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The City of St. John. and Lower 81‘. John River

. EAVING Fredericton at 8 o’clock in the

morning, a start is made on the trip ”down the river to the city of St. John,

,—

1 the commercial centre of the province l l

and greatest shipping port on the Bay of Fundy.

.. The journey is full of interest and variety. There are numerous stops on each side of the river, and few daylight trips of eight or nine hours can be taken elsewhere that will compare with this in pleasure. As the boat cleaves the waters of the winding and continuall§.'-widening waterway, new incidents mark each mile of its progress.

Here is a small tug whose engine capacity is out of all pro- portion to its size. It is towing a huge raft of timber, and, not- withstanding the heavy pull, is making good progress upstream and against the current. Now, the deep and wide Oromocto River is reached, and a busy scene is enacted at the wharf as all hands on the steamer are pressed into the work of loading produce of every kind on board.

\Ve go only a short distance across stream before reaching another landing, where squash, cucumbers and other vegetables by the barrel, and in immense quantities, are loaded on the lower decks.

Now a wharf is neared where, it so happens, there are no passengers awaiting the steamer, and none to get off. A man puts off in a small boat and makes fast to our boat, well out in the river, transfers some crates of tomatoesithe vessel still in motion——and pushes back to the shore.

Nearing a spot where meadow and rolling upland mark a particularly rich agricultural district, a great flat barge 0r hay- boat is almost ahead, and the steamer slows up to give the boat an opportunity for coming alongside. She is loaded with fine-looking pressed hay, fresh from the fields and done up in the usual bales

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