Transcription of handwritten diary:
"August 11, 1859
Left mills got started from Kirks with canoe at half past 7 reached Lapêche at 10 o'clock [arranged] with […] Chamberlin to […] house for £100 reached Paugan at 3 o'clock leaving the [4] Indians to take the canoe to […]. Mr. Moffat surveyor went on with me to […] arrived at 8 o'clock told […] to go to the mills on Saturday […].
August 13
Breakfast started ½ past 5 o'clock reached Desert at 10 a.m., had dinner and started with surveyor to find the […].
August 14, Sunday
Left Desert ½ past 5 a.m. for Joseph Farm accompanied by surveyor […] 4 Indians could […] to [show] the position of the farm in the Townships after […] a while got the division line between Kensington […] but could find no posts […].
August 16
The crops on Joseph's Farm look very well, a large quantity of potatoes from appearance should serve 2 shanties the foreman […].
August 18
Left Desert for up river found […] Eddy improvement all in good order some loose stones must be removed from bottom of slide paddled up 4 [Wilson Chute] […] went by portage […] to the new farm found the crops […] looking well gave orders for cutting all the Beaver Bay in the locality showed them how to divide the new houses returned to camp in the evening raining very hard got wet through and did not get dry.
August 19
Started early reached Baskatong 6 p.m. […] of hay say 30 tons the oats look beautiful […] farm in good order buildings […] satisfactory […].
August 20
Left Baskatong Farm at 10 o'clock a.m. arrived at […] ½ past 12 took dinner and proceeded to the […] appears to be 1/2 of the Gatineau and is wide and beautiful with nice clean [banks] here and there […] of the river the banks are giving way and show pure yellow sand. Reached Hamilton Farm at dark 20 miles from the mouth […].
August 22, Monday
Started after breakfast at 6 a.m. paddled up […] the 27 ½ miles from mouth […] portaged into Grasshopper River and from that into La Rivière de […] continued until we reached Bark Lake […] 8 miles and camped on an island […].
August 23
Left camp at 6 a.m. paddled up the Lake Bark. Lake is very […] in width and varies from ¼ mile to 8 or 10 and filled with islands the general course of the lake is for about 20 miles west and for 40 or 50 miles north […] there appears to be large quantities of pine on both sides - on the south west side and towards the Desert and Coulonge the Indians report on large quantity of pine timber […] at the head of the Coulonge is principally red pine […] good white pine and would come down the south branch of the […] into Bark Lake […].
August 27
This morning […] find a good deal of timber in two different […] and along the side of the Lake River the timber on this lower end is much better than that on the upper trees much longer and much […] I do not think that all this limit would produce 30,000 good logs after dinner started to come down the Jean de Terre through the rapids and […] and reached about 33 miles from the mouth […]."
