seven
months in the year, from the middle of April to the middle of November.
But the Canadians do not plough well; they do not understand how to
preserve the crops when cut; and, on the whole, are backward in
agriculture. He himself preserved for a domain more land than he could
ever get cleared, for this clearing was heavy work. Some of the soil at
Murray Bay is very good. Gilchrist writes indeed to say that he has been
talking in Scotland about Nairne's land. "On my mentioning that you had
lime, without digging for it, it was acknowledged that you possessed all
the advantages possible and that anything might be done with ground such
as yours which is dry; and I verily believe would you thoroughly lime
your land you may keep it in crops as long as you please and have
prodigious returns." Good farming, he says, Nairne may have and he
should preserve good fishing; then Murray Bay will be perfect. "If I
have the pleasure of seeing your sisters, I'll represent Mal Bay as the
counterpart of Paradise before the fall." He adds some local
characterizations. "Catish will do for Eve, La Grange for Adam, and
Dufour for the Devil."

Nairne was married in 1766 to Christiana Emery. Of her history I know
nothing, except that she was born in Edinburgh and married in Canada.
Soon after marriage Nairne paid a long visit to Scotland and there in
1767 the freedom of the borough of Sterling was conferred upon him. Mrs.
Nairne must have been considerably younger than her husband, for though
he lived to ripe old age, she survived him by twenty-six years, dying at
Murray Bay in 1828. Whether she brought any dowry I do not know; Nairne
certainly had had in mind the improvement of his position by marrying.
Nine children were born to them but three died in childhood of an
epidemic fever that broke out at Murray Bay in 1773 while Nairne was in
Scotland. A fourth child, Anne, died of consumption. Five children lived
to grow up--three daughters and two sons.

Canada seemed so remote that it was not easy for Nairne to keep in touch
with his kin. The scattering of families, one of the penalties Imperial
Britain, with a world wide domain, imposes upon her sons, had taken
Nairne's brother Robert to India. At a time only ten years later than
Clive's great victory of Plassey, Britain's grasp on the country was, as
yet, by no means certain and India was amazingly remote; five years
usually elapsed between the sending of a letter to India from Canada an