e
frosts, turn to lumbering to keep them busy until the thaw sets in.

That fact helps the mind to realize the potentialities of Canada. Here
is a business as big as coal mining that is largely the fruit of work
in days when there is little else to do.

We saw this industry at a time when the streams were congested and the
mills inactive. It was the summer season, but, more than that, the
lack of transport, owing to the sinking, or the surrender by Canada for
war purposes, of so much ship space, was having its effect on the
lumber trade. The market, even as far as Britain, was in urgent need
of timber, and the timber was ready for the market; but the exigencies,
or, as some Canadians were inclined to argue, the muddle of shipping
conditions, were holding up this, as well as many other of the Dominion
industries.

In this sporting country there are many likely looking streams for
fishermen, as there are likely looking forests for game. At New Castle
we touched the Miramichi, which has the reputation of being the finest
salmon-fishing river in New Brunswick; the Nepisiquit, the mouth of
which we skirted at Bathurst, is also a great centre for fishermen,
and, indeed, the whole of this country about the shores of the great
Baie de Chaleur--that immense thrust made by the Gulf of St. Lawrence
between the provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec--is a paradise for
holiday-makers and sportsmen, who, besides their fishing, get excellent
shooting at brant, geese, duck, and all kinds of game.

The Canadian of the cities has his country cottage in this splendidly
beautiful area, which he comes to for his recreation, and at other
times leaves in charge of a local farmer, who fills his wood shed with
fire logs from the forest in the summer, and his ice house with ice
from the rivers in winter.

III

In this district, and long before we reached the Quebec border, we came
to the country of the habitant farmer. As we stopped at sections to
water or change engines, we saw that this was a land where man must be
master of two tongues if he is to make himself understood. It is a
land where we read on a shop window the legend: "J. Art Levesque.
Barbier. Agent du Lowdnes Co. Habits sur commande." Here the
habitant does business at La Banque Nationale, and takes his pleasure
at the Exposition Provinciale, where his skill can win him Prix
Populaires.

On the stations we talked with men in British khaki trousers who told
us in