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This Division contains two Counties, Annapolis County and Shelburne County. The County of Annapolis is bounded on the north and west by the bay of Fundy, on the south by the Counties of Shelburne, Lunenburg and Queen's, and on the cast by King's County. It is divided into two Districts, the upper and lower. The former contains three townships, Wilmot, Granville and Annapolis, and the latter three -Clements, Digby and Clare.

Wilmot. This township lies between Aylesford and Granville, and extends upon the Bay of Fundy eighteen miles and a half. It contains one hundred and twenty thousand acres of land, and was established on the 3d of March, 1774, when in obedience to the orders of the Board of trade and plantations, it was laid out in lots, containing 500 acres each, and ordered to be sold at the rate of 6d. per acre. Notwithstanding the fertility of the soil and the low price affixed to the land, not a single farm was disposed of for many years, in consequence of its having no harbour on the bay of Fundy, and being altogether destitute of a good road to the market of Halifax.These inconveniences operated as an effectual barrier to its settlement until the year 1783, when a number of loyalists from the United States obtained grants of land, and removed thither with their families. The great western post road runs through this township parallel with the river, and is intersected by many other roads, at right angles leading to the bay of Fundy. These are again connected by others, laid out in such a manner as to divide the land into

compartments of convenient size, and render the whole accessible for cultivation. With the exception of the meadows formed by the Annapolis river, the most inferior part of Wilmot is that adjoining the post road, and a stranger can form no idea of the extensive and beautiful settlements which lie between it and the bay of Fundy. Wilmot contains no villages, though a small cluster of houses, have formed the commencement of one, and received the name of Lawrance town. The inhabitants are dispersed on their several farmis, and engaged in the cultivation of the soil, which is of an excellent quality throughout the township. There are within it several places of Worship, among which is a small but well finished Church, situated within view of the river, and embowered in a grove of venerable pines. There is at present no resident Clergyman of the Church of England, but it is occasionally visited by a travelling Missionary. There are also two Methodist chapels, and two Baptist Meeting houses.--It has been previously observed that from Digby to Cornwallis, the coast of the bay of Fundy is formed by a continued range of mountain, affording no shelter to vessels, and that this inconvenience had obstructed the earlier settlement of that fine tract of Country. To remedy this evil and enable the people to export their staves and lumber, of which they have a great quantity, a pier has been erected on the shore of the bay,partly by voluntary contribution and partly by provincial aid, which, though not yet completed according to the original design, effectually answers the purposes of a port. The obstructions in the bed of the river which is here shallow and 20

VOL. II.

narrow, have also been removed, and timber and lumber may now be rafted with safety and ease to those places of depot to which the depth of water admits of the passage of vessels. For the manufacturing of lumber there are upwards of twenty saw mills, and for the grinding of grain five grist mills.

Granville. The townships of Granville and Annapolis, lie on the opposite sides of the river, and differ from Wilmot, in having large quantities of salt marsh and dyke lands, the other consisting of upland and interval. Granville comprehends the whole of the peninsula between the eastern limit of Wilmot and Digby gut, and forms for twenty-eight miles the north western boundary of the Basin and river of Annapolis. It was granted in the year 1764, to 158 proprietors, who with their families, amounting in all to 650 souls, emigrated from the old Colonies. The post road, after passing through Wilmot, continues through a small part of Granville, until it reaches Bridge town, where it crosses the river into the township of Annapolis. Bridge town is a neat little village, taking its name from the bridge that connects Granville with Annapolis, and deriving its origin and support from the depot which is here formed at the head of navigation for the trade of Wilmot and the upper part of the two adjoining townships. Situated in the centre of a fertile country that is daily increasing in wealth and population, and deriving peculiar advantages for the supply of a coasting trade, it is probable that its growth will keep pace with the general prosperity of the County. It contains an Episcopalian church, a Methodist chapel and Baptis Meeting house, twenty-five dwelling houses and

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twelve stores, three inns and thirteen shops, belonging to tradesmen. The buildings in this village are neat, well painted and new, the ground having been first laid out into squares and streets in the year 1822, and its general appearance conveys an idea of comfort and thrift. About fourteen miles further down the river, there is another little village opposite to the town of Annapolis Royal, between which there is an established ferry. At this place the river is wide and the current extremely rapid, but on account of the eddies which form on both sides of it, it is passed with ease, and in moderate weather with safety; throughout the whole of the front of the township, bordering on the Basin and river, it is well cultivated and thickly settled, almost every farm being skirted with a portion of marsh.There are in Granville about 2225 acres of dyke land, and 1000 acres of salt marsh, 10 saw mills and four grist mills. As the inhabitants are spread over a large surface, their places of Worship are also at a distance from each other-besides those already mentioned in Bridge town, there are three Episcopal churches, 1 Baptist and 2 Methodist Meeting houses, About six miles below the ferry is situated Goat Island, which separates the Annapolis Basin from that of Digby, and forms two entrances to the former ;-the western channel though narrow is deep, and generally preferred to others. A small peninsula extending from the Granville shore, forms one of its sides. On this point of land the first piece of ground was cleared for cultivation in Nova-Scotia, by the French. -They were induced to make this selection on account of the beauty of its situation, the good anchor

age opposite to it, the command which it gave them of the channel, and the facility it afforded of giving the earliest notice to the garrison at Port Royal, of the entrance of an enemy into the Lower Basin. In the year 1827 the stone was discovered upon which they had engraved the date of their first cultivation of the soil, in memorial of their formal possession of the country. and two feet broad, and of the same kind as that which forms the substratum of Granville Mountain. On the upper part are engraved the square and compass of the Free Mason, and in the centre, in large and deep Arabic figures, the date 1606. It does not appear to have been dressed by a Mason, but the inscription has been cut on its natural surface. The stone itself has yielded to the power of the climate, and both the external front and the interior parts of the letters have alike suffered from exposure to the weather; the seams on the back part of it have opened, and from their capacity to hold water, and the operation of frost upon it when thus confined, it is probable in a few years it would have crumbled to pieces. The date is distinctly visible, and although the figure 0 is worn down to one half of its original depth, and the upper part of the latter 6 nearly as much, yet no part of them is obliterated-they are plainly discernable to the eye, and easily traced by the finger. At a subsequent period, when the country was conquered by the English, some Scotch emigrants were sent out by Sir William Alexander, who erected a fort on the site of the French corn fields, previous to the Treaty of St. Germain's. The remains of this Fort may be traced with great ease;

It is about two feet and a half long,

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