THE ST. JOHN

Newspaper
Year
1884
Month
10
Day
22
Article Title
THE ST. JOHN
Page Number
3
Article Type
Language
Article Contents
Commander Cheyne’s Trip from St. Francis to Fredericton. _____________________ The Beautiful Scenery which Enchanted him – a little-known Cataract. Commander Cheyne arrived in Fredericton on Saturday by canoe from the Upper St. John and he intends to remain in the city for a day or two. The commander has come by canoe from St. Francis to this city a distance of about 215 miles. He is greatly pleased with his trip and says that as he sailed along between the river banks, bedecked with the many-hued autumn foliage, it seemed as though he were sailing on a river in some new planet so indescribably beautiful was the ever changing scenery. He began his voyage on a part of the St. John little visited by tourists, but it is perhaps the most picturesque along the whole 450 miles of the river’s course. The river is more winding, the hills bolder, the outline of the landscape more rugged between St. Francis and Edmunston than it is further down. At Baker Brook the scenery is charming and there is no finer bend in the whole river than that at Chat-au-Coin, or Puss in the Corner, about five miles above the shiretown of Madawaska. From Edmunston, looking down over the scenery is strikingly beautiful; from the Block House just below the Madawaska there is a very fine view up the river. From the Cross in Lower St. Basil, the view looking up was pronounced by no less an authority than Hon. Joseph Howe, to be the finest in Canada. The broad intervals of St. Basil on the one side, and St. David on the other, the chapels on either shore, the long rows of white farm houses, the smooth, tilled fields crowning the hilltops and here and there broken by a patch of forest, Edmunston in the distance nestling under fronting highlands, and the river winding around tree fringed islands, make up a charming scene. This is the spot where the Acadian Exiles who came up the St. John first established themselves. They received grants of land here from the New Brunswick government in 1795. Between St. Basil and Grand Falls there are numerous points present attractive views and none perhaps are more beautiful than that just below the thriving little American village of Van Buren. The magnificent scenery at Grand Falls was seen under very favourable circumstances by Commander Cheyne, and he succeeded in getting over thirty five photographic views of the falls and gorge. He ascended the gorge in his canoe as far as the Coffee Mill, which is the farthest limit of navigation, and can only be reached in a canoe under exceptional conditions. Comparatively few people know anything about the eighteen miles of the St. John below Grand Falls, but for a canoe voyage it is one of the most delightful parts of the river. At White Rapids, Rapides De Femmes, the Black Rapids and other points the canoe gets a magnificent view, and the scenery all along is rugged and dissimilar to what it is elsewhere on the St. John. The mouth of the Aroostook is an attractive and interesting spot, the meeting of the waters of the tributary with the parent stream being clearly defined. The Mouth of the Topique with its Indian Village, in the churchyard of which is a curious representation of the Crucifixion, is another point worth visiting. Coasting along by Andover one sees a succession of pretty landscapes, which continue somewhat bold until Muniac is passed. Through Charlotte County the shores of the river are lower than they are through Victoria and settlement is more advanced. It would be an easy matter to specify points of view of great beauty, but it is quite correct to say that the fifty miles above Woodstock is one long panorama of exquisite scenery. The same holds good until the Meductic Falls are reached and here the scene is wilder. Commander Cheyne was fortunate in seeing an instantaneous view of a canoe running the falls, and also of a loaded towboat, drawn by a two span of horses, ascending the stream, thus illustrating two of the methods of river navigation. On the Meductic stream, about a mile from the St. John, in a deep ravine the Commander visited a waterfall but little known. It is called Hayes’ Falls and the water makes a nearly perpendicular plunge of ninety feet. It is well worth a visit. In its general features the fall resembles that of Montmorency, near Quebec. It is the intention of Commander Cheyne to use the numerous photographs he has taken to illustrate a lecture on the St. John, and it is not improbable that he may publish them. He is a close observer and has travelled extensively, and when he says that the St. John is the most beautiful river he has ever sailed upon he gives high praise indeed. If he visits England and delivers his illustrated lecture upon our river, we may be sure that he will excite much interest in it, and that the province will derive much benefit from his self-imposed labour.