188 NEWFOUNDLAND.

when deputy paymaster at St John’s, used to raise a great quantity of very good fruit in the garden at- tached to his house.*‘ There is no doubt but a great abundance of vegetables for the use of the town might be raised in its environs.

The town of St John’s is built chiefly of wood; it extends nearly along the whole of the north side of the port; and there can scarcely be said to be more than one street, the others being only irregular lanes. A few of the houses are built of stone or brick, and some of the buildings are handsome ; but the appear- ance of the town altogether, indicates at once what it was intended for—a kind of lodging-place for a con- venient time; a collection of stores for depositing fish, with wharfs along the whole shore for the con- venience of shipping.

St John’s, like Halifax, and other towns built of wood, has suffered severely by fires. In the Winter of 1816, great loss of property and individual distress was occasioned by a dreadful conflagration that took place; and on the 7th of November, 1817, one hun- dred and forty houses, and L.500,000 value in pro- perty, were destroyed by a like calamity. Another fire, on the 218t of the same month, destroyed a great part of the town that had escaped the conflagration of the 7th ; and on the 21st of August following, the town experienced a fourth calamity of the same kind,

* The attorney-general, Mr Simms, who now occupies the above property, continues to raise both fruit and vegetables with success. The lands surrounding Quidi Vidi are also very well cultivated.