interior. They are generally very rocky and
uneven. In many places they are mere barrens being covered with a
stunted growth of shrubs. There are however good spots intermixed, and
many places that formerly appeared doomed to sterility have been
brought under a good state of cultivation. Great improvements have
lately been made in farming in this county. Many new settlements have
been formed and are rapidly improving. Several merchants and persons of
property in the city of Saint John have lately improved farms in its
vicinity; particularly on the Marsh and at Loch Lomond. It will
certainly be a great advantage to the Province, if men who possess
capital, employ a part of it in improving the country. By this means
many poor districts of sterile land may be reclaimed, and improved by
the wealth of the city; to the great advantage of individuals, and
benefit of the settlement where such improvements are made: as the
citizen will lay out from year to year, no more than he can spare from
his other pursuits, and this when the land is once brought to a good
state of cultivation will richly repay him: while the indigent settler
will have labour brought home to his own door to enable him to subsist
while he improves a small spot for himself, which without such a
resource he could not attempt.

A great strip of Marsh lies contiguous to the city, some of which is
dyked and yields excellent grass. The whole district is rapidly
improving to the great advantage of the city. Several wealthy citizens
have lately made great improvements here, and some fine seats are
nearly completed.

The Parish of Portland contains old Fort Howe. This Fort is situated on
a rugged hill at the mouth of the river Saint John, and completely
commands the harbour. Portland is well built up, but the road near the
Fort is very narrow, and in a wretched state, considering that it is
the only thoroughfare from the city, to the Indian House, so called;
which is situated in front of the bay, just above the falls, and where
vessels and boats come too, going and coming to wait for the tide, and
where passengers from all parts of the river land, and frequently walk
over the tongue of land to Saint John, which is a little more than a
mile. Passengers likewise going up the river in the Steam-Boat or
Sloops, usually ride or walk from Saint John to the Indian House, and
baggage and goods of all descriptions, are transported above the falls
by this route, which keeps