Judge what advantages such an area
of country, well-peopled, and well-cultivated, and abounding in mines,
might produce. It is full of hills, though I could not observe any of an
extraordinary heighth, except that of Cape Doree, at the mouth of the
river _des Mines_, the most fertile part of it in corn and grain, and
once the best peopled. There are a number of rivers very rapid, but not
large, except that of St. John's, which is the finest river of all
Acadia, where good water is rather scarce.
The soil in the vallies is rich, and even in the uplands, commonly
speaking, good. The grains it yields are wheat, pease, barley, oats,
rye, and Indian corn, and especially that of the vallies, for the higher
ground is not yet cultivated. The pastures are excellent and very
common, and more than sufficient to supply Cape-Breton, with the cattle
that may be raised. There is fine hunting, and a plentiful fishing for
cod, salmon, and other fish, particularly on the east-side, which is
full of fine harbours at the distance of one, two, three, four, or of
six or seven leagues at farthest from one another, within the extent of
ninety leagues of coast.
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