This long, narrow valley is fringed on both sides of the St. John with a line of farms which extend almost continuously throughout the 90 miles of its length, and though the line gathers in some two or three places into the semblance of a town, it is ordinarily a thin, double line of habitation hemmed in behind by vast forests. On the Canadian side a lazy railroad creeps up the river for 70 miles or so, but on the American side there is no railroad above Van Buren, the least remote town of the valley, and this inroad is of very recent date. Not a bridge crosses the St. John throughout the long sweep of the river, and excepting in the towns mentioned the stores can almost be counted on the fingers. It is a coun try of rugged and picturesque scenery, small houses and huge barns, and little modern comfort, given over almost entirely to agriculture.