Page:Tourist's Maritime Provinces.djvu/327

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ST. JOHN—MONCTON—DALHOUSIE
273

60 miles from the sea, has a bore similar to that of the Petitcodiac whose approach is announced to idlers on the Place des Quinconces by the loud tolling of a bell.

Moncton is a comparatively new city of 14,000 inhabitants whose homes, churches, school buildings and street improvements reflect a rising prosperity. Industrially it is progressing when other Canadian towns are standing still. Its manufactures vary from barrels to wire fencing, from biscuits to caps. The Intercolonial car shops employing 2000 men, occupy an extensive area on the outskirts. The executive offices of the system are in the centre of the town, surrounded by attractive residences. Particularly charming are the flower gardens of the General Manager of the Government Railways, whose house is close to the station, and nearly opposite the grounds of the Brunswick Hotel.

An inexhaustible supply of natural gas is obtained from wells across the river,—or across the river-bed as one must say at certain times of the day,—9 miles from the city. The first wells were sunk in 1859. The New Brunswick Petroleum Company has a lease until the year 2107 of 10,000 square miles in Albert County. Of the seventeen wells operated, ten are "gushers." The gas obtained is said to be the purest and to have the highest heat power known. It is produced at the rate