Object of the Chapter.--Description of St. John's River.--First Falls.--Contiguous Country.--"Mars Hill."--Prospect.--Grand Falls. --The Acadians, curious Facts respecting them.--The Mirimachi River.--Immense amount of Timber shipped.--Riots.--State of Morals.--The great Mirimachi Fire.--Hurricane.--Destruction of Human Life.--Area of the Fire.--Vessels in Harbor.--Painfully disgusting Sights.--Destruction among Fish.--Fire, rapidity of Progress.--Curious instance of Escape.--Ristigouche River, its Length.--Capacious Harbor.--Appearance of the Country.--High Banks.--Groves of Pine.--A Statistical Table. With a view to give a general outline of the immense capacities of the strip of country lying east of the St. Lawrence, between the latitudes of 42° and 44° north, I shall include (as the terminus of Maine, not regarding geographical lines) that part of the country known as the province of New Brunswick, whose lumber in quality has, in years past, quite outrivaled that of Maine. The River St. John's, the Mississippi of the East, "has a course of nearly six hundred miles from its source, near the Chaudière, in Lower Canada, to where it falls into the Bay of Fundy. At its entrance into the harbor the river passes through a fissure of solid and overhanging rock, exhibiting every appearance of having been formed by some convulsion of nature. The volume of water collected in a course of so many hundred miles, being here compelled to pass through so narrow a passage as thirteen hundred feet, occasions what are called the Falls of St. John's, which are merely a sluice on a grand scale. At times of great floods, the appearance from the overhanging precipices is truly wonderful, and the noise tremendous, particularly on the ebb of tide. The ordinary rise of the tide above the falls is only six feet, and then only when the river is not swollen. The tide must flow twelve feet below before the river becomes passable for vessels; the time for such passage lasts about twenty minutes after the rise of tide creates a fall from below; on the returning tide the water becomes level for the same space of time, and thus only at four times in the twenty-four hours can vessels enter St. John's harbor, in which the rise of tide is from twenty-five to thirty feet. Above the falls the river widens, and forms a bay of some magnitude, surrounded by high and rugged woodland. Passing up the bay, huge calcareous rocks, and vast, dark pine forests stretch up the sides of lofty hills and promontories."