PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 27 of a very fine quality, the flesh was used by some of the inhabitants, the skins were of great value for harness and other purposes and as an article of trade It was sometimes an inch and a half in thick¬ ness. By some it is said to be extinct, but is likely the same as the walrus still found in and possibly in other northern waters. Patterson, almost immediately after his arrival, began to urge upon Lord Hillsbor ¬ ough the necessity there was for a church, a jail and a court house, which he estimated would cost about three thousand pounds, but which the Island could not itself build. There was not even a barn or other place to assemble the people in for worship, and a jail and court house could not be done without. "unless we are left to submit to all manner of injustice and violence. At present, this is only the shadow of a government without the substance, for there is not one house or place ki or near this town that would confine a man contrary to his inclination." Attention was also called to the badness of the communications between Charlotte - town and the out-lying sections, "almost the whole depending on water carriage." To reach Prince Town involved a journey by boat to the head of the Hillsborough river, thence by land to St. Peters , and there a greater or less detention waiting for a chance boat on which to get a passage by water to . This sometimes took two weeks. The route to Georgetown was the same as far as St. Peters , thence the trav¬ elers had to be ferried over the bay, take the land to Fortune, and there wait a chance by water to Georgetown , a long, round-about journey. The Governor pointed out how "easy, short and certain it could be made by cutting a road from the south side of the Hillsborough river to the head of either Car¬ digan, Brudenell or Montague rivers." He urged the need of a road to Prince Town and to St. Peters . These three roads would give good communication to the principal parts of the Island. He pointed out that few things help more to make a country prosper than good roads. The whole could be made for five hundred pounds. Patterson persistently pressed for roads and eventually obtained them. He even risked some of his own means in procuring them. He was almost equally as persistent in his request* for a church, a jail and a court house. At this same time also, he asked that five companies of soldiers be sent here, who could, without harm, be employed on public works. They would also keep the French inhabitants peaceable, in case of war, protect the place from privateers, and guard against attacks of the Nova Scotia Indians. In July, 1771, the Governor writes Lord Hillsborough that he has ventured, at his own risk, to have a road laid out from lottetown to Prince Town , and, although the surveyor avoids, by his instructions, all swamps, difficult rivers and steep Hills, the road, as measured, was only three-quarters of a mile more than if it were on a straight line, and is only thirty-three miles. His rea¬ son for undertaking it was, that a Mr. Blas- kowitz, one of Captain Holland 's surveyors, wintered here, and, being detained in the spring, the Governor induced him to under¬ take it, on much easier terms than otherwise he could have it done. In the same report, he explains changes he has made in the plan of the town, which had been laid out by Mr. Morris , surveyor general of Nova Scotia , and, as this may be of interest to citizens, the passage is quoted, as follows: "I have taken the liberty to alter