Page:Acadiensis Q2.djvu/87
Book Notices
WINSLOW PAPERS, A. D. 1777-1826. Printed under the auspices of the New Brunswick Historical Society, edited by Rev. W. O. Raymond, M.A.
This volume, containing, as it does, 732 pages of printed matter, forms one of the largest and most important collections of public and private papers relative to the early history of the Acadian Provinces that has hitherto been published. Some idea of the variety of topics with which the volume deals may be gathered from the fact that it contains about 650 letters and documents written by about 170 different persons, and covering a period of nearly fifty years.
The editor's task in selecting, arranging and annotating such a large collection, in order to render the work valuable, both to the student of local history and the casual reader, must indeed have been a severe one. An important feature of the work is the copious index which has been provided, and which renders the volume particularly valuable for reference purposes.
In his preface the editor relates that having learned of the existence of the collection, he was invited by Mr. Francis E. Winslow, of Chatham, N. B., in whose keeping the greater part of the papers were, to examine them with a view to their preservation in some permanent form. Continuing, the editor states that he found himself almost overwhelmed with the extent arid variety of the materials available for historical purposes, and that the greater part of his time for the past two years has been devoted to the task of digesting and arranging them for publication. The book will doubtless be found a veritable mine of information with regard to the circumstances under which the Province of New Brunswick sprang into existence. Copies may be obtained from Barnes & Co., St. John, N. B.
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THE ST. JOHN RIVER, IN MAINE, QUEBEC AND NEW BRUNSWICK, by J. Whitman Bailey, printed at the Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1894.
Of the many rivers of Northwestern America it would be difficult to find one which, in the diversity of its natural features, the facilities afforded for sportsmen, and the interesting history of its colonization, is more worthy of mention than the St. John. Yet singularly enough, this river, possessing as it does, such a wealth and variety of scenery, such historical associations, navigable as it is for steamers for 200 miles, and for canoes and boats of slight draft for an additional 200 miles, and forming, for a considerable distance, the boundary between two vast territories, peopled by those who speak a similar tongue, but are of a different nationality, has never, viewed in its entirety, formed the subject of any published work. Mr. Bailey has treated his subject in a careful and interesting manner, and to the tourist and many others, the work will prove a veritable encyclopedia, regarding the region about which it deals.