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256 of their mother province. A commissioner writing from Annapolis in 1783 pronounced it "equal to the Connecticut or the Hudson," but more recent scriveners have declared it paramount in pictorial beauty to the Hudson and the Rhine. Between the shaggy snout of Boar's Head and Gagetown (47 m.) ranges of sharply silhouetted hills are effectively displayed on either bank; the river's width is amplified by deep bays and coves, and grassy islands mark the middle course. Bounteous pastures and well-planted farms rise from the water-edge and cover the breast of the upland. Along the lower reaches of the river are inviting colonies of villas and rustic cabins among groves that cling to the ledge of bluff and shelving beach. Beyond Gagetown the prospect subsides in breadth as in beauty. Above sedgy-looking shores is an occasional knoll with its dawdling village; steamer landings are stacked with the crated harvest of orchard and farm; log-rafts drift past the tawny mouths of down-creeping rivers; here is an Indian canoe, there a skimming launch, or a lumber schooner with bellowed sails. The St. John has no thrilling moments. One is impressed by it as by broad-bosomed maternity. Its presence is stately, benevolent. It gathers its children from the west and the east and moves spaciously down a productive valley to the sea. In the spring it bestows an alluvial blessing upon island and low meadow, so that thick grasses spring up and