the resources of a large and, at present, almost unknown tract.

The mineral wealth of Great Britain has greatly contributed in elevating the nation to its present exalted position; it has imparted an extraordinary impulse to mechanical genius-has aroused her inhabitants to unceasing exertion, and produced the most favourable revolutions in agriculture, manufactures, and navigation. The gradual advancement of the arts, and their application to useful objects, have closely followed the development of those materials, upon which the industry of the people has been exerted with the most admirable results. The annual amount of the raw mineral produce of Great Britain exceeds £20,000,000 sterling. The increase of that sum, by the operations of manufacture upon the minerals taken in their natural

The Author is now preparing a Geological Map of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward's Island. His sketch of a Geological Map of the former Province was published by the Geological Society of London in 1845.

state, is almost incalculable. The Ordnance Geological Survey of England has proved of much utility to the mining and agricultural interests of the country, and opened a new era in the science of Geology. The United States have completed geological explorations of almost every section of their territory, nor have the benefits derived from them been less numerous than those of Europe.

Of the British North American Colonies, New Brunswick was the first to undertake an examination of her mineral resources. Since the commencement of that survey, similar ones have been instituted in Newfoundland and Canada. Prince Edward's Island has also followed the example. Nova Scotia would have engaged in such a work long ago, were not her mines and minerals sealed up by a close monopoly, which withholds from the inhabitants any participation in the mineral wealth of the country.

The navigation of the ocean by steam, and the vast extension of railroads, have greatly increased the value of coal and iron. New Brunswick, as well as Nova Scotia, contains an abundant supply of those necessary minerals. Great Britain has, therefore, inexhaustible resources of coal and iron on both sides of the Atlantic, and thereby her power as a maritime nation is almost unlimited, while the Colonies themselves are of inestimable value to the Empire. The opening of a railway between Halifax and Quebec would bring these resources into operation immediately, and in every way contribute to the security and prosperity of these Colonial Possessions. The progress of mining is always slow in a new country, where all the capital is employed upon such objects of trade as may be most readily obtained; but, by opening free channels of communication, enterprise would soon be directed to mineral as well as to timber resources-foreign capital would be introduced, and the country would hold a position in some degree equal to its physical capabilities.

Having described the general features of the Province in a previous chapter, we may proceed to notice the situations and characters of the rocks, fossils, and minerals. The general direction of the rocky strata is from the south-west towards the north-east, or vice versa, or on lines parallel to the border of the Atlantic Ocean; the strata also runs in that direction, varying from east-south-east to north-east. These are

the general courses of all the principal formations of North America, and which afford evidence of the upheaval of vast anticlinal ridges along the continent in the direction of its south-eastern coast.

A branch of the Alleghany chain of mountains passes through the Northern States. Cataadan, in Maine, is the loftiest eminence in its eastern range, being 5,300 feet above the level of the sea. This spur of the Alleghanies crosses the St. John, and entering New Brunswick, embraces Mars Hill, Moose and Bear Mountains, near Des Chutes River; the same chain extends in a north-easterly direction to the sources of the Miramichi, Nepisiguit, Upsalquitch, and Tobique Rivers, gradually disappearing as it approaches the Bay Chaleurs; another branch penetrates the District of Gaspé, and slopes off towards the St. Lawrence; a somewhat elevated ridge crosses the Schoodie River and the Cheputnecticook Lakes, presenting a number of beautiful eminences in its course to the Nerepis River and to Bull Moose Hill, in King's County. These elevations form anticlinal ridges, against which the stratified masses lean, or they border immense troughs containing the secondary and tertiary formations. They are chiefly composed of granite, syenite, trap rock, and porphyry.

Granite. A ridge of granite crosses the Cheputnecticook River and Lakes, intersects the Digdeguash and Magaguadavic Rivers, and sends off a branch that finally reaches the St. John, at the head of the Long Reach. Along its southern side, it is associated with syenite and trap. Detached elevations of the same rocks appear at the sources of Musquash, Le Proe, and Poclogan Rivers; also near St. Stephen's, and at Calais. Another branch of the ridge extends in a north-east direction, and embraces the country between Magadawawaagum, or Loon Lake, and Eeel River Lake. It crosses the St. John at a point ten miles below the mouth of the Nackawick and the mouth of Eel River, and runs into the unexplored and mountainous country northward. Granite also appears at the entrance and on the banks of the Nepisiguit, and occupies the great tract of wilderness land in the interior of Northum berland and Gloucester.

Syenite.-A belt of syenite and trappean rocks reaches from the