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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77572 ***
+
+
+Transcriber’s notes
+
+Changes made are noted at the end of the book.
+
+
+
+
+NOVA SCOTIA
+
+
+    “_Towards Scotia’s earliest bonniest chiel,_
+    _Across the wild Atlantic wave_
+    _I sailed my trig auld Norland keel._”
+
+[Illustration: “A FULL-FED RIVER WINDING SLOW.”]
+
+
+
+
+    NOVA SCOTIA
+
+    THE PROVINCE THAT HAS
+    BEEN PASSED BY
+
+    BY
+
+    BECKLES WILLSON
+
+    AUTHOR OF
+    “THE GREAT FUR COMPANY,” “THE ROMANCE OF CANADA,” ETC.
+
+    “I don’t know what more you’d ask: almost an island, indented
+    everywhere with harbours, surrounded with fisheries—the key of
+    the St. Lawrence, the Bay of Fundy, and the West Indies; prime
+    land above, one vast mineral bed beneath, and a climate over all
+    temperate, pleasant and healthy. If that ain’t enough for one place,
+    it’s a pity—that’s all.”—SAM SLICK, of Slickville.
+
+
+    _REVISED EDITION WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_
+
+    LONDON
+    CONSTABLE & COMPANY LTD.
+    1912
+
+
+
+
+Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
+At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+BY HON. GEORGE H. MURRAY
+
+PRIME MINISTER OF NOVA SCOTIA
+
+
+All lovers of Nova Scotia will welcome this volume. I
+have read it with pleasure as recording the impressions a
+sojourn in this Province has made on a man of culture and
+acute observation.
+
+It will prove valuable to those who wish to learn something
+of a portion of Canada that is not yet well known
+abroad. Those who purpose to emigrate to Canada will
+read this book with interest and to their advantage, and it
+will whet their appetites for more information regarding
+this Province.
+
+Nova Scotia is a country that draws wealth from the
+ocean, the forest, the farm, the mine and the mill. Our
+industries are not exotic, but spring directly out of natural
+conditions. Although Nova Scotia has only about one-fifteenth
+of the population of Canada, the Province is the
+predominating factor in the Dominion in fish, coal, and
+steel. The material development of these industries and
+of agriculture gives scope to the energies of our people,
+and the establishment of a complete system of technical
+education develops the practical powers of the young men,
+enabling them to conduct and enlarge upon industrial
+undertakings both at home and abroad.
+
+It has been said that there are two fundamental conditions
+of industrial well-being. The first is a fit people,
+and the second a fit country. Both are found in Nova
+Scotia. The people of Nova Scotia spring from the best
+blood of the British Isles. In a little over a century they
+have converted a land of forest into a country of sunny
+orchards, rich grain fields, glowing furnaces and comfortable
+homes. I would extend an invitation to our British
+kinsmen to come over and share in our prosperity.
+
+Nova Scotia possesses a record of substantial achievement
+and remarkable progress, which inspires its people to
+greater and more earnest efforts for the future. At the
+same time we believe that the success of this Province in
+the years to come will be assured only by the enterprise,
+intelligence, and industry of its people. We realise that
+the supremacy of Nova Scotia will rest as much upon intellectual
+strength and educational training as upon the
+character and volume of industrial output.
+
+    HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA,
+    _June 21, 1912_.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+I suppose Canadians of the First Immigration should be
+very well pleased to see their farm lands overrun by the
+mongrel hordes of Europe who, we are told, are presently
+to assimilate the manners, institutions, and amenities which
+our British forefathers so slowly and painfully through the
+centuries established for us.
+
+It is a magnificent spectacle the West is offering to
+the world—this great _trek_ of a hundred thousand families
+a year—these cities arising in a single night, this flux and
+tumult, this noisy abandonment of effete conventions and
+ideals. Perhaps it is all going to end, as the optimists tell
+us it will end, to the glory of the race—our race. But
+some of them do not deny a certain element of risk in
+the process. It is a big price we may have to pay. It is
+the price the Egyptians paid to the Semites; the Greeks
+paid to the Macedonians; the Romans paid to the Goths;
+the Persians paid to the Saracens; the Gauls paid to the
+Franks; and the Americans have paid to the Irish, Italians,
+and Poles. And always the price is—Character.
+
+“When,” once wrote a distinguished American to me,
+“I think of the early nineteenth-century promise of New
+England, of its race of scholars and gentlemen, of its
+thousands of quiet God-fearing homes, and the contented
+industry of the countryside, I could wish that a great gulf
+had cut us off on the West and an impassable barrier had
+arisen on our Eastern seaboard.” But We are going to
+win through—We are going to assimilate these alien peoples.
+Our civilisation will suffer as our neighbours have suffered;
+our serenity will cloud for a time, and when the contents
+of the melting-pot have cooled the alloy may be a permanent
+part of our whole national being. But We shall
+not falter.
+
+Nor will this restless ethnological flux continue. The
+current and perhaps necessary methods of to-day will—nay,
+must—yield to other and higher notions of progress. We
+shall not always be touting for Slav and Hun and Celtic
+immigrants, and soon, tout as we may, they will not come.
+Europe will settle herself. Europe, in turn, will have her
+own “boom.” And, in the meanwhile, all Canada will
+not suffer alike, and the part which will longest retain its
+fundamental likeness to Britain, its moral unity with the
+people of the Mother island, is that province which is the
+subject of this book.
+
+Nova Scotia has not been exempt from sacrifices. Great
+as the boon of Confederation doubtless was, and is, to the
+Provinces of the Dominion, it has been a small boon to
+Nova Scotia. She has had to play the part of Cinderella
+while her sisters went to the ball. But her comparative
+seclusion, added to her intelligence, her frugality, her gentle
+character, and far greater natural beauty, may commend
+her to the thousands of English and Scottish men and
+women who wish to migrate from the British island to
+the equally British peninsula on the other side of the
+ocean—the nearest to them of the provinces of Canada.
+
+QUEBEC HOUSE, WESTERHAM
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER                                      PAGE
+
+       I. CANADA’S “FRONT DOOR”                1
+
+      II. NEW SCOTLAND’S BEGINNINGS           11
+
+     III. NEW SCOTLAND’S CHARACTERISTICS      22
+
+      IV. HALIFAX AND THE HALIGONIANS         35
+
+       V. WINDSOR AND “SAM SLICK”             55
+
+      VI. GRAND PRÉ AND EVANGELINE            66
+
+     VII. ANNAPOLIS ROYAL AND DIGBY           81
+
+    VIII. YARMOUTH AND SHIPBUILDING           97
+
+      IX. SHELBURNE AND THE LOYALISTS        116
+
+       X. BRIDGEWATER AND LUNENBURG          133
+
+      XI. ON THE GOVERNMENT’S FARM           144
+
+     XII. PICTOU AND NEW GLASGOW             156
+
+    XIII. CAPE BRETON                        176
+
+     XIV. THE SYDNEYS                        189
+
+      XV. LOUISBOURG                         205
+
+     XVI. A NEW INVERNESS                    218
+
+    XVII. AMHERST                            228
+
+          APPENDIX                           247
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+    “A full-fed river winding slow”                     _Frontispiece_
+
+    Martello Tower at Halifax                    _Facing page_   20
+
+    Halifax, Boating on the North-West Arm                       27
+
+    Halifax and Harbour from the Citadel                         36
+
+    Entrance to the Citadel, Halifax                             43
+
+    In the Public Gardens, Halifax                               48
+
+    In the Environs of Windsor                                   55
+
+    Bedford Basin                                                55
+
+    Victoria Park, Windsor, N.S.                                 60
+
+    Near Lochaber Lake                                           60
+
+    St. Eulalie, The Residence at Grand Pré of Hon.
+    Sir Robert Weatherbe                                         73
+
+    The Scene of the Grand Pré Raid of 1754                      78
+
+    A Joy-Ride in “The Valley”                                   81
+
+    Annapolis—The Oldest Graveyard on the Continent              87
+
+    Annapolis Royal—The Home of Thomas Chandler
+    Haliburton                                                   87
+
+    Off the Pier at Digby                                        93
+
+    Low Tide at Yarmouth                                         93
+
+    The Home of Evangeline                                       95
+
+    At Evangeline’s Well                                         95
+
+    The Old Governor’s House, Shelburne                         122
+
+    A New Scotland Idyll—In the Annapolis Valley                139
+
+    Main Hall—Nova Scotia Agricultural College                  145
+
+    At Kingsport                                                148
+
+    “Calling” a Moose                                           148
+
+    Truro—The “Joe Howe Falls”                                  154
+
+    The End of Bruin                                            158
+
+    Pictou—Norway House                                         161
+
+    View on the Outskirts of Antigonish                         171
+
+    Strait of Canso, Port Mulgrave                              176
+
+    A Splendid Moose near Lake Rossignol                        178
+
+    King Street, Shelburne (the Town of the Loyalists)          183
+
+    The Road to Louisbourg                                      210
+
+    Louisbourg—The Last of the Dauphin Gate                     210
+
+    Louisbourg—The Obelisk Commemorating the First
+    Siege                                                       217
+
+    La Bras d’Or Lake (Cape Breton)                             220
+
+    Landscape near Stellarton                                   227
+
+    The Site of Fort Lawrence                                   239
+
+    On its Last Legs—Cumberland House, near
+    Amherst, N.S.                                               240
+
+    A Fine Catch near the Mira River                            242
+
+
+
+
+NOVA SCOTIA
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+CANADA’S “FRONT DOOR”
+
+
+“_And if he took ship, lo! it was the wrong ship; and when
+he had got upon the land the road led him backward, or to the
+right or to the left, so that with doubling and turning he was
+full twenty years upon his journey. And all this while, if
+he could but have seen it, the land of Salabat lay straight
+before him, likewise the castle of the Princess Zobeide, which
+he could not behold because of the cloud the genie had caused to
+float before it._”
+
+Some of us laughed when we recalled that Arabian tale
+on our pilgrimage to New Scotland, for there was a man
+on board who dwelt at Sydney; and he told us how,
+on his visit to London, he had engaged a taxicab at the
+Mansion House, and told the driver to take him to Piccadilly
+Circus. After an hour or so he waxed impatient,
+and putting his head out of the window asked the driver
+where they were.
+
+“Hammersmith,” was the reply.
+
+“But that’s the other end of London, isn’t it? I told
+you Piccadilly Circus.”
+
+Whereat the man was aggrieved.
+
+“Ain’t I driving you to Piccadilly Circus?” he asked.
+“You didn’t say you wanted a _short cut_?”
+
+“There’s Sydney yonder,” concluded the Nova Scotian,
+with the glass to his eye, “and we might be at Halifax
+this evening. There is the gleaming Bras d’Or, and the
+trout streams of the Mira River, and my wife and children
+are on the pier at Sydney; and I’m sailing on and on a
+thousand miles to Montreal, and then a thousand miles back
+by rail, because the Canadian Pacific Railway Company,
+and the Government of Canada, and ‘all the powers of the
+air, and the water, and the road’ don’t know that I want
+_a short cut_.”
+
+Of the nine Canadian Provinces stretching from the
+Atlantic to the Pacific seaboard, the one of which Englishmen
+might be expected, from its origin, its proximity, its
+history, and its resources, to know most about they know
+least. This is a puzzle I have often had to explain. Go
+down into Kent or into Wiltshire, and you will find villagers
+talking glibly of Saskatchewan and Alberta. The ale-house
+wiseacre can give you off-hand all the salient peculiarities
+of the Far West. I have heard a farm labourer near
+Westerham expatiating upon the grazing lands of the Bow
+River, and the duties of the mounted police, five thousand
+miles away, never forgetting to refer to the Canadian Pacific
+Railway—_tout court_—as the C.P.R. To hear him one
+would suppose he had already made his venture into those
+far occidental regions of the Empire; but no! it was only
+in prospect, when he had “saved up a bit more.”
+
+“Why in the name of commonsense do you go so far?”
+I asked. “What’s the matter with Nova Scotia?”
+
+The worthy fellow stared and scratched his chin.
+
+“Nova Scotia,” he replied, not without difficulty,
+“an’ where might that be, sir?”
+
+Here his intelligent little niece—a half-baked product
+of the Board School, came to the rescue.
+
+“Don’t you see, uncle Bob, the gentleman’s only ’aving
+a little joke with you? Nova Scotia is an unin’abited
+island in the Arctic Ocean!”
+
+Now, Saskatchewan is between 4000 and 5000 miles
+from England; Nova Scotia is less than half the distance,
+long-peopled, storied, picturesque to the eye. Both are
+Canada—both are crying out for immigrants. Yet the one
+stands almost solely for Canada in the mind of the prospective
+emigrant, and the other he confuses with Nova
+Zembla! Could you demand a more striking tribute to
+the powers of advertisement? For alone of the Canadian
+Provinces those on the Atlantic seaboard had not shared
+in the astounding uplift, “the spectacular development,”
+which has characterised the Dominion since 1896.
+Hundreds of thousands of immigrants poured into the
+country, past the forests, orchards, and valleys of what
+has been aptly called “Canada’s front door.” It was
+decreed that they should be carried on to where there were
+lands to sell and wheat to be freighted; and so they
+travelled westward—“gone farther and fared worse” in
+many cases, although serving an undeniably good end in
+buttressing and giving body to the lately invertebrate trunk
+of the Dominion, of which Nova Scotia is undeniably the
+“head.”
+
+But this condition could not endure: the reaction has
+come at last;[1] and this beautiful Province is now commanding
+that attention which is her due.
+
+[Footnote 1: For advanced legislation dealing with the problem of land
+settlement in Nova Scotia recently enacted, see Appendix A.]
+
+To me as a Canadian, the pageant of New Scotland
+and Acadia has been familiar from my earliest years, and
+as the steamer ploughed its way through the waters of
+the Gulf, I had abundant leisure to let my fancy dwell upon
+those scenes of the past.
+
+Full of adventurous story are the annals of this Province—erstwhile
+Acadia and the Markland of Leif the Lucky.
+It was our kinsfolk, the Norsemen from Iceland, who landed
+on the peninsula nine centuries ago.
+
+One stops to marvel sometimes how the course of the
+history of the world would have run if Leif and his men
+had remained and settled Markland, and Vinland, and
+the New World. Instead of the Crusades, Europe would
+have poured her militant hordes into this hemisphere five
+centuries before Columbus; and instead of conquering
+England such spirits as William of Normandy would have
+found such a field for their energies as Pizarro and Cortez
+later found. Or it may be that the Scandinavians, with
+their western possessions, would have forged ahead of
+Latin Europe, and New Christianas, New Stockholms, and
+New Copenhagens would have replaced the Bostons, New
+Yorks, and Chicagos of far later times.
+
+But the Norsemen sailed back, leaving Markland unsettled;
+and in a few generations the story of their adventurous
+voyage was forgotten, or enshrined only in the sagas
+of their poets, where it became dim and legendary. The
+centuries passed. Markland was given over to the tribes
+of wild Micmacs, who inhabited its coasts and roamed its
+interior in search of the moose and caribou, paddled their
+canoes, and sang their songs of love, and war, and the chase;
+who offered sacrifices to their gods in the light of a
+thousand lodge fires. Then Columbus came. Five years
+after the daring Genoan had sighted the West Indian
+islands from English shores, John Cabot set forth, crossed
+the Atlantic, landed on the Markland coast, and, by virtue
+of his charter from King Henry VII., founded the claim of
+England to Markland and to the whole Continent Columbus
+never saw. But England’s day for expansion was not yet.
+Cortereal, a slave-hunter, appeared on the Labrador coast
+in 1500, and there kidnapped a cargo of natives. Eighteen
+years later, a Frenchman, Baron de Léry, landed some of his
+followers and a few head of cattle on Sable Island, off the
+Markland coast. But although this attempt failed, some
+of the cattle thrived, and their descendants were found
+running wild on this bleak sandy island eighty years afterwards.
+After de Léry none came to colonise these northern
+lands until Jacques Cartier, the hardy St. Malo mariner,
+sailed with his men into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and up
+the river to Stadacona. On the heels of Cartier, from whom
+and other sailors they had tidings of the wealth of the
+New World fisheries, came a horde of English, Norman,
+Basque, and Breton fishermen, who plied their calling off
+the Markland coasts, and returned laden with cod in the
+autumn. Many of these landed and dried their fish on the
+shore, and during most of the sixteenth century that was
+all Europe knew of or dealt with Markland. True, under
+a charter granted by Elizabeth, Sir Humphrey Gilbert
+landed in Newfoundland and took possession of all land six
+hundred miles in every direction from St. Johns, comprising
+therefore what is to-day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince
+Edward Island, and part of Labrador. But his flagship, the
+_Squirrel_, sank with all on board in Nova Scotian waters,
+and nothing more came of Gilbert’s colonising scheme.
+
+Two years ere the century closed, the French again
+awoke to the possibilities of North American settlement;
+and the Marquis de la Roche sailed forth for Markland
+with a cargo of convicts for colonists, for volunteers were
+chary of accompanying him. La Roche steered westward
+until he came to that long crescent of sand which the
+opposite currents off the Markland coast had formed, whose
+treacherous shallows were just hidden by the waves as if
+designed to lure ships to their destruction. It was the
+same Sable Island upon which de Léry had landed eighty
+years before. Fearing the aborigines on the mainland,
+La Roche disembarked his convicts while he went to reconnoitre.
+Awaiting the Marquis’s return, the convicts roamed
+the island, and came upon herds of wild cattle, whose
+ancestors had come out from France with de Léry: they
+tramped by the solitary lagoon of fresh water, through the
+dark grasses, startling the flocks of wild duck, but never a
+shelter they saw. And they drew themselves together at
+dusk, and dug holes in the mud and sand, and waited for
+the ships to come and take them away, even back to the
+gaols and galleys of France. There are few more tragic
+incidents in New Scotland story than this, one of the
+earliest. For the Marquis de la Roche had been driven
+back across the Atlantic by an autumn hurricane, and the
+forty unhappy wretches in their despair, after ravening
+like wolves, and fighting and slaying each other, when other
+sustenance was gone, snared the wild cattle and ate the
+flesh raw, clothed their bodies in the hides, and out of the
+wreckage on the shore fashioned themselves a shelter from
+the terrible winter. Meanwhile, La Roche had been flung
+by a powerful rival into prison, and it was some time before
+he could get the ear of the Court to explain the plight of the
+men on Sable Island. At last a ship went out to take them
+home, and the twelve wild-eyed survivors, clad in shaggy
+hides, and with matted hair and beards, were got on board
+and carried back to France, where the King saw and set
+them free. A few years later another French noble, Pierre
+du Gast, the Sieur de Monts, the founder of Acadia,
+procured from the monarch a monopoly of North American
+trade, set forth in two ships filled with cavaliers and convicts,
+to people the territory named in his grant. This was
+Acadia, of no very definite limits, but comprising the
+entire north-eastern portion of the Continent. With
+de Monts sailed Champlain and a Picardy nobleman, the
+Baron de Poutrincourt; and, after sighting Cape la Hêve
+(near Lunenburg), and entering Port Rossignol, the party
+skirted the Acadian coasts (losing a sheep overboard in
+another harbour, which de Monts promptly named Port
+Mouton), explored the Bay of Fundy, and finally landed
+and spent the winter on a small island at the mouth of the
+St. Croix River. When spring came, de Monts abandoned
+this settlement for a far better site, on the shores of a
+beautiful harbour on the eastern side of the Bay of Fundy,
+which they christened Port Royal.
+
+“The most commodious, pleasant place that we had yet
+seen in this country,” wrote Champlain. While the colony
+was industriously preparing a settlement further down the
+coast for the winter, Champlain went off exploring the
+coast in his ship, sailing up and down what was destined to
+become ere long the territory of New England.
+
+Poutrincourt’s first choice, Port Royal, was found far
+superior to the tentative one at St. Croix River, and there
+in late spring they began to construct a town near what is
+now called Annapolis. De Monts and Poutrincourt, returning
+in the autumn to France, managed to induce a
+large number of mechanics and workers to emigrate to
+Acadia, and Poutrincourt’s ship, the _Jonas_, sailed from
+Rochelle in May 1606. Amongst the new emigrants was
+the active Lescarbot, lawyer and poet, and man of affairs.
+
+A peal of cannon from the little fort at Port Royal
+testified to the joy of its inmates at the advent of the _Jonas_.
+Poutrincourt broached a hogshead of wine, and Port Royal
+became a scene of mirth and festivity. When, in the
+absence of Champlain and Poutrincourt on further exploration,
+Lescarbot was left in charge of the colony, he
+set to work briskly, ordering crops of wheat, rye, and
+barley to be sown in the rich meadows, and gardens to be
+planted. Some he cheered, others he shamed into industry.
+Not a day passed but some new and useful work was begun:
+water-mills, brick kilns, and furnaces for making tar and
+turpentine. When the explorers returned to Port Royal,
+rather dispirited, Lescarbot arranged a masquerade to
+welcome them back, and all the ensuing winter, which was
+extremely mild, was given up to content and good cheer.
+Then it was that Champlain started his famous “Order of
+a Good Time,” of which many stories have been transmitted
+to us. The members of this order were the fifteen leading
+men of Port Royal. They met in Poutrincourt’s great hall,
+where the great log fire roared merrily. For a single day
+each of the members was saluted by the rest as Grand
+Master, and wore round his neck the splendid collar of
+office, while he busied himself with the duty of providing
+dinner and entertainment. One and all declared the fish
+and game were better than in Paris, and plenty of wine
+there was to toast the King and one another in turn. “At
+the right hand of the Grand Master sat the guest of honour,
+the wrinkled sagamore, an aged Indian chief Membertou, his
+eyes gleaming with amusement as toast, song, and tale
+followed one another. On the floor squatted other Indians
+who joined in the gay revels. As a final item on the
+programme, the pipe of peace, with its huge lobster-like
+bowl, went round, and all smoked it in turn until the
+tobacco in its fiery oven was exhausted. Then, and not
+till then, the long winter evening was over.”
+
+But in the spring a ship came from St. Malo with the
+tidings that the King had revoked de Monts’ charter, and
+after efforts on the part of Poutrincourt and his son,
+Biencourt, to linger and retain their hold upon Acadia, the
+French were forced for a time to retire. The English,
+meanwhile, had got a footing in Virginia, and an adventurer
+named Argall came from thence and utterly destroyed
+Port Royal, as encroaching upon the territories of the
+English. He even caused the names of de Monts and other
+officers and the _fleur-de-lis_ to be defaced with pick and
+chisel from the massive stone upon which they had been
+graven. Biencourt fled to the forest, and for a time consorted
+with the Indians, leading a semi-savage existence.
+From this dates the long struggle, lasting for a century
+and a half, for the possession of Acadia—a conflict that was
+not ended until Wolfe’s victory at Quebec and the surrender
+of New France.
+
+Eight years after Argall’s inroad in 1621, James VI. of
+Scotland conferred on one of his courtiers, Sir William
+Alexander, the whole territory which the French dominated
+Acadia.
+
+But in lieu of joining with them to build up a New
+England, he resolved, by the favour of the King, to engage
+his countrymen in extending the glory of their native land
+by founding a New Scotland across the ocean. “Being
+much encouraged hereunto by Sir Ferdinando Gorge[2] and
+some others of the undertakers for New England, I show
+them that my countrymen would never adventure in such
+an enterprise, unless it were as there was a New France, a
+New Spain, and a New England, that they might likewise
+have a New Scotland.”
+
+[Footnote 2: Sir Frederick Gorges, Governor of New Plymouth.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+NEW SCOTLAND’S BEGINNINGS
+
+
+It is a fact worth emphasis, but too little considered, that
+New Scotland sprang, as it were, direct from the loins of
+Old Scotland, and that both Old and New England looked
+on as non-agents passively.
+
+To-day of the Provinces which make up the Dominion
+of Canada, New Scotland is the only one boasting a flag of
+its own, owing nothing in its composition to either the flag
+of England or that of France. Here one may see unfurled
+a white flag with a blue St. Andrew’s Cross (saltier) dividing
+the “field” in four, while in the centre is the double-tressured
+lion of Scotland, the ruddy lion rampant in gold.
+This is the flag of New Scotland, and these were the arms
+of Sir William Alexander, still figuring in part of the
+arms of the Baronets of Nova Scotia, to which famed
+order Sir Arthur Wardour, one remembers, was proud to
+owe allegiance.
+
+To Sir William Alexander the grant was made by
+James VI. of Scotland of lands lying between New
+England and Newfoundland, “to be holden of us _from our
+Kingdom of Scotland as a part thereof_;”[3] on the 29th
+September, 1621, the Charter passed under the Great
+Seal. Sir William Alexander was appointed hereditary
+Lieutenant-General of the colony, which was in all future
+time to have the name of New Scotland, or, as appears in
+the courtly Latin of the charter, Nova Scotia, the first time
+such name appears in history, and at this day itself the only
+permanent memorial of the undertaking.
+
+[Footnote 3: _Sir William Alexander and the Scottish attempt to
+colonise Acadia_, by the Rev. George Patterson, D.D.]
+
+The charter goes on to say: “As it is very important
+that all our beloved subjects who inhabit the said Province
+of New Scotland or its borders may live in the fear of
+Almighty God, and at the same time in His true worship,
+and may have an earnest purpose to establish the Christian
+religion therein, and also to cultivate peace and quiet with
+the native inhabitants and savage aborigines of these lands,
+so that they, and any others trading there, may safely,
+pleasantly, and quietly hold what they have got with great
+labour and peril. We ... give and grant to the said
+Sir William Alexander and foresaids ... free and absolute
+power of arranging and securing peace, alliance, friendship,
+mutual conferences, assistance, intercourse, &c.” The
+charter also granted the power of attacking suddenly,
+invading, expelling, and by arms driving away ... all and
+singly those who without their special license should attempt
+to occupy these lands, or trade in the said Province of
+New Scotland. Authorisation was also given them to
+construct “forts, fortresses, castles, &c., with posts and
+naval stations, and also ships of war:” to “establish
+garrisons of soldiers, and generally to do all things for the
+acquisition, increase, and introduction of people and persons
+to preserve and govern New Scotland ... as the King
+might do if present in person.” The right of regulating
+and coining money was also granted: and these and other
+privileges involved only the annual payment of “one penny
+of Scottish money, if so much be demanded.”
+
+Sir William, soon after obtaining his patent, arranged
+for the transfer of his rights in the island of Cape Breton,
+which originally was included in the Province of New
+Scotland, to his friend Sir Robert Gordon, of Lochinvar.
+The latter, with his son Robert, obtained a royal charter
+(dated 8th November, 1621) to this, which was styled the
+barony of New Galloway.
+
+No time was lost by Sir William in taking the necessary
+steps for the settling of his territory. Fitting out a ship
+in London, in March, 1622, he sent it round the coast to
+Kirkcudbright, hoping to obtain there a body of emigrants,
+through the influence of Sir Robert Gordon, whose lands
+lay in that direction. The meagre inducements offered,
+however, could hardly attract persons possessed of the
+ordinary comforts of home life. Purchasers of land were
+the only ones to have any rights in the soil. Farmers
+might obtain leases; but all, after a specified time, were
+constrained to pay a one-thirteenth part of the revenue from
+the land to the Lieutenant-General. Artisans might
+receive holdings, but only for their lives. So it is recorded
+that there was only one artisan, a blacksmith, took part in
+the expedition, the other emigrants being generally agricultural
+labourers of the lowest class. It is unlikely, however,
+that more favourable terms were offered in any of the
+early attempts at settlement in America, or that the
+material engaged in them was any better. If Sir William
+had offered lands in fee his prospective emigrants would
+probably have been of an altogether different class—of the
+class of men who, being possessed of the means of subsistence,
+could have become attached to the soil, and who in time
+would have built up a free and prosperous society. But a
+system such as this was totally opposed to the social ideas
+of the times—times when the most prevalent idea was to
+establish overseas a state of society similar to that of
+mediæval Europe, the soil in the possession of certain lords
+paramount, and the settlers holding their lands in a condition
+little above that of serfs.
+
+The two colonising expeditions undertaken in consequence
+of the charter cost Alexander a large sum of money,
+and both ended in failure, owing to ill-management. This
+failure by no means dampened Sir William’s zeal. In 1624
+he issued a small work entitled, _An Encouragement to
+Colonies_, which was furnished with a map of New Scotland.
+The names given on this show the determination to reproduce
+the peculiarities of Scotland, even in minor ways.
+In this manner the St. Croix River appears as the Tweed,
+while another, flowing from its head into the St. Lawrence,
+is named the Solway. The river doubtless intended for
+the St. John is called the Clyde, and the inlet of the sea
+on the coast of New Brunswick is put down as the Forth.
+
+In this work Sir William depicts New Scotland as having
+“very delecate meadowes,” “with roses white and red,”
+and “very good, fat earth,” as the voyagers in the _St. Luke_
+had seen it along the coast. As a further inducement for
+early occupation, he added a mention of rich grains, and an
+abundance of fowls and fishes. Scotland he referred to as
+like a bee-hive, sending out swarms of her people yearly,
+who expended their energies in foreign wars. He then
+invited Scotsmen to settle in a new country, where successful
+commerce might be prosecuted by the merchant, where
+the sportsman might enter into a paradise of his own, and
+where the Christian might have ample scope for missionary
+enterprise.
+
+“Where,” was his argument, “was euer Ambition
+baited with greater hopes than here, or where euer had
+Vertue so large a field to reape the fruits of Glory, since any
+man who doth goe thither of good qualitie, able at first
+to transport a hundred persons with him, furnished with
+things necessary, shall have as much Bounds as may serve
+for a great Man, whereupon he may build a Towne of his
+owne, giving it what forme or name he will, and being the
+first Founder of a new estate, which a pleasing industry
+may quickly bring to a perfection, may leaue a faire inheritance
+to his posteritie, who shall claime unto him as the
+author of their Nobilitie there, rather than to any of his
+Ancestours that had preceded him, though neuer so nobly
+borne elsewhere?”
+
+But despite the glowing prospects enumerated in this
+_Encouragement to Colonies_, little enthusiasm was excited
+on behalf of the undertaking. When the English treasury
+refused to compensate Alexander for losses in a matter in
+which it had no concern, a new method was suggested,
+whereby his embarrassments might be relieved and the
+undertaking carried on. James, since his accession to
+the English throne, had systematically replenished his
+revenues by the simple method of selling titles. A particular
+instance of this was the colonisation of Ulster; when
+he shortly before created an order of knights baronets, of
+which English landowners might become members on their
+paying into the exchequer the sum of £1100. By this
+means some 205 persons had obtained the new dignity
+between 1611 and 1622, the profit to the treasury being
+£225,000. This suggested to Sir William that the expenses
+of his colony might be provided for by the establishment
+of a new order—the baronets of New Scotland—while
+less costly terms might serve as inducements for the Scottish
+landowners and the sons of the Scottish nobility to become
+members. His recommendation of this plan in due course
+brought forth a royal letter, which informed the Privy
+Council of Scotland that the King had determined to take
+a personal interest in the colonisation of New Scotland, and
+to establish a new order of baronets in connection therewith.
+The Privy Council were invited to assist in the
+carrying out of the royal intention.
+
+The council, influenced by Sir William, approved the
+royal order, and replied to the King on the 23rd November,
+1624, indicating a scheme for following His Majesty’s
+wishes. “We are given to understand that the country
+of New Scotland, being dividit into twa Provinces and eache
+Province into several Dioceises or Bishoprikis, and each
+Diocese in thrie Counteyis, and each Countey into ten
+Baroneyis, every baronie being three myle long vpon the
+coast and ten myle up into the countrie, dividit into sax
+paroches, and each paroche contening sax thousand aikars
+of land; and that every Baronett is to be ane Barone of
+some one or other of the saidis Barroneis, and is to haif
+therein ten thousand aikars of propertie, besidis his sax
+thousand aikars belonging to his bur^t (burgh) of baronie,
+to be holden free blanshe, and in a free baronie of His
+Majesty as the baronies of the kingdome.” The conditions
+imposed were “the setting furth of six men towardis His
+Maiestie’s Royall Colonie, armed, apparelld and victualled
+for two yeares, and every baronet paying Sir William
+ane thousand markis Scottis money only toward his past
+charges and endevouris.”
+
+As for these Nova Scotia baronetcies, great efforts were
+made to induce likely persons to accept them. In 1629
+six were created and thirteen in the two years following.
+The Commissioners were impowered to fill up the dates
+of patents at their discretion, “so that those unwilling
+to occupy a lower place on the rolls might be reckoned
+amongst the earliest creations.” Nor was the outer attractiveness
+of the order neglected. Under date of the 17th
+November, 1629, the King authorises “everie one of them
+and thare heires male to weare and carry about their
+neckis, in all time coming, ane orange tauney ribbane,
+whairon shall hing pendant on a skutchion _argent_, a saltoire
+_azeur_ thereon, ane inscutcheune of the armes of Scotland,
+with ane imperiall croune above the scutchone, and incircled
+with this motto:  ‘Fax Mentis Honestæ Gloria.’” This
+was to be proclaimed publicly at the market cross of
+Edinburgh. And any one who should, “out of neglect
+or contempt, presume to tak place or precedence of the
+said baronettes, thare wifes or childring, or to weare thare
+cognoissance,” was in the same paper threatened with fine
+and imprisonment.
+
+A Scottish settlement was planted on the shores of
+Annapolis Basin; but the settlers seem to have been little
+prepared for the rigours of a Nova Scotian winter and the
+enmity of the Indians, for no fewer than thirty of the
+pioneers died. Meanwhile, Sir William Alexander’s son,
+bearing the same name, had succeeded; and, arriving in
+New Scotland, proceeded to put affairs into better order.
+He dealt so dexterously with the aborigines, that their
+chief consented to make a journey to England with his
+wife and son, where they enjoyed the absurd titles of King,
+Queen, and Prince of New Scotland. In the December of
+1629, Sir James Bagg, Governor of Plymouth, was directed
+by royal letter to conduct to Court “one of the commanders
+(or chiefs) of Canada, attended by some others of that
+countrie.” In a letter from Christ College, dated the
+12th of February, 1630, the Rev. Joseph Mead wrote:—
+
+“There came last week to London the king, queen,
+and young prince of New Scotland. This king comes to
+be of our king’s religion, and to submit his kingdom to
+him, and to become his hostage for the same, that he
+may be protected against the French in Canada. Those
+savages arrived at Plymouth, were a while entertained at
+my Lord Poulet’s in Somersetshire, much made of, especially
+my lady of the savage queen. She came with her to the
+coach, when they were come to London, put a chain about
+her neck with a diamond valued by some at near £20.
+The savages took all in good part, but for thanks or acknowledgment
+made no sign or expression at all.”
+
+Meanwhile Biencourt, the representative of De Monts
+and the original French settlers, together with two enterprising
+spirits named De la Tour, father and son, were
+holding on for King Louis in Acadia. When Biencourt
+died, Charles De la Tour meditated striking a blow for
+French supremacy. In this he was perpetually foiled, his
+father was captured by Admiral Kirke and taken to England,
+where he was caressed and cajoled, married a Court lady,
+and was created a Baronet of Nova Scotia. As Sir Claude
+he went out to New Scotland to endeavour to seduce his
+son Charles from his allegiance, but in vain. New Scotland,
+as a British settlement, was doomed. In 1632 the blow
+fell. By the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, Nova Scotia
+and Canada were ceded back to France by Charles I., who
+by this act of treachery achieved what French force had
+hitherto failed to accomplish. Nevertheless, the King
+wrote a letter to the Privy Council, in which he says:
+“lest any mistaking should ensure thereupon, we have
+thought it good to declare unto you that it (the Treaty)
+is in no ways for quitting the title right or possession of
+New Scotland or of any part thereof.” But this, in view
+of the actual terms of the Treaty, and of its consequences,
+was empty language. The settlers of New Scotland dispersed
+or mingled with the French, and the first attempt
+to establish a New Scotland ended in failure.
+
+I have dwelt somewhat fully upon this project—the
+beginnings of New Scotland—because it is one almost
+invariably slurred over by historians, and about which much
+ignorance exists. I shall have occasion in later pages to
+speak of the essentially Scottish character of New Scotland,
+and it is as well to recall its early planting by the Alexanders,
+the Frasers, the Gordons, and the MacNeills.
+
+Of the subsequent history of Nova Scotia I can here
+touch upon only briefly. England’s next ruler, Oliver
+Cromwell, recovered what Charles had basely surrendered,
+and Acadia became again Nova Scotia: but this position
+was again changed in 1667, when Charles II. gave away
+what Cromwell had won, that is to say, “all the country
+called Acadia situated in America which the Most Christian
+King had formerly enjoyed.” Another war, however,
+soon came between England and France, after the expulsion
+of James II. Port Royal was compelled to surrender
+to a British force from Boston, and Nova Scotia
+had again changed hands. The country reverted to the
+French through a Treaty of King William III.’s in 1697;
+but at the end of a further war, in 1713, the mainland of
+Nova Scotia had again passed into the possession of the
+British, a position which has never since changed. France
+retained her hold on Cape Breton Island and the neighbouring
+Isle St. Jean (now Prince Edward Island), until Canada
+was conquered in 1759.
+
+To reach these results many battles were fought,
+and many interesting historical events happened in New
+Scotland—as, for instance, the two sieges of Louisbourg,
+and the famous expulsion of the Acadians, celebrated in
+Longfellow’s poem “Evangeline.”
+
+[Illustration: MARTELLO TOWER AT HALIFAX.]
+
+When the French power was finally shattered, the total
+white population of Nova Scotia was only some 13,000,
+of which 2000 were French. The capital, Halifax, was a
+little garrison town only fourteen years old, and comprising
+some 500 families. Settlers from the neighbouring New
+England colonies caused a considerable increase in this
+number, and additions came from King George’s German
+kingdom of Hanover. Afterward, when the American
+colonies had thrown off their allegiance, some 20,000, who
+either would not or could not remain in their old homes
+under a new flag, migrated to Nova Scotia, calling themselves
+the United Empire Loyalists. Many of these,
+however, settled on the north-west side of the Bay of
+Fundy—a region which, then under the Governor of Nova
+Scotia, was afterwards formed into a separate Province,
+now known to us as New Brunswick. From that time to
+the present day Nova Scotia’s history has been one of
+uninterrupted peace.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thus briefly have I presented to the reader the salient
+features in Provincial history, a subject upon which more
+than one interesting volume has been penned. Of its
+romance—and it is a land teeming with romance—there
+is hardly a hill or a valley, a lake, an island, or a headland,
+that has not some tradition, some legend, some story of
+massacre, of sacrifice, of heroism, or of devotion—I have
+so far hinted but little. Its shrines are visited by thousands
+of Americans annually. This is the land past which the
+British visitor to Canada finds himself whirled, and is
+soon at the heart of the great Dominion of the West, without
+having seen its smiling crest, or touched its outstretched
+hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+NEW SCOTLAND’S CHARACTERISTICS
+
+
+One finds it difficult, briefly by means of analogy, to
+describe this peninsula of New Scotland. Yet it may not
+unfairly be compared to Old Scotland. Many of the
+features of the land are the same, nor is the climate unlike.
+But when we come to the human element we have no difficulty
+at all. Mixed as the population is, the Scots predominate.
+The late Lieutenant-Governor was a Fraser.
+The present holder of the office is a Macgregor, the Premier
+is a Murray, the Mayor of Halifax is a Chisholm. The
+Frasers, Macdonalds, M’Gillivrays, Wallaces, and M’Inneses
+furnish forth the bench, the bar, journalism, and the learned
+professions; and it is perhaps needless to tell you that
+the Scot here, as elsewhere in Canada, more than holds his
+own—“and maybe that of ither folk”—in the commercial
+world.
+
+But this is not saying enough about New Scotland
+considered as a transatlantic habitation and hunting-ground
+of the Old Scot. Here are still Gaelic communities where
+the Sassenach tongue is not heard. On the eve of the
+American Revolution a tide of emigration had set in from
+the old Scotland to the new, the first to arrive being a
+shipload of Highlanders in 1773. For many years, despite
+the terrible conditions of an ocean passage in those days,
+the tide flowed on. Emigrants, in the old days, were
+forced to spend weeks or even months on the voyage,
+pent like cattle in ships frequently infected by small-pox
+and scurvy.
+
+Some 25,000 Scottish peasants settled on Cape Breton
+Island alone, while numbers landed on the shores of
+Northumberland Strait, in the counties now known as
+Pictou and Antigonish. Their hardships were not over
+when they landed; but with indomitable pluck they persevered
+until they had carved homes for themselves out of
+the forest.
+
+From one end of the peninsula to the other the cemeteries
+are filled with the tombs of the Frasers and the Macdonalds,
+the Macleans and the M’Nabs. At Shelburne,
+that “dead city” of the Loyalists, I copied out a lengthy
+inscription on a granite stone to a Loyalist heroine:
+
+THE WIFE OF JOHN MACLEAN
+
+WHO DIED 28TH MARCH, 1791, AGED 32 YEARS
+
+She left her native country, Scotland, and numerous friends and
+companions, to follow the fortunes of her husband during the war
+with America in 1780. And when New York became no longer
+an asylum to loyalty, she joined him again on the rugged shore
+of Nova Scotia as an affectionate and faithful wife, a cheerful
+and social friend, humane and charitable, and pious as became
+a good Christian.
+
+Another elsewhere oddly records that: “Here lies
+Angus M’Donald and his five sons, who lived ever on the
+side of the King, and died on this side of the Ocean.”
+
+No; New Scotland is no misnomer; and the Patron
+Saint of the Province is—and may it long continue so to be—St.
+Andrew.
+
+Although the Scots thus prevail, the other inhabitants
+of the Province are an eighteenth century mixture of the
+Old and New Worlds—of three great European races.
+Cape Breton and the eastern part of the peninsula is Scotch,
+the extreme west is French-Acadian, there is a settlement
+of Germans in the middle, and the rest of the population,
+save for a small sprinkling of aboriginal Micmacs, is English—the
+fruit of the Loyalist immigration from America.
+
+Nova Scotia, which is connected with the North
+American Continent by a narrow isthmus, lies roughly
+within the same degrees north latitude as the territory
+between the Pyrenees and Lake Geneva. It is 360 miles
+long, with an average breadth of 65 miles, and covers an
+area of 20,900 square miles, _i.e._ over two-thirds that of
+Scotland. No part of the entire peninsula is more than
+thirty miles from the sea. The surface of the country is
+very undulating, though not mountainous, the highest
+ridge not being 1200 feet in height. Yet the Province
+boasts several of these ridges or chains of hills, to which it
+gives the name of mountains, generally running parallel
+to its length. Its picturesqueness is chiefly attributable to
+its numerous and beautiful lakes, its harbours dotted with
+islands, its rivers and streams, and a pleasing variety of
+highland and valley. Looked at from the Atlantic side,
+the country seems barren and rocky.
+
+The seaward coast of the Province has been likened to a
+granite wall, indented by innumerable bays, fiords, and
+inlets. Wide and sandy beaches sweep gradually towards the
+firm soil, from headland to headland; quaint and quiet
+fishing villages and hamlets underlie the rocks, sentinelled
+by countless islands along the coast. At every point, too,
+history and legend are here to throw a mantle over the
+scene—to mingle its rays with those of the sun and moon.
+Here are tales of French and English adventure, of Indian
+raid, storm, wreck, of buccaneers and buried treasure, all
+the way from Cape North to Cape Sable. But if the
+Atlantic shore is seemingly sterile and iron-bound, bearing
+in this respect a striking resemblance to the east coast of
+Old Scotland, it is far otherwise with the interior. The
+peach and the grape ripen in the open air, and the growth
+of maize and root crops might well excite the envy of a
+farmer in Perthshire or Elgin. Even in those districts
+where the scorched and leafless stems of giant pines rear
+their arms upward as if in appeal to Heaven, if the traveller
+will leave the railway and penetrate to the land beneath,
+he will see a vegetation almost rank, of raspberry, wild
+rhododendron, alder and crimson sumach, telling of the
+fertility of the soil. Where the surface is not fertile, the
+riches are beneath, in the form of coal, iron, gypsum, and
+other minerals: but there are few parts of the Province
+where grass suitable for sheep and cattle raising does not
+abound.
+
+Then when we get on the North, or “Fundy Side,”
+of the peninsula, we meet the broad alluvial plains, intersected
+by tortuous rivers or indented by wide and crooked
+basins, floored with red mud which the ebb-tide reveals,
+as though each were a ruddy gash in the bosom of Mother
+Earth. This is the land of the monstrous Fundy tides,
+whose high-mounting, foaming “bore,” or tidal wave,
+sweeps irresistibly shoreward, making the smallest creeks to
+fill like turbulent rivers, but met and baffled along the low-lying
+shore by the “dykes” which were first reared by the
+Norman peasants three centuries ago, reclaiming the rich
+marsh land from the salt tide, and only here and there
+permitting the fertilising ocean to trickle in at certain
+seasons to reinvigorate the soil. Here is situated, too,
+that “hundred miles of apple-blossoms,” otherwise known as
+the Annapolis Valley, sheltered between the North and South
+Mountains, and also the famous marshes of Tantramar.
+
+At the other and eastern end of this peninsula stands
+Cape Breton Island, a province in itself, cut off by the
+Strait of Causo, one of the most picturesque of regions,
+itself reversing, as has been said, the definition of an
+island, inasmuch as it is land surrounding a body of water.
+That golden arm of the sea—the Bras d’Or lakes—nearly
+divides the land into two halves—both rich in the natural
+diversifications of hill and dale, crag and fell, forest and
+moor, and many streams and islets.
+
+Everywhere are the shores indented, often to the
+extent of several miles, with harbours, rivers, coves, and
+bays, usually connecting with the interior waters. The
+loftiest cliffs, about 500 feet high, lie on the coast
+between Mahone and Margaret’s Bay, and is generally the
+first land descried by voyagers from Europe or the West
+Indies. From the summit of Ardoise Hill, between Halifax
+and Windsor, which is 700 feet high, one may command
+a prospect of Windsor, Falmouth, Newport, Wolfeville, and
+the basin of Minas country. Further on to the west are the
+Horton Mountains, running nearly north and south, and
+twenty miles beyond begins another chain of hills, traversing
+east and west, the North Mountain and the South Mountain,
+the former of which is washed by the Bay of Fundy.
+Between these two ridges lie the fertile Annapolis and
+Cornwallis valleys.
+
+[Illustration: HALIFAX—BOATING ON THE NORTH-WEST ARM.]
+
+To the great inequality of the surface of the soil is
+due the prevalence of so many lakes, the largest in the
+peninsula being Rossignol, twenty miles from Liverpool up
+the Mersey River. There used to be a great uncertainty concerning
+the dimensions of this inland lake—which Haliburton
+thought was thirty miles long; but it is now known to be
+twelve miles in length by eight broad. The difficulty
+seems to have arisen by confusing it with adjoining lakes,
+of which there are numerous others in the vicinity. About
+Yarmouth, at the southern extremity of the Province,
+there are no fewer than eighty; while, as to Cape Breton
+Island, the whole interior of the southern half is one vast
+lake. A chain of lakes almost crosses the Province between
+Halifax and Cobequid Bay, suggesting many years ago a
+junction by canal. A company was formed and work
+begun, but nothing came of it. Another such chain nearly
+unites the source of the Gaspereaux in King’s Country with
+that of Gold River in Lunenburg. Many of these thousand
+and one lakes which bejewel the entire interior of New
+Scotland are of great beauty, containing timbered islands,
+whose foliage, together with that of the surrounding hills,
+is most variegated and attractive, especially in autumn,
+when the scarlet of the maple, the yellow of the birch,
+and gradations of green of the oak, elm, and pine, present
+a truly gorgeous spectacle. Even in winter, when the
+ground is covered with snow, the presence of enormous
+numbers of evergreens is an agreeable feature of the landscape
+in most parts of the Province. There are, however,
+others, which are either stony and barren, or boggy, or
+where the forest has been the prey of fire. In the latter
+parts, the “burnt lands,” the tall dead trees remain upright,
+black and forbidding, the picture of desolation. But in
+these cases, although it is a long time, owing to the fire
+having destroyed the soil and the seeds within it, before
+a new growth appears, yet this is easily afforested or converted
+into good arable land. The arable lands, in spite
+of all that has been done to foster agriculture, still remain
+only a fraction of the total cultivable part of New Scotland,
+and these are chiefly confined as yet to the vicinity of
+the rivers, harbours, and coasts, and the oldest townships.
+In these, however, the aspect is luxuriant, extensive,
+and various, reminding one here of the Scottish lowlands,
+there of Kent or Devonshire, in respect of cultivation
+and picturesqueness. Even the hedgerows, unknown in
+America, occasionally greet the eye.
+
+New Scotland is divided into counties, which are themselves
+parcelled into districts and townships. The Scottish
+origin and element, I am bound to say, do not come out
+very strong in the names of these counties, such as Halifax,
+Sydney, Cumberland, Hants, King’s, Lunenburg, Liverpool,
+Shelburne, &c., albeit there are some Scottish names in
+the districts and townships.
+
+When all is said of the products of New Scotland, of
+her coal, her iron, her fish, and her fruit, it still remains
+that her chief and most notable product is that which is
+Old Scotland’s proudest boast—her men. Is it that a
+seafaring folk are always superior to those who are bred
+far inland? Is it that there is a wider outlook, a sense of
+vicissitude and adventure for the people who are in touch
+with that vast, restless flood, itself touching far-off climes
+and changing zones? Who if they do not sail a ship
+themselves or battle with storm and breaker, mix with the
+men who do, who know what it is to grapple with a wreck,
+what the cry of the widows and orphans of a lost crew
+is like? Surely this must breed a stronger soul: or is it,
+as a Manitoban hinted to me when acknowledging the
+intellectual superiority of the Nova Scotians, that to a fish
+diet must be ascribed that which for a century has been
+so manifest in the history of British North America?
+
+Proud is New Scotland of the men who have sprung
+from her loins. This cherishing of the memory of their
+worthy forerunners is perhaps the most marked characteristic
+of Nova Scotians to-day, the one in which this people
+differs in spirit from their neighbours.
+
+The term “Blue-nose,” long a current one applied to
+the Nova Scotians, brings me to the New York and New
+England irruption into the Province at the period of the
+American Revolution. As is now widely conceded, the best
+blood of the American Colonies—the oldest, the wealthiest,
+and the best educated—were United Empire Loyalists.
+
+Amongst the “True Blues,” the pioneers of Shelburne,
+was Gideon White, of Salem, descended from the first
+white child, Peregrine White, born in New England.
+To-day, Gideon’s grandson, an able lawyer of charming
+manners, lives in Shelburne, and courteously showed me
+many of the interesting family papers he still possesses.
+Shelburne is now a small village, but its spacious, grass-grown
+streets, its Governor’s mansion, its thickly strewn
+churchyard, tell the tale of its past glory. But although
+the “True Blues” left Shelburne, they scattered themselves
+through the Province, and there are hundreds of
+families who trace their ancestry back to the Pilgrim Fathers.
+“You can see they’re  ‘True Blue,’” said a Yankee derisively.
+“Now they’ve gone to live in such a cold country as Nova
+Scotia they carry their colours in the middle of their faces!”
+And so the epithet “Blue-nose” stuck, although it is
+difficult to say why the nasal appendages of Nova Scotians
+should be of a more azure tint than those which are blown
+by the pocket-handkerchiefs of the New England folk—since
+the climate is about the same—if anything, less
+rigorous in the peninsula.
+
+“Blue-nose,” as I have already hinted, has long been a
+synonym for sloth amongst the Yankees; but now we hear
+of Blue-nose booms, Blue-nose “boosters,” and Blue-nose
+hustlers. The “Flying Blue-nose” express, which runs
+from the Boston docks at Digby to Halifax, might easily
+give points to many American express trains, besides itself
+furnishing proof that the term “Blue-nose” is as acceptable
+to the New Scotlanders as Yankee (_i.e._ Anglais) is to the
+New Englanders, through whose less fertile homesteads the
+“Flying Yankee” rushes.
+
+Before me as I write is a placard redolent of the new
+spirit, which is mingling with, yet not destroying the
+old:—
+
+“BOOST” NOVA SCOTIA!
+
+Do YOU believe that Nova Scotia, acre for acre, is
+the equal of any other Province of Canada?
+
+Do YOU believe that Nova Scotians, man for man, are
+the equal in intelligence, industry, and ability, of any of
+the other inhabitants of this planet?
+
+If so, lend a hand and “boost” Nova Scotia!
+
+“Every town, every county,” remarks a Nova Scotia
+writer, “cherishes traditions of its old families, its first
+settlers; of the pious missionary, the minister who gave
+half his scanty income to redeem the slave; the adventurous
+sea-captain, whose life reads like one of Smollett’s
+novels; the man who settled half a county; the evangelist
+who stirred the souls of men; the founder of the first
+academy; the man who first resisted the insolence of office;
+the loyalist who lost all for his flag.”
+
+The Nova Scotians have, more than any other people,
+been helped to this self-continence, this habit of reverence,
+by their comparative isolation, by the fact that so many
+of her sons went out and so few newcomers entered, by
+there being no destructive spirit of unrest abroad, no
+substitution of cheaper ideals. No Province in Canada, I
+had almost written no nation in Canada—for is not this
+the day of small and separate nationalities?—where
+memories of the past are sweeter—where yesterday has a
+magic that to-day can never impart. Far be it from me
+to deride this sentiment; but as my eye glances down the
+columns of the Nova Scotian newspapers, I find here and
+there an insistence upon men and events that belong to
+yesterday, indeed, rather than to the day before yesterday;
+which must strike the folk of an older civilisation as very
+odd. Thus in an Amherst paper I find the following:—
+
+
+OLD BAGATELLE BOARD
+
+_A Relic of the Early Eighties found in the Academy Garret_
+
+When the old Academy on Acadia Street was being torn down some
+years ago, a rude bagatelle board was found away up among the
+rafters. The finders were mystified, and there was only one of the
+“Old Boys” in town who could throw light on its existence, although
+since that time the maker of the board has taken up his residence
+in Amherst. We refer to Will Casey who taught the class in electricity
+in our technical school so successfully last winter. Even in boyhood
+he was a mechanical genius, and the bagatelle board was not his
+first piece of manual work. Will brought the board to school one
+morning long before the arrival of the teachers. A ladder was put
+up to the manhole in the ceiling, the board taken up and the ladder
+after it. There were four boys late for school that morning. More
+than one game was played up among the dust and cobwebs. “Len”
+Wheaton, now a well-known engineer, became an expert; “Hae”
+Gaetz, son of Rev. Joseph Gaetz, would occasionally take a hand
+in the game, and a long-limbed chap from Doherty Creek, who now
+adorns a New York pulpit, was, if we mistake not, once admitted
+into the sacred precincts of the old garret. There were others too,
+all scattered abroad, but we would like to see them home this year to
+talk over some of the episodes of our school life in the early eighties.
+
+All this might have appeared in a Maidstone or Peebles
+paper, only it would there be descriptive of something
+which happened in 1830, not in 1880, Here anything
+that happened a century ago is antiquity indeed, while an
+occurrence of two or three centuries since is like something
+before Noah’s Ark, _i.e._ the _Mayflower_.
+
+There are some people who never experience a sense of the
+insignificance of time—of what is called the ages. We all
+know men of ninety—some of us know centenarians. Twenty
+such lives and we are back at the beginning of the Christian
+era—even five such lives as Lord Strathcona’s, and Columbus
+had not discovered the New World. But those who do
+not experience this sense of the real modernity of antiquity,
+turn their eyes back upon a world of awfulness and mystery,
+as well as of poetry and beauty. The shortest journey of
+the memory or the imagination backward is bordered by
+shadows and by dreams. Men and scenes are not the men
+and scenes we know, but something quite other and heroic.
+And the best of it is, it may _be_ so. We can by no means
+reconcile our knowledge of the world to-day with what has
+come down to us of that world dead and buried even these
+hundred years. That is where our poetical faith comes in—our
+refusal to measure the people and customs of long
+ago by the psychological yard-stick of this our time. We
+refuse to see in Champlain, Lescarbot, and Poutrincourt,
+only the seventeenth century equivalent of Mr. Nansen,
+Dr. Grenfell, and Commander Peary, people who, in spite
+of their heroic achievements, are surely prosaic folk.
+
+Something of the glamour of the past is already falling
+upon the figure of Joseph Howe—Nova Scotia’s great hero.
+Nova Scotians speak of Howe as Americans speak of Abraham
+Lincoln. Throughout the Province, in the towns, the
+villages, and the countryside, you will find plenty of old
+men who remember “Joe” Howe in the flesh, who exchanged
+greetings with the “patriot, poet, and orator,”
+who, maybe, held his horse, or fetched him a draught, not,
+I fear, often from the village pump, but from the village
+inn, and who, and whose descendants, bear him the same
+measure of affection which in Ontario is accorded to
+Sir “John A”—Canada’s first Premier, the gifted, wayward,
+prescient Macdonald. At Truro, two old cronies stood
+beside the “Joe Howe” falls—a picturesque cataract in
+the woods of the public park. “Fluent, eh, Tom?” “Oh,
+aye, Andrew, fluent.” “Copious, eh, Tom?” “Oh, aye,
+copious.” “And noisy, eh?” “True, noisy.” “But
+eternal, Tom?” “Yes, by G——, eternal. Nothing can
+stop Joe Howe, and nothing can stop these falls. They’ll
+go on—both of ’em, shining as long as Nova Scotia—as
+long as the world lasts.”
+
+Of other famous names than Howe’s there is Haliburton’s,
+of whom I will speak elsewhere in these pages. De Mille,
+although a native of that former part of the Province
+known as New Brunswick, wrote here all his novels. There
+are Sir John Inglis of Lucknow, and General Fenwick
+Williams of Kars. Samuel Cunard, the first to bridge
+the Atlantic with a line of steamers, and the founder of the
+Cunard fleet, was a Halifax merchant. From one single
+county—Pictou—came five of Canada’s college presidents—Dawson
+of McGill, Grant and Gordon to Queen’s, and
+Ross and Forrest to Dalhousie—whereas no other single
+county probably ever gave so many as two. From Nova
+Scotia came Sir Charles Tupper and Sir John S. D.
+Thompson, Prime Ministers of Canada. The present
+Prime Minister of Canada, Right Honourable Robert Laird
+Borden, is a Nova Scotian, and represents the constituency
+of Halifax in the Federal Parliament, and this same province
+is the birthplace of Mr. William Stevens Fielding, the
+eminent member of Finance in the cabinet of Sir Wilfrid
+Laurier.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HALIFAX AND THE HALIGONIANS
+
+
+In the exact middle of the peninsula of Nova Scotia a
+triangular piece of land juts out into the Atlantic. To
+this second peninsula is attached a third, and upon this
+narrow rocky strip, three miles long by a single wide, a
+century and a half ago was founded the “Cronstadt of
+Canada.” East and west of Halifax is the sea, but the
+sea subdued and serene: for on the one hand is the world-famed
+Halifax harbour, and on the other the river-like
+north-west arm. In the harbour a thousand ships may
+ride quietly at anchor: it is always accessible: as it touches
+the upper end of the town it narrows only to expand again
+into Bedford Basin—ten square miles of peaceful marine
+haven. On the eastern slope of the little isthmus, Halifax
+is built, the ground rising from the harbour’s edge, some
+two hundred and fifty feet, to where is reared the great
+stone citadel, a striking spectacle when viewed from the
+sea—to the ocean-borne traveller striking and significant.
+
+    “Into the mist my guardian prows put forth,
+    Behind the mist my virgin ramparts lie,
+    The Warden of the Honour of the North,
+    Sleepless and veiled am I!”
+
+Halifax has been for a century and a half the chief naval
+and military headquarters of British North America, and
+for some time the sole garrison of regular troops in Canada.
+Its military spirit dates from its very birth.
+
+There are greetings of every kind and degree in store
+for the traveller in parts civilised, uncivilised, barbarous,
+and savage; greetings at the portals of the city, effusive,
+boisterous, vociferous. There is one time-dishonoured
+greeting that I could dispense with more freely than all the
+rest, and it is that which awaits the incomer by rail to the
+capital of New Scotland. Conjure up in your fancy
+seventeen shaggy, wild-eyed men, in whose visages Celtic
+traits predominate, standing in a row, brandishing their
+outflung fists, bawling at the top of their voices, and only
+prevented from leaping upon the traveller and forthwith
+tearing him to pieces by a too-slender wooden barrier—and
+you have the spectacle which many a time and oft has confronted
+me at the Halifax railway terminus. For a moment,
+not understanding the pleasant local custom, with stunned
+faculties you stand regarding the line of raving madmen,
+unable to distinguish the diabolical dissyllable they are
+hurling at your head; and then a glimmering of the truth
+comes upon you, your hand-bag and umbrella-case fall from
+your limp grasp, they are caught up by one of the shrieking
+phalanx, by whom you are hustled into an open victoria
+and driven at breakneck speed to a hotel. It is pretended
+that the natives like this custom—that they have grown
+used to it—that as the local poet sings:
+
+    “’Tis sweet to hear the cabman’s honest bark,
+    Bay deep-mouthed welcome as we draw near home.”
+
+[Illustration: HALIFAX AND HARBOUR FROM THE CITADEL.]
+
+One Scot, thrillingly ingenious, declares that on arriving
+at Halifax he surrenders himself to a wonderful illusion,
+one that I dare hardly mention because of its audacity.
+He half-closes his eyes and imagines himself reinstated in
+his rightful chieftainship in the fastnesses of his Highland
+ancestors, and hears the clansmen shouting at him as they
+shouted at the returned Malcolm Dhu: “Am faic thu
+sin? Am faic thu sin? Tha mi ‘dol do Chualadh!”
+and other guttural acclamations, issued with such passionate
+frenzy and strength of lung as transport him back to the
+land of his fathers.
+
+Far otherwise is it with the newcomer by sea. The
+traveller steams into a smooth and spacious harbour, and
+suddenly his gaze falls upon the city bathed in sunlight,
+stretching up from the wharves to the citadel crowned by
+the glorious flag that (with a few slight alterations and
+additions) for a thousand years “hath braved the battle
+and the breeze.”
+
+“I was dressing,” wrote Charles Dickens, describing his
+arrival at Halifax seventy years ago, “about half-past nine
+next day, when the noise above hurried me on deck. When
+I had left it over-night it was dark, foggy, and damp, and
+there were bleak hills all round us. Now we were gliding
+down a smooth, broad stream, at the rate of eleven miles an
+hour; our colours flying gaily; our crew rigged out in their
+smartest clothes; our officers in uniform again; the sun
+shining as on a brilliant April day in England, the land
+stretched out on either side, streaked with light patches of
+snow; white wooden houses; people at their doors; telegraphs
+working; flags hoisted; wharfs appearing; ships;
+quays crowded with people; distant noises; shouts; men and
+boys running down steep places towards the pier; all more
+bright and gay and fresh to our unused eyes than words
+can paint them. We came to a wharf, paved with uplifted
+faces, got alongside and were made fast, after some shouting
+and straining of cables; darted, a score of us, along the
+gangway almost as soon as it was thrust out to meet us, and
+before it had reached the ship, and leaped upon the firm,
+glad earth.
+
+“I suppose this Halifax would have appeared an Elysium,
+though it had been a curiosity of ugly dullness. But I
+carried away with me a most pleasant impression of the
+town and its inhabitants, and have preserved it to this
+hour. Nor was it without regret that I came home,
+without having found an opportunity of returning thither,
+and once more shaking hands with the friends I made
+that day.”
+
+“The town,” he goes on to say, “is built on the side of
+a hill, the highest point being commanded by a strong
+fortress, not yet quite finished. Several streets of good
+breadth and appearance extend from its summit to the
+waterside, and are intersected by cross streets running
+parallel with the river. The houses are chiefly of wood.
+The market is abundantly supplied; and provisions are
+exceedingly cheap. The weather being unusually mild at
+that time for the season of the year, there was no sleighing;
+but there were plenty of those vehicles in yards and
+by-places, and some of them, from the gorgeous quality of
+their decorations, might have ‘gone on’ without alteration
+as triumphal cars in a melodrama at Astley’s. The
+day was uncommonly fine; the air bracing and healthful;
+the whole aspect of the town cheerful, thriving, and
+industrious.”
+
+Yet candour compels me to say that the impression
+made on the visitor by Halifax viewed at close quarters
+is not as favourable as it might be. One writer does not
+hesitate to call it “dingy and shabby”; and this effect
+is without doubt attributable first to the material employed
+in building the residential streets, and secondly
+to the utter neglect in the whole Province of which it is
+the capital, of architectural beauty. And herein Halifax
+shows not least its true British conservative character,
+not to say its London and English provincial city character.
+For given dull yellow brick as a material, I can show you
+miles upon miles of Halifax in Camden Town and Bayswater,
+in Clerkenwell and Bloomsbury. As the ballad in
+the “Arcadians” runs:
+
+    “When first I came to London town,
+    I thought it dingy, old, and brown.”
+
+I can show you Halifaxes in Liverpool and Glasgow. Let
+no Londoner of the Georgian or Victorian age, whose
+architectural taste is represented by Gower Street and
+Smith Square, reproach the “Warden of the Honour of
+the North.” At the very beginning an attempt was made
+to copy London; and St. Paul’s Church, long the pro-cathedral,
+was built in 1750 on the model of St. Peter’s,
+in Vere Street, Piccadilly. Other houses were constructed
+on that other Cockney model, which proceeds on the
+principle that a square wall, with a horizontal upper edge,
+pierced at mathematical intervals with oblong holes for
+windows, is a façade.
+
+But an even more serious mistake—perhaps it was at
+first a necessity—the founders of Halifax made, in which
+their successors and descendants have persisted to the
+present day; a fundamental and essential mistake which no
+amount of shaping, and trimming, and painting will ever
+correct or atone for—a mistake which, it is painful to have
+to record, it is difficult to bring Haligonians to recognise as
+such—they built then and build now their houses entirely
+of wood. Wooden houses may be cheap, wooden houses
+may be easy to build, wooden houses may be painted to
+look like stone or brick, but wooden houses are not for men,
+but children. People who live in glass houses, we are told,
+shouldn’t throw stones; and people who live in wooden
+can’t care for posterity, for it is certain that posterity won’t
+care for them. It is not as if stone were not cheap, or brick
+available—the Colonial showed from the first his improvidence
+and his distrust in his future, by building of wood,
+and the result is what might be expected. Time has not
+dignified, but detracted.
+
+“A modern wooden ruin,” Haliburton told his fellow-countrymen,
+“is of itself the least interesting and at the
+same time the most depressing object imaginable. The
+massive structures of antiquity, that are everywhere met
+with in Europe, exhibit the remains of great strength, and
+though injured and defaced by the slow and almost imperceptible
+agency of time, promise to continue thus mutilated
+for ages to come. They awaken the images of departed
+generations, and are sanctified by legend and by tale. But
+a wooden ruin shows rank and rapid decay, concentrates
+its interest on one family, or one man, and resembles a
+mangled corpse rather than the monument that covers it.
+It has no historical importance, no ancestral record. It
+awakens not the imagination. The poet finds no inspiration
+in it, and the antiquary no interest. It speaks only of
+death and decay, and recent calamity and vegetable decomposition.
+The very air about it is close, dank, and unwholesome.
+It has no grace, no strength, no beauty, but looks
+deformed, gross, and repulsive. Even the faded colour of
+a painted wooden house, the tarnished gilding of its decorations,
+the corroded iron of its fastenings and its crumbling
+materials, all indicate recent use and temporary habitation.
+It is but a short time since this mansion was tenanted by its
+royal master, and in that brief space how great has been the
+devastation of the elements! A few years more and all
+trace of it will have disappeared for ever. Its very site will
+soon become a matter of doubt. The forest is fast reclaiming
+its own, and the lawns and ornamented gardens annually
+sown with seeds scattered by the winds from the surrounding
+woods, are relapsing into a state of nature, and exhibiting
+in detached patches a young growth of such trees as are
+common to the country.”
+
+“The capital of Nova Scotia,” wrote a traveller in 1856,
+“looks like a town of cards, nearly all the buildings being of
+wood. There are wooden houses, wooden churches, wooden
+wharves, wooden slates, and if there are sidewalks these are
+of wood also. I was pleased at a distance with the appearance
+of two churches, one of them a Gothic edifice, but on
+nearer inspection found them to be of wood, and took refuge
+in the substantial masonry of the really handsome Province
+Building and Government House.”
+
+“At least,” retorted a Nova Scotian upon a Yankee
+critic, “we don’t go in for wooden nutmegs.”
+
+“You’re not smart enough,” was the retort, “your
+very heads are of wood.”
+
+“I fear,” remarked a distinguished Episcopal visitor on
+being shown the city, “your people are not orthodox.
+They make an idol of wood.”
+
+“My Lord,” was Sir Robert Weatherbe’s witty rejoinder,
+“we attach little importance to material things.
+And remember,
+
+     ‘The heathen in their blindness,
+    Bow down to wood _and_ stone.’”
+
+On Citadel Hill, the crowning height of Halifax, are to
+be seen obsolete fortifications, begun by the Duke of
+Kent, and as time went on altered and improved to
+keep pace with the rapid advances of scientific warfare.
+In and around Halifax there is now a thoroughly
+modern system of fortifications; and improvements and
+additions to these works are continually being made.
+The prominent points on the shores and the neighbouring
+islands are completely equipped with modern quick-firing
+and disappearing guns, and other forms of defence are not
+neglected.
+
+The annual naval and military manœuvres, of which
+Halifax used to be the scene, were a great source of interest,
+and attracted throngs of tourists. One saw the North
+Atlantic Squadron anchored peacefully in the harbour.
+
+[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE CITADEL, HALIFAX.]
+
+Suddenly there rang out the shrill boatswain’s whistle,
+and there ensued a vision of crews swarming up the rigging,
+the loosening of sails, the hoisting of anchors, and then,
+in a few moments, the stately fleet steamed majestically
+down past the city and out to sea. For “war” had been
+declared, and the fleet which thus went out to meet the
+enemy, will itself be the “enemy” on its return, and a fierce
+bombardment be expected unless the pretence that it is
+blown to fragments by submarines and torpedoes be successful.
+Meanwhile, the military authorities at the citadel
+were on the _qui vive_. The militia was called out, the garrison
+were at their guns or at the look-out, the submarine
+and torpedo engineers were busy laying surface mines and
+inspecting sunken mines and booms. The tension continued
+through that day and the ensuing night, until at
+daybreak the booming of cannon on the York Redoubt
+announces the approach of the enemy and the beginning of
+the attack. In all this and the attendant military reviews
+and sham-fights the whole of Halifax participated, and the
+glory of the manœuvres ended in a ball at Government
+House.
+
+A change has come over the Imperial aspect of the
+Province since the Dominion Government took over the
+naval and military defences of Halifax from the Mother
+Country. I found Halifax, with its citadel crowned slopes,
+its wooden houses, its tree-lined avenues bathed in glowing
+summer sunshine, but Haligonian society with no sunshine
+in its heart. “Where are the tars of yester-year?” the
+belles of Halifax seemed to be saying. “Where are the
+gallant captains, commanders, lieutenants, sub-lieutenants,
+and middies with whom we waltzed, and flirted, and played
+tennis, and acted and boated within the North-west arm?”
+I was prepared for this, but not for a similar complaint with
+regard to the British Army. For on parade, at church,
+at the Halifax club, were not the regulation uniforms
+denoting the British officer as much in evidence as ever?
+“Oh, those!” was the supercilious rejoinder of one fair
+damsel, lying back in a canoe on the shores of Bedford Basin;
+“_they don’t count. They’re Canadians._”
+
+To me these officers in their spick-and-span khaki,
+touched with scarlet, were indistinguishable from the Simon-pure
+insular breed. But trust a fair Haligonian to know
+the difference. I was reminded of the saying of a recent
+Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, who did not seem
+very effusive in his welcome of one who wore his Majesty’s
+uniform, just arrived at Government House. “I’m sorry
+the fellow was offended; but nobody interests me who
+reaches Nova Scotia _by land_.”
+
+And, indeed, it is only recently that many Nova
+Scotians have taken kindly to the term Canadian as applied
+to themselves, resembling in this respect the British
+Columbians of the pre-Confederation and ultra-conservative
+school.
+
+It certainly has made a difference, perhaps only temporary,
+to the tone of Halifax society this substitution of
+a Canadian for the old Imperial establishment. Nor is the
+idea of a Canadian Navy taken seriously in these social
+circles. One had only to mention the _Niobe_ and the
+_Rainbow_ to excite a smile. The officers may turn out
+to be good fellows, but they will need all their tact,
+good looks, and gallantry to overcome the prejudice the
+fair Haligonians feel towards them as delegates from
+Ottawa instead of from the British Admiralty. As for
+the military, I heard many complaints as to how their
+men had received their appointments at Ottawa, but none
+as to how they do their work. And what is better still,
+they have earned the respect of the British “Tommies,”
+who still form 90 per cent. of the garrison, better paid and
+better fed than they were under the Imperial régime. And
+yet such pay and feeding hardly serves to attract the native-born,
+very few of whom are ready to enlist, so that the
+garrison is conspicuously undermanned.
+
+But Halifax is a charming place to live in for all that.
+It has so long been a naval port and a garrison town, that the
+family ties between its people and those of England continue
+to be very numerous. Commercial relations between the
+two countries have grown to such an extent that the natives
+have now all that is admirable in English business circles
+and polite society. A visitor, if given the entrée of the best
+society, must perforce carry away the most kindly recollections
+of his visit. Whatever his nationality, few places
+will make more strenuous efforts to give him the greatest
+enjoyment. And the attractions for the visitor are many,
+both in and around the town. A favourite drive is along
+the Point Pleasant Road and up the North-west Arm. A
+most attractive place is this North-west Arm, and the
+drive, especially when continued past Melville Island and
+as far as the Dingle, is a most enjoyable one.
+
+Attending divine service on the day following my arrival,
+I tried to listen to the reverend gentleman expatiating in a
+patriarchal, and, I thought, somewhat ungallant way on the
+duties of women. My eye roved over the interior of the
+sacred edifice, which is, in many ways, the most interesting
+in Canada. One of the very first undertakings of the
+infant colony a century and a half ago was to provide themselves
+with a place of worship, and in the original plan of
+the town one square was reserved for a site. They applied
+to the British Government, who referred it to Lord Halifax,
+who attended service at St. Peter’s, Vere Street, Piccadilly.
+His lordship sought out the architect of St. Peter’s, got the
+plans, and sent them out to Nova Scotia. There the frame
+and other materials were imported from Boston, and in
+less than a year the colonists were attending service within
+an exact replica of the London church, which they named
+St. Paul’s. For many years it was used by successive bishops
+as a cathedral, including both the Inglises, father and
+grandfather of Sir John Inglis of Lucknow. Richer than
+any other church in Canada is St. Paul’s in mural tablets,
+and as our eye sweeps the four walls it encounters many
+historic names. One of these is that of Governor John
+Parr, the friend and comrade of Wolfe.
+
+I wish I could speak in praise of Halifax’s new cathedral,
+to which reference will be found elsewhere in these pages.
+I wish I could plead that as I saw it, merely in process of
+construction, it would be impossible to render judgment
+upon it. For to me the whole principle upon which such
+structures are built is a wrong one. Even the architects
+have been impelled to issue a kind of manifesto, in which
+the following interesting statement occurs:—
+
+“Perhaps the greatest disadvantage we of the western
+world are compelled to undergo in our buildings, in the vast
+majority of cases at any rate, is the sordid meanness or
+cheap tawdriness of the surroundings. This condition is
+so marked in certain portions of America as to quite dishearten
+the conscientious architect at the very inception
+of his task. Many noble buildings there are such as would
+become beautiful situations abroad that here seem contemptible,
+at odds with their environment.”
+
+It is true they hasten to disclaim such surroundings for
+Halifax, but go on to say—
+
+“Amid such surroundings any attempt at such glittering
+splendours as are gathered in, say, the Basilica of Saint Mark
+at Venice, or such sombre glories of carving and metal as are
+everywhere present in the cathedral of the debonair city of
+Seville, would be wholly out of place. Even the unruffled
+sunlit calm of the English cathedrals may hardly be
+attempted, much less attained. The city is a northern one,
+the land one of long winters and deep snows, and over all
+blows the keen air of the salt sea, that singles out each
+unprotected bit of masonry, every weak cranny of construction,
+for attack. Only the hardest and most enduring of
+materials can undergo such a searching test as the old
+builders of the town well knew, and much that gives charm
+to similar buildings of the old world must be frankly dispensed
+with; the parapets for one, that in every period of
+the Gothic style as built abroad, heavy and castellated in
+early work, pieced and lace-like in later times, are almost an
+integral feature, for these would form pockets for great
+piles of drifted snow that melting in the spring would
+surely creep up and into the slates and woodwork of the
+roof. And the heavy floors of irregular flags that so charm
+the traveller abroad, must perforce be abandoned, for these
+should rest upon solid earth, and only in a land where the
+forces of frost are but puny can this be done, while the
+same force it is that forbids the employment well, of other
+architectural details that involve care, labour, and expense.
+I have never heard a more ingenious and disingenuous
+defence of flimsiness, the whole truth being that Halifax
+would have liked a first-rate cathedral, but did not like to
+spend the requisite sum upon it. If these architects had
+gone to Russia and Northern Germany, not to mention
+Old Scotland, I dare say they would find that a cold
+climate is not altogether antagonistic to sound and even
+elaborate masonry and even to permanence. The whole
+point is contained in their conclusion, in which it is
+confessed:
+
+“The cost of the mediæval cathedrals was lightly met
+by the people of the past, but the funds which would be
+incurred in erecting even such a _lifeless and soulless replica
+as we are only capable of_ to-day, would be far beyond the
+capacity of any diocese to gather together.”
+
+So much for the great cathedral of Halifax!
+
+Our fellow-citizens in the densely-settled heart of the
+Empire, you are just beginning to realise the century-old
+ideals of those in the outer marches. You are just
+beginning to see the significance of Canadian loyalty—regarded
+as loyalty to the race, “Because,” as Mr. Kipling
+once wrote to a friend of mine, a Newfoundlander,
+“the Empire is Us—We ourselves: and for the white
+man to explain that he is loyal is almost as unnecessary
+as for a respectable woman to volunteer the fact that she
+is chaste.”
+
+[Illustration: IN THE PUBLIC GARDENS, HALIFAX.]
+
+[Illustration: IN THE PUBLIC GARDENS, HALIFAX.]
+
+As the solidarity of the British race—we ourselves—increases,
+we can take a greater interest in Colonial origins—we
+can be entertained by seeing how each colony reached
+the same political goal—self—government—by a different
+path.
+
+As Annapolis Royal is the cradle of Canada, so Halifax
+may be called the cradle of Colonial self-government.
+Urged by this sentiment, Sir Sandford Fleming, the late
+engineer-in-chief of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and a
+most notable Imperialist, not long since conceived a truly
+original and interesting idea. Imperial ideas are not yet
+so common that significance may be disregarded by any
+Briton. At his beautiful house on the North-west Arm—that
+salt-water inlet once called the Sandwich River—the
+keen-eyed, gentle-voiced octogenarian explained to me
+his scheme, which has already touched the imagination of
+the Colonies.
+
+“Whatever,” said he, “may be the latitude and longitude
+of each community enjoying the freedom, the justice,
+the protection, the privileges, and advantages that spring
+from the British system, they must be mutually interested
+in this.” Helped by the Canadian Club of Halifax, he
+undertook to erect a memorial tower within the precincts
+of the city, for the purpose of commemorating the origin
+here of representative government, and all the benefits
+which have sprung from it. A few months ago the
+Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia laid the foundation
+stone of this memorial tower on an ideal site in a pleasant
+park of one hundred acres, given by Sir Sandford, on the
+one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the day upon
+which the first Provincial Assembly was opened at Halifax.
+Every autonomous portion of the Empire will contribute a
+commemorative tablet, and the interior of this lofty granite
+campanile will be a museum bearing upon Colonial history.
+
+I found Nova Scotia very much interested in the question
+of technical education. Here, as elsewhere, people do not
+always grasp the details and possibilities of their own trades
+and the old gibe at the fishermen, “How many fins has a
+cod”? leaving him perplexed and gasping, has its application
+to other callings as well.
+
+The Nova Scotia Technical College, which was established
+by the Provincial Legislature in 1906, is a college of applied
+science and engineering, and the boast is made for it that it
+“stands at the head of the first complete system of technical
+education to be established by any Province or State on the
+continent.”
+
+The college offers thorough courses in civil, electrical,
+mechanical, and mining engineering. There is a full free
+scholarship of a value of seventy-five dollars offered for each
+county in the province, except Halifax and Cape Breton
+counties, which have two each. The opportunity is now
+placed within the reach of every boy in the province who
+has the ambition and talent to acquire a thorough high
+class training as an engineer. I paid a visit to the college,
+which is perhaps the finest building in Halifax, and had an
+interesting chat with the Principal, Mr. Sexton, who is
+young, ardent, and competent.
+
+“The college,” he told me, “aims to serve the industrial
+life of the province in every possible way. Nova Scotians
+will be trained to develop the great natural resources of
+the province, and to captain the Nova Scotian industries
+of the future. Industrial research will be carried on in
+the laboratories of the college to solve the problems of
+the mines and manufactures, and all assistance will be
+granted towards our industries on a thoroughly scientific
+basis.”
+
+The college is closely affiliated with Acadia, Dalhousie,
+King’s, Mt. Allison, and St. Francis Xavier colleges.
+Students in engineering secure there their preliminary
+two years’ general training in science, mathematics,
+language, &c., and pursue their last two years of specialised
+professional work at the Technical College.
+
+The arrangement of dividing the work between the
+affiliated colleges and the Technical College prevents unnecessary
+duplication of equipment and expense, obviates
+educational waste, and is another tribute to the genius of
+Nova Scotia in education.
+
+The motto of the Technical College not only indicates
+its fundamental aspiration, but is an interesting tribute
+to the new Gaelic spirit.
+
+      “Science for the common weal.”
+    “Ealin air son math coitcheann sluaidh.”
+
+Under the Technical College is a whole system of
+secondary technical schools in practically every industrial
+centre in Nova Scotia.
+
+There are technical schools for coal miners, technical
+schools for stationary engineers, technical schools for artisans,
+technical schools for fishermen, and a Royal Commission on
+technical education was touring the entire Province at the
+time of my visit.
+
+When it was first built, the Halifax dry dock was the
+largest in North America, and is to-day one of the largest
+commercial docks. It received at the outset a substantial
+subsidy from the city of Halifax, and was also allowed
+exemption from taxes for a period of fifteen years. But
+despite this help, the dock gave little employment, the
+number of vessels repaired being comparatively small. The
+Dominion Government at last realising the importance of
+such docks as this, granted a bonus to dry docks in various
+parts of Canada, the docks being, for the purposes of the
+Act, divided into two classes. The largest docks—constituting
+the first class—get a bonus of 3½ per cent. for
+thirty-five years. But Halifax does not benefit under this
+Act, for its dock is only 585 feet long, instead of the 650 feet
+that is required. The boats in the Canadian trade are
+fast becoming of greater length.
+
+Canada was only in her infancy when the Halifax dock
+was built, and the large increase in commerce is shown
+by the pay roll of the Dry Dock Company, which last year
+paid out eighty thousand dollars in wages. But the capacity
+of the dock will not now meet the requirements, and it is
+felt that an extension to 800 feet will be necessary to take
+the whole trade of the Atlantic coast. To do this, an immense
+coffer dam would have to be built in order to extend
+the dock seawards, involving an expenditure of about a
+million dollars and a closure of fourteen months, with men
+working night and day.
+
+But if Halifax is to retain importance it should have
+a dock which can take and repair the largest ship that sails
+in the Canadian trade. And this will be the more necessary
+if Halifax is to be the headquarters for the fast boats of the
+C.P.R., the Allan Line, the Grand Trunk Pacific, and the
+Canadian Northern Railway.
+
+On the whole a comfortable, tranquil, pleasant city is
+Halifax, somewhat qualified, I am inclined to add, by Grafton
+Street, a unique thoroughfare where bedizened women,
+negroes, Indians, Chinese, and whites congregate in a sort
+of extra-barrackian squalor. Such a spectacle is familiar in
+garrison towns in the tropics, but here in Canada its incongruity
+is almost disconcerting. A movement is on foot for
+the eradication of this district.
+
+Apropos of negroes, one sees a great many of these in
+and about Halifax, and in other parts of the Province.
+
+They came hither, of course, in large numbers from the
+American Southern States in the ante-bellum slavery days.
+Nova Scotia was then the favourite asylum of coloured
+refugees, and their descendants I do not think have degenerated.
+On the whole they form a dirty, good-humoured,
+retrograde feature of the population. Eighty years ago
+Great Britain awarded, on account of their ancestors, the
+refugees, a donation to America of one million sterling, as
+compensation to the American planters whose slaves were
+carried off in order to enjoy the comforts of political
+freedom and physical starvation under the British flag in
+Nova Scotia, an award long and properly ridiculed by its
+beneficiaries, the Americans.
+
+I suppose I need hardly mention that the Nova Scotian
+negroes are fully as “religious” as their American brethren.
+
+It was in 1796 that between five and six hundred
+Maroons were brought here from Jamaica. In that island
+they had been wild and desperate rebels. Descendants of
+the original African slaves, they had escaped and made
+their home in the glens and caves of the mountains, sallying
+down to rob and plunder the white settlements and deriding
+all attempts at capture. At length a number of Cuban
+dogs were requisitioned to hunt down these outlaw Maroons,
+who, panic-stricken at this, surrendered, and were ordered
+to be carried to Nova Scotia. At Halifax they were lodged
+in tents on the outskirts of the town, but were later transferred
+to Preston, where the Jamaican Government granted
+them a sum of money towards their support. The experience
+of a few winters showed how utterly helpless they
+were, and the bulk of them were ordered off to Sierra Leone.
+
+Years ago I talked with an aged Sierra Leone darkey,
+who, though unable to read or write, and had relapsed into
+many of the savage ways of his ancestors, yet asked after
+Halifax with affection. “Me member him well,” he said,
+“me born there. Me go back some day.” That was
+twenty years ago, and my sable Haligonian has probably long
+been gathered to his fathers. Albeit, not all the Maroons
+left for Africa. Some remained, and their descendants
+occasionally muster in great force about the city, especially
+on market days, and they may also be seen brooding about
+the wharves.
+
+[Illustration: BEDFORD BASIN NEAR HALIFAX.]
+
+[Illustration: IN THE ENVIRONS OF WINDSOR.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WINDSOR AND “SAM SLICK”
+
+
+How many towns are there which make one regret that
+necessity which compels the visitor to approach them froml
+their ugliest side. One can enter Oxford or Canterbury, to
+mention two English instances, so as to offend one’s æsthetic
+sense, and to impart an impression which it takes many hours
+spent in contemplation of more favourable surroundings to
+efface. So it is with the Nova Scotian town of Windsor.
+It is all part of the tyranny of railways. It will not happen
+in the coming day of the airship and air-skiff, when the
+eager tourist can choose his own spot to alight, and give a
+wide berth to the purlieus which depress, and the human
+and architectural crudities which exasperate.
+
+Windsor is one of the pleasantest towns in the Province,
+the seat of King’s College and other institutions of learning,
+and everlastingly associated with that rare spirit, Thomas
+Chandler Haliburton. But one must banish its Main
+Street, thronged with loafers, and its unspeakable Victoria
+Hotel, where the proprietor sells cigars, presides over the
+“register,” and carries ice-water to his guests in his shirtsleeves,
+before one can appreciate that these are only
+excrescences upon Windsor.
+
+With a high tide in the beautiful Avon River, dotted
+with sails, I should first descend in my aerial craft, not
+amidst the pleasing ruins of Fort Edward, now a flourishing
+golf club, but a mile further away, on a wooded hill at the
+bottom of the wide shaded drive, facing the brown columned
+porticoes of King’s College. Here, book or cricket-bat in
+hand, I see eager-faced, alert young figures moving, fine
+types of Canadian youth, who will presently go out to
+furnish forth the pulpits and colleges, the bench and the
+bar of Canada’s to-morrow. It is a great wooden building,
+with Ionic portico, flanked by other buildings, the chapel,
+and hall and library. All have an old-world look, especially
+the spacious hall where many paintings adorn the walls.
+The college was chartered by George III. in 1788, and
+has in its time turned out many distinguished graduates.
+Its library is particularly strong in theological works.
+
+Talking with a King’s College professor, he said to me:
+
+“I cannot help feeling a particular love for this place,
+where my father and grandfather were before me educated.
+I know all its walks and groves, and to me the country
+round about is the most beautiful in the world. When
+I think of the stream of graduates dear old King’s has
+sent to all parts of Canada and the United States, I am
+filled with pride. But there are many things we want to
+make us a living force to-day. Too much of the educational
+resources of this Province is frittered away. There are
+too many small colleges. We want wider activities, and
+for these we sadly need endowments. We recognise the
+changing spirit of the age, but we at King’s will resist to the
+death anything which will stultify our principles or destroy
+the fabric so slowly built up, substituting gymnastics and
+Esperanto for that real education which leads the mind
+of the student along the paths of righteous conduct and
+character.”[4]
+
+[Footnote 4: Haliburton remarks that the “diffusion through the country
+of a well-educated body of clergymen like those of the Establishment,
+has had a strong tendency to raise the standard of qualification among
+those who differ from them; while the habits, manners, and regular
+conduct of so respectable a body of men naturally and unconsciously
+modulate and influence those of their neighbours, who may not, perhaps,
+attend their ministrations. It is, therefore, doubtless owing in a
+great measure to the exertions and salutary example of the Church in
+the colonies, that a higher tone of moral feeling exists in the British
+provinces than in the neighbouring States.”]
+
+From which statement I gather that there will be no
+“hustling” spirit manifesting itself at King’s.
+
+Hard by the old college is a flourishing collegiate school
+for boys, and a little further on in our return to the town
+of Windsor is the Edgehill Seminary, a largely attended
+Church school for girls.
+
+The superior culture and refinement of the people of Windsor is
+exhibited in the streets and houses. In front of these latter stretch
+beautifully kept lawns; that at the Anglican rectory, in its trim
+terraces, being as fine as I have ever seen in England. A famous place
+for prosperous-looking churches is Windsor—all denominations seem
+to vie with one another, not only in erecting fine edifices, but in
+keeping them in an order so irreproachable as to pulpit, chancel,
+lectern, carpets, cushions, and appointments as would send a thrill of
+envy through many a harassed English vicar’s bosom.
+
+All the dwellings bespeak a degree of easy comfort and
+considerable taste, built in a style inferior, it is true, to the
+houses of the old Colonial period, but superior to the bald
+and shapeless Noah’s Arks which have gone up in their
+thousands and tens of thousands in the towns and villages
+of Canada since Confederation.
+
+Can there be, I have often speculated, any occult connection
+between Canadian domestic architecture and
+the political cohesion of the Provinces? Why, when the
+Federal edifice was consummated, did the half million or
+so little brick or timber edifices which housed the Canadian
+population suddenly fall down as if at the blast of a trumpet,
+and a half million colourless, clap-boarded, slant-roofed
+structures—they are not houses or cottages—start up instead—making
+home a derision? I have heard aged inhabitants
+tell of, and have seen with my own eyes, pre-Confederation
+houses which it would be a pleasure to dwell in—houses
+built by the merchants and shipbuilders who grew rich
+in the war of 1812—houses that were built by men who
+built houses and not barns. But am I not making my
+complaint too particular? Is it the case in rural England
+as well? Compare the graceful, low-browed, hip-roofed
+cottages of the past with the yellow brick or cement villas
+of the present! How much better is a rude log-hut,
+half-masked in glowing creeper, than such as these, with
+their straitened entrys and stairways, and a dozen little
+square chambers when four generously planned ones would
+suffice!
+
+One of the best built houses I ever saw in my life is
+in Pictou, walls a foot and a half thick, fine fat timbers,
+plenty of honest freestone, heaps of cupboard room, and
+a great dry cellar. A right good, tight good house, built
+by an old Scotsman in New Scotland nearly a hundred years
+ago, and as sturdy to-day as the day he built it, although
+alas, to-day untenanted. There are plenty of other houses,
+too, pleasant old-fashioned ones, with wood panelled walls
+within instead of paper. That is the best place for wood in
+a house—inside—inside on the walls, and a great log of it
+blazing on the hearth. I never can understand why the
+New Scotlanders go on building wooden houses, when stone
+is so plentiful and lasts for ever.
+
+“I’ll tell you why,” said a native Nova Scotian to
+me. “One reason is, we haven’t any stone-masons to show
+us how, and the other reason is we’re in too much of a
+hurry. In ten years—in five, perhaps in less time, we
+are prepared to move—to sell our house and go into another
+one. We never look ahead more than ten years. After
+that, it is posterity; and Canadians don’t worry much
+about posterity.”
+
+In many places I was struck by the haste with which
+houses and shops arose and churches were run up. The
+Roman Catholics of Annapolis Royal wanted of a sudden
+a new church. The moment their mind was made up they
+rushed off to a builder and got an estimate for the construction
+of a two-aisled church in pine-wood. I wish
+you could have seen, as I saw daily, that skeleton of naked
+timbers arise. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of dollars
+would be spent by these pious communicants on a wilderness
+of scantling poles, covered with thin planks, roofed in with
+tin, painted a sepulchral white, hung within by the portraits
+of saints, illuminated by candles, and reverberating
+with American-organic harmony. To the eye all is well.
+Appearances are kept up, and the worshipper may, if he is
+a man of strong imagination, hug the illusion that he is
+worshipping God in a temple altogether adequate to the
+Almighty. In the capital I saw a cathedral built, as to
+its interior, of cement, moulded and embossed to simulate
+stone. Great slabs of a dough-like mixture were scored
+across longitudinally in order to counterfeit the seams
+filled with mortar. A few months of labour, and a cheap
+and colourable imitation of Wells Cathedral resulted. Now
+all this sort of architectural hypocrisy and makeshift is
+very well for a Shepherd’s Bush Exhibition, in its nature
+ephemeral, but how will it appear to the eyes of the twenty-first
+century, not to mention the thirtieth or the fortieth?
+Would the old builders, who aforetime reared such stately
+and beautiful fabrics, who were far poorer than we, and
+lived in smaller towns and even villages, would they have
+worked this way and in this spirit? Rather were they
+content to add a single stone a day, seven stones a week,
+three hundred and sixty-five stones a year; until slowly
+and surely a holy building arose, to defy time and the
+elements, and to be a blessed sanctuary for ages yet unborn.
+What, gentlemen, and O ye pious ladies (whom I suspect
+of knowing as much about architecture as a Hottentot
+knows of an Elzevir) what is your hurry? Do you think
+the Christian religion and the practice of public worship
+will not outlast your time, that you are in such haste to
+quit the old church, chapel, or meeting-house, and run up
+a showy successor (generally mortgaged), which may deceive
+a tourist at forty rods, an architect at half a mile, but will
+never deceive God Almighty or the lawyer who holds a
+mortgage for it in his pocket, and can only foster a spirit
+of hypocrisy in the congregation? Better far worship in
+the open fields than be surrounded by such pitiful architectural
+mockery. And in the same way, I conjure you,
+better live in comfortable log cabins, than build an apology
+for a house, with all “modern conveniences,” that you
+will afterwards come to be ashamed of—or if you don’t
+you ought to be.
+
+[Illustration: VICTORIA PARK, WINDSOR, N.S.]
+
+[Illustration: NEAR LOCHABER LAKE.]
+
+All the foregoing train of reflection has been started by a
+contemplation of a sweet and gentle and unpretentious
+cottage at Windsor. It is at the end of a short wide avenue
+of elms. It is low and spacious within. It is the kind of
+house a poet should live in, and it is now fast going to
+decay; nothing is spent by its absentee owner to preserve
+it, and it is occupied at present by a couple of poor Irish
+families. This is the house built by, and where once dwelt,
+Haliburton, Nova Scotia’s sole literary celebrity of international
+renown. When his book, “The Clockmaker, or the
+Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville” appeared,
+the whole literary world was taken by surprise, and
+Christopher North could not praise it enough in the pages
+of Blackwood.
+
+Haliburton was a Nova Scotian judge who, with wide
+reading and a capital literary style, added to a native fund
+of humour, knew his native Province as none has done
+before or since. Sam Slick, as a pure literary creation,
+vies with any of the characters of Dickens. He may be
+described as a compound of Sam Weller, Alfred Jingle, and
+Jefferson Brick, and the whole book, or series of books,
+penned by Haliburton, profess chiefly to give this vulgar,
+loquacious, astute Yankee pedlar’s opinions on American,
+British, and Nova Scotian men, manners, and institutions.
+For the biting satire contained in these productions Haliburton
+was widely blamed; and in reply to the charge
+of holding the Yankee up to ridicule, he thus condescended
+to explain his object:
+
+“In the Canadas,” he wrote in 1838, “there is a party
+advocating republican institutions and hostility to everything
+British. In doing so they exaggerate all the advantages
+of such a form of government, and depreciate the
+blessings of a limited monarchy. In England this party
+unfortunately finds too many supporters, either from a
+misapprehension of the true state of the case, or from a
+participation in their treasonable views. The sketches
+continued in the present and preceding series of the Clockmaker,
+it is hoped, will throw some light on the topics of
+the day, as connected with the design of the anti-English
+party. The object is purely patriotic.”
+
+In exposing the faults and the follies of the Nova
+Scotians, Haliburton claimed that he had “done a good deal
+of good. It has made more people hear of Nova Scotia than
+ever heard tell of it afore by a long chalk; it has given it
+a character in the world it never had afore, and raised the
+valley of real property there considerable.”
+
+At all events, Sam Slick soon became a household word,
+and so high was he held in the esteem of the Yankees that,
+long after Haliburton had left the Province, long indeed
+after his death, thousands of Americans came to pay a
+visit to his dwelling here in Windsor, long known as the
+“Sam Slick house.” Many to-day know of Sam Slick who
+do not know of Haliburton. His writings present an
+admirable picture of the Province seventy or eighty years
+ago; and much of what he described then is true to-day.
+It cannot be said that he was a neglected author, or that he
+lacked a due appreciation of his own merit. In one of his
+own chapters he boldly recommends himself to preferment
+at the hands of the British Government, as a clever Colonial
+author who is worth being taken notice of.
+
+“The natives,” he makes his hero say, “are considerable
+proud of him, and if you want to make an impartial deal
+to tie the Nova Scotians to you forever to make your own
+name descend to posterity with honour, and to prevent
+the inhabitants from ever thinking of Yankee connexion
+(mind that hint, say a good deal about that, for it’s a tender
+point that, adjoining of our union, and fear is plaguy sight
+stronger than love any time) you’ll jist sarve him as you
+sarved Earl Mulgrave (though his writins ain’t to be compared
+to the Clockmaker, no more than chalk is to cheese),
+you give him the governorship of Jamaica and arterwards
+of Ireland. John Russell’s writins got him the berth of
+leader in the House of Commons. Well, Francis Head,
+for his writins you made him Governor of Canada, and
+Walter Scott you made a baronet of, and Bulwer you did
+for too, and a great many others you have got the other
+side of the water you sarved the same way. Now, minister,
+fair play is a jewel, says you: if you can reward your writers
+to home with governorships and baronetcies and all sorts o’
+snug things, let’s have a taste o’ the good things this side o’
+the water too. You needn’t be afraid o’ bein too often
+troubled that way by authors from this country (it will make
+him larf that, and there’s many a true word said in joke),
+but we’ve got a sweet tooth here as well as you have. Poor
+pickins in this country, and colonists are as hungry as hawks.
+The Yankees made Washington Irvin a minister plenipo, to
+honour him; and Blackwood, last November, in his magazine,
+says that are Yankee’s books ain’t fit to be named in
+the same day with the Clockmaker—that they’re nothin
+but Jeremiads. So, minister, says you, jist tip a stave to
+the Governor of Nova Scotia, order him to inquire out
+the Author, and to tell that man, that distinguished man,
+that Her Majesty delights to reward merit and honour
+talent, and that if he will come home, she’ll make a man
+of him for ever, for the sake of her royal father, who lived
+so long among the Blue-noses, who can’t forget him very
+soon.”
+
+Haliburton duly went to England, was elected member of
+Parliament for Launceston, and, had he lived long enough,
+would have seen his son, who died the other day, Under-Secretary
+of State for Foreign Affairs, and Lord Haliburton.
+Sam Slick’s author himself died in 1865 in his
+seventieth year.
+
+But we must take leave of Windsor, which was formerly
+the prosperous Acadian village of Pisiquid (“Junction of
+the Waters”) long before the expulsion of 1755. Fort
+Edward here played a prominent part in all the internecine
+struggles of the period.
+
+I have alluded above to the existing remains of Fort
+Edward. Standing on the disused battlements one’s
+glance sweeps across the waters it commands to Avonport
+on the opposite shore. But I write “waters”—can I now
+speak of the waters of the Avon? For, lo! the tide has
+fallen and there is now but a mighty waste of red, red mud
+“an ugly rent in the land,” where but two hours or so ago
+a teeming river flowed a spectacle to remind us that we are
+now in the land of the “fluvial bore,” and are watching
+the action of the far-famed double tides of the Bay of
+Fundy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+GRAND PRÉ AND EVANGELINE
+
+
+One of the pleasantest features of New Scotland is the
+number and variety of its wild-flowers. Outside the dwellings
+in “the Valley” one’s eye constantly met with and
+was refreshed by the sight of the white rose. The woods
+are full of violets. The ponds and marshes reek with
+perfume and colour, I shall never forget the advent at
+each station on the line of half-a-dozen vociferous urchins
+bearing bunches of long-stemmed water lilies. “Pond
+lilies—fresh picked pond lilies. Fifteen cents a bunch!”
+Behind this youth came another, at an interval of five paces.
+“Beautiful fresh pond lilies. Ten cents a bunch.” And
+still another. “Pond lilies, five cents a bunch.” The
+train was about to move. “All aboard!” shouted the
+conductor. The flower merchants showed a sudden parity
+and unanimity in their demands. “Pond lilies—five a
+bunch,” they cried in chorus. Then, as the train began
+to move, one small boy, rather pale and bright-eyed, looking
+as if his chief and favourite nutriment were chewing-gum,[5]
+looked up into my face, extended his scented wares under
+my very nose, and blurted out breathlessly: “Here, take
+’em, mister. Beautiful and fresh. Two bunches for five!”
+
+[Footnote 5: Of this delectable composition, one of those blessings
+which, like the phonograph and the sky-scraper, the world owes
+to America, the variety now most in vogue is called, for some
+mysterious reason known to its maker “chiclets.” A waiter at the
+Halifax Hotel informed me that an English lady had ordered a pair of
+“chiclets”—broiled—for luncheon, under the impression that it was the
+poultry _par excellence_ of the country, like Maryland squab or reed
+birds.]
+
+I tossed him a coin, but my journey was long, the cars
+were crowded, and the dank and dripping lilies would
+have been an embarrassment; so I left them in his hands.
+But they were very beautiful; and there is no scent in all
+the world for me—save the scent of lilac—so pregnant
+with charm, so redolent of poetry unwritten.
+
+But the water-lily is not the flower of the Province.
+That is the sweet scented, rich-hued trailing arbutus—the
+far-famed Mayflower, so rare in other parts of Canada,
+here so plentiful that it has become the emblem of New
+Scotland, from which is derived the poetic and significant
+motto of the Province: “We bloom amid the snows.”
+No flower is so popular. One commonly meets with large
+parties of young people in the woods, in quest of the Mayflower;
+they are worn in corsage and button-hole, or
+carried as a bouquet in the hand by shoppers and pedestrians.
+The country people, Acadians, Indians, and Negroes,
+gather them into little bunches and bring them to market,
+or hawk them about the capital. So that, while it is in
+season, it is all-pervasive in drawing-room, parlour window,
+and office. So jealous are the Nova Scotians of their prior
+rights in this flower that a decade since, impelled by the
+claims of the Massachusetts folk, who seem somehow to
+have confounded the blossom with the name of that truly
+Leviathan ship the _Mayflower_, which bore thither the
+Pilgrim Fathers, that they passed in legislature “An Act
+respecting the Floral Emblem of Nova Scotia. Edward,
+Sect. 1, cap. x.,” which duly sets forth their priority for
+all future generations.
+
+Speaking of the vessel of the Pilgrim Fathers, a gentleman
+at Liverpool, who showed me a piece of her timbers,
+a cherished heirloom in the family, said:
+
+“There never was a ship like the _Mayflower_, or an
+instance which so shows the untrustworthiness of contemporary
+testimony. We know her now to have been one of
+the marine wonders of the seventeenth century, far larger
+than the _Lusitania_ or the _Mauretania_, or any modern ship.
+To find her equal we must go back to Noah’s Ark, unless,
+indeed, the _Royal George_, which survives to-day in the
+form of at least a million chairs, tables, wardrobes, and
+settees, were larger. The mere fact that she carried over
+a thousand families, including many of Irish and German
+origin, is a proof of her dimensions!”
+
+Westward from Windsor, on the edge of the Basin of
+Minas, lies the great marsh meadow—Grand Pré—a district
+over which the genius of a poet has thrown a film of
+magic, making it, even at noonday, a region of perpetual
+twilight. It is strange to think that in Haliburton’s day,
+Grand Pré, unheard of as a village, was merely the Grand
+Prairie situated in Horton township, and that Evangeline
+had never been heard of. Crossing the Avon, one is confronted
+with a range of hills called the Horton Mountains.
+The view from the roadway on the summit is unmatched
+in Nova Scotia. It includes four counties, including the
+thousands of acres of marsh meadow reclaimed by the
+Acadians. Before one’s eyes stretch the verdant and
+populous vales of the Gaspereaux and Cornwallis, with
+their wooded groves and tilled fields: the waters of five
+rivers may be seen flowing into the basin. Travellers are
+fond of comparing it to the valley of the Dee, near Aberdeen,
+but that view lacks the wondrous Cape Blomidon, a majestic
+promontory 670 feet high, which forms the abrupt eastern
+termination of the North Mountain chain.
+
+Where Blomidon’s blue crest looks down upon the valley land.
+
+How many poets have seen and sung of Blomidon and
+Grand Pré? But one may see with the eye of the mind
+and with the eye of the body, and the best description of
+the district is still that of the poet who himself never set
+foot in Acadia.
+
+    “... Vast meadows stretched to the eastward,
+Giving the village its name and pasture to flocks without number;
+Dikes that the hands of the farmers had raised with labour incessant,
+Shut out the turbulent waves; but at stated seasons the flood-gates
+Opened and welcomed the sea, to wander at will o’er the meadows.
+West and South there were fields of flax and orchards and corn-fields,
+Spreading afar and unfenced o’er the plain; and away to the northward
+Blomidon rose, and the forests old, and aloft on the mountains
+Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty Atlantic
+Looked on the happy valley, but ne’er from their station descended.”
+
+Do you remember the visitor to Abbotsford, who,
+remembering the beautiful lines
+
+    “He who would see fair Melrose aright,
+    Must visit it by the pale moonlight;”
+
+inquired:
+
+“Did you often visit it by moonlight, Sir Walter?”
+
+“Alas, never!” confessed the poet.
+
+Emerson says somewhere that we write by aspiration and
+antagonism, as well as from experience, and the one writing
+may be as true as the other. Critical persons there may
+be, who seize upon passages in “Evangeline” as contrary
+to “facts.” Personally, I found few discrepancies between
+Longfellow and Baedeker.
+
+Strikingly in evidence is the great increase in the number
+of tourists to the land of Evangeline. It is one of the
+wonders of literature, certainly without parallel on this
+side of the Atlantic, how Longfellow’s hexameters have
+fenced in this Acadian valley, and even peopled it with
+poetic ghosts. Thither in their thousands come the living
+twentieth-century flesh-and-blood to pay their tribute to
+the _genius loci_. I came across them lingering by Evangeline’s
+Well, and gazing sentimentally upon the spot where
+stood the forge of Basil. But they are, almost without
+exception, New England, not Old England pilgrims.
+
+On the crest of the highroad stands the white-painted
+old chapel of the Scottish Covenanters, the high pulpit
+and the old-fashioned pews within, and no barer now than
+when the voice of the stern-faced preacher rang out his
+exhortations and his remonstrances against the world, the
+flesh, and the devil, to the meek self-denying flock in whose
+bosoms the influence of the world, the flesh, and the devil,
+was fleeting, remote, and exiguous indeed! These Scots
+were the successors by one remove, of the banished Acadians,
+and to them this land of Grand Pré must have been Canaan,
+a land flowing with milk and honey; for owing to its
+sheltered situation and the marshes and many silt-conveying
+rivers, the soil is very fertile.
+
+Along the road my driver urged his spirited mare.
+We turned presently sharp to the left, through a quaint stone
+gateway, with an appearance of such antiquity as if it
+might be coeval with the Round Tower of Newport, and
+through an avenue of apple-trees, which developed into
+a thickly planted orchard, so thick that the trees might
+almost have been an army, close-ranked for action (_quære_:
+a Pomeranian army?), and then winding in and out
+beneath the golden fruit, a house bursts on the view, a
+house of rambling pattern, many-winged and gabled,
+covered with flaming creeper; and in this house I passed
+several delightful days. Under that roof I listened to the
+pleasing gossip and animated reminiscence of an old judge
+who knew New Scotland well from Cape North to Cape
+Sable; who had for nigh fifty years travelled on circuit by
+good roads and bad, populous and lonely, by night and day,
+in summer and winter; who knew the people, especially
+the farmers, as Haliburton knew them; and who had many
+tales to tell of their customs and their manners, their hopes
+and their disappointments, their diversions, schemes, and
+oddities. There was in all this flow of talk no narrowness
+of vision—no pettiness; but much aspiration towards the
+broader, more generous point of view, much humour, much
+courtesy. And as I sat at dinner sipping, not cider, not
+tea, not “fire-water and bubbles,” but bumpers of champagne
+of noble vintage,[6] listening to the hale old judge,
+
+[Footnote 6: I fancy this champagne was some of that carried by a
+French ship bound for St. Pierre, which was wrecked off a prohibition
+village on the south-east coast. The ship was making a return voyage
+loaded chiefly with French wines. As case after case was brought ashore
+the inhabitants looked blank. Every sturdy teetotaller suspected his
+neighbour, and nobody felt quite easy in his mind until an enterprising
+Yankee patent-medicine pedlar had carted away the whole stock, and
+Satan, speaking with a strong Rheims and Epernay accent, was placed at
+defiance.]
+
+Lowell’s words came to me, and I thought “The soil out
+of which such men as he are made is good to be born on,
+good to live on, good to die for, and be buried in.” I
+thought of that often in New Scotland when I met some
+of her sons, and marked their characters and noted their
+talk—men of dignity, and ripeness, and gentleness, and
+kindliness, such men as my host, the old judge, of the
+present Chief Justice of the Province, of Sir Charles Tupper,
+still with us, of amiable Sir Malachy, of Judge S., and of
+many more. Of many, many more.
+
+“The soil out of which such men as he are made is
+good to be born on, good to live on, good to die for, and be
+buried in.” O ye in England—at the heart of the Empire—deem
+not all the culture, all the innate courtesy and gentleness
+of manhood and womanhood is within the confines of
+your own little island, reckoning the folk overseas as all
+crude, and brusque, and unpolished, because of the examples
+that come out of the rough and strenuous West. There are
+thousands—Colonial-born, as were their fathers and grandfathers
+before them—who do not come back and sit at
+the Imperial Mother’s knee, who may not be seen careering
+up and down Regent Street, or imbibing strange beverages
+at the Hotel Cecil, who are the true sons of the Old Land,
+and better represent the qualities which have made her
+great than all the loud shouters from Toronto, the hustlers
+of Winnipeg, and the boosters of Vancouver. These others
+are of the type of men which make Canadian soil good to
+be born on—who carry on the tradition of the loyal, self-denying,
+idealistic spirit in which British Canada was
+founded; and I thank God they are not yet extinct.
+
+[Illustration: ST. EULALIE. THE RESIDENCE AT GRAND PRÉ OF HON. SIR
+ROBERT WEATHERBE.]
+
+All this time I am forgetting my hostess, whose sweet
+and gracious presence is often in my thoughts, a descendant
+of one of the earliest pioneers, herself the daughter of a
+judge, who has given six stalwart sons to the Province and
+the Empire, one to the army, one to the Civil Service,
+two to medicine, another to science, scattered thousands
+of miles apart—the true breed of British mother who is,
+after all, Britain’s greatest glory.
+
+Readers of Longfellow’s poems will not question the
+appropriateness with which this house has been named.
+It is “St. Eulalie.” In the very heart of the old Acadian
+settlement it stands. A tablet within the porch states:
+
+“Here stood the village of Melançon, where, on the night
+of de Villiers memorable arrival in 1747, was celebrated an
+Acadian wedding attended by the villagers from Grand Pré.
+
+“After being here warmed by huge fires and regaled with
+cakes and cider, the French and Indians marched through
+blinding snows under the guidance of returning guests, who
+disclosed at Grand Pré the several houses in which the British
+slept.
+
+“Afterwards de Villiers, wounded in the attack, caused
+himself to be carried back for treatment by the surgeon here
+encamped.”
+
+All the walks and drives hereabout are full of the charm
+of scenery—of the magic of historic association. On a
+hummock by the river I came across a tall tree, upon which
+was fixed the following inscription: “Near this spot
+Coulon de Villiers with about 20 French officers and 400
+Canadians and Indians on the night of 10th Feb. 1747,
+from Beauséjour, crossed the river in a snowstorm to attack
+Colonel Noble with a force of 500 New Englanders at
+Grand Pré.”
+
+The expulsion of the Acadians is perhaps the most
+striking and pathetic passage in New Scotland’s history.
+The British authorities could not treat all these thousands
+of people as rebels, for the great majority of them had not
+fought against them at Beauséjour and elsewhere, but had
+sulked quietly in their villages. But the long patience of
+the Provincial Government was exhausted. Repeatedly
+Governor Lawrence urged them to take the oath, repeatedly
+and stubbornly they refused.
+
+Then and not till then did the decree of exile go forth.
+Ignorant of the trades and callings by which they could
+earn a livelihood in those countries, the Acadians could not
+be shipped to France or England. Colonists they were,
+and the sons of colonists, suited only for a colonial life,
+and on banishment they could only be distributed in
+batches amongst the English colonies along the Pacific
+coast.
+
+Many hearts, even amongst the soldiers, warmly compassioned
+the fate of the unhappy Acadians. Those who
+had taken the oath were safe in their homesteads. A
+number fled into the forest. As for the rest the military
+officers were given their instructions, At Beauséjour
+400 men were seized, and without warning the people,
+Colonel Winslow marched rapidly to Grand Pré. He
+summoned the men of the village to meet him in the
+chapel, and there read to them the decree of banishment.
+In vain they tried to escape; the doors were shut and
+guarded by English soldiers. The people of village after
+village were seized, until 6000 souls had been gathered
+together. For a long time they had to wait for transports
+to bear them away. Many had forcibly to be conducted
+on board the ships. Old and young men, women, and
+children, were marched to the beach. A few members of
+the same family became separated from each other, never to
+meet again. But the soldiers strove their best to perform
+their painful duty as humanely as possible, and no unnecessary
+harshness marked their operations.
+
+From Minas, Chignecto, and Annapolis, ship after ship
+bore their weeping burdens southward. Many, long years
+afterwards, returned again to Acadia, where, when Quebec
+and the French flag had fallen, they were no longer a
+danger to the Government. Such of the Acadians as
+reached Quebec were treated with inhumanity by the French
+officials there, and nearly perished of famine. It is said
+that they were reduced to four ounces of bread per day,
+and sought in the gutters of Quebec to appease their hunger.
+Smallpox broke out amongst them, and many entire families
+were destroyed. Such, alas! was the fate of those unhappy
+beings “whose attachment to their mother country
+was only equalled by her indifference.”
+
+The expulsion of the Acadians may seem to us a cruel
+act, but it was forced upon the English by the hardest
+necessity—the necessity of self-protection,[7] and in spite of
+all that has since been written to the contrary, no impartial
+student of history can perceive in what other way than
+the deportation of these irreconcilables could the peace
+of New Scotland have been assured, a peace which has
+lasted to this day.
+
+[Footnote 7: I am aware that a hysterical gentleman of the name of
+Richard, a descendant of one of the Acadian families, has sought in two
+octavo volumes to prove otherwise. I have perused his volumes attacking
+Mr. Parkman with a freedom of invective and wealth of epithet that goes
+far to damage his case, with no other emotion than that of renewed pity
+for the fate of the Acadians and a renewed certainty of its absolute
+necessity.]
+
+Of Grand Pré it has been said that it boasts a threefold
+attraction—beauty, fertility, and sentiment. Originally
+Grand Pré was a long straggling Acadian settlement beginning
+at what is now the Grand Pré railway station,
+three miles east of Wolfeville, with Horton Landing one
+mile away. The salient features of the landscape to-day
+is, and the older portions of those dikes are, relics of the
+Acadian occupation.
+
+A group of old willows in one part of this great meadow,
+undoubtedly planted by the original French inhabitants,
+the well supposed to have been part of the village’s water-supply,
+and the reputed sites of the forge of Basil the
+blacksmith and of the house of Father Felicien, are duly
+shown to the visitor. I have already mentioned the place
+where a body of New England troops were massacred by
+the French and their Indian allies nine years before the
+expulsion.
+
+A recent discovery at Grand Pré revealed portions of
+the foundations of the Acadian Church of St. Charles. Most
+of the stone had been removed, either to be used in other
+foundations built by the English settlers after the deportation,
+or had been removed to enable the owner to plough
+over the church site, but enough has been exposed to
+determine the size of the church.
+
+Excavations have brought to light also the remains of
+the fireplace and foundations of the chimney built by
+the soldiers who were quartered in the church. After the
+first removal 600 Acadians had to be kept prisoners till
+ships arrived from Boston to take them away. All Minas
+was destroyed, save the few houses in Grand Pré needed
+to shelter these 600 people. Wherefore the soldiers made
+the church comfortable for themselves during the early
+winter, till they finally departed.
+
+I had an interesting chat with a descendant of the
+original Acadians, one Herbin by name, an intelligent
+and enterprising spirit, who has recently set up business
+in the Grand Pré district, and seems to prosper at the hands
+of the numerous tourists to the shrine of Evangeline.
+
+Each morning I arose and gazed across the Basin of
+Minas at Blomidon, as it lay like some sleeping lion. And
+the sun shone, and the summer wind rippled the tall marsh
+grass as if it were pale green sea. And far beyond the
+white sails of ships stole in and out of the Basin, bending
+and veering like seagulls. And once out from an orchard
+a farmer’s boy sang a selection from “Parsifal” (“Learnt
+it off a gramaphone. Learnt a lot o’ operatic songs that
+way”); and my heart, too, sang, and I was glad I had
+come to Grand Pré.
+
+From Grand Pré I went on to Wolfeville, a pleasant
+little town which, for some odd reason, is spelt “Wolfville.”
+When the “e,” which allies its history with the name of
+the famous young general, was elided, I cannot precisely
+state, but the town was Wolfeville on the old maps
+and in Haliburton’s account of the Province.[8] Here is
+situated the Acadia College, a flourishing Baptist institution,
+which has recently enjoyed some of Mr. Rockefeller’s
+favour, and which has long been an eminent seat of learning
+in this part of the Province. But Wolfeville’s chief asset
+is the fact of its being a convenient centre for American
+tourists visiting the “Evangeline District.”
+
+[Footnote 8: Amongst the pioneers was a family of Wolfe, or De Wolfe,
+of Irish origin, and distantly connected with the general’s family.
+Descendants of these still survive.]
+
+Wolfeville’s growth has been steady and uninterrupted
+since the old coaching days of three quarters of a century
+ago, when a few houses on one street composed the settlement.
+From this hamlet it grew into a village, and in 1893
+into a town.
+
+The Acadia College and its allied institutions have from
+the first been the chief asset of the place. Adding to
+its attractiveness as a residential centre, they also bring
+annually about 400 young men and women here, and pay
+out to teachers about $30,000 a year. And besides the
+educational, the natural advantages of Wolfeville are considerable.
+It is the commercial centre of a fertile and
+prosperous region where orcharding and dairying is
+remunerative, and the farming population increasingly
+prosperous.
+
+With railway facilities there is excellent water communication
+for domestic and foreign trade, and a daily
+steamboat service to Kingsport and Parrsboro for nine
+months in the year, which makes Wolfeville a promising
+distributing centre.
+
+[Illustration: THE SCENE OF THE GRAND PRÉ RAID OF 1754.]
+
+This part of Nova Scotia as well as Cape Breton, struck
+me as eminently adapted to sheep-raising. I am told that
+where the same care is bestowed upon these animals as is
+bestowed in other countries, excellent results are attained
+on Nova Scotia farms. There should be a flock of sheep
+on, at least, three-quarters of the farms, and the only
+obstacle which has hitherto militated against success in the
+parts of the Province best fitted by nature for sheep-raising,
+has been their destruction by dogs. Until this is rectified
+by legislation, and I have the Government’s assurance
+that this will be attempted—it is useless for any farmer
+to engage in the pursuit. Repeatedly throughout Nova
+Scotia I have heard stories of canine depredations. The
+worst was a case at Yarmouth, where a young Englishman
+had his whole flock of prize sheep destroyed by dogs. When
+he made complaint to the owner of a ferocious cur demanding
+that the animal be shot, or chained, or muzzled, it’s
+owner retorted, “Why should I get rid of my dog? What
+business have you to keep sheep?” A rigorously enforced
+tethering or muzzling order for sheep-worrying dogs would
+meet the difficulty.
+
+Whether Kentville will continue to be the headquarters
+of the railway rests with the Canadian Pacific authorities.
+Should that corporation see fit to remove the workshops
+and offices from the town, it will be a blow not wholly
+unexpected.
+
+However, the Canadian Pacific always exploits the
+country its line traverses, so what is the gain of the surrounding
+district would in time benefit the town.
+
+Kentville ought, I think, not to bestow all its eggs in one
+basket. Owing to the partial failure of one recent year’s
+apple crop, this town being in the heart of the fruit district
+and largely dependent on apples, a good deal less prosperity
+was experienced in consequence.
+
+From Kentville I motored through the Cornwallis
+Valley, taking in a number of villages, and seeing on all
+sides evidences of prosperity, especially in Waterville and
+Berwick. Besides material prosperity, and even moral, and
+intellectual, and æsthetic, there is another kind of prosperity—that
+of years; and a gentleman who came forward to
+my car and shook hands with me, vigorously enjoyed this
+kind of prosperity. He was a centenarian. He had long
+ago undertaken a race with Father Time, and that inexorable
+personage had not yet succeeded in running my friend
+to Mother Earth. Let us hope his race will not be run
+this many a day; for the absurd brevity of our lives is a
+great and growing grievance with us all.
+
+[Illustration: A “JOY RIDE” IN “THE VALLEY.”]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+ANNAPOLIS ROYAL AND DIGBY
+
+
+The use of oxen for draught purposes is characteristic of
+Nova Scotia. It is practised by French, Germans, and
+English, and is so common nowhere in Canada. Along
+the country roads one sees the oxen coming along at a
+leisurely pace, swishing their tails; their red hides, touched
+by the summer sun, blending harmoniously with the landscape;
+and casting long shadows on the white road. Yes,
+the ox is the beast of burden up and down the Province.
+His harness has an unfamiliar look. Of arched yoke and
+boles he is often ignorant, and the comfort of collar and
+harness would lull him to slumber. Just behind his ears he
+carries his yoke, strapped to the base of his horns and
+around his forehead. He is shod with iron shoes like a
+horse, and is at once the admiration and the derision of
+the Yankee, who would not for a moment tolerate such
+slow progress. He calls the ox the “Blue-nose automobile.”
+I have heard the patient quadruped spoken of
+as one of the four characteristics of the Province—apples,
+oxen, cold nights, and pessimism. For the latter I should
+now substitute optimism. Besides, the Blue-nose never was
+pessimistic. At most he was (as you may see by reading
+“Sam Slick”) merely apathetic—unresponsive, or as other
+observers have declared, serene.
+
+Here is the eastern gateway of one of the most celebrated
+apple-growing districts of the world. Long before Tasmania,
+South Australia, and California began to grow
+apples, it was the orchard of the Empire. Following the
+eastern course of the river between North Mountain (which
+shelters the valley from the Bay of Fundy) and South
+Mountain, there stretch seventy-five miles of fruit lands
+and enchanting scenery. Here is grown the luscious apple
+which is found in all the world’s great markets. The
+apple-tree is the dominant note in the swelling landscape,
+and in early June the whole valley is a scene and scent of
+sheer beauty, comparable only to the orange-groves of
+Seville or Santa Clara. This apple is not, of course,
+indigenous; but none can tell who brought the first
+pommier from Normandy. Perchance it was Lescarbot
+himself. At all events orchards were flourishing here in
+abundance long before the expulsion of the Acadians. Ere
+the building of the Dominion and Atlantic Railway
+(now taken over by the Canadian Pacific), the apple
+production of “the Valley” was some twenty thousand
+barrels annually. Within a few years the output had
+grown to half a million. In 1911 it reached 1,750,000
+barrels.
+
+Last year the apple-growers received a serious check.
+It was not a good apple year. There was the weather for
+one thing, not merely of this but of the season of 1909,
+when the embryo bud was formed. A more serious and
+more permanent drawback I found to be the want of
+capital. They complain here that too much British capital
+is going west. Everything conducted on a large scale needs
+capital, and the whole situation was clearly explained to
+me by a leading orchardist in the Valley, who is a man
+of education and substance, and the argument was echoed
+by others who follow the industry.
+
+“There is plenty of money in apples,” said he, “and
+we should be producing not one but thirty millions of
+barrels a year. The trouble is—and there is no need to
+disguise it—that while a number of orchards which have
+constantly been well cultivated, fertilised, and sprayed,
+always yield the usual crops of the finest fruit, the great
+bulk of our trees are partially starved and neglected. Far
+more trees have been grown than can be brought into
+fruit-bearing with the present skill, labour, and capital.”
+
+To plant and grow trees is a simple and not expensive
+operation. With such soil as this and proper attention,
+little or no fertiliser is needed. But the continued production
+and marketing of the fruit involves much more
+skill, labour, and capital. Owners of orchards having the
+means of fertilising 100 to 150 trees, soon found it a difficult
+matter to grapple with an orchard area of 500 to 1000
+trees. Such attempt often resulted in less actual returns
+than the small orchards had produced. It is simply a
+question of want of capital, as it would be in lumbering,
+mining, or fishing.
+
+As a result a very considerable proportion of the apples
+now produced are discarded as unfit for packing.
+
+“It is out of the question,” continued my informant,
+“for us to do business with a mere fraction of the capital
+necessary to produce a proper quantity of the wonderful
+crops of fruit which twenty or thirty years ago excited the
+admiration of European pomologists, and gave a world-wide
+fame to this district.”
+
+In other words, the orchards are vastly greater, but
+too much of it is with wood, not fruit. However, be it
+said, that the number of trees now capable of bearing are
+healthy and vigorous. While orchards in other lands bear
+earlier, the trees are far less healthy and sooner decay.
+The Annapolis Valley trees reach a great size, and I have
+been shown many bearing fruit in profusion at the age
+of 100 and even 150 years. Labour and capital are the
+great need of the district.
+
+Even when the yield of the fine fruit is large, there
+appears a disquieting drawback. Many were the complaints
+I heard of the greed of the carrier by steamer or railway,
+or of the middlemen, as if these were in a conspiracy to
+squeeze the last cent out of this industry. For apples for
+which the Covent Garden dealer receives 30s. a barrel,
+the grower has often to be content with 5s. I was told
+of one middleman who often gains 50,000 dollars in a
+season; while the last season three middlemen made an
+average profit of 40,000 dollars each.
+
+I found here, as elsewhere in Nova Scotia, the existence
+of a deep-seated grievance not yet voiced abroad as
+it may be. Bitterly does the farmer and the fruit-grower
+complain of that tide of population promoted out of the
+Canadian public treasury, which has been not only sweeping
+in its current tens of thousands from the old country,
+but the many stalwart youth from the Maritime Provinces
+as well, whose strength is so much needed at home. The
+millions spent in Western development are as a thorn in
+the side of the Nova Scotian. Hence, therefore, the
+warmth of the welcome he extends to the Canadian Pacific
+Railway, which this year will formally invade “the Valley.”
+Yet the action of this great corporation is rather merely
+a symptom than any cause of that awakening prosperity
+and general accession of enterprise which I noted throughout
+this part of the Province.
+
+With regard to fruit, it cannot be pointed out too often
+that Nova Scotia is nearer the British and other European
+markets than any other part of the continent. Some of
+the best fruit growing sections of Canada and the United
+States are near the Pacific Coast, and the eight or ten
+days necessary to bring their fruit to Atlantic ports, besides
+the extra freight charges, must certainly serve as a serious
+drawback to those States and Provinces from which New
+Scotland is free.
+
+But not merely British but a great deal of Nova Scotia
+capital is invested elsewhere—particularly in the Far West.
+The East is always financing the West. They tell a story
+of a Kansas man on a visit to the East, who looked with
+characteristic scorn on its old-fashioned methods and remarked
+to a New England farmer: “You are surely foolish
+to stay here where you have to do your spring ploughing
+with a pickaxe and your planting with a shotgun. Why
+don’t you come out West? Not a stump, not a stone in
+sight; soil ten feet deep; crops of one year make you
+rich.” The New Englander listened with evident interest
+and then said: “I am holding six mortgages on Kansas
+farms, and if you fellows will just keep it up, and pay
+the interest, I will try and pull along very well where I
+am.”
+
+Just how many mortgages on farms, how many title-deeds
+to fertile sections of land or valuable city lots in the
+rapidly developing West are to-day in Nova Scotian hands,
+and are a source of wealth to the ancient Province by
+the sea, it would be difficult to compute.
+
+Not so long ago when the citizens of Winnipeg began
+to negotiate for land on a bend in the Red River in the
+immediate environs of the city for the purpose of a public
+park, it was found to be already in the possession of enterprising
+Nova Scotian capitalists. There are other instances.
+
+In the Annapolis Valley the advent of the Canadian
+Pacific Railway is the great abiding topic of interest.
+Reports of its plans and movements are canvassed by all
+classes and all interests. It is said that the railway has
+decided to build four new steamers for a fast direct steamship
+service between Nova Scotia and Boston and New York.
+These vessels will be larger and faster than any at present
+engaged in the American or Canadian Atlantic Coast
+steamship traffic. This is one of the important developments
+that will follow the taking over of the Dominion
+Atlantic. These steamers, which will be able to make
+over 20 knots an hour, are to run between Yarmouth and
+Boston, Halifax and New York, and Halifax and Boston.
+There will also be a fast steamship service between Digby
+and Boston, and across the Bay of Fundy between St. John
+and Digby. The fleet of six steamers which the great
+corporation will take over with the Dominion Atlantic
+road will be placed on the subsidiary services.
+
+[Illustration: ANNAPOLIS—THE OLDEST GRAVEYARD ON THE CONTINENT.]
+
+[Illustration: ANNAPOLIS ROYAL—THE HOME OF THOMAS CHANDLER HALIBURTON
+(“SAM SLICK”).]
+
+The great corporation will probably build four big
+hotels in Nova Scotia—one at Yarmouth, one at Digby,
+one at Halifax, and one at Chester, a branch line from
+Windsor to Chester, only thirty miles, being contemplated
+to bring Chester into the Canadian Pacific Railway system.
+
+It seems to be taken for granted that the railway
+authorities will make an organised effort to increase British
+immigration to this Province. They recognise that more
+population is needed, and they are going to do their part,
+so we are told, to bring in the people, and this with their
+publicity system ought not to be difficult.
+
+One should not perhaps complain of the perpetual
+insistence upon lands in the making, of the “possibilities”
+of the virgin prairie, of the sun-kissed solitudes of the
+Golden West. But this is the Golden East, the long-settled,
+pleasant East, where the genius of history muses amidst
+moss-grown battlements and ancient tombstones. This is
+Canada—the first Canada—Acadia. Even Quebec yields
+precedence to Annapolis Royal, the “cradle” of the
+Canadian Dominion.
+
+Rich indeed in historic and poetic association is Annapolis
+Royal. What romantic memories cluster about this
+little town, superbly set at the head of Annapolis Basin!
+Save Quebec no spot on the entire Continent has a more
+abiding interest. Three years before a white man’s hut
+had been built on the site of Quebec, a fort and village
+were to be found at Port Royal. On the waters of this
+basin was launched the first vessel built in North America;
+here, too, was the first mill fashioned. Also the problem
+of Canadian agriculture was here solved by the successful
+production of cereal and root crops.
+
+Nor is this all. At old Port Royal was witnessed the
+first conversion to Christianity; here echoed the first notes
+of poetic song in Canada—the chanson composed by
+Lescarbot in honour of Champlain. And here flourished
+the first social club in the western hemisphere.
+
+So we are carried back to the very beginnings of both
+French and British rule—to the days of De Monts,
+Champlain, and Poutrincourt. Founded in 1605, the
+vicissitudes of the fort and town (renamed in Queen
+Anne’s honour) have been numerous enough to fill a portly
+volume.[9]
+
+[Footnote 9: See Calnek and Savary’s _History of Annapolis_.]
+
+Port Royal once bade fair then to become a great
+city and Acadia a populous province. I have already told
+about Champlain and the “Order of a Good Time,” about
+Membertou and the hopes of the early French settlers.
+In 1607 De Monts’ charter was revoked by the King,
+and his friends would support his scheme with no more
+money. The Indians at Port Royal watched the French
+depart with sadness, promising to look after the fort and
+its belongings until the white men should return.
+
+Champlain had chosen another field—the lands far
+inland on the St. Lawrence; but Poutrincourt resolved,
+after first dealing a blow at his enemies in France, to return
+to take deep root in the fertile Acadian soil.
+
+In the spring of 1613 the Jesuits who, in the meantime,
+had through the influence of Madame De Guercheville got
+rights in Acadia, despatched an expedition under a courtier
+named La Saussaye, who, landed at Port Royal, took on
+board two priests left there, and then sailed on and founded
+a new colony at Mount Desert, on the coast of Maine.
+
+All Acadia, as well as Canada, was given back to the
+French by the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, and King
+Louis and his Court were now inclined to abandon their
+policy of indifference and resume the work of colonising.
+In the spring of 1632 a nephew of Richelieu’s, Captain
+de Razilly, arrived in Acadia with a shipload of colonists,
+including artisans, farmers, several Capuchin friars, and
+some gentry. Amongst the latter were Nicholas Denys,
+and an extraordinary person, Charles de Menou, Chevalier
+de Charnisay, whom I commend as a really superb stage
+villain.
+
+Young De la Tour, who considered himself the rightful
+lord of Acadia under De Monts’ charter,[10] was naturally
+jealous of Razilly, thinking the King ought to have appointed
+him Governor, instead of giving him the mere lordship over
+a limited territory. Even upon Razilly’s death in the
+following year, De la Tour’s hopes were frustrated. Razilly
+had ceded all his rights to Charnisay, his Deputy-Governor,
+whose first act was to remove from La Hêve to Port Royal,
+where he built a new fort.
+
+[Footnote 10: _Ante_, p. 18.]
+
+Now began the astonishing drama of Charnisay and
+De la Tour. The latter believed it to be Charnisay’s aim
+to dispossess him of those rights which he had acquired
+in Acadia by so much energy and sacrifice. The King
+tried to settle the dispute by fixing the limits of Charnisay’s
+government at the New England frontiers on the one hand,
+and at a line north from the Bay of Fundy on the other,
+westward of this line to be De la Tour’s province. Charnisay’s
+friends poisoned the King’s mind by alleging that
+De la Tour was a Huguenot in disguise, and orders were sent
+to his foe to arrest him and send him a prisoner to France.
+The young commander strengthened Fort la Tour and
+defied his enemy to do his worst.
+
+Not until the spring of 1643 was the crafty Charnisay
+ready to wreak vengeance on the “traitor,” as he called
+De la Tour. With the ships and 500 men Richelieu had
+sent him, Charnisay led the assault. La Tour proved too
+strong, and to starve La Tour into capitulation was begun
+a close siege by sea and land. A long-expected ship, with
+provisions, merchandise, and gunpowder for Fort la Tour,
+was sighted off the coast, and De la Tour and his wife
+managed in an open boat to gain the decks.
+
+They sailed for Boston, where, although they dared
+not give him direct assistance, the Puritan elders of
+that new town had no objection to striking a bargain,
+and at a good price permitted their visitor to hire four
+stout ships and seventy men. Sailing back with this force,
+De la Tour was able to make his enemy flee before him.
+The siege of his own fort being raised, he followed the
+foiled Charnisay to Port Royal, captured a shipload of
+rich furs, and would have taken Charnisay himself and his
+settlement, had it not been that the scruples of his Boston
+allies led to the making of a false peace. There could be
+no real peace between De la Tour and Charnisay. After
+many adventures Marie De la Tour was left in charge of
+their fort. Charnisay, constantly on the watch, fell upon
+her, but her defence was so vigorous that but for the action
+of a traitor he would never have taken it and her. He placed
+a common halter round this brave woman’s neck and forced
+her to witness the cold-blooded murder of her garrison.
+She pined away and died three weeks later at Port Royal.
+Her husband became for years a wanderer on the face of the
+earth, until he learnt of the drowning of Charnisay, when
+he returned and married the widow of his life-long foe.
+This is only half the drama: but the rest can be read in the
+history books.
+
+Recently the good folk of Annapolis were very busy
+over preparations for the celebration of the bi-centenary of
+the Church of England in Canada. A shoal of bishops was
+imminent—amongst them the distinguished prelate who
+signs himself “Arthur F. Londin.” One prospective
+hostess desired my opinion on the propriety of ensconcing
+three bishops in one room—so full to overflowing would the
+old town be, and so limited the accommodation. Here was
+a problem in episcopal—nay, in doctrinal accommodation,
+not without bearing upon High, Low, and Broad bishops
+and their respective powers of bodily as well as spiritual
+adjustment, a problem I could only hint at and evade.
+
+All this Anglican jubilation was to signalise the fact
+that a couple of centuries ago, with the English conquest,
+came the chaplain of the garrison to minister
+to the English newcomers. Here the worthy cleric, a
+certain Rev. John Harrison, of whom little is known, set
+up his altar and celebrated Holy Communion in English
+for the first time in the Province and in all the land destined
+later to become the Canadian Dominion. Not that these
+are the first anniversary fêtes the town has witnessed. In
+1905 Annapolis Royal recalled its tercentenary, when a
+monument to De Monts was erected on a commanding
+site within the grounds of the dismantled fortress. Few
+vestiges now remain of the old masonry, but the site is in
+charge of Government, and is maintained in excellent condition
+as a public park.
+
+Digby has grown into a flourishing summer resort from
+a fishing town which was famed far and near as the home
+of the “Digby chicken,” an article almost as famous as
+Yarmouth bloater or Bombay duck. Some seventy years
+ago Haliburton wrote in words often quoted:
+
+“Digby is a charming little town. It is the Brighton
+of Nova Scotia, the resort of the valetudinarians of New
+Brunswick, who take refuge here from the unrelenting
+fogs, hopeless sterility, and calcareous waters of St. John.
+About as pretty a place this for business, said the Clockmaker,
+as I know of in this country. Digby is the only
+safe harbour from Blowmidown to Briar Island. Then there
+is that everlasting long river runnin away up from the
+wharfes here almost across to Minas Basin, bordered with
+dikes and interval, and backed up by good upland. A
+nice, dry, pleasant place for a town, with good water, good
+air, and the best herrin fishery in America, but it wants
+one thing to make it go ahead.” “And, pray, what is
+that?” said I, “for it appears to me to have every natural
+advantage that can be desired.” “It wants to be made a
+free port,” said he. “They ought to send a delegate to
+England about it; but the fact is they don’t understand
+diplomacy here nor the English either. They haven’t got
+no talents that way.”
+
+Steamers now run between Boston and Digby, as well as
+between Digby and St. John.
+
+[Illustration: OFF THE PIER AT DIGBY.]
+
+[Illustration: LOW TIDE AT YARMOUTH.]
+
+A favourite rendezvous for tourists is the mountain, from
+which a good view of Annapolis Basin, extending away up
+to Annapolis Royal, and taking in Bear and Goat Islands
+and the Granville shore, is to be enjoyed. There are
+many interesting drives hereabouts, one passing a camp of
+Micmac Indians, who turn an honest penny by fashioning
+fancy baskets for the tourists and posing for amateur
+photographers.
+
+The Shore Road winds for a couple of miles along the
+edge of the Basin and the base of Ben Lomond towards
+Digby Strait, otherwise known as “The Gut” or “The
+Gap,” the great natural wonder of the vicinity. It is a
+break in the North Mountain range less than a mile in
+width, and through it the tides of Fundy and the Annapolis
+Basin rush with irresistible force.
+
+“The Gut” is the dominating feature of Digby scenery,
+and very popular with visitors. On the other and western
+side of the town is Digby Neck, a length strip of land which
+forms the seaward barrier of St. Mary’s Bay.
+
+Bear River is the scene of an annual cherry carnival.
+It may be reached by sail-boat or steamer, the route lying
+part of the way across Annapolis Basin. The village lies
+four miles up the winding stream from the station, and is
+an important lumber centre, but chiefly famous for its
+cherries. This luscious fruit grows here in rich profusion,
+and long ago suggested the great summer event in Bear
+River, the annual cherry carnival, which is held in July.
+On carnival day hundreds of tourists and natives visit the
+pretty town to feast on the cherries and to witness a procession
+and aquatic sports.
+
+The small but enterprising town of Weymouth boasts
+some shipyards and shipping. With its high river banks, its
+attractive residences, and its surrounding forests, Weymouth
+is a pretty place and popular with American tourists.
+
+Sissibo Falls, some distance up the river, is one of the
+scenic features of the locality.
+
+People who have read Longfellow’s “Evangeline” often
+ask what became of the Acadians—did they virtually
+disappear after the expulsion? Those of sympathetic
+temperament as well as the historical student would doubtless
+be glad to know if it is really the case that—
+
+    “Only along the shore of the mournful and misty Atlantic
+    Linger a few Acadian peasants, whose fathers from exile
+    Wandered back to their native land to die in its bosom.”
+
+[Illustration: THE HOME OF “EVANGELINE.”]
+
+[Illustration: AT EVANGELINE’S WELL.]
+
+To such, therefore, I am glad to state that scattered
+through the Maritime Provinces, Magdalen Islands, Gaspe,
+St. Pierre and Miquelon, and Newfoundland, are close
+upon 150,000 descendants of the expelled Acadians. By
+far the most interesting Acadian settlement is that of Clare,
+in the extreme south-west of Nova Scotia. Here in a
+single continuous village, twelve miles long, dwells a primitive
+people, some 10,000 all told; wholly out of touch of the
+railway, and only to be seen on foot or by motor. Many
+travellers pass on the borders of this district without suspecting
+its existence, only marvelling perhaps why the
+railway line from Digby to Yarmouth describes such a
+curve inland at this part. The reason is this: When the
+railway was built the French priest in spiritual charge of
+the Clare Acadians took alarm for his flock, and by supplications
+and threats managed to get the line diverted, so as
+to cut off his parish between the railway and the sea. All
+the traveller sees, therefore, from the car windows is a
+stretch of untilled land and a succession of tree stumps.
+Were he to descend and push on a few miles he would
+come to the best road in the Province, hundreds of neat
+dwellings at Meteghan, Salmon River, and Church Point,
+and a cheerful, contented, ignorant people, living now as
+they have lived for a century and a half on the south shore
+of St. Mary’s Bay. Here,
+
+    “In the fisherman’s cot the wheel and the loom are still busy,
+    Maidens still wear their Norman caps and their kirtles of homespun,
+    And by the fire repeat Evangeline’s story.”
+
+This latter is no poetical fiction. The story of the
+expulsion is really fresh in the hearts of all these peasants.
+The Roman Catholic establishment is very strong hereabouts,
+one of the largest churches in the Province being
+here; and they can also boast of a college and convent
+which, I believe, as is the case with other Roman Catholic
+institutions in the Province, is in receipt of funds from
+France.
+
+Here once dwelt a priest whose deeds and whose example
+still live amongst the French Acadians of Clare. I talked
+with a man who well remembered the worthy Curé of
+Montaignan.
+
+“Born and educated in France,” wrote Captain
+Moorsom, “M. Segoigne emigrated from that country
+when revolutionary suspicion threatened the lives of all
+whose virtues were inimical to the views of the ruling
+democrats, and for the last thirty years has devoted his
+attention exclusively to the welfare of these children of
+Acadia. Buried in this retreat from all the thoughts and
+habits of the polished world, he yet retains the urbanity
+of the old French school; or rather, I apprehend, possesses
+that natural excellence of disposition which gives to urbanity
+its intrinsic value. He is at once the priest, the lawyer,
+and the judge of his people; he has seen most of them rise
+up to manhood around him, or accompany his own decline
+in the vale of years; the unvarying steadiness of his conduct
+has gained equally their affection and respect; to him,
+therefore, it is that they apply in their mutual difficulties,
+from him they look for judgment to decide their little
+matters of dispute.”
+
+In French-speaking Canada one frequently comes across
+the priest in this dignified, affectionate, paternal character.
+Denied real fatherhood he consecrates his life to his spiritual
+children; and the virtues of such men constitute the real
+strength of the Roman Catholic church in Canada, amongst
+a simple folk to whose minds, absorbed in labour and
+home life, doctrine and dialectics are as the scattering of
+chaff on the sands of the sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+YARMOUTH AND SHIPBUILDING
+
+
+An odour of sanctity, permeating current speech and
+manners, is characteristic of New Scotland. But religion is
+less narrow, less austere, than in New England. One
+familiar expression of the religious spirit is the grace
+before meat. Of these anteprandial orisons the privileged
+traveller, curious in such matters, might collect
+some interesting examples in the course of his travels
+through the Province, ranging from a long discourse,
+which threatened to be interminable, which I heard
+at Yarmouth, to a brief, almost ejaculatory, “Thank
+God!” from the lips of an old naval officer at Sydney.
+Of the devoutness of the people there can be no question.
+Upwards of eighty years ago a Scotsman, author
+of _Letters from Nova Scotia_, asked a well-informed native:
+“Which do you think the most numerous denomination
+of Christians in Nova Scotia?” “Oh,” was the reply,
+“the Presbyterians, then the Roman Catholics, then the
+Baptists, then the Methodists, then the Episcopalians.”
+
+“Is the Baptist a numerous sect?”
+
+“Yes, it is the most prosperous of all denominations.
+A few years ago the Baptists were a small and comparatively
+uninfluential body of men. Their teachers
+were ignorant of all knowledge except what their Bibles
+afforded, and their hearers were the poorest of our
+peasantry. But by recent events they have received a most
+important accession, not only of numbers, but also of wealth,
+talent, and education; and I will stake my sagacity upon
+the prophecy that, in a few years, the Baptist Church will
+be predominant in Nova Scotia. The Church of England
+may be established nominally, but the Baptist one
+will be predominant.”
+
+That was in 1828. Let us see what has happened.
+According to the last census, as many as 1355 churches
+were found to be in this one Province, the proportions
+being as follow:—351 belonging to the Baptists, 270 to
+the Presbyterians, 254 to the Methodists, 198 to the
+Anglicans, and 156 to the Roman Catholics. The total
+seating capacity of these 1355 churches was 409,738,
+the Presbyterians heading the list with 100,337, the
+Baptists coming next with 91,290, then the Methodists
+with 71,731, the Roman Catholics with 70,974, and the
+Anglicans last with 47,426. The Congregationalists had
+only 16 churches, with a seating capacity of 4470.
+Among the various churches were 1005 Sunday Schools,
+with 66,680 scholars and 7750 teachers. In a general
+classification the people divided themselves as follows:—129,578
+Roman Catholics, 106,381 Presbyterians, 83,233
+Baptists, 66,107 Anglicans, 57,490 Methodists, 6572
+Lutherans, 2938 Congregationalists, 1494 Adventists,
+1412 Disciples, and 437 Jews, with several smaller groups
+of other denominations, leaving only 543 persons who
+did not return themselves as belonging to some religion.
+
+So that with regard to the prophecy, although the
+Baptists have got more chapels, the Presbyterians can
+boast more devotees (a visit to the churches will confirm
+this), and, on the whole, the situation is little changed,
+save that the Roman Catholics have vastly increased,
+and now nominally may claim precedence over any other
+sect. While the Scots are mainly Presbyterians, there
+is a large number of Highland Roman Catholics, many
+in Cape Breton, many in Antigonish County. At Antigonish
+there is not only a Catholic University, but a
+Catholic newspaper, very well conducted. The denominational
+spirit is represented in the higher education,
+King’s College, Windsor, being Anglican; Acadia University,
+Wolfeville, a Baptist foundation; St. Francis Xavier
+University at Antigonish I have just mentioned; and the
+Presbyterians regard Dalhousie as their College, although
+it is undenominational. Indeed no denominational test
+is required of students at any save the Roman Catholic
+establishment. The Methodists resort to Mount Allison,
+just across the Provincial frontier.
+
+Pulpit oratory is not, I fear, cultivated as an art in
+Nova Scotia. It is mostly, as one would expect it to be,
+of a hortatory character. I have even heard it alleged
+that the Nova Scotian parsons are a practical, canny class,
+rather than ripe in culture and sound in scholarship.
+
+It is when we come to speak of education that we
+see the superiority of the system to that which has
+long prevailed in England, and which prevails in other
+countries. There is practically no illiterate element
+in the community. While it is unnecessary to say that
+some have received less education than others, one may
+look long before finding a man or woman unable to
+read and write. There is a great difference between
+the English and Nova Scotian systems—in Nova Scotia
+there is far more attention paid to the problem of education,
+and a greater ambition on the part of all classes to
+get beyond the elementary stage.
+
+There are 2516 elementary schools in the Province,
+attended by 100,000 children under the charge of 2664
+teachers (which gives an average of one teacher to the
+great majority of the schools), Education is free, both
+in the elementary schools, which are maintained by
+Government grants and very low local rates, and in the
+numerous high schools. A Provincial Normal School
+also offers free instruction for the training of teachers;
+and it may be said that, despite the fact that the
+Province offers many lucrative careers for a brainy young
+man, which makes it somewhat difficult to retain the
+highest talent for this profession, the standard of teaching
+in Nova Scotian schools is not inferior to the average
+on the North American continent. In fact, it is probably
+higher.
+
+In various parts of the Province the old system of a
+group of isolated one-teacher schools is being gradually
+done away with, and “consolidated” schools are springing
+up. These, each having several teachers, are looked upon
+as an effective means of improving the education in county districts.
+Of these there are at present twenty-three. I have
+already described the Technical College lately established
+in the capital; while hand-work and household science are
+thoroughly taught the boys and girls at various centres.
+
+Perhaps already the reader will have gathered that this
+peninsula and island on the other side of the Atlantic has
+everything, though but in embryo, of that which makes life
+pleasant, useful, and prosperous, save Art. History shows
+few communities of half a million people with fewer artistic
+perceptions than New Scotland, and I know of no Nova
+Scotia poet, Nova Scotia painter, Nova Scotia novelist, or
+Nova Scotia architect of international repute. To some of
+us—to a few of us—these are the things—these books,
+these pictures, these buildings, which make even little
+nations glorious; and of which they are prouder and the
+world more grateful than for the products of the field, the
+forge, the factory, and the counting-house.
+
+But in this respect New Scotland resembles Old Scotland,
+whose slow advance and scanty achievements in art were
+once the wonder of Europe; and even in New England it
+took nearly two centuries of civilisation to throw off the
+Puritan yoke and allow the imagination to dwell in and the
+hand to create beauty.
+
+Perhaps we who dwell in London, or Paris, or Rome, or
+even New York, are apt to exaggerate the value of these
+things. For here we see that a people may be generous,
+industrious, and contented without picture-galleries, without,
+indeed, ever having seen a first-rate picture, a first-rate
+building.
+
+At Yarmouth, more than the wharves, more than the
+clipped hedges, than the fishermen, the electric street
+tramway, and the manifold evidence of prosperity, was I
+interested in two fragments of stone, comparable in their
+way to other celebrated archæological fragments in Europe
+and Asia which tell, and alone survive to tell, of long-past
+ages and vanished peoples. These are Runic stones of
+Yarmouth, lately reposing in private grounds, but now
+gathered into the safer and more accessible quarters of the
+Yarmouth Public Library. About the end of the eighteenth
+century a doctor named Fletcher discovered on the shore of
+the Bay of Fundy, opposite the town, a rock weighing about
+four hundred pounds, bearing an inscription which, when
+deciphered by a capable antiquarian, was found to read,
+“Harkussen men varu”—_i.e._, “Harku’s son addressed the
+men.”
+
+In the expedition of Tharfinn Karlsefne in 1007, the
+name of Harku occurs in the list of those who accompanied
+him. In a note on the published saga we read that on this
+voyage “they came to a place where a firth penetrated far
+into the country; off the mouth of it was an island, past
+which there ran strong currents, which was also the case
+farther up the firth.”
+
+Why such a memento should be left on this Norse visit
+to Markland cannot of course be explained, except to observe
+that memorials were often made or erected in localities
+where events had occurred, and in this instance the
+chieftain’s address may have here contained some notable
+pronouncement, or even commemorated the landing at that
+spot.
+
+The second Runic stone was found so recently as 1897,
+lying face downwards, half buried in the mud on the west
+side of Yarmouth harbour, one mile from where the former
+stone had been found. It is very similar in size and shape
+to the Fletcher stone. Its face is as fair and as smooth as
+if dressed by a lapidary, and the inscription is in the same
+characters. Of course these two stones have excited great
+interest among scholars and antiquarians, and attempts have
+been made to dispute their Scandinavian origin, and to
+ascribe them to Red Indians, Semites, and even to the
+Japanese.
+
+For example, one theorist, Dr. Campbell, who would
+have rejoiced in assisting the Pickwickians in elucidating
+the celebrated Stumps inscription, unhesitatingly finds the
+inscription to be Japanese. He says that in old Japanese
+this reads,
+
+_wahi deka Kuturade bushi goku_.
+
+_Peacefully has gone out Kuturade, warrior eminent_, or in other
+words: “Kuturadem, the eminent warrior, has died in
+peace.”
+
+It may very naturally be asked how it is known that
+such is the reading, and how a Japanese inscription should
+be found in Nova Scotia? His answer to the first question
+is that “the identical writing in question has been found in
+Siberia, Mongolia, and Japan.... As for the appearance
+of old Japanese in America, I have known repeatedly that
+the Choctaw, the Cree or Maskoki, the Ksaw, and all their
+related tongues, are simply Japanese dialects.”
+
+Kuturade was apparently an Iroquois, whose modern
+name would be Katorati, The Hunter.... And there is
+reason for thinking that this memorial might belong to
+the early historical period of French colonisation (early
+seventeenth century). We cannot tell when our Indians lost
+their ancient art of writing, which the Crees at least seem
+to have retained in the middle of the last century.
+
+One reflects now upon the injustice, even the inhumanity,
+of the British Columbians in seeking to exclude
+the Japanese from their old home!
+
+But there seems, apart from prejudice and the fantastic
+ingenuity of minds prepared to doubt anything from the
+spherical shape of the earth to the utility of the bi-cameral
+system in the British Constitution, no reason to doubt that
+these stones are really tangible evidence of the pre-Columbian
+discovery of Nova Scotia. Humboldt agreed with Carl
+Rafu in believing that in the year 1001 A.D. the Icelanders
+touched upon the North American coast, and that for nearly
+two centuries subsequently numerous visits were made by
+them and the Norwegians.
+
+“Bjorn Heinolsen, an Icelander, was the first discoverer.
+Steering for Greenland he was driven to the south by
+tempestuous and unfavourable winds, and saw different
+parts of America, without, however, touching at any of
+them. Attracted by the report of this voyage, Leif, son of
+Eric, the discoverer of Greenland, fitted out a vessel to
+pursue the same adventure. He passed the coast visited by
+Bjorn, and steered south-west till he reached a strait between
+a large island and the mainland. Finding the country
+fertile and pleasant, he passed the winter near this place,
+and gave it the name of Vinland, from the wild vine
+growing there in great abundance.” According to Rafu,
+“Bjorn first saw land in the island of Nantucket, one
+degree south of Boston, then in Nova Scotia, then in
+Newfoundland.”
+
+Accurate information respecting the former intercourse
+of the Northmen with the continent of North America
+reaches only as far as the middle of the fourteenth century.
+In the year 1349 a ship was sent from Greenland to Markland
+(Nova Scotia) to collect timber. Upon their return
+from Markland the ship was overtaken by storms and
+compelled to land at Straumfjord, in the west of Iceland.
+This is the last account of the Northmen in the New
+World preserved to us in the ancient Scandinavian writings.
+
+Says Rafu: “The principal sources of information are
+the historical narratives of Eric the Red, Thorfinn Karlsefne,
+and Snorre Thorbrandson, probably written in Greenland
+itself as early as the twelfth century, partly by descendants
+of the settlers born in Vinland.” One account in particular
+seems to point very strongly to a visit to this part
+of Nova Scotia, and is as follows:
+
+“Thorfinn Karlsefne, in 1007, in one ship, and Birone
+Grimolfsen in another ship, left Greenland for Vinland
+(Massachusetts). They had a hundred and sixty men, and
+took all kinds of live stock, intending to establish a colony.
+They sailed southerly and found Helluland (Newfoundland),
+where there were many foxes. They again sailed
+southerly and found Markland (Nova Scotia), overgrown
+with wood. They continued south-westerly a long time,
+having the land to starboard, passing long beaches, and
+deserts and sands, and came to a land indented with inlets.
+They landed and explored the country, finding grapes and
+some ears of wheat, which grew wild. They continued
+their course until they came to a place where a frith
+penetrated far into the country. Off the mouth of it was
+an island, past which there ran strong currents, which was
+also the case further up the frith, &c.”
+
+The long beaches and deserts of sand referred to above,
+seemingly refer to those stretching along the coast line from
+Hawk Point, Cape Island, in a north-easterly direction,
+one of which makes a fine race-course, at least six miles long.
+
+In the distance, across Barrington Passage, may be
+seen stretches of sandy hills not less than 40 feet high.
+These are visible at a great distance from seaward. The
+reference, “they came to a place,” with the other geographical
+details, made a strong case for Yarmouth as the landing
+place of old Thorfinn.
+
+It would be surprising if in a country with such a line
+of sea-coast as Nova Scotia, with adjacent forests of every
+kind of hard and soft woods, and with a population largely
+depending upon fishing, shipbuilding should not early have
+been begun.
+
+At Yarmouth, about 1761, with the building of a small
+schooner, christened the _James_, of about 25 tons burden,
+the industry had its birth. From the time of the launching
+of this modest craft until that of the _County of Yarmouth_,
+a full rigged ship of 2154 tons, in 1886, there is seen
+a steady development of the shipbuilding industry, in
+which the south-western portion of the Province bore the
+leading part.
+
+In 1765 there were said to be in Queen’s County alone
+seventeen sail of fishing schooners, all of native construction.
+Other portions of the southern coast were not far behind.
+Trade with the West Indies soon became important, and
+before the close of the eighteenth century larger schooners
+and brigantines were built, running to upwards of one
+hundred tons.
+
+Somewhat later the export of timber from the various
+ports along the Northumberland Strait induced shipbuilding
+on a very much larger scale. Soon after the Highlanders
+came to Pictou they turned their attention to the exports
+of timber in home-built vessels, and many of these of
+considerable burden were built.[11]
+
+[Footnote 11: For this information I am indebted, _inter alia_, to an
+admirable little paper by Mr. R. M. M’Gregor, M.P.P.]
+
+This time not merely Yarmouth, and Shelburne, and
+Liverpool, and Pictou, but all New Scotland, owned an
+important fleet of sailing ships, but still small in number
+compared with the veritable navy they were to own and
+be enriched by within a few years.
+
+The forty years, from 1840 to 1880, saw the palmiest
+days of this great industry. One still hears tales of the
+mighty Captain George M’Kenzie of New Glasgow, to
+whom more than to any one man Nova Scotia owed the
+great impetus that was given during this period to shipbuilding.
+Along the ports of the Northumberland Strait,
+at least, this worthy mariner and builder, full of energy and
+genius, did more than any one else to improve the character
+of the ships built. He twice represented the County of
+Pictou in the Legislature, and, indeed, his shipbuilding
+ventures are referred to by his friend, Joseph Howe, in the
+latter’s famous speech on the “Unification of the Empire.”
+
+In 1850 Captain M’Kenzie was presented with a
+service of plate by the merchants of Glasgow on the
+occasion of the arrival of one of his 1500 ton ships,
+the _Hamilton Campbell Kidston_, which was the largest
+vessel that up to that time had ascended the Clyde.
+
+Along the Northumberland Strait, Pictou, New Glasgow,
+Tatamagouche, River John, and Merigomish, were all
+noted for their shipbuilding. The Crimean War gave a
+decided impetus to the industry, and about this time there
+were said to be in New Glasgow alone fourteen square-rigged
+vessels built in one year. The coal trade from
+Pictou to the United States was also a stimulus.
+
+In the west, Yarmouth, Windsor, Hantsport, Maitland,
+Londonderry, and other Bay of Fundy ports were
+centres for shipbuilding. But, indeed, there were scarcely
+any harbours or rivers of note, both in the mainland and
+parts of the Island of Cape Breton, that did not play a
+greater or less part in this great industry.
+
+A little over a quarter of a century ago there were registered
+in Nova Scotia 3025 vessels, with a tonnage of 558,911
+tons, or about one and a quarter tons of shipping _per capita_ of
+the population, a larger holding than any other country in
+the world, not even excepting those of Northern Europe.
+
+The fleet of Yarmouth alone covered every ocean, and
+represented the largest tonnage _per capita_ of any port in
+the world. You saw Yarmouth ships in Helsingfors and
+Monte Video.
+
+The building and rigging of such a fleet of course
+gave lucrative employment to a vast army of men.
+Loggers, choppers, shipwrights, carpenters, blacksmiths,
+caulkers, riggers, were employed full time at good wages.
+But freights fell lower and lower. Conditions changed
+in the carrying trade, and at Yarmouth I gathered that
+the prosperous days of wooden sailing vessels reached
+their zenith in 1879, when they had to give way to iron
+sailing ships, these again to be replaced by the tramp
+steamer which has invaded every sea, lake, and river
+formerly sailed by the white-winged fleet.
+
+And so the immense fleet of Yarmouth vanished.
+Some of its owners were ruined, and others retired with
+a more than comfortable competence. A few capitalists
+foresaw the coming change—the incoming of steam—and
+established other marine industries.
+
+Nova Scotia ceased not only to be a shipbuilding,
+but also to be a ship-owning and ship-operating country.
+
+But in consequence of the recent revival of the lumber
+trade to America and to the Southern Continent, there has
+come the building of a large number of smaller vessels
+in the Bay of Fundy ports. Three-masted schooners, of
+some 300 and 400 tons, have been launched, while the
+demand for smaller vessels for the West India trade has
+never entirely ceased, and such are being launched every
+year from Shelburne and other ports of the southern
+shore. From the same portion of the Province, and in
+particular from the County of Lunenburg, where the
+fishing industry is pursued vigorously, fishing vessels are
+being constantly built.
+
+In quality of construction, these Nova Scotia built
+boats have obtained an enviable reputation, and it would
+seem as if it would be many years before the wooden
+shipbuilding industry will be entirely lost to the Province.
+Something has indeed been done in the way of
+the construction of small steam boats, and nearly all the
+coastal steam packets are home-built.
+
+Yet, when the big wooden ships vanished, Yarmouth
+captains, as factors in the world’s mercantile marine,
+remained. Their experience and reputation insured them
+employment elsewhere. After these vessels had become
+obsolete, and were forced from the trade, these tried
+fellows were eagerly sought for by English and Scotch
+shipping firms, as skilled mariners and of unquestionable
+integrity. To-day many important ships in America and
+Britain are commanded by Nova Scotians, and Yarmuthians
+in particular.
+
+Wooden shipbuilding on a grand scale being a thing
+of the past, if the sea-loving New Scotlanders are to
+become again a race of shipbuilders and sailors, it must
+be in steel bottoms. Already a beginning has been made
+in a small way. Several small steel steamers have been
+built in the town of New Glasgow, and one has lately
+been launched at Yarmouth.
+
+At the former place was launched last year the
+three-master steel schooner _James William_, of about 500
+tons register. As a swift sailer, and more particularly
+as a good carrier, this vessel has more than exceeded
+the expectations of her builders. The beginning so
+auspiciously made is full of promise for the future, and it
+may well be said that within the next few years Nova Scotia
+may come back to her own, and once more take her place
+under newer conditions as a great shipbuilding country.
+
+Many of the Yarmouth fishermen repair to Gloucester
+in the spring, and go to the Banks in vessels from that
+port. These do well as a rule, and in November troop
+home to enjoy the fruits of their labours. There are no
+Bank fishermen out of Yarmouth ports nowadays, and
+those who do not go out of Gloucester remain at home
+and conduct fishing operations “off shore.” Very often
+fish are scarce when bait is plentiful, and vice versa, and
+oftentimes during the early fall the weather is so rough
+that operations are perforce suspended for days at a time.
+
+Of late, however, I was informed, large schools of
+herrings have struck in along the shores, and big catches
+have been made, so big in fact that at some points schooner
+loads have been shipped to the American market.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Argylls strongly suggest the scenery of the
+Scottish Highlands, and must have done so to the
+Western Highlanders who first settled the place. It is
+the centre of a fine fishing and hunting country. There is
+a remarkably curious natural phenomena at the “Narrows”;
+for six hours the waters rush madly up stream, and for the
+next six tumble as rapidly down again. The island-studded
+waters provide fine duck shooting, and Lobster Bay is a
+famous spot for these crustaceans.
+
+As for Pubnico, it claims to be the very oldest French
+Acadian settlement, being planted by D’Entremont in
+1650, and is still peopled by that race. The harbour is
+a beautiful sheet of land-locked water, where exceptionally
+safe bathing and boating may be had. Many little old-fashioned
+villages are close at hand, and are an object lesson
+in early French habits and customs.
+
+Barrington was described to me as a “homey” little
+place, where visitors have delightfully jolly candy-pulls,
+clambakes, and lobster-roasts nightly around roaring bonfires
+on the beach.
+
+I had long wanted to see Cape Sable Island. I was told
+that it had enjoyed an unwonted prosperity during the last
+few years. The island is seven miles long and from two to
+three miles across, with a steam ferry plying to Barrington
+Passage. It is famous for its splendid beaches, Hawk and
+Stoney Island, and all sorts of shore and sea birds are found
+here in abundance, and furnish good sport.
+
+The first settlement appears to have been made about
+1786 by Michael Swim, who had previously migrated from
+New York to Shelburne. Being a man of some education,
+he was long known as _the Clerk_ of the Island, and hence,
+according to one tradition, the name Clark’s Harbour.
+
+It is well worth while leaving the railway at Barrington
+and traverse nine miles towards the coast to see the relics of
+Fort St. Louis, now called Port La Tour. Here was the
+scene of one of the most romantic episodes in the history of
+Acadia. In 1627 the gallant young Charles de la Tour
+was entrenched here. Hearing of the English plan to
+drive the French from Acadia, and strong in his alliance
+with the Micmacs, he wrote Louis XIII. asking to be
+appointed commandant of all the coasts of Acadia. His
+father, Claude de la Tour, it will be remembered, bore the
+letter, and on the way back was captured by Sir David
+Kirke, and taken to England.[12] Here he renounced his
+loyalty to the French king, married an English lady, was
+made a baronet of Nova Scotia, and received a large grant
+in Acadia for himself and his son. Sir Claude then sailed
+with his wife and an escort of two warships to where his
+son Charles was holding the last fort in Acadia.
+
+[Footnote 12: See _ante_, p. 19.]
+
+Meanwhile the youthful French hero, lord of Acadia
+under Poutrincourt’s charter, knew nothing of his good
+fortune or of these paternal proceedings. When Sir Claude
+reached his destination here at Fort St. Louis, he demanded
+an interview with his son, who was astonished to find his
+father in command of an English ship and wearing the
+dress of an English admiral. Sir Claude related the
+flattering reception he had met with in London, and the
+honours that had been heaped upon him.
+
+Instead of showing joy, Charles was thunderstruck.
+He replied haughtily that “if those who sent you on this
+errand think me capable of betraying my country, even at
+the solicitation of a parent, they have greatly mistaken me.
+I am not disposed to purchase the honours now offered me
+by committing a crime. I do not undervalue the proffer of
+the King of England; but the Prince in whose service I am
+is quite able to reward me; and whether he does so or not,
+the inward consciousness of my fidelity to him will be in
+itself a recompense to me. The King of France has
+confided the defence of this place to me. I shall maintain
+it, if attacked, till my latest breath.”
+
+In these circumstances Sir Claude thought to bring the
+ungrateful youth to reason by force. Thrice he landed his
+soldiers and sailors and tried to storm Fort St. Louis, but in
+vain. His men were repulsed, and soon became disgusted
+with the whole enterprise.
+
+Eventually they all repaired to Port Royal and took up
+settlement with the other Scotch colonists there. It might
+be supposed that in this extremity the young English girl
+to whom Sir Claude had promised power and luxury on his
+Nova Scotian estates would now desire to return to England;
+but she refused.
+
+“I have shared your prosperity, Sir Claude,” she said, “I
+will now share your evil fortunes.” And evil they proved.
+
+For in 1632, after the shameful treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye,
+by which Canada and Nova Scotia were ceded
+back to France by King Charles I., Sir Claude, “between
+the devil and the deep sea,” was fain at last to throw
+himself on the mercy of his son, who established the couple
+and their suite in comfort, some distance from the fort,
+and there he remained for some time, until King Charles
+found employment for him elsewhere in British Dominions.
+
+I have related elsewhere something of the drama of the
+young La Tours, of the heroism of the wife when besieged
+by the villain Charnisay, of her death, of the long exile of
+her husband, and his marriage with the widow of his enemy.
+
+Upon such a spot one could hardly look unmoved;
+but explore as one might, all trace of the La Tours seems
+to have vanished from off the earth, save that on the page
+of history and their names on the map.
+
+In the old days the Acadians were settled in considerable
+numbers about Barrington. At the time of their expulsion,
+a flourishing settlement, with stone church and grist mill,
+was utterly destroyed, the cattle burnt, and the inhabitants
+deported to Boston and Halifax. Some few returned afterwards
+to Cape Sable and received grants in Pubnico, where
+they contributed to the present thrifty settlement.
+
+In 1761-63, some eighty families from Nantucket and
+Cape Cod settled in Barrington, but about half of them,
+disappointed in their hope of making this a whaling station,
+soon returned; and in 1767 the township of Barrington,
+including Cape Sable Island, was granted to a body of one
+hundred and two New Englanders.
+
+Barrington is a quiet and picturesque little town, to
+which a goodly number of summer visitors resort. It is
+easy of access, being on the railway, and a point of call for
+the smaller steamers from Yarmouth and Clark’s Harbour.
+I am not sure whether it is not worth mentioning, but
+Barrington is one of the few small towns in New Scotland
+whose streets are lighted by oil lamps set upon old-fashioned
+lamp-posts. The posts were brought from Boston many
+years ago.
+
+Between Barrington and Shelburne, scattered for some
+twenty-seven miles inland, lie what are called the Clyde
+settlements. The river Clyde is a really beautiful stream,
+and rich in salmon and trout. The railway station is at
+Port Clyde, near its mouth, and Clyde River settlement is
+two and a half miles further up. Goose Lake, Goose
+Creek, and Bower’s Lake are favourite haunts of trout
+fishers.
+
+Seventeen miles further up the river is Middle Clyde,
+and Upper Clyde still another ten—both pretty villages,
+within easy reach of lake and river fishing. This is a good
+moose ground, partridge and rabbits are plentiful, and the
+skilled hunter may add to his bag a brace of wild cat or an
+occasional bear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+SHELBURNE AND THE LOYALISTS
+
+
+There are, apart from the capital, five famous historical
+shrines in New Scotland—Annapolis Royal, Louisbourg,
+Grand Pré, Fort Lawrence, and Shelburne. How many
+English readers know anything of Shelburne? How many
+have ever so much as heard the name? And yet, once, a
+century and a quarter ago, the uprising of this town, in a
+single night as it were, the sufferings of the 12,000 American
+Loyalist refugees who had landed there to found it,
+evoked a widespread interest. The tale of the Loyalists of
+Shelburne rang through the hall at Westminster, and in the
+Colonial Assemblies. It was told in the closet of the King,
+and was set forth in the newspapers; and what a story it
+was! English history scarce can show its parallel. It is
+the tale of the exiled Huguenots, but the impelling motive
+was not loyalty to a form of faith, but to an earthly
+sovereign and a flag. How much fanaticism, how much
+bigotry, is interwoven with religious sacrifice! We may
+respect, but we cannot love the cold and narrow minds
+who, whether called Protestant, or Catholic, or Puritan, fled
+from their country because of the doctrine they disliked or
+an article they distrusted, who were ready to put seas of
+salt water between them and a rubric, or to risk seas of
+human blood to escape the sight of a chasuble or the
+necessity for a genuflexion.
+
+But personal loyalty one understands—the love for
+one’s flag and one’s own people strikes a responsive chord
+in warm bosoms. The Puritans, I fear, who founded New
+England, were but indifferent patriots. The cry of “St.
+George and Merry England!” would amongst them have
+proved a feeble tocsin.
+
+The Loyalists were, as I have said, the best class in
+America, comprising the most notable judges, the most
+eminent lawyers, most cultured clergy, most distinguished
+physicians, most educated and refined of the people north
+and south. Long before the war broke out, the Boston
+mobs had persecuted them for their political professions.
+Any official or merchant sympathising with the British
+Army or British Government of the day was a target for
+their insolence. They set Governor Hutchinson’s mansion
+in flames; sheriffs and judges were mobbed, feeble old
+men were driven into the woods, and innocent women insulted.
+With the progress of the war, the violence of the
+revolutionists increased in intensity. Thousands sought
+safety with the King’s troops; many others armed themselves
+and fought valiantly for the King and the British
+connection. To be suspected of being a Loyalist was to
+have one’s estate confiscated, and even to be punished
+with death.
+
+But what the Loyalists suffered during the war, when
+the issue of the contest was doubtful, was nothing to what
+they had to endure after 1783.
+
+The British Empire had been badly served by the officers
+England had sent out to America. If Wolfe had lived to
+direct her armies, the end might have been different; but
+mismanagement reigned, and such Generals as Gage, Burgoyne, and
+Cornwallis, planned feebly and fought half-heartedly. If there was
+any doubt as to the result, that doubt was speedily set at rest
+when England’s hereditary enemy, France, espoused the cause of the
+American insurgents. French money, ships, and men poured into America.
+The Americans fought with French muskets, they were clad in French
+clothing, and they were paid with gold which the impoverished people of
+France could ill spare. Great is the debt America owes to the French
+King and statesmen of that time.[13]
+
+[Footnote 13: _The Romance of Canada_, by Beckles Willson, 1907.]
+
+With the conclusion of the war, the men who had stood
+staunch and faithful to the United Empire were destined to
+undergo a further ordeal. As “traitors” they were pursued
+through the streets; their families were driven into the
+woods; they were shot down remorselessly. Rows of them
+were hung up like felons. At the battle of King’s
+Mountain, in North Carolina, ten of the prisoners, men
+of character and influence, were hanged in cold blood.
+There were many instances of ferocious executions upon
+prisoners.
+
+Under the Treaty of 1783 they had been abandoned by
+the Mother Country to the tender mercies of the American
+conquerors.
+
+“When I consider the case of the Loyalists,” said
+Wilberforce in Parliament, “I confess I there feel myself
+conquered; I there see my country humiliated; I there
+see her at the feet of America!” “A peace founded
+on the sacrifice of these unhappy subjects,” declared
+another, “must be accursed in the sight of God and
+man.”[14]
+
+[Footnote 14: “I trust you will agree with me that a due and generous
+attention ought to be shown to those who have relinquished their
+property or their possessions from motives of loyalty to me, or
+attachment to the Mother Country.”—_King’s Speech_, 1783.]
+
+Nova Scotia proper, during the war, had not been
+molested, and to it the Loyalists now turned in large
+numbers as a refuge under the flag. Acadia was to be the
+Canaan of the Loyalists.
+
+Somewhere—for most of them knew it but vaguely—in
+that northern land, in the virgin forests of pine, and
+maple, and hemlock, in the solitudes of seashore, lake, and
+river, which no man of English blood had yet seen, was the
+refuge the Loyalists sought.
+
+In November 1783, New York was evacuated by the
+King’s troops under Sir Guy Carlton. He carried with
+him all the stores belonging to the Crown, all baggage and
+artillery, and he was accompanied by 40,000 men, women,
+and children. New York was the stronghold of the
+Loyalists; Pennsylvania had been equally divided between
+Loyalists and Revolutionists; there were more Loyalists in
+Virginia than adherents of Congress; and Georgia had at
+least three Loyalists for every rebel. Thousands had
+perished; thousands had sought refuge in England; thousands
+had recanted. Fifty thousand now set out with their
+wives and children and such belongings as were left to
+them to traverse the hundreds of miles which lay between
+them and their new homesteads in Canada. These United
+Empire Loyalists were the fathers of English Canada.
+
+There are few tales which history has to tell so stirring
+and so noble as the exodus of the Loyalists. Most of them
+had been brought up in comfort and even luxury; their
+women were tenderly nurtured and unaccustomed to hardship.
+But one spirit animated them all; one hope fired all
+their bosoms; one faith drove them out of the American
+Republic into the wilderness.
+
+The exiles were divided into two main streams, one
+moving eastward to Nova Scotia and the country where, a
+century and a half before, Poutrincourt and La Tour had
+fought and flourished. The other moved westward to the
+region north of Lake Ontario. Those who followed the
+eastern course landed at the mouth of the St. John River,
+New Brunswick, on the 18th May 1783, a day still
+celebrated in the city of St. John’s. They took up settlements
+in the meadows of the Bay of Fundy, and at Port
+Rasoir in Nova Scotia. There, like the city in the Arabian
+tale, there sprang up, as if by magic, the town of Shelburne,
+with 12,000 inhabitants, where yesterday had been
+but solitude.
+
+“No one will know because none has told all that these
+brave pioneers underwent for their devotion and fidelity.
+You will see to-day on the outskirts of the older settlements
+little mounds, moss-covered tombstones which record
+the last resting places of the forefathers of the hamlet.
+They do not tell you of the brave hearts laid low by hunger
+and exposure, of the girlish forms wasted away, of the babes
+and little children who perished for want of proper food and
+raiment. They have nothing to tell of the courageous
+high-minded mothers, wives, and daughters, who bore
+themselves as bravely as men, complaining never, toiling
+with the men in the fields, banishing all regrets for the life
+they might have led had they sacrificed their loyalty....
+No great monument is raised to their memory; none is
+needed; it is enshrined for ever in the hearts of every
+Canadian and of every one who admires fidelity to principle,
+devotion, and self-sacrifice.”[15]
+
+[Footnote 15: _Romance of Canada_, p. 260.]
+
+In the spring of 1783 a fleet of eighteen large ships
+and several small vessels, convoyed by two warships, brought
+471 Loyalist families from New York to a fine harbour
+called Port Roseway (Rasoir), where the redoubtable Colonel
+M’Nutt had a few years before intended to build the city
+of New Jerusalem. There, too,
+
+    The breaking wave dashed high
+    On a stern and rock-bound coast;
+
+but the shiploads of Americans, whose cause of King and
+United Empire had been lost, hoped they were destined to
+a propitious spot where they could begin their fortunes
+anew. When these Loyalists, who called themselves
+“True Blues,” landed, what a picture was then presented!
+
+“As soon as we had set up a kind of tent we knelt
+down, my wife and I and our two boys, and kissed the dear
+ground and thanked God that the flag of England floated
+there, and resolved that we would work with the rest to
+become again happy and prosperous.”
+
+And the spirit which animated the bosom of worthy
+Jonathan Beecher and his flock dwelt with nearly all of
+those five thousand foregathered on the sloping shore of
+this beautiful harbour. Lanterns and torches flamed that
+night; laughter and tears intermingled. Hundreds of
+forms moved about restlessly. There was singing of
+hymns, trolling of glees, and toasting of His Majesty
+and Governor Parr. Trunks, and packing-cases, and valises
+were opened. A table was brought from the ship, and
+round it sat a number of ladies in silk dresses and
+powdered hair. A few desired a dance as an outlet for
+their tumultuous thoughts; and so there in the moonlight
+the young, the hopeful, the light-hearted, that all their
+recent sufferings could not wholly dismay, danced a
+quadrille—danced it out of sheer high spirits, and only
+separated at dawn.
+
+And the woods behind a group of swarthy Micmacs
+and their squaws came to overpeer and wonder at the
+spectacle—thinking a host of mad folk had been blown
+across the Big Drink. Mad indeed they were—mad for
+joy—mad in their hopes and schemes—mad in their utter
+improvidence.
+
+Other immigrants followed, and within a short time
+16,000 inhabitants were here. A fort was built, troops
+were stationed, and warships continually paraded the
+harbour; and much work was done, particularly wharf
+and road building. In 1788 the exports comprised
+13,151 quintals dry cod, 4193 casks of pickled fish,
+61 casks of smoked salmon, 149 barrels fish oil, and
+14,793 gallons sperm oil, During the year Prince
+William Henry (afterwards William IV.) visited the
+town, a ball being given in his honour. Yet even then
+Shelburne was existing on an artificial basis. For the
+first three years 9000 of the “True Blues” (or Blue
+Noses) drew rations from the British Government, and
+demoralisation set in. Then came a great storm in 1798
+which wiped out wharves and shipping; other calamities
+followed, and by 1818 the population had dwindled to
+300 souls.
+
+[Illustration: THE OLD GOVERNOR’S HOUSE, SHELBURNE.]
+
+As I walked through the ghost of that old Shelburne,
+all the scenes and events of the next few weeks, months
+and years, as I had once read of them in Colonial records
+and in old journals and letters, came back to me, and
+I could in my mind’s eye reconstruct it all. This wide
+street, overgrown now with grass, running up from the
+harbour, was King Street; this other was Queen Street;
+this other Princes Street. For months carpenters and
+masons were busy hewing timber, hammering and hoisting,
+digging and mortaring. Rows after rows of houses
+appeared, and in a short time Shelburne, but yesterday
+a wilderness, presented all the appearance of a flourishing
+town. Some of the houses are still standing. There is
+the Governor’s house, a stately edifice enough, of that old
+Colonial pattern that the modern builder seems to have lost
+the recipe for making. It stands not far from the water’s
+edge, and is reached by a flight of steep steps. Its face is
+half hid by Virginia creeper. An old, old man came to
+the door and bade me enter. His name is Frith, and he is
+a carpenter by trade. He has long lived in the old house,
+and his father could remember the landing of the Loyalists.
+The house is panelled throughout, and there are fine and
+spacious fireplaces and chimney-pieces. Here was the social
+centre of Shelburne in its prime.
+
+The fine dwellings dropped to pieces, or were burnt,
+cattle and sheep might graze in the streets, the fort was
+dismantled. A few clung, however, to Shelburne, and
+their descendants are to-day witnessing the revival of the
+town’s fortunes.
+
+Lockeport is charmingly situated on an island, connected
+with the mainland at its nearest point by a substantial iron
+bridge. To the left of the island the bay runs inland for
+several miles; to the right a low shielding promontory
+juts out to sea. The harbour is safe and free from squalls,
+affording splendid opportunities for yachting. The bathing
+beach, a glistening crescent of hard, white sand, extends
+for a mile or more. It is the general playground and
+fashionable promenade of the town.
+
+Good salmon and trout streams are easily accessible.
+The Jordan River, back on the road to Shelburne, is
+especially famous for hard fighting salmon and gamy
+trout. Feathered game are in abundance. The extensive
+moose country of the Sable River district is within easy
+reach, and moose are plentiful enough for those who
+know the way of the woods. For black duck and wild
+geese the vicinities of Port Jolie, Port L’Herbert, and
+Jones Harbour enjoy great local repute.
+
+The district about Lockeport was for a long time
+known as Ragged Islands. Just a century and a half ago
+Dr. Jonathan Locke, of Chilmark, Mass., and Josiah
+Churchill came here, selecting with great discrimination
+the spot best situated with regard to the fishing grounds.
+
+Throughout the war of the Revolution the settlers of
+Lockeport, unlike their neighbours at Liverpool, seem to
+have kept out of active hostilities, though their sympathies
+were strongly American. Their feelings were very much
+hurt, therefore, when in 1779 some American privateers
+came ashore and looted their houses, and an indignant
+protest, signed by Jonathan Locke and several others, is
+still to be found in the archives of Massachusetts. After
+reciting how the scoundrels took from one house “nineteen
+quintals of codfish, four barrels of salt, three salmon nets,
+some cheese, and a great many other things,” this memorial
+continues:
+
+“These things are very surprising that we in this harbour
+have done so much for America, that we have helped three
+or four hundred prisoners up along to America, and given
+part of our living to them, and have concealed privateers
+and prizes too from the British cruisers in this harbour.
+All this done for America, and if this be the way we are to
+be paid, I desire to see no more of you without you come
+in another manner.”
+
+During the war of 1812 some excitement was caused by
+the approach of a hostile vessel, at a time when most of the
+men were away. The women and children were promptly
+lined up on the bluff, with red coats and broomsticks to
+lend a martial appearance, while some of the women
+marched up and down with a drum, and shots were fired
+with the available muskets and fowling pieces. The enemy
+made good their escape.
+
+On a burning July day I stood on the seashore and
+looked out on Port Mouton (pronounced Ma-toon), and in
+my mind’s eye saw two ghosts. One was of the immortal
+sheep which fell over the taffrail of De Monts’s ship three
+centuries ago; the other was the ghost of the town of
+Guysborough. Do not be misled, dear reader; there is
+still a Guysborough in New Scotland; but it is another
+place, hundreds of miles away, which has clothed itself, so
+to speak, with the name of its deceased predecessor as with
+a garment. That Guysborough is at Chedabucto Bay, and
+flourishes; this Guysborough was at Port Mouton, and is
+dead more than a century and a quarter.
+
+Settled by pioneers of Massachusetts stock was Liverpool.
+I was told that there are even more descendants of the
+original Pilgrim Fathers in this little New Liverpool on the
+southern shore of New Scotland, in proportion to the population,
+than in Massachusetts itself. A warrant to survey a
+township was granted in 1759 by the Governor of Nova
+Scotia to a committee representing some one hundred and
+forty-two proprietors, all of New England, and many of
+them direct descendants of the _Mayflower_ pilgrims.
+
+But a century and a half before this, in 1604, Sieur de
+Monts had entered the harbour and named it Port Rossignol,
+after a certain captain whom he found unwittingly poaching
+on his preserves, and whose vessel he confiscated. This
+was on the famous voyage that led to the selection of Port
+Royal (now Annapolis Royal) as the best site for a
+settlement.
+
+Later Port Rossignol formed part of La Tour’s La
+Héve, under the protection of the fort there; and, though
+the fisheries were considered of some importance, the
+settlements were small and by no means permanent.
+
+At the period when the hardy ancestors of the present
+inhabitants of Liverpool fixed on this as a site for settlement,
+the peninsula was almost a solitude. There were a few
+unfortunate Acadians who had made their homes with the
+Indians, and the Annapolis valley was from end to end
+a scene of desolation, extending for many miles to the
+eastward and westward. There were two small military
+posts, one at Annapolis and a second at Windsor. Halifax
+had only been founded about ten years. At Lunenburg
+some unfortunate Germans had been making a desperate
+struggle for about six years.[16]
+
+[Footnote 16: D. R. Jack, _Acadiensis_.]
+
+Hither came in 1760 a number of New England families
+attracted by the well-sheltered haven, the fine river, the
+salmon fishing, and also, I think, already conscious of the
+spirit of insubordination and unrest in the older colonies
+they quitted. Those early immigrants endured during the
+first few seasons severe privations, one winter subsisting
+almost wholly upon wild rabbits. But others came to join
+them, until, in a couple of years, they numbered eighty
+families. They continued to thrive; the settlement was
+formed into a township of 100,000 acres, and divided
+amongst them into 200 shares. A century ago the population
+was close upon 1000 souls.
+
+During the American Revolution the American
+privateers proved a constant source of annoyance and
+actual damage, and there is ample proof that the
+Liverpudlians were at least justified in retaliating in
+kind. In 1779 several of them obtained Letters of
+Marque from the British Government, with assistance for
+arming vessels, and a grant for a block-house and
+barracks.
+
+Smuggling, too, was a popular pursuit; one citizen
+in 1782 is recorded as having turned informer, and
+shortly afterwards the Government offered a reward of
+£20 for information leading to the conviction of the
+person or persons who had cut off the said citizen’s ears.
+
+Throughout the Revolutionary War, the subsequent
+strife between England, and France, and Spain, and the
+later war with America, Liverpool privateers are frequently
+heard of. Many a prize was brought in triumph into
+Liverpool Harbour, and the little town emerged richer
+and more prosperous than before. I have read somewhere
+that the great fortune of the Hon. Enos Collins,
+long reputed the richest man in the province, and himself
+Liverpool born, though trading from Halifax, was founded
+on the winnings of his privateer captains.[17]
+
+[Footnote 17: “Those were busy times in the town,” writes Mr. Charles
+Warman, of Liverpool. “Sailors and ship’s carpenters abounded. Nightly
+they would meet in some public-house, and many tales of interesting
+adventures were told, while often shipmates who had been separated for
+years, and had been to all parts of the globe, would come together and
+be joyful.
+
+“Then vessels often went below the bar to complete loading—a thing
+practically unknown to-day, owing to the deepening of the channel—when
+the lumber would be rafted to them. If an easterly gale came upon them
+they had to hoist anchor and put back to the wharves. Occasionally from
+the storm there was the loss of ship and crew. As an instance, the barques
+_Wave_ and _Kate Campbell_, that had lain below for some days completing
+cargoes, were caught and piled up, one near Sandy Cove, the other upon
+the Fort—both total wrecks, neither having ever been to sea. At that time
+a schooner from Newfoundland, bound west, had sought shelter here, and
+she also went ashore. Every one of its sailors was flung lifeless upon the
+beach. The loss of any craft to-day in the harbour is a rare occurrence.”]
+
+Haliburton, in 1829, wrote: “Liverpool is the best
+built town in Nova Scotia. The houses are substantially
+good and well painted, and there is an air of regularity
+and neatness in the place which distinguishes it from every
+other town in this province.”
+
+Unhappily, lack of railway communication kept the
+town back, but within the past few years Liverpool is
+with great strides overtaking competitors. There are now
+a fine water and electric light service, first-class hotels,
+electric marine slip and shipyards, a foundry, machine-shop,
+and corn-mill.
+
+The river Mersey is a rapid stream with numerous falls
+for nineteen and one-half miles from “Indian Garden” to
+Liverpool. A lake system of fifty square miles supplies
+the river, and when properly developed will make Milton
+and Liverpool cheap and popular manufacturing centres.
+
+The canoe trip through the lakes and rivers hereabouts
+is well worth taking. The grounds of the old
+fort are now a public park. But the old block-house
+has vanished here as it has from Annapolis, and some
+forty cannon of early George III. type are used for street
+corner posts.
+
+With its lighthouse and cannon, turf, seats, and shade,
+and magnificent outlook over the harbour, Liverpool Fort
+is a most agreeable lounging place, and a romantic terminus
+to Liverpool’s street of bright shops, public buildings, and
+neat residences. The Fort was actually captured in 1780
+by an unexpected night attack led by a Yankee named
+Benjamin Cole. “The townsmen,” one reads, “were
+inclined to think resistance useless, but Colonel Simeon
+Perkins (the ‘man of the time’ in Liverpool) arranged
+for the capture of Cole on his way through the town,
+and with him safely in hand was enabled to dictate to
+the enemy most favourable terms of redress, capitulation,
+and retreat. So ended the _Siege of Liverpool_.”
+
+Close to the Fort is a picturesque little cove, where
+shipbuilding is still carried on, and where a group of
+old houses still remain, including the Customs House.
+
+To-day, besides the fishery, the great resource of the
+town is the sawing and export of timber, surrounded as
+it is by almost inexhaustible forests. Large quantities of
+wood-pulp are also produced here. Altogether Liverpool
+to-day is a busy, pleasant little town, whose prosperity and
+whose prospects have been vastly increased by the advent
+of the Halifax and South-Western Railway a few years ago.
+
+Connected with the lumber industry, the prominence
+now attained by pulp-wood and wood-pulp deserves a
+word. Owing to the increased demand made by the
+paper mills of America for raw materials, and the decreasing
+supply of home-grown wood, for the year ending
+30th June 1910, the States imported from Canada
+897,226 cords of pulp-wood, valued at $5,660,542.00,
+and of mechanical, chemical, bleached, and unbleached
+wood-pulp to the value of $4,224,500.00, an importation
+from Canada of pulp-wood and wood-pulp of $9,885,042.00,
+as against a total importation of $5000 in 1880.
+
+The total quantity of pulp-wood consumed by the
+253 paper mills of the States during 1910 was 4,002,000
+cords, valued at $34,478,000.00, of which, according to
+the figures given above, Canada furnished more than
+one-fifth in quantity and one-sixth in value.
+
+Nova Scotia, as well as New Brunswick, possesses large
+pulp-wood areas and excellent water-power; would it not
+seem that an attractive field was open either to Nova
+Scotian or British capitalists?
+
+The wise policy of the Government in withdrawing
+from sale the remaining Crown Lands of the Province,
+estimated at about one and one half millions of acres,
+should, under proper regulations, give the country a
+valuable reserve.[18]
+
+In addition to these shipments, which were composed
+largely of deal, there were exports of laths, shingles, piling,
+and some square timber hardwood, together with the
+quantity used locally, which of course largely augmented
+the value of the total export.
+
+Spruce is the staple lumber tree of Nova Scotia. Prices
+for this wood have not declined or indeed fluctuated during
+the last two years as much as some other native woods,
+notably hemlock and pine.
+
+[Footnote 18: The following table shows the exports of lumber from the
+ports of Nova Scotia in 1911:—
+
+                              Feet.
+Halifax.                   43,000,000
+Lunenburg.                 48,269,113
+Bear River.                 3,500,000
+Pugwash.                   19,204,020
+Liverpool.                  5,954,000
+Maitland.                   5,147,744
+Pictou.                    12,227,164
+Sherbrooke.                 4,500,000
+Weymouth.                  12,000,000
+Ingram Docks.               9,000,000
+Yarmouth.                  13,597,452
+Colchester.                70,000,000
+Windsor.                   12,000,000
+Hantsport.                  4,500,000
+Walton.                     1,200,000
+Cheverie.                     200,000
+Parrsboro.                 32,000,000
+                          ———————————
+    Total                 214,368,493
+
+
+An addition to the output of spruce, hemlock, and pine, which figures
+so largely as the product of the portable and stationary mills for
+export, consists in the cutting of “ton-timber”—hardwoods for English
+and South American markets, of which about 12,000 tons are taken out of
+Colchester woods. This variety is cut and hewed square with axes, and
+is brought to the shipping points when sledging is good.]
+
+Very little hardwood finds its way to the saw-mills for
+export as deals or planks. Then there is the cutting of
+poplar for the manufacture of excelsior; of birch and ash,
+and beech and elm, for the manufacture of chairs and
+furniture; of yellow birch for the manufacture of spring-bed
+frames and peg wood; and of white birch for the
+making of spool wood, the latter being produced mostly in
+the Stewiackes. Finally, there is a cut of juniper and
+hackmatack, and other woods of no mean proportions used
+for railway ties and pit props.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+BRIDGEWATER AND LUNENBURG
+
+
+Yet the Blue-nose is first and foremost a fisherman.
+
+When all is said of Nova Scotia’s varied resources of
+farm and factory, and mine and forest, there is still to be told
+the tale garnished with adventure of the great and abiding
+interest of the peninsula and the island—the Nova Scotian
+fisheries. Of a total population of half a million souls in
+this province, over 40,000 men are engaged in the fisheries.
+This will seem a stupendous and utterly unreasonable proportion
+until I explain that the occupations of fisherman
+and farmer, fisherman and forester, even fisherman and
+miner, overlap in many districts, giving rise to a curious
+combination of characteristics in the same individual, which
+I had previously noticed amongst the fishermen-miners-farmers
+of Newfoundland.
+
+The sea-coast of the Maritime Provinces from the Bay
+of Fundy to the strait of Belle Isle measures some 5600
+miles, or about double that of the United Kingdom. In
+this magnificent fishing field the Nova Scotian is lord paramount,
+although others have at various times sought to
+share them with him.
+
+The total fisheries of Canada, the largest in the world,
+are valued to-day at $25,500,000, of which Nova Scotia’s
+share is $7,632,330, or nearly one-third of the whole. All
+along this extensive sea-coast, in the bays, and harbours, and
+inlets from Cape North to Cape Sable, for generations boats
+have been putting out, manned by hardy stalwart men who
+go to brave the perils of the deep, and there are many perils
+in these latitudes, besides much cold and privation, in order
+to reap a harvest of cod, lobster, mackerel, haddock, and
+herring.[19]
+
+Besides manning their own craft, the Nova Scotians, like
+the Newfoundlander, mans the vessels of other countries,
+especially American and British. The bulk of the product
+goes to America, although for nearly a century an
+important market has been found in the West Indies and
+South America, while the trade with Great Britain, France,
+Italy, Germany, and Portugal is increasing annually.
+
+[Footnote 19: The following table shows the number of men reported as
+employed in the fisheries of Nova Scotia, and the value of boats and
+fishing material for the year 1910-11:—
+
+                                       Number.    Value.
+Vessels (tons, 19,657)                    630    $891,710
+Boats (gasolene)                        1,466}
+Boats (sail)                           12,655}   =781,724
+Tugs and smacks                            164    193,730
+Gill nets (1,682,522 fathoms)              ...    555,374
+Seines (170,809 fathoms)                   ...    170,375
+Trap and smelt nets                      1,186    119,276
+Weirs                                      144     25,145
+Trawls                                  13,763    133,848
+Hand lines                              43,900     32,936
+Lobster canneries                          214    226,780
+Lobster traps                          720,577    606.851
+Freezers and ice houses                    345    321,040
+Smoke and fish houses                    5,705    488,203
+Piers and wharves                        2,326    787,100
+                                        ——————    ———————
+                                 Total         $5,334,083
+
+
+Under the proposed Reciprocity Agreement with the
+United States the fishing industry of the Province would
+have been vitally affected, to Nova Scotia’s advantage.
+
+    “I’m off to the Bank fishery
+    From my farm at Port Matoon,
+    Where my little lass awaits me,
+    And I can’t get back too soon.”
+
+Schooners of about 100 tons burden carry off the men
+to the Bank fishery. When they reach the Banks—those
+great marine plateaux frequented by inexhaustible shoals
+of cod, the fishermen separate into dories, six to ten of
+which accompany each schooner. From each dory, which
+is about 15 feet long, two men, six trawls of say, 4000
+hooks, making a total of about 40,000 hooks to a vessel.
+Far smaller crafts are in use, however, for the inshore
+fishery. One can see these boats, of from 20 to 60
+feet over all, and manned by from two to ten men, at
+any port, using the dory and trawl, or the hand-line.
+But the familiar British otter trawl is not seen here at
+all, and trawls of any description are illegal in Canadian
+territorial waters.
+
+Mackerel and herring are captured in nets moored near
+the shore. One sees little of drift-net fishing, although it
+is occasionally practised.
+
+In the opinion of fishing experts the herring hereabouts
+are not only more abundant, but are a larger and
+better fish than those off the British coasts. Then there
+is the inland fishery, which yields chiefly smelts, salmon,
+trout, and eels, large quantities of which are sent in cold
+storage to all parts of Canada and America, a trade which
+offers great possibilities of expansion. This remark is
+true of the whole fishery—both in the actual catch and
+in the distribution. Improved methods are wanted, which
+means that more technical knowledge and more capital
+are wanted. A more progressive system is already here
+and there in operation. The employment of gasolene
+motor boats for inshore fishing makes the fishermen more
+independent of the weather, and hundreds of their boats
+may now be seen off the south-west shore.
+
+Enormous numbers of lobsters are caught and canned,
+and exported by two hundred and twenty canning factories
+scattered up and down the coast. Their sale to the
+packers means the distribution of a great deal of cash
+among the fishermen of Western Nova Scotia, frequently
+running into hundreds of thousands of dollars. But in
+spite of all that is done, I find a general feeling that much
+more could be done in the way of catching and curing
+according to those scientific principles which prevail in
+Norway and Denmark, and also in the shipments of living
+lobsters to the States.
+
+Few are aware that only in these Maritime Provinces
+of Canada and Newfoundland are lobsters procurable in
+sufficient quantities to make canning profitable. The
+catches of Norway, Scotland, Ireland, and America are
+not sufficient to supply the demands of the consumers
+for lobsters in the shell. Unhappily it cannot be said
+that the lobster industry as regards hatching, conservation,
+and canning is placed here on a very sound footing. In
+fact, unless a new style is adopted the lobster will be a
+diminishing crustacean.
+
+A year or two ago at Ottawa, a Fishery Committee of
+the House of Commons was formed, and fishermen and
+packers from various sections of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
+and Prince Edward Island were summoned to Ottawa
+to give evidence, but little practical resulted.
+
+While the catch of lobsters in the United States is not
+more than ten per cent. of the total catch of the world
+(Canada enjoys a catch fully eight times as great), the
+Fisheries Department of the States of Maine and Massachusetts
+have spent a very considerable sum in an effort
+to restore and restock their depleted waters with lobsters.
+The Dominion Marine and Fisheries Department, which is
+responsible for the care of the lobster fishery, have not expended
+nearly as much as they have in these two American
+States.
+
+This condition ought to be changed if the permanence
+of a most productive branch of the fisheries of Eastern
+Canada is to be guaranteed.
+
+Happily, the lobster catch last year was very successful
+to the fishermen and packers alike, and by the present
+regulations, whereby during a long close season the fishing
+is absolutely prohibited, the lobsters are protected and
+given a reasonable opportunity of natural propagation.
+
+The oyster is little cultivated, and yet it is claimed
+for Nova Scotia that she has a larger cultivable area for
+oyster beds than many districts where it is a source of great
+profit, as for instance, Maryland, where as much as ten
+million bushels of bivalves have been extracted. Here a
+few thousand bushels are all that is forthcoming.
+
+The truth is, the fisheries of Nova Scotia are only
+partially occupied, and are an inviting field for the investment
+of capital in enterprising hands. With its unexcelled
+position, with a population of as hardy and courageous
+men as are to be found anywhere, there is no reason why
+Nova Scotia in its fisheries should not rank even higher
+in point of production than it does now.
+
+Speaking of oysters suggests pearls, and I was not
+surprised to hear that in the scallop oysters on these
+shores are found pearls of a fair quality. Numbers of
+the scallops may be found in Chester Basin, Lunenberg
+country, which, if collected in the right season, might be
+valuable and give employment to many in collecting and
+working. Several samples of pearl I saw seemed to me
+to compare favourably with those imported from abroad,
+and no doubt the scallop contains many valuable gems.
+Who knows, therefore, but that the pearl fishery may
+yet be carried on here in Nova Scotia as profitably as
+it is elsewhere?
+
+[Illustration: A NEW SCOTLAND IDYLL—IN THE ANNAPOLIS VALLEY.]
+
+Bridgewater is one of the most perfect towns in New
+Scotland, beautifully situated on a river bluff, picturesquely
+environed, well built, with an enterprising corporate spirit,
+and inhabited by a cheerful, unpretending people. It is
+within easy reach of both sea and forest, and it is the
+headquarters of both the railway and of a large timber-carrying
+fleet, which visits many of the distant ports of
+the world. I shall not easily forget the view that burst
+upon me as I set foot upon the first span of the bridge
+that crosses the La Hêve River coming from the railway
+station, the tree-clad banks to right and left, with the
+verdure fading into the grey purple of the distant clouds,
+the white sails of the ships shot with sunlight, the broad,
+clear, swift-flowing stream; and, facing me, the colour and
+brightness of the town itself, three or four streets running
+parallel to the river, the first containing all the shops, each
+street rising high above the other, and the last on the sky-line.
+There was movement, but no hurry. Pretty girls,
+carrying school-books, moved along, dissolved in rippling
+laughter. Teams drawn by great red oxen coursed leisurely
+to and fro, directed by cheerful teamsters. And above all
+the intensely yellow sunlight poured down, making rich
+heaps of shadow; and the air, redolent of the pine groves,
+pressed southward in warm and scented volumes, seeking
+the sea. It was good.
+
+My luggage went on by omnibus, and I made way to
+Clark’s Hotel on foot. Here is an inn after my heart—after
+the heart of any traveller. Perched high on the Street
+of the Third Parallel, it was once a commodious private
+dwelling, with steep steps and the usual verandah in front.
+A hedge of English hawthorn encircles it, and high planes
+and maples cast their shade about lawn and verandah.
+Within, an air of cosiness pervades; all is spotlessly
+clean, and trim and active maid-servants cheerfully attend
+to the traveller’s needs. The food is good of its kind and
+tastefully prepared, and it needs but a little to make this
+inn perfect, and that little will never be supplied until the
+travellers themselves learn how to behave themselves—to
+learn, for instance, that in order to smoke it is not
+necessary to excrete saliva, and that one of the uses of a
+hotel is not that of a lounging-place for local idlers.
+These latter are the pests of hotels throughout the Continent,
+making an inn occasionally insufferable for the real
+sojourner.
+
+Bridgewater has a population of over 3000, and is
+steadily increasing in size and importance. It is the centre
+of trade for a fertile farming county, and has considerable
+manufacturing and commercial interests; well-built public
+buildings, particularly its brown stone Post Office and
+Customs House, and several golf, tennis, and yachting
+clubs. But Bridgewater will always be memorable to me
+because of what was the most interesting incident of my
+travels through Nova Scotia. It was here I met the
+members of the Royal Commission appointed at Ottawa to
+inquire into Technical Education. I should like particularly
+to direct the attention of the British reader to this fact—a
+_Royal_ Commission appointed by His Majesty’s Government,
+not at London, but—at Ottawa. How this British
+Empire of ours has marched! Would not Haliburton and
+Howe have pinched themselves to make sure they were
+awake upon hearing His Majesty’s Commission (duly
+drawn up by His Majesty’s Canadian Ministers) read,
+beginning “George the Fifth, by the Grace of God,”
+&c. It only needed “King of Canada, Newfoundland,
+and the West Indies” more clearly to adumbrate the
+idea. Here was King George III.’s great-grandson pronouncing
+his Sovereign will and pleasure upon the advice
+of His Majesty’s constitutional advisers, not Mr. Asquith,
+Sir Edward Grey, and Mr. Lloyd George, but the members
+of the Cabinet at Ottawa. A group of gentlemen constituting
+this Royal Commission sat upon the platform. One
+hailed from Manitoba, two from Ontario, one from Quebec,
+one from Nova Scotia. Before them witnesses resident in the
+district were duly sworn, that they would tender the truth,
+the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help them
+God; and forthwith proceeded to give evidence as to the
+industrial conditions of Bridgewater.
+
+Towards the close of the proceedings something
+dramatic happened. A little, old, white-haired, rosy-cheeked
+man arose and declared modestly that his name
+was John Macoun, the official botanist of the Dominion
+of Canada. And people stood and craned their necks,
+and asked what was it he said, and how it was they had
+never known this Professor Macoun was in Bridgewater
+before, and why was it the Mayor and the rest hadn’t met
+him at the railway station with the others and driven him
+round the town.
+
+“Where do you reside at present, Professor Macoun?”
+
+“At Bridgewater,” said the old, rosy-cheeked gentleman.
+“I have been for some months conducting an investigation
+into the flora of the district, with a view to ascertaining its
+botanical possibilities, the arable nature of the soil, and its
+adaptability to other vegetable production.”
+
+Then, in truth, the folk of Bridgewater stared this time
+at one another. Here was this man, filling a very important
+position indeed in an agricultural country like Canada,
+dwelling quietly in the midst of their small town, not
+alone, but with his wife and assistants, pursuing his work,
+gathering his collections of flora, compiling in a specially-rented
+building his extensive _hortus siccus_, and not a soul
+of them the wiser.
+
+“_I believe in technical education, because it means
+thoroughness, and thoroughness means that a man knows his
+work. I am the man who forty years ago told the Canadian
+Government that wheat would grow in the North West.
+Every one was against me. I was threatened and reviled,
+and held up to ridicule. All the forces of prejudice and tradition
+were brought to bear upon my official report. I was
+told I was mad. But I held in this right hand earth whose
+constituent particles I recognised. I had studied them grain
+by grain, and I knew if they would produce wheat in Ontario,
+they would yield wheat in the Red River country; and I said
+that that country, where not a single bushel of wheat was grown,
+would produce fifty million bushels a year. Last year it produced
+a hundred millions, and I thank God I have lived
+to see it. And if you Nova Scotians would only listen and
+have equal faith in your own country, it could be made ten
+times richer and more fruitful than it is to-day._”
+
+That is all. The Professor sat down. Anything that
+happened after that it would be bathos to describe.
+
+Lunenburg, on the south shore, was settled in 1751 by
+Hanoverian immigrants, and still largely retains its German
+character. The settlement was under the protection of
+King George II., who was also ruler of Hanover. The old
+German speech has not yet died out amongst them, although
+I heard one inhabitant deploring that the last fount of
+German type had been melted down, and for some years no
+German periodical had been printed. Famous fishermen
+are the Lunenburg folk; there is much lumbering, and
+some farming. One notices a reminder of old Germany in
+the ox-teams, curiously yoked together by the horns.
+
+Mahone was once a popular rendezvous for pirates.
+Their long crouching crafts were so often harboured there
+that the early French settlers dubbed the bay “Mahonne,”
+an old French term for a low-lying boat. Later the name
+was anglicised, and extended to the town which snuggles
+at the head of the bay, half-hidden by encircling hills.
+From the tops of the hills the old-time beacons blazed a
+message of distress or a flash of warning to the neighbouring
+settlements when the Indians trod the war trail.
+
+Now the beacon sites are vantage points for viewing the
+glorious stretch of island-studded bay below. Shaggy, uncombed
+pines surmount the hillsides, and charge the air
+with revivifying odour.
+
+Chester is a popular summer resort for Haligonians,
+whose charmingly wooded hills, now so redolent of peace,
+were once the rendezvous of pirates; notably, so tradition
+says, of that estimable scoundrel, Captain Kyd. The Oak
+Island Money Pit, within easy sighting distance of the
+Hackmatack Inn porch, is a tantalising memorial of piracy
+on the Spanish Main. A million dollars have been spent
+by joint stock companies trying to dam out the Atlantic
+and pump the Pit dry; but the treasure is still uncovered,
+and doubtless will always be hidden—a source of mystery
+and romance to many visitors. The bay, flanked by long,
+sprawling hills, and protected at its mouth by a barrier of
+rocky islands, is a beautiful stretch of water, twenty miles
+long and twelve miles wide. Both bay and shoreline are
+littered with points of interest. The names alone are a
+delight—Oak Island, Murderer’s Point, Heckman’s Island,
+Hobson’s Nose, The Ovens, Mount Aspogotan, Ironbound
+Island, and The Tancooks. How R. L. Stevenson would
+have revelled in them!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+ON THE GOVERNMENT’S FARM
+
+
+To me Truro had a twofold interest. The first was that
+it was the chief scene of the propaganda of that extraordinary
+Irishman, Colonel M’Nutt, who figures so largely
+in that Romance of Emigration which some day I am
+going to write; and it is the theatre of that admirable new
+institution, new, so far as New Scotland is concerned, the
+Agricultural College and Government Experimental Farm.
+
+After spending some days on this farm, I make bold
+to say that, in the hands of the zealous and energetic
+Professor Cumming, it is the best thing I saw in New
+Scotland, and, considering everything, one of the most
+perfect institutions of its kind on earth.
+
+[Illustration: MAIN HALL—NOVA SCOTIA AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.]
+
+What a great advantage it is to come late! You
+benefit by the mistakes and the achievements of your forerunners.
+That is why, to take an instance at random,
+Budapest in the domain of hospital and urban sanitation is
+so superior to London. The Hungarians were thousands
+of miles behind the times a decade or two ago; when
+they decided to go ahead they were untrammelled by
+customs, habits, systems, and expensive old plants. From
+having nothing at all they acquired the best, the latest
+appliances of science. For generations Nova Scotia has
+been tinkering at agriculture. The soil of the province
+is so varied that the early pioneers did not know what to
+make of it. What would suit one part was hopeless in
+another. Instead of settling down, farmers migrated from
+one district, from one country to another. Some who sold
+their farms profited, others, who for want of application
+and also for want of knowledge, fared worse, until it was
+difficult for a stranger to ascertain with any sort of precision
+just what were the agricultural possibilities of the
+Province. Ninety years ago an enthusiastic agriculturist,
+John Young, published a remarkable series of letters under
+the _nom de plume_ of “Agricola,” in which he gathered
+together all the current English ideas on the subject of
+scientific farming, and earnestly urged their adoption by
+his fellow-countrymen. These letters of Agricola in book
+form attracted wide attention. Young did more: he set
+about the forming and consolidation of agricultural societies
+throughout Nova Scotia, at which prizes were offered
+for stock cereals and vegetables, and for a time agriculture
+undoubtedly benefited. But many causes, external and internal,
+conspired to render farming in Nova Scotia a far
+less prosperous undertaking than it deserved to be. The
+constant exodus of the young men from the farms was a
+serious handicap; so was the exclusion of produce from
+the American markets, the remoteness of some possible
+markets, and the scantiness of others nearer home. But
+still the great obstacle to success was want of knowledge
+and want of method.
+
+Some twenty-one years ago there was organised in the
+Province of Nova Scotia an Agricultural School, which
+achieved some excellent work, but which, owing to the lack
+of equipment, did not make the impression which might
+have been made had the institution been dealt with in a
+more generous manner. There was also carried on from
+the year 1896 a School of Horticulture at Wolfeville, which,
+like its sister institution in Truro, was carried on a rather
+too modest scale. However, after studying the institution
+at Guelph, and consulting with the professors at that institution,
+and with Dr. James Robertson, then Dominion
+Commissioner for Agriculture, the Government of Nova
+Scotia decided to incorporate these two institutions into one
+Agricultural College. This institution was formally opened
+in February 1905, under the principalship of Mr. Melville
+Cumming, a native of Nova Scotia, and a graduate of
+Dalhousie University, Halifax, and of the Ontario Agricultural
+College at Guelph. The faculty was composed of the
+Principal of the old School of Agriculture, the Principal of
+the School of Horticulture, the Superintendent of the
+Provincial Government Farm, together with lecturers from
+the Provincial Normal School, with which institution the
+College is affiliated. In addition, the service of some of
+the leading men at Guelph and Ottawa have, from time to
+time, been secured, especially to assist in the short courses.
+Beginning with an enrolment in the regular course of
+fifteen students, and in the short courses of sixty-eight,
+the College has in these years advanced to an enrolment
+of seventy-seven in the full course, and three hundred and
+forty-two students in the short course, and this, it must be
+remembered, in a constituency scarcely one-tenth larger than
+that from which the Ontario Agricultural College draws
+its pupils. While the College is primarily a Nova Scotian
+institution, yet its doors are thrown open to students from
+all the Maritime Provinces, the opportunity being taken
+advantage of by the young farmers of Prince Edward Island
+and New Brunswick to the extent of sixteen and twenty-one
+students respectively. It is, moreover, the hope of
+those who are most interested in the institution that it
+shall become, in name as well as in fact, the Maritime
+College of Agriculture.
+
+The College was purposely located in the same town,
+Truro, as the Provincial Normal School, in order that the
+teaching staff at the latter institution might come in
+contact with the technical teaching of agriculture, and that,
+in turn, the agricultural students might profit from the
+literary and scientific teaching of the members of the
+Normal School faculty. As a further effort at affiliation
+of the forces of these institutions, for the purpose of improving
+conditions in the rural schools, there is held each
+summer during the school vacation a School of Science,
+classes of which are held at the Agricultural College
+building, the instructors being composed of men from
+the faculties of these institutions, assisted by some of the
+leading men engaged in scientific teaching in Canada. The
+importance of this affiliation can scarcely be overestimated,
+for, unless the College is in close touch with the rural
+schools, and unless the scholars at these schools are directed
+towards the College, neither can prove as effective in bettering
+rural conditions as it is desirable for them to be.
+
+The equipment of the College is much the same,
+although not as extensive, as is to be seen at Guelph and
+other centres of agricultural education. However, under
+the conditions described above, it is only natural that the
+outstanding feature of the institution should be its live
+stock equipment. In the stables on the College Farm, and,
+in some cases, in stables in other parts of the Province, but
+owned by the College, are to be found one of the finest
+collections of live stock which has been gathered together in
+any part of the Dominion, There are herds of Holsteins,
+Ayrshires, Jerseys, Shorthorns, and Herefords, composed of
+outstanding individuals, and headed by some of the best
+sires to be found in Canada. The Holstein herd of cows
+averaged last year 13,500 pounds of milk.
+
+In the horse stables are to be found animals of famous
+lineage and splendid specimens of their breed. There are
+seven pure bred Clydesdale mares, three having been extensive
+prize-winners in Scotland. The College at present
+owns three Clydesdale stallions.
+
+Equal attention has been paid to the selection of swine
+and poultry, so that, taken altogether, the live stock
+equipment at the College is such as to afford splendid
+ideas for the students in attendance, and also to effect
+improvement in the general character of the stock of the
+Province.
+
+[Illustration: AT KINGSPORT.]
+
+[Illustration: “CALLING” A MOOSE.]
+
+“Each Province in Canada,” observed Professor Cumming
+to me, “has its own peculiar agricultural conditions and
+problems, and before one can pronounce judgment upon
+the degree of progress which each has made, he must
+understand the special conditions under which the people
+have been working.” Nova Scotia, as has been said, is a
+province of varied resources, in the forests, the seas, and the
+mines. While these various natural resources have added
+largely to the wealth of the Province, yet their presence
+cannot be termed an unmitigated blessing. There is a
+tendency for the people to direct their energies in too many
+avenues of employment, and a corresponding lack of continuity,
+especially in methods of agriculture. There are
+exceptions, for example in the fruit-growing counties and
+in local areas in various parts, where the people have
+adhered strictly to agriculture. But there are thousands
+enrolled in the census as farmers who have little more right
+to be included in that class than has the porter in an office
+to be called a lawyer or a doctor. As, however, the forests
+are increasing, and the pursuit of the sea and mines are
+becoming more specialised, those who are living on the
+lands are taking a greater interest in the subject of agriculture,
+and are seeking such information which will help
+them to improve their conditions.
+
+One great enemy of agriculture in New Scotland is the
+natural tendency of the farmer’s sons to migrate to the
+south or the west. The proximity and easy accessibility of
+Boston and other large American cities was long irresistible,
+just as London and England allured the youth of Old
+Scotland. But the trend of western immigration must
+sometime cease, and life in American cities is proving less
+lucrative than of yore, the result being a marked tendency
+on the part of the young men of the Province to devote
+themselves to farming.
+
+The type of farming long favoured in Nova Scotia was
+that which minimised the amount of labour required, except
+at those seasons of the year when seeds must be sown and
+harvests reaped. As a consequence, one saw herds of live
+stock, too small in numbers, often of inferior quality, and
+still more indifferently kept. The selling of hay and oats,
+and roots of all kinds, was found an easier solution of the
+difficulties of farming than raising live stock, and the selling
+of butter, and cream, and milk, beef, eggs, and other animal
+products. Many an impoverished field and many a run-out
+farm still greets the traveller, robbed of its virgin wealth of
+humus, and of the elements of plant food. The cure for
+this is live stock and live stock alone, and this is the gospel
+which Professor Cumming is preaching.
+
+Of course, in the fruit areas of Hants, King’s, and
+Annapolis counties, this want is not so keenly felt. Green
+crops, like clover, peas, and vetches, are grown and ploughed
+under to supply humus with which to improve the physical
+condition, and nitrogen with which to increase the plant
+food of the soil, on which the apples, and plums, and other
+fruits are grown. But even here more live stock is a
+necessity.
+
+For the development of a high type of agriculture
+Nova Scotia offers most favourable conditions. About the
+only drawback, as compared with the inland parts of Canada,
+is a somewhat protracted spring, a drawback which frequent
+showers of rain and moist conditions natural to any maritime
+province, largely mitigate. Live stock, when properly
+cared for, flourishes to an unusual degree, and the markets
+for all kinds of agriculture produce are not only unusually
+good but easily accessible—so easy of access, in fact, as to
+have oft-times prevented successful co-operation, especially
+in butter and cheese making. For when a farmer can find
+within a few miles of his door a population of miners who
+will buy his products and pay him cash on delivery, he is
+often discouraged if he has to wait for a little longer to
+receive his returns from a creamery. The result of this has
+been to promote private dairying and private marketing of
+all sorts of produce at the expense of the more desirable,
+and, in the end, more profitable system of co-operative
+manufacture and marketing.
+
+Dairying might well prosper here. Pastures, when properly
+cared for, are good and well watered, cows do well
+under the moist, humid conditions which prevail, and
+should the local market for dairy products ever become
+over-supplied, no province has easier access to the markets
+of the outside world. Beef cattle, too, have their place,
+especially in proximity to the large tracts of inexhaustibly
+fertile dike marsh lands, lining the headwaters of the
+Bay of Fundy and its river tributaries. There are also
+isolated river valleys where cheap pastures afford the means
+of raising beef at a minimum cost. Sheep find the land
+most congenial, and when well bred and cared for, the
+sheep of Nova Scotia will rival those of any other part
+of Canada. But for more than one reason sheep-raising
+has not been sufficiently exploited, although according to
+the census of 1907 it has made more progress during
+the past half decade than the forty years previously.
+
+Horses, and swine, and poultry, as might also be expected,
+have their place in Nova Scotian agriculture, and, under
+efficient treatment, will give as good an account of
+themselves as in Ontario or any of the older provinces
+of Canada.
+
+In the matter of crops New Scotland is peculiarly
+adapted to the production of hay and roots. The large
+marsh and interval areas produce heavy crops of hay, and
+nowhere in America can one see finer fields of turnips
+than on some of these maritime farms. In a recent
+bulletin issued by the Department of Agriculture on
+“Root-Growing in Nova Scotia,” there are recorded replies
+from twenty-five representative farmers living in various
+parts of the Province, from whose records it appears that
+the minimum yield of roots per acre for the last year
+was 600 bushels, with a maximum of 1200 bushels, and
+an average of 864 bushels. Despite, however, the splendid
+facilities for growing roots, many farmers, because of the
+reasons already hinted at, devote little or none of their
+acreage to this most profitable crop. Although there are
+exceptions, yet, for the most part, the cereal crops do not
+flourish to quite the same degree as further inland, and corn,
+whether grown for ears or ensilage, is generally an uncertain
+crop. The Federal Department has already in operation
+an extensive experimental farm, operated for the benefit
+of the Maritime Provinces, at Nappan, N.S. Truro,
+labouring under the disadvantage of being outside of the
+so-called fruit-growing areas, will have its work well supplemented
+by the establishment of this station.
+
+In addition to that which is carried on within the
+College ground, a strong effort is being made to promote
+College extension work. Recently one hundred of the
+leading farmers of the Province, together with representative
+men from the adjoining Provinces, co-operated
+with the College authorities in testing varieties of grain,
+grown singly and in mixture, and also in testing nitro-bacteria
+for various leguminous crops. This latter line of
+investigation has already been carried on for three years,
+and has been productive of some striking results.
+
+An extensive series of institute meetings, addressed
+by members of the College staff, successful farmers in Nova
+Scotia, and some of the Ontario men, are regularly carried
+on. There is a Farmers’ Association, which holds a three-days’
+annual meeting in different parts of the Province, and
+a Fruit-Growers’ Association, which holds regular meetings
+in the fruit sections of the Province. In addition, each
+county, with a few exceptions, has a regularly organised
+County Farmers’ Association, whose object it is to promote
+the educational campaign, and to deliberate upon matters
+of common interests.
+
+But perhaps the most aggressive and successful body
+of organised farmers is constituted in the agricultural
+societies, of which there are 200, situated all over the
+Province. Under the auspices of the various agricultural
+societies and associations of the Province, the various
+members of the Agricultural College staff lecture and give
+demonstrations on improved agriculture. Co-operative
+experiments in crops, methods of cultivation, fertilisation,
+and soil inoculation are being directed from the College.
+A series of model orchards, thirty-five in number, have
+been established in the various counties of the Province,
+from Cape Breton in the east to Yarmouth in the west,
+and are under the direct supervision of the horticulturist
+at the College. Insect and fungus pests, such as the
+brown-tailed moth, are being studied and kept in control
+through the efforts of the biologist and other members
+of the College faculty. The principal object for which
+these agricultural societies exist is the improvement of live
+stock. Each society keeps from one to sometimes six or
+more pure-bred bulls. These societies are bonused by the
+Government to the extent, during the present year, of
+76 cents for each dollar subscribed by the members of these
+societies. Now new lines of work are opening up, of which
+perhaps the most interesting is the campaign which is being
+organised to encourage the more extensive draining of farm
+lands.
+
+Authorities who have studied the matter carefully are
+convinced that money judiciously invested in the under-drainage
+of farm lands will return from 15 to 50 per cent.
+or more per annum on the investment. Many of our
+own best farmers already know this from experience; but
+there are a great many farms in the Province of Nova
+Scotia sadly in need of drainage, which are to-day yielding
+unprofitable crops because they have not been drained.
+With a view to encouraging the under-drainage of these
+lands, the College, I was told, are about to supply at a
+nominal cost men who will survey and take levels of fields
+which it is purposed to drain, and give advice in regard
+to the most efficient means of doing this. To further
+facilitate the matter, the College has bought, at the cost of
+several thousand dollars, the most improved drainage machine
+that is to-day on the market. The College authorities are
+constantly on the alert to push forward progressive measures
+of all kinds.
+
+[Illustration: TRURO—THE “JOE HOWE FALLS.”]
+
+During the visit a year or so since of Earl Grey to
+the Agricultural College, the Hon. Sydney Fisher, then
+Dominion Minister of Agriculture, said that the exhibition
+of live stock which he saw there was the best he had ever
+seen at any of the public institutions in the whole Dominion.
+Mr. Fisher being himself a farmer, and owning one of the
+best live stock farms in the Province of Quebec, no one in
+Canada is more competent to pronounce judgment upon
+such matters. Mr. Fisher further added, “You have taken
+me entirely by surprise, for although Minister of Agriculture
+for Canada, and more or less in touch with its agricultural
+institutions, yet I had not realised that you of the East have
+been advancing as rapidly as I now observe.”
+
+I find I have said nothing of the flourishing town of
+Truro itself—of its shaded streets and pleasant people.
+After all, the Government Farm and Agricultural College
+is its chief title to distinction.
+
+A few miles from Truro, and at the eastern end of the
+Cobequid Mountains, are the chief iron deposits of this port
+of New Scotland. Londonderry reminds us once more of
+the native town of that ubiquitous pioneer, Colonel M’Nutt,
+and from this place a branch railway runs to the Acadia
+mines and iron works. Stages also run to this busy industrial
+centre and to great village Economy and Five Islands. The
+Londonderry iron has been pronounced to be almost equal
+to the Swedish for steel manufacture; the mines yield both
+limonite and spathic ores.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+PICTOU AND NEW GLASGOW
+
+
+Old Scotland has no advantage over New Scotland
+in the matter of coal. My first introduction to Nova
+Scotia’s coal was made at Stellarton, in what are called
+the Pictou coal-fields. Coal has been mined hereabouts for
+upwards of a century, and one of the very earliest railways
+on the Continent was that built from the Albion mine to
+Pictou Landing, six miles away. That was in 1836-39.
+The promoters of this miniature line of rail showed considerable
+prescience in building it of a width then considered
+unusual, but which has since come to be the “standard
+gauge.” Stephenson’s rival, Hackworth, built the first
+engine used thereupon for over forty years, and now considered
+a great curiosity. It was shown at the World’s
+Fair, Chicago, and later at St. Louis.
+
+About 1825 an English company received, under certain
+terms from the Crown, the right of working mines and
+minerals in Nova Scotia, and this company shortly thereafter
+commenced spirited operations both at Pictou and at Sydney
+in Cape Breton, restricting themselves to coal-mines and
+iron works from imported material. Previously coal came
+chiefly from surface pits, and was of inferior quality.
+“The principal shaft,” we read in the original prospectus
+of the company, “has been sunk to the depth of two
+hundred and fifty feet below the surface, and steam power
+has been applied for the usual purposes of draining and of
+raising minerals. The veins of coal laid open by this procedure
+are of a quality much superior to those formerly
+discovered. The coal is overlaid by a decayed blackish
+shale; it is of jet-black colour, and contains a large proportion
+of bitumen. Excellent coke is made from it, and
+for the furnace it is highly esteemed. The Cape Breton coal
+is preferred for household use on account of its producing
+less of the white or brown ashes than that of Pictou.”
+
+The lease was granted to the company for sixty years
+to work all minerals belonging to the Crown, save in such
+tracks as had already been reserved to others. One of these
+was then worked by the Annapolis Iron Company, which
+was in fact the only competitor of the General Mining
+Association. It was then, eighty years ago, observed that
+the mining industry was proving of greater apparent benefit
+to the valley of the East River than upon Pictou Town.
+“Good roads, increase of settlement, numerous waggons
+and horses where none were previously kept, and a market
+well supplied where none formerly existed, are outward and
+visible signs indicative of the neighbourhood of two hundred
+well-paid beef-eating and porter-drinking operatives.”
+
+The result being then foreshadowed, New Glasgow and
+Stellarton sprang into being formidable rivals to Pictou,
+which, from its marine situation, has been almost side-tracked
+by the railway. Other mines flourish in these parts,
+such as the Drummond and Acadia Collieries in Westville,
+and the Vale Colliery at Thorburn. But the character of
+the mines is the same here on this side of the Atlantic as
+that which depressed the soul of John Ruskin and gladdened
+the heart of Samuel Smiles.
+
+Stay! I think this statement required some qualification.
+It would be manifestly unfair not to take notice
+of the system here inaugurated by which so many of the
+miners—nearly all the married ones—own their own homes.
+And there is even an effort, and by the miners themselves,
+that these homes shall be tasteful within and without, and
+that each shall have his garden. Nothing has ever struck
+me so forcibly when perambulating the mining districts of
+the Black Country of Wales as the indifference with which
+men, immured for at least a third of their lives in the
+darksome bowels of the earth, regard the amenities of the
+home and its surroundings of lawn and flower and vine.
+More passionately because of their long deprivation would
+one expect them to cling to the superterrene light and
+colour of life, and the _res pulchra domi_. Far otherwise is it,
+and all the more refreshing to see here a brawny Cornishman
+hurrying from the pit, and after washing the grime from
+his face and hands, employ the remaining hour of daylight
+in rolling his bit of turf and hoeing his patch of flower
+garden. Will a time come, we wonder, when no human
+occupation shall be too strenuous, too sordid, for a man to
+spend his leisured hours in decency and calm. No vain
+visions have I of pitmen and navvies reading Tennyson in
+velvet smoking jackets and slippers, or pit foremen in dress
+clothes sipping port wine; but I do look forward confidently
+to the time, in England, when a man may, without remark,
+boast the domestic virtues and enjoy the higher domestic
+comfort, even though he engage in an occupation in which
+for so many hours a day the wearing of a white shirt, or of
+any shirt at all, is totally dispensed with. Some steps
+towards the realisation of this I witnessed with my own
+eyes at New Glasgow, where a man who had been broiling
+half-naked before a fiery furnace all day, was at twilight
+seated in cool, clean raiment, in his own little parlour (very
+tastefully furnished, too), playing one of Sousa’s marches
+on a pianola!
+
+[Illustration: THE END OF BRUIN.]
+
+A thriving town is New Glasgow, and very beautiful
+when viewed from the other side of the East River. Here
+are coal-mines, iron and steel works, shipbuilding yards,
+glassworks, and other industries. Here, two miles from
+the heart of the town, is the headquarters of the Nova
+Scotia Steel and Iron Company, the pioneer steelworks in
+Canada, with open-hearth converters, the latest equipped
+rolling mills, steel hammers, &c., altogether employing
+800 men. On the way thither I passed a cemetery filled
+with the tombs of the early settlers, nearly all Highland
+names, many hailing from Old Glasgow, who would
+probably be very much astonished and highly gratified
+to-day at the prosperity and size of the town they founded.
+
+Mr. Cantley, the able manager, told me something
+about the operation of the works for three months of the
+year. Increases had been made in practically every line
+of work in connection with the company, referring by this
+to the coal mined, the coal shipped, and outputs in
+the mills and forges. The increase in the output of
+ingots from 17,508 tons for the first quarter of the previous
+year, to 20,372 tons for the corresponding period of
+the year following, or an increase of practically 19 per cent.;
+an increase in the amount of coal mined of 8 per cent., and
+of coal shipped 20 per cent. Increases were also recorded
+in the forge department, steel department, and in fact in
+practically every department; in addition to that, the most
+important feature was that the average nett prices now
+obtained from steel sales showed an increase of 2.01 dollars
+per ton.
+
+As to the steel tonnage now on the books of the
+company, it amounted to about 15,000 tons, which was
+all he cared to see on the order sheets of the company
+for the present until prices had improved.
+
+The population of New Glasgow is about 6400 souls,
+and an electric tramway connects the town with Stellarton
+and Westville. The islands around the town are particularly
+fine. From Fraser’s Mountain, an eminence
+350 feet high, one may form an excellent idea of the lie
+of the country round about Pictou and Pictou Islands,
+the Strait of Canso as far as Cape St. George, the far
+distant hills of Inverness, even the extremity of Prince
+Edward Island. To the southward the eye meets the
+fertile land dotted with churches and settlements, stretching
+thirty miles away to the mountains of Antigonish.
+In the foreground courses tortuously the glistening East
+River on its way to Pictou and Northumberland Strait.
+
+[Illustration: PICTOU—NORWAY HOUSE. (THE PROPERTY OF LORD STRATHCONA.)]
+
+The town of Pictou is situate upon the north side of
+a capacious harbour, into which three rivers empty, the
+harbour’s mouth being three miles from the town. It is
+certainly very much in its disfavour that in winter the
+basin is closed by ice and is therefore inaccessible between
+December and April. Pictou was once the second town
+in the Province, to-day it has been left far behind; yet
+it enjoys a peculiar old-world character of its own, and
+is the most Scottish town in all New Scotland. In this
+district the French had made certain settlements before
+the Peace of 1763. On the conquest of New France
+these were deserted, and their farms were again overgrown
+with forest. In 1765 one Doctor Weatherspoon became
+the leading spirit of the Philadelphia Company, and, obtaining
+an extensive grant in the Pictou district, sent hither
+a number of Maryland families. By way of bounty each of
+these received a farm-lot, and a supply of provisions.
+
+Following these came thirty families from the Scottish
+Highlands, who were landed here in the good ship _Hector_,
+late in 1773, without sufficient food to carry them through
+the winter, with the natural result that they nearly starved,
+many making their way across the forest primeval to the
+Basin of Minas for assistance. But the settlement struggled
+on; it was later joined by further families from Dumfries,
+and gained a great addition to its numbers in 1784, after
+the American Revolution, by the immigration of many
+disbanded troopers, who, however, being rather wild and
+dissolute, greatly shocked the simple-minded, God-fearing
+pioneers. Not until 1786 did the first pastor, Dr. M’Gregor,
+arrive to administer to the flock and to preach the Gospel
+in Gaelic. In the decade following several other ministers
+arrived at Pictou and the district put forth a great store of
+grain and godliness. More shiploads of Highlanders landed
+in Pictou Harbour, and an Academy was founded, which
+flourishes to this day. But the corner-stone of the first house
+in Pictou town was not laid until 1789. Once started the
+growth to a village and then to a town was rapid. It became
+the resort of coasting vessels from all parts of the Gulf
+of St. Lawrence, and the quantity of oil and fish brought
+thither annually being large, the exports to the West Indies
+increased proportionately. More than a century ago at
+least 100 ships left Pictou loaded with timber for Great
+Britain, worth, together with other exports, £100,000.
+Houses of well-to-do merchants went up—houses of stone—which
+are as staunch to-day as the day they were built.
+“The air of the place,” wrote a traveller nearly ninety years
+ago, “strikes a stranger’s eye as peculiarly Scotch. Keen-looking
+fellows in bob-tailed coats, _à la Joseph_, of many
+colours, stand in knots about the streets discussing in broad
+Scotch or pure Gaelic the passing topics of the day; while
+in the distance, a long scarlet robe floating gaudily in the
+wind, as if in mockery of the sedate air of the student who
+bears it, carries us back to the classic precincts of Aberdeen
+or Glasgow. The Academy, to which these students to
+the number of about fifteen belong, is an ordinary wooden
+building neatly painted outside, but not yet finished within,
+and contains nothing remarkable if we except the learned
+professor and his little museum consisting (chiefly) of
+native animals.”
+
+At the northern and eastern parts of the town are
+suburban residences with spacious grounds enclosed with
+hedges of English hawthorn, from whence a commanding
+view can be had of the Straits of Northumberland and the
+blue waves of the great St. Lawrence Gulf.
+
+On clear days the shores of Prince Edward’s Island are
+distinctly visible; and out beyond the harbour light, Cape
+St. George and the distant outline of Cape Breton’s rocky
+coast can be seen jutting out into the wide Atlantic.
+
+Many years ago a dreadful catastrophe happened to a
+small mail steamer, the _Fairy Queen_, plying between Pictou
+and Prince Edward Island. Through the captain’s carelessness
+she sprang a leak and went to the bottom. The
+captain and the crew succeeded in escaping to Pictou in
+the boats, which were spacious enough to have held all on
+board. On landing they related a tale of the disaster,
+believing that no human voice would ever reveal the true
+story of their cowardice and cruelty. It chanced, however,
+that although many perished, including a promising British
+officer and five young ladies, one of whom was bound for
+England to be married, a few passengers floated off on the
+upper deck and ultimately, after many hardships, reached
+land in safety. Along the coast they struggled to Pictou,
+there to raise a voice from the dead to strike terror and
+remorse into the hearts of the cowardly captain and crew.
+The captain was arrested for manslaughter, but, although
+the popular wrath was great, managed to escape the punishment
+he merited.
+
+As time wore on in Pictou the Highland bonnet, slouching
+like a night-cap on the heads of the first generation of
+settlers, disappeared, to give place to native straw in summer
+and fur in winter. But the kilts, banned in the old land,
+sprang up at clan gatherings, and the bagpipes and the
+Highland ballads and Highland spirit are in vogue to this
+day.
+
+The morning was warm and balmy as I strode along the
+harbour front, past the cottages and villas of wood and stone,
+to a point of land called the Battery at Pictou. Several
+mounted cannon were pointing seaward, and a weather-beaten
+man, with his back towards me, shaded his eyes as
+he gazed intently in the same direction. When he became
+aware of my presence, he turned and bade me good
+morning. “Waiting for my molasses ship from Jamaica,”
+he said, jerking his thumb outward. “I thought I saw her
+in the offing, but I guess I was mistaken.”
+
+We fell to talking about fish, and molasses, and mining.
+He had been interested in a mine in Newfoundland, and
+knew something of the ways of Yankee company promoters.
+He had speculated in many things, but found West Indian
+produce safest.
+
+“Do you see that building across there—with the tall
+chimney and the wharves in front of it, and the rails running
+down to the wharves?”
+
+I said I did.
+
+“Would it surprise you if you found that chimney built
+of rubble, with no outlet top or bottom?”
+
+I said it would surprise me very much indeed.
+
+“I suppose it would astonish you also to know that only
+one ship had ever been at that wharf, and no engine or truck
+on that railway, and no men ever at work in that swelter?”
+
+When I had duly satisfied my companion that these
+things stood in need of some explanation, he volunteered
+one.
+
+“That yonder’s the relics of the Pictou Copper and
+General Mining Company, Limited—capital, Lord knows
+how many thousands of pounds! When I was in England
+they told me that for these cinematograph exhibitions they
+get up sample fires, imitation explosions, intentional railway
+collisions, and collapse old buildings merely on purpose to
+photograph ’em. Well, that there’s a dummy copper-mine,
+got up on purpose to photograph, and I’m bound to say the
+photograph looked darn well in the prospectus. There it
+all was, and nobody who saw it could get away from it—engine
+puffing away on the rails, hired for a day from the
+Inter-Colonial Railway; smoke pouring out of the chimney—they
+had lit a bushel of brown paper on top; schooner at
+the wharf, also hired for the occasion—and dang me, sir,
+there never was a more realistic thing! The capital was
+raised in no time. People here in Pictou, who weren’t in
+the secret, expected all manner of things. Then the Boston
+promoters lit out for home, and they ain’t been seen or heard
+of since. There’s their dummy establishment—I guess you
+could buy it for a hundred pounds—and there are a lot
+of people somewhere, in some corner of the earth, who,
+when they hear the very name Pictou, turn pale and grind
+their teeth.”
+
+I could not refrain from inquiring whether this was an
+incident of frequent occurrence.
+
+“I know where it’s happened before and since. Lord
+bless you, these here Maritime Provinces, including Gaspé,
+are a perfect hunting-ground for that sort of thing. Now,
+down at Chignecto....”
+
+But it is needless to retail all the ensuing conversation,
+or the instances with which my friend on the Battery at Pictou
+illustrated it. It suffices to say that every wild-cat scheme
+engineered by astute and unprincipled financiers from across
+the border, damages to the extent of its operation, multiplied
+by ten, the good name and the prospects of New Scotland.
+All should be alert to inquire into the _bona fides_ of all schemes
+ostensibly directed to the exploiting of their locality, because
+the failure of such is certain to redound to that locality’s,
+nay, the whole Province’s, disadvantage.
+
+The best house in Pictou—perhaps the best-built private
+one in New Scotland—is Norway House, which, together
+with 200 acres of farm land adjoining, is the property
+of Lord Strathcona. Seventy or eighty years ago it was
+built of stone brought from Scotland, and, as I mention
+elsewhere, is an excellent specimen of the kind of house
+that is popular with Canadian insurance companies. I only
+wish that Lord Strathcona could be induced to work this
+farm, instead of allowing it to lie fallow, if only because it
+would in active able hands be an effective advertisement for
+the agricultural possibilities of this part of New Scotland.
+
+The town is the seat of Pictou Academy, which deserves
+a passing mention. The academy was established for the
+purpose of affording to the children of Dissenters, excluded
+from the honours of King’s College (Windsor), those literary
+and scientific requirements which might qualify them for the
+learned professions. The corporation consists of twelve
+trustees, the choice for whom, in virtue of an annual Government
+grant, has to be ratified by the governor. They are
+required to be Presbyterians or members of the Anglican
+body. As, however, no religious tests are required of the
+students, the academy is attended by youths of all denominations.
+The curriculum is a sound one, and from the first
+Pictou began to send forth what the Province sadly needed,
+a race of qualified schoolmasters. Some very eminent
+Canadian scholars have been educated at Pictou, including
+Professor Dawson and Principal Grant.
+
+Forty-three miles by railway from Stellarton is Antigonish
+(accent, please, on the last syllable). A century ago
+Antigonish was called Dorchester, in honour of Sir Guy
+Carleton, first Lord Dorchester, Governor of Canada. But
+the district round about had the Indian name long before
+that. The first white inhabitants were a few Acadian
+families at Pomquet, Tracadie, and Au Bouché, whose
+descendants are still to be found at St. George’s Bay. Just
+after the American Revolution a number of officers and
+men of the Nova Scotia Regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel
+Hierlihy and Major Monk, got grants of land
+here, and immured themselves for several winters without
+roads of communication to any other part of the Province.
+After a dozen seasons or so they were joined by Scottish
+immigrants from the Isles and the Highlands. They
+found the agricultural country far superior to any they
+had ever known, and indeed one of the best in New
+Scotland. Upon the rearing and export of horses, horned
+cattle and sheep, grain, butter, and pork, they quickly
+prospered; and the production of shingles and stones, when
+the large timber was exhausted, was carried on upon a large
+scale. The shire town of Dorchester or Antigonish was
+described nearly a century ago as “one of the prettiest
+villages in the eastern section of Nova Scotia, and the
+neatness and simplicity of its appearance amply compensates
+for the absence of bolder scenery.” Judging from
+that description, I do not think Antigonish has greatly
+changed. My train brought me there about midnight,
+and a buggy driven by the landlord himself brought me
+along a wide street, lined with majestic elms, through
+whose dark foliage the moon sent spangled rays of light,
+to a quaint little inn. It is true the quaintness of the
+inn, architecturally speaking, hardly corresponded with its
+name: the Queen Hotel (how they love these high-sounding
+titles! I have a recollection of a certain Chateau
+Frontenac at Rimouski, P.Q., where they gave me a single
+sheet to my bed), and the quaintness was in directions rather
+disconcerting. For instance, when morning came, I was
+suddenly aroused by the apparition of an uncouth figure
+in my room. He was in the act of closing a closet door,
+from which he had apparently just emerged. I sprang up.
+“What do you want?” I demanded.
+
+“Nothing,” returned the intruder calmly.
+
+“But what are you doing in my room? I locked the
+door last night.”
+
+“What am I doing in _your_ room? How else do you
+think I am going to get out of _mine_?” He jerked his
+thumb in the direction of the closet in an aggrieved
+manner, as if I had meanly suggested his climbing out of
+the window in order to pursue his daily avocations. All
+the same, I do not think highly of these peculiar inn-keeping
+arrangements; nor do I hold that the employment
+of the title of Majesty on a long sign-board can altogether
+atone for their primitive simplicity.
+
+Before I leave the inn at Antigonish I am tempted
+to recall another trifling association. A traveller, commercial
+or otherwise, will have noticed throughout Nova
+Scotia, as in the American States, that all maid-servants
+perform their functions, with rare exceptions, in a singular
+spirit of protest, as if they were really not enjoying themselves
+in the most becoming and most appropriate of all
+feminine _rôles_, to wit, the handmaiden of man. It is
+really most provoking of the dear creatures! More
+especially is this uncomfortable spirit manifested towards
+strangers. My belief is that a too profuse native chivalry
+is at the bottom of it. You have noticed the scorn and
+independent air of the British barmaid? her affability
+and condescension when addressed by her familiars under
+the names of “Flossie,” “Beryl,” or “Sadie?” Well,
+then, you have put your finger on that which vexes
+the traveller’s soul here. Yet I am bound to say that
+there were several inns in the Province where I was
+waited upon with a celerity and good humour which
+went far to atone for inevitable gastronomic shortcomings.
+
+She was rather a comely wench, was the handmaiden at
+Antigonish, but sadly spoilt, and a shrewish wrinkle marred
+her brow. She showed her sense of my coming down late
+to breakfast by conducting me to a seat where a great
+draught blew.
+
+“Ye’ll sit there,” she said.
+
+“Oh no, thank you. I will sit _here_,” I rejoined pleasantly,
+taking a seat by the wall. She paused in angry
+astonishment. A smile curled her lip. “Oho,” she
+seemed to say to herself, “I’ll teach you, my fine gentleman.”
+I ordered fish. “There’s no fish.” “Very well.
+I’ll have eggs, boiled in the shell three and a-half minutes,
+dry toast and coffee.” With a toss of her head the damsel
+slowly disappeared. In something under twenty minutes
+she re-entered, bringing a tray upon which reposed a large
+cup of weak tea, a plate of fried eggs, and some very
+bilious-looking buttered toast. These having been noisily
+and carelessly deposited before me, I turned over a fresh
+page of my newspaper and observed nonchalantly, “Please
+remove all this stuff, will you, and bring me what I
+ordered—boiled eggs, boiled for three and a-half minutes
+in the shell, coffee, and some dry toast. Look sharp,
+please.” She did look sharp—sharp and shrewish, yet
+with a something almost of consternation withal. I met
+her glance with a smile. For ten seconds we confronted
+one another—a ludicrous situation. Then, gathering the
+breakfast back again upon the tray, the poor girl departed.
+When she reappeared she was quite cheerful—the novelty
+of the experience had, it seemed, taken her fancy. She
+waited upon me with alacrity. So far from diminishing
+I multiplied my wants, preferring them with punctilious
+courtesy. We parted friends, and at luncheon she greeted
+me with smiles. It is a great pity that the tendency to
+spoil and pamper girls in menial situations, especially
+when they are pretty, is not confined to Nova Scotia. It
+does not make them any the happier, but is, on the contrary,
+productive of a good deal of unhappiness and discontent.
+A little less familiarity on the part of those
+served and a little more attention to business on the part
+of those serving would be far better. Less than a century
+ago one could chuck the inn chambermaid under
+the chin and call her “my dear” without loss of dignity,
+eliciting only a prim and grateful curtesy. It is different
+now.
+
+[Illustration: VIEW ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF ANTIGONISH.]
+
+An attractive little town is Antigonish. The houses,
+built on low ground, are shaded by trees, while the hills
+rise on all hands. Here is the seat of the Roman Catholic
+Bishop of Antigonish, St. Ninian’s Cathedral, and St.
+Francis Xavier College. Chiefly of Highland extraction
+is the community—the names of the chief clans so abound
+that in the case of the Macdonalds and Frasers it is usual
+to mention the Christian names or initials to indicate certain
+leading individuals. One hears of “E. M.,” and “J. S.,”
+and “D. C.” in common conversation. Gaelic here is
+still spoken, especially amongst the older folk, and for
+the benefit of these latter sermons are occasionally
+preached in the cathedral; which building is of stone and
+capable of seating 1200 persons. As I recall the taming
+of the shrewish maidservant at Antigonish I must not
+omit mention of my encounter with one whom I was
+informed was the Episcopal body-servant and factotum.
+A more astonishingly grotesque individual I have never
+set eyes upon in my life. Somewhat portly, you only saw
+fragments of his puffy, white face, owing to a thick growth
+of beard, which left a space of about two inches between
+it and a pair of bushy eyebrows. Beard and eyebrows
+had been red, but were now dyed a startling blue-black,
+which looked purple in the sunlight. His aspect was truly
+_farouche_.
+
+“Is his lordship at home?”
+
+“Ah!”
+
+“Will you take him my card?”
+
+“Eh?”
+
+The factotum was engaged in climbing into a buggy.
+He stared for a second at the proffered card, crossed
+himself, gathered up his reins, said “Gaw!” to his steed
+and drove away, leaving me standing there. I watched
+him until he had turned the corner, thinking what a weird
+and beautiful pirate this beady-eyed purple-whiskered
+joker would have made—what a loss to the comic
+opera stage!
+
+“Eh, ye’ll no see his reverence the day,” murmured an
+old woman in my ear; and so I came away.
+
+The College of Saint Francis Xavier is an educational
+institution, of which not only Antigonish, but also the
+whole eastern section of Nova Scotia is greatly proud.
+Students come hither from nearly all parts of Canada and
+America. The number in attendance is increasing from
+year to year, and the accommodation is becoming taxed
+to such an extent that a further addition to the present
+commodious building has been found necessary. The
+number of students at present is over one hundred and
+fifty. Besides the College, and to some extent affiliated
+with it, is Mount St. Bernard’s Seminary, attended by about
+seventy young ladies from many of the counties in the
+Province, and from beyond it. Although both are Roman
+Catholic, I found that students of all denominations are
+welcomed, and no better illustration of the broad-mindedness
+that prevails is the fact that at least two of the
+Professors at the College are Protestants. Besides these
+two institutions of higher education, Antigonish boasts
+two well equipped “separate schools” of three departments,
+each conducted by competent and experienced
+teachers.
+
+It was prize-giving day amongst the young lady pupils
+at the seminary, and I had an opportunity of seeing “sweet
+girl graduates” from all parts of Nova Scotia, and also
+from the other provinces. I cannot say that they were all
+very beautiful or very graceful, but oh—I am sure that they
+were very, very good! And amongst themselves they were
+very merry, and spoke of their failures in this or that
+“exam” with resignation. Many of these girls, I was
+told, were destined to be teachers.
+
+A Catholic newspaper is published at Antigonish called
+_The Casket_. I enjoyed a chat with the editor, a quiet,
+enlightened man, who aims at “restraint and accuracy,” a
+journalistic motto which one wishes were only more prevalent.
+_The Casket_ is an excellent little paper, and a
+relief from the journalistic horrors elsewhere.
+
+Eight miles from Antigonish is the mouth of the harbour,
+with a wide sandy beach, much used for bathing, and
+a number of Antigonians have summer cottages there.
+But the gem of the district is Lochaber Lake, on the road to
+Sherbrooke, distant some dozen miles. The lake is five miles
+in length, very narrow, and a pretty road runs along the shore
+the whole distance. On the whole the roads are capital
+hereabouts, and the landscape scenery well worth seeing.
+
+The banks on either side of this lake rise from it
+abruptly to a considerable height, but without rocky precipices.
+The water is as clear as a spring, and very deep.
+It is the last body of water in the district to freeze, and
+even in January frequently shows a ripple over miles of its
+limpid surface. How often has the Highland emigrant,
+home-sick for the heather, sat by its banks and dreamt of
+the old land and the old faces, ere he or she set out for
+the new land to see “Lochaber no more”!
+
+Which reminds me that while at Pictou I was taken
+to see the shanty of an old Highland woman, once well
+known to travellers by coach, Nancy Stuart of the Mountain.
+Many stories are still told of Nancy, her sons and
+her dogs—as well as the “Oiche Whaith Chuibh. Brannachd
+luibh” with which she parted from any who had
+ever been in the Highlands.
+
+The views throughout the whole of this part of the
+peninsula are superb. Standing on the top of Sugar-Loaf
+Mountain, which is close to Antigonish, one obtains a spectacle
+that is well worth climbing to gain. Gaspereau Lake,
+also close at hand, is situate 500 feet above sea-level, and is
+a great resort for wild geese and ducks. Here is a famous
+centre for partridge shooting. These birds, nobody’s preserves,
+are often seen in dense coveys close to the railway.
+
+If we follow the line of this lake—the St. Mary’s road,
+we cut right across the eastern end of the peninsula,
+and come to Sherbrooke, a few miles from the Atlantic, at
+the mouth of the St. Mary’s River. Sherbrooke is the
+headquarters of a busy fishing community, and there is
+some gold mining carried on hereabouts.
+
+Journeying eastward twenty miles by rail from Antigonish
+we reach Tracadie, close to a good harbour, opening
+into St. George’s Bay. There is an Indian reserve in the
+neighbourhood, but the place is famous for its monastery
+of Our Lady of Petit Clarivaux, which was founded in 1820.
+The members of the community are Cistercian Monks,
+commonly called Trappists, from their obedience to the
+rule of La Trappe, the founder of the order. The life of
+a Trappist is consecrated to prayer, manual labour, and
+silence. The ordinary hour of rising is two o’clock in the
+morning, except on Sundays and feast days, when the hour
+is half-past one. The remainder of the morning, or rather
+the night, is spent in chanting the offices of the church, in
+meditation, and other religious duties. The fast is broken
+by a light meal at 7.30 in the summer, and 11.30 in the
+winter, the latter season being kept as a Lent. The Monks
+never eat meat, fish, or eggs, and it is only of recent years
+that butter has been allowed in the preparation of the
+vegetable food. The discipline is strict in all other respects,
+for the Trappist life is the most rigorous of all the
+monastic orders. Conversation, when necessary, is carried
+on by signs, except in addressing the abbot.
+
+Besides their own manual labour, the monks furnish
+considerable employment to others who assist them in their
+work, and they are excellent farmers. In their religious
+duties they seek to make reparation for the sins of the
+outside world. Despite what seems a severe life they
+enjoy excellent health, and as a rule live to a great age.
+All their life, however, is a preparation for death. The
+burial place is close to the monastery, where it is continually
+in sight. When a monk dies, he is buried in his habit,
+uncoffined; and when the grave is filled in another grave
+is opened to remind the survivors that one of them must
+be its tenant in his appointed time.
+
+There is also a convent of Sisters of Charity at Tracadie.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+CAPE BRETON
+
+
+There are few pseudo-historical anecdotes which stand out
+more vividly in the pages of history than that which
+Smollett tells of the eccentric Duke of Newcastle crying
+out to a courtier, “Cape Breton an island! Wonderful!
+Shew it me on the map. So it is! Sure enough. My dear
+sir, you always bring us good news. I must go and tell
+the King that Cape Breton is an island!”
+
+An island indeed is Cape Breton, and such an island—a
+mingling of hill, and dale, and lake, mountain, moor, and
+tarn—rock, and crag, and fell—once called L’Isle Royale, and
+under the flag of the lilies—now the most eastern and most
+northern division of Nova Scotia, and the most Scottish
+portion of New Scotland. This island is equal to about
+one-fifth part of the whole Province.
+
+Sailing out into the unknown territories of a world
+which if as old as the old was new to them, the early
+adventurers sought to make their surroundings congenial
+by a nominal association with the countries, provinces,
+towns, and villages they had quitted, perhaps for ever.
+This, the despair of the geographer, is the very poetry of
+geography. It began with Columbus—nay, it began with
+Leif with his Markland and Vinland, and it continues
+down to the days of Peary, and Shackleton, and Scott. Is
+there not something pathetic in the fact of a great bleak
+headland, locked in an eternal Arctic frost, being named
+after some fair Devon hamlet or Essex village, where the
+daring sailor first saw the light or loved a lass? The
+Arctic and Antarctic seas are full of such names.
+
+[Illustration: STRAIT OF CANSO, PORT MULGRAVE.]
+
+On the south-west coast of France, near Bayonne, is a
+Cape Breton, from whence hailed the sixteenth century
+sailor who first descried the headland here to which he
+gave that name, probably the oldest in North American
+geography. When the name of this cape became extended
+to the whole island is unknown, and as may be guessed from
+the Duke of Newcastle’s remark, many were ignorant of its
+wider application even in the eighteenth century.
+
+“The English ministry,” wrote Haliburton, “in the
+time of Mr. Pitt was said to have considered the island
+worse than useless, and would have rejoiced that Cape
+Breton had sunk to the depths of the ocean, being continually
+apprehensive that other Powers might obtain
+possession and thus establish a post of annoyance, which
+motive caused the destruction of the fortifications.”
+Utterly neglected, therefore, for a long period after it
+had passed into our possession, it remained a useless
+appanage to Nova Scotia until a separate government
+was established at Sydney, and by the enterprise of Lieutenant-Governor
+Des Barres, Cape Breton began to increase
+and multiply, and only received a temporary set-back when
+it was re-annexed to Nova Scotia in 1820. That event, of
+course, lost the island the coal-mining and excise revenues,
+and its fees on Crown lands, as well as the salaries of
+officials spent on the island; and it naturally took some
+considerable time to recover from these effects, especially
+as for thirty years the income had been outlaid upon
+much needed roads and bridges.
+
+Cape Breton was long considered strategically the key
+to Canada. Now, however, that ships of large burden can
+and do pass by preference through the Straits of Belle Isle,
+it can no longer be said to command even the Gulf of
+St. Lawrence. The island is separated from the mainland
+by the Strait of Canso. At Port Mulgrave a beautiful
+marine view opened up before me, as the Intercolonial
+railway train began to transfer its whole huge bulk on
+board the waiting ferry boat. The distant cliffs and fishing
+hamlets were bathed in sunlight, the blue waters were alive
+with multi-coloured anemones; sails of smacks and schooners
+darted hither and thither along the surface; there was a
+hurrying to and fro of tourists and fishermen on the
+green-clad shores; the whole scene was one of picturesque
+animation. One noted on the mainland the lofty Cape
+Porcupine, from whose summit, before submarine cables
+were sunk, the telegraph wires were crossed high in mid-air
+over the Strait to Plaister Cove. This stretch of wire was
+then part of the link connecting Europe and North America,
+and when it broke, as, of course, it frequently did, communication
+was suspended between the Old World and
+the New. I am told that a pleasing juvenile pastime of
+the fishermen’s children in former times was aiming stones
+at the wire, probably occasioning from time to time a rude
+interruption of the speech between two hemispheres.
+
+[Illustration: A SPLENDID MOOSE NEAR LAKE ROSSIGNOL.]
+
+Mulgrave has a population of about 1500 souls, and is
+a centre for bathing and fishing, but its chief institution is,
+of course, the ferry. I have never seen such a perfectly
+equipped or managed piece of ponderous mechanism.
+
+The train is divided into two parts and shunted on to
+the gigantic and specially designed steamer _Scotia_, which
+bears the burden without a whimper. Across the Strait we
+steam, the passengers either descending and walking about
+the deck, standing clustered on the car platforms, or craning
+their necks out of the windows in order not to miss the
+succession of views. In a quarter of an hour or so we are
+safely landed; the metal rails on shore join up to the metal
+rails of the _Scotia_ as true as steel itself, and staring about us
+we are confronted by Point Tupper. From here a railway
+runs to Inverness, a district which no visitor to Cape Breton
+should miss, and which I will advert to later.
+
+Meanwhile, let us note that for the first thirty miles or
+so there is nothing in the scenery, and certainly nothing in
+the very few specimens of the population that meet his eye
+to attract the traveller’s attention. Then come glimpses of
+interest at Seal and Orange Cove, Mackinnon’s Harbour,
+and certain inlets of the Denys River. Near M’Donald’s
+Gulch, which is crossed by a steel trestle 90 feet high and
+940 feet long, an occasional birch lodge of the dwindling
+Micmacs met my eye.
+
+And Denys River! How that brings back historical
+memories of the early French adventurer, the right worthy
+old Nicholas Denys, Sieur de Fronsac, victim of Charnisay!
+
+We open and shut our eyes—we are on the verge of
+dozing, when in a flash the lake of the Golden Arm is upon
+us. There is no inland sea in the world quite like the
+famous Bras d’Or, that unique salt flood imprisoned in the
+land, 50 miles long, and taking all shapes—bays, inlets, and
+havens, studded with islands, half-broken by peninsulars
+never the same, always disclosing fresh beauties and picturesque
+variations.[20]
+
+[Footnote 20: The name Bras d’Or is doubtless of Spanish origin, as
+are many other names in this part of the world. There is Mont Real
+or Montreal, Anticuesta or Anticosti; Puerto Nueva; Placentia, Basin
+of Minas, and several Spanish rivers, and probably Le Bras d’Or and
+Labrador (labourer) have a similar origin.]
+
+One is bound to observe that, as regards the Bras d’Or
+scenery, the body of waters is so vast, and conveys so much
+the illusion of the ocean itself, that to produce a proportionate
+effect the surrounding land ought to be on a similar
+scale of grandeur. The alternate low hills and flat shore
+consequently rob the lake at large of its due effectiveness,
+although in the vicinity of the arms and inlets, and towards
+the northward at St. Anne’s, there is some compensation in
+a bolder and more rugged order of scenery. Viewed from
+the heights of the shore, however, this criticism does not
+apply, and the tourist’s eye is rewarded by scenes which for
+sheer beauty it would be hard to match throughout the
+length and breadth of the Continent.
+
+On one hand are daintily wooded islets, on another a
+long lagoon, cut off from the lake in rushes. Enclosing it
+all are the mountains decked in the primeval wood, sloping
+gradually from the marge or rising sheer and naked until
+their summit springs into verdure.
+
+This first portion is the Great Bras d’Or Lake; later
+on, at Grand Narrows, it becomes still further enclosed,
+and is called the Little Bras d’Or. Altogether these waters
+have an area of 450 square miles. Its extremest width is
+less than 20 miles, but owing to its eccentric contour there
+are places where it is only a mile across. The depth also
+greatly varies, in the same ratio as the hills—here as much
+as 700 feet, there 50 or 60 feet.
+
+The Bras d’Or waters have a surface area of 450
+square miles, and while the width from shore to shore is as
+much as eighteen miles in one place, there are times when
+less than a mile separates shore from shore. So, too, the
+depth varies in somewhat the same ratio as rise the surrounding
+hills. In one part of Little Bras d’Or there is a
+depth of nearly 700 feet, the depression equalling the height
+of the surrounding land. Every variety of landscape meets
+the eye of the delighted stranger, and it is because of this
+variety that the eye never wearies and the senses are never
+palled.
+
+In following the railway the tourist will occasionally
+see what looks like a shallow pond, a hundred feet or so in
+diameter. It may surprise him to learn that the bottom is
+sixty or a hundred feet from the surface. This is a country
+of heights and depths. At times the train runs through
+long cuttings where the white plaster rock appears marvellously
+like snowdrifts on each side, to travel for hundreds
+of yards on high embankments in which the excavated
+material has been made to bridge a valley.
+
+After all, the inland sea is but a part of the Atlantic,
+and an outside sea may sweep its waters into fury. I was
+told that to cross the Bras d’Or in a gale is not an enviable
+experience. The direction of the wind makes all the
+difference.
+
+Whycocomagh is reached by a drive of seven miles from
+Orangedale (a name singularly infelicitous), where teams
+are in waiting on the arrival of express trains. Orangedale
+is at the head of one of the numerous little arms of the
+Bras d’Or which are found in this part of the journey, and
+near at hand are Denys River Basin, and Great and Little
+Malagawaatchkt (pronounced “Malagawatch”). The latter
+are two inlets of the great lake at the head of West Bay, on
+the northern shore.
+
+Whycocomagh is situated on the basin forming the
+termination of St. Patrick’s Channel, which has its mouth
+more than twenty miles to the eastward, beyond Baddeck.
+
+I do not know a more refreshing place for a summer
+sojourn than Baddeck. This village, long since popular
+with Americans, and lately of considerable celebrity as an
+experimental ground for flying machines, occupies the site
+of an old Indian encampment named Ebedek, called by the
+French Bedeque. To reach it one leaves the train at Iona,
+and takes the small steamer which connects with the
+through expresses from Sydney or Halifax, and steams a
+dozen miles upon the waters of the Bras d’Or. Once
+out of the Narrows, one emerges into a vast and gleaming
+expanse of water, dotted with sails, which seem almost
+shocking in their whiteness, so intense is the sunlight.
+The place-names hereabout are ultra-Micmac, and as
+difficult to pronounce at sight as any in Swift. Yonder
+is Moolasaalahkt Harbour.
+
+“What does that mean?” I heard a Yankee ask an Indian.
+
+“Oh, that means Big Harbour,” answered the Indian
+with a grin.
+
+[Illustration: KING STREET, SHELBURNE (THE TOWN OF THE LOYALISTS).]
+
+“_Big_ Harbour? Then why don’t ye _say_ Big Harbour
+and have done with it?” was the indignant surrejoinder;
+which seems reasonable. Then three miles later we came
+to an upstanding and outstanding headland.
+
+“What’s that?” we asked.
+
+“That?” said the captain glibly, “Oh, that’s Watchabuketckt.”
+
+“I don’t believe it!” retorted the Yankee.
+
+Some visitors entertain the firm opinion that the late
+Mr. Dudley Warner, an American humorist, who used to
+stay in this locality, invented a good deal of the nomenclature.
+But it is not so; it is all in Haliburton.
+
+Apropos of inventors, there is a spacious, well-built
+mansion on our right, which was long ago built by, and
+is still the residence of, that Scottish-Canadian genius to
+whom the world is indebted for that perennially-amazing
+instrument the telephone. Strange how many thousands,
+even hundreds of thousands of people in London, who
+daily see the emblem of a bell on the telephone call-offices
+connect that emblem with Alexander Graham Bell, the
+white-haired old gentleman who combines work and play
+at his summer home here at Ben Bhreagh. Glimpses of
+outbuildings can be had as the steamer moves along—laboratory
+and workshops; and on the lake in front of
+Ben Bhreagh rose the first working aeroplane in Canada,
+in which Dr. Bell has taken a keen interest. It must have
+been from some aerial craft that the name of Spectacle
+Island was given to the _insula minor_ which flanks the
+harbour of Baddeck. Myself, gazing at it from terra
+firma or the deck of a small steamer, should never have
+detected any resemblance to a pair of spectacles.
+
+But here we are at Baddeck, a village of 1500 souls,
+built on land sloping upwards from the land-locked
+harbour. There is here yet no large summer caravanserai—such
+as I had expected to find—adorned with
+spacious verandas, pretty girls, and a Blue Caledonian
+orchestra; but there is plenty of accommodation in smaller
+hotels and boarding houses, and I am bound to say one
+meets some very nice people in Baddeck. Amongst them
+was a Harvard professor and his two daughters, and a
+Brooklyn yachtsman with his two yachts, and it would
+be hard to say which was the fairer, yacht or damsel;
+although as regards the young lady who discussed with
+me Dr. Wallis Budge’s quartos on _The Gods of Egypt_, none
+might allege that _she_ was in any sense fast.
+
+O young lady by the shores of Baddeck, take thy Budge
+with thee into the wilderness and hook the romping trout,
+or paddle the gay canoes with Budge under thy shapely
+arm and the gods of Egypt in thy brain, for in such wise
+only may any fair Bostonian unbend and frolic with Chloe
+while offering at the shrine of Minerva! If it is true that
+I chaffed thee, why
+
+          “... Nunc ego mitibus
+    Multare quaero tristia, dum mihi
+    Fias recantatis amica
+    Opprobriis, animumque reddas.”
+
+From Baddeck many in the season set out for the
+salmon pools of the Margary River, thirty miles distant,
+over a good road, and to numerous trout lakes much
+nearer at hand. Sea trout fishing, of course, may be had
+at Baddeck. All this is Victoria County, a great slab of
+territory which runs straight northward to Cape North and
+St. Lawrence Bay.
+
+One returns to Iona and Grand Narrows, and entrains for
+Sydney and the east. I shall not quickly forget the railway
+station at Grand Narrows on account of a curious custom
+which prevails at this place. The refreshment room is
+managed by a gentleman with a large family. All trains
+stop here twenty minutes for dinner and supper. A
+sonorous bell is rung. The doors are opened, and a flock
+of hungry travellers troop in at fifty cents a head to
+discover, not without chagrin, the restaurateur’s family at
+dinner occupying the best places and already hard at work.
+
+“It gives ’em an unfair start,” complained a commercial
+traveller to me as he filled his pipe. “By the time I’d
+located the dining-room, although I sprinted down the
+platform as hard as I could go, I was sixty seconds too
+late, and—there was only dough-nuts left!”
+
+Which reminds one of the swift gastronomic feats which
+greeted the eyes of Chuzzlewit on his arrival in New York
+seventy years ago.
+
+I must not forget to mention that there is held here
+annually under the broad and open sky, Nature’s own great
+cathedral, a famous Gaelic Communion service.
+
+Amongst this Gaelic population are counted many
+bards, inspired men who compose epic ballads as they
+did centuries ago and do still in the land of Ossian. And
+the songs of the Highlands, the “Fhir a Ohata,” the
+“Tamhuil mòr, mac sheann Tamhuil,” still float out upon
+the air; while the traditions of old Highland feuds or the
+Jacobite risings of ‘15 or ‘45 still linger, eked out by such
+visible memorials as one may see, beside the rude chimneypiece—an
+ancient dirk or a rusty claymore that some long-vanished
+ancestor had flourished at Culloden or Falkirk.
+
+But few of the aboriginal red men, the Micmacs, crossed
+my path in Cape Breton, and those that did were very
+much civilised. One stalwart specimen who travelled with
+me to Mira River wore a starched high collar, and was
+ready to discuss such questions as Home Rule for Ireland
+with me. To find the Micmacs in any number one must
+seek out their settlements, chiefly about the Bras d’Or,
+or attend one of their annual reunions. Years ago the
+Micmacs professed subjection to the Mohawks, and used
+to send a deputation in a canoe up the St. Lawrence to
+pay homage to the chiefs of that tribe in Canada.
+A century or two ago they were savage warriors in the
+pay of the French, and gave the English a great deal of
+trouble in the eastern and south-eastern parts of Cape
+Breton, and were especially active in scalping any survivors
+of wrecked vessels which came their way. Nor did they
+go unrewarded by titles and dignities. There is still, I
+believe, in existence a parchment commission, signed by
+Louis XV., conferring on a certain savage the kingship
+of the tribe, which is preserved by his collateral descendants;
+and there is more than one medal of honour
+yet worn emanating from the same exalted source. To-day,
+however, the Cape Breton Micmacs are no longer
+distinguished for ferocity; such pleasing mementoes as
+English scalps have been solemnly burned before the
+camp-fire; they have proved amenable to religion, they
+have taken kindly to farming on reserved lands, and the
+few hundreds who survive seem on the whole very honest,
+sober, and good-natured.
+
+It happened at Christmas Island station. There was
+an island opposite, long and low, with firs at either end,
+and there were newly-made green-clad furrows upon it.
+Between it and the mainland was a lagoon formed by a
+low reef, upon which a number of thrifty cattle grazed
+peacefully. In the water adjoining was the skeleton of a
+vessel—perhaps some ship which had been driven ashore
+in a winter storm. In the distance the clouds hung so
+low as to shut out the base of a range of dark green hills.
+
+“Why is it called Christmas Island?” I enquired of
+the girl, who seemed about eighteen, with a comely face and
+a profusion of dark chestnut hair. She was dressed in
+some light muslin or poplin stuff, and upon her feet she
+wore a pair of something which puzzled me at first, until
+I recognised in them the saffron-coloured football boots
+of Northampton. They were several sizes too large for
+her; and I have no doubt the damsel marvelled much
+at their shape and colour, but was reconciled by the
+thought that they were the latest fashion in the Old
+World “across yonder.”
+
+To my question she replied:
+
+“Oh, I think it’s because they discovered it on Christmas
+Day. The Indians go there to hold their feast every
+year.”
+
+We strolled together to a small cottage marked “Post
+Office.”
+
+“I am waiting for the mail to be sorted,” volunteered
+my companion.
+
+“You expect a letter?” I asked.
+
+She blushed and nodded.
+
+“Is _he_ far away?”
+
+She answered: “Mother and me are always ‘expecting
+letters.’ You see, I have two brothers in the steel works at
+Sydney, another out in Manitoba, and father’s mostly away
+fishing.”
+
+“And _he_?” I persisted.
+
+“Oh, _he_?” She laughed. “Well, I don’t get any
+letters from _him_. He’s a brakeman on the Intercolonial,
+and I can see him every day if I like. I’ve written a piece
+for a prize poetry competition in a Boston paper, and I’m
+wonderin’ if I’ll get my five dollars _or if it’s only a snide_.”
+
+One other scene of a different kind I should like to give,
+because it will always live in my memory. It was of an
+aged, yet stalwart Highlander, who in early youth had
+migrated to the new Inverness across the ocean. I watched
+him as he sat by the roadside with his little granddaughter
+on his knee; and she told me afterwards he was singing to
+her (as he often did) a little Gaelic song he had sung sixty
+odd years ago over the grave of his mother and his first
+sweetheart, which he had dug with his own hands. It was
+a year of famine in Cape Breton, but he had not lost
+courage. At first he had hardly missed the heather, “but
+now grandfather’s hopin’ to see the heather again—across
+yonder.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE SYDNEYS
+
+“I suppose you know the Sydneys?” was one of the
+questions addressed to me by a charming lady during
+my sojourn in Halifax.
+
+“No,” I replied, as visions of various individuals from
+Sir Algernon Sidney to Mr. Albert Sidney floated in my
+mind, only to be rejected as inappropriate. “I can’t say
+that I do. Who are they?”
+
+“Oh, I don’t mean people, but the towns—the places.
+Sydney, North Sydney, East Sydney, Sydney Harbour, and
+Sydney Mines.”
+
+“Oh, _those_!” I rejoined; “Oh, yes. I know those
+almost as well as I know the Croydons, and the Bromleys,
+and the Hampsteads.”
+
+And, in truth, why “the Sydneys”? Is geographical
+nomenclature in New Scotland so poverty-stricken that
+places separated by five miles of water, and seventeen miles
+of rail, of different origins, different periods, and different
+interests, should all be called Sydney? I will not say
+altogether different interests, because the Sydneys are all
+joined together literally and figuratively by coal.
+
+It is the old Spanish bay of the sixteenth century
+British navigators. That great Canadian, Le Moyne
+d’Iberville, the founder of Louisiana, set sail from here in
+1692, on one of his famous expeditions. Hither Admiral
+Hovenden Walker took refuge after his withdrawal from
+Quebec in 1711, asserting Queen Anne’s sovereignty over
+Cape Breton by erecting a wooden cross, duly inscribed, on
+the shore. In the war of the American Revolution a
+naval battle was fought here. Three years later, in 1784,
+Governor Des Barres founded the town of Sydney.
+
+The harbour of Sydney, which used to be called on the
+old maps Spanish River, has an entrance two miles wide,
+four miles above which it forms into two branches called
+the North-west arm and the South-west arm, both being
+protected from the sea by a low bar. It is on the east
+side of the last named that the town of Sydney was built
+a century and a quarter ago by disbanded soldiers, American
+Loyalists, together with some Irish and Scotch, the chief
+magnet even then being the mines; although the magnificent
+harbour and contiguity to the Mother Country no
+doubt influenced the pioneers.
+
+And what a harbour is this of Sydney? Of great
+depth, and so sheltered as to protect it from the force of
+the ocean, none could be more secure. It is an ideal
+place for yachting and boating of every description—and
+every craft from a man-o’-war to a birch-bark canoe may
+be seen skimming over its surface. There is a prosperous
+yacht club, and on a summer afternoon one may see here
+a lively regatta in progress, and the whole harbour alive
+with boats. The motor-boat and the steam-launch are
+also popular here.
+
+Sydney, which was a long time in fulfilling any of the
+predictions current three-quarters of a century ago, now
+has a population of 15,000. But when Haliburton wrote
+it had less than 500 souls. “The tide of fortune,” he
+observes, “has not yet set towards Sydney, and it appears,
+together with Louisbourg, to be neglected for places that
+cannot vie with it in natural capabilities.”
+
+The country round about is well worthy of agricultural
+development; the advantages for a fishing population are
+marked, and the harbour opens up fine commercial possibilities.
+But not until steel came to Sydney did it really begin
+to flourish. In those distant days when Cape Breton was a
+separate province, independent of Nova Scotia, the Lieutenant-Governor
+and the other officials made this their capital, and
+spending their incomes here, that money, and the comparatively
+little derived from coal-mining, seems to have been the
+chief resource of the place, and the trading community was
+content. Within a square at the north end of the town I
+saw the remains of the barracks and commandant’s house.
+A court-house was also here, and a well-built Anglican
+Church of stone. The houses boasted well-cultivated gardens,
+in which there were many fruit trees, and the settlement on
+the whole bore a considerable, and, on the whole, not surprising
+resemblance to Pictou on the mainland.
+
+Soon after the foundation of Sydney bituminous coal
+began to be mined regularly. As early as 1735 a cargo had
+been shipped to Martinique, but not until a century later
+did the General Mining Association begin operations on the
+north side of Sydney Harbour.
+
+Gradually the enormous extent of the coal-fields became
+revealed. The North Sydney Colliery extended a
+considerable distance under the sea, vessels in the harbour
+passing over them. This gave rise to numerous witticisms
+amongst the miners, formerly fishermen, whose mates were
+trawling aloft. The pit came to yield 180,000 tons
+annually.
+
+In 1892 the total yield of the district was a million
+tons, nearly four thousand men being employed in the
+mines. Operations from their beginning at what is now
+called Sydney Mines had spread across the harbour, between
+Sydney and Grace Bay. A syndicate of Canadian
+and American capitalists some years ago acquired or held
+options over all the working mines in the district.
+
+On the south side of the harbour are the Victoria
+Mines, and the others worked by the Dominion Coal Company
+in the district between Sydney and Cow Bay, twenty-two
+miles distant, are the Gardner, the Old Bridgeport, the
+International, and eight or nine others, which names, I was
+sorry to observe, have been superseded by mere numbers.
+But of this hereafter.
+
+It was in 1892 that Mr. Whitney, of Boston, first
+became interested in Nova Scotian coal properties. Under
+his energetic management the slow and cautious methods
+which had marked the output of coal since 1880 gave place
+at once to development on a gigantic scale. Instead of
+a long winter of idleness the men were employed continuously,
+and there was a great increase in the number of
+hands employed, and a general advance in wages.
+
+In five years the wage bill was $400,000 higher than at
+any time when the old companies were operating the mines.
+
+Nor was it on coal alone that the Whitney syndicate
+concentrated their attention. The Dominion Iron and
+Steel Company sprang into being, and forthwith another
+great industry was added to Canada.
+
+Coal, however, was all very well; the difficulty was to
+find an immediate market for it. When at length it was
+realised that as much iron ore as was wanted could be had
+from adjacent parts, and when the Dominion Government
+offered a bounty on Canadian steel, steel works became
+inevitable. The capital came in the first instance chiefly
+from America, and one day Sydney awoke to find itself
+the chosen locality for the operations of the Dominion
+Steel Company. Other industries quickly followed in their
+wake, and Sydney was in the grip of a “boom.” Thousands
+began flocking into the little town—mechanics, artisans,
+labourers of all kinds; owners of real estates found their
+properties enhanced beyond their wildest dreams, and the
+building speculator began his operations. People rubbed
+their eyes when they heard all this, for “booms” were
+associated with the West, not with the extreme East.
+
+By this time the Dominion Coal Company had built a
+line of railway from Sydney to Louisburg, traversing its coal
+territory. The potential supply of coal has been estimated
+at a thousand million tons, not including the innumerable
+seams less than four feet thick, nor the vast submarine bed
+of coal between Cape Breton and Newfoundland, one
+area of which contains at least three thousand acres. Of
+course the coal trade alone means a large shipping business
+for Sydney and the neighbourhood, and besides the regular
+colliers, many steamers call here regularly for coaling. A
+coaling station of the French navy is situated here, and
+frequent are the visits of French cruisers.
+
+As has been said, Sydney is most favourably situated
+for the production and shipment of iron and steel.
+Although there are iron areas contiguous, yet the
+Dominion Iron and Steel Company in starting business on a
+large scale, decided to avail itself of the almost inexhaustible
+supply at Bell Island, Newfoundland, where its property
+is believed to be capable of yielding twenty-nine
+million tons of ore, besides submarine deposits. Then, again,
+the limestone and dolomite employed in the manufacture of
+steel is near at hand. Four large blast-furnaces have been
+erected at Sydney along the harbour front, eighty-five feet
+high and eighteen feet maximum diameter. Each of these
+furnaces will yield about three hundred tons of pig-iron
+daily. There are five great blowing-engines, of two
+thousand five hundred horse-power each, and each engine
+will supply fifty thousand cubic feet of air per minute.
+The boilers consist of sixteen batteries of two boilers, each
+of sixteen thousand horse-power, and capable of pumping
+six million gallons of water per day of twenty-four hours.
+The area of ground covered by the works of the company
+is four hundred and eighty acres, and is one of the busiest
+spots on the continent.
+
+The works are most advantageously situated in every
+respect, being close by the waterside, connected with the
+Intercolonial Railway, and with an abundant supply of
+water for manufacturing purposes. The latter is procured
+from the Sydney River, where a dam has been constructed
+which is capable of supplying three million gallons of fresh
+water daily. The length of the water main is eight miles.
+The grounds and works are lighted by electricity, and in all
+the operations machinery of the most modern description
+has been employed. The limits to which the works may
+be extended cannot be defined, but the possibilities are,
+as the reader may judge for himself, very great.
+
+The whole works form virtually a town within themselves,
+and, with the blast-furnaces, the stock-yard, offices,
+open-hearth ovens, blooming-mill, rail-mill, plate-mill,
+machine-shop, foundry, shacks, hospitals, store-rooms, &c.,
+a complete system of a busy city is found. The machine-shop
+and foundry of themselves cover more than 60,000
+square feet of ground. The company has a capital of
+over $20,000,000.
+
+The wonderful advantages of Sydney for producing
+iron and steel at the lowest prices can best be shown by a
+comparison of it with Pittsburg. At Sydney the coal is
+close at hand, and the coke ovens save all the volatile constituents
+of the coal. At Pittsburg the coal is brought
+from a distance of about eighty miles by rail, and the limestone,
+which at Sydney is on the spot, has to be brought
+a distance of one hundred and thirty miles to Pittsburg.
+
+Only last year were these coal and steel companies
+amalgamated, and thereby much rivalry and conflict of
+interests terminated in a happy marriage. At first the
+two companies were known as the “Dominion Steel and
+Coal Corporation,” the name being afterwards changed to
+“Dominion Steel Corporation,” which offered one share of
+its stock for one of the common stock of the Coal and
+Steel Companies. This offer was duly accepted, and in
+a few months only a fraction over one per cent. of the
+350,000 shares involved were outstanding.
+
+The board of directors of the Corporation was formed
+of the members of the Boards of the component companies,
+Mr. J. H. Plummer being chosen president. The
+principal executive officers exercise jurisdiction in both the
+Steel and Coal Companies.
+
+Now that such economic and administrative initial
+difficulties have been overcome, the strength of Sydney’s
+position is manifest to all. For here all the materials can
+be assembled at lower cost than anywhere else on the
+continent, and the finished product can be shipped from the
+mills to any of the world’s ports at less cost than from any
+other point, for by water, as I heard it phrased sententiously,
+“Sydney is nearer everywhere than anywhere else.”
+
+Sydney rails within the past twelvemonth have been
+sent to India, Australia, and England. The Grand Trunk
+Pacific is using them largely in construction, being shipped
+by rail to the extreme sections of the line. They are
+despatched by water to Fort William, at the head of Lake
+Superior, and well into the interior of Canada, to build
+the central portions of the road; they have been shipped
+around Cape Horn to British Columbia to lay the extreme
+western sections from Prince Rupert east; Europe, South
+Africa, the West Indies, Mexico, are among the other
+countries to which Sydney exports, although the bulk of her
+products are consumed in the rapidly extending home
+markets. Apart from this, Sydney is one of the most
+convenient seaports on the Atlantic coast, whereas the
+nearest seaport to Pittsburg is over 350 miles by rail, and
+that seaport, Philadelphia, 878 miles further from Europe
+than Sydney is. It will thus be seen what enormous
+advantages lie within the iron gateway of the great
+Dominion![21]
+
+And Sydney harbour at night. The waters very still and
+glittering, and the light of Cassiopeia and the Pleiades all
+but drowned in a great luminous effusion like a Milky
+Way, and the whole northern horizon lurid with flames
+and patches of red glow. Then lights—lights—dozens,
+scores, hundreds of lights—like those on a seaside esplanade
+or pier. Behind those distant lights—in the midst
+of those lights, grimy men, stripped to the waist, are
+toiling—are fulfilling the curse of Cain, or, as some think,
+the blessing—earning their bread by the sweat of their
+brow. Ah, God, and they do sweat! The very flesh on
+their bones seems to melt, and the marrow to ooze from
+their joints, and their eyes to sear, and their hair to singe.
+Ah, say what you like, it is devil’s work to look at; but it
+is to do, and those fellows do it manfully. It is not for
+them to pick and choose their calling—no loafers or
+shirkers are they—they have enlisted with Pluto and Vulcan—they
+are at grips with fire and molten steel, and the
+night-shift wrestles with both grimly.
+
+[Footnote 21: The principal items of production of the steel works for
+the year 1910 are as follows:—
+
+                          Tons.
+    Coke 410,000
+    Pig-iron 255,000
+    Steel ingots 304,000
+    Steel blooms 268,000
+    Steel billets 88,000
+    Steel rails 140,000
+    Steel wire rods 79,000
+    Sulphate of ammonia 3,100
+    Tar 3,900,000 gallons.
+
+All the coke made is used in the works for smelting purposes. Only a
+small proportion of the production of pig is sold as such, the greater
+part being made into steel ingots which are all rolled into blooms. A
+considerable tonnage is marketed in this form, but about eighty-five
+per cent. is advanced a further stage, and is sold in the form of rails
+and wire rods.]
+
+And who are these men who sweat their bodies to
+running oil in mighty furnaces in the night, on the shore
+where of late was the primeval wilderness? Whence comes
+this hardy race? Would you believe it if I said they were
+fishermen—pliers of nets who have been coursing, and
+their fathers before, the briny deep? These fellows have
+shipped their rudder and beached their craft, and the salt
+foam splashes their manly bosoms no more.
+
+The chief and practically only industry of Sydney Mines
+is the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company. The town
+depends entirely on this corporation, which was founded
+through the operations of the company’s predecessors, the
+General Mining Association, and its recent growth and
+expansion has been due to the “Scotia” Corporation (as it
+is colloquially called) in acquiring that property and greatly
+extending the field of its operations.
+
+The collieries and the iron and steel furnaces here
+furnish employment to nearly four thousand men, and the
+company’s Sydney Mines wage-bill is nearly two millions of
+dollars annually. Five collieries, a blast-furnace, four open-hearth
+furnaces, 150 coke ovens, coal-washing plant, machine-shops,
+and thirteen miles of railway make up the plant here.
+At North Sydney, a few miles away, are the coal-shipping
+and iron-ore discharging piers.
+
+Glace Bay is the centre of the Dominion Company’s
+operations, the general offices being here, and the largest
+and most productive of the shafts not far distant. One is
+helped to realise the gigantic scale of the company’s operations
+by the official statement that in 1911 they produced
+3,892,958 tons. There are 5530 men on the pay-roll,
+nearly all of whom command high wages and live accordingly.
+Glace Bay, a desert a few years ago, has now a population
+of 16,562, and is the third town in the whole Province.
+
+New Scotland has not been free from labour troubles.
+During 1909 the coal-mining districts were the theatre of
+great and prolonged strikes. There was a famous strike at
+Lingan in 1882, but since then none until 1909. Cape
+Breton was free from disturbances of this kind, and as for
+Pictou County, with the exception of a few days lost
+at a couple of the collieries, there has been no strike in
+twenty-three years. I do not suppose any coal-mining district
+on the continent can show a similar period of freedom
+from industrial strife.
+
+But not many months ago the long peace was broken
+when an alien society, with its intolerable methods, appeared
+on the scene. These foreign unionists alleged they had
+come to help the Nova Scotia miners, who were weak and
+helpless, and at the mercy of the bloated capitalists. As a
+matter of fact, the Cape Breton miners are freer, in the best
+sense of the word, than their brethren over the border.
+Certainly they had never hitherto been under the heel of the
+labour “delegate.”
+
+“Our miners,” I was told, “labour under far more
+favourable conditions than the miners across the border.
+Their comfort and safety while in the mine is better cared
+for; they are better housed; and although Nature has
+ordained that coal-mining in Nova Scotia must be attended
+with difficulties unknown in many districts of the United
+States, fatal accidents are 50 per cent. fewer here than there,
+due to our more advanced legislation, to a better enforcement
+of the mining laws, and to the greater energy, skill, and
+intelligence of the officials of our mines.”
+
+There are many persons who advocate Government operation
+of the coal-mines. In mining legislation Nova Scotia
+enjoys the proud distinction of having, during the last thirty
+years, led the world, but this is like similar proposals for
+State-operated railways in Britain. There is one scheme
+which the Province Government might adopt, and that is
+a Government training mine as part of the education of the
+people, whether that education be common, industrial, or
+technical. The Government might operate a mine not for
+profit, but for practical purposes and the solution of the
+problems frequently occurring in the operation of coal-mines.
+A training mine might be a fitting appendage to
+the Nova Scotia Technical College.
+
+For a serious problem is that of the underground
+unskilled labour, or loader question. Another is the
+“boy” question.
+
+Many humanitarians are looking forward to a boyless
+colliery, when it will be unprofitable for mine-owners to
+employ boys in the mine. Not so long ago boys of five or
+six were employed; the age limit was extended to ten, then
+to twelve, and on to fourteen, and the cry now is that the
+limit should be extended to sixteen.
+
+The solution of the whole difficulty is the elimination
+of both the boy and the horse, and the substitution of
+mechanical haulage, and this, in spite of hindrances to the
+general application of such a system and lack of capital,
+will probably some day be brought about.
+
+I have mentioned the technical education of the miner,
+of which Mr. Drummond is an advocate. Novices would
+pass through a Government training mine, where all underground
+men would be miners, timbermen, and roadsmen
+in turns, and from which a novitiate, after a given period,
+say nine months, would be given his discharge papers and a
+necessary third-class certificate as miner. In the mine the
+novices would be under instructions from an experienced
+working miner. On the whole there is very much to be
+said in favour of the scheme, and Nova Scotia, which is a
+pioneer in mining legislation, might lead the way.
+
+The northern shore of the Great Bras d’Or entrance,
+opposite Newfoundland, exhibits a precipitous range of
+gypsum crags and pits, concealed by forest growth, and
+forming a barrier between the Strait and St. Anne harbour.
+The southern shore is really the long narrow Boularderie
+Island, settled by Highlanders, and comparatively low-lying,
+after which comes the entrance to Little Bras d’Or. The
+transit by sea between the two channels is often dangerous
+owing to the formidable out-jutting point of Aconi, about
+which many tales are told. There is a sunken bar at the
+entrance of the Little Bras d’Or, which prevents the entrance
+of any but the smallest vessels. There is a road leading
+southward from hence to North Sydney, and there is
+another road crossing Boularderie Island to the Bras d’Or.
+In this district both farming and fishing are carried on, but
+the mines and steel works draw away most of the menfolk.
+
+Off the coast south of Mira Bay lies the triangular
+island of Scutari, projecting two of its points to the ocean
+and a third towards the village of Mainadieu. This island,
+five miles long, is the extreme easterly point of the Dominion
+of Canada. The soil is poor, but it offers a convenient
+station for fishermen, and there is a lighthouse, to warn
+incoming vessels of the vicinity of Coromandière rocks.
+South of Scutari Island is Cape Breton, better known to
+the coast mariners as Port Novy Land, from the little
+islet of Puerto Nueva. It is from this low rocky point,
+beaten by the Atlantic surge for centuries, yet standing firm
+and compact, that the whole island of Cape Breton takes
+its name, another illustration of the little tail wagging the
+big dog.
+
+Speaking of names, down the coast I looked with keen
+curiosity for L’Orembeck, so often mentioned by Wolfe in
+his letters during the siege of Louisburg in 1758, and where
+he planted a battery. I was struck by the frequency with
+which the name “Lorraine” occurred on the coast between
+Port Novy and the Louisburg harbour lighthouse. Little
+Lorraine, Big Lorraine, Lorraine Head, and Lorraine
+River; but no L’Orembeck was in evidence until I met
+with an old French fisherman, who pointed to Lorraine
+Head, and said, “La voilà—Lorraine Bec,” and the
+mystery was instantly solved.[22] There is a landing cove
+here, and a mile inland is the terminus of the Sydney and
+Louisburg Railway.
+
+[Footnote 22: Bec was often applied to bold, jutting headlands. “Quel Bec!”
+cried the mariners when they saw Cape Diamond, and the exclamation
+gave a name to a city and province.]
+
+Eighteen years ago (1893) Louisburg could only be
+reached from Sydney by sea or by a truly infamous road,
+which had the effect of cutting it off from the itinerary of
+most tourists. Between Sydney and Lingan, which is the
+next harbour on the coast, a fertile and timbered country
+was settled by the Irish, who called their settlement Low
+Point, and the deep circular pond hard by Kilkenny Lake.
+Before the advent of the coal-mining population, Lingan
+used to be noted for the giant flocks of wild geese frequenting
+this region, to feed upon the seaweed and the
+vegetation of the harbour flats. So prevalent and exposed
+are the veins of coal hereabouts that the surface of the
+ground used to present a dead appearance in many places,
+from having been reduced to a cinder by a fire which once
+ranged and continued burning in the recesses of the cliff
+between Glace Bay and Port Morien for a period of several
+years. Between Cape Percy and Mira Bay a barren peninsula,
+five miles long and two wide, juts out, ending in Cape
+Morien. This peninsula is joined to the mainland by a
+low strip of sand, called False Bay Beach, which often used
+to deceive the mariner approaching from the sea by tempting
+him to essay a passage through to Port Morien. Inshore
+hereabouts was settled by American Loyalists, and their
+descendants are here to this day. Rounding the coast we
+find ourselves face to face with Mira Bay, a “crescent of
+fair sandy beach.” The Louisburg Railway has more or
+less followed the contour of the land, and its station of
+Mira is not far from the sea towards the centre of the bay,
+into which empties the beautiful Mira River. Here is the
+favourite summer resort of the holiday-making folk of the
+Sydneys and the mining district. The beach is a mile long,
+sloping gradually. Here one sees in large numbers the
+celebrated leaping tunny-fish, which afford sport both to
+spectators and fishermen. These fish, sometimes called
+horse-mackerel, grow in Atlantic waters to a monstrous
+size, frequently weighing 400 lbs., and even fish double
+that size are met with. They leap from the water like
+salmon, but have not yet been captured with rod, line,
+and hook, though one Sydney fisherman stuck to one
+monster for twelve hours before he was forced to “sever
+the connection.” The tunny season begins about the
+middle of July. Mira River is perhaps more of a character
+of a long narrow lake, prolonged by what is called Mira
+Gut, until it touches the sea. It is fed by the Salmon River,
+which rises some thirty miles from the coast, and the chain
+forms of river and lakes practically runs the whole length
+of this part of Cape Breton. For those who wish to take
+a pleasure cruise into the interior, a little steamer runs from
+Mira daily. After passing the Gut a gorgeous panorama of
+land and water meets the eye, as the steamer courses through
+a somewhat irregular waterway with numerous tree-clad
+islets. Navigation for steamers of small burden is practicable
+for twenty-five miles. About half-way up is Sangaree
+Island, which divides the river in two, and upon which some
+enterprising hotel-keeper has established “Kamp Kill Kare,”
+an orthography which should delight the heart of the late
+Mr. Josh Billings or of Mr. Andrew Carnegie. In the
+height of the summer the islets and the shores are filled
+with campers, for the salmon fishing is excellent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+LOUISBOURG
+
+
+I found it a far different thing arriving at Louisbourg by
+land from arriving by sea. In the latter case, one enjoys
+a rapid _coup d’œil_ from the moment one turns Lighthouse
+Point, of the harbour, Goat Island, the new village of
+Louisburg, and the site and ruins of the old town on the
+left. The first impression is that of a rapid transition
+from a violent running sea into a spacious harbour strangely
+quiet, considering what seems to be the exposed state of
+the entrance. But this exposure is not real, because Louisburg
+Harbour is protected by a sunken bar, not uncovered
+even at low tide. After the rugged and precipitous rocks
+succeed a series of hillocks here and there covered with
+stunted firs, and the land for a mile inland is poor and
+barren. An air of desolation broods about the place, which
+is hardly lessened by the great and grimy scaffoldings which
+form the wharves of the coal company, or the groups of
+fishermen’s cottages close to the water’s edge, although the
+eye catches glimpses of two or three trim white painted
+churches scattered along the borders of the harbour.
+
+But were the prospect greyer and more morose to the
+ignorant eye, nothing could destroy the light which the
+spectacle will ever lend to him who has read Louisbourg’s
+story, or restrain the thrill it imparts when seen for the
+first time.
+
+To the visitor by road or rail the surroundings of the
+modern village of Louisburg are apt to disenchant. Not
+even the presence of the two French cannon at the railway
+station, updrawn a few years ago from the depths of the
+harbour, quite offset the mile long stroll upon a creaking
+plank side walk through a succession of hideous clap-boarded
+stores, the bank, the lawyer’s office, the post-office,
+and eating-house. The older dwellings of the village
+are already falling into decay, and one old woman, one of
+the M’Alpines, who had seen better days, complained that
+the walls of her house, her home for forty years, scarce
+now sufficed to keep out the weather; and she and her
+faithful companion trembled lest it should not endure as
+long as their few remaining years. For it was no longer
+theirs: it had somehow together with most of the others
+passed out of their hands into those of the coal company,
+which like most corporations knew no mercy towards
+poor tenants.
+
+But there is a great ray of light in New Louisburg,
+and as for me I shall not easily forget the memory of one
+plucky English clergyman who, amidst poverty and squalor,
+and social and spiritual dreariness, for twenty-eight years
+has fought a cheery battle against these forces, and under
+conditions in many ways far harder than those which face
+a Houndsditch curate, has not trampled down his flag, or
+even allowed himself to be discouraged. His name is the
+Rev. Fraser Draper—(although I have called him, and I
+believe he calls himself an Englishman, there is a Scottish
+element in him), and his parish covers, I think, some forty
+square miles. To this he ministers either on a bicycle
+or afoot. Far less affluent is he than the Roman Catholic
+priest, who would seem to have so many votaries hereabouts,
+or even of the Presbyterian minister; yet this Anglican is
+the man for his work and his flock, and has strongly stirring
+within him that cheery manly something which is
+more the backbone and support of an Englishman’s religion
+than the Thirty-nine Articles, and shines more in a
+selfish world than all the candles on all the altars. My
+friend is a great authority on the history and topography of
+Louisbourg (mark the spelling—Louisburg is the modern
+town), and has himself quite a collection of objects of
+interest connected with both sieges. He told me of the
+visits to him of Lord and Lady Minto, Lord Dundonald
+and others, and of the pleasure it gave him to show them
+over the site of the famous town. From his parsonage in
+the very centre of the harbour’s crescent shore there arises,
+three miles away to the right, a small upstanding column
+on the horizon. This was my beacon as I set out for Old
+Louisbourg—the shaft erected by the men of Massachusetts
+fifteen years ago to commemorate William Pepperell and
+the first siege of Louisbourg in 1745.
+
+A French officer reported that Louisbourg was so strong
+that it might be held against any assault by an army of
+women. Yet English prisoners who had dwelt in the
+fortress believed Louisbourg might be taken, and their hopes
+were eagerly seized upon and shared by Governor Shirley of
+Massachusetts, a lawyer by profession, full of energy and enterprise,
+who now resolved upon the capture of Louisbourg.
+Unless the English had control of the whole coast from
+Cape Sable to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, the safety, nay,
+the very existence of New England was in constant jeopardy.
+The discontent and bad discipline of the Louisbourg garrison,
+which consisted of 1300 men, was a promising factor. The
+ramparts were, moreover, said to be defective in more than
+one place, and, besides this, if the French ships which came
+over sea with provisions and reinforcements could be intercepted,
+Shirley felt there was no small chance of success. He
+wrote instantly to London asking the Government to help
+him with ships. Without waiting for a reply a little fleet was
+raised, and a land force of 4000 men, chiefly composed of
+artisans, farmers, fishermen, and labourers, commanded by a
+merchant named Pepperell, was mustered for the expedition.
+Although lacking military experience, Pepperell possessed
+courage and good judgment, and was anxious to distinguish
+himself. On the 24th March 1745 the ships left Boston,
+reaching Canso ten days later. Here they remained three
+weeks, waiting for the ice to melt in the bays and harbours.
+Here, too, they were joined by the English commodore,
+Warren, whom King George had sent to assist in the capture
+of Louisbourg.
+
+The command of Louisbourg was in the hands of M.
+Duchambon. One night, just after a public ball, a captain,
+attired in his night-clothes, came rushing into the Governor’s
+chamber to report that a strange fleet had been sighted by
+the sentries entering Gabarus Bay, five miles distant. Soon
+the cannons were booming loudly from the walls, and a peal
+of bells rang through the town. Pepperell made a pretence
+of landing his troops at a certain point so as to deceive the
+French. A skirmish took place, in which the French were
+beaten back and some of them taken prisoners. Before
+nightfall 2000 of the New Englanders had planted foot on
+the shore, and the next day the siege of Louisbourg was
+begun. A hard and dangerous task was the landing of the
+artillery and stores, owing to the rolling surf. There being
+no wharf, the men had to wade through the sea to bring
+the guns, ammunition, and provisions on shore. This alone
+consumed an entire fortnight. Batteries were thrown up, in
+spite of sallies made from the town by French and Indians
+to prevent them. An outside battery was captured, mounted
+with twenty-eight heavy guns, which now belched forth shot
+and shell amongst the besieged. Warehouses and other
+places took fire, and great columns of smoke hid the fort
+from view for days at a time. The walls were at last seen
+to crumble, and when the guns of the Americans began
+to close up on the fortress, Duchambon summoned to
+surrender, replied that he would when forced to do so by
+the cannon of the foe. Upon the island battery being
+silenced, the English fleet entered the harbour and turned
+upon him its 500 guns. Duchambon’s supply of gunpowder
+being now exhausted, Louisbourg surrendered after a siege
+lasting forty-nine days.
+
+The fall of Louisbourg, the key to French power in
+North America, seemed almost incredible to the French.
+It was resolved at Versailles that an expedition should be
+sent out to Cape Breton to recapture it at all hazards. One
+of the finest fleets that ever left the shores of France sailed
+from Rochelle the following year, commanded by the Duc
+d’Anville, consisting of thirty-nine ships of war, with orders to
+recapture Louisbourg and Cape Breton, and to ravage Boston
+and the New England coasts. But a fierce tempest dispersed
+the whole squadron. When, at Chebucto, D’Anville arrived
+with the remnants of his fleet, his mortification was so great
+as to induce an apoplectic stroke, from which he died, and
+on an island in what is to-day known as Halifax Harbour,
+his body was buried. On the afternoon of the very day on
+which the French commander died, his Vice-admiral, Destournelles,
+arrived with three more ships. More than 2000
+men of the fleet were stricken with fever and perished.
+Destournelles, seeing no hope for success, proposed that the
+expedition should be abandoned and that the fleet should
+return to France, a proposal which most of his officers
+resisted. They desired to attack Annapolis, which was weak
+and had a small garrison. Once it was captured, Acadia
+was regained for France. Admiral Destournelles, thinking
+his action reflected on his character and honour, retired, and
+next morning they found him stabbed by his own hand
+through the breast.
+
+Ere the French fleet could reach Annapolis, another
+great storm arose, scattering the ships, and after 2500 brave
+Frenchmen had been lost in this ill-fated expedition, the only
+course remaining was to return.
+
+In 1748 was signed the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, and
+Louisbourg was handed back to France. Ten years later
+Pitt resolved upon its final destruction, and the story of the
+second siege is known to every schoolboy. In the interval
+between the two sieges the fortress had been considerably
+strengthened, and its new commandant, M. Drucour, was a
+man of great ability.
+
+[Illustration: THE ROAD TO LOUISBOURG.]
+
+[Illustration: LOUISBOURG—THE LAST OF THE DAUPHIN GATE.]
+
+The summer sun battled with sea-fog upon the miles
+of brown moorland, scrubbed birch, and rocky beach as I
+set out for Old Louisbourg—the scant ruins of the French
+fortress—lying some three miles away on a low-lying spit
+of land, Point Rochefort, on the south-western side of
+the harbour. This present village—a collection of shops
+and miners’ and fishermen’s cottages, and the wharves
+and lofty ruins of the coal company—occupies the site
+of the old royal battery which Brigadier-General James
+Wolfe seized and turned on the enemy. A century and
+a half ago from this distance the eye could have discerned
+across the harbour the roofs, spires, and stately battlements
+of a busy town. Now one’s only beacon along the barren
+shore is that slender shaft the Americans have there erected
+to commemorate the first siege. I followed the winding,
+rock-strewn road to this once-famed spot, where stood the
+“Dunkirk of the North.” A moderate familiarity with the
+military maps of the period enables one to trace out the
+chief features of the neighbourhood. To-day it is all a
+desert. There is no place like it, save Carthage. I crossed
+the bridge over the land-locked inlet called the Barachois.
+On my left, before the mouth of the harbour, lay Goat
+Island, where the French had a strong battery. Immediately
+in front are the remains of Wolfe’s siege works, when
+the young warrior knew he had the town in his grasp;
+and here, a pistol-shot further on, stood the Dauphin’s
+Gate, where the same leader and his victorious soldiers,
+“swarthy with wind and sun, and begrimed with smoke
+and dust,” entered on the morning of the 27th of July
+1758. Some ruins of the Dauphin’s Bastion still remain,
+and a little further on are the relics of the bomb-proof
+casemates of the King’s Bastion. I gained the summit
+of one of the green mounds which once were citadel,
+bastion, ramparts, and glacis. “Here,” I could say with
+Parkman, “stood Louisbourg; and not all the efforts of
+its conquerors, nor all the havoc of succeeding times, have
+availed to efface it. Men in hundreds toiled for months,
+toiled with lever, spade, and gunpowder, in the work of
+destruction, and for more than a century it has served as
+a stone quarry; but the remains of its vast defences still
+tell their tale of human valour and human woe.” A cow,
+a few lean sheep, a little group of fishermen’s children,
+are all that infest the spot and unwittingly consort with
+the spirits of the past. Here, at a charge of ten millions
+sterling, the most celebrated contemporary military engineers
+of France had reared a fortress without parallel in the New
+World. Within its ramparts dwelt some 10,000 souls.
+On this barren, wind-swept point, nestled a busy town
+behind sheltering walls, crowned by a citadel and adorned
+by lofty buildings. Here numerous regiments in the
+white-coated uniform of France, naval officers, monks,
+missionaries, mingled with the fisherfolk and the New
+England traders. To-day all is silence and desolation.
+
+Nearly seven miles in circumference is Louisbourg
+Harbour, whose mouth is so blocked with reefs and islands
+that the entrance is hardly above half a mile wide. This
+was commanded by Goat Island carrying an effective
+battery. For a distance of several miles westward the
+shores of the Bay of Gabarus offered a stern and precipitous
+natural barrier to the foe, broken here and there by
+entrenched caves or inlets. Breastworks formed of wooden
+stakes also help to prevent a landing. I strolled over
+the uneven turf with feelings of deep emotion. It is
+still easy to trace the lines of the fortifications, to mark
+the sites of the buildings, and the lines of the chief streets.
+In the Rue du Roy I picked up a fragment of a French
+ramrod; and a fisherman offered me a French wine-bottle
+of curious shape he had found in the cellar of the
+Governor’s house. Grape-shot and bullets still strew
+the site. But only too well did the victors do their work
+of demolition. For six months soldiers and sailors toiled
+at the task, and the remnants of two bastions, with bomb-proof
+casements, a heap of stones here, a pile of bricks
+there, are all that remain, On the site of the Intendant’s
+palatial dwelling is the wooden cottage of a fisherman.
+
+In the teeth of a high wind I pushed along the shore
+west of the King’s Bastion. There I saw and felt the
+breastworks of spruce still protruding from the surf-swept
+beach. I saw where Lord Dundonald fell, and where his
+bones now lie, and gazed across to Coromandière Cove to
+the spot where Wolfe landed. The very rock that felt the
+impact of his boat’s prow is still reverently pointed out.
+
+Should not all this theatre of stirring events be preserved
+as historic ground? Its former renown was universal; its
+present oblivion is a national reproach.
+
+I was interested in ascertaining to whom the ground of
+Louisbourg now belongs. Some years ago a claimant
+appeared in the person of a Captain Kenelly, who, purchasing
+the land of certain squatters, proceeded to put his
+own peculiar ideas concerning the preservation of Louisbourg
+into execution. But it is to be feared that the worthy
+captain, besides having no very clear title, was altogether
+ill-advised in his proceedings. He even went the length of
+repointing the French masonry, skirting the site of the town
+with a barbed-wire fence, and exacting a fee for admission
+to tourists.
+
+Few are the tourists who penetrate to this spot, and
+those that come hail chiefly from New England. Fifteen
+years ago, on the 150th anniversary of the first capture of
+Louisbourg by Sir William Pepperell, funds were raised
+in Boston for a monument to commemorate the event, and
+a band of pious pilgrims duly established a granite shaft
+on the site of the Dauphin’s Gate. And again, quite
+recently, a large party from Halifax, consisting of members
+of the Halifax Board of Trade (_anglicè_ Chamber of Commerce)
+and their friends, arrived on a holiday excursion,
+bringing with them a brass band. On that deserted Atlantic
+shore, near the forgotten cemetery which holds the graves
+of thousands of French, English, and American dead, there
+floated out on the air the strains of “The Maple Leaf”—the
+first martial music to awaken echoes in this spot for a
+century and a half.
+
+The seafaring Kenelly is dead, his schemes are in abeyance,
+and his title to the land is vigorously disputed.
+Indeed, there seems to be little doubt that the whole site
+of this fortress is Imperial property, and the sooner an
+arrangement is devised which will give Louisbourg into
+the charge of the Battlefields Commission or some body
+appointed to conserve it, the better. It would be an eternal
+reproach to the Dominion if it allows these sacred vestiges
+to be swept from the face of the earth, save for the memorial
+which the piety of Americans have placed on British ground
+in memory of the exploit of their forebears. Why should
+we British do less for our victory and our victors? And,
+may I add, for the valour of a defeated foe?
+
+There is much agricultural land hereabouts, chiefly
+cultivated by Highland Scots. “Quaint, indeed, are the
+ways of many of them,” says one traveller, “amusing their
+maxims, and droll their wit.” Can it be that this writer
+forms his notion of Highland drollery from the exhibitions
+of Mr. Harry Lauder? The truth is being forced upon a
+reluctant and prejudiced world that the Scots and the Jews
+are the true humorists of the world, but I do not think that
+humour is typical of the Gaelic folk. Personally I have
+seen none of it in them either in Old World or New, and
+my experience of the “droll Highlanders” of Cape Breton
+is that their ideas of drollery are rather Lancastrian in their
+cold-bloodedness. Hospitable these folk are, doubtless,
+but only upon occasion and when the mood takes them. I
+have heard of a traveller, a mining engineer, whose buggy
+broke down, and who sought in vain for refreshment for
+miles in this part of Cape Breton. “Some bread.” “We’ve
+nae bread.” “Some cheese.” “We’ve nae cheese.” “Some
+water.” “The well’s dried up; try the store.” This was
+a colloquy which took place after a half-a-dozen attempts
+with folk who shook their heads and had “nae English.”
+At the store, as he enumerated each item of his wants, the
+storekeeper looked blank and replied, “We’ve nae call
+for it.”
+
+“Have you no crackers?”
+
+“We’ve nae call for them; there’s some ship’s biscuit
+and some molasses.”
+
+Ship’s biscuit and molasses! Hurrah! God’s own
+country! Ship’s biscuit, unless very mouldy, are milk-white;
+molasses is, in respect of its saccharine quality,
+something like honey. So we have come to twenty
+square miles of tillable country not exactly flowing, but in
+one spot oozing, let us say, something resembling milk and
+honey. One wonders, casting an eye over the sun-kissed
+rolling earth, at the quivering pines, birch and beeches, why
+human beings should for so long be content with so small a
+measure of material prosperity as this.
+
+“Them,” says a guide in my ear, “why, them fellows is
+rich. Ain’t they got stockingsful of guineas in their cellars?
+Don’t you waste any pity on them farmers. When they
+ain’t farming they’re fishing, and when they ain’t fishing they
+take a spell o’ mining. They cling to what they get, and,
+barring a little smuggled gin or rum, get their living cheap,
+I tell you.”
+
+The country between Glace Bay and Louisbourg ought
+to be a famous grazing country, especially for sheep.
+The cattle I saw at Mira Bay looked fat and comely, and
+in the western parts of Cape Breton a great sheep-raising
+industry might well be established. When it is understood
+that the food demands of the mining and manufacturing
+population are already far greater than the Nova Scotian
+farmers can supply, it will be seen at once how great is the
+opportunity here to establish a paying market, especially for
+mutton, poultry, vegetables, and dairy products.
+
+[Illustration: LOUISBOURG—THE OBELISK COMMEMORATING THE FIRST SIEGE.]
+
+As for sport hereabouts, besides large and small game
+in season, the existence of so many small streams ensures
+an abundance—even a superabundance—of fish. I heard
+an angler on the Mira River who, two days before my
+arrival, had caught eighty trout in one day! They were,
+for the most part, useless to him, and he had to leave them
+behind. Such “sport” is bound to pall—one takes refuge
+in the reflection that it cannot last. Cape Breton, like
+Newfoundland, is being discovered by hunters of moose,
+snarers of trout and salmon, and seekers of wild-fowl and
+shore birds from afar, and trains and steamers are pouring
+their human freight into the solitudes of yesterday.
+
+Than a “Sportsman’s Paradise” I know no phrase so
+absurdly abused; but if getting what he wants and all he
+wants in the way of fish and fowl and fauna generally constitutes
+a sportsman’s idea of happiness, I know of no place
+where he can be quite so happy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A NEW INVERNESS
+
+
+Skirting the south coast of Cape Breton one comes to one
+of the places where Cape Breton gains an additional island
+by the presence of a narrow water passage between two
+sections of land. In this instance it is the work of man
+and not of nature. As man found Cape Breton, the whole
+four hundred and fifty square miles of water of the great
+interior lake of Cape Breton was by the Little Bras d’Or on
+the north-east coast, so that the early settlers wishing to
+go from the Strait of Canso to Sydney, for example, had
+to go and sail around the Cape Breton coast. This was
+intolerable, considering that at St. Peter’s Bay, a neck of
+land, half a mile wide, alone prevented a south-west passage
+to and from the Bras d’Or, not only a saving of
+hundreds of miles, but an abolition of the risks, sometimes
+serious enough, of navigating the coast. A century ago
+the importance of the scheme to cut a canal across this
+narrow isthmus of St. Peter’s was realised, and in 1825 an
+engineer named Hall surveyed the isthmus and made an
+estimate for the cutting, which, I believe, was done for little
+more than _£_20,000. Up to that time there had been a
+portage here for very small craft. St. Peter’s was settled
+by the French even before Arichat, and came very near
+being settled as the site of the great French fortress
+which was destined for Cape Breton, and which was ultimately
+fixed at Louisbourg. At a spot in the locality
+called Briquerie Point the clay was dry for the brick used
+in building the town of Louisbourg, one of the very bricks
+of which lies before me on the table as I write.
+
+The canal is about 2400 feet long, with a breadth
+of 55 feet, and a depth of 19 feet, debouching at its
+northern end into St. Peter’s inlet, which in turn flows
+into the widest part of the Bras d’Or. Through this canal
+the steamer from Mulgrave passes along the Strait of Canso,
+and through Lennox Passage to St. Peter’s.
+
+The sites of both English and French forts are easily to
+be traced at the present time. The latter, indeed, is close to
+the canal, and the house of the lockmaster is upon it. The
+old earthworks are plainly to be seen, and occasional finds
+of bayonets and other evidences of warfare are made. A
+few years ago a hooped cannon was unearthed, undoubtedly
+belonging to a period long prior to the building of the
+“Port Toulouse” fort here in 1749. It had probably been
+the property of Denys de Fronsac, who had a settlement here
+as long ago as 1636. Fort Granville, used after the English
+occupation of Cape Breton, was on the hill to the east of
+the canal lock. In this locality is Jordan Chapel island,
+where the first chapel for the use of the Micmacs is said to
+have been erected by the French over two centuries ago.
+It is the scene of several interesting legends still related by
+the Indians.
+
+There is good bathing at St. Peter’s, and as a matter of
+course there is every facility for boating, both in the bay and
+the inlet at the other end of the canal. Excellent trout-fishing
+may be had by going a short distance. Some of the
+best streams are river Tiere and its branches, two miles
+distant; Scott’s River, seven miles; Thom’s Brook, fifteen
+miles; and Grand River, a like distance. There are salmon
+in the last-named river.
+
+A good deal has been said about the indifferent roads
+in Nova Scotia, but those about here are well made,
+and from the nature of the soil do not become muddy.
+Among attractive drives are those to river Bourgeois,
+five miles; and to Grand River along the shore through
+l’Ardoise. A favourite water excursion, on the Bras d’Or
+side, is to the quarries at Marble Mountain, a distance of
+fifteen miles. On the way thither is Point Michaux, or
+Cape Himlopen or Hinchinbroke. It has all three names,
+but is usually known by the first one. Here there is a
+beautiful driving beach, two miles long, and an eighth of
+a mile wide. It is very level, and of such hard, smooth
+sand that the hoofs of the horses make little more impression
+on it.
+
+St. Peter’s Inlet is studded with islands clad in verdure,
+and there are times when the scene is unusually beautiful,
+even for a land of which beauty is everywhere. On a calm
+summer morning, for instance, the peaceful sea is a mirror
+which reflects in rare beauty the red, purple, and golden hues
+which the sunlight gives the hills. On the land the colours
+are strangely bright, while the waters soften and blend the
+whole into a picture which must ever linger in the memory.
+
+[Illustration: LA BRAS D’OR LAKE. (CAPE BRETON.)]
+
+St. Peter’s may also be reached from Point Tupper on
+the opposite side of the Strait of Canso, by taking the Cape
+Breton Railway, a journey of thirty-one miles.
+The tides run through the Strait of Canso at the rate of
+from four to six miles an hour, and they defy the tide-tables
+by rising superior to all rules by which men look for
+tides to be governed. Their course is determined to a
+large extent by the force and direction of the winds outside,
+and they may flow in one direction for days at a time.
+The tourist can tell whether the steamer is going with
+or against the tide by watching the spar buoys and noting
+the direction in which they point.
+
+Arichat, situated on Isle Madame, with about seven
+hundred souls, was formerly the seat of the Bishop of
+Arichat, until the see was removed to Antigonish. It
+is built on high ground, and has a fine harbour. There
+is another good harbour at West Arichat. The situation
+of the island makes the climate delightfully cool
+in the warmest of weather. This place was one of the
+important stations of the Jersey fishing houses, and the
+Robins still have an establishment here. In the township
+are many Acadian French, some of the families having
+come here from Grand Pré at the time of the dispersion.
+Houses are easily procured at Arichat by those who wish
+to reside here during the summer, and several Americans
+have been regular visitors for years, making the village a
+centre from which to take various trips through the
+surrounding country.
+
+So far I have spoken of the middle and the eastern
+Cape Breton. But there is, as the map will show you,
+another side, the western, where is situated the county of
+Inverness, whose coast-line stretches from St. George’s Bay
+northward to Cape Lawrence, All this region settled by
+Highlanders and French has been only recently opened up
+by the Inverness Railway, a line built to tap the great
+coal deposits in the vicinity of Port Hood, Mabou and
+Broad Cove. This line starts from the Intercolonial Railway
+at Point Tupper, and has opened up a fine piece of
+farming country, and provided a winter outlet for the
+large quantities of coal being produced at Port Hood and
+Inverness. The road follows the coast-line for the entire
+distance from Port Hastings to Inverness, and an exceedingly
+fine panorama of land and sea is disclosed to the
+view. A daily passenger service has been inaugurated,
+connection with the Intercolonial being made at Point
+Tupper.
+
+A steamer runs from Mulgrave to Port Hood, a distance
+of twenty-six miles, on regular days of each week.
+Port Hood is near the entrance to the Bay, and from there
+the journey may be continued to Mabou, Inverness,
+Margaree Harbour, and Cheticamp. My solitary fellow
+passenger was a gentleman from Antigonish, whom I neither
+flatter nor depreciate when I say he was the most typical
+Highlander I have ever seen. Tall and spare, with florid
+skin and high cheek-bones, and hair and beard which a
+decade ago or so must have been violently red, the beard
+jutting out in true Highland aggressiveness, it was something
+of a surprise to me to find that he did not say
+“whateffer,” and an eternal disappointment that he spoke
+anything but Gaelic. But indeed he had the Highland
+brevity of speech, and glowered about him from under his
+bushy eyebrows much as such a man should properly glower
+when in kilts, and with a claymore in his hand.
+
+“Who is that man?” I asked the conductor of the
+train.
+
+“That—oh, that’s old MacTavish.”
+
+“I knew it.”
+
+“Then what did you ask for?”
+
+“I mean, I knew he must be a MacTavish. I was
+afraid you would tell me he was a Mr. Tompkins of
+Boston. He seems preoccupied.”
+
+“Occupied? Aye, he’s a busy man is Senator
+MacTavish.”
+
+I could not restrain a start of surprise. In the old
+days, a couple of centuries ago, in the old and real Inverness
+country, this man would have been a chieftain of
+freebooters and cattle-lifters, and doubtless played his part
+as deftly, as daring, and as dourly as under the changed
+conditions of our modern civilisation he plays it now.
+Afterwards, I had some conversation with Mr. MacTavish,
+and not once I am glad to say did he abandon his character
+or fall away from the high opinion I had formed of him
+at sight. I only mention this trifling _rencontre_, because
+shortly after my return to England, I read a telegraphic
+despatch in the _Times_ to the effect that “Senator X. Y.
+MacTavish has been appointed to”—well, to very high
+office.
+
+The train has arrived at Port Hood, which is the county
+town of Inverness. There are not many of the amenities
+of life here, and one could not reasonably expect more,
+because the two thousand souls here are in the swirl and
+centre of the Port Hood coal boom. The property worked
+at present by the company is on the coast, sixteen square
+miles in extent, and there are two principal seams, some
+seven or eight feet thick, supposed to contain nearly
+150,000,000 tons of coal, which are being mined at the
+rate of some 500 tons a day. Yet Port Hood is already
+looking up as a summer resort, and many denizens of towns
+and cities who wish to leave the beaten track have fixed
+upon this place and its picturesque environs as a capital
+centre for boating, fishing, and bathing.
+
+Coal is the great factor of Cape Breton, and it would
+make a Londoner’s mouth water to see how cheap and
+accessible it is. There are places where, as has been said, a
+man can, without leaving his farm, go down to the seashore
+and dig his winter’s coal as easily as he digs his
+potatoes. Coal in abundance is frequently struck in digging
+for fence posts, and around Port Hood in Inverness county
+you are sure to strike it if your spade goes deep enough.
+
+There are a couple of islands off Port Hood, one of
+which had a great interest for me. It is called Smith’s
+Island; that this is no arbitrary title will be gathered from
+the fact that of the fifteen families on Smith’s Island,
+thirteen are Smiths. But then, of course, Smith is almost
+as much Highland as MacGregor. These thirteen families
+of Smith have divided the 500 acres of the island into farms,
+producing four or five tons of hay to the acre, root crops,
+and maize. Each family goes in for sheep-rearing, and
+there are fifty or sixty cows besides. But this does not
+exhaust the resources of the Smiths; they are fishermen,
+and make use of the fish offal as manure, which practically
+accounts for the land’s fertility, and there is a flourishing
+business in lobster canning. The fish caught is not dried
+exclusively, as was formerly the case, but a proportion of it
+is shipped fresh in government bait freezers and refrigerator
+cars, a system which is happily coming into vogue throughout
+Maritime Canada. Now I feel sure that if a similar colony
+of Browns, Jones, and Robinsons would emigrate and settle
+on Outer or any of the other islands about the coast, a like
+prosperity awaits them.
+
+From Port Hood the railway goes on northward to
+Mabou, and to still further coal-fields. Beautifully situated
+is Mabou on a stream a few miles from Mabou harbour,
+and there is an abundance of trout fishing hereabouts.
+Past Mabou the line skirts Lake Ainslee, the largest
+freshwater lake in Cape Breton.
+
+Inverness, now the chief town of Western Cape Breton
+Island, is only about a decade old. In 1900 the population
+was less than 100. In 1911 it had nearly 3000 souls.
+
+The locality was formerly known as “Broad Cove
+Mines,” or “Loch Leven,” and it was originally the
+“Shean.” “Shean” means, I was told, the “home of the
+fairies.” It nestles under the towering heights of lofty Cape
+Mabou, close to the waters of the gulf.
+
+The inhabitants of Inverness are already infected with
+the spirit of enterprise, and have a gude conceit of themsel’.
+Take the following description by a local writer:—“Looking
+down upon this site, the town of Inverness,
+much like a picture on the bottom of a piece of eighteenth
+century crockery ware, you behold by night the electrically
+bejewelled homeplace of about 4000 souls; by day you
+note that the erstwhile fir-thatched roof of the home of
+the fairies is covered over with workshop and cottage,
+bank-head and power-house, halls, schools, and churches, the
+homeplace of the modern fairy and his co-workers in other
+avocations—the homeplace of the hard-working, thrifty,
+fearless and frugal coal-miner and his family.”
+
+Is not that wonderful? And yet there are people—even
+Canadians—who say Nova Scotia is not going ahead
+fast enough!
+
+From Cheticamp, where is an old establishment of the
+Jersey fishing firms, the coast becomes higher, barer, and
+more rugged, and more dangerous to mariners, until Cape
+Lawrence is reached. Of this coast it was said long ago:
+“The north-west storms of November and December hurry
+many a vessel on to this long straight lee-shore, where the
+wretched crews, even if they effect a landing, wander in
+ignorance of the course to be taken, until their limbs are
+frozen, and they are obliged to resign themselves to their
+fate. In some instances they have succeeded in reaching the
+settlements to the southward, though eventually with the
+loss of hands and feet. Often, however, the only record of
+their distress is the discovery of their bones, whitening on
+the shore.” I am glad to say these tragedies are very infrequent
+nowadays, owing to a greater knowledge of the
+coast and the interior, and also to the existence of settlements
+hereabouts. The northern extremity of the island
+is only eight miles wide, that being the distance between
+Cape St. Lawrence and Cape North, the intervening shore
+forming a crescent, the land southwards sloping down to
+the water, and sheltered by the two capes. It is said to be
+of good quality, and, indeed, agriculture and grazing are
+not neglected there.
+
+[Illustration: LANDSCAPE NEAR STELLARTON.]
+
+Cape North has been called the Watch Tower of the
+Gulf of St. Lawrence, but this was before the Straits of
+Belle Isle came to be so generally used. It is the northernmost
+bulwark of New Scotland, a promontory two miles
+wide, extending four miles into Cabot Strait.
+
+
+
+Who, standing on the promontory of Cape North, can
+look unmoved on that terrible island of St. Paul, which
+looms up ten miles to the north-east? This barren, rocky
+isle shares with Cape Sable the infamy of having been the
+grave of thousands of brave men. St. Paul, since the
+erection of a suitable lighthouse, has been largely robbed of
+its terrors for the living, but nothing can blot out the
+memory of the past. I have now all but completed my
+itinerary of New Scotland. From one extremity of the
+peninsula to the other had I travelled and remarked the
+people and the prospect. There is still an important corner,
+where it joins the New Brunswick mainland, undescribed.
+Let us retrace our steps.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+AMHERST
+
+
+Once again we approach a district of memories—the seat
+of the long feud between French and English for the
+mastery of Acadia.
+
+In the county of Cumberland, on the south-western
+side of the narrow isthmus severing the Bay of Fundy from
+Northumberland Straits, and on the edge of the Province,
+surrounded by marshes, is the small and flourishing town
+of Amherst. Flourishes indeed, blossoms all the year
+round with an unconquerable prosperity—-the very type
+of “hustling,” boosting, busy little town one sees in the
+West, resolved never to look backward, and Mark Tapley
+like, to be cheerful and smiling under any and all circumstances.
+Such is the little town on the little Amherst
+River, named after the victor of Montreal, to whom the
+French surrendered Canada. “Busy Amherst,” as it likes
+to proclaim itself, even on the sign at the railway station.
+
+Amherst, I was told, “claimed a population of 8000.”
+The “claim” really turned out to be short of the truth,
+perhaps to the surprise of Moncton and Frederickton across
+the border. For after all, had it been an exaggeration, one
+sees it is only a cheerful symptom and aspiration of growth.
+Here you find growth must not be spiritual, or intellectual,
+or artistic, but material. For has not the great apostle of
+Imperialism in our time told Canada, “Get population and
+all these things will be added unto you.” Of what value
+are the doubters here? And with what perplexity would
+an Amherstian hearken to the plaint my ears have heard in
+many English towns and villages, “Alas, I fear the town is
+growing. It is no longer what it was.” The vain sighers
+after a London or a Bexborough, “small, white, and clean,”
+would meet with scant sympathy in Amherst. But
+Amherst is still only in the first stages of its journey,
+and it is still, with all its aspirations towards Pittsburg
+or Lowell, still a pleasant country town filled with a
+pleasant people intensely attached to Amherst. Even
+politics are not taken seriously, otherwise how account
+for that bewildering phenomenon which met my eyes on
+the second floor of a handsome building in the heart of
+the town. Can you conceive of Mr. Pott of the _Eatanswill
+Gazette_ and the editor of the _Independent_ of the same
+town, not merely dwelling in unity under the same roof,
+but holding forth in the same office, even going to the
+incredible extent of assisting one another in the stress of
+production! Yet this is the case of the editors of the
+_Amherst News_, a Liberal organ, and the _Amherst Courier_, a
+Conservative organ. What a lesson in professional amity!
+It is not as if party feeling did not run high in the press of
+Nova Scotia. Alas, it runs as high and as tempestuously
+as ever it did at Eatanswill, if one is to judge from the
+columns of the two rival Halifax papers. One can imagine
+the weary editor of the _News_ saying one evening to the
+editor of the _Courier_, “My dear sir, _would_ you mind
+finishing this editorial for me? I am sorry I must run
+away to keep an appointment. Just go on from this
+sentence:—‘Borden, the leader of a discredited, disheartened,
+and disorganised gang of Tory office-seekers, is
+endeavouring to fling his disgraceful wiles over the Western
+farmers, but....’” “I’ll do it with pleasure,” returns the
+editor of the _Courier_. “Leave it to me, I see the point,”
+and taking up a pen he continues tranquilly, “but as the
+_News_ has long since pointed out in our merciless exposé of
+Tory methods and Tory prevarication, these tactics are only
+laughed at by the sturdy commonsense yeomen of Manitoba,
+Saskatchewan,” &c., &c. Or, if it is the other way about,
+the _News_ man boldly (but merely professionally) declares in
+the columns of the _Courier_ that “Laurier and his renegade
+troop may extract what satisfaction they like from the
+howls and cheers of their Yankee, Armenian, Hungarian,
+and Doukhobor supporters in the north-west who masquerade
+as loyal Britons and Free-traders, but who, as we
+have so often shown,” &c.
+
+And upon reflection I am inclined to suspect that even
+at Halifax, in the very thick of the party heat and storm,
+the rival editors are not quite as truculent and vindictive
+as one might gather from their charges and imputations;
+although perhaps nothing short of necessity—such for
+example as a loaded pistol at his head—would induce the
+editor of the _Chronicle_ to edit the _Herald_, or vice versa. But,
+you see, the Amherst editors are too busy booming their
+town to regard Dominion or Provincial politics as anything
+but an intellectual or social diversion. No one would
+credit the articles they write about Amherst—Amherst’s
+yesterday a good deal, Amherst’s to-day a great deal,
+Amherst’s to-morrow a very great deal, I assure you....
+
+Among the chief establishments here are car works,
+engine and machine works, a large boot and shoe factory,
+woollen mills, a coffin factory (fancy anything so suggestive
+of mortality being associated with Amherst!), an iron
+foundry, planing-mills, and saw-mills. Amherst seems to
+have solved the problem of cheap power, being the first
+to prove the practicability of Edison’s notion of power
+supplied direct from the mine. An enterprising company
+here was the first on the Continent to fix a plant for the
+generation of electricity at the mouth of a coal-mine, for
+the purpose of distributing power to distant industries that
+require it, and it is to be hoped that Amherst will ultimately
+avail itself to the full of the advantages such
+enterprise offers. The great power plant is situated at the
+mouth of the Chignecto mines, about six miles from the
+town. Coal from the shovels of the miners is carried in
+cars to the surface and dumped into the screens, and the
+screenings, hitherto looked upon as almost waste, are carried
+in endless conveyors to immense bins, from whence they are
+fed through chutes to the furnaces. With fuel so close at
+hand, requiring no second handling, it is possible to generate
+power at a low cost and transmit it to a territory included
+in a radius of several square miles. The successful inauguration
+of this experiment elicited a prompt telegram of
+congratulation from the great Edison.
+
+It is worthy of remark that there is no vertical shaft at
+Chignecto. The coal is hauled up a “slope,” in trucks
+containing 1500 lbs. each, by a cable. When the trucks
+reach the surface they continue the journey upon a similar
+slope in the open air (built like a toboggan slide), until
+they reach the top of the bank-head. Here an elaborate
+system of trucks and switches sends each truck exactly where
+it is wanted, and its contents are mechanically dumped into
+rockers and over screens, which accomplish marvels in the
+way of “natural selection” before the good coal reaches the
+railway cars below, waiting to receive it. The final process,
+however, is an expert system of hand-picking, by which
+slates and other impurities are removed without stopping
+the progress of the coal for an instant. The slack or culm
+is mechanically carried to holders in the boiler-room by
+endless conveyors, where it is conveyed by gravitation to
+mechanical stokers, thus obviating the necessity of the fuel
+being handled in any way by human labour.
+
+More substantial new buildings, either of brick or freestone,
+are built every year in Amherst—the freestone here
+being much in demand for building in other and distant
+parts of Canada. I do not think the private residences
+exhibit a very high taste, but they compare favourably
+with those of other parts of the Province. Nova Scotia, as
+I have already more than hinted, is, with all its natural
+beauties, hardly an architectural paradise.
+
+The country surrounding Amherst is flat and marshy,
+but interesting, both scenically and historically. A century
+and a half ago Amherst was the French Acadian settlement
+of Beaubassin, and who that has ever read Parkman’s
+narrative can forget Fort Lawrence and Beauséjour?
+
+When Louisbourg and Cape Breton were restored to
+France by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, the
+British Government sought to offset this blunder by the
+English settlement of Nova Scotia. A proclamation was
+issued offering all officers and private men retired from the
+army or navy, and to many others, a free passage to Nova
+Scotia, besides supporting them for a year after landing, and
+giving them arms, ammunition, and a grant of land to build
+a dwelling. Parliament having voted £40,000, in the summer
+of 1749 more than 2500 settlers, with their families, arrived
+at Chebucto, forthwith rechristened in honour of the Earl
+of Halifax.
+
+The commander of the expedition and the chief of the
+new colony was Colonel Edward Cornwallis, a man both
+able and lovable. One of Cornwallis’s first cares was this
+very Acadian district of Beaubassin.
+
+Some 13,000 Frenchmen were at this time settled in
+some ten villages in Acadia. To the northward the French
+had built a fort of five bastions, which they called Beauséjour,
+and another one much similar at Baie Verte. Their
+idea was to keep up communication with Louisbourg until
+they could strike a blow against the English and get back
+Acadia again into their own hands.
+
+Soon after Cornwallis’s arrival he issued a proclamation
+in French and English to the French Acadians calling upon
+them to assist his new settlers. He did not fail to remind
+them that while they had so long enjoyed possession of their
+lands and the free exercise of their religion, they had been
+secretly aiding King George’s enemies. But this would be
+condoned if they would at once take the oath of allegiance
+as British subjects.
+
+It was at Fort Beauséjour that the priestly fanatic Le
+Loutre laboured to create dissatisfaction and sow the seeds
+of revolt amongst the thrifty, ignorant Acadians, who
+otherwise would have been happy and contented. Their
+minds filled with Le Loutre’s threats and promises, they
+refused to take the oath of allegiance, and even to supply
+the English settlers with labour, timber, or provisions,
+though good prices for these were offered. Cornwallis
+warned them. “You will allow yourselves,” he said, “to
+be led away by people who find it to their interest to lead
+you astray. It is only out of pity for your situation and
+your inexperience in the ways of government that we condescend
+to reason with you, otherwise the question would
+not be reasoning, but commanding and being obeyed.”
+
+He told them that they had been for more than thirty-four
+years the subjects of the King of Great Britain. “Show
+now that you are grateful for his favours and ready to serve
+your King when your services are required. Manage to let
+me have here, in ten days, fifty of your people to assist the
+poor to build their houses to shelter them from the bad
+weather. They shall be paid in ready money and fed on
+the King’s provisions.”
+
+Le Loutre, disregarding all this warning and exhortation,
+aroused the native Indians of the province, the
+Micmacs, against the English newcomers. He despatched
+them stealthily to slay and to destroy. Twenty Englishmen
+were surprised and captured at Canso while gathering hay.
+Eight Indians, pretending to barter furs, went on board
+two English ships and tried to surprise them. Several
+of the sailors were killed. A sawmill had been built near
+Halifax. Six unsuspecting men went out unarmed to
+hew some timber. Of these four were killed and scalped,
+and one was captured. So frequent became the Indian
+attacks that the men of Halifax formed themselves into a
+militia, and a sentry paced the streets every night. Cornwallis
+offered £100 for the head of Le Loutre. Ten guineas
+were offered for an Indian, living or dead, or for his scalp.
+
+To build a fort to counterbalance the Fort Beauséjour
+of the French was imperative. The latter was situated on
+the western bank of a little stream called the Missaguash,
+which the French claimed as the boundary between Canada
+and Acadia. Opposite, near Beaubassin, Colonel Lawrence
+was sent with 400 men to build the English fort. Le
+Loutre and his Acadians did their utmost to prevent the
+English landing and building the fort, which was christened
+Fort Lawrence. The commander of this post, Captain
+Howe, reasoned with the stubborn Acadians, many of
+whom perceived the good sense of his arguments and acknowledged
+his good influence. One bright autumn day
+a Frenchman in the dress of an officer advanced to the
+opposite side of the stream waving a white handkerchief.
+Howe, ever polite, advanced to meet him. As he
+did so, some Indians, who were in ambuscade pointed their
+guns at him and shot him dead. La Corne, the French
+commandant, was filled with shame and horror at this
+dastardly murder. He would like to have got rid of
+Le Loutre, but the priest was too strong for him. His
+influence with the Quebec authorities was great, and the
+Acadian people dreaded Le Loutre’s fierce anger.
+
+Notwithstanding, there were a number of Acadians who
+consented to take the oath of allegiance to King George.
+When the French Governor at Quebec was apprised of
+this he issued a proclamation that all Acadians must
+either swear loyalty to France and be enrolled in the
+Canadian militia, or suffer the penalty of fire and sword.
+By way of rejoinder, the English Governor of Nova Scotia
+declared that if any Acadian taking the oath of allegiance
+to King George should afterwards be found fighting
+amongst the French soldiers, he would be shot. Thus
+were the unhappy Acadians between two fires. A considerable
+number removed their settlements to the Canadian
+side of the boundary. Some travelled even as far as
+Quebec. But the majority who remained continued to
+cause great anxiety to the English authorities in Nova
+Scotia.
+
+In 1754 the French contemplated an invasion of Nova
+Scotia, much to the alarm of Halifax, knowing that in the
+absence of the English fleet Louisbourg could send a force
+in a few hours to overrun the country. Were not the
+Acadians there to furnish provisions to the French invaders,
+and in forty-eight hours 15,000 armed Acadians could be
+collected at Fort Beauséjour. The outlying English forts
+would be destroyed, and Halifax starved into surrender.
+With New Scotland reduced, New England would be the
+next victim. Lawrence and Governor Shirley of Massachusetts,
+taking counsel together, resolved to strike a blow
+instantly before troops from France or Quebec could arrive,
+and drive the French out of the isthmus. Two thousand
+men were raised, and the command given to an English
+officer, Colonel Monckton. On the 1st June 1755 the
+English war-party arrived here in Chignecto Bay.
+
+As commandant at Fort Beauséjour one Vergor had
+succeeded La Corne. When he saw the English ships
+approach, Vergor issued a proclamation to the neighbouring
+Acadians to hasten to his defence. Fifteen hundred
+responded, and three hundred of these he took into the
+fort. The others he ordered to retire into the woods and
+stealthily harass the enemy.
+
+When the bombardment was at its height, and Vergor
+was hourly expecting help from Louisbourg, a letter arrived
+to say that assistance could not come from that quarter.
+An English squadron was cruising in front of Louisbourg
+harbour, and the French frigates were thereby prevented
+from putting out to sea.
+
+The Acadians became disheartened, and in spite of
+threats deserted by dozens. One morning at breakfast a
+shell from an English mortar crashed through the ceiling
+of a casemate, killing three French officers and an English
+captain who had been taken prisoner. Vergor saw that he
+had begun to strengthen his fort too late. There was now
+no hope—the guns of the English were too near. He despatched
+a flag of truce and surrendered Fort Beauséjour.
+
+Having got Fort Beauséjour (renamed Fort Cumberland)
+into his hands, Monckton summoned another French
+stronghold at Baie Verte to surrender. The commandant
+complied, and the campaign was over. The danger to
+English settlers in Nova Scotia was removed for ever.
+
+From the portals of the excellently appointed Marshland
+Club in Amherst I set out in a Canadian-built car
+with a friend, an ex-member of the Dominion Parliament,
+to pay a visit to Fort Lawrence and Fort Beauséjour—household
+words to a Canadian boy versed in even the
+rudiments of his country’s stirring history. We had some
+difficulty in finding the exact site of Colonel Lawrence’s
+fort, which has wholly disappeared.
+
+Yet odd to relate, a prosperous farmer named Lawrence
+occupies the ground, and upon the site of the old commandant’s
+house his dwelling is built. At the time of
+my visit a youth was actively engaged with a scythe in
+a field where Lawrence’s artillery was placed, the breastworks
+having long been levelled. Bullets and other relics
+were occasionally picked up. A couple of the cannon I
+afterwards saw in use as gate-posts before a private house
+in Amherst. My friend deplored with me the indifference
+of the New Scotlanders, and especially the people of
+Amherst, to their historic shrines—the spots where the
+deeds in Canada’s story were wrought which make of
+the Canadian people a free people to-day. I was delighted
+to hear him say, “Every stone, every brick, belonging to
+our days of struggle should be a priceless memento—worth
+its weight in gold.” For I knew that when such sentiment
+finds utterance on the lips of one good man the root of
+the matter is there, the idea will flourish, and the fruit
+will in good season appear.
+
+[Illustration: THE SITE OF FORT LAWRENCE.]
+
+On we went to Beauséjour, on the other side of the
+Missaguash. Here ruins very similar to those at Louisbourg
+meet the eye, solid casements and bastions which
+have resisted the tooth of time, and where now cattle
+browse peacefully. One of the longest structures, the
+Governor’s house, solidly built of stone, is now a veritable
+cattle-shed, in which I counted ten cows herded closely
+together. But the view across the marshes and Cumberland
+Basin, across to the Elysian fields and the distant
+Cobequid mountains, was entrancing. The foreground was
+bathed in golden sunshine, the background seemed pale
+purple, as of a mist, while overhead mighty picturesque
+masses of creamy cumulus cloud rolled like a full sail
+of some divine argosy. A great dismantled wooden
+mansion, built in pretentious Georgian style, caught my
+eye a stone-throw from the fort, dating probably from the
+Fort Cumberland period, and I bent my steps towards it.
+
+I have never before viewed such complete desolation
+and decay, the result merely of age and neglect, and not
+of fire or earthquake. One step within the portals convinced
+me that to venture further would be to endanger
+life and to invite the instant collapse of the whole edifice,
+whose every beam and rafter trembled on the brink of utter
+destruction. And yet because the house, though expensively
+built, was built of wood, there was nothing venerable
+about it or dignified—it rather inspired contempt, as of a
+dissipated old rogue, whose vices had wrecked his constitution,
+and was ready to tumble into the gutter. Eager as I
+am for the preservation of ancient monuments, it was with
+something like relief that I reflected that this rollicking old
+ruin was on the other side of the New Scotland frontier.
+
+Twenty miles from Amherst is Joggins, the centre of
+the Cumberland county coal-fields, which begin at Maccan.
+I have not the slightest idea who Joggins was, but I feel
+certain that were he alive to-day he would have every
+reason to feel proud of the growth and prosperity of his
+name-place. The output of coal here is very large. The
+Joggins shore extends along Chignecto Bay, with imposing
+cliffs, occasionally three or four hundred feet high. Here
+are exposed some wonderful petrified forests and sections of
+carboniferous strata, which have been visited and described
+by scientists of such eminence as Sir Charles Lyell, Sir
+William Dawson, and Sir William Logan.
+
+The coal area extends inland without a break forty or
+fifty miles to the neighbourhood of Oxford, the most
+important colliery being at Springhill, where the annual
+output is over half a million tons.
+
+From an old resident I got an interesting purview of
+this part of New Scotland in the early ‘60’s. Half a century
+ago the whole district, from the mouth of the river Philip
+to the upper waters of that river, was known as “River
+Philip.” Neighbouring settlements bore distinctive names,
+such as “Mount Pleasant,” now Centreville, “Moores,”
+now Rockley, “Goose River,” now Linden, and “Little
+River,” which still retains its name.
+
+Four post-offices, kept generally in trunks, served the
+commercial and social wants of the whole length of the
+river. They were listed as “Mouth of the River,” somewhere
+on the post road between Pugwash and Amherst.
+“Head of Tide,” now Oxford. “River Philip Corner,”
+where the old road from Amherst to Londonderry crosses
+the river, and “Upper River Philip,” where at that time
+one Rufus Black, one of Samuel Slick’s hosts, carried
+on an extensive lumbering and mercantile business. There
+were no railways nearer than Truro on the one side
+and Moncton on the other. The only prophetic suggestion
+of the present Intercolonial Railway was a stretch of
+embankment somewhere on the Nappan marshes, which
+had been thrown up in some spasmodic, perhaps electioneering,
+effort, in the days when Joseph Howe was strenuously
+contending for an “Inter-Provincial,” “All British” line
+from Halifax to Quebec.
+
+[Illustration: ON ITS LAST LEGS—CUMBERLAND HOUSE, NEAR AMHERST, N.S.]
+
+What is now the town of Springhill, with a population
+of 5700, was then a sparsely-settled farming district on the
+foothills of the mountain, with, perhaps, ten or fifteen
+farm residences in the whole section, the most important of
+which was the old “Nathan Boss” place, as a stopping-place
+on the road between river Philip and Parrsboro,
+where travellers frequently took passage by sailing packet,
+from Parrsboro to Windsor, and thence to Halifax by rail.
+
+At Springhill, the coal areas, then almost unknown and
+undeveloped, were held by the “Old English Mining
+Association.” One pit, or more correctly speaking, a hole
+in the ground, was operated in a small way, the coal being
+raised by horse-power and distributed to consumers in
+adjacent districts by horse and cart. The thing was but an
+experiment, and the consumption, even for a small district,
+was very limited, as the best of hard wood existed in
+abundance for fuel.
+
+At Athol one may motor or take a regular stage-coach
+across the isthmus by a beautiful road to Parrsboro on the
+Basin of Minas, or one may take the Cumberland Railway
+at Springhill Junction, distant thirty-two miles from Parrsboro.
+I found Parrsboro but little changed from my last
+visit. To my mind it is one of the pleasantest little towns
+in the whole of Nova Scotia, and is visited by many
+summer tourists who appreciate the fishing, shooting,
+boating, and beautiful scenery to be had hereabouts. The
+harbour is sheltered by Partridge Island, a pleasant headland
+hard by, upon which a hotel is built, and from which
+there are pretty views of the Basin and neighbourhood.
+Parrsboro is a lumber port, handling nearly all the product
+of the southern forests of Cumberland as Pugwash does
+on the north. To the north and west of Parrsboro some
+of the best moose hunting in New Scotland is to be had,
+while partridge, geese, brant ducks, and other marine birds
+are abundant. A few miles behind me the Cobequid Hills,
+a long range running east and west from Cape Chignecto
+to north of Cobequid Bay.
+
+From Parrsboro, where there is a good deal of shipping,
+a steamer plies across the Basin of Minas to Kingsport,
+Hantsport, and Windsor, and another to St. John. Indeed
+it is only eight or ten miles across the Basin, whereas it is
+ten times that distance round by land.
+
+On my return journey to Halifax, I must not forget
+to record that I enjoyed the privilege of a spirited conversation
+in pidgin English with a Canton Chinaman, who
+smoked a large cigar, and wore a queue under his Panama hat.
+
+[Illustration: A FINE CATCH NEAR THE MIRA RIVER.]
+
+Odd as this Far East of Canada seems as a habitat for
+Chinamen, yet there is hardly a town or village where Wun
+Lung, or Sam Kee, or John Sing has not penetrated, and set
+up his peculiar and odoriferous little establishment for the
+destruction of linen. It is one of the curiosities of industry
+why the Chinese should have taken to this particular
+occupation. It began in the Far West, when the affluent
+miner and rancher, discovering the merits of a boiled shirt on
+Sundays, and that a glazed front and collar is an additional
+mark of gentility, sent his linen all the way to ‘Frisco.
+Then up rose the wily heathen to hit upon another use for
+the rice flour of his native larder, and thereby gratify, at ten
+cents the garment, the vanity of the early Argonauts. The
+art he communicated to others of his race, it spread north,
+south, east, and west, and in the process of time one hundred
+thousand flat-irons were actuating from Los Angeles to
+Labrador. Thus was the immediate industrial future of
+the invading Mongol assured.
+
+The Legislature was not in session at the time of my
+visit to Halifax. But I met in a friendly way many of the
+legislators, and I learnt a good deal of the local needs, real
+or fancied, which agitate this community and all other
+communities on the face of the earth, but which are of
+little interest to the outside world. Considering that the
+population of the Province is only half a million souls, the
+machinery of government would seem somewhat cumbrous.
+First of all, Nova Scotia sends 20 members to the Federal
+House of Commons at Ottawa, and 10 members to the
+Senate. The Provincial Parliament consists of 38 members:
+there is a Legislative Council of 21 members and an Executive
+Council of 10 members. Moreover, there is a system
+of local government operating in the eighteen counties.
+
+The Federal Parliament alone deals with such important
+matters as revenue duties, railway grants, the judiciary and
+the postal system, leaving to the Halifax Legislature the
+schools, public roads and bridges, local railways, and the
+royalties on minerals owned by the Province. The County
+and Township Councils regulate the taxation for roads,
+schools, and other purposes, every citizen directly voting
+his own taxation, although such taxes are supplemented by
+grants from the Provincial Government, which has a unique
+and perennial source of wealth in the mining royalties.
+
+Although the Legislature and Council is so numerous,
+the real labour of the Executive really falls upon two or
+three pairs of shoulders—chiefly those of the Premier and
+the Attorney-General and the Commissioner of Works and
+Mines. Although the Hon. George Henry Murray, K.C.,
+is only fifty, he has been the First Minister of the Crown
+in New Scotland for sixteen years, succeeding Mr. Fielding
+when the latter joined the Laurier Cabinet in 1896. Mr.
+Murray is one of those politicians who, like his party chief,
+Sir Wilfrid Laurier, exhibits prudence and probity in power,
+and having the honour of his country at heart fully enjoys
+the confidence of the people.
+
+Under his political leadership, which is not likely to be
+disturbed, save by considerations of health, now, I was glad
+to find, no longer imminent, the fortunes of both land and
+people are certain to advance hopefully into the future.
+
+Considering its unrivalled water-power facilities, New
+Scotland might easily become a great manufacturing country,
+as New England has long been. Manufacturing has made
+considerable progress in recent years; but the Province
+only occupies the third place in manufactures, Ontario
+and Quebec far outstripping her. There are now some
+twelve hundred establishments, with a total capital, including
+lands, building, machinery and motive power, tools
+and implements, and working capital, of 34,586,416 dollars,
+paying out 4,395,618 dollars in wages to 21,010 men,
+women, and children.[23]
+
+[Footnote 23: Nova Scotia puts a very small tax on its industries. The
+total provincial and municipal taxes on manufacturing industries in
+the census year were but 73,276 dollars, and of this only 2566 dollars
+augmented the revenue of the Province.]
+
+The products of Nova Scotia’s manufactories were
+63,700,000 dollars in 1911. These included food products,
+textiles, iron and steel products, paper and printing,
+liquors and beverages, chemicals and allied products, clay,
+glass and stone products, metals and their products, tobacco,
+vehicles for land, vessels for water, and miscellaneous industries.
+The value of the manufactured products in Nova
+Scotia has more than doubled in a single decade, and to
+this result the increased output in connection with the iron
+and steel industries has of course greatly contributed.
+
+The province’s position now may well be called, in
+respect to the establishment of manufacturing industries,
+truly strategic. Her situation on the ocean highway enables
+her to assemble all the raw materials cheaply, and to
+manufacture at lowest cost for the home and foreign
+market. Here are the only coal-fields in Eastern Canada,
+those on the seaboard being practically inexhaustible. Pig-iron
+from the increasing furnaces of the Province has
+already been exported to markets distributed along the
+whole seaboard of the United States, to most parts of
+the world, and to some parts of Germany. Gold, steel,
+gypsum, pulp for paper manufacturing, grindstones, building
+stones, timber, fish, fruit, and many manufactured
+goods are exported abroad. Nova Scotia’s ships for 200
+years frequented the ports of the world, and carried on a
+thriving and ever increasing trade.
+
+All this abundance of coal, and other minerals, combined
+with her geographical position in relation to Great
+Britain and Europe, the North Atlantic Coast of America,
+the West Indies, and South America, leaves no room for
+doubt that the Province is destined to become one of the
+great manufacturing centres of the world.
+
+“I don’t know what more you’d ask,” cried Sam Slick;
+“almost an island, indented everywhere with harbours,
+surrounded with fisheries. The key of the St. Lawrence,
+the Bay of Fundy, and the West Indies; prime land above,
+one vast mineral bed beneath, and a climate over all temperate,
+pleasant and healthy. If that ain’t enough for
+one place, it’s a pity—that’s all.”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And so I part from this little book about New Scotland—an
+imperfect survey, but not intended to be compendious;
+only that to the British reader, willing to know
+something of the people, the land, and the resources of
+our great Western Dominion, a new Province may, like the
+film pictures of a cinematograph, “swim into his ken.”
+
+More and more will the Nova Scotians increase in
+culture as in wealth, more and more will their country
+become a great Imperial asset. To apply here to New
+Scotland a famous passage of Froude’s concerning the
+story of Old Scotland, turn where one may, “weakness
+is nowhere; power, energy, and will are everywhere.
+Sterile as the landscape where it will first unfold itself, we
+shall watch the current winding its way with expanding
+force and features of enlarging magnificence, till at length
+the rocks and rapids will have passed—the stream will have
+glided down into the plain to the meeting of the waters—from
+which as from a new fountain the united fortunes of
+the British Empire flow on to their unknown destiny.”
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX A
+
+TO ENCOURAGE SETTLEMENT ON FARM
+LANDS IN NOVA SCOTIA
+
+
+The following interesting measure became law during the 1912
+session of the Nova Scotia Legislature. Further particulars respecting
+its operation may be obtained from Mr. Arthur S. Barnstead,
+Secretary of Industries and Immigration, 197 Hollis Street, Halifax,
+and Mr. J. Howard, Agent-General, 57A Pall Mall, London, S.W.
+
+
+AN ACT FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF SETTLEMENT ON
+FARM LANDS
+
+_Whereas_, it is desirable that agricultural settlement should be
+further promoted in this Province, and that facilities should be
+afforded whereby settlers will be encouraged to purchase or acquire
+for themselves farm holdings:
+
+_And whereas_, there are in the Province farms unoccupied and
+untilled, arable tracts not yet brought under cultivation, and other
+lands available for settlement and suitable therefor:
+
+_And whereas_, it is desirable to settle on those lands selected
+farmers from the British Isles or elsewhere, who wish to acquire
+lands of their own, but are unable to do so, and it is further desirable
+to give assistance in the purchase of farms to those who are already
+engaged in or desire to engage in agriculture within the Province
+who possess the necessary qualifications:
+
+_And whereas_, there are in the British Isles and elsewhere many
+men with practical experience in farming, who might be induced
+with advantage both to themselves and to the Province to settle in
+Nova Scotia, or to return to this Province, if previously resident here,
+provided facilities are available that will assist them, in the purchase
+of farm land and buildings by way of loans or mortgages;
+
+Therefore be it enacted by the Governor, Council and Assembly
+as follows:
+
+
+_Interpretation._
+
+1. In this Chapter, unless the context otherwise requires, the
+words “loan company” or “trust company” mean any loan
+company or companies, or loan society, carrying on the business
+within the Province of Nova Scotia of lending money on mortgages
+of real estate.
+
+The word “farmer” includes persons who have removed, or who
+contemplate removing to this Province from other places, to settle in
+this Province and engage in farming, and other persons who may
+already be engaged or about to engage in farming in this Province.
+
+The word “inspector” means any inspector or assistant inspector
+appointed by the Governor-in-Council under the provisions
+of this Act.
+
+2. Whenever a loan company will agree, upon receiving the
+guarantee herein mentioned, to advance to a farmer on mortgage of
+farm lands and buildings thereon on terms approved by the
+Governor-in-Council, an amount not exceeding eighty per cent. of
+the value of such farm lands and buildings as appraised by such loan
+company, the Governor-in-Council upon such appraisement being
+confirmed by the inspector, and upon receiving a report from the
+inspector, is empowered from time to time to authorise the Provincial
+Secretary or Deputy Provincial Secretary to give a guarantee
+in writing to such loan company against loss on any such mortgage
+to an amount not exceeding the difference between fifty per cent. of
+such appraised value and the amount of the loan, together with
+interest thereon. Such guarantee may be in the form in the
+Schedule to this Act, or to the like effect.
+
+3. Whenever a loan company will agree to advance to a farmer
+on a first mortgage of farm lands and buildings thereon, on terms
+approved by the Governor-in-Council, an amount up to at least fifty
+per cent. of the value of such farm lands and buildings as appraised
+by such loan company, the Governor-in-Council upon such appraisement
+being confirmed by the inspector and upon receiving a report
+from the inspector, may arrange with such loan company to advance
+to such persons through such loan company out of funds provided
+for the purpose an additional amount not exceeding the difference
+between fifty per cent. and eighty per cent. of such appraised value,
+provided that this additional amount of advance on any one loan
+shall not exceed the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars.
+
+4. All repayments of principal made on any mortgage given
+under the provisions of the next two preceding sections of this Act
+shall be first applied by the loan company making the same, towards
+the reduction of any Government guarantee or advance; provided
+that the Governor-in-Council may agree to defer the repayment by
+the farmer of the instalments of principal and interest on the
+additional amount loaned or guaranteed by the Governor-in-Council,
+under the preceding sections, for a period not to exceed five years
+from the time of effecting the loan.
+
+5. The Governor-in-Council may appoint an inspector or
+inspectors to appraise and report on farm lands and buildings thereon,
+and to perform such other duties as may be delegated by the
+Governor-in-Council. The Governor-in-Council may also appoint
+such assistant inspectors and other officers, assistants and persons, as
+may be necessary for the carrying out of the provisions of this Act,
+and may prescribe their duties and may fix the salaries, compensation
+or fees of any person appointed under the provisions of this section.
+
+6. The Governor-in-Council is authorised from time to time to
+purchase real estate in farming districts, sub-divide it into farms or
+lots, erect buildings and fences, prepare the land for crops and sell
+said real estate to farmers in such parcels or lots and on such terms
+as may be approved by the Governor-in-Council.
+
+7. The Governor-in-Council may make regulations for the
+carrying out effectively the provisions of this Act.
+
+8. The Governor-in-Council is authorised to borrow on the
+credit of the Province, a sum not exceeding two hundred thousand
+dollars, for the purpose of providing a fund for the purposes of
+this Act.
+
+9. The Provincial Secretary shall make an annual report to the
+Legislature of all loans effected and the terms thereof.
+
+
+_Schedule._
+
+In the matter of Chapter ...., Acts 1912.
+
+The Province of Nova Scotia hereby guarantees the payment
+of ...., principal to the extent of $ .... of
+a mortgage from (name of farmers) to .... (name of
+Loan Company) on the lands hereinafter described, and interest
+thereon provided that all repayments of principal on said mortgage
+shall be first applied towards the reduction of the amount so
+guaranteed.
+
+The said lands are described as follows, that is to say: (description).
+
+Dated at Halifax, N. S. the .... day of ....,
+A. D., 19....
+
+.......................
+
+_Provincial Secretary._
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX B
+
+SPORT IN NOVA SCOTIA
+
+
+It is a little singular that although Nova Scotia is one of the most
+interesting and prolific sporting countries in the world, it has
+attracted so few British tourists. It certainly offers abundance of
+game and fish, and when it is made easily accessible, thousands of
+Englishmen might profitably spend a happy, bracing holiday there. It
+is celebrated for the greatest of the deer family, the moose, which
+was killed last year in nearly every county in the Province,[24] and the
+species is steadily increasing in numbers, thanks to a stricter carrying
+out of the game law. The woodcock shooting in Nova Scotia is
+celebrated, and the ruffed grouse (partridge), the king of game
+birds, was killed last year in unprecedented numbers; while in the
+countries to the south of us its gradual decrease has been bitterly
+mourned. Duck and geese are abundant in some districts. Bear
+and wild-cat are plentiful, too plentiful in fact, though hard to
+approach. Hares offer a fine opportunity for the beagles.
+
+[Footnote 24: _Moose Killed in Nova Scotia._
+
++———————————+—————————+———————+————————+————————+—————————+
+|County.    | Number. | Bulls.| Cows.  |Sex not |Killed in|
+|           |         |       |        |Given.  |  1907.  |
++———————————+—————————+———————+————————+————————+—————————+
+|Annapolis  | 106     | 52    |  48    |  6     |   54    |
+|Colchester |  29     | 11    |  14    |  4     |   21    |
+|Cumberland |  21     | 12    |   4    |  5     |   10    |
+|Digby      |  42     | 20    |  21    |  1     |   25    |
+|Guysboro   |  61     | 35    |  22    |  4     |   48    |
+|Hants      |  17     |  6    |  10    |  1     |   14    |
+|Halifax    | 151     | 72    |  62    | 17     |  153    |
+|King’s     |  15     |  8    |   7    |  0     |    8    |
+|Lunenburg  |  12     |  6    |   5    |  1     |   24    |
+|Queen’s    |  12     |  6    |   5    |  1     |    7    |
+|Pictou     |  47     | 28    |  12    |  7     |   49    |
+|Shelburne  |  30     | 18    |  10    |  2     |   33    |
+|Yarmouth   |  47     | 26    |  20    |  1     |   40    |
+|           +—————————+———————+————————+————————+—————————+
+|    Total  | 590     |300    | 240    | 50     |  486    |
++———————————+—————————+———————+————————+————————+—————————+
+
+Adding to these about 100 that were not reported, owing to a
+misunderstanding of the new law, and another 100 probably killed
+illegally and never reported, we arrive at a total of some 800 moose
+killed in Nova Scotia during the autumn.]
+
+As for fishing, in no country in the world are trout more
+plentiful nor more gamey, and one variety, the _salvelinus fortinalis_,
+or speckled brook-trout, is the most beautiful of all. There is
+good salmon-fishing, which is likely to become better still, as
+public opinion is awakening to the dangerous breaches of the law
+on the part of the net-fishermen at the mouths of the streams.
+
+According to the Nova Scotia Game Act (1909), the Moose
+season is from September 16th to November 16th. Moose are
+hunted in two ways, “calling” and “still-hunting.” Calling is
+the method almost exclusively pursued in the mating time, which
+lasts approximately from the first week in September to the 20th of
+October. It consists in luring the bull-moose within rifle-shot by
+means of imitating, through a speaking-horn of birch-bark, the call,
+or low, of the cow, or sometimes, though much seldomer, the
+challenge of a rival bull. This can be done only in absolutely
+calm weather, since the bull, which trusts for its safety to its
+abnormal sense of smell, will otherwise infallibly go to leeward of
+the hunter, get his scent, and then, of course, retire without
+showing itself. A calm is also necessary if the sound of the call
+is to penetrate to any distance. A certain class of writers, nearly
+all inexperienced, have decried the method of calling as unsportsmanlike,
+insisting that it is an easy art, that the moose is off its
+guard and all too ready to be fooled, and that the guide does all
+the work, while the hunter merely waits and shoots when the
+quarry appears. There are many fallacies in this view. Calling
+is not an easy art, the bull is by no means off its guard, but just
+the very contrary; and the argument against the secondary rôle of the
+sportsman might also be applied to bird-shooting over dogs. It is
+very fascinating to witness the art of the guide as he calls a moose,
+and there are moments, as the bull approaches and appears, that
+still-hunting cannot match for excitement. Besides, there is no law
+against the sportsman doing the calling himself, if he has a mind,
+and many have attempted it successfully after some years of
+experience with good callers.
+
+When the moose have paired, the bull can no longer be called, and the
+method employed for the rest of the season is that of still-hunting,
+or stalking (creeping up to) the animals under cover of a wind while
+they are in their “yards,” a yard being the range, of greater or less
+extent, covered by one moose-family during the late autumn and winter.
+It commonly consists of a combination of swamp and ridge, though this
+differs according to the character of the country. The ideal conditions
+for approaching the game are a high wind and soft-going underfoot,
+either soaked with rain, or better, covered with light snow, which
+makes tracking much easier. Still-hunting requires much more physical
+exertion on the part of the hunter, and is not recommended to ladies,
+or in fact any but the robust. Still-hunting gets better as the season
+approaches its end.
+
+The caribou is a cousin of the European reindeer, and ranges
+from Maine and Newfoundland northward and northwestward to
+Hudson Bay and the Pacific. There are two general species, the
+woodland and the barren-ground, the latter inhabiting the regions
+farther north. The woodland caribou (_rangifer caribou_) is the
+largest of its kind, and once overran the whole of Nova Scotia, but
+is now practically confined to the island of Cape Breton, where it is
+still plentiful. A very large specimen weighs about 400 lbs., and
+stands four feet high at the shoulders. The peculiar construction of
+the caribou’s hoofs enables it to travel easily over snow into which
+any other of the deer family would sink helplessly. It is polygamous,
+one bull possessing several cows.
+
+It is killed by still-hunting. The outfit is the same as for moose,
+with the addition of a good field-glass.
+
+The caribou is protected by the Nova Scotia law until 1912.
+
+Bruin’s representative in Nova Scotia is the Black Bear or
+_Ursus americanus_, a large specimen of which will weigh about 400
+lbs. It will eat anything from ants to sheep, and has a predilection
+for calf-moose, many of these helpless little creatures falling victims
+to his voracity, in spite of the mother’s defence. A bear will
+almost never face a man, but a mother with young cubs forms
+a distinct exception to this rule, and should an unarmed sportsman
+meet such a combination in the woods, the best thing for him
+is not to wait for a nearer introduction. The only practical way to
+hunt bears systematically is by means of a good bear-hound (fox-hound
+trained to this work), which tracks Bruin to his den. Bears
+are often met by accident and shot, and in this Province they
+have a way of coming to a moose-caller, hoping for a meal of calf.
+Many are trapped, sometimes in a large dead-fall, but usually in a
+steel Newhouse bear-trap, so placed that the bear must walk over
+the trap to get at the bait, which is either of meat or a bundle of
+trout, soaked sometimes in molasses or honey. In some counties
+there is a bounty of $2 on bears, which might be made general
+throughout the Province.
+
+Wild-cats are very numerous and play havoc with game-birds
+and hares, as well as with the farmer’s lambs. There is therefore
+a bounty of $1 on them in some counties. The wild-cat (_lynx
+rufus_, bay lynx or bobcat) is a strong, savage, and exceedingly shy
+animal, almost never seen unless tracked and brought to bay by
+trained hounds, or when caught in traps or snares. A very large
+one will weigh 40 lbs. and measure four feet from tail to nose.
+Its pelt makes a pretty mat. In spite of all backwoods traditions,
+there is no record of a wild-cat attacking a man.
+
+Nova Scotia offers excellent game-bird shooting, the three classes
+of wild-fowl, forest-birds, and shore-birds or waders, being well
+represented. They comprise wild ducks, geese, ruffed grouse
+(partridge), woodcock, snipe, plover, yellowlegs, sandpiper, curlew,
+and others. The best places and seasons for these birds may be
+ascertained at the Capital.
+
+At present in Nova Scotia there is a tendency to protect game-birds
+of all kinds, and on that account non-residents are required to
+pay the same license for shooting them as for moose, $30, a tax the
+size of which is not conducive to the encouragement of visiting bird-hunters.
+
+FISHING.—Along the entire shore of Nova Scotia the usual
+salt-water fish may be caught in abundance, such as cod, pollock,
+perch, flounders, &c., but neither the native nor the visitor has
+as yet paid much attention to the big game fishes that occupy so
+much of the angler’s time farther south. Two of these are among
+the choicest there are, the striped bass and the leaping tuna, though
+the latter is not eaten on this side of the Atlantic, except by our
+Italian fellow-citizens.
+
+The two great game fishes of Nova Scotia are the Atlantic _salmon_
+(_salmo salar_), and the speckled or _brook trout_ (_salvelinus
+fontinalis_). Large toque (_salvelinus ramaycush_), or lake trout,
+are found in several lakes, as in Nine-Mile Lake, Lunenburg County. A
+land-locked variety of the salmon, the _Sebago salmon_ (_salmo salar
+sebago_), is found in some waters, as Grand Lake and Beaver Bank Lake
+in Halifax County.
+
+Nova Scotia was once famous for her salmon-streams, and such
+rivers as the Medway, Mersey, St. Mary’s, Margaree, Tusket,
+Salmon, Petite Riviere, Tangier, Mira and others, still offer really
+excellent sport, which is sure to increase in quality with greater
+care in the preservation of the fish.
+
+Many conditions combine to make Nova Scotia an ideal trout
+fishing country, such as the extensive waterways and literally
+innumerable lakes, the uniform coolness of the water combined
+with the richness in insect life, and the fact that, though in former
+times cruelly maltreated by the lumbermen, the forests to a very
+great extent still stand, thus preserving the water-supply, which
+experience shows us must decrease and even disappear with the
+cutting down of the trees. At last the lumber dealers are alive to
+the benefits of economic forestry, and the Government to the
+evident fact that streams and lakes must be yearly restocked with
+fingerlings of both salmon and trout.
+
+Food conditions in this Province do not favour the growth of
+gigantic trout, one of three pounds being a rarity, but nature has
+made up by giving a never-ending supply of good fish, ranging
+from 1 to 4 lb. up to 3 lbs., the average in the best waters being
+between 3 to 4 and 1 lb. in weight, which any experienced fisherman
+will acknowledge to be very large. This may not sound so
+grand as some of the promises of certain interested parties, but it is
+_literally true_, and the statement can be added that Nova Scotia yields
+to no country in the world in the number of trout that can be taken
+by hook and line at any part of the open season.
+
+SEASON.—The trout-fishing season opens by law on April 1,
+and ends on August 31. Fishing through the ice for trout is
+prohibited, a fact which prevents much fishing before middle of
+April, as the ice does not commonly go out of the lakes before
+that date, though exceptions occur. Fishing is at the height of
+excellence about May 1 or soon after, and continues fine until
+July, when it falls off somewhat, on account of the trout seeking
+the cooler waters of the lakes and pools. Nevertheless there is
+no time, even in the hot weather when a “string of fish” cannot
+be caught with a fair amount of trouble and skill. Towards the
+last of August the fishing looks up again and remains fine until
+the season ends. This period has the advantage of total immunity
+from insect pests.
+
+As to fishing grounds it would be difficult to find a country
+hotel in the Province near which some good trout-brook or lake
+cannot be found; in fact it is always possible to live at a regular
+country boarding-place and still get all the fishing wanted without
+spending a night in the woods. But it nevertheless remains true
+that the farther from the regular haunts of men you go, the better
+will the fishing be, and most anglers, far from deeming it a disadvantage
+to live in the open, consider it a priceless privilege to
+combine the joys of their particular craft with the delights of
+canoeing and camping out.
+
+FAIRY LAKE (Kedgeemakooge in the Micmac Indian tongue)
+is one of the largest (about 10 miles by 5 miles) and most beautiful
+bodies of water in the Province, lying in Annapolis and Queen’s
+Counties, and surrounded by the best moose-country, especially on
+the west and south. The Maitland, West, Little, and other
+streams flow into it, all affording the best canoeing and leading up
+to wonderful trout-waters. In the lake itself the fishing is of
+the very best, such places as the mouths of the streams mentioned,
+Jeremy’s Bay, &c., being famous, The best pools of all are found
+near the exit of the Liverpool River, in the celebrated George’s
+Runs (East and West Runs) and Eelweir, while the river itself
+is a series of celebrated pools from Fairy Lake down to the great
+Lake Rossignol.
+
+In the early days the land about Kedgeemakooge was granted by
+the Government to the Micmac Indians as a reservation, but they
+have passed away or scattered, and their former camping grounds
+have been deserted for many decades. Lying so long idle, the
+Department of Indian Affairs recently decided to lease the lands
+and apply the yearly rental to the Indian fund of the Treasury.
+
+The lease luckily fell into the hands of a sportsman and a lover
+of nature who proposes to still preserve, in its natural beauty, this
+great recreation ground, and open it to a limited number of seekers
+after health, rest, or sport. Under his conservative supervision the
+Kedgeemakooge Rod and Gun Club of Nova Scotia, Ltd., has been
+organised, and incorporated by letters patent. Accepted members
+are granted all the privileges conveyed by the original lease, as well
+as the same rights on other lands in the vicinity owned by the
+lessee.
+
+Initiation fee has been fixed at $100.00, with annual dues such
+as seem necessary to sustain the requirements of the club, probably
+not exceeding $5.00.
+
+Building sites, all having water frontage, are free to members,
+who may select their own lot, put up a tent or a substantial cabin,
+and own a permanent summer home for their families or friends—a
+retreat in primitive wilds where real life and perfect freedom,
+unshackled by social forms, make for health and supreme happiness.
+Fishing licenses are provided free for members.
+
+Reliable licensed guides are retained by this club, and kept in
+readiness with motor boats and canoes.
+
+Telephone, daily mail and livery afford constant communication
+with the outside world for those whose inclination or business interest
+will not permit entire isolation. On the whole I cannot imagine
+anything more deserving of the epithet _sport de luxe_.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+    Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
+    Edinburgh & London
+
+
+
+Transcriber’s Notes
+Page 74—changed uged to =urged=
+Page 116—changed six to =five=
+Page 246—changed West Indgies to =West indies=
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77572 ***
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+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77572 ***</div>
+
+<div class="transnote">
+Transcriber’s notes
+
+<p>Changes made are noted at the <a href="#end_note" title="Go to the End Note">end of the book.</a></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter width614 x-ebookmaker-drop" id="cover-small">
+<img src="images/cover-small.jpg" alt="">
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<h1>NOVA SCOTIA</h1>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">“<em>Towards Scotia’s earliest bonniest chiel,</em></div>
+    <div class="verse indent0"><em>Across the wild Atlantic wave</em></div>
+    <div class="verse indent0"><em>I sailed my trig auld Norland keel.</em>”</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p4"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-frontis">
+<img src="images/i-frontis.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="539">
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">“A full-fed river winding slow.”</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="p4"></p>
+<div class="title-page">
+<p class="center">    NOVA SCOTIA</p>
+
+<p class="center">    THE PROVINCE THAT HAS
+    BEEN PASSED BY</p>
+
+<p class="center">    BY</p>
+
+<p class="center">    BECKLES WILLSON</p>
+
+<p class="center">    AUTHOR OF
+    “THE GREAT FUR COMPANY,” “THE ROMANCE OF CANADA,” ETC.</p>
+
+<p class="center">    “I don’t know what more you’d ask: almost an island, indented
+    everywhere with harbours, surrounded with fisheries—the key of
+    the St. Lawrence, the Bay of Fundy, and the West Indies; prime
+    land above, one vast mineral bed beneath, and a climate over all
+    temperate, pleasant and healthy. If that ain’t enough for one place,
+    it’s a pity—that’s all.”—<span class="smcap">Sam Slick</span>, of Slickville.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">    <em>REVISED EDITION WITH ILLUSTRATIONS</em></p>
+
+<p class="center">    LONDON
+    CONSTABLE &amp; COMPANY LTD.
+    1912
+</p>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center"> Printed by <span class="smcap">Ballantyne, Hanson &amp; Co.</span><br>
+At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh</p>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iii">[iii]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By</span> HON. GEORGE H. MURRAY</p>
+
+<p class="center">PRIME MINISTER OF NOVA SCOTIA</p>
+
+
+<p>All lovers of Nova Scotia will welcome this volume. I
+have read it with pleasure as recording the impressions a
+sojourn in this Province has made on a man of culture and
+acute observation.</p>
+
+<p>It will prove valuable to those who wish to learn something
+of a portion of Canada that is not yet well known
+abroad. Those who purpose to emigrate to Canada will
+read this book with interest and to their advantage, and it
+will whet their appetites for more information regarding
+this Province.</p>
+
+<p>Nova Scotia is a country that draws wealth from the
+ocean, the forest, the farm, the mine and the mill. Our
+industries are not exotic, but spring directly out of natural
+conditions. Although Nova Scotia has only about one-fifteenth
+of the population of Canada, the Province is the
+predominating factor in the Dominion in fish, coal, and
+steel. The material development of these industries and
+of agriculture gives scope to the energies of our people,
+and the establishment of a complete system of technical<span class="pagenum" id="Page_iv">[iv]</span>
+education develops the practical powers of the young men,
+enabling them to conduct and enlarge upon industrial
+undertakings both at home and abroad.</p>
+
+<p>It has been said that there are two fundamental conditions
+of industrial well-being. The first is a fit people,
+and the second a fit country. Both are found in Nova
+Scotia. The people of Nova Scotia spring from the best
+blood of the British Isles. In a little over a century they
+have converted a land of forest into a country of sunny
+orchards, rich grain fields, glowing furnaces and comfortable
+homes. I would extend an invitation to our British
+kinsmen to come over and share in our prosperity.</p>
+
+<p>Nova Scotia possesses a record of substantial achievement
+and remarkable progress, which inspires its people to
+greater and more earnest efforts for the future. At the
+same time we believe that the success of this Province in
+the years to come will be assured only by the enterprise,
+intelligence, and industry of its people. We realise that
+the supremacy of Nova Scotia will rest as much upon intellectual
+strength and educational training as upon the
+character and volume of industrial output.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Halifax, Nova Scotia</span>,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><em>June 21, 1912</em>.</span><br>
+</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[v]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE">PREFACE</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>I suppose Canadians of the First Immigration should be
+very well pleased to see their farm lands overrun by the
+mongrel hordes of Europe who, we are told, are presently
+to assimilate the manners, institutions, and amenities which
+our British forefathers so slowly and painfully through the
+centuries established for us.</p>
+
+<p>It is a magnificent spectacle the West is offering to
+the world—this great <em>trek</em> of a hundred thousand families
+a year—these cities arising in a single night, this flux and
+tumult, this noisy abandonment of effete conventions and
+ideals. Perhaps it is all going to end, as the optimists tell
+us it will end, to the glory of the race—our race. But
+some of them do not deny a certain element of risk in
+the process. It is a big price we may have to pay. It is
+the price the Egyptians paid to the Semites; the Greeks
+paid to the Macedonians; the Romans paid to the Goths;
+the Persians paid to the Saracens; the Gauls paid to the
+Franks; and the Americans have paid to the Irish, Italians,
+and Poles. And always the price is—Character.</p>
+
+<p>“When,” once wrote a distinguished American to me,
+“I think of the early nineteenth-century promise of New<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">[vi]</span>
+England, of its race of scholars and gentlemen, of its
+thousands of quiet God-fearing homes, and the contented
+industry of the countryside, I could wish that a great gulf
+had cut us off on the West and an impassable barrier had
+arisen on our Eastern seaboard.” But We are going to
+win through—We are going to assimilate these alien peoples.
+Our civilisation will suffer as our neighbours have suffered;
+our serenity will cloud for a time, and when the contents
+of the melting-pot have cooled the alloy may be a permanent
+part of our whole national being. But We shall
+not falter.</p>
+
+<p>Nor will this restless ethnological flux continue. The
+current and perhaps necessary methods of to-day will—nay,
+must—yield to other and higher notions of progress. We
+shall not always be touting for Slav and Hun and Celtic
+immigrants, and soon, tout as we may, they will not come.
+Europe will settle herself. Europe, in turn, will have her
+own “boom.” And, in the meanwhile, all Canada will
+not suffer alike, and the part which will longest retain its
+fundamental likeness to Britain, its moral unity with the
+people of the Mother island, is that province which is the
+subject of this book.</p>
+
+<p>Nova Scotia has not been exempt from sacrifices. Great
+as the boon of Confederation doubtless was, and is, to the
+Provinces of the Dominion, it has been a small boon to
+Nova Scotia. She has had to play the part of Cinderella
+while her sisters went to the ball. But her comparative
+seclusion, added to her intelligence, her frugality, her gentle<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[vii]</span>
+character, and far greater natural beauty, may commend
+her to the thousands of English and Scottish men and
+women who wish to migrate from the British island to
+the equally British peninsula on the other side of the
+ocean—the nearest to them of the provinces of Canada.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Quebec House, Westerham</span></p>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[ix]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<table>
+<tr>
+<th class="chap"><small>CHAPTER</small></th>
+<th class="chn"></th>
+<th class="pag"><small>PAGE</small></th>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">I.</td>
+  <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Canada’s “Front Door”</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">II.</td>
+  <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">New Scotland’s Beginnings</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">III.</td>
+  <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">New Scotland’s Characteristics</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">IV.</td>
+  <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Halifax and the Haligonians</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">V.</td>
+  <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Windsor and “Sam Slick”</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">VI.</td>
+  <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Grand Pré and Evangeline</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">VII.</td>
+  <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Annapolis Royal and Digby</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">VIII.</td>
+  <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Yarmouth and Shipbuilding</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">IX.</td>
+  <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Shelburne and the Loyalists</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">X.</td>
+  <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Bridgewater and Lunenburg</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_133">133</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">XI.</td>
+  <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">On the Government’s Farm</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">XII.</td>
+  <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Pictou and New Glasgow</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_156">156</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">XIII.</td>
+  <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Cape Breton</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">XIV.</td>
+  <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Sydneys</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_189">189</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">XV.</td>
+  <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Louisbourg</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_205">205</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">XVI.</td>
+  <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">A New Inverness</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_218">218</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">XVII.</td>
+  <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Amherst</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_228">228</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="chn"></td>
+<td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Appendix </span></td>
+<td class="pag"><a href="#Page_247">247</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">[xi]</span>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="ILLUSTRATIONS">ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+</div>
+
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"> “A full-fed river winding slow”</td>
+<td class="pag"><a href="#i-frontis"><em>frontispiece</em></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="chn"></td>
+<td class="pag">Facing Page</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"> Martello Tower at Halifax </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Halifax, Boating on the North-West Arm </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Halifax and Harbour from the Citadel </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_36">36</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Entrance to the Citadel, Halifax </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">In the Public Gardens, Halifax </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">In the Environs of Windsor </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Bedford Basin </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"> Victoria Park, Windsor, N.S. </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"> Near Lochaber Lake </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">St. Eulalie, The Residence at Grand Pré of Hon.
+    Sir Robert Weatherbe </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"> The Scene of the Grand Pré Raid of 1754 </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">A Joy-Ride in “The Valley” </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">  Annapolis—The Oldest Graveyard on the Continent </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Annapolis Royal—The Home of Thomas Chandler
+    Haliburton </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">  Off the Pier at Digby </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Low Tide at Yarmouth </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">The Home of Evangeline </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">At Evangeline’s Well </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"> The Old Governor’s House, Shelburne </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_122">122</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"> A New Scotland Idyll—In the Annapolis Valley </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">  Main Hall—Nova Scotia Agricultural College </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_145">145</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xii">[xii]</span></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">At Kingsport </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_148">148</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">  “Calling” a Moose</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_148">148</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Truro—The “Joe Howe Falls” </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_154">154</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"> The End of Bruin </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_158">158</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Pictou—Norway House </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"> View on the Outskirts of Antigonish  </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Strait of Canso, Port Mulgrave </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">A Splendid Moose near Lake Rossignol   </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_178">178</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"> King Street, Shelburne (the Town of the Loyalists)</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_183">183</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">The Road to Louisbourg    </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"> Louisbourg—The Last of the Dauphin Gate</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Louisbourg—The Obelisk Commemorating the First
+    Siege </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_217">217</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">La Bras d’Or Lake (Cape Breton)</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_220">220</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Landscape near Stellarton  </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_227">227</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">The Site of Fort Lawrence</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_239">239</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">On its Last Legs—Cumberland House, near
+    Amherst, N.S.  </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_240">240</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"> A Fine Catch near the Mira River</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_242">242</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="NOVA_SCOTIA">NOVA SCOTIA</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">CANADA’S “FRONT DOOR”</p>
+
+
+<p>“<em><span class="smcap">And</span> if he took ship, lo! it was the wrong ship; and when
+he had got upon the land the road led him backward, or to the
+right or to the left, so that with doubling and turning he was
+full twenty years upon his journey. And all this while, if
+he could but have seen it, the land of Salabat lay straight
+before him, likewise the castle of the Princess Zobeide, which
+he could not behold because of the cloud the genie had caused to
+float before it.</em>”</p>
+
+<p>Some of us laughed when we recalled that Arabian tale
+on our pilgrimage to New Scotland, for there was a man
+on board who dwelt at Sydney; and he told us how,
+on his visit to London, he had engaged a taxicab at the
+Mansion House, and told the driver to take him to Piccadilly
+Circus. After an hour or so he waxed impatient,
+and putting his head out of the window asked the driver
+where they were.</p>
+
+<p>“Hammersmith,” was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>“But that’s the other end of London, isn’t it? I told
+you Piccadilly Circus.”</p>
+
+<p>Whereat the man was aggrieved.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Ain’t I driving you to Piccadilly Circus?” he asked.
+“You didn’t say you wanted a <em>short cut</em>?”</p>
+
+<p>“There’s Sydney yonder,” concluded the Nova Scotian,
+with the glass to his eye, “and we might be at Halifax
+this evening. There is the gleaming Bras d’Or, and the
+trout streams of the Mira River, and my wife and children
+are on the pier at Sydney; and I’m sailing on and on a
+thousand miles to Montreal, and then a thousand miles back
+by rail, because the Canadian Pacific Railway Company,
+and the Government of Canada, and ‘all the powers of the
+air, and the water, and the road’ don’t know that I want
+<em>a short cut</em>.”</p>
+
+<p>Of the nine Canadian Provinces stretching from the
+Atlantic to the Pacific seaboard, the one of which Englishmen
+might be expected, from its origin, its proximity, its
+history, and its resources, to know most about they know
+least. This is a puzzle I have often had to explain. Go
+down into Kent or into Wiltshire, and you will find villagers
+talking glibly of Saskatchewan and Alberta. The ale-house
+wiseacre can give you off-hand all the salient peculiarities
+of the Far West. I have heard a farm labourer near
+Westerham expatiating upon the grazing lands of the Bow
+River, and the duties of the mounted police, five thousand
+miles away, never forgetting to refer to the Canadian Pacific
+Railway—<em>tout court</em>—as the C.P.R. To hear him one
+would suppose he had already made his venture into those
+far occidental regions of the Empire; but no! it was only
+in prospect, when he had “saved up a bit more.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why in the name of commonsense do you go so far?”
+I asked. “What’s the matter with Nova Scotia?”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span></p>
+
+<p>The worthy fellow stared and scratched his chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Nova Scotia,” he replied, not without difficulty,
+“an’ where might that be, sir?”</p>
+
+<p>Here his intelligent little niece—a half-baked product
+of the Board School, came to the rescue.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t you see, uncle Bob, the gentleman’s only ’aving
+a little joke with you? Nova Scotia is an unin’abited
+island in the Arctic Ocean!”</p>
+
+<p>Now, Saskatchewan is between 4000 and 5000 miles
+from England; Nova Scotia is less than half the distance,
+long-peopled, storied, picturesque to the eye. Both are
+Canada—both are crying out for immigrants. Yet the one
+stands almost solely for Canada in the mind of the prospective
+emigrant, and the other he confuses with Nova
+Zembla! Could you demand a more striking tribute to
+the powers of advertisement? For alone of the Canadian
+Provinces those on the Atlantic seaboard had not shared
+in the astounding uplift, “the spectacular development,”
+which has characterised the Dominion since 1896.
+Hundreds of thousands of immigrants poured into the
+country, past the forests, orchards, and valleys of what
+has been aptly called “Canada’s front door.” It was
+decreed that they should be carried on to where there were
+lands to sell and wheat to be freighted; and so they
+travelled westward—“gone farther and fared worse” in
+many cases, although serving an undeniably good end in
+buttressing and giving body to the lately invertebrate trunk
+of the Dominion, of which Nova Scotia is undeniably the
+“head.”</p>
+
+<p>But this condition could not endure: the reaction has<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span>
+come at last;<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and this beautiful Province is now commanding
+that attention which is her due.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> For advanced legislation dealing with the problem of land settlement
+in Nova Scotia recently enacted, see Appendix A.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>To me as a Canadian, the pageant of New Scotland
+and Acadia has been familiar from my earliest years, and
+as the steamer ploughed its way through the waters of
+the Gulf, I had abundant leisure to let my fancy dwell upon
+those scenes of the past.</p>
+
+<p>Full of adventurous story are the annals of this Province—erstwhile
+Acadia and the Markland of Leif the Lucky.
+It was our kinsfolk, the Norsemen from Iceland, who landed
+on the peninsula nine centuries ago.</p>
+
+<p>One stops to marvel sometimes how the course of the
+history of the world would have run if Leif and his men
+had remained and settled Markland, and Vinland, and
+the New World. Instead of the Crusades, Europe would
+have poured her militant hordes into this hemisphere five
+centuries before Columbus; and instead of conquering
+England such spirits as William of Normandy would have
+found such a field for their energies as Pizarro and Cortez
+later found. Or it may be that the Scandinavians, with
+their western possessions, would have forged ahead of
+Latin Europe, and New Christianas, New Stockholms, and
+New Copenhagens would have replaced the Bostons, New
+Yorks, and Chicagos of far later times.</p>
+
+<p>But the Norsemen sailed back, leaving Markland unsettled;
+and in a few generations the story of their adventurous
+voyage was forgotten, or enshrined only in the sagas
+of their poets, where it became dim and legendary. The
+centuries passed. Markland was given over to the tribes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span>
+of wild Micmacs, who inhabited its coasts and roamed its
+interior in search of the moose and caribou, paddled their
+canoes, and sang their songs of love, and war, and the chase;
+who offered sacrifices to their gods in the light of a
+thousand lodge fires. Then Columbus came. Five years
+after the daring Genoan had sighted the West Indian
+islands from English shores, John Cabot set forth, crossed
+the Atlantic, landed on the Markland coast, and, by virtue
+of his charter from King Henry <abbr title="the 7th">VII</abbr>., founded the claim of
+England to Markland and to the whole Continent Columbus
+never saw. But England’s day for expansion was not yet.
+Cortereal, a slave-hunter, appeared on the Labrador coast
+in 1500, and there kidnapped a cargo of natives. Eighteen
+years later, a Frenchman, Baron de Léry, landed some of his
+followers and a few head of cattle on Sable Island, off the
+Markland coast. But although this attempt failed, some
+of the cattle thrived, and their descendants were found
+running wild on this bleak sandy island eighty years afterwards.
+After de Léry none came to colonise these northern
+lands until Jacques Cartier, the hardy St. Malo mariner,
+sailed with his men into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and up
+the river to Stadacona. On the heels of Cartier, from whom
+and other sailors they had tidings of the wealth of the
+New World fisheries, came a horde of English, Norman,
+Basque, and Breton fishermen, who plied their calling off
+the Markland coasts, and returned laden with cod in the
+autumn. Many of these landed and dried their fish on the
+shore, and during most of the sixteenth century that was
+all Europe knew of or dealt with Markland. True, under
+a charter granted by Elizabeth, Sir Humphrey Gilbert<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span>
+landed in Newfoundland and took possession of all land six
+hundred miles in every direction from St. Johns, comprising
+therefore what is to-day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince
+Edward Island, and part of Labrador. But his flagship, the
+<em>Squirrel</em>, sank with all on board in Nova Scotian waters,
+and nothing more came of Gilbert’s colonising scheme.</p>
+
+<p>Two years ere the century closed, the French again
+awoke to the possibilities of North American settlement;
+and the Marquis de la Roche sailed forth for Markland
+with a cargo of convicts for colonists, for volunteers were
+chary of accompanying him. La Roche steered westward
+until he came to that long crescent of sand which the
+opposite currents off the Markland coast had formed, whose
+treacherous shallows were just hidden by the waves as if
+designed to lure ships to their destruction. It was the
+same Sable Island upon which de Léry had landed eighty
+years before. Fearing the aborigines on the mainland,
+La Roche disembarked his convicts while he went to reconnoitre.
+Awaiting the Marquis’s return, the convicts roamed
+the island, and came upon herds of wild cattle, whose
+ancestors had come out from France with de Léry: they
+tramped by the solitary lagoon of fresh water, through the
+dark grasses, startling the flocks of wild duck, but never a
+shelter they saw. And they drew themselves together at
+dusk, and dug holes in the mud and sand, and waited for
+the ships to come and take them away, even back to the
+gaols and galleys of France. There are few more tragic
+incidents in New Scotland story than this, one of the
+earliest. For the Marquis de la Roche had been driven
+back across the Atlantic by an autumn hurricane, and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span>
+forty unhappy wretches in their despair, after ravening
+like wolves, and fighting and slaying each other, when other
+sustenance was gone, snared the wild cattle and ate the
+flesh raw, clothed their bodies in the hides, and out of the
+wreckage on the shore fashioned themselves a shelter from
+the terrible winter. Meanwhile, La Roche had been flung
+by a powerful rival into prison, and it was some time before
+he could get the ear of the Court to explain the plight of the
+men on Sable Island. At last a ship went out to take them
+home, and the twelve wild-eyed survivors, clad in shaggy
+hides, and with matted hair and beards, were got on board
+and carried back to France, where the King saw and set
+them free. A few years later another French noble, Pierre
+du Gast, the Sieur de Monts, the founder of Acadia,
+procured from the monarch a monopoly of North American
+trade, set forth in two ships filled with cavaliers and convicts,
+to people the territory named in his grant. This was
+Acadia, of no very definite limits, but comprising the
+entire north-eastern portion of the Continent. With
+de Monts sailed Champlain and a Picardy nobleman, the
+Baron de Poutrincourt; and, after sighting Cape la Hêve
+(near Lunenburg), and entering Port Rossignol, the party
+skirted the Acadian coasts (losing a sheep overboard in
+another harbour, which de Monts promptly named Port
+Mouton), explored the Bay of Fundy, and finally landed
+and spent the winter on a small island at the mouth of the
+St. Croix River. When spring came, de Monts abandoned
+this settlement for a far better site, on the shores of a
+beautiful harbour on the eastern side of the Bay of Fundy,
+which they christened Port Royal.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span></p>
+
+<p>“The most commodious, pleasant place that we had yet
+seen in this country,” wrote Champlain. While the colony
+was industriously preparing a settlement further down the
+coast for the winter, Champlain went off exploring the
+coast in his ship, sailing up and down what was destined to
+become ere long the territory of New England.</p>
+
+<p>Poutrincourt’s first choice, Port Royal, was found far
+superior to the tentative one at St. Croix River, and there
+in late spring they began to construct a town near what is
+now called Annapolis. De Monts and Poutrincourt, returning
+in the autumn to France, managed to induce a
+large number of mechanics and workers to emigrate to
+Acadia, and Poutrincourt’s ship, the <em>Jonas</em>, sailed from
+Rochelle in May 1606. Amongst the new emigrants was
+the active Lescarbot, lawyer and poet, and man of affairs.</p>
+
+<p>A peal of cannon from the little fort at Port Royal
+testified to the joy of its inmates at the advent of the <em>Jonas</em>.
+Poutrincourt broached a hogshead of wine, and Port Royal
+became a scene of mirth and festivity. When, in the
+absence of Champlain and Poutrincourt on further exploration,
+Lescarbot was left in charge of the colony, he
+set to work briskly, ordering crops of wheat, rye, and
+barley to be sown in the rich meadows, and gardens to be
+planted. Some he cheered, others he shamed into industry.
+Not a day passed but some new and useful work was begun:
+water-mills, brick kilns, and furnaces for making tar and
+turpentine. When the explorers returned to Port Royal,
+rather dispirited, Lescarbot arranged a masquerade to
+welcome them back, and all the ensuing winter, which was
+extremely mild, was given up to content and good cheer.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span>
+Then it was that Champlain started his famous “Order of
+a Good Time,” of which many stories have been transmitted
+to us. The members of this order were the fifteen leading
+men of Port Royal. They met in Poutrincourt’s great hall,
+where the great log fire roared merrily. For a single day
+each of the members was saluted by the rest as Grand
+Master, and wore round his neck the splendid collar of
+office, while he busied himself with the duty of providing
+dinner and entertainment. One and all declared the fish
+and game were better than in Paris, and plenty of wine
+there was to toast the King and one another in turn. “At
+the right hand of the Grand Master sat the guest of honour,
+the wrinkled sagamore, an aged Indian chief Membertou, his
+eyes gleaming with amusement as toast, song, and tale
+followed one another. On the floor squatted other Indians
+who joined in the gay revels. As a final item on the
+programme, the pipe of peace, with its huge lobster-like
+bowl, went round, and all smoked it in turn until the
+tobacco in its fiery oven was exhausted. Then, and not
+till then, the long winter evening was over.”</p>
+
+<p>But in the spring a ship came from St. Malo with the
+tidings that the King had revoked de Monts’ charter, and
+after efforts on the part of Poutrincourt and his son,
+Biencourt, to linger and retain their hold upon Acadia, the
+French were forced for a time to retire. The English,
+meanwhile, had got a footing in Virginia, and an adventurer
+named Argall came from thence and utterly destroyed
+Port Royal, as encroaching upon the territories of the
+English. He even caused the names of de Monts and other
+officers and the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">fleur-de-lis</i> to be defaced with pick and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span>
+chisel from the massive stone upon which they had been
+graven. Biencourt fled to the forest, and for a time consorted
+with the Indians, leading a semi-savage existence.
+From this dates the long struggle, lasting for a century
+and a half, for the possession of Acadia—a conflict that was
+not ended until Wolfe’s victory at Quebec and the surrender
+of New France.</p>
+
+<p>Eight years after Argall’s inroad in 1621, James <abbr title="the 6th">VI</abbr>. of
+Scotland conferred on one of his courtiers, Sir William
+Alexander, the whole territory which the French dominated
+Acadia.</p>
+
+<p>But in lieu of joining with them to build up a New
+England, he resolved, by the favour of the King, to engage
+his countrymen in extending the glory of their native land
+by founding a New Scotland across the ocean. “Being
+much encouraged hereunto by Sir Ferdinando Gorge<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> and
+some others of the undertakers for New England, I show
+them that my countrymen would never adventure in such
+an enterprise, unless it were as there was a New France, a
+New Spain, and a New England, that they might likewise
+have a New Scotland.”</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> Sir Frederick Gorges, Governor of New Plymouth.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">NEW SCOTLAND’S BEGINNINGS</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It is</span> a fact worth emphasis, but too little considered, that
+New Scotland sprang, as it were, direct from the loins of
+Old Scotland, and that both Old and New England looked
+on as non-agents passively.</p>
+
+<p>To-day of the Provinces which make up the Dominion
+of Canada, New Scotland is the only one boasting a flag of
+its own, owing nothing in its composition to either the flag
+of England or that of France. Here one may see unfurled
+a white flag with a blue St. Andrew’s Cross (saltier) dividing
+the “field” in four, while in the centre is the double-tressured
+lion of Scotland, the ruddy lion rampant in gold.
+This is the flag of New Scotland, and these were the arms
+of Sir William Alexander, still figuring in part of the
+arms of the Baronets of Nova Scotia, to which famed
+order Sir Arthur Wardour, one remembers, was proud to
+owe allegiance.</p>
+
+<p>To Sir William Alexander the grant was made by
+James <abbr title="the 6th">VI</abbr>. of Scotland of lands lying between New
+England and Newfoundland, “to be holden of us <em>from our
+Kingdom of Scotland as a part thereof</em>;”<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> on the 29th
+September, 1621, the Charter passed under the Great
+Seal. Sir William Alexander was appointed hereditary<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span>
+Lieutenant-General of the colony, which was in all future
+time to have the name of New Scotland, or, as appears in
+the courtly Latin of the charter, Nova Scotia, the first time
+such name appears in history, and at this day itself the only
+permanent memorial of the undertaking.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> <em>Sir William Alexander and the Scottish attempt to colonise Acadia</em>,
+by the Rev. George Patterson, D.D.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The charter goes on to say: “As it is very important
+that all our beloved subjects who inhabit the said Province
+of New Scotland or its borders may live in the fear of
+Almighty God, and at the same time in His true worship,
+and may have an earnest purpose to establish the Christian
+religion therein, and also to cultivate peace and quiet with
+the native inhabitants and savage aborigines of these lands,
+so that they, and any others trading there, may safely,
+pleasantly, and quietly hold what they have got with great
+labour and peril. We ... give and grant to the said
+Sir William Alexander and foresaids ... free and absolute
+power of arranging and securing peace, alliance, friendship,
+mutual conferences, assistance, intercourse, &amp;c.” The
+charter also granted the power of attacking suddenly,
+invading, expelling, and by arms driving away ... all and
+singly those who without their special license should attempt
+to occupy these lands, or trade in the said Province of
+New Scotland. Authorisation was also given them to
+construct “forts, fortresses, castles, &amp;c., with posts and
+naval stations, and also ships of war:” to “establish
+garrisons of soldiers, and generally to do all things for the
+acquisition, increase, and introduction of people and persons
+to preserve and govern New Scotland ... as the King
+might do if present in person.” The right of regulating
+and coining money was also granted: and these and other<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span>
+privileges involved only the annual payment of “one penny
+of Scottish money, if so much be demanded.”</p>
+
+<p>Sir William, soon after obtaining his patent, arranged
+for the transfer of his rights in the island of Cape Breton,
+which originally was included in the Province of New
+Scotland, to his friend Sir Robert Gordon, of Lochinvar.
+The latter, with his son Robert, obtained a royal charter
+(dated 8th November, 1621) to this, which was styled the
+barony of New Galloway.</p>
+
+<p>No time was lost by Sir William in taking the necessary
+steps for the settling of his territory. Fitting out a ship
+in London, in March, 1622, he sent it round the coast to
+Kirkcudbright, hoping to obtain there a body of emigrants,
+through the influence of Sir Robert Gordon, whose lands
+lay in that direction. The meagre inducements offered,
+however, could hardly attract persons possessed of the
+ordinary comforts of home life. Purchasers of land were
+the only ones to have any rights in the soil. Farmers
+might obtain leases; but all, after a specified time, were
+constrained to pay a one-thirteenth part of the revenue from
+the land to the Lieutenant-General. Artisans might
+receive holdings, but only for their lives. So it is recorded
+that there was only one artisan, a blacksmith, took part in
+the expedition, the other emigrants being generally agricultural
+labourers of the lowest class. It is unlikely, however,
+that more favourable terms were offered in any of the
+early attempts at settlement in America, or that the
+material engaged in them was any better. If Sir William
+had offered lands in fee his prospective emigrants would
+probably have been of an altogether different class—of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span>
+class of men who, being possessed of the means of subsistence,
+could have become attached to the soil, and who in time
+would have built up a free and prosperous society. But a
+system such as this was totally opposed to the social ideas
+of the times—times when the most prevalent idea was to
+establish overseas a state of society similar to that of
+mediæval Europe, the soil in the possession of certain lords
+paramount, and the settlers holding their lands in a condition
+little above that of serfs.</p>
+
+<p>The two colonising expeditions undertaken in consequence
+of the charter cost Alexander a large sum of money,
+and both ended in failure, owing to ill-management. This
+failure by no means dampened Sir William’s zeal. In 1624
+he issued a small work entitled, <cite>An Encouragement to
+Colonies</cite>, which was furnished with a map of New Scotland.
+The names given on this show the determination to reproduce
+the peculiarities of Scotland, even in minor ways.
+In this manner the St. Croix River appears as the Tweed,
+while another, flowing from its head into the St. Lawrence,
+is named the Solway. The river doubtless intended for
+the St. John is called the Clyde, and the inlet of the sea
+on the coast of New Brunswick is put down as the Forth.</p>
+
+<p>In this work Sir William depicts New Scotland as having
+“very delecate meadowes,” “with roses white and red,”
+and “very good, fat earth,” as the voyagers in the <em>St. Luke</em>
+had seen it along the coast. As a further inducement for
+early occupation, he added a mention of rich grains, and an
+abundance of fowls and fishes. Scotland he referred to as
+like a bee-hive, sending out swarms of her people yearly,
+who expended their energies in foreign wars. He then<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span>
+invited Scotsmen to settle in a new country, where successful
+commerce might be prosecuted by the merchant, where
+the sportsman might enter into a paradise of his own, and
+where the Christian might have ample scope for missionary
+enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>“Where,” was his argument, “was euer Ambition
+baited with greater hopes than here, or where euer had
+Vertue so large a field to reape the fruits of Glory, since any
+man who doth goe thither of good qualitie, able at first
+to transport a hundred persons with him, furnished with
+things necessary, shall have as much Bounds as may serve
+for a great Man, whereupon he may build a Towne of his
+owne, giving it what forme or name he will, and being the
+first Founder of a new estate, which a pleasing industry
+may quickly bring to a perfection, may leaue a faire inheritance
+to his posteritie, who shall claime unto him as the
+author of their Nobilitie there, rather than to any of his
+Ancestours that had preceded him, though neuer so nobly
+borne elsewhere?”</p>
+
+<p>But despite the glowing prospects enumerated in this
+<em>Encouragement to Colonies</em>, little enthusiasm was excited
+on behalf of the undertaking. When the English treasury
+refused to compensate Alexander for losses in a matter in
+which it had no concern, a new method was suggested,
+whereby his embarrassments might be relieved and the
+undertaking carried on. James, since his accession to
+the English throne, had systematically replenished his
+revenues by the simple method of selling titles. A particular
+instance of this was the colonisation of Ulster; when
+he shortly before created an order of knights baronets, of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span>
+which English landowners might become members on their
+paying into the exchequer the sum of £1100. By this
+means some 205 persons had obtained the new dignity
+between 1611 and 1622, the profit to the treasury being
+£225,000. This suggested to Sir William that the expenses
+of his colony might be provided for by the establishment
+of a new order—the baronets of New Scotland—while
+less costly terms might serve as inducements for the Scottish
+landowners and the sons of the Scottish nobility to become
+members. His recommendation of this plan in due course
+brought forth a royal letter, which informed the Privy
+Council of Scotland that the King had determined to take
+a personal interest in the colonisation of New Scotland, and
+to establish a new order of baronets in connection therewith.
+The Privy Council were invited to assist in the
+carrying out of the royal intention.</p>
+
+<p>The council, influenced by Sir William, approved the
+royal order, and replied to the King on the 23rd November,
+1624, indicating a scheme for following His Majesty’s
+wishes. “We are given to understand that the country
+of New Scotland, being dividit into twa Provinces and eache
+Province into several Dioceises or Bishoprikis, and each
+Diocese in thrie Counteyis, and each Countey into ten
+Baroneyis, every baronie being three myle long vpon the
+coast and ten myle up into the countrie, dividit into sax
+paroches, and each paroche contening sax thousand aikars
+of land; and that every Baronett is to be ane Barone of
+some one or other of the saidis Barroneis, and is to haif
+therein ten thousand aikars of propertie, besidis his sax
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span>thousand aikars belonging to his bur<sup>t</sup> (burgh) of baronie,
+to be holden free blanshe, and in a free baronie of His
+Majesty as the baronies of the kingdome.” The conditions
+imposed were “the setting furth of six men towardis His
+Maiestie’s Royall Colonie, armed, apparelld and victualled
+for two yeares, and every baronet paying Sir William
+ane thousand markis Scottis money only toward his past
+charges and endevouris.”</p>
+
+<p>As for these Nova Scotia baronetcies, great efforts were
+made to induce likely persons to accept them. In 1629
+six were created and thirteen in the two years following.
+The Commissioners were impowered to fill up the dates
+of patents at their discretion, “so that those unwilling
+to occupy a lower place on the rolls might be reckoned
+amongst the earliest creations.” Nor was the outer attractiveness
+of the order neglected. Under date of the 17th
+November, 1629, the King authorises “everie one of them
+and thare heires male to weare and carry about their
+neckis, in all time coming, ane orange tauney ribbane,
+whairon shall hing pendant on a skutchion <em>argent</em>, a saltoire
+<em>azeur</em> thereon, ane inscutcheune of the armes of Scotland,
+with ane imperiall croune above the scutchone, and incircled
+with this motto:  ‘Fax Mentis Honestæ Gloria.’” This
+was to be proclaimed publicly at the market cross of
+Edinburgh. And any one who should, “out of neglect
+or contempt, presume to tak place or precedence of the
+said baronettes, thare wifes or childring, or to weare thare
+cognoissance,” was in the same paper threatened with fine
+and imprisonment.</p>
+
+<p>A Scottish settlement was planted on the shores of
+Annapolis Basin; but the settlers seem to have been little<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span>
+prepared for the rigours of a Nova Scotian winter and the
+enmity of the Indians, for no fewer than thirty of the
+pioneers died. Meanwhile, Sir William Alexander’s son,
+bearing the same name, had succeeded; and, arriving in
+New Scotland, proceeded to put affairs into better order.
+He dealt so dexterously with the aborigines, that their
+chief consented to make a journey to England with his
+wife and son, where they enjoyed the absurd titles of King,
+Queen, and Prince of New Scotland. In the December of
+1629, Sir James Bagg, Governor of Plymouth, was directed
+by royal letter to conduct to Court “one of the commanders
+(or chiefs) of Canada, attended by some others of that
+countrie.” In a letter from Christ College, dated the
+12th of February, 1630, the Rev. Joseph Mead wrote:—</p>
+
+<p>“There came last week to London the king, queen,
+and young prince of New Scotland. This king comes to
+be of our king’s religion, and to submit his kingdom to
+him, and to become his hostage for the same, that he
+may be protected against the French in Canada. Those
+savages arrived at Plymouth, were a while entertained at
+my Lord Poulet’s in Somersetshire, much made of, especially
+my lady of the savage queen. She came with her to the
+coach, when they were come to London, put a chain about
+her neck with a diamond valued by some at near £20.
+The savages took all in good part, but for thanks or acknowledgment
+made no sign or expression at all.”</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Biencourt, the representative of De Monts
+and the original French settlers, together with two enterprising
+spirits named De la Tour, father and son, were
+holding on for King Louis in Acadia. When Biencourt<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span>
+died, Charles De la Tour meditated striking a blow for
+French supremacy. In this he was perpetually foiled, his
+father was captured by Admiral Kirke and taken to England,
+where he was caressed and cajoled, married a Court lady,
+and was created a Baronet of Nova Scotia. As Sir Claude
+he went out to New Scotland to endeavour to seduce his
+son Charles from his allegiance, but in vain. New Scotland,
+as a British settlement, was doomed. In 1632 the blow
+fell. By the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, Nova Scotia
+and Canada were ceded back to France by Charles <abbr title="the first">I</abbr>., who
+by this act of treachery achieved what French force had
+hitherto failed to accomplish. Nevertheless, the King
+wrote a letter to the Privy Council, in which he says:
+“lest any mistaking should ensure thereupon, we have
+thought it good to declare unto you that it (the Treaty)
+is in no ways for quitting the title right or possession of
+New Scotland or of any part thereof.” But this, in view
+of the actual terms of the Treaty, and of its consequences,
+was empty language. The settlers of New Scotland dispersed
+or mingled with the French, and the first attempt
+to establish a New Scotland ended in failure.</p>
+
+<p>I have dwelt somewhat fully upon this project—the
+beginnings of New Scotland—because it is one almost
+invariably slurred over by historians, and about which much
+ignorance exists. I shall have occasion in later pages to
+speak of the essentially Scottish character of New Scotland,
+and it is as well to recall its early planting by the Alexanders,
+the Frasers, the Gordons, and the MacNeills.</p>
+
+<p>Of the subsequent history of Nova Scotia I can here
+touch upon only briefly. England’s next ruler, Oliver<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span>
+Cromwell, recovered what Charles had basely surrendered,
+and Acadia became again Nova Scotia: but this position
+was again changed in 1667, when Charles <abbr title="the second">II</abbr>. gave away
+what Cromwell had won, that is to say, “all the country
+called Acadia situated in America which the Most Christian
+King had formerly enjoyed.” Another war, however,
+soon came between England and France, after the expulsion
+of James <abbr title="the second">II</abbr>. Port Royal was compelled to surrender
+to a British force from Boston, and Nova Scotia
+had again changed hands. The country reverted to the
+French through a Treaty of King William <abbr title="the third">III</abbr>.’s in 1697;
+but at the end of a further war, in 1713, the mainland of
+Nova Scotia had again passed into the possession of the
+British, a position which has never since changed. France
+retained her hold on Cape Breton Island and the neighbouring
+Isle St. Jean (now Prince Edward Island), until Canada
+was conquered in 1759.</p>
+
+<p>To reach these results many battles were fought,
+and many interesting historical events happened in New
+Scotland—as, for instance, the two sieges of Louisbourg,
+and the famous expulsion of the Acadians, celebrated in
+Longfellow’s poem “Evangeline.”</p>
+
+<p class="p4"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-037">
+<img src="images/i-037.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="524">
+<p class="center smcap">Martello Tower at Halifax.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>When the French power was finally shattered, the total
+white population of Nova Scotia was only some 13,000,
+of which 2000 were French. The capital, Halifax, was a
+little garrison town only fourteen years old, and comprising
+some 500 families. Settlers from the neighbouring New
+England colonies caused a considerable increase in this
+number, and additions came from King George’s German
+kingdom of Hanover. Afterward, when the American<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span>
+colonies had thrown off their allegiance, some 20,000, who
+either would not or could not remain in their old homes
+under a new flag, migrated to Nova Scotia, calling themselves
+the United Empire Loyalists. Many of these,
+however, settled on the north-west side of the Bay of
+Fundy—a region which, then under the Governor of Nova
+Scotia, was afterwards formed into a separate Province,
+now known to us as New Brunswick. From that time to
+the present day Nova Scotia’s history has been one of
+uninterrupted peace.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Thus briefly have I presented to the reader the salient
+features in Provincial history, a subject upon which more
+than one interesting volume has been penned. Of its
+romance—and it is a land teeming with romance—there
+is hardly a hill or a valley, a lake, an island, or a headland,
+that has not some tradition, some legend, some story of
+massacre, of sacrifice, of heroism, or of devotion—I have
+so far hinted but little. Its shrines are visited by thousands
+of Americans annually. This is the land past which the
+British visitor to Canada finds himself whirled, and is
+soon at the heart of the great Dominion of the West, without
+having seen its smiling crest, or touched its outstretched
+hand.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">NEW SCOTLAND’S CHARACTERISTICS</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">One</span> finds it difficult, briefly by means of analogy, to
+describe this peninsula of New Scotland. Yet it may not
+unfairly be compared to Old Scotland. Many of the
+features of the land are the same, nor is the climate unlike.
+But when we come to the human element we have no difficulty
+at all. Mixed as the population is, the Scots predominate.
+The late Lieutenant-Governor was a Fraser.
+The present holder of the office is a Macgregor, the Premier
+is a Murray, the Mayor of Halifax is a Chisholm. The
+Frasers, Macdonalds, M’Gillivrays, Wallaces, and M’Inneses
+furnish forth the bench, the bar, journalism, and the learned
+professions; and it is perhaps needless to tell you that
+the Scot here, as elsewhere in Canada, more than holds his
+own—“and maybe that of ither folk”—in the commercial
+world.</p>
+
+<p>But this is not saying enough about New Scotland
+considered as a transatlantic habitation and hunting-ground
+of the Old Scot. Here are still Gaelic communities where
+the Sassenach tongue is not heard. On the eve of the
+American Revolution a tide of emigration had set in from
+the old Scotland to the new, the first to arrive being a
+shipload of Highlanders in 1773. For many years, despite
+the terrible conditions of an ocean passage in those days,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span>
+the tide flowed on. Emigrants, in the old days, were
+forced to spend weeks or even months on the voyage,
+pent like cattle in ships frequently infected by small-pox
+and scurvy.</p>
+
+<p>Some 25,000 Scottish peasants settled on Cape Breton
+Island alone, while numbers landed on the shores of
+Northumberland Strait, in the counties now known as
+Pictou and Antigonish. Their hardships were not over
+when they landed; but with indomitable pluck they persevered
+until they had carved homes for themselves out of
+the forest.</p>
+
+<p>From one end of the peninsula to the other the cemeteries
+are filled with the tombs of the Frasers and the Macdonalds,
+the Macleans and the M’Nabs. At Shelburne,
+that “dead city” of the Loyalists, I copied out a lengthy
+inscription on a granite stone to a Loyalist heroine:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="center">THE WIFE OF JOHN MACLEAN<br>
+WHO DIED 28TH MARCH, 1791, AGED 32 YEARS</p>
+
+<p>She left her native country, Scotland, and numerous friends and
+companions, to follow the fortunes of her husband during the war
+with America in 1780. And when New York became no longer
+an asylum to loyalty, she joined him again on the rugged shore
+of Nova Scotia as an affectionate and faithful wife, a cheerful
+and social friend, humane and charitable, and pious as became
+a good Christian.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Another elsewhere oddly records that: “Here lies
+Angus M’Donald and his five sons, who lived ever on the
+side of the King, and died on this side of the Ocean.”</p>
+
+<p>No; New Scotland is no misnomer; and the Patron<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span>
+Saint of the Province is—and may it long continue so to be—St.
+Andrew.</p>
+
+<p>Although the Scots thus prevail, the other inhabitants
+of the Province are an eighteenth century mixture of the
+Old and New Worlds—of three great European races.
+Cape Breton and the eastern part of the peninsula is Scotch,
+the extreme west is French-Acadian, there is a settlement
+of Germans in the middle, and the rest of the population,
+save for a small sprinkling of aboriginal Micmacs, is English—the
+fruit of the Loyalist immigration from America.</p>
+
+<p>Nova Scotia, which is connected with the North
+American Continent by a narrow isthmus, lies roughly
+within the same degrees north latitude as the territory
+between the Pyrenees and Lake Geneva. It is 360 miles
+long, with an average breadth of 65 miles, and covers an
+area of 20,900 square miles, <em>i.e.</em> over two-thirds that of
+Scotland. No part of the entire peninsula is more than
+thirty miles from the sea. The surface of the country is
+very undulating, though not mountainous, the highest
+ridge not being 1200 feet in height. Yet the Province
+boasts several of these ridges or chains of hills, to which it
+gives the name of mountains, generally running parallel
+to its length. Its picturesqueness is chiefly attributable to
+its numerous and beautiful lakes, its harbours dotted with
+islands, its rivers and streams, and a pleasing variety of
+highland and valley. Looked at from the Atlantic side,
+the country seems barren and rocky.</p>
+
+<p>The seaward coast of the Province has been likened to a
+granite wall, indented by innumerable bays, fiords, and
+inlets. Wide and sandy beaches sweep gradually towards the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span>
+firm soil, from headland to headland; quaint and quiet
+fishing villages and hamlets underlie the rocks, sentinelled
+by countless islands along the coast. At every point, too,
+history and legend are here to throw a mantle over the
+scene—to mingle its rays with those of the sun and moon.
+Here are tales of French and English adventure, of Indian
+raid, storm, wreck, of buccaneers and buried treasure, all
+the way from Cape North to Cape Sable. But if the
+Atlantic shore is seemingly sterile and iron-bound, bearing
+in this respect a striking resemblance to the east coast of
+Old Scotland, it is far otherwise with the interior. The
+peach and the grape ripen in the open air, and the growth
+of maize and root crops might well excite the envy of a
+farmer in Perthshire or Elgin. Even in those districts
+where the scorched and leafless stems of giant pines rear
+their arms upward as if in appeal to Heaven, if the traveller
+will leave the railway and penetrate to the land beneath,
+he will see a vegetation almost rank, of raspberry, wild
+rhododendron, alder and crimson sumach, telling of the
+fertility of the soil. Where the surface is not fertile, the
+riches are beneath, in the form of coal, iron, gypsum, and
+other minerals: but there are few parts of the Province
+where grass suitable for sheep and cattle raising does not
+abound.</p>
+
+<p>Then when we get on the North, or “Fundy Side,”
+of the peninsula, we meet the broad alluvial plains, intersected
+by tortuous rivers or indented by wide and crooked
+basins, floored with red mud which the ebb-tide reveals,
+as though each were a ruddy gash in the bosom of Mother
+Earth. This is the land of the monstrous Fundy tides,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span>
+whose high-mounting, foaming “bore,” or tidal wave,
+sweeps irresistibly shoreward, making the smallest creeks to
+fill like turbulent rivers, but met and baffled along the low-lying
+shore by the “dykes” which were first reared by the
+Norman peasants three centuries ago, reclaiming the rich
+marsh land from the salt tide, and only here and there
+permitting the fertilising ocean to trickle in at certain
+seasons to reinvigorate the soil. Here is situated, too,
+that “hundred miles of apple-blossoms,” otherwise known as
+the Annapolis Valley, sheltered between the North and South
+Mountains, and also the famous marshes of Tantramar.</p>
+
+<p>At the other and eastern end of this peninsula stands
+Cape Breton Island, a province in itself, cut off by the
+Strait of Causo, one of the most picturesque of regions,
+itself reversing, as has been said, the definition of an
+island, inasmuch as it is land surrounding a body of water.
+That golden arm of the sea—the Bras d’Or lakes—nearly
+divides the land into two halves—both rich in the natural
+diversifications of hill and dale, crag and fell, forest and
+moor, and many streams and islets.</p>
+
+<p>Everywhere are the shores indented, often to the
+extent of several miles, with harbours, rivers, coves, and
+bays, usually connecting with the interior waters. The
+loftiest cliffs, about 500 feet high, lie on the coast
+between Mahone and Margaret’s Bay, and is generally the
+first land descried by voyagers from Europe or the West
+Indies. From the summit of Ardoise Hill, between Halifax
+and Windsor, which is 700 feet high, one may command
+a prospect of Windsor, Falmouth, Newport, Wolfeville, and
+the basin of Minas country. Further on to the west are the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span>
+Horton Mountains, running nearly north and south, and
+twenty miles beyond begins another chain of hills, traversing
+east and west, the North Mountain and the South Mountain,
+the former of which is washed by the Bay of Fundy.
+Between these two ridges lie the fertile Annapolis and
+Cornwallis valleys.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-046">
+<img src="images/i-046.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="567">
+<p class="center smcap">Halifax—Boating on the North-West arm.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>To the great inequality of the surface of the soil is
+due the prevalence of so many lakes, the largest in the
+peninsula being Rossignol, twenty miles from Liverpool up
+the Mersey River. There used to be a great uncertainty concerning
+the dimensions of this inland lake—which Haliburton
+thought was thirty miles long; but it is now known to be
+twelve miles in length by eight broad. The difficulty
+seems to have arisen by confusing it with adjoining lakes,
+of which there are numerous others in the vicinity. About
+Yarmouth, at the southern extremity of the Province,
+there are no fewer than eighty; while, as to Cape Breton
+Island, the whole interior of the southern half is one vast
+lake. A chain of lakes almost crosses the Province between
+Halifax and Cobequid Bay, suggesting many years ago a
+junction by canal. A company was formed and work
+begun, but nothing came of it. Another such chain nearly
+unites the source of the Gaspereaux in King’s Country with
+that of Gold River in Lunenburg. Many of these thousand
+and one lakes which bejewel the entire interior of New
+Scotland are of great beauty, containing timbered islands,
+whose foliage, together with that of the surrounding hills,
+is most variegated and attractive, especially in autumn,
+when the scarlet of the maple, the yellow of the birch,
+and gradations of green of the oak, elm, and pine, present<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span>
+a truly gorgeous spectacle. Even in winter, when the
+ground is covered with snow, the presence of enormous
+numbers of evergreens is an agreeable feature of the landscape
+in most parts of the Province. There are, however,
+others, which are either stony and barren, or boggy, or
+where the forest has been the prey of fire. In the latter
+parts, the “burnt lands,” the tall dead trees remain upright,
+black and forbidding, the picture of desolation. But in
+these cases, although it is a long time, owing to the fire
+having destroyed the soil and the seeds within it, before
+a new growth appears, yet this is easily afforested or converted
+into good arable land. The arable lands, in spite
+of all that has been done to foster agriculture, still remain
+only a fraction of the total cultivable part of New Scotland,
+and these are chiefly confined as yet to the vicinity of
+the rivers, harbours, and coasts, and the oldest townships.
+In these, however, the aspect is luxuriant, extensive,
+and various, reminding one here of the Scottish lowlands,
+there of Kent or Devonshire, in respect of cultivation
+and picturesqueness. Even the hedgerows, unknown in
+America, occasionally greet the eye.</p>
+
+<p>New Scotland is divided into counties, which are themselves
+parcelled into districts and townships. The Scottish
+origin and element, I am bound to say, do not come out
+very strong in the names of these counties, such as Halifax,
+Sydney, Cumberland, Hants, King’s, Lunenburg, Liverpool,
+Shelburne, &amp;c., albeit there are some Scottish names in
+the districts and townships.</p>
+
+<p>When all is said of the products of New Scotland, of
+her coal, her iron, her fish, and her fruit, it still remains<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span>
+that her chief and most notable product is that which is
+Old Scotland’s proudest boast—her men. Is it that a
+seafaring folk are always superior to those who are bred
+far inland? Is it that there is a wider outlook, a sense of
+vicissitude and adventure for the people who are in touch
+with that vast, restless flood, itself touching far-off climes
+and changing zones? Who if they do not sail a ship
+themselves or battle with storm and breaker, mix with the
+men who do, who know what it is to grapple with a wreck,
+what the cry of the widows and orphans of a lost crew
+is like? Surely this must breed a stronger soul: or is it,
+as a Manitoban hinted to me when acknowledging the
+intellectual superiority of the Nova Scotians, that to a fish
+diet must be ascribed that which for a century has been
+so manifest in the history of British North America?</p>
+
+<p>Proud is New Scotland of the men who have sprung
+from her loins. This cherishing of the memory of their
+worthy forerunners is perhaps the most marked characteristic
+of Nova Scotians to-day, the one in which this people
+differs in spirit from their neighbours.</p>
+
+<p>The term “Blue-nose,” long a current one applied to
+the Nova Scotians, brings me to the New York and New
+England irruption into the Province at the period of the
+American Revolution. As is now widely conceded, the best
+blood of the American Colonies—the oldest, the wealthiest,
+and the best educated—were United Empire Loyalists.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst the “True Blues,” the pioneers of Shelburne,
+was Gideon White, of Salem, descended from the first
+white child, Peregrine White, born in New England.
+To-day, Gideon’s grandson, an able lawyer of charming<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span>
+manners, lives in Shelburne, and courteously showed me
+many of the interesting family papers he still possesses.
+Shelburne is now a small village, but its spacious, grass-grown
+streets, its Governor’s mansion, its thickly strewn
+churchyard, tell the tale of its past glory. But although
+the “True Blues” left Shelburne, they scattered themselves
+through the Province, and there are hundreds of
+families who trace their ancestry back to the Pilgrim Fathers.
+“You can see they’re  ‘True Blue,’” said a Yankee derisively.
+“Now they’ve gone to live in such a cold country as Nova
+Scotia they carry their colours in the middle of their faces!”
+And so the epithet “Blue-nose” stuck, although it is
+difficult to say why the nasal appendages of Nova Scotians
+should be of a more azure tint than those which are blown
+by the pocket-handkerchiefs of the New England folk—since
+the climate is about the same—if anything, less
+rigorous in the peninsula.</p>
+
+<p>“Blue-nose,” as I have already hinted, has long been a
+synonym for sloth amongst the Yankees; but now we hear
+of Blue-nose booms, Blue-nose “boosters,” and Blue-nose
+hustlers. The “Flying Blue-nose” express, which runs
+from the Boston docks at Digby to Halifax, might easily
+give points to many American express trains, besides itself
+furnishing proof that the term “Blue-nose” is as acceptable
+to the New Scotlanders as Yankee (<em>i.e.</em> Anglais) is to the
+New Englanders, through whose less fertile homesteads the
+“Flying Yankee” rushes.</p>
+
+<p>Before me as I write is a placard redolent of the new
+spirit, which is mingling with, yet not destroying the
+old:—</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<div class="title-page">
+<p class="center">“BOOST” NOVA SCOTIA!</p>
+
+<p>Do <span class="allsmcap">YOU</span> believe that Nova Scotia, acre for acre, is
+the equal of any other Province of Canada?</p>
+
+<p>Do <span class="allsmcap">YOU</span> believe that Nova Scotians, man for man, are
+the equal in intelligence, industry, and ability, of any of
+the other inhabitants of this planet?</p>
+
+<p>If so, lend a hand and “boost” Nova Scotia!</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>“Every town, every county,” remarks a Nova Scotia
+writer, “cherishes traditions of its old families, its first
+settlers; of the pious missionary, the minister who gave
+half his scanty income to redeem the slave; the adventurous
+sea-captain, whose life reads like one of Smollett’s
+novels; the man who settled half a county; the evangelist
+who stirred the souls of men; the founder of the first
+academy; the man who first resisted the insolence of office;
+the loyalist who lost all for his flag.”</p>
+
+<p>The Nova Scotians have, more than any other people,
+been helped to this self-continence, this habit of reverence,
+by their comparative isolation, by the fact that so many
+of her sons went out and so few newcomers entered, by
+there being no destructive spirit of unrest abroad, no
+substitution of cheaper ideals. No Province in Canada, I
+had almost written no nation in Canada—for is not this
+the day of small and separate nationalities?—where
+memories of the past are sweeter—where yesterday has a
+magic that to-day can never impart. Far be it from me
+to deride this sentiment; but as my eye glances down the
+columns of the Nova Scotian newspapers, I find here and
+there an insistence upon men and events that belong to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span>
+yesterday, indeed, rather than to the day before yesterday;
+which must strike the folk of an older civilisation as very
+odd. Thus in an Amherst paper I find the following:—</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="center">OLD BAGATELLE BOARD</p>
+
+<p class="center"><em>A Relic of the Early Eighties found in the Academy Garret</em></p>
+
+<p>When the old Academy on Acadia Street was being torn down some
+years ago, a rude bagatelle board was found away up among the
+rafters. The finders were mystified, and there was only one of the
+“Old Boys” in town who could throw light on its existence, although
+since that time the maker of the board has taken up his residence
+in Amherst. We refer to Will Casey who taught the class in electricity
+in our technical school so successfully last winter. Even in boyhood
+he was a mechanical genius, and the bagatelle board was not his
+first piece of manual work. Will brought the board to school one
+morning long before the arrival of the teachers. A ladder was put
+up to the manhole in the ceiling, the board taken up and the ladder
+after it. There were four boys late for school that morning. More
+than one game was played up among the dust and cobwebs. “Len”
+Wheaton, now a well-known engineer, became an expert; “Hae”
+Gaetz, son of Rev. Joseph Gaetz, would occasionally take a hand
+in the game, and a long-limbed chap from Doherty Creek, who now
+adorns a New York pulpit, was, if we mistake not, once admitted
+into the sacred precincts of the old garret. There were others too,
+all scattered abroad, but we would like to see them home this year to
+talk over some of the episodes of our school life in the early eighties.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>All this might have appeared in a Maidstone or Peebles
+paper, only it would there be descriptive of something
+which happened in 1830, not in 1880, Here anything
+that happened a century ago is antiquity indeed, while an
+occurrence of two or three centuries since is like something
+before Noah’s Ark, <em>i.e.</em> the <em>Mayflower</em>.</p>
+
+<p>There are some people who never experience a sense of the
+insignificance of time—of what is called the ages. We all
+know men of ninety—some of us know centenarians. Twenty<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span>
+such lives and we are back at the beginning of the Christian
+era—even five such lives as Lord Strathcona’s, and Columbus
+had not discovered the New World. But those who do
+not experience this sense of the real modernity of antiquity,
+turn their eyes back upon a world of awfulness and mystery,
+as well as of poetry and beauty. The shortest journey of
+the memory or the imagination backward is bordered by
+shadows and by dreams. Men and scenes are not the men
+and scenes we know, but something quite other and heroic.
+And the best of it is, it may <em>be</em> so. We can by no means
+reconcile our knowledge of the world to-day with what has
+come down to us of that world dead and buried even these
+hundred years. That is where our poetical faith comes in—our
+refusal to measure the people and customs of long
+ago by the psychological yard-stick of this our time. We
+refuse to see in Champlain, Lescarbot, and Poutrincourt,
+only the seventeenth century equivalent of Mr. Nansen,
+Dr. Grenfell, and Commander Peary, people who, in spite
+of their heroic achievements, are surely prosaic folk.</p>
+
+<p>Something of the glamour of the past is already falling
+upon the figure of Joseph Howe—Nova Scotia’s great hero.
+Nova Scotians speak of Howe as Americans speak of Abraham
+Lincoln. Throughout the Province, in the towns, the
+villages, and the countryside, you will find plenty of old
+men who remember “Joe” Howe in the flesh, who exchanged
+greetings with the “patriot, poet, and orator,”
+who, maybe, held his horse, or fetched him a draught, not,
+I fear, often from the village pump, but from the village
+inn, and who, and whose descendants, bear him the same
+measure of affection which in Ontario is accorded to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span>
+Sir “John A”—Canada’s first Premier, the gifted, wayward,
+prescient Macdonald. At Truro, two old cronies stood
+beside the “Joe Howe” falls—a picturesque cataract in
+the woods of the public park. “Fluent, eh, Tom?” “Oh,
+aye, Andrew, fluent.” “Copious, eh, Tom?” “Oh, aye,
+copious.” “And noisy, eh?” “True, noisy.” “But
+eternal, Tom?” “Yes, by G——, eternal. Nothing can
+stop Joe Howe, and nothing can stop these falls. They’ll
+go on—both of ’em, shining as long as Nova Scotia—as
+long as the world lasts.”</p>
+
+<p>Of other famous names than Howe’s there is Haliburton’s,
+of whom I will speak elsewhere in these pages. De Mille,
+although a native of that former part of the Province
+known as New Brunswick, wrote here all his novels. There
+are Sir John Inglis of Lucknow, and General Fenwick
+Williams of Kars. Samuel Cunard, the first to bridge
+the Atlantic with a line of steamers, and the founder of the
+Cunard fleet, was a Halifax merchant. From one single
+county—Pictou—came five of Canada’s college presidents—Dawson
+of McGill, Grant and Gordon to Queen’s, and
+Ross and Forrest to Dalhousie—whereas no other single
+county probably ever gave so many as two. From Nova
+Scotia came Sir Charles Tupper and Sir John S. D.
+Thompson, Prime Ministers of Canada. The present
+Prime Minister of Canada, Right Honourable Robert Laird
+Borden, is a Nova Scotian, and represents the constituency
+of Halifax in the Federal Parliament, and this same province
+is the birthplace of Mr. William Stevens Fielding, the
+eminent member of Finance in the cabinet of Sir Wilfrid
+Laurier.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">HALIFAX AND THE HALIGONIANS</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In the</span> exact middle of the peninsula of Nova Scotia a
+triangular piece of land juts out into the Atlantic. To
+this second peninsula is attached a third, and upon this
+narrow rocky strip, three miles long by a single wide, a
+century and a half ago was founded the “Cronstadt of
+Canada.” East and west of Halifax is the sea, but the
+sea subdued and serene: for on the one hand is the world-famed
+Halifax harbour, and on the other the river-like
+north-west arm. In the harbour a thousand ships may
+ride quietly at anchor: it is always accessible: as it touches
+the upper end of the town it narrows only to expand again
+into Bedford Basin—ten square miles of peaceful marine
+haven. On the eastern slope of the little isthmus, Halifax
+is built, the ground rising from the harbour’s edge, some
+two hundred and fifty feet, to where is reared the great
+stone citadel, a striking spectacle when viewed from the
+sea—to the ocean-borne traveller striking and significant.</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">“Into the mist my guardian prows put forth,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Behind the mist my virgin ramparts lie,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">The Warden of the Honour of the North,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Sleepless and veiled am I!”</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Halifax has been for a century and a half the chief naval
+and military headquarters of British North America, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span>
+for some time the sole garrison of regular troops in Canada.
+Its military spirit dates from its very birth.</p>
+
+<p>There are greetings of every kind and degree in store
+for the traveller in parts civilised, uncivilised, barbarous,
+and savage; greetings at the portals of the city, effusive,
+boisterous, vociferous. There is one time-dishonoured
+greeting that I could dispense with more freely than all the
+rest, and it is that which awaits the incomer by rail to the
+capital of New Scotland. Conjure up in your fancy
+seventeen shaggy, wild-eyed men, in whose visages Celtic
+traits predominate, standing in a row, brandishing their
+outflung fists, bawling at the top of their voices, and only
+prevented from leaping upon the traveller and forthwith
+tearing him to pieces by a too-slender wooden barrier—and
+you have the spectacle which many a time and oft has confronted
+me at the Halifax railway terminus. For a moment,
+not understanding the pleasant local custom, with stunned
+faculties you stand regarding the line of raving madmen,
+unable to distinguish the diabolical dissyllable they are
+hurling at your head; and then a glimmering of the truth
+comes upon you, your hand-bag and umbrella-case fall from
+your limp grasp, they are caught up by one of the shrieking
+phalanx, by whom you are hustled into an open victoria
+and driven at breakneck speed to a hotel. It is pretended
+that the natives like this custom—that they have grown
+used to it—that as the local poet sings:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">“’Tis sweet to hear the cabman’s honest bark,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Bay deep-mouthed welcome as we draw near home.”</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-057">
+<img src="images/i-057.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="488">
+<p class="center smcap">Halifax and Harbour from the Citadel.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>One Scot, thrillingly ingenious, declares that on arriving<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span>
+at Halifax he surrenders himself to a wonderful illusion,
+one that I dare hardly mention because of its audacity.
+He half-closes his eyes and imagines himself reinstated in
+his rightful chieftainship in the fastnesses of his Highland
+ancestors, and hears the clansmen shouting at him as they
+shouted at the returned Malcolm Dhu: “Am faic thu
+sin? Am faic thu sin? Tha mi ‘dol do Chualadh!”
+and other guttural acclamations, issued with such passionate
+frenzy and strength of lung as transport him back to the
+land of his fathers.</p>
+
+<p>Far otherwise is it with the newcomer by sea. The
+traveller steams into a smooth and spacious harbour, and
+suddenly his gaze falls upon the city bathed in sunlight,
+stretching up from the wharves to the citadel crowned by
+the glorious flag that (with a few slight alterations and
+additions) for a thousand years “hath braved the battle
+and the breeze.”</p>
+
+<p>“I was dressing,” wrote Charles Dickens, describing his
+arrival at Halifax seventy years ago, “about half-past nine
+next day, when the noise above hurried me on deck. When
+I had left it over-night it was dark, foggy, and damp, and
+there were bleak hills all round us. Now we were gliding
+down a smooth, broad stream, at the rate of eleven miles an
+hour; our colours flying gaily; our crew rigged out in their
+smartest clothes; our officers in uniform again; the sun
+shining as on a brilliant April day in England, the land
+stretched out on either side, streaked with light patches of
+snow; white wooden houses; people at their doors; telegraphs
+working; flags hoisted; wharfs appearing; ships;
+quays crowded with people; distant noises; shouts; men and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span>
+boys running down steep places towards the pier; all more
+bright and gay and fresh to our unused eyes than words
+can paint them. We came to a wharf, paved with uplifted
+faces, got alongside and were made fast, after some shouting
+and straining of cables; darted, a score of us, along the
+gangway almost as soon as it was thrust out to meet us, and
+before it had reached the ship, and leaped upon the firm,
+glad earth.</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose this Halifax would have appeared an Elysium,
+though it had been a curiosity of ugly dullness. But I
+carried away with me a most pleasant impression of the
+town and its inhabitants, and have preserved it to this
+hour. Nor was it without regret that I came home,
+without having found an opportunity of returning thither,
+and once more shaking hands with the friends I made
+that day.”</p>
+
+<p>“The town,” he goes on to say, “is built on the side of
+a hill, the highest point being commanded by a strong
+fortress, not yet quite finished. Several streets of good
+breadth and appearance extend from its summit to the
+waterside, and are intersected by cross streets running
+parallel with the river. The houses are chiefly of wood.
+The market is abundantly supplied; and provisions are
+exceedingly cheap. The weather being unusually mild at
+that time for the season of the year, there was no sleighing;
+but there were plenty of those vehicles in yards and
+by-places, and some of them, from the gorgeous quality of
+their decorations, might have ‘gone on’ without alteration
+as triumphal cars in a melodrama at Astley’s. The
+day was uncommonly fine; the air bracing and healthful;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span>
+the whole aspect of the town cheerful, thriving, and
+industrious.”</p>
+
+<p>Yet candour compels me to say that the impression
+made on the visitor by Halifax viewed at close quarters
+is not as favourable as it might be. One writer does not
+hesitate to call it “dingy and shabby”; and this effect
+is without doubt attributable first to the material employed
+in building the residential streets, and secondly
+to the utter neglect in the whole Province of which it is
+the capital, of architectural beauty. And herein Halifax
+shows not least its true British conservative character,
+not to say its London and English provincial city character.
+For given dull yellow brick as a material, I can show you
+miles upon miles of Halifax in Camden Town and Bayswater,
+in Clerkenwell and Bloomsbury. As the ballad in
+the “Arcadians” runs:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">“When first I came to London town,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">I thought it dingy, old, and brown.”</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>I can show you Halifaxes in Liverpool and Glasgow. Let
+no Londoner of the Georgian or Victorian age, whose
+architectural taste is represented by Gower Street and
+Smith Square, reproach the “Warden of the Honour of
+the North.” At the very beginning an attempt was made
+to copy London; and St. Paul’s Church, long the pro-cathedral,
+was built in 1750 on the model of St. Peter’s,
+in Vere Street, Piccadilly. Other houses were constructed
+on that other Cockney model, which proceeds on the
+principle that a square wall, with a horizontal upper edge,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span>
+pierced at mathematical intervals with oblong holes for
+windows, is a façade.</p>
+
+<p>But an even more serious mistake—perhaps it was at
+first a necessity—the founders of Halifax made, in which
+their successors and descendants have persisted to the
+present day; a fundamental and essential mistake which no
+amount of shaping, and trimming, and painting will ever
+correct or atone for—a mistake which, it is painful to have
+to record, it is difficult to bring Haligonians to recognise as
+such—they built then and build now their houses entirely
+of wood. Wooden houses may be cheap, wooden houses
+may be easy to build, wooden houses may be painted to
+look like stone or brick, but wooden houses are not for men,
+but children. People who live in glass houses, we are told,
+shouldn’t throw stones; and people who live in wooden
+can’t care for posterity, for it is certain that posterity won’t
+care for them. It is not as if stone were not cheap, or brick
+available—the Colonial showed from the first his improvidence
+and his distrust in his future, by building of wood,
+and the result is what might be expected. Time has not
+dignified, but detracted.</p>
+
+<p>“A modern wooden ruin,” Haliburton told his fellow-countrymen,
+“is of itself the least interesting and at the
+same time the most depressing object imaginable. The
+massive structures of antiquity, that are everywhere met
+with in Europe, exhibit the remains of great strength, and
+though injured and defaced by the slow and almost imperceptible
+agency of time, promise to continue thus mutilated
+for ages to come. They awaken the images of departed
+generations, and are sanctified by legend and by tale. But<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span>
+a wooden ruin shows rank and rapid decay, concentrates
+its interest on one family, or one man, and resembles a
+mangled corpse rather than the monument that covers it.
+It has no historical importance, no ancestral record. It
+awakens not the imagination. The poet finds no inspiration
+in it, and the antiquary no interest. It speaks only of
+death and decay, and recent calamity and vegetable decomposition.
+The very air about it is close, dank, and unwholesome.
+It has no grace, no strength, no beauty, but looks
+deformed, gross, and repulsive. Even the faded colour of
+a painted wooden house, the tarnished gilding of its decorations,
+the corroded iron of its fastenings and its crumbling
+materials, all indicate recent use and temporary habitation.
+It is but a short time since this mansion was tenanted by its
+royal master, and in that brief space how great has been the
+devastation of the elements! A few years more and all
+trace of it will have disappeared for ever. Its very site will
+soon become a matter of doubt. The forest is fast reclaiming
+its own, and the lawns and ornamented gardens annually
+sown with seeds scattered by the winds from the surrounding
+woods, are relapsing into a state of nature, and exhibiting
+in detached patches a young growth of such trees as are
+common to the country.”</p>
+
+<p>“The capital of Nova Scotia,” wrote a traveller in 1856,
+“looks like a town of cards, nearly all the buildings being of
+wood. There are wooden houses, wooden churches, wooden
+wharves, wooden slates, and if there are sidewalks these are
+of wood also. I was pleased at a distance with the appearance
+of two churches, one of them a Gothic edifice, but on
+nearer inspection found them to be of wood, and took refuge<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span>
+in the substantial masonry of the really handsome Province
+Building and Government House.”</p>
+
+<p>“At least,” retorted a Nova Scotian upon a Yankee
+critic, “we don’t go in for wooden nutmegs.”</p>
+
+<p>“You’re not smart enough,” was the retort, “your
+very heads are of wood.”</p>
+
+<p>“I fear,” remarked a distinguished Episcopal visitor on
+being shown the city, “your people are not orthodox.
+They make an idol of wood.”</p>
+
+<p>“My Lord,” was Sir Robert Weatherbe’s witty rejoinder,
+“we attach little importance to material things.
+And remember,</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent1">‘The heathen in their blindness,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Bow down to wood <em>and</em> stone.’”</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>On Citadel Hill, the crowning height of Halifax, are to
+be seen obsolete fortifications, begun by the Duke of
+Kent, and as time went on altered and improved to
+keep pace with the rapid advances of scientific warfare.
+In and around Halifax there is now a thoroughly
+modern system of fortifications; and improvements and
+additions to these works are continually being made.
+The prominent points on the shores and the neighbouring
+islands are completely equipped with modern quick-firing
+and disappearing guns, and other forms of defence are not
+neglected.</p>
+
+<p>The annual naval and military manœuvres, of which
+Halifax used to be the scene, were a great source of interest,
+and attracted throngs of tourists. One saw the North
+Atlantic Squadron anchored peacefully in the harbour.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-066">
+<img src="images/i-066.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="549">
+<p class="center smcap">Entrance to the Citadel, Halifax.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span></p>
+
+<p>Suddenly there rang out the shrill boatswain’s whistle,
+and there ensued a vision of crews swarming up the rigging,
+the loosening of sails, the hoisting of anchors, and then,
+in a few moments, the stately fleet steamed majestically
+down past the city and out to sea. For “war” had been
+declared, and the fleet which thus went out to meet the
+enemy, will itself be the “enemy” on its return, and a fierce
+bombardment be expected unless the pretence that it is
+blown to fragments by submarines and torpedoes be successful.
+Meanwhile, the military authorities at the citadel
+were on the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">qui vive</i>. The militia was called out, the garrison
+were at their guns or at the look-out, the submarine
+and torpedo engineers were busy laying surface mines and
+inspecting sunken mines and booms. The tension continued
+through that day and the ensuing night, until at
+daybreak the booming of cannon on the York Redoubt
+announces the approach of the enemy and the beginning of
+the attack. In all this and the attendant military reviews
+and sham-fights the whole of Halifax participated, and the
+glory of the manœuvres ended in a ball at Government
+House.</p>
+
+<p>A change has come over the Imperial aspect of the
+Province since the Dominion Government took over the
+naval and military defences of Halifax from the Mother
+Country. I found Halifax, with its citadel crowned slopes,
+its wooden houses, its tree-lined avenues bathed in glowing
+summer sunshine, but Haligonian society with no sunshine
+in its heart. “Where are the tars of yester-year?” the
+belles of Halifax seemed to be saying. “Where are the
+gallant captains, commanders, lieutenants, sub-lieutenants,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span>
+and middies with whom we waltzed, and flirted, and played
+tennis, and acted and boated within the North-west arm?”
+I was prepared for this, but not for a similar complaint with
+regard to the British Army. For on parade, at church,
+at the Halifax club, were not the regulation uniforms
+denoting the British officer as much in evidence as ever?
+“Oh, those!” was the supercilious rejoinder of one fair
+damsel, lying back in a canoe on the shores of Bedford Basin;
+“<em>they don’t count. They’re Canadians.</em>”</p>
+
+<p>To me these officers in their spick-and-span khaki,
+touched with scarlet, were indistinguishable from the Simon-pure
+insular breed. But trust a fair Haligonian to know
+the difference. I was reminded of the saying of a recent
+Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, who did not seem
+very effusive in his welcome of one who wore his Majesty’s
+uniform, just arrived at Government House. “I’m sorry
+the fellow was offended; but nobody interests me who
+reaches Nova Scotia <em>by land</em>.”</p>
+
+<p>And, indeed, it is only recently that many Nova
+Scotians have taken kindly to the term Canadian as applied
+to themselves, resembling in this respect the British
+Columbians of the pre-Confederation and ultra-conservative
+school.</p>
+
+<p>It certainly has made a difference, perhaps only temporary,
+to the tone of Halifax society this substitution of
+a Canadian for the old Imperial establishment. Nor is the
+idea of a Canadian Navy taken seriously in these social
+circles. One had only to mention the <em>Niobe</em> and the
+<em>Rainbow</em> to excite a smile. The officers may turn out
+to be good fellows, but they will need all their tact,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span>
+good looks, and gallantry to overcome the prejudice the
+fair Haligonians feel towards them as delegates from
+Ottawa instead of from the British Admiralty. As for
+the military, I heard many complaints as to how their
+men had received their appointments at Ottawa, but none
+as to how they do their work. And what is better still,
+they have earned the respect of the British “Tommies,”
+who still form 90 per cent. of the garrison, better paid and
+better fed than they were under the Imperial régime. And
+yet such pay and feeding hardly serves to attract the native-born,
+very few of whom are ready to enlist, so that the
+garrison is conspicuously undermanned.</p>
+
+<p>But Halifax is a charming place to live in for all that.
+It has so long been a naval port and a garrison town, that the
+family ties between its people and those of England continue
+to be very numerous. Commercial relations between the
+two countries have grown to such an extent that the natives
+have now all that is admirable in English business circles
+and polite society. A visitor, if given the entrée of the best
+society, must perforce carry away the most kindly recollections
+of his visit. Whatever his nationality, few places
+will make more strenuous efforts to give him the greatest
+enjoyment. And the attractions for the visitor are many,
+both in and around the town. A favourite drive is along
+the Point Pleasant Road and up the North-west Arm. A
+most attractive place is this North-west Arm, and the
+drive, especially when continued past Melville Island and
+as far as the Dingle, is a most enjoyable one.</p>
+
+<p>Attending divine service on the day following my arrival,
+I tried to listen to the reverend gentleman expatiating in a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span>
+patriarchal, and, I thought, somewhat ungallant way on the
+duties of women. My eye roved over the interior of the
+sacred edifice, which is, in many ways, the most interesting
+in Canada. One of the very first undertakings of the
+infant colony a century and a half ago was to provide themselves
+with a place of worship, and in the original plan of
+the town one square was reserved for a site. They applied
+to the British Government, who referred it to Lord Halifax,
+who attended service at St. Peter’s, Vere Street, Piccadilly.
+His lordship sought out the architect of St. Peter’s, got the
+plans, and sent them out to Nova Scotia. There the frame
+and other materials were imported from Boston, and in
+less than a year the colonists were attending service within
+an exact replica of the London church, which they named
+St. Paul’s. For many years it was used by successive bishops
+as a cathedral, including both the Inglises, father and
+grandfather of Sir John Inglis of Lucknow. Richer than
+any other church in Canada is St. Paul’s in mural tablets,
+and as our eye sweeps the four walls it encounters many
+historic names. One of these is that of Governor John
+Parr, the friend and comrade of Wolfe.</p>
+
+<p>I wish I could speak in praise of Halifax’s new cathedral,
+to which reference will be found elsewhere in these pages.
+I wish I could plead that as I saw it, merely in process of
+construction, it would be impossible to render judgment
+upon it. For to me the whole principle upon which such
+structures are built is a wrong one. Even the architects
+have been impelled to issue a kind of manifesto, in which
+the following interesting statement occurs:—</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps the greatest disadvantage we of the western<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span>
+world are compelled to undergo in our buildings, in the vast
+majority of cases at any rate, is the sordid meanness or
+cheap tawdriness of the surroundings. This condition is
+so marked in certain portions of America as to quite dishearten
+the conscientious architect at the very inception
+of his task. Many noble buildings there are such as would
+become beautiful situations abroad that here seem contemptible,
+at odds with their environment.”</p>
+
+<p>It is true they hasten to disclaim such surroundings for
+Halifax, but go on to say—</p>
+
+<p>“Amid such surroundings any attempt at such glittering
+splendours as are gathered in, say, the Basilica of Saint Mark
+at Venice, or such sombre glories of carving and metal as are
+everywhere present in the cathedral of the debonair city of
+Seville, would be wholly out of place. Even the unruffled
+sunlit calm of the English cathedrals may hardly be
+attempted, much less attained. The city is a northern one,
+the land one of long winters and deep snows, and over all
+blows the keen air of the salt sea, that singles out each
+unprotected bit of masonry, every weak cranny of construction,
+for attack. Only the hardest and most enduring of
+materials can undergo such a searching test as the old
+builders of the town well knew, and much that gives charm
+to similar buildings of the old world must be frankly dispensed
+with; the parapets for one, that in every period of
+the Gothic style as built abroad, heavy and castellated in
+early work, pieced and lace-like in later times, are almost an
+integral feature, for these would form pockets for great
+piles of drifted snow that melting in the spring would
+surely creep up and into the slates and woodwork of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span>
+roof. And the heavy floors of irregular flags that so charm
+the traveller abroad, must perforce be abandoned, for these
+should rest upon solid earth, and only in a land where the
+forces of frost are but puny can this be done, while the
+same force it is that forbids the employment well, of other
+architectural details that involve care, labour, and expense.
+I have never heard a more ingenious and disingenuous
+defence of flimsiness, the whole truth being that Halifax
+would have liked a first-rate cathedral, but did not like to
+spend the requisite sum upon it. If these architects had
+gone to Russia and Northern Germany, not to mention
+Old Scotland, I dare say they would find that a cold
+climate is not altogether antagonistic to sound and even
+elaborate masonry and even to permanence. The whole
+point is contained in their conclusion, in which it is
+confessed:</p>
+
+<p>“The cost of the mediæval cathedrals was lightly met
+by the people of the past, but the funds which would be
+incurred in erecting even such a <em>lifeless and soulless replica
+as we are only capable of</em> to-day, would be far beyond the
+capacity of any diocese to gather together.”</p>
+
+<p>So much for the great cathedral of Halifax!</p>
+
+<p>Our fellow-citizens in the densely-settled heart of the
+Empire, you are just beginning to realise the century-old
+ideals of those in the outer marches. You are just
+beginning to see the significance of Canadian loyalty—regarded
+as loyalty to the race, “Because,” as Mr. Kipling
+once wrote to a friend of mine, a Newfoundlander,
+“the Empire is Us—We ourselves: and for the white
+man to explain that he is loyal is almost as unnecessary
+as for a respectable woman to volunteer the fact that she
+is chaste.”</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-073">
+<img src="images/i-073.jpg" alt="" width="498" height="850">
+<p class="center smcap">In the Public Gardens, Halifax.</p>
+<p class="center smcap">In the Public Gardens, Halifax.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span></p>
+
+<p>As the solidarity of the British race—we ourselves—increases,
+we can take a greater interest in Colonial origins—we
+can be entertained by seeing how each colony reached
+the same political goal—self—government—by a different
+path.</p>
+
+<p>As Annapolis Royal is the cradle of Canada, so Halifax
+may be called the cradle of Colonial self-government.
+Urged by this sentiment, Sir Sandford Fleming, the late
+engineer-in-chief of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and a
+most notable Imperialist, not long since conceived a truly
+original and interesting idea. Imperial ideas are not yet
+so common that significance may be disregarded by any
+Briton. At his beautiful house on the North-west Arm—that
+salt-water inlet once called the Sandwich River—the
+keen-eyed, gentle-voiced octogenarian explained to me
+his scheme, which has already touched the imagination of
+the Colonies.</p>
+
+<p>“Whatever,” said he, “may be the latitude and longitude
+of each community enjoying the freedom, the justice,
+the protection, the privileges, and advantages that spring
+from the British system, they must be mutually interested
+in this.” Helped by the Canadian Club of Halifax, he
+undertook to erect a memorial tower within the precincts
+of the city, for the purpose of commemorating the origin
+here of representative government, and all the benefits
+which have sprung from it. A few months ago the
+Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia laid the foundation
+stone of this memorial tower on an ideal site in a pleasant<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span>
+park of one hundred acres, given by Sir Sandford, on the
+one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the day upon
+which the first Provincial Assembly was opened at Halifax.
+Every autonomous portion of the Empire will contribute a
+commemorative tablet, and the interior of this lofty granite
+campanile will be a museum bearing upon Colonial history.</p>
+
+<p>I found Nova Scotia very much interested in the question
+of technical education. Here, as elsewhere, people do not
+always grasp the details and possibilities of their own trades
+and the old gibe at the fishermen, “How many fins has a
+cod”? leaving him perplexed and gasping, has its application
+to other callings as well.</p>
+
+<p>The Nova Scotia Technical College, which was established
+by the Provincial Legislature in 1906, is a college of applied
+science and engineering, and the boast is made for it that it
+“stands at the head of the first complete system of technical
+education to be established by any Province or State on the
+continent.”</p>
+
+<p>The college offers thorough courses in civil, electrical,
+mechanical, and mining engineering. There is a full free
+scholarship of a value of seventy-five dollars offered for each
+county in the province, except Halifax and Cape Breton
+counties, which have two each. The opportunity is now
+placed within the reach of every boy in the province who
+has the ambition and talent to acquire a thorough high
+class training as an engineer. I paid a visit to the college,
+which is perhaps the finest building in Halifax, and had an
+interesting chat with the Principal, Mr. Sexton, who is
+young, ardent, and competent.</p>
+
+<p>“The college,” he told me, “aims to serve the industrial<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span>
+life of the province in every possible way. Nova Scotians
+will be trained to develop the great natural resources of
+the province, and to captain the Nova Scotian industries
+of the future. Industrial research will be carried on in
+the laboratories of the college to solve the problems of
+the mines and manufactures, and all assistance will be
+granted towards our industries on a thoroughly scientific
+basis.”</p>
+
+<p>The college is closely affiliated with Acadia, Dalhousie,
+King’s, Mt. Allison, and St. Francis Xavier colleges.
+Students in engineering secure there their preliminary
+two years’ general training in science, mathematics,
+language, &amp;c., and pursue their last two years of specialised
+professional work at the Technical College.</p>
+
+<p>The arrangement of dividing the work between the
+affiliated colleges and the Technical College prevents unnecessary
+duplication of equipment and expense, obviates
+educational waste, and is another tribute to the genius of
+Nova Scotia in education.</p>
+
+<p>The motto of the Technical College not only indicates
+its fundamental aspiration, but is an interesting tribute
+to the new Gaelic spirit.</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent2">“Science for the common weal.”</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">“Ealin air son math coitcheann sluaidh.”</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Under the Technical College is a whole system of
+secondary technical schools in practically every industrial
+centre in Nova Scotia.</p>
+
+<p>There are technical schools for coal miners, technical
+schools for stationary engineers, technical schools for artisans,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span>
+technical schools for fishermen, and a Royal Commission on
+technical education was touring the entire Province at the
+time of my visit.</p>
+
+<p>When it was first built, the Halifax dry dock was the
+largest in North America, and is to-day one of the largest
+commercial docks. It received at the outset a substantial
+subsidy from the city of Halifax, and was also allowed
+exemption from taxes for a period of fifteen years. But
+despite this help, the dock gave little employment, the
+number of vessels repaired being comparatively small. The
+Dominion Government at last realising the importance of
+such docks as this, granted a bonus to dry docks in various
+parts of Canada, the docks being, for the purposes of the
+Act, divided into two classes. The largest docks—constituting
+the first class—get a bonus of 3½ per cent. for
+thirty-five years. But Halifax does not benefit under this
+Act, for its dock is only 585 feet long, instead of the 650 feet
+that is required. The boats in the Canadian trade are
+fast becoming of greater length.</p>
+
+<p>Canada was only in her infancy when the Halifax dock
+was built, and the large increase in commerce is shown
+by the pay roll of the Dry Dock Company, which last year
+paid out eighty thousand dollars in wages. But the capacity
+of the dock will not now meet the requirements, and it is
+felt that an extension to 800 feet will be necessary to take
+the whole trade of the Atlantic coast. To do this, an immense
+coffer dam would have to be built in order to extend
+the dock seawards, involving an expenditure of about a
+million dollars and a closure of fourteen months, with men
+working night and day.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span></p>
+
+<p>But if Halifax is to retain importance it should have
+a dock which can take and repair the largest ship that sails
+in the Canadian trade. And this will be the more necessary
+if Halifax is to be the headquarters for the fast boats of the
+C.P.R., the Allan Line, the Grand Trunk Pacific, and the
+Canadian Northern Railway.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole a comfortable, tranquil, pleasant city is
+Halifax, somewhat qualified, I am inclined to add, by Grafton
+Street, a unique thoroughfare where bedizened women,
+negroes, Indians, Chinese, and whites congregate in a sort
+of extra-barrackian squalor. Such a spectacle is familiar in
+garrison towns in the tropics, but here in Canada its incongruity
+is almost disconcerting. A movement is on foot for
+the eradication of this district.</p>
+
+<p>Apropos of negroes, one sees a great many of these in
+and about Halifax, and in other parts of the Province.</p>
+
+<p>They came hither, of course, in large numbers from the
+American Southern States in the ante-bellum slavery days.
+Nova Scotia was then the favourite asylum of coloured
+refugees, and their descendants I do not think have degenerated.
+On the whole they form a dirty, good-humoured,
+retrograde feature of the population. Eighty years ago
+Great Britain awarded, on account of their ancestors, the
+refugees, a donation to America of one million sterling, as
+compensation to the American planters whose slaves were
+carried off in order to enjoy the comforts of political
+freedom and physical starvation under the British flag in
+Nova Scotia, an award long and properly ridiculed by its
+beneficiaries, the Americans.</p>
+
+<p>I suppose I need hardly mention that the Nova Scotian<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span>
+negroes are fully as “religious” as their American brethren.</p>
+
+<p>It was in 1796 that between five and six hundred
+Maroons were brought here from Jamaica. In that island
+they had been wild and desperate rebels. Descendants of
+the original African slaves, they had escaped and made
+their home in the glens and caves of the mountains, sallying
+down to rob and plunder the white settlements and deriding
+all attempts at capture. At length a number of Cuban
+dogs were requisitioned to hunt down these outlaw Maroons,
+who, panic-stricken at this, surrendered, and were ordered
+to be carried to Nova Scotia. At Halifax they were lodged
+in tents on the outskirts of the town, but were later transferred
+to Preston, where the Jamaican Government granted
+them a sum of money towards their support. The experience
+of a few winters showed how utterly helpless they
+were, and the bulk of them were ordered off to Sierra Leone.</p>
+
+<p>Years ago I talked with an aged Sierra Leone darkey,
+who, though unable to read or write, and had relapsed into
+many of the savage ways of his ancestors, yet asked after
+Halifax with affection. “Me member him well,” he said,
+“me born there. Me go back some day.” That was
+twenty years ago, and my sable Haligonian has probably long
+been gathered to his fathers. Albeit, not all the Maroons
+left for Africa. Some remained, and their descendants
+occasionally muster in great force about the city, especially
+on market days, and they may also be seen brooding about
+the wharves.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-082">
+<img src="images/i-082.jpg" alt="" width="522" height="850">
+<p class="center smcap">Bedford Basin near Halifax.</p>
+<p class="center smcap">In the Environs of Windsor.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">WINDSOR AND “SAM SLICK”</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">How</span> many towns are there which make one regret that
+necessity which compels the visitor to approach them froml
+their ugliest side. One can enter Oxford or Canterbury, to
+mention two English instances, so as to offend one’s æsthetic
+sense, and to impart an impression which it takes many hours
+spent in contemplation of more favourable surroundings to
+efface. So it is with the Nova Scotian town of Windsor.
+It is all part of the tyranny of railways. It will not happen
+in the coming day of the airship and air-skiff, when the
+eager tourist can choose his own spot to alight, and give a
+wide berth to the purlieus which depress, and the human
+and architectural crudities which exasperate.</p>
+
+<p>Windsor is one of the pleasantest towns in the Province,
+the seat of King’s College and other institutions of learning,
+and everlastingly associated with that rare spirit, Thomas
+Chandler Haliburton. But one must banish its Main
+Street, thronged with loafers, and its unspeakable Victoria
+Hotel, where the proprietor sells cigars, presides over the
+“register,” and carries ice-water to his guests in his shirtsleeves,
+before one can appreciate that these are only
+excrescences upon Windsor.</p>
+
+<p>With a high tide in the beautiful Avon River, dotted
+with sails, I should first descend in my aerial craft, not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span>
+amidst the pleasing ruins of Fort Edward, now a flourishing
+golf club, but a mile further away, on a wooded hill at the
+bottom of the wide shaded drive, facing the brown columned
+porticoes of King’s College. Here, book or cricket-bat in
+hand, I see eager-faced, alert young figures moving, fine
+types of Canadian youth, who will presently go out to
+furnish forth the pulpits and colleges, the bench and the
+bar of Canada’s to-morrow. It is a great wooden building,
+with Ionic portico, flanked by other buildings, the chapel,
+and hall and library. All have an old-world look, especially
+the spacious hall where many paintings adorn the walls.
+The college was chartered by George <abbr title="the third">III</abbr>. in 1788, and
+has in its time turned out many distinguished graduates.
+Its library is particularly strong in theological works.</p>
+
+<p>Talking with a King’s College professor, he said to me:</p>
+
+<p>“I cannot help feeling a particular love for this place,
+where my father and grandfather were before me educated.
+I know all its walks and groves, and to me the country
+round about is the most beautiful in the world. When
+I think of the stream of graduates dear old King’s has
+sent to all parts of Canada and the United States, I am
+filled with pride. But there are many things we want to
+make us a living force to-day. Too much of the educational
+resources of this Province is frittered away. There are
+too many small colleges. We want wider activities, and
+for these we sadly need endowments. We recognise the
+changing spirit of the age, but we at King’s will resist to the
+death anything which will stultify our principles or destroy
+the fabric so slowly built up, substituting gymnastics and
+Esperanto for that real education which leads the mind<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span>
+of the student along the paths of righteous conduct and
+character.”<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> Haliburton remarks that the “diffusion through the country of a
+well-educated body of clergymen like those of the Establishment, has had
+a strong tendency to raise the standard of qualification among those who
+differ from them; while the habits, manners, and regular conduct of so
+respectable a body of men naturally and unconsciously modulate and influence
+those of their neighbours, who may not, perhaps, attend their ministrations.
+It is, therefore, doubtless owing in a great measure to the exertions and
+salutary example of the Church in the colonies, that a higher tone of moral
+feeling exists in the British provinces than in the neighbouring States.”</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>From which statement I gather that there will be no
+“hustling” spirit manifesting itself at King’s.</p>
+
+<p>Hard by the old college is a flourishing collegiate school
+for boys, and a little further on in our return to the town
+of Windsor is the Edgehill Seminary, a largely attended
+Church school for girls.</p>
+
+<p>The superior culture and refinement of the people of Windsor is
+exhibited in the streets and houses. In front of these latter stretch
+beautifully kept lawns; that at the Anglican rectory, in its trim
+terraces, being as fine as I have ever seen in England. A famous place
+for prosperous-looking churches is Windsor—all denominations seem
+to vie with one another, not only in erecting fine edifices, but in
+keeping them in an order so irreproachable as to pulpit, chancel,
+lectern, carpets, cushions, and appointments as would send a thrill of
+envy through many a harassed English vicar’s bosom.</p>
+
+<p>All the dwellings bespeak a degree of easy comfort and
+considerable taste, built in a style inferior, it is true, to the
+houses of the old Colonial period, but superior to the bald
+and shapeless Noah’s Arks which have gone up in their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span>
+thousands and tens of thousands in the towns and villages
+of Canada since Confederation.</p>
+
+<p>Can there be, I have often speculated, any occult connection
+between Canadian domestic architecture and
+the political cohesion of the Provinces? Why, when the
+Federal edifice was consummated, did the half million or
+so little brick or timber edifices which housed the Canadian
+population suddenly fall down as if at the blast of a trumpet,
+and a half million colourless, clap-boarded, slant-roofed
+structures—they are not houses or cottages—start up instead—making
+home a derision? I have heard aged inhabitants
+tell of, and have seen with my own eyes, pre-Confederation
+houses which it would be a pleasure to dwell in—houses
+built by the merchants and shipbuilders who grew rich
+in the war of 1812—houses that were built by men who
+built houses and not barns. But am I not making my
+complaint too particular? Is it the case in rural England
+as well? Compare the graceful, low-browed, hip-roofed
+cottages of the past with the yellow brick or cement villas
+of the present! How much better is a rude log-hut,
+half-masked in glowing creeper, than such as these, with
+their straitened entrys and stairways, and a dozen little
+square chambers when four generously planned ones would
+suffice!</p>
+
+<p>One of the best built houses I ever saw in my life is
+in Pictou, walls a foot and a half thick, fine fat timbers,
+plenty of honest freestone, heaps of cupboard room, and
+a great dry cellar. A right good, tight good house, built
+by an old Scotsman in New Scotland nearly a hundred years
+ago, and as sturdy to-day as the day he built it, although<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span>
+alas, to-day untenanted. There are plenty of other houses,
+too, pleasant old-fashioned ones, with wood panelled walls
+within instead of paper. That is the best place for wood in
+a house—inside—inside on the walls, and a great log of it
+blazing on the hearth. I never can understand why the
+New Scotlanders go on building wooden houses, when stone
+is so plentiful and lasts for ever.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll tell you why,” said a native Nova Scotian to
+me. “One reason is, we haven’t any stone-masons to show
+us how, and the other reason is we’re in too much of a
+hurry. In ten years—in five, perhaps in less time, we
+are prepared to move—to sell our house and go into another
+one. We never look ahead more than ten years. After
+that, it is posterity; and Canadians don’t worry much
+about posterity.”</p>
+
+<p>In many places I was struck by the haste with which
+houses and shops arose and churches were run up. The
+Roman Catholics of Annapolis Royal wanted of a sudden
+a new church. The moment their mind was made up they
+rushed off to a builder and got an estimate for the construction
+of a two-aisled church in pine-wood. I wish
+you could have seen, as I saw daily, that skeleton of naked
+timbers arise. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of dollars
+would be spent by these pious communicants on a wilderness
+of scantling poles, covered with thin planks, roofed in with
+tin, painted a sepulchral white, hung within by the portraits
+of saints, illuminated by candles, and reverberating
+with American-organic harmony. To the eye all is well.
+Appearances are kept up, and the worshipper may, if he is
+a man of strong imagination, hug the illusion that he is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span>
+worshipping God in a temple altogether adequate to the
+Almighty. In the capital I saw a cathedral built, as to
+its interior, of cement, moulded and embossed to simulate
+stone. Great slabs of a dough-like mixture were scored
+across longitudinally in order to counterfeit the seams
+filled with mortar. A few months of labour, and a cheap
+and colourable imitation of Wells Cathedral resulted. Now
+all this sort of architectural hypocrisy and makeshift is
+very well for a Shepherd’s Bush Exhibition, in its nature
+ephemeral, but how will it appear to the eyes of the twenty-first
+century, not to mention the thirtieth or the fortieth?
+Would the old builders, who aforetime reared such stately
+and beautiful fabrics, who were far poorer than we, and
+lived in smaller towns and even villages, would they have
+worked this way and in this spirit? Rather were they
+content to add a single stone a day, seven stones a week,
+three hundred and sixty-five stones a year; until slowly
+and surely a holy building arose, to defy time and the
+elements, and to be a blessed sanctuary for ages yet unborn.
+What, gentlemen, and O ye pious ladies (whom I suspect
+of knowing as much about architecture as a Hottentot
+knows of an Elzevir) what is your hurry? Do you think
+the Christian religion and the practice of public worship
+will not outlast your time, that you are in such haste to
+quit the old church, chapel, or meeting-house, and run up
+a showy successor (generally mortgaged), which may deceive
+a tourist at forty rods, an architect at half a mile, but will
+never deceive God Almighty or the lawyer who holds a
+mortgage for it in his pocket, and can only foster a spirit
+of hypocrisy in the congregation? Better far worship in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span>
+the open fields than be surrounded by such pitiful architectural
+mockery. And in the same way, I conjure you,
+better live in comfortable log cabins, than build an apology
+for a house, with all “modern conveniences,” that you
+will afterwards come to be ashamed of—or if you don’t
+you ought to be.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-089">
+<img src="images/i-089.jpg" alt="" width="528" height="850">
+<p class="center smcap">Victoria Park, Windsor, N.S.</p>
+<p class="center smcap">Near Lochaber Lake.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>All the foregoing train of reflection has been started by a
+contemplation of a sweet and gentle and unpretentious
+cottage at Windsor. It is at the end of a short wide avenue
+of elms. It is low and spacious within. It is the kind of
+house a poet should live in, and it is now fast going to
+decay; nothing is spent by its absentee owner to preserve
+it, and it is occupied at present by a couple of poor Irish
+families. This is the house built by, and where once dwelt,
+Haliburton, Nova Scotia’s sole literary celebrity of international
+renown. When his book, “The Clockmaker, or the
+Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville” appeared,
+the whole literary world was taken by surprise, and
+Christopher North could not praise it enough in the pages
+of Blackwood.</p>
+
+<p>Haliburton was a Nova Scotian judge who, with wide
+reading and a capital literary style, added to a native fund
+of humour, knew his native Province as none has done
+before or since. Sam Slick, as a pure literary creation,
+vies with any of the characters of Dickens. He may be
+described as a compound of Sam Weller, Alfred Jingle, and
+Jefferson Brick, and the whole book, or series of books,
+penned by Haliburton, profess chiefly to give this vulgar,
+loquacious, astute Yankee pedlar’s opinions on American,
+British, and Nova Scotian men, manners, and institutions.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span>
+For the biting satire contained in these productions Haliburton
+was widely blamed; and in reply to the charge
+of holding the Yankee up to ridicule, he thus condescended
+to explain his object:</p>
+
+<p>“In the Canadas,” he wrote in 1838, “there is a party
+advocating republican institutions and hostility to everything
+British. In doing so they exaggerate all the advantages
+of such a form of government, and depreciate the
+blessings of a limited monarchy. In England this party
+unfortunately finds too many supporters, either from a
+misapprehension of the true state of the case, or from a
+participation in their treasonable views. The sketches
+continued in the present and preceding series of the Clockmaker,
+it is hoped, will throw some light on the topics of
+the day, as connected with the design of the anti-English
+party. The object is purely patriotic.”</p>
+
+<p>In exposing the faults and the follies of the Nova
+Scotians, Haliburton claimed that he had “done a good deal
+of good. It has made more people hear of Nova Scotia than
+ever heard tell of it afore by a long chalk; it has given it
+a character in the world it never had afore, and raised the
+valley of real property there considerable.”</p>
+
+<p>At all events, Sam Slick soon became a household word,
+and so high was he held in the esteem of the Yankees that,
+long after Haliburton had left the Province, long indeed
+after his death, thousands of Americans came to pay a
+visit to his dwelling here in Windsor, long known as the
+“Sam Slick house.” Many to-day know of Sam Slick who
+do not know of Haliburton. His writings present an
+admirable picture of the Province seventy or eighty years<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span>
+ago; and much of what he described then is true to-day.
+It cannot be said that he was a neglected author, or that he
+lacked a due appreciation of his own merit. In one of his
+own chapters he boldly recommends himself to preferment
+at the hands of the British Government, as a clever Colonial
+author who is worth being taken notice of.</p>
+
+<p>“The natives,” he makes his hero say, “are considerable
+proud of him, and if you want to make an impartial deal
+to tie the Nova Scotians to you forever to make your own
+name descend to posterity with honour, and to prevent
+the inhabitants from ever thinking of Yankee connexion
+(mind that hint, say a good deal about that, for it’s a tender
+point that, adjoining of our union, and fear is plaguy sight
+stronger than love any time) you’ll jist sarve him as you
+sarved Earl Mulgrave (though his writins ain’t to be compared
+to the Clockmaker, no more than chalk is to cheese),
+you give him the governorship of Jamaica and arterwards
+of Ireland. John Russell’s writins got him the berth of
+leader in the House of Commons. Well, Francis Head,
+for his writins you made him Governor of Canada, and
+Walter Scott you made a baronet of, and Bulwer you did
+for too, and a great many others you have got the other
+side of the water you sarved the same way. Now, minister,
+fair play is a jewel, says you: if you can reward your writers
+to home with governorships and baronetcies and all sorts o’
+snug things, let’s have a taste o’ the good things this side o’
+the water too. You needn’t be afraid o’ bein too often
+troubled that way by authors from this country (it will make
+him larf that, and there’s many a true word said in joke),
+but we’ve got a sweet tooth here as well as you have. Poor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span>
+pickins in this country, and colonists are as hungry as hawks.
+The Yankees made Washington Irvin a minister plenipo, to
+honour him; and Blackwood, last November, in his magazine,
+says that are Yankee’s books ain’t fit to be named in
+the same day with the Clockmaker—that they’re nothin
+but Jeremiads. So, minister, says you, jist tip a stave to
+the Governor of Nova Scotia, order him to inquire out
+the Author, and to tell that man, that distinguished man,
+that Her Majesty delights to reward merit and honour
+talent, and that if he will come home, she’ll make a man
+of him for ever, for the sake of her royal father, who lived
+so long among the Blue-noses, who can’t forget him very
+soon.”</p>
+
+<p>Haliburton duly went to England, was elected member of
+Parliament for Launceston, and, had he lived long enough,
+would have seen his son, who died the other day, Under-Secretary
+of State for Foreign Affairs, and Lord Haliburton.
+Sam Slick’s author himself died in 1865 in his
+seventieth year.</p>
+
+<p>But we must take leave of Windsor, which was formerly
+the prosperous Acadian village of Pisiquid (“Junction of
+the Waters”) long before the expulsion of 1755. Fort
+Edward here played a prominent part in all the internecine
+struggles of the period.</p>
+
+<p>I have alluded above to the existing remains of Fort
+Edward. Standing on the disused battlements one’s
+glance sweeps across the waters it commands to Avonport
+on the opposite shore. But I write “waters”—can I now
+speak of the waters of the Avon? For, lo! the tide has
+fallen and there is now but a mighty waste of red, red mud<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span>
+“an ugly rent in the land,” where but two hours or so ago
+a teeming river flowed a spectacle to remind us that we are
+now in the land of the “fluvial bore,” and are watching
+the action of the far-famed double tides of the Bay of
+Fundy.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">GRAND PRÉ AND EVANGELINE</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">One</span> of the pleasantest features of New Scotland is the
+number and variety of its wild-flowers. Outside the dwellings
+in “the Valley” one’s eye constantly met with and
+was refreshed by the sight of the white rose. The woods
+are full of violets. The ponds and marshes reek with
+perfume and colour, I shall never forget the advent at
+each station on the line of half-a-dozen vociferous urchins
+bearing bunches of long-stemmed water lilies. “Pond
+lilies—fresh picked pond lilies. Fifteen cents a bunch!”
+Behind this youth came another, at an interval of five paces.
+“Beautiful fresh pond lilies. Ten cents a bunch.” And
+still another. “Pond lilies, five cents a bunch.” The
+train was about to move. “All aboard!” shouted the
+conductor. The flower merchants showed a sudden parity
+and unanimity in their demands. “Pond lilies—five a
+bunch,” they cried in chorus. Then, as the train began
+to move, one small boy, rather pale and bright-eyed, looking
+as if his chief and favourite nutriment were chewing-gum,<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> Of this delectable composition, one of those blessings which, like the
+phonograph and the sky-scraper, the world owes to America, the variety now
+most in vogue is called, for some mysterious reason known to its maker
+“chiclets.” A waiter at the Halifax Hotel informed me that an English
+lady had ordered a pair of “chiclets”—broiled—for luncheon, under the
+impression that it was the poultry <em>par excellence</em> of the country, like Maryland
+squab or reed birds.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span></p>
+
+<p>looked up into my face, extended his scented wares under
+my very nose, and blurted out breathlessly: “Here, take
+’em, mister. Beautiful and fresh. Two bunches for five!”</p>
+
+<p>I tossed him a coin, but my journey was long, the cars
+were crowded, and the dank and dripping lilies would
+have been an embarrassment; so I left them in his hands.
+But they were very beautiful; and there is no scent in all
+the world for me—save the scent of lilac—so pregnant
+with charm, so redolent of poetry unwritten.</p>
+
+<p>But the water-lily is not the flower of the Province.
+That is the sweet scented, rich-hued trailing arbutus—the
+far-famed Mayflower, so rare in other parts of Canada,
+here so plentiful that it has become the emblem of New
+Scotland, from which is derived the poetic and significant
+motto of the Province: “We bloom amid the snows.”
+No flower is so popular. One commonly meets with large
+parties of young people in the woods, in quest of the Mayflower;
+they are worn in corsage and button-hole, or
+carried as a bouquet in the hand by shoppers and pedestrians.
+The country people, Acadians, Indians, and Negroes,
+gather them into little bunches and bring them to market,
+or hawk them about the capital. So that, while it is in
+season, it is all-pervasive in drawing-room, parlour window,
+and office. So jealous are the Nova Scotians of their prior
+rights in this flower that a decade since, impelled by the
+claims of the Massachusetts folk, who seem somehow to
+have confounded the blossom with the name of that truly
+Leviathan ship the <em>Mayflower</em>, which bore thither the
+Pilgrim Fathers, that they passed in legislature “An Act
+respecting the Floral Emblem of Nova Scotia. Edward,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span>
+Sect. 1, cap. x.,” which duly sets forth their priority for
+all future generations.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of the vessel of the Pilgrim Fathers, a gentleman
+at Liverpool, who showed me a piece of her timbers,
+a cherished heirloom in the family, said:</p>
+
+<p>“There never was a ship like the <em>Mayflower</em>, or an
+instance which so shows the untrustworthiness of contemporary
+testimony. We know her now to have been one of
+the marine wonders of the seventeenth century, far larger
+than the <em>Lusitania</em> or the <em>Mauretania</em>, or any modern ship.
+To find her equal we must go back to Noah’s Ark, unless,
+indeed, the <em>Royal George</em>, which survives to-day in the
+form of at least a million chairs, tables, wardrobes, and
+settees, were larger. The mere fact that she carried over
+a thousand families, including many of Irish and German
+origin, is a proof of her dimensions!”</p>
+
+<p>Westward from Windsor, on the edge of the Basin of
+Minas, lies the great marsh meadow—Grand Pré—a district
+over which the genius of a poet has thrown a film of
+magic, making it, even at noonday, a region of perpetual
+twilight. It is strange to think that in Haliburton’s day,
+Grand Pré, unheard of as a village, was merely the Grand
+Prairie situated in Horton township, and that Evangeline
+had never been heard of. Crossing the Avon, one is confronted
+with a range of hills called the Horton Mountains.
+The view from the roadway on the summit is unmatched
+in Nova Scotia. It includes four counties, including the
+thousands of acres of marsh meadow reclaimed by the
+Acadians. Before one’s eyes stretch the verdant and
+populous vales of the Gaspereaux and Cornwallis, with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span>
+their wooded groves and tilled fields: the waters of five
+rivers may be seen flowing into the basin. Travellers are
+fond of comparing it to the valley of the Dee, near Aberdeen,
+but that view lacks the wondrous Cape Blomidon, a majestic
+promontory 670 feet high, which forms the abrupt eastern
+termination of the North Mountain chain.</p>
+
+<p>
+Where Blomidon’s blue crest looks down upon the valley land.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>How many poets have seen and sung of Blomidon and
+Grand Pré? But one may see with the eye of the mind
+and with the eye of the body, and the best description of
+the district is still that of the poet who himself never set
+foot in Acadia.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">“... Vast meadows stretched to the eastward,</span><br>
+Giving the village its name and pasture to flocks without number;<br>
+Dikes that the hands of the farmers had raised with labour incessant,<br>
+Shut out the turbulent waves; but at stated seasons the flood-gates<br>
+Opened and welcomed the sea, to wander at will o’er the meadows.<br>
+West and South there were fields of flax and orchards and corn-fields,<br>
+Spreading afar and unfenced o’er the plain; and away to the northward<br>
+Blomidon rose, and the forests old, and aloft on the mountains<br>
+Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty Atlantic<br>
+Looked on the happy valley, but ne’er from their station descended.”<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>Do you remember the visitor to Abbotsford, who, remembering the
+beautiful lines</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">“He who would see fair Melrose aright,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Must visit it by the pale moonlight;”</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>inquired:</p>
+
+<p>“Did you often visit it by moonlight, Sir Walter?”</p>
+
+<p>“Alas, never!” confessed the poet.</p>
+
+<p>Emerson says somewhere that we write by aspiration and
+antagonism, as well as from experience, and the one writing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span>
+may be as true as the other. Critical persons there may
+be, who seize upon passages in “Evangeline” as contrary
+to “facts.” Personally, I found few discrepancies between
+Longfellow and Baedeker.</p>
+
+<p>Strikingly in evidence is the great increase in the number
+of tourists to the land of Evangeline. It is one of the
+wonders of literature, certainly without parallel on this
+side of the Atlantic, how Longfellow’s hexameters have
+fenced in this Acadian valley, and even peopled it with
+poetic ghosts. Thither in their thousands come the living
+twentieth-century flesh-and-blood to pay their tribute to
+the <em>genius loci</em>. I came across them lingering by Evangeline’s
+Well, and gazing sentimentally upon the spot where
+stood the forge of Basil. But they are, almost without
+exception, New England, not Old England pilgrims.</p>
+
+<p>On the crest of the highroad stands the white-painted
+old chapel of the Scottish Covenanters, the high pulpit
+and the old-fashioned pews within, and no barer now than
+when the voice of the stern-faced preacher rang out his
+exhortations and his remonstrances against the world, the
+flesh, and the devil, to the meek self-denying flock in whose
+bosoms the influence of the world, the flesh, and the devil,
+was fleeting, remote, and exiguous indeed! These Scots
+were the successors by one remove, of the banished Acadians,
+and to them this land of Grand Pré must have been Canaan,
+a land flowing with milk and honey; for owing to its
+sheltered situation and the marshes and many silt-conveying
+rivers, the soil is very fertile.</p>
+
+<p>Along the road my driver urged his spirited mare.
+We turned presently sharp to the left, through a quaint stone<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span>
+gateway, with an appearance of such antiquity as if it
+might be coeval with the Round Tower of Newport, and
+through an avenue of apple-trees, which developed into
+a thickly planted orchard, so thick that the trees might
+almost have been an army, close-ranked for action (<em>quære</em>:
+a Pomeranian army?), and then winding in and out
+beneath the golden fruit, a house bursts on the view, a
+house of rambling pattern, many-winged and gabled,
+covered with flaming creeper; and in this house I passed
+several delightful days. Under that roof I listened to the
+pleasing gossip and animated reminiscence of an old judge
+who knew New Scotland well from Cape North to Cape
+Sable; who had for nigh fifty years travelled on circuit by
+good roads and bad, populous and lonely, by night and day,
+in summer and winter; who knew the people, especially
+the farmers, as Haliburton knew them; and who had many
+tales to tell of their customs and their manners, their hopes
+and their disappointments, their diversions, schemes, and
+oddities. There was in all this flow of talk no narrowness
+of vision—no pettiness; but much aspiration towards the
+broader, more generous point of view, much humour, much
+courtesy. And as I sat at dinner sipping, not cider, not
+tea, not “fire-water and bubbles,” but bumpers of champagne
+of noble vintage,<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> listening to the hale old judge,</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span></p>
+<p>Lowell’s words came to me, and I thought “The soil out
+of which such men as he are made is good to be born on,
+good to live on, good to die for, and be buried in.” I
+thought of that often in New Scotland when I met some
+of her sons, and marked their characters and noted their
+talk—men of dignity, and ripeness, and gentleness, and
+kindliness, such men as my host, the old judge, of the
+present Chief Justice of the Province, of Sir Charles Tupper,
+still with us, of amiable Sir Malachy, of Judge S., and of
+many more. Of many, many more.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> I fancy this champagne was some of that carried by a French ship
+bound for St. Pierre, which was wrecked off a prohibition village on the
+south-east coast. The ship was making a return voyage loaded chiefly
+with French wines. As case after case was brought ashore the inhabitants
+looked blank. Every sturdy teetotaller suspected his neighbour, and nobody
+felt quite easy in his mind until an enterprising Yankee patent-medicine
+pedlar had carted away the whole stock, and Satan, speaking with a strong
+Rheims and Epernay accent, was placed at defiance.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>“The soil out of which such men as he are made is
+good to be born on, good to live on, good to die for, and be
+buried in.” O ye in England—at the heart of the Empire—deem
+not all the culture, all the innate courtesy and gentleness
+of manhood and womanhood is within the confines of
+your own little island, reckoning the folk overseas as all
+crude, and brusque, and unpolished, because of the examples
+that come out of the rough and strenuous West. There are
+thousands—Colonial-born, as were their fathers and grandfathers
+before them—who do not come back and sit at
+the Imperial Mother’s knee, who may not be seen careering
+up and down Regent Street, or imbibing strange beverages
+at the Hotel Cecil, who are the true sons of the Old Land,
+and better represent the qualities which have made her
+great than all the loud shouters from Toronto, the hustlers
+of Winnipeg, and the boosters of Vancouver. These others
+are of the type of men which make Canadian soil good to
+be born on—who carry on the tradition of the loyal, self-denying,
+idealistic spirit in which British Canada was
+founded; and I thank God they are not yet extinct.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-104">
+<img src="images/i-104.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="580">
+<p class="center smcap">St. Eulalie. The Residence at Grand Pré of Hon. Sir Robert Weatherbe.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span></p>
+
+<p>All this time I am forgetting my hostess, whose sweet
+and gracious presence is often in my thoughts, a descendant
+of one of the earliest pioneers, herself the daughter of a
+judge, who has given six stalwart sons to the Province and
+the Empire, one to the army, one to the Civil Service,
+two to medicine, another to science, scattered thousands
+of miles apart—the true breed of British mother who is,
+after all, Britain’s greatest glory.</p>
+
+<p>Readers of Longfellow’s poems will not question the
+appropriateness with which this house has been named.
+It is “St. Eulalie.” In the very heart of the old Acadian
+settlement it stands. A tablet within the porch states:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“Here stood the village of Melançon, where, on the night
+of de Villiers memorable arrival in 1747, was celebrated an
+Acadian wedding attended by the villagers from Grand Pré.</p>
+
+<p>“After being here warmed by huge fires and regaled with
+cakes and cider, the French and Indians marched through
+blinding snows under the guidance of returning guests, who
+disclosed at Grand Pré the several houses in which the British
+slept.</p>
+
+<p>“Afterwards de Villiers, wounded in the attack, caused
+himself to be carried back for treatment by the surgeon here
+encamped.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>All the walks and drives hereabout are full of the charm
+of scenery—of the magic of historic association. On a
+hummock by the river I came across a tall tree, upon which
+was fixed the following inscription: “Near this spot
+Coulon de Villiers with about 20 French officers and 400
+Canadians and Indians on the night of 10th Feb. 1747,
+from Beauséjour, crossed the river in a snowstorm to attack
+Colonel Noble with a force of 500 New Englanders at
+Grand Pré.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span></p>
+
+<p>The expulsion of the Acadians is perhaps the most
+striking and pathetic passage in New Scotland’s history.
+The British authorities could not treat all these thousands
+of people as rebels, for the great majority of them had not
+fought against them at Beauséjour and elsewhere, but had
+sulked quietly in their villages. But the long patience of
+the Provincial Government was exhausted. Repeatedly
+Governor Lawrence urged them to take the oath, repeatedly
+and stubbornly they refused.</p>
+
+<p>Then and not till then did the decree of exile go forth.
+Ignorant of the trades and callings by which they could
+earn a livelihood in those countries, the Acadians could not
+be shipped to France or England. Colonists they were,
+and the sons of colonists, suited only for a colonial life,
+and on banishment they could only be distributed in
+batches amongst the English colonies along the Pacific
+coast.</p>
+
+<p>Many hearts, even amongst the soldiers, warmly compassioned
+the fate of the unhappy Acadians. Those who
+had taken the oath were safe in their homesteads. A
+number fled into the forest. As for the rest the military
+officers were given their instructions, At Beauséjour
+400 men were seized, and without warning the people,
+Colonel Winslow marched rapidly to Grand Pré. He
+summoned the men of the village to meet him in the
+chapel, and there read to them the decree of banishment.
+In vain they tried to escape; the doors were shut and
+guarded by English soldiers. The people of village after
+village were seized, until 6000 souls had been gathered
+together. For a long time they had to wait for transports<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span>
+to bear them away. Many had forcibly to be conducted
+on board the ships. Old and young men, women, and
+children, were marched to the beach. A few members of
+the same family became separated from each other, never to
+meet again. But the soldiers strove their best to perform
+their painful duty as humanely as possible, and no unnecessary
+harshness marked their operations.</p>
+
+<p>From Minas, Chignecto, and Annapolis, ship after ship
+bore their weeping burdens southward. Many, long years
+afterwards, returned again to Acadia, where, when Quebec
+and the French flag had fallen, they were no longer a
+danger to the Government. Such of the Acadians as
+reached Quebec were treated with inhumanity by the French
+officials there, and nearly perished of famine. It is said
+that they were reduced to four ounces of bread per day,
+and sought in the gutters of Quebec to appease their hunger.
+Smallpox broke out amongst them, and many entire families
+were destroyed. Such, alas! was the fate of those unhappy
+beings “whose attachment to their mother country
+was only equalled by her indifference.”</p>
+
+<p>The expulsion of the Acadians may seem to us a cruel
+act, but it was forced upon the English by the hardest
+necessity—the necessity of self-protection,<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> and in spite of
+all that has since been written to the contrary, no impartial
+student of history can perceive in what other way than
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span>the deportation of these irreconcilables could the peace
+of New Scotland have been assured, a peace which has
+lasted to this day.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> I am aware that a hysterical gentleman of the name of Richard, a
+descendant of one of the Acadian families, has sought in two octavo volumes
+to prove otherwise. I have perused his volumes attacking Mr. Parkman
+with a freedom of invective and wealth of epithet that goes far to damage
+his case, with no other emotion than that of renewed pity for the fate of
+the Acadians and a renewed certainty of its absolute necessity.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Of Grand Pré it has been said that it boasts a threefold
+attraction—beauty, fertility, and sentiment. Originally
+Grand Pré was a long straggling Acadian settlement beginning
+at what is now the Grand Pré railway station,
+three miles east of Wolfeville, with Horton Landing one
+mile away. The salient features of the landscape to-day
+is, and the older portions of those dikes are, relics of the
+Acadian occupation.</p>
+
+<p>A group of old willows in one part of this great meadow,
+undoubtedly planted by the original French inhabitants,
+the well supposed to have been part of the village’s water-supply,
+and the reputed sites of the forge of Basil the
+blacksmith and of the house of Father Felicien, are duly
+shown to the visitor. I have already mentioned the place
+where a body of New England troops were massacred by
+the French and their Indian allies nine years before the
+expulsion.</p>
+
+<p>A recent discovery at Grand Pré revealed portions of
+the foundations of the Acadian Church of St. Charles. Most
+of the stone had been removed, either to be used in other
+foundations built by the English settlers after the deportation,
+or had been removed to enable the owner to plough
+over the church site, but enough has been exposed to
+determine the size of the church.</p>
+
+<p>Excavations have brought to light also the remains of
+the fireplace and foundations of the chimney built by
+the soldiers who were quartered in the church. After the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span>
+first removal 600 Acadians had to be kept prisoners till
+ships arrived from Boston to take them away. All Minas
+was destroyed, save the few houses in Grand Pré needed
+to shelter these 600 people. Wherefore the soldiers made
+the church comfortable for themselves during the early
+winter, till they finally departed.</p>
+
+<p>I had an interesting chat with a descendant of the
+original Acadians, one Herbin by name, an intelligent
+and enterprising spirit, who has recently set up business
+in the Grand Pré district, and seems to prosper at the hands
+of the numerous tourists to the shrine of Evangeline.</p>
+
+<p>Each morning I arose and gazed across the Basin of
+Minas at Blomidon, as it lay like some sleeping lion. And
+the sun shone, and the summer wind rippled the tall marsh
+grass as if it were pale green sea. And far beyond the
+white sails of ships stole in and out of the Basin, bending
+and veering like seagulls. And once out from an orchard
+a farmer’s boy sang a selection from “Parsifal” (“Learnt
+it off a gramaphone. Learnt a lot o’ operatic songs that
+way”); and my heart, too, sang, and I was glad I had
+come to Grand Pré.</p>
+
+<p>From Grand Pré I went on to Wolfeville, a pleasant
+little town which, for some odd reason, is spelt “Wolfville.”
+When the “e,” which allies its history with the name of
+the famous young general, was elided, I cannot precisely
+state, but the town was Wolfeville on the old maps
+and in Haliburton’s account of the Province.<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> Here is
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span>situated the Acadia College, a flourishing Baptist institution,
+which has recently enjoyed some of Mr. Rockefeller’s
+favour, and which has long been an eminent seat of learning
+in this part of the Province. But Wolfeville’s chief asset
+is the fact of its being a convenient centre for American
+tourists visiting the “Evangeline District.”</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> Amongst the pioneers was a family of Wolfe, or De Wolfe, of Irish
+origin, and distantly connected with the general’s family. Descendants of
+these still survive.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Wolfeville’s growth has been steady and uninterrupted
+since the old coaching days of three quarters of a century
+ago, when a few houses on one street composed the settlement.
+From this hamlet it grew into a village, and in 1893
+into a town.</p>
+
+<p>The Acadia College and its allied institutions have from
+the first been the chief asset of the place. Adding to
+its attractiveness as a residential centre, they also bring
+annually about 400 young men and women here, and pay
+out to teachers about $30,000 a year. And besides the
+educational, the natural advantages of Wolfeville are considerable.
+It is the commercial centre of a fertile and
+prosperous region where orcharding and dairying is
+remunerative, and the farming population increasingly
+prosperous.</p>
+
+<p>With railway facilities there is excellent water communication
+for domestic and foreign trade, and a daily
+steamboat service to Kingsport and Parrsboro for nine
+months in the year, which makes Wolfeville a promising
+distributing centre.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-111">
+<img src="images/i-111.jpg" alt="" width="618" height="650">
+<p class="center smcap">The scene of the Grand Pré raid of 1754.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>This part of Nova Scotia as well as Cape Breton, struck
+me as eminently adapted to sheep-raising. I am told that
+where the same care is bestowed upon these animals as is
+bestowed in other countries, excellent results are attained<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span>
+on Nova Scotia farms. There should be a flock of sheep
+on, at least, three-quarters of the farms, and the only
+obstacle which has hitherto militated against success in the
+parts of the Province best fitted by nature for sheep-raising,
+has been their destruction by dogs. Until this is rectified
+by legislation, and I have the Government’s assurance
+that this will be attempted—it is useless for any farmer
+to engage in the pursuit. Repeatedly throughout Nova
+Scotia I have heard stories of canine depredations. The
+worst was a case at Yarmouth, where a young Englishman
+had his whole flock of prize sheep destroyed by dogs. When
+he made complaint to the owner of a ferocious cur demanding
+that the animal be shot, or chained, or muzzled, it’s
+owner retorted, “Why should I get rid of my dog? What
+business have you to keep sheep?” A rigorously enforced
+tethering or muzzling order for sheep-worrying dogs would
+meet the difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>Whether Kentville will continue to be the headquarters
+of the railway rests with the Canadian Pacific authorities.
+Should that corporation see fit to remove the workshops
+and offices from the town, it will be a blow not wholly
+unexpected.</p>
+
+<p>However, the Canadian Pacific always exploits the
+country its line traverses, so what is the gain of the surrounding
+district would in time benefit the town.</p>
+
+<p>Kentville ought, I think, not to bestow all its eggs in one
+basket. Owing to the partial failure of one recent year’s
+apple crop, this town being in the heart of the fruit district
+and largely dependent on apples, a good deal less prosperity
+was experienced in consequence.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span></p>
+
+<p>From Kentville I motored through the Cornwallis
+Valley, taking in a number of villages, and seeing on all
+sides evidences of prosperity, especially in Waterville and
+Berwick. Besides material prosperity, and even moral, and
+intellectual, and æsthetic, there is another kind of prosperity—that
+of years; and a gentleman who came forward to
+my car and shook hands with me, vigorously enjoyed this
+kind of prosperity. He was a centenarian. He had long
+ago undertaken a race with Father Time, and that inexorable
+personage had not yet succeeded in running my friend
+to Mother Earth. Let us hope his race will not be run
+this many a day; for the absurd brevity of our lives is a
+great and growing grievance with us all.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-116">
+<img src="images/i-116.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="549">
+<p class="center smcap">A “Joy Ride” in “The Valley.”</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">ANNAPOLIS ROYAL AND DIGBY</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> use of oxen for draught purposes is characteristic of
+Nova Scotia. It is practised by French, Germans, and
+English, and is so common nowhere in Canada. Along
+the country roads one sees the oxen coming along at a
+leisurely pace, swishing their tails; their red hides, touched
+by the summer sun, blending harmoniously with the landscape;
+and casting long shadows on the white road. Yes,
+the ox is the beast of burden up and down the Province.
+His harness has an unfamiliar look. Of arched yoke and
+boles he is often ignorant, and the comfort of collar and
+harness would lull him to slumber. Just behind his ears he
+carries his yoke, strapped to the base of his horns and
+around his forehead. He is shod with iron shoes like a
+horse, and is at once the admiration and the derision of
+the Yankee, who would not for a moment tolerate such
+slow progress. He calls the ox the “Blue-nose automobile.”
+I have heard the patient quadruped spoken of
+as one of the four characteristics of the Province—apples,
+oxen, cold nights, and pessimism. For the latter I should
+now substitute optimism. Besides, the Blue-nose never was
+pessimistic. At most he was (as you may see by reading
+“Sam Slick”) merely apathetic—unresponsive, or as other
+observers have declared, serene.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span></p>
+
+<p>Here is the eastern gateway of one of the most celebrated
+apple-growing districts of the world. Long before Tasmania,
+South Australia, and California began to grow
+apples, it was the orchard of the Empire. Following the
+eastern course of the river between North Mountain (which
+shelters the valley from the Bay of Fundy) and South
+Mountain, there stretch seventy-five miles of fruit lands
+and enchanting scenery. Here is grown the luscious apple
+which is found in all the world’s great markets. The
+apple-tree is the dominant note in the swelling landscape,
+and in early June the whole valley is a scene and scent of
+sheer beauty, comparable only to the orange-groves of
+Seville or Santa Clara. This apple is not, of course,
+indigenous; but none can tell who brought the first
+pommier from Normandy. Perchance it was Lescarbot
+himself. At all events orchards were flourishing here in
+abundance long before the expulsion of the Acadians. Ere
+the building of the Dominion and Atlantic Railway
+(now taken over by the Canadian Pacific), the apple
+production of “the Valley” was some twenty thousand
+barrels annually. Within a few years the output had
+grown to half a million. In 1911 it reached 1,750,000
+barrels.</p>
+
+<p>Last year the apple-growers received a serious check.
+It was not a good apple year. There was the weather for
+one thing, not merely of this but of the season of 1909,
+when the embryo bud was formed. A more serious and
+more permanent drawback I found to be the want of
+capital. They complain here that too much British capital
+is going west. Everything conducted on a large scale needs
+capital, and the whole situation was clearly explained to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span>
+me by a leading orchardist in the Valley, who is a man
+of education and substance, and the argument was echoed
+by others who follow the industry.</p>
+
+<p>“There is plenty of money in apples,” said he, “and
+we should be producing not one but thirty millions of
+barrels a year. The trouble is—and there is no need to
+disguise it—that while a number of orchards which have
+constantly been well cultivated, fertilised, and sprayed,
+always yield the usual crops of the finest fruit, the great
+bulk of our trees are partially starved and neglected. Far
+more trees have been grown than can be brought into
+fruit-bearing with the present skill, labour, and capital.”</p>
+
+<p>To plant and grow trees is a simple and not expensive
+operation. With such soil as this and proper attention,
+little or no fertiliser is needed. But the continued production
+and marketing of the fruit involves much more
+skill, labour, and capital. Owners of orchards having the
+means of fertilising 100 to 150 trees, soon found it a difficult
+matter to grapple with an orchard area of 500 to 1000
+trees. Such attempt often resulted in less actual returns
+than the small orchards had produced. It is simply a
+question of want of capital, as it would be in lumbering,
+mining, or fishing.</p>
+
+<p>As a result a very considerable proportion of the apples
+now produced are discarded as unfit for packing.</p>
+
+<p>“It is out of the question,” continued my informant,
+“for us to do business with a mere fraction of the capital
+necessary to produce a proper quantity of the wonderful
+crops of fruit which twenty or thirty years ago excited the
+admiration of European pomologists, and gave a world-wide
+fame to this district.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span></p>
+
+<p>In other words, the orchards are vastly greater, but
+too much of it is with wood, not fruit. However, be it
+said, that the number of trees now capable of bearing are
+healthy and vigorous. While orchards in other lands bear
+earlier, the trees are far less healthy and sooner decay.
+The Annapolis Valley trees reach a great size, and I have
+been shown many bearing fruit in profusion at the age
+of 100 and even 150 years. Labour and capital are the
+great need of the district.</p>
+
+<p>Even when the yield of the fine fruit is large, there
+appears a disquieting drawback. Many were the complaints
+I heard of the greed of the carrier by steamer or railway,
+or of the middlemen, as if these were in a conspiracy to
+squeeze the last cent out of this industry. For apples for
+which the Covent Garden dealer receives 30s. a barrel,
+the grower has often to be content with 5s. I was told
+of one middleman who often gains 50,000 dollars in a
+season; while the last season three middlemen made an
+average profit of 40,000 dollars each.</p>
+
+<p>I found here, as elsewhere in Nova Scotia, the existence
+of a deep-seated grievance not yet voiced abroad as
+it may be. Bitterly does the farmer and the fruit-grower
+complain of that tide of population promoted out of the
+Canadian public treasury, which has been not only sweeping
+in its current tens of thousands from the old country,
+but the many stalwart youth from the Maritime Provinces
+as well, whose strength is so much needed at home. The
+millions spent in Western development are as a thorn in
+the side of the Nova Scotian. Hence, therefore, the
+warmth of the welcome he extends to the Canadian Pacific<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span>
+Railway, which this year will formally invade “the Valley.”
+Yet the action of this great corporation is rather merely
+a symptom than any cause of that awakening prosperity
+and general accession of enterprise which I noted throughout
+this part of the Province.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to fruit, it cannot be pointed out too often
+that Nova Scotia is nearer the British and other European
+markets than any other part of the continent. Some of
+the best fruit growing sections of Canada and the United
+States are near the Pacific Coast, and the eight or ten
+days necessary to bring their fruit to Atlantic ports, besides
+the extra freight charges, must certainly serve as a serious
+drawback to those States and Provinces from which New
+Scotland is free.</p>
+
+<p>But not merely British but a great deal of Nova Scotia
+capital is invested elsewhere—particularly in the Far West.
+The East is always financing the West. They tell a story
+of a Kansas man on a visit to the East, who looked with
+characteristic scorn on its old-fashioned methods and remarked
+to a New England farmer: “You are surely foolish
+to stay here where you have to do your spring ploughing
+with a pickaxe and your planting with a shotgun. Why
+don’t you come out West? Not a stump, not a stone in
+sight; soil ten feet deep; crops of one year make you
+rich.” The New Englander listened with evident interest
+and then said: “I am holding six mortgages on Kansas
+farms, and if you fellows will just keep it up, and pay
+the interest, I will try and pull along very well where I
+am.”</p>
+
+<p>Just how many mortgages on farms, how many title-deeds<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span>
+to fertile sections of land or valuable city lots in the
+rapidly developing West are to-day in Nova Scotian hands,
+and are a source of wealth to the ancient Province by
+the sea, it would be difficult to compute.</p>
+
+<p>Not so long ago when the citizens of Winnipeg began
+to negotiate for land on a bend in the Red River in the
+immediate environs of the city for the purpose of a public
+park, it was found to be already in the possession of enterprising
+Nova Scotian capitalists. There are other instances.</p>
+
+<p>In the Annapolis Valley the advent of the Canadian
+Pacific Railway is the great abiding topic of interest.
+Reports of its plans and movements are canvassed by all
+classes and all interests. It is said that the railway has
+decided to build four new steamers for a fast direct steamship
+service between Nova Scotia and Boston and New York.
+These vessels will be larger and faster than any at present
+engaged in the American or Canadian Atlantic Coast
+steamship traffic. This is one of the important developments
+that will follow the taking over of the Dominion
+Atlantic. These steamers, which will be able to make
+over 20 knots an hour, are to run between Yarmouth and
+Boston, Halifax and New York, and Halifax and Boston.
+There will also be a fast steamship service between Digby
+and Boston, and across the Bay of Fundy between St. John
+and Digby. The fleet of six steamers which the great
+corporation will take over with the Dominion Atlantic
+road will be placed on the subsidiary services.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-124">
+<img src="images/i-124.jpg" alt="" width="413" height="850">
+<p class="center smcap">Annapolis—The oldest Graveyard on the Continent.</p>
+<p class="center smcap">Annapolis Royal—The home of Thomas Chandler Haliburton
+(“Sam Slick”).</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>The great corporation will probably build four big
+hotels in Nova Scotia—one at Yarmouth, one at Digby,
+one at Halifax, and one at Chester, a branch line from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span>
+Windsor to Chester, only thirty miles, being contemplated
+to bring Chester into the Canadian Pacific Railway system.</p>
+
+<p>It seems to be taken for granted that the railway
+authorities will make an organised effort to increase British
+immigration to this Province. They recognise that more
+population is needed, and they are going to do their part,
+so we are told, to bring in the people, and this with their
+publicity system ought not to be difficult.</p>
+
+<p>One should not perhaps complain of the perpetual
+insistence upon lands in the making, of the “possibilities”
+of the virgin prairie, of the sun-kissed solitudes of the
+Golden West. But this is the Golden East, the long-settled,
+pleasant East, where the genius of history muses amidst
+moss-grown battlements and ancient tombstones. This is
+Canada—the first Canada—Acadia. Even Quebec yields
+precedence to Annapolis Royal, the “cradle” of the
+Canadian Dominion.</p>
+
+<p>Rich indeed in historic and poetic association is Annapolis
+Royal. What romantic memories cluster about this
+little town, superbly set at the head of Annapolis Basin!
+Save Quebec no spot on the entire Continent has a more
+abiding interest. Three years before a white man’s hut
+had been built on the site of Quebec, a fort and village
+were to be found at Port Royal. On the waters of this
+basin was launched the first vessel built in North America;
+here, too, was the first mill fashioned. Also the problem
+of Canadian agriculture was here solved by the successful
+production of cereal and root crops.</p>
+
+<p>Nor is this all. At old Port Royal was witnessed the
+first conversion to Christianity; here echoed the first notes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span>
+of poetic song in Canada—the chanson composed by
+Lescarbot in honour of Champlain. And here flourished
+the first social club in the western hemisphere.</p>
+
+<p>So we are carried back to the very beginnings of both
+French and British rule—to the days of De Monts,
+Champlain, and Poutrincourt. Founded in 1605, the
+vicissitudes of the fort and town (renamed in Queen
+Anne’s honour) have been numerous enough to fill a portly
+volume.<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> See Calnek and Savary’s <cite>History of Annapolis</cite>.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Port Royal once bade fair then to become a great
+city and Acadia a populous province. I have already told
+about Champlain and the “Order of a Good Time,” about
+Membertou and the hopes of the early French settlers.
+In 1607 De Monts’ charter was revoked by the King,
+and his friends would support his scheme with no more
+money. The Indians at Port Royal watched the French
+depart with sadness, promising to look after the fort and
+its belongings until the white men should return.</p>
+
+<p>Champlain had chosen another field—the lands far
+inland on the St. Lawrence; but Poutrincourt resolved,
+after first dealing a blow at his enemies in France, to return
+to take deep root in the fertile Acadian soil.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1613 the Jesuits who, in the meantime,
+had through the influence of Madame De Guercheville got
+rights in Acadia, despatched an expedition under a courtier
+named La Saussaye, who, landed at Port Royal, took on
+board two priests left there, and then sailed on and founded
+a new colony at Mount Desert, on the coast of Maine.</p>
+
+<p>All Acadia, as well as Canada, was given back to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span>
+French by the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, and King
+Louis and his Court were now inclined to abandon their
+policy of indifference and resume the work of colonising.
+In the spring of 1632 a nephew of Richelieu’s, Captain
+de Razilly, arrived in Acadia with a shipload of colonists,
+including artisans, farmers, several Capuchin friars, and
+some gentry. Amongst the latter were Nicholas Denys,
+and an extraordinary person, Charles de Menou, Chevalier
+de Charnisay, whom I commend as a really superb stage
+villain.</p>
+
+<p>Young De la Tour, who considered himself the rightful
+lord of Acadia under De Monts’ charter,<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> was naturally
+jealous of Razilly, thinking the King ought to have appointed
+him Governor, instead of giving him the mere lordship over
+a limited territory. Even upon Razilly’s death in the
+following year, De la Tour’s hopes were frustrated. Razilly
+had ceded all his rights to Charnisay, his Deputy-Governor,
+whose first act was to remove from La Hêve to Port Royal,
+where he built a new fort.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> <em>Ante</em>, p. 18.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Now began the astonishing drama of Charnisay and
+De la Tour. The latter believed it to be Charnisay’s aim
+to dispossess him of those rights which he had acquired
+in Acadia by so much energy and sacrifice. The King
+tried to settle the dispute by fixing the limits of Charnisay’s
+government at the New England frontiers on the one hand,
+and at a line north from the Bay of Fundy on the other,
+westward of this line to be De la Tour’s province. Charnisay’s
+friends poisoned the King’s mind by alleging that
+De la Tour was a Huguenot in disguise, and orders were sent
+to his foe to arrest him and send him a prisoner to France.
+The young commander strengthened Fort la Tour and
+defied his enemy to do his worst.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span></p>
+
+<p>Not until the spring of 1643 was the crafty Charnisay
+ready to wreak vengeance on the “traitor,” as he called
+De la Tour. With the ships and 500 men Richelieu had
+sent him, Charnisay led the assault. La Tour proved too
+strong, and to starve La Tour into capitulation was begun
+a close siege by sea and land. A long-expected ship, with
+provisions, merchandise, and gunpowder for Fort la Tour,
+was sighted off the coast, and De la Tour and his wife
+managed in an open boat to gain the decks.</p>
+
+<p>They sailed for Boston, where, although they dared
+not give him direct assistance, the Puritan elders of
+that new town had no objection to striking a bargain,
+and at a good price permitted their visitor to hire four
+stout ships and seventy men. Sailing back with this force,
+De la Tour was able to make his enemy flee before him.
+The siege of his own fort being raised, he followed the
+foiled Charnisay to Port Royal, captured a shipload of
+rich furs, and would have taken Charnisay himself and his
+settlement, had it not been that the scruples of his Boston
+allies led to the making of a false peace. There could be
+no real peace between De la Tour and Charnisay. After
+many adventures Marie De la Tour was left in charge of
+their fort. Charnisay, constantly on the watch, fell upon
+her, but her defence was so vigorous that but for the action
+of a traitor he would never have taken it and her. He placed
+a common halter round this brave woman’s neck and forced
+her to witness the cold-blooded murder of her garrison.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span>
+She pined away and died three weeks later at Port Royal.
+Her husband became for years a wanderer on the face of the
+earth, until he learnt of the drowning of Charnisay, when
+he returned and married the widow of his life-long foe.
+This is only half the drama: but the rest can be read in the
+history books.</p>
+
+<p>Recently the good folk of Annapolis were very busy
+over preparations for the celebration of the bi-centenary of
+the Church of England in Canada. A shoal of bishops was
+imminent—amongst them the distinguished prelate who
+signs himself “Arthur F. Londin.” One prospective
+hostess desired my opinion on the propriety of ensconcing
+three bishops in one room—so full to overflowing would the
+old town be, and so limited the accommodation. Here was
+a problem in episcopal—nay, in doctrinal accommodation,
+not without bearing upon High, Low, and Broad bishops
+and their respective powers of bodily as well as spiritual
+adjustment, a problem I could only hint at and evade.</p>
+
+<p>All this Anglican jubilation was to signalise the fact
+that a couple of centuries ago, with the English conquest,
+came the chaplain of the garrison to minister
+to the English newcomers. Here the worthy cleric, a
+certain Rev. John Harrison, of whom little is known, set
+up his altar and celebrated Holy Communion in English
+for the first time in the Province and in all the land destined
+later to become the Canadian Dominion. Not that these
+are the first anniversary fêtes the town has witnessed. In
+1905 Annapolis Royal recalled its tercentenary, when a
+monument to De Monts was erected on a commanding
+site within the grounds of the dismantled fortress. Few<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span>
+vestiges now remain of the old masonry, but the site is in
+charge of Government, and is maintained in excellent condition
+as a public park.</p>
+
+<p>Digby has grown into a flourishing summer resort from
+a fishing town which was famed far and near as the home
+of the “Digby chicken,” an article almost as famous as
+Yarmouth bloater or Bombay duck. Some seventy years
+ago Haliburton wrote in words often quoted:</p>
+
+<p>“Digby is a charming little town. It is the Brighton
+of Nova Scotia, the resort of the valetudinarians of New
+Brunswick, who take refuge here from the unrelenting
+fogs, hopeless sterility, and calcareous waters of St. John.
+About as pretty a place this for business, said the Clockmaker,
+as I know of in this country. Digby is the only
+safe harbour from Blowmidown to Briar Island. Then there
+is that everlasting long river runnin away up from the
+wharfes here almost across to Minas Basin, bordered with
+dikes and interval, and backed up by good upland. A
+nice, dry, pleasant place for a town, with good water, good
+air, and the best herrin fishery in America, but it wants
+one thing to make it go ahead.” “And, pray, what is
+that?” said I, “for it appears to me to have every natural
+advantage that can be desired.” “It wants to be made a
+free port,” said he. “They ought to send a delegate to
+England about it; but the fact is they don’t understand
+diplomacy here nor the English either. They haven’t got
+no talents that way.”</p>
+
+<p>Steamers now run between Boston and Digby, as well as
+between Digby and St. John.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-132">
+<img src="images/i-132.jpg" alt="" width="523" height="850">
+<p class="center smcap">Off The Pier At Digby.</p>
+<p class="center smcap">Low Tide at Yarmouth.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>A favourite rendezvous for tourists is the mountain, from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span>
+which a good view of Annapolis Basin, extending away up
+to Annapolis Royal, and taking in Bear and Goat Islands
+and the Granville shore, is to be enjoyed. There are
+many interesting drives hereabouts, one passing a camp of
+Micmac Indians, who turn an honest penny by fashioning
+fancy baskets for the tourists and posing for amateur
+photographers.</p>
+
+<p>The Shore Road winds for a couple of miles along the
+edge of the Basin and the base of Ben Lomond towards
+Digby Strait, otherwise known as “The Gut” or “The
+Gap,” the great natural wonder of the vicinity. It is a
+break in the North Mountain range less than a mile in
+width, and through it the tides of Fundy and the Annapolis
+Basin rush with irresistible force.</p>
+
+<p>“The Gut” is the dominating feature of Digby scenery,
+and very popular with visitors. On the other and western
+side of the town is Digby Neck, a length strip of land which
+forms the seaward barrier of St. Mary’s Bay.</p>
+
+<p>Bear River is the scene of an annual cherry carnival.
+It may be reached by sail-boat or steamer, the route lying
+part of the way across Annapolis Basin. The village lies
+four miles up the winding stream from the station, and is
+an important lumber centre, but chiefly famous for its
+cherries. This luscious fruit grows here in rich profusion,
+and long ago suggested the great summer event in Bear
+River, the annual cherry carnival, which is held in July.
+On carnival day hundreds of tourists and natives visit the
+pretty town to feast on the cherries and to witness a procession
+and aquatic sports.</p>
+
+<p>The small but enterprising town of Weymouth boasts<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span>
+some shipyards and shipping. With its high river banks, its
+attractive residences, and its surrounding forests, Weymouth
+is a pretty place and popular with American tourists.</p>
+
+<p>Sissibo Falls, some distance up the river, is one of the
+scenic features of the locality.</p>
+
+<p>People who have read Longfellow’s “Evangeline” often
+ask what became of the Acadians—did they virtually
+disappear after the expulsion? Those of sympathetic
+temperament as well as the historical student would doubtless
+be glad to know if it is really the case that—</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">“Only along the shore of the mournful and misty Atlantic</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Linger a few Acadian peasants, whose fathers from exile</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Wandered back to their native land to die in its bosom.”</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-136">
+<img src="images/i-136.jpg" alt="" width="601" height="850">
+<p class="center smcap">The Home of “Evangeline.”</p>
+<p class="center smcap">At Evangeline’s Well.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>To such, therefore, I am glad to state that scattered
+through the Maritime Provinces, Magdalen Islands, Gaspe,
+St. Pierre and Miquelon, and Newfoundland, are close
+upon 150,000 descendants of the expelled Acadians. By
+far the most interesting Acadian settlement is that of Clare,
+in the extreme south-west of Nova Scotia. Here in a
+single continuous village, twelve miles long, dwells a primitive
+people, some 10,000 all told; wholly out of touch of the
+railway, and only to be seen on foot or by motor. Many
+travellers pass on the borders of this district without suspecting
+its existence, only marvelling perhaps why the
+railway line from Digby to Yarmouth describes such a
+curve inland at this part. The reason is this: When the
+railway was built the French priest in spiritual charge of
+the Clare Acadians took alarm for his flock, and by supplications
+and threats managed to get the line diverted, so as
+to cut off his parish between the railway and the sea. All<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span>
+the traveller sees, therefore, from the car windows is a
+stretch of untilled land and a succession of tree stumps.
+Were he to descend and push on a few miles he would
+come to the best road in the Province, hundreds of neat
+dwellings at Meteghan, Salmon River, and Church Point,
+and a cheerful, contented, ignorant people, living now as
+they have lived for a century and a half on the south shore
+of St. Mary’s Bay. Here,</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">“In the fisherman’s cot the wheel and the loom are still busy,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Maidens still wear their Norman caps and their kirtles of homespun,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">And by the fire repeat Evangeline’s story.”</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>This latter is no poetical fiction. The story of the
+expulsion is really fresh in the hearts of all these peasants.
+The Roman Catholic establishment is very strong hereabouts,
+one of the largest churches in the Province being
+here; and they can also boast of a college and convent
+which, I believe, as is the case with other Roman Catholic
+institutions in the Province, is in receipt of funds from
+France.</p>
+
+<p>Here once dwelt a priest whose deeds and whose example
+still live amongst the French Acadians of Clare. I talked
+with a man who well remembered the worthy Curé of
+Montaignan.</p>
+
+<p>“Born and educated in France,” wrote Captain
+Moorsom, “M. Segoigne emigrated from that country
+when revolutionary suspicion threatened the lives of all
+whose virtues were inimical to the views of the ruling
+democrats, and for the last thirty years has devoted his
+attention exclusively to the welfare of these children of
+Acadia. Buried in this retreat from all the thoughts and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span>
+habits of the polished world, he yet retains the urbanity
+of the old French school; or rather, I apprehend, possesses
+that natural excellence of disposition which gives to urbanity
+its intrinsic value. He is at once the priest, the lawyer,
+and the judge of his people; he has seen most of them rise
+up to manhood around him, or accompany his own decline
+in the vale of years; the unvarying steadiness of his conduct
+has gained equally their affection and respect; to him,
+therefore, it is that they apply in their mutual difficulties,
+from him they look for judgment to decide their little
+matters of dispute.”</p>
+
+<p>In French-speaking Canada one frequently comes across
+the priest in this dignified, affectionate, paternal character.
+Denied real fatherhood he consecrates his life to his spiritual
+children; and the virtues of such men constitute the real
+strength of the Roman Catholic church in Canada, amongst
+a simple folk to whose minds, absorbed in labour and
+home life, doctrine and dialectics are as the scattering of
+chaff on the sands of the sea.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">YARMOUTH AND SHIPBUILDING</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">An</span> odour of sanctity, permeating current speech and
+manners, is characteristic of New Scotland. But religion is
+less narrow, less austere, than in New England. One
+familiar expression of the religious spirit is the grace
+before meat. Of these anteprandial orisons the privileged
+traveller, curious in such matters, might collect
+some interesting examples in the course of his travels
+through the Province, ranging from a long discourse,
+which threatened to be interminable, which I heard
+at Yarmouth, to a brief, almost ejaculatory, “Thank
+God!” from the lips of an old naval officer at Sydney.
+Of the devoutness of the people there can be no question.
+Upwards of eighty years ago a Scotsman, author
+of <cite>Letters from Nova Scotia</cite>, asked a well-informed native:
+“Which do you think the most numerous denomination
+of Christians in Nova Scotia?” “Oh,” was the reply,
+“the Presbyterians, then the Roman Catholics, then the
+Baptists, then the Methodists, then the Episcopalians.”</p>
+
+<p>“Is the Baptist a numerous sect?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, it is the most prosperous of all denominations.
+A few years ago the Baptists were a small and comparatively
+uninfluential body of men. Their teachers
+were ignorant of all knowledge except what their Bibles<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span>
+afforded, and their hearers were the poorest of our
+peasantry. But by recent events they have received a most
+important accession, not only of numbers, but also of wealth,
+talent, and education; and I will stake my sagacity upon
+the prophecy that, in a few years, the Baptist Church will
+be predominant in Nova Scotia. The Church of England
+may be established nominally, but the Baptist one
+will be predominant.”</p>
+
+<p>That was in 1828. Let us see what has happened.
+According to the last census, as many as 1355 churches
+were found to be in this one Province, the proportions
+being as follow:—351 belonging to the Baptists, 270 to
+the Presbyterians, 254 to the Methodists, 198 to the
+Anglicans, and 156 to the Roman Catholics. The total
+seating capacity of these 1355 churches was 409,738,
+the Presbyterians heading the list with 100,337, the
+Baptists coming next with 91,290, then the Methodists
+with 71,731, the Roman Catholics with 70,974, and the
+Anglicans last with 47,426. The Congregationalists had
+only 16 churches, with a seating capacity of 4470.
+Among the various churches were 1005 Sunday Schools,
+with 66,680 scholars and 7750 teachers. In a general
+classification the people divided themselves as follows:—129,578
+Roman Catholics, 106,381 Presbyterians, 83,233
+Baptists, 66,107 Anglicans, 57,490 Methodists, 6572
+Lutherans, 2938 Congregationalists, 1494 Adventists,
+1412 Disciples, and 437 Jews, with several smaller groups
+of other denominations, leaving only 543 persons who
+did not return themselves as belonging to some religion.</p>
+
+<p>So that with regard to the prophecy, although the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span>
+Baptists have got more chapels, the Presbyterians can
+boast more devotees (a visit to the churches will confirm
+this), and, on the whole, the situation is little changed,
+save that the Roman Catholics have vastly increased,
+and now nominally may claim precedence over any other
+sect. While the Scots are mainly Presbyterians, there
+is a large number of Highland Roman Catholics, many
+in Cape Breton, many in Antigonish County. At Antigonish
+there is not only a Catholic University, but a
+Catholic newspaper, very well conducted. The denominational
+spirit is represented in the higher education,
+King’s College, Windsor, being Anglican; Acadia University,
+Wolfeville, a Baptist foundation; St. Francis Xavier
+University at Antigonish I have just mentioned; and the
+Presbyterians regard Dalhousie as their College, although
+it is undenominational. Indeed no denominational test
+is required of students at any save the Roman Catholic
+establishment. The Methodists resort to Mount Allison,
+just across the Provincial frontier.</p>
+
+<p>Pulpit oratory is not, I fear, cultivated as an art in
+Nova Scotia. It is mostly, as one would expect it to be,
+of a hortatory character. I have even heard it alleged
+that the Nova Scotian parsons are a practical, canny class,
+rather than ripe in culture and sound in scholarship.</p>
+
+<p>It is when we come to speak of education that we
+see the superiority of the system to that which has
+long prevailed in England, and which prevails in other
+countries. There is practically no illiterate element
+in the community. While it is unnecessary to say that
+some have received less education than others, one may<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span>
+look long before finding a man or woman unable to
+read and write. There is a great difference between
+the English and Nova Scotian systems—in Nova Scotia
+there is far more attention paid to the problem of education,
+and a greater ambition on the part of all classes to
+get beyond the elementary stage.</p>
+
+<p>There are 2516 elementary schools in the Province,
+attended by 100,000 children under the charge of 2664
+teachers (which gives an average of one teacher to the
+great majority of the schools), Education is free, both
+in the elementary schools, which are maintained by
+Government grants and very low local rates, and in the
+numerous high schools. A Provincial Normal School
+also offers free instruction for the training of teachers;
+and it may be said that, despite the fact that the
+Province offers many lucrative careers for a brainy young
+man, which makes it somewhat difficult to retain the
+highest talent for this profession, the standard of teaching
+in Nova Scotian schools is not inferior to the average
+on the North American continent. In fact, it is probably
+higher.</p>
+
+<p>In various parts of the Province the old system of a
+group of isolated one-teacher schools is being gradually
+done away with, and “consolidated” schools are springing
+up. These, each having several teachers, are looked upon
+as an effective means of improving the education in county districts.
+Of these there are at present twenty-three. I have
+already described the Technical College lately established
+in the capital; while hand-work and household science are
+thoroughly taught the boys and girls at various centres.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span></p>
+
+<p>Perhaps already the reader will have gathered that this
+peninsula and island on the other side of the Atlantic has
+everything, though but in embryo, of that which makes life
+pleasant, useful, and prosperous, save Art. History shows
+few communities of half a million people with fewer artistic
+perceptions than New Scotland, and I know of no Nova
+Scotia poet, Nova Scotia painter, Nova Scotia novelist, or
+Nova Scotia architect of international repute. To some of
+us—to a few of us—these are the things—these books,
+these pictures, these buildings, which make even little
+nations glorious; and of which they are prouder and the
+world more grateful than for the products of the field, the
+forge, the factory, and the counting-house.</p>
+
+<p>But in this respect New Scotland resembles Old Scotland,
+whose slow advance and scanty achievements in art were
+once the wonder of Europe; and even in New England it
+took nearly two centuries of civilisation to throw off the
+Puritan yoke and allow the imagination to dwell in and the
+hand to create beauty.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps we who dwell in London, or Paris, or Rome, or
+even New York, are apt to exaggerate the value of these
+things. For here we see that a people may be generous,
+industrious, and contented without picture-galleries, without,
+indeed, ever having seen a first-rate picture, a first-rate
+building.</p>
+
+<p>At Yarmouth, more than the wharves, more than the
+clipped hedges, than the fishermen, the electric street
+tramway, and the manifold evidence of prosperity, was I
+interested in two fragments of stone, comparable in their
+way to other celebrated archæological fragments in Europe<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span>
+and Asia which tell, and alone survive to tell, of long-past
+ages and vanished peoples. These are Runic stones of
+Yarmouth, lately reposing in private grounds, but now
+gathered into the safer and more accessible quarters of the
+Yarmouth Public Library. About the end of the eighteenth
+century a doctor named Fletcher discovered on the shore of
+the Bay of Fundy, opposite the town, a rock weighing about
+four hundred pounds, bearing an inscription which, when
+deciphered by a capable antiquarian, was found to read,
+“Harkussen men varu”—<em>i.e.</em>, “Harku’s son addressed the
+men.”</p>
+
+<p>In the expedition of Tharfinn Karlsefne in 1007, the
+name of Harku occurs in the list of those who accompanied
+him. In a note on the published saga we read that on this
+voyage “they came to a place where a firth penetrated far
+into the country; off the mouth of it was an island, past
+which there ran strong currents, which was also the case
+farther up the firth.”</p>
+
+<p>Why such a memento should be left on this Norse visit
+to Markland cannot of course be explained, except to observe
+that memorials were often made or erected in localities
+where events had occurred, and in this instance the
+chieftain’s address may have here contained some notable
+pronouncement, or even commemorated the landing at that
+spot.</p>
+
+<p>The second Runic stone was found so recently as 1897,
+lying face downwards, half buried in the mud on the west
+side of Yarmouth harbour, one mile from where the former
+stone had been found. It is very similar in size and shape
+to the Fletcher stone. Its face is as fair and as smooth as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span>
+if dressed by a lapidary, and the inscription is in the same
+characters. Of course these two stones have excited great
+interest among scholars and antiquarians, and attempts have
+been made to dispute their Scandinavian origin, and to
+ascribe them to Red Indians, Semites, and even to the
+Japanese.</p>
+
+<p>For example, one theorist, Dr. Campbell, who would
+have rejoiced in assisting the Pickwickians in elucidating
+the celebrated Stumps inscription, unhesitatingly finds the
+inscription to be Japanese. He says that in old Japanese
+this reads,</p>
+
+<p class="center"><em>wahi deka Kuturade bushi goku</em>.</p>
+
+<p><em>Peacefully has gone out Kuturade, warrior eminent</em>, or in other
+words: “Kuturadem, the eminent warrior, has died in
+peace.”</p>
+
+<p>It may very naturally be asked how it is known that
+such is the reading, and how a Japanese inscription should
+be found in Nova Scotia? His answer to the first question
+is that “the identical writing in question has been found in
+Siberia, Mongolia, and Japan.... As for the appearance
+of old Japanese in America, I have known repeatedly that
+the Choctaw, the Cree or Maskoki, the Ksaw, and all their
+related tongues, are simply Japanese dialects.”</p>
+
+<p>Kuturade was apparently an Iroquois, whose modern
+name would be Katorati, The Hunter.... And there is
+reason for thinking that this memorial might belong to
+the early historical period of French colonisation (early
+seventeenth century). We cannot tell when our Indians lost
+their ancient art of writing, which the Crees at least seem
+to have retained in the middle of the last century.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span></p>
+
+<p>One reflects now upon the injustice, even the inhumanity,
+of the British Columbians in seeking to exclude
+the Japanese from their old home!</p>
+
+<p>But there seems, apart from prejudice and the fantastic
+ingenuity of minds prepared to doubt anything from the
+spherical shape of the earth to the utility of the bi-cameral
+system in the British Constitution, no reason to doubt that
+these stones are really tangible evidence of the pre-Columbian
+discovery of Nova Scotia. Humboldt agreed with Carl
+Rafu in believing that in the year 1001 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> the Icelanders
+touched upon the North American coast, and that for nearly
+two centuries subsequently numerous visits were made by
+them and the Norwegians.</p>
+
+<p>“Bjorn Heinolsen, an Icelander, was the first discoverer.
+Steering for Greenland he was driven to the south by
+tempestuous and unfavourable winds, and saw different
+parts of America, without, however, touching at any of
+them. Attracted by the report of this voyage, Leif, son of
+Eric, the discoverer of Greenland, fitted out a vessel to
+pursue the same adventure. He passed the coast visited by
+Bjorn, and steered south-west till he reached a strait between
+a large island and the mainland. Finding the country
+fertile and pleasant, he passed the winter near this place,
+and gave it the name of Vinland, from the wild vine
+growing there in great abundance.” According to Rafu,
+“Bjorn first saw land in the island of Nantucket, one
+degree south of Boston, then in Nova Scotia, then in
+Newfoundland.”</p>
+
+<p>Accurate information respecting the former intercourse
+of the Northmen with the continent of North America<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span>
+reaches only as far as the middle of the fourteenth century.
+In the year 1349 a ship was sent from Greenland to Markland
+(Nova Scotia) to collect timber. Upon their return
+from Markland the ship was overtaken by storms and
+compelled to land at Straumfjord, in the west of Iceland.
+This is the last account of the Northmen in the New
+World preserved to us in the ancient Scandinavian writings.</p>
+
+<p>Says Rafu: “The principal sources of information are
+the historical narratives of Eric the Red, Thorfinn Karlsefne,
+and Snorre Thorbrandson, probably written in Greenland
+itself as early as the twelfth century, partly by descendants
+of the settlers born in Vinland.” One account in particular
+seems to point very strongly to a visit to this part
+of Nova Scotia, and is as follows:</p>
+
+<p>“Thorfinn Karlsefne, in 1007, in one ship, and Birone
+Grimolfsen in another ship, left Greenland for Vinland
+(Massachusetts). They had a hundred and sixty men, and
+took all kinds of live stock, intending to establish a colony.
+They sailed southerly and found Helluland (Newfoundland),
+where there were many foxes. They again sailed
+southerly and found Markland (Nova Scotia), overgrown
+with wood. They continued south-westerly a long time,
+having the land to starboard, passing long beaches, and
+deserts and sands, and came to a land indented with inlets.
+They landed and explored the country, finding grapes and
+some ears of wheat, which grew wild. They continued
+their course until they came to a place where a frith
+penetrated far into the country. Off the mouth of it was
+an island, past which there ran strong currents, which was
+also the case further up the frith, &amp;c.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span></p>
+
+<p>The long beaches and deserts of sand referred to above,
+seemingly refer to those stretching along the coast line from
+Hawk Point, Cape Island, in a north-easterly direction,
+one of which makes a fine race-course, at least six miles long.</p>
+
+<p>In the distance, across Barrington Passage, may be
+seen stretches of sandy hills not less than 40 feet high.
+These are visible at a great distance from seaward. The
+reference, “they came to a place,” with the other geographical
+details, made a strong case for Yarmouth as the landing
+place of old Thorfinn.</p>
+
+<p>It would be surprising if in a country with such a line
+of sea-coast as Nova Scotia, with adjacent forests of every
+kind of hard and soft woods, and with a population largely
+depending upon fishing, shipbuilding should not early have
+been begun.</p>
+
+<p>At Yarmouth, about 1761, with the building of a small
+schooner, christened the <em>James</em>, of about 25 tons burden,
+the industry had its birth. From the time of the launching
+of this modest craft until that of the <em>County of Yarmouth</em>,
+a full rigged ship of 2154 tons, in 1886, there is seen
+a steady development of the shipbuilding industry, in
+which the south-western portion of the Province bore the
+leading part.</p>
+
+<p>In 1765 there were said to be in Queen’s County alone
+seventeen sail of fishing schooners, all of native construction.
+Other portions of the southern coast were not far behind.
+Trade with the West Indies soon became important, and
+before the close of the eighteenth century larger schooners
+and brigantines were built, running to upwards of one
+hundred tons.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span></p>
+
+<p>Somewhat later the export of timber from the various
+ports along the Northumberland Strait induced shipbuilding
+on a very much larger scale. Soon after the Highlanders
+came to Pictou they turned their attention to the exports
+of timber in home-built vessels, and many of these of
+considerable burden were built.<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> For this information I am indebted, <em>inter alia</em>, to an admirable little
+paper by Mr. R. M. M’Gregor, M.P.P.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>This time not merely Yarmouth, and Shelburne, and
+Liverpool, and Pictou, but all New Scotland, owned an
+important fleet of sailing ships, but still small in number
+compared with the veritable navy they were to own and
+be enriched by within a few years.</p>
+
+<p>The forty years, from 1840 to 1880, saw the palmiest
+days of this great industry. One still hears tales of the
+mighty Captain George M’Kenzie of New Glasgow, to
+whom more than to any one man Nova Scotia owed the
+great impetus that was given during this period to shipbuilding.
+Along the ports of the Northumberland Strait,
+at least, this worthy mariner and builder, full of energy and
+genius, did more than any one else to improve the character
+of the ships built. He twice represented the County of
+Pictou in the Legislature, and, indeed, his shipbuilding
+ventures are referred to by his friend, Joseph Howe, in the
+latter’s famous speech on the “Unification of the Empire.”</p>
+
+<p>In 1850 Captain M’Kenzie was presented with a
+service of plate by the merchants of Glasgow on the
+occasion of the arrival of one of his 1500 ton ships,
+the <em>Hamilton Campbell Kidston</em>, which was the largest
+vessel that up to that time had ascended the Clyde.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span></p>
+
+<p>Along the Northumberland Strait, Pictou, New Glasgow,
+Tatamagouche, River John, and Merigomish, were all
+noted for their shipbuilding. The Crimean War gave a
+decided impetus to the industry, and about this time there
+were said to be in New Glasgow alone fourteen square-rigged
+vessels built in one year. The coal trade from
+Pictou to the United States was also a stimulus.</p>
+
+<p>In the west, Yarmouth, Windsor, Hantsport, Maitland,
+Londonderry, and other Bay of Fundy ports were
+centres for shipbuilding. But, indeed, there were scarcely
+any harbours or rivers of note, both in the mainland and
+parts of the Island of Cape Breton, that did not play a
+greater or less part in this great industry.</p>
+
+<p>A little over a quarter of a century ago there were registered
+in Nova Scotia 3025 vessels, with a tonnage of 558,911
+tons, or about one and a quarter tons of shipping <em>per capita</em> of
+the population, a larger holding than any other country in
+the world, not even excepting those of Northern Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The fleet of Yarmouth alone covered every ocean, and
+represented the largest tonnage <em>per capita</em> of any port in
+the world. You saw Yarmouth ships in Helsingfors and
+Monte Video.</p>
+
+<p>The building and rigging of such a fleet of course
+gave lucrative employment to a vast army of men.
+Loggers, choppers, shipwrights, carpenters, blacksmiths,
+caulkers, riggers, were employed full time at good wages.
+But freights fell lower and lower. Conditions changed
+in the carrying trade, and at Yarmouth I gathered that
+the prosperous days of wooden sailing vessels reached
+their zenith in 1879, when they had to give way to iron<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span>
+sailing ships, these again to be replaced by the tramp
+steamer which has invaded every sea, lake, and river
+formerly sailed by the white-winged fleet.</p>
+
+<p>And so the immense fleet of Yarmouth vanished.
+Some of its owners were ruined, and others retired with
+a more than comfortable competence. A few capitalists
+foresaw the coming change—the incoming of steam—and
+established other marine industries.</p>
+
+<p>Nova Scotia ceased not only to be a shipbuilding,
+but also to be a ship-owning and ship-operating country.</p>
+
+<p>But in consequence of the recent revival of the lumber
+trade to America and to the Southern Continent, there has
+come the building of a large number of smaller vessels
+in the Bay of Fundy ports. Three-masted schooners, of
+some 300 and 400 tons, have been launched, while the
+demand for smaller vessels for the West India trade has
+never entirely ceased, and such are being launched every
+year from Shelburne and other ports of the southern
+shore. From the same portion of the Province, and in
+particular from the County of Lunenburg, where the
+fishing industry is pursued vigorously, fishing vessels are
+being constantly built.</p>
+
+<p>In quality of construction, these Nova Scotia built
+boats have obtained an enviable reputation, and it would
+seem as if it would be many years before the wooden
+shipbuilding industry will be entirely lost to the Province.
+Something has indeed been done in the way of
+the construction of small steam boats, and nearly all the
+coastal steam packets are home-built.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, when the big wooden ships vanished, Yarmouth<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span>
+captains, as factors in the world’s mercantile marine,
+remained. Their experience and reputation insured them
+employment elsewhere. After these vessels had become
+obsolete, and were forced from the trade, these tried
+fellows were eagerly sought for by English and Scotch
+shipping firms, as skilled mariners and of unquestionable
+integrity. To-day many important ships in America and
+Britain are commanded by Nova Scotians, and Yarmuthians
+in particular.</p>
+
+<p>Wooden shipbuilding on a grand scale being a thing
+of the past, if the sea-loving New Scotlanders are to
+become again a race of shipbuilders and sailors, it must
+be in steel bottoms. Already a beginning has been made
+in a small way. Several small steel steamers have been
+built in the town of New Glasgow, and one has lately
+been launched at Yarmouth.</p>
+
+<p>At the former place was launched last year the
+three-master steel schooner <em>James William</em>, of about 500
+tons register. As a swift sailer, and more particularly
+as a good carrier, this vessel has more than exceeded
+the expectations of her builders. The beginning so
+auspiciously made is full of promise for the future, and it
+may well be said that within the next few years Nova Scotia
+may come back to her own, and once more take her place
+under newer conditions as a great shipbuilding country.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the Yarmouth fishermen repair to Gloucester
+in the spring, and go to the Banks in vessels from that
+port. These do well as a rule, and in November troop
+home to enjoy the fruits of their labours. There are no
+Bank fishermen out of Yarmouth ports nowadays, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span>
+those who do not go out of Gloucester remain at home
+and conduct fishing operations “off shore.” Very often
+fish are scarce when bait is plentiful, and vice versa, and
+oftentimes during the early fall the weather is so rough
+that operations are perforce suspended for days at a time.</p>
+
+<p>Of late, however, I was informed, large schools of
+herrings have struck in along the shores, and big catches
+have been made, so big in fact that at some points schooner
+loads have been shipped to the American market.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>The Argylls strongly suggest the scenery of the
+Scottish Highlands, and must have done so to the
+Western Highlanders who first settled the place. It is
+the centre of a fine fishing and hunting country. There is
+a remarkably curious natural phenomena at the “Narrows”;
+for six hours the waters rush madly up stream, and for the
+next six tumble as rapidly down again. The island-studded
+waters provide fine duck shooting, and Lobster Bay is a
+famous spot for these crustaceans.</p>
+
+<p>As for Pubnico, it claims to be the very oldest French
+Acadian settlement, being planted by D’Entremont in
+1650, and is still peopled by that race. The harbour is
+a beautiful sheet of land-locked water, where exceptionally
+safe bathing and boating may be had. Many little old-fashioned
+villages are close at hand, and are an object lesson
+in early French habits and customs.</p>
+
+<p>Barrington was described to me as a “homey” little
+place, where visitors have delightfully jolly candy-pulls,
+clambakes, and lobster-roasts nightly around roaring bonfires
+on the beach.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span></p>
+
+<p>I had long wanted to see Cape Sable Island. I was told
+that it had enjoyed an unwonted prosperity during the last
+few years. The island is seven miles long and from two to
+three miles across, with a steam ferry plying to Barrington
+Passage. It is famous for its splendid beaches, Hawk and
+Stoney Island, and all sorts of shore and sea birds are found
+here in abundance, and furnish good sport.</p>
+
+<p>The first settlement appears to have been made about
+1786 by Michael Swim, who had previously migrated from
+New York to Shelburne. Being a man of some education,
+he was long known as <em>the Clerk</em> of the Island, and hence,
+according to one tradition, the name Clark’s Harbour.</p>
+
+<p>It is well worth while leaving the railway at Barrington
+and traverse nine miles towards the coast to see the relics of
+Fort St. Louis, now called Port La Tour. Here was the
+scene of one of the most romantic episodes in the history of
+Acadia. In 1627 the gallant young Charles de la Tour
+was entrenched here. Hearing of the English plan to
+drive the French from Acadia, and strong in his alliance
+with the Micmacs, he wrote Louis <abbr title="the thirteenth">XIII</abbr>. asking to be
+appointed commandant of all the coasts of Acadia. His
+father, Claude de la Tour, it will be remembered, bore the
+letter, and on the way back was captured by Sir David
+Kirke, and taken to England.<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> Here he renounced his
+loyalty to the French king, married an English lady, was
+made a baronet of Nova Scotia, and received a large grant
+in Acadia for himself and his son. Sir Claude then sailed
+with his wife and an escort of two warships to where his
+son Charles was holding the last fort in Acadia.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> See <em>ante</em>, p. 19.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span></p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the youthful French hero, lord of Acadia
+under Poutrincourt’s charter, knew nothing of his good
+fortune or of these paternal proceedings. When Sir Claude
+reached his destination here at Fort St. Louis, he demanded
+an interview with his son, who was astonished to find his
+father in command of an English ship and wearing the
+dress of an English admiral. Sir Claude related the
+flattering reception he had met with in London, and the
+honours that had been heaped upon him.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of showing joy, Charles was thunderstruck.
+He replied haughtily that “if those who sent you on this
+errand think me capable of betraying my country, even at
+the solicitation of a parent, they have greatly mistaken me.
+I am not disposed to purchase the honours now offered me
+by committing a crime. I do not undervalue the proffer of
+the King of England; but the Prince in whose service I am
+is quite able to reward me; and whether he does so or not,
+the inward consciousness of my fidelity to him will be in
+itself a recompense to me. The King of France has
+confided the defence of this place to me. I shall maintain
+it, if attacked, till my latest breath.”</p>
+
+<p>In these circumstances Sir Claude thought to bring the
+ungrateful youth to reason by force. Thrice he landed his
+soldiers and sailors and tried to storm Fort St. Louis, but in
+vain. His men were repulsed, and soon became disgusted
+with the whole enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>Eventually they all repaired to Port Royal and took up
+settlement with the other Scotch colonists there. It might
+be supposed that in this extremity the young English girl
+to whom Sir Claude had promised power and luxury on his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span>
+Nova Scotian estates would now desire to return to England;
+but she refused.</p>
+
+<p>“I have shared your prosperity, Sir Claude,” she said, “I
+will now share your evil fortunes.” And evil they proved.</p>
+
+<p>For in 1632, after the shameful treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye,
+by which Canada and Nova Scotia were ceded
+back to France by King Charles <abbr title="the first">I</abbr>., Sir Claude, “between
+the devil and the deep sea,” was fain at last to throw
+himself on the mercy of his son, who established the couple
+and their suite in comfort, some distance from the fort,
+and there he remained for some time, until King Charles
+found employment for him elsewhere in British Dominions.</p>
+
+<p>I have related elsewhere something of the drama of the
+young La Tours, of the heroism of the wife when besieged
+by the villain Charnisay, of her death, of the long exile of
+her husband, and his marriage with the widow of his enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Upon such a spot one could hardly look unmoved;
+but explore as one might, all trace of the La Tours seems
+to have vanished from off the earth, save that on the page
+of history and their names on the map.</p>
+
+<p>In the old days the Acadians were settled in considerable
+numbers about Barrington. At the time of their expulsion,
+a flourishing settlement, with stone church and grist mill,
+was utterly destroyed, the cattle burnt, and the inhabitants
+deported to Boston and Halifax. Some few returned afterwards
+to Cape Sable and received grants in Pubnico, where
+they contributed to the present thrifty settlement.</p>
+
+<p>In 1761-63, some eighty families from Nantucket and
+Cape Cod settled in Barrington, but about half of them,
+disappointed in their hope of making this a whaling station,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span>
+soon returned; and in 1767 the township of Barrington,
+including Cape Sable Island, was granted to a body of one
+hundred and two New Englanders.</p>
+
+<p>Barrington is a quiet and picturesque little town, to
+which a goodly number of summer visitors resort. It is
+easy of access, being on the railway, and a point of call for
+the smaller steamers from Yarmouth and Clark’s Harbour.
+I am not sure whether it is not worth mentioning, but
+Barrington is one of the few small towns in New Scotland
+whose streets are lighted by oil lamps set upon old-fashioned
+lamp-posts. The posts were brought from Boston many
+years ago.</p>
+
+<p>Between Barrington and Shelburne, scattered for some
+twenty-seven miles inland, lie what are called the Clyde
+settlements. The river Clyde is a really beautiful stream,
+and rich in salmon and trout. The railway station is at
+Port Clyde, near its mouth, and Clyde River settlement is
+two and a half miles further up. Goose Lake, Goose
+Creek, and Bower’s Lake are favourite haunts of trout
+fishers.</p>
+
+<p>Seventeen miles further up the river is Middle Clyde,
+and Upper Clyde still another ten—both pretty villages,
+within easy reach of lake and river fishing. This is a good
+moose ground, partridge and rabbits are plentiful, and the
+skilled hunter may add to his bag a brace of wild cat or an
+occasional bear.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">SHELBURNE AND THE LOYALISTS</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">There</span> are, apart from the capital, five famous historical
+shrines in New Scotland—Annapolis Royal, Louisbourg,
+Grand Pré, Fort Lawrence, and Shelburne. How many
+English readers know anything of Shelburne? How many
+have ever so much as heard the name? And yet, once, a
+century and a quarter ago, the uprising of this town, in a
+single night as it were, the sufferings of the 12,000 American
+Loyalist refugees who had landed there to found it,
+evoked a widespread interest. The tale of the Loyalists of
+Shelburne rang through the hall at Westminster, and in the
+Colonial Assemblies. It was told in the closet of the King,
+and was set forth in the newspapers; and what a story it
+was! English history scarce can show its parallel. It is
+the tale of the exiled Huguenots, but the impelling motive
+was not loyalty to a form of faith, but to an earthly
+sovereign and a flag. How much fanaticism, how much
+bigotry, is interwoven with religious sacrifice! We may
+respect, but we cannot love the cold and narrow minds
+who, whether called Protestant, or Catholic, or Puritan, fled
+from their country because of the doctrine they disliked or
+an article they distrusted, who were ready to put seas of
+salt water between them and a rubric, or to risk seas of
+human blood to escape the sight of a chasuble or the
+necessity for a genuflexion.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span></p>
+
+<p>But personal loyalty one understands—the love for
+one’s flag and one’s own people strikes a responsive chord
+in warm bosoms. The Puritans, I fear, who founded New
+England, were but indifferent patriots. The cry of “St.
+George and Merry England!” would amongst them have
+proved a feeble tocsin.</p>
+
+<p>The Loyalists were, as I have said, the best class in
+America, comprising the most notable judges, the most
+eminent lawyers, most cultured clergy, most distinguished
+physicians, most educated and refined of the people north
+and south. Long before the war broke out, the Boston
+mobs had persecuted them for their political professions.
+Any official or merchant sympathising with the British
+Army or British Government of the day was a target for
+their insolence. They set Governor Hutchinson’s mansion
+in flames; sheriffs and judges were mobbed, feeble old
+men were driven into the woods, and innocent women insulted.
+With the progress of the war, the violence of the
+revolutionists increased in intensity. Thousands sought
+safety with the King’s troops; many others armed themselves
+and fought valiantly for the King and the British
+connection. To be suspected of being a Loyalist was to
+have one’s estate confiscated, and even to be punished
+with death.</p>
+
+<p>But what the Loyalists suffered during the war, when
+the issue of the contest was doubtful, was nothing to what
+they had to endure after 1783.</p>
+
+<p>The British Empire had been badly served by the officers
+England had sent out to America. If Wolfe had lived to
+direct her armies, the end might have been different; but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span>
+mismanagement reigned, and such Generals as Gage, Burgoyne, and
+Cornwallis, planned feebly and fought half-heartedly. If there was
+any doubt as to the result, that doubt was speedily set at rest
+when England’s hereditary enemy, France, espoused the cause of the
+American insurgents. French money, ships, and men poured into America.
+The Americans fought with French muskets, they were clad in French
+clothing, and they were paid with gold which the impoverished people of
+France could ill spare. Great is the debt America owes to the French
+King and statesmen of that time.<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> <cite>The Romance of Canada</cite>, by Beckles Willson, 1907.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>With the conclusion of the war, the men who had stood
+staunch and faithful to the United Empire were destined to
+undergo a further ordeal. As “traitors” they were pursued
+through the streets; their families were driven into the
+woods; they were shot down remorselessly. Rows of them
+were hung up like felons. At the battle of King’s
+Mountain, in North Carolina, ten of the prisoners, men
+of character and influence, were hanged in cold blood.
+There were many instances of ferocious executions upon
+prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>Under the Treaty of 1783 they had been abandoned by
+the Mother Country to the tender mercies of the American
+conquerors.</p>
+
+<p>“When I consider the case of the Loyalists,” said
+Wilberforce in Parliament, “I confess I there feel myself
+conquered; I there see my country humiliated; I there
+see her at the feet of America!” “A peace founded
+on the sacrifice of these unhappy subjects,” declared
+another, “must be accursed in the sight of God and
+man.”<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> “I trust you will agree with me that a due and generous attention
+ought to be shown to those who have relinquished their property or their
+possessions from motives of loyalty to me, or attachment to the Mother
+Country.”—<cite>King’s Speech</cite>, 1783.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span></p>
+
+<p>Nova Scotia proper, during the war, had not been
+molested, and to it the Loyalists now turned in large
+numbers as a refuge under the flag. Acadia was to be the
+Canaan of the Loyalists.</p>
+
+<p>Somewhere—for most of them knew it but vaguely—in
+that northern land, in the virgin forests of pine, and
+maple, and hemlock, in the solitudes of seashore, lake, and
+river, which no man of English blood had yet seen, was the
+refuge the Loyalists sought.</p>
+
+<p>In November 1783, New York was evacuated by the
+King’s troops under Sir Guy Carlton. He carried with
+him all the stores belonging to the Crown, all baggage and
+artillery, and he was accompanied by 40,000 men, women,
+and children. New York was the stronghold of the
+Loyalists; Pennsylvania had been equally divided between
+Loyalists and Revolutionists; there were more Loyalists in
+Virginia than adherents of Congress; and Georgia had at
+least three Loyalists for every rebel. Thousands had
+perished; thousands had sought refuge in England; thousands
+had recanted. Fifty thousand now set out with their
+wives and children and such belongings as were left to
+them to traverse the hundreds of miles which lay between
+them and their new homesteads in Canada. These United
+Empire Loyalists were the fathers of English Canada.</p>
+
+<p>There are few tales which history has to tell so stirring<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span>
+and so noble as the exodus of the Loyalists. Most of them
+had been brought up in comfort and even luxury; their
+women were tenderly nurtured and unaccustomed to hardship.
+But one spirit animated them all; one hope fired all
+their bosoms; one faith drove them out of the American
+Republic into the wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>The exiles were divided into two main streams, one
+moving eastward to Nova Scotia and the country where, a
+century and a half before, Poutrincourt and La Tour had
+fought and flourished. The other moved westward to the
+region north of Lake Ontario. Those who followed the
+eastern course landed at the mouth of the St. John River,
+New Brunswick, on the 18th May 1783, a day still
+celebrated in the city of St. John’s. They took up settlements
+in the meadows of the Bay of Fundy, and at Port
+Rasoir in Nova Scotia. There, like the city in the Arabian
+tale, there sprang up, as if by magic, the town of Shelburne,
+with 12,000 inhabitants, where yesterday had been
+but solitude.</p>
+
+<p>“No one will know because none has told all that these
+brave pioneers underwent for their devotion and fidelity.
+You will see to-day on the outskirts of the older settlements
+little mounds, moss-covered tombstones which record
+the last resting places of the forefathers of the hamlet.
+They do not tell you of the brave hearts laid low by hunger
+and exposure, of the girlish forms wasted away, of the babes
+and little children who perished for want of proper food and
+raiment. They have nothing to tell of the courageous
+high-minded mothers, wives, and daughters, who bore
+themselves as bravely as men, complaining never, toiling<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span>
+with the men in the fields, banishing all regrets for the life
+they might have led had they sacrificed their loyalty....
+No great monument is raised to their memory; none is
+needed; it is enshrined for ever in the hearts of every
+Canadian and of every one who admires fidelity to principle,
+devotion, and self-sacrifice.”<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> <cite>Romance of Canada</cite>, p. 260.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1783 a fleet of eighteen large ships
+and several small vessels, convoyed by two warships, brought
+471 Loyalist families from New York to a fine harbour
+called Port Roseway (Rasoir), where the redoubtable Colonel
+M’Nutt had a few years before intended to build the city
+of New Jerusalem. There, too,</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">The breaking wave dashed high</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">On a stern and rock-bound coast;</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>but the shiploads of Americans, whose cause of King and
+United Empire had been lost, hoped they were destined to
+a propitious spot where they could begin their fortunes
+anew. When these Loyalists, who called themselves
+“True Blues,” landed, what a picture was then presented!</p>
+
+<p>“As soon as we had set up a kind of tent we knelt
+down, my wife and I and our two boys, and kissed the dear
+ground and thanked God that the flag of England floated
+there, and resolved that we would work with the rest to
+become again happy and prosperous.”</p>
+
+<p>And the spirit which animated the bosom of worthy
+Jonathan Beecher and his flock dwelt with nearly all of
+those five thousand foregathered on the sloping shore of
+this beautiful harbour. Lanterns and torches flamed that
+night; laughter and tears intermingled. Hundreds of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span>
+forms moved about restlessly. There was singing of
+hymns, trolling of glees, and toasting of His Majesty
+and Governor Parr. Trunks, and packing-cases, and valises
+were opened. A table was brought from the ship, and
+round it sat a number of ladies in silk dresses and
+powdered hair. A few desired a dance as an outlet for
+their tumultuous thoughts; and so there in the moonlight
+the young, the hopeful, the light-hearted, that all their
+recent sufferings could not wholly dismay, danced a
+quadrille—danced it out of sheer high spirits, and only
+separated at dawn.</p>
+
+<p>And the woods behind a group of swarthy Micmacs
+and their squaws came to overpeer and wonder at the
+spectacle—thinking a host of mad folk had been blown
+across the Big Drink. Mad indeed they were—mad for
+joy—mad in their hopes and schemes—mad in their utter
+improvidence.</p>
+
+<p>Other immigrants followed, and within a short time
+16,000 inhabitants were here. A fort was built, troops
+were stationed, and warships continually paraded the
+harbour; and much work was done, particularly wharf
+and road building. In 1788 the exports comprised
+13,151 quintals dry cod, 4193 casks of pickled fish,
+61 casks of smoked salmon, 149 barrels fish oil, and
+14,793 gallons sperm oil, During the year Prince
+William Henry (afterwards William <abbr title="the fourth">IV</abbr>.) visited the
+town, a ball being given in his honour. Yet even then
+Shelburne was existing on an artificial basis. For the
+first three years 9000 of the “True Blues” (or Blue
+Noses) drew rations from the British Government, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span>
+demoralisation set in. Then came a great storm in 1798
+which wiped out wharves and shipping; other calamities
+followed, and by 1818 the population had dwindled to
+300 souls.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-165">
+<img src="images/i-165.jpg" alt="" width="503" height="650">
+<p class="center smcap">The old Governor’s House, Shelburne.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>As I walked through the ghost of that old Shelburne,
+all the scenes and events of the next few weeks, months
+and years, as I had once read of them in Colonial records
+and in old journals and letters, came back to me, and
+I could in my mind’s eye reconstruct it all. This wide
+street, overgrown now with grass, running up from the
+harbour, was King Street; this other was Queen Street;
+this other Princes Street. For months carpenters and
+masons were busy hewing timber, hammering and hoisting,
+digging and mortaring. Rows after rows of houses
+appeared, and in a short time Shelburne, but yesterday
+a wilderness, presented all the appearance of a flourishing
+town. Some of the houses are still standing. There is
+the Governor’s house, a stately edifice enough, of that old
+Colonial pattern that the modern builder seems to have lost
+the recipe for making. It stands not far from the water’s
+edge, and is reached by a flight of steep steps. Its face is
+half hid by Virginia creeper. An old, old man came to
+the door and bade me enter. His name is Frith, and he is
+a carpenter by trade. He has long lived in the old house,
+and his father could remember the landing of the Loyalists.
+The house is panelled throughout, and there are fine and
+spacious fireplaces and chimney-pieces. Here was the social
+centre of Shelburne in its prime.</p>
+
+<p>The fine dwellings dropped to pieces, or were burnt,
+cattle and sheep might graze in the streets, the fort was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span>
+dismantled. A few clung, however, to Shelburne, and
+their descendants are to-day witnessing the revival of the
+town’s fortunes.</p>
+
+<p>Lockeport is charmingly situated on an island, connected
+with the mainland at its nearest point by a substantial iron
+bridge. To the left of the island the bay runs inland for
+several miles; to the right a low shielding promontory
+juts out to sea. The harbour is safe and free from squalls,
+affording splendid opportunities for yachting. The bathing
+beach, a glistening crescent of hard, white sand, extends
+for a mile or more. It is the general playground and
+fashionable promenade of the town.</p>
+
+<p>Good salmon and trout streams are easily accessible.
+The Jordan River, back on the road to Shelburne, is
+especially famous for hard fighting salmon and gamy
+trout. Feathered game are in abundance. The extensive
+moose country of the Sable River district is within easy
+reach, and moose are plentiful enough for those who
+know the way of the woods. For black duck and wild
+geese the vicinities of Port Jolie, Port L’Herbert, and
+Jones Harbour enjoy great local repute.</p>
+
+<p>The district about Lockeport was for a long time
+known as Ragged Islands. Just a century and a half ago
+Dr. Jonathan Locke, of Chilmark, Mass., and Josiah
+Churchill came here, selecting with great discrimination
+the spot best situated with regard to the fishing grounds.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the war of the Revolution the settlers of
+Lockeport, unlike their neighbours at Liverpool, seem to
+have kept out of active hostilities, though their sympathies
+were strongly American. Their feelings were very much<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span>
+hurt, therefore, when in 1779 some American privateers
+came ashore and looted their houses, and an indignant
+protest, signed by Jonathan Locke and several others, is
+still to be found in the archives of Massachusetts. After
+reciting how the scoundrels took from one house “nineteen
+quintals of codfish, four barrels of salt, three salmon nets,
+some cheese, and a great many other things,” this memorial
+continues:</p>
+
+<p>“These things are very surprising that we in this harbour
+have done so much for America, that we have helped three
+or four hundred prisoners up along to America, and given
+part of our living to them, and have concealed privateers
+and prizes too from the British cruisers in this harbour.
+All this done for America, and if this be the way we are to
+be paid, I desire to see no more of you without you come
+in another manner.”</p>
+
+<p>During the war of 1812 some excitement was caused by
+the approach of a hostile vessel, at a time when most of the
+men were away. The women and children were promptly
+lined up on the bluff, with red coats and broomsticks to
+lend a martial appearance, while some of the women
+marched up and down with a drum, and shots were fired
+with the available muskets and fowling pieces. The enemy
+made good their escape.</p>
+
+<p>On a burning July day I stood on the seashore and
+looked out on Port Mouton (pronounced Ma-toon), and in
+my mind’s eye saw two ghosts. One was of the immortal
+sheep which fell over the taffrail of De Monts’s ship three
+centuries ago; the other was the ghost of the town of
+Guysborough. Do not be misled, dear reader; there is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span>
+still a Guysborough in New Scotland; but it is another
+place, hundreds of miles away, which has clothed itself, so
+to speak, with the name of its deceased predecessor as with
+a garment. That Guysborough is at Chedabucto Bay, and
+flourishes; this Guysborough was at Port Mouton, and is
+dead more than a century and a quarter.</p>
+
+<p>Settled by pioneers of Massachusetts stock was Liverpool.
+I was told that there are even more descendants of the
+original Pilgrim Fathers in this little New Liverpool on the
+southern shore of New Scotland, in proportion to the population,
+than in Massachusetts itself. A warrant to survey a
+township was granted in 1759 by the Governor of Nova
+Scotia to a committee representing some one hundred and
+forty-two proprietors, all of New England, and many of
+them direct descendants of the <em>Mayflower</em> pilgrims.</p>
+
+<p>But a century and a half before this, in 1604, Sieur de
+Monts had entered the harbour and named it Port Rossignol,
+after a certain captain whom he found unwittingly poaching
+on his preserves, and whose vessel he confiscated. This
+was on the famous voyage that led to the selection of Port
+Royal (now Annapolis Royal) as the best site for a
+settlement.</p>
+
+<p>Later Port Rossignol formed part of La Tour’s La
+Héve, under the protection of the fort there; and, though
+the fisheries were considered of some importance, the
+settlements were small and by no means permanent.</p>
+
+<p>At the period when the hardy ancestors of the present
+inhabitants of Liverpool fixed on this as a site for settlement,
+the peninsula was almost a solitude. There were a few
+unfortunate Acadians who had made their homes with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span>
+Indians, and the Annapolis valley was from end to end
+a scene of desolation, extending for many miles to the
+eastward and westward. There were two small military
+posts, one at Annapolis and a second at Windsor. Halifax
+had only been founded about ten years. At Lunenburg
+some unfortunate Germans had been making a desperate
+struggle for about six years.<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">[16]</a> D. R. Jack, <em>Acadiensis</em>.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Hither came in 1760 a number of New England families
+attracted by the well-sheltered haven, the fine river, the
+salmon fishing, and also, I think, already conscious of the
+spirit of insubordination and unrest in the older colonies
+they quitted. Those early immigrants endured during the
+first few seasons severe privations, one winter subsisting
+almost wholly upon wild rabbits. But others came to join
+them, until, in a couple of years, they numbered eighty
+families. They continued to thrive; the settlement was
+formed into a township of 100,000 acres, and divided
+amongst them into 200 shares. A century ago the population
+was close upon 1000 souls.</p>
+
+<p>During the American Revolution the American
+privateers proved a constant source of annoyance and
+actual damage, and there is ample proof that the
+Liverpudlians were at least justified in retaliating in
+kind. In 1779 several of them obtained Letters of
+Marque from the British Government, with assistance for
+arming vessels, and a grant for a block-house and
+barracks.</p>
+
+<p>Smuggling, too, was a popular pursuit; one citizen
+in 1782 is recorded as having turned informer, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span>
+shortly afterwards the Government offered a reward of
+£20 for information leading to the conviction of the
+person or persons who had cut off the said citizen’s ears.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the Revolutionary War, the subsequent
+strife between England, and France, and Spain, and the
+later war with America, Liverpool privateers are frequently
+heard of. Many a prize was brought in triumph into
+Liverpool Harbour, and the little town emerged richer
+and more prosperous than before. I have read somewhere
+that the great fortune of the Hon. Enos Collins,
+long reputed the richest man in the province, and himself
+Liverpool born, though trading from Halifax, was founded
+on the winnings of his privateer captains.<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">[17]</a> “Those were busy times in the town,” writes Mr. Charles Warman, of
+Liverpool. “Sailors and ship’s carpenters abounded. Nightly they would
+meet in some public-house, and many tales of interesting adventures were
+told, while often shipmates who had been separated for years, and had
+been to all parts of the globe, would come together and be joyful.</p>
+
+<p>“Then vessels often went below the bar to complete loading—a thing
+practically unknown to-day, owing to the deepening of the channel—when
+the lumber would be rafted to them. If an easterly gale came upon them
+they had to hoist anchor and put back to the wharves. Occasionally from
+the storm there was the loss of ship and crew. As an instance, the barques
+<em>Wave</em> and <em>Kate Campbell</em>, that had lain below for some days completing
+cargoes, were caught and piled up, one near Sandy Cove, the other upon
+the Fort—both total wrecks, neither having ever been to sea. At that time
+a schooner from Newfoundland, bound west, had sought shelter here, and
+she also went ashore. Every one of its sailors was flung lifeless upon the
+beach. The loss of any craft to-day in the harbour is a rare occurrence.”</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Haliburton, in 1829, wrote: “Liverpool is the best
+built town in Nova Scotia. The houses are substantially
+good and well painted, and there is an air of regularity
+and neatness in the place which distinguishes it from every
+other town in this province.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span></p>
+
+<p>Unhappily, lack of railway communication kept the
+town back, but within the past few years Liverpool is
+with great strides overtaking competitors. There are now
+a fine water and electric light service, first-class hotels,
+electric marine slip and shipyards, a foundry, machine-shop,
+and corn-mill.</p>
+
+<p>The river Mersey is a rapid stream with numerous falls
+for nineteen and one-half miles from “Indian Garden” to
+Liverpool. A lake system of fifty square miles supplies
+the river, and when properly developed will make Milton
+and Liverpool cheap and popular manufacturing centres.</p>
+
+<p>The canoe trip through the lakes and rivers hereabouts
+is well worth taking. The grounds of the old
+fort are now a public park. But the old block-house
+has vanished here as it has from Annapolis, and some
+forty cannon of early George <abbr title="the third">III</abbr>. type are used for street
+corner posts.</p>
+
+<p>With its lighthouse and cannon, turf, seats, and shade,
+and magnificent outlook over the harbour, Liverpool Fort
+is a most agreeable lounging place, and a romantic terminus
+to Liverpool’s street of bright shops, public buildings, and
+neat residences. The Fort was actually captured in 1780
+by an unexpected night attack led by a Yankee named
+Benjamin Cole. “The townsmen,” one reads, “were
+inclined to think resistance useless, but Colonel Simeon
+Perkins (the ‘man of the time’ in Liverpool) arranged
+for the capture of Cole on his way through the town,
+and with him safely in hand was enabled to dictate to
+the enemy most favourable terms of redress, capitulation,
+and retreat. So ended the <em>Siege of Liverpool</em>.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span></p>
+
+<p>Close to the Fort is a picturesque little cove, where
+shipbuilding is still carried on, and where a group of
+old houses still remain, including the Customs House.</p>
+
+<p>To-day, besides the fishery, the great resource of the
+town is the sawing and export of timber, surrounded as
+it is by almost inexhaustible forests. Large quantities of
+wood-pulp are also produced here. Altogether Liverpool
+to-day is a busy, pleasant little town, whose prosperity and
+whose prospects have been vastly increased by the advent
+of the Halifax and South-Western Railway a few years ago.</p>
+
+<p>Connected with the lumber industry, the prominence
+now attained by pulp-wood and wood-pulp deserves a
+word. Owing to the increased demand made by the
+paper mills of America for raw materials, and the decreasing
+supply of home-grown wood, for the year ending
+30th June 1910, the States imported from Canada
+897,226 cords of pulp-wood, valued at $5,660,542.00,
+and of mechanical, chemical, bleached, and unbleached
+wood-pulp to the value of $4,224,500.00, an importation
+from Canada of pulp-wood and wood-pulp of $9,885,042.00,
+as against a total importation of $5000 in 1880.</p>
+
+<p>The total quantity of pulp-wood consumed by the
+253 paper mills of the States during 1910 was 4,002,000
+cords, valued at $34,478,000.00, of which, according to
+the figures given above, Canada furnished more than
+one-fifth in quantity and one-sixth in value.</p>
+
+<p>Nova Scotia, as well as New Brunswick, possesses large
+pulp-wood areas and excellent water-power; would it not
+seem that an attractive field was open either to Nova
+Scotian or British capitalists?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span></p>
+
+<p>The wise policy of the Government in withdrawing
+from sale the remaining Crown Lands of the Province,
+estimated at about one and one half millions of acres,
+should, under proper regulations, give the country a
+valuable reserve.<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
+
+<p>In addition to these shipments, which were composed
+largely of deal, there were exports of laths, shingles, piling,
+and some square timber hardwood, together with the
+quantity used locally, which of course largely augmented
+the value of the total export.</p>
+
+<p>Spruce is the staple lumber tree of Nova Scotia. Prices
+for this wood have not declined or indeed fluctuated during
+the last two years as much as some other native woods,
+notably hemlock and pine.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">[18]</a> The following table shows the exports of lumber from the ports of
+Nova Scotia in 1911:—</p>
+
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td></td>
+<td class="tdc1">Feet</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Halifax.</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">43,000,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Lunenburg.</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">48,269,113</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Bear River.</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">3,500,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Pugwash.</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">19,204,020</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Liverpool.</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">5,954,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Maitland.</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">5,147,744</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Pictou.</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">12,227,164</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Sherbrooke.</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">4,500,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Weymouth.</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">12,000,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Ingram Docks.</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">13,597,452</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Yarmouth.</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">9,000,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Colchester.</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">70,000,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Windsor.</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">12,000,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Hantsport.</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">4,500,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Walton.</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">1,200,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Cheverie.</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">200,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Parrsboro.</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">32,000,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td></td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">————</td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="tdl">Total</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">214,368,493</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>An addition to the output of spruce, hemlock, and pine,<span
+class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span> which figures so largely as
+the product of the portable and stationary mills for export, consists
+in the cutting of “ton-timber”—hardwoods for English and South American
+markets, of which about 12,000 tons are taken out of Colchester woods.
+This variety is cut and hewed square with axes, and is brought to the
+shipping points when sledging is good.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Very little hardwood finds its way to the saw-mills for
+export as deals or planks. Then there is the cutting of
+poplar for the manufacture of excelsior; of birch and ash,
+and beech and elm, for the manufacture of chairs and
+furniture; of yellow birch for the manufacture of spring-bed
+frames and peg wood; and of white birch for the
+making of spool wood, the latter being produced mostly in
+the Stewiackes. Finally, there is a cut of juniper and
+hackmatack, and other woods of no mean proportions used
+for railway ties and pit props.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">BRIDGEWATER AND LUNENBURG</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Yet</span> the Blue-nose is first and foremost a fisherman.</p>
+
+<p>When all is said of Nova Scotia’s varied resources of
+farm and factory, and mine and forest, there is still to be told
+the tale garnished with adventure of the great and abiding
+interest of the peninsula and the island—the Nova Scotian
+fisheries. Of a total population of half a million souls in
+this province, over 40,000 men are engaged in the fisheries.
+This will seem a stupendous and utterly unreasonable proportion
+until I explain that the occupations of fisherman
+and farmer, fisherman and forester, even fisherman and
+miner, overlap in many districts, giving rise to a curious
+combination of characteristics in the same individual, which
+I had previously noticed amongst the fishermen-miners-farmers
+of Newfoundland.</p>
+
+<p>The sea-coast of the Maritime Provinces from the Bay
+of Fundy to the strait of Belle Isle measures some 5600
+miles, or about double that of the United Kingdom. In
+this magnificent fishing field the Nova Scotian is lord paramount,
+although others have at various times sought to
+share them with him.</p>
+
+<p>The total fisheries of Canada, the largest in the world,
+are valued to-day at $25,500,000, of which Nova Scotia’s
+share is $7,632,330, or nearly one-third of the whole. All<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span>
+along this extensive sea-coast, in the bays, and harbours, and
+inlets from Cape North to Cape Sable, for generations boats
+have been putting out, manned by hardy stalwart men who
+go to brave the perils of the deep, and there are many perils
+in these latitudes, besides much cold and privation, in order
+to reap a harvest of cod, lobster, mackerel, haddock, and
+herring.<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p>
+
+<p>Besides manning their own craft, the Nova Scotians, like
+the Newfoundlander, mans the vessels of other countries,
+especially American and British. The bulk of the product
+goes to America, although for nearly a century an
+important market has been found in the West Indies and
+South America, while the trade with Great Britain, France,
+Italy, Germany, and Portugal is increasing annually.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">[19]</a> The following table shows the number of men reported as employed
+in the fisheries of Nova Scotia, and the value of boats and fishing material
+for the year 1910-11:—</p>
+
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+   <td class="tdc"><span class="allsmcap">Number.</span></td>
+  <td class="tdc"><span class="allsmcap">Value.</span></td>
+  </tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Vessels (tons, 19,657)</td>
+  <td class="total">630</td>
+  <td class="total">$891,710</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Boats (gasolene)</td>
+  <td class="total">1,466]</td>
+  <td></td>
+  </tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Boats(sail)</td>
+  <td class="total">12,655}</td>
+  <td class="total">=781,724</td>
+  </tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Tugs and smacks</td>
+  <td class="total">164</td>
+  <td class="total">193,730</td>
+  </tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Gill nets </td>
+  <td class="total">(1,682,522 fathoms)</td>
+  <td class="total">555,374</td>
+  </tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Seines</td>
+  <td class="total">(170,809 fathoms)</td>
+  <td class="total">170,375</td>
+  </tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Trap and smelt nets</td>
+  <td class="total">1,186</td>
+  <td class="total">119,276</td>
+  </tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Weirs</td>
+  <td class="total">144</td>
+  <td class="total">25,145</td>
+  </tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Trawls</td>
+  <td class="total">13,763</td>
+  <td class="total">133,848</td>
+  </tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Hand lines</td>
+  <td class="total">43,900</td>
+  <td class="total">32,936</td>
+  </tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Lobster canneries</td>
+  <td class="total">214</td>
+  <td class="total">226,780</td>
+  </tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Lobster traps</td>
+  <td class="total">720,577</td>
+  <td class="total">606,851</td>
+  </tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Freezer and ice houses</td>
+  <td class="total">345</td>
+  <td class="total">321,040</td>
+  </tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Smoke and fish houses</td>
+  <td class="total">5,705</td>
+  <td class="total">488,203</td>
+  </tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Piers and wharves</td>
+  <td class="total">2,326</td>
+  <td class="total">787,100</td>
+  </tr><tr>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">————</td>
+  <td class="total">————</td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="tdl">Total</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="total">$5,334,083</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span></p>
+
+<p>Under the proposed Reciprocity Agreement with the
+United States the fishing industry of the Province would
+have been vitally affected, to Nova Scotia’s advantage.</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">“I’m off to the Bank fishery</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">From my farm at Port Matoon,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Where my little lass awaits me,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">And I can’t get back too soon.”</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Schooners of about 100 tons burden carry off the men
+to the Bank fishery. When they reach the Banks—those
+great marine plateaux frequented by inexhaustible shoals
+of cod, the fishermen separate into dories, six to ten of
+which accompany each schooner. From each dory, which
+is about 15 feet long, two men, six trawls of say, 4000
+hooks, making a total of about 40,000 hooks to a vessel.
+Far smaller crafts are in use, however, for the inshore
+fishery. One can see these boats, of from 20 to 60
+feet over all, and manned by from two to ten men, at
+any port, using the dory and trawl, or the hand-line.
+But the familiar British otter trawl is not seen here at
+all, and trawls of any description are illegal in Canadian
+territorial waters.</p>
+
+<p>Mackerel and herring are captured in nets moored near
+the shore. One sees little of drift-net fishing, although it
+is occasionally practised.</p>
+
+<p>In the opinion of fishing experts the herring hereabouts
+are not only more abundant, but are a larger and
+better fish than those off the British coasts. Then there
+is the inland fishery, which yields chiefly smelts, salmon,
+trout, and eels, large quantities of which are sent in cold<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span>
+storage to all parts of Canada and America, a trade which
+offers great possibilities of expansion. This remark is
+true of the whole fishery—both in the actual catch and
+in the distribution. Improved methods are wanted, which
+means that more technical knowledge and more capital
+are wanted. A more progressive system is already here
+and there in operation. The employment of gasolene
+motor boats for inshore fishing makes the fishermen more
+independent of the weather, and hundreds of their boats
+may now be seen off the south-west shore.</p>
+
+<p>Enormous numbers of lobsters are caught and canned,
+and exported by two hundred and twenty canning factories
+scattered up and down the coast. Their sale to the
+packers means the distribution of a great deal of cash
+among the fishermen of Western Nova Scotia, frequently
+running into hundreds of thousands of dollars. But in
+spite of all that is done, I find a general feeling that much
+more could be done in the way of catching and curing
+according to those scientific principles which prevail in
+Norway and Denmark, and also in the shipments of living
+lobsters to the States.</p>
+
+<p>Few are aware that only in these Maritime Provinces
+of Canada and Newfoundland are lobsters procurable in
+sufficient quantities to make canning profitable. The
+catches of Norway, Scotland, Ireland, and America are
+not sufficient to supply the demands of the consumers
+for lobsters in the shell. Unhappily it cannot be said
+that the lobster industry as regards hatching, conservation,
+and canning is placed here on a very sound footing. In
+fact, unless a new style is adopted the lobster will be a
+diminishing crustacean.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span></p>
+
+<p>A year or two ago at Ottawa, a Fishery Committee of
+the House of Commons was formed, and fishermen and
+packers from various sections of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
+and Prince Edward Island were summoned to Ottawa
+to give evidence, but little practical resulted.</p>
+
+<p>While the catch of lobsters in the United States is not
+more than ten per cent. of the total catch of the world
+(Canada enjoys a catch fully eight times as great), the
+Fisheries Department of the States of Maine and Massachusetts
+have spent a very considerable sum in an effort
+to restore and restock their depleted waters with lobsters.
+The Dominion Marine and Fisheries Department, which is
+responsible for the care of the lobster fishery, have not expended
+nearly as much as they have in these two American
+States.</p>
+
+<p>This condition ought to be changed if the permanence
+of a most productive branch of the fisheries of Eastern
+Canada is to be guaranteed.</p>
+
+<p>Happily, the lobster catch last year was very successful
+to the fishermen and packers alike, and by the present
+regulations, whereby during a long close season the fishing
+is absolutely prohibited, the lobsters are protected and
+given a reasonable opportunity of natural propagation.</p>
+
+<p>The oyster is little cultivated, and yet it is claimed
+for Nova Scotia that she has a larger cultivable area for
+oyster beds than many districts where it is a source of great
+profit, as for instance, Maryland, where as much as ten
+million bushels of bivalves have been extracted. Here a
+few thousand bushels are all that is forthcoming.</p>
+
+<p>The truth is, the fisheries of Nova Scotia are only
+partially occupied, and are an inviting field for the investment<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span>
+of capital in enterprising hands. With its unexcelled
+position, with a population of as hardy and courageous
+men as are to be found anywhere, there is no reason why
+Nova Scotia in its fisheries should not rank even higher
+in point of production than it does now.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of oysters suggests pearls, and I was not
+surprised to hear that in the scallop oysters on these
+shores are found pearls of a fair quality. Numbers of
+the scallops may be found in Chester Basin, Lunenberg
+country, which, if collected in the right season, might be
+valuable and give employment to many in collecting and
+working. Several samples of pearl I saw seemed to me
+to compare favourably with those imported from abroad,
+and no doubt the scallop contains many valuable gems.
+Who knows, therefore, but that the pearl fishery may
+yet be carried on here in Nova Scotia as profitably as
+it is elsewhere?</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-184">
+<img src="images/i-184.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="490">
+<p class="center smcap">A New Scotland Idyll—in the Annapolis Valley.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>Bridgewater is one of the most perfect towns in New
+Scotland, beautifully situated on a river bluff, picturesquely
+environed, well built, with an enterprising corporate spirit,
+and inhabited by a cheerful, unpretending people. It is
+within easy reach of both sea and forest, and it is the
+headquarters of both the railway and of a large timber-carrying
+fleet, which visits many of the distant ports of
+the world. I shall not easily forget the view that burst
+upon me as I set foot upon the first span of the bridge
+that crosses the La Hêve River coming from the railway
+station, the tree-clad banks to right and left, with the
+verdure fading into the grey purple of the distant clouds,
+the white sails of the ships shot with sunlight, the broad,
+clear, swift-flowing stream; and, facing me, the colour and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span>
+brightness of the town itself, three or four streets running
+parallel to the river, the first containing all the shops, each
+street rising high above the other, and the last on the sky-line.
+There was movement, but no hurry. Pretty girls,
+carrying school-books, moved along, dissolved in rippling
+laughter. Teams drawn by great red oxen coursed leisurely
+to and fro, directed by cheerful teamsters. And above all
+the intensely yellow sunlight poured down, making rich
+heaps of shadow; and the air, redolent of the pine groves,
+pressed southward in warm and scented volumes, seeking
+the sea. It was good.</p>
+
+<p>My luggage went on by omnibus, and I made way to
+Clark’s Hotel on foot. Here is an inn after my heart—after
+the heart of any traveller. Perched high on the Street
+of the Third Parallel, it was once a commodious private
+dwelling, with steep steps and the usual verandah in front.
+A hedge of English hawthorn encircles it, and high planes
+and maples cast their shade about lawn and verandah.
+Within, an air of cosiness pervades; all is spotlessly
+clean, and trim and active maid-servants cheerfully attend
+to the traveller’s needs. The food is good of its kind and
+tastefully prepared, and it needs but a little to make this
+inn perfect, and that little will never be supplied until the
+travellers themselves learn how to behave themselves—to
+learn, for instance, that in order to smoke it is not
+necessary to excrete saliva, and that one of the uses of a
+hotel is not that of a lounging-place for local idlers.
+These latter are the pests of hotels throughout the Continent,
+making an inn occasionally insufferable for the real
+sojourner.</p>
+
+<p>Bridgewater has a population of over 3000, and is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span>
+steadily increasing in size and importance. It is the centre
+of trade for a fertile farming county, and has considerable
+manufacturing and commercial interests; well-built public
+buildings, particularly its brown stone Post Office and
+Customs House, and several golf, tennis, and yachting
+clubs. But Bridgewater will always be memorable to me
+because of what was the most interesting incident of my
+travels through Nova Scotia. It was here I met the
+members of the Royal Commission appointed at Ottawa to
+inquire into Technical Education. I should like particularly
+to direct the attention of the British reader to this fact—a
+<em>Royal</em> Commission appointed by His Majesty’s Government,
+not at London, but—at Ottawa. How this British
+Empire of ours has marched! Would not Haliburton and
+Howe have pinched themselves to make sure they were
+awake upon hearing His Majesty’s Commission (duly
+drawn up by His Majesty’s Canadian Ministers) read,
+beginning “George the Fifth, by the Grace of God,”
+&amp;c. It only needed “King of Canada, Newfoundland,
+and the West Indies” more clearly to adumbrate the
+idea. Here was King George <abbr title="the third">III</abbr>.’s great-grandson pronouncing
+his Sovereign will and pleasure upon the advice
+of His Majesty’s constitutional advisers, not Mr. Asquith,
+Sir Edward Grey, and Mr. Lloyd George, but the members
+of the Cabinet at Ottawa. A group of gentlemen constituting
+this Royal Commission sat upon the platform. One
+hailed from Manitoba, two from Ontario, one from Quebec,
+one from Nova Scotia. Before them witnesses resident in the
+district were duly sworn, that they would tender the truth,
+the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help them<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span>
+God; and forthwith proceeded to give evidence as to the
+industrial conditions of Bridgewater.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the close of the proceedings something
+dramatic happened. A little, old, white-haired, rosy-cheeked
+man arose and declared modestly that his name
+was John Macoun, the official botanist of the Dominion
+of Canada. And people stood and craned their necks,
+and asked what was it he said, and how it was they had
+never known this Professor Macoun was in Bridgewater
+before, and why was it the Mayor and the rest hadn’t met
+him at the railway station with the others and driven him
+round the town.</p>
+
+<p>“Where do you reside at present, Professor Macoun?”</p>
+
+<p>“At Bridgewater,” said the old, rosy-cheeked gentleman.
+“I have been for some months conducting an investigation
+into the flora of the district, with a view to ascertaining its
+botanical possibilities, the arable nature of the soil, and its
+adaptability to other vegetable production.”</p>
+
+<p>Then, in truth, the folk of Bridgewater stared this time
+at one another. Here was this man, filling a very important
+position indeed in an agricultural country like Canada,
+dwelling quietly in the midst of their small town, not
+alone, but with his wife and assistants, pursuing his work,
+gathering his collections of flora, compiling in a specially-rented
+building his extensive <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">hortus siccus</i>, and not a soul
+of them the wiser.</p>
+
+<p>“<em>I believe in technical education, because it means
+thoroughness, and thoroughness means that a man knows his
+work. I am the man who forty years ago told the Canadian
+Government that wheat would grow in the North West.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span>
+Every one was against me. I was threatened and reviled,
+and held up to ridicule. All the forces of prejudice and tradition
+were brought to bear upon my official report. I was
+told I was mad. But I held in this right hand earth whose
+constituent particles I recognised. I had studied them grain
+by grain, and I knew if they would produce wheat in Ontario,
+they would yield wheat in the Red River country; and I said
+that that country, where not a single bushel of wheat was grown,
+would produce fifty million bushels a year. Last year it produced
+a hundred millions, and I thank God I have lived
+to see it. And if you Nova Scotians would only listen and
+have equal faith in your own country, it could be made ten
+times richer and more fruitful than it is to-day.</em>”</p>
+
+<p>That is all. The Professor sat down. Anything that
+happened after that it would be bathos to describe.</p>
+
+<p>Lunenburg, on the south shore, was settled in 1751 by
+Hanoverian immigrants, and still largely retains its German
+character. The settlement was under the protection of
+King George <abbr title="the second">II</abbr>., who was also ruler of Hanover. The old
+German speech has not yet died out amongst them, although
+I heard one inhabitant deploring that the last fount of
+German type had been melted down, and for some years no
+German periodical had been printed. Famous fishermen
+are the Lunenburg folk; there is much lumbering, and
+some farming. One notices a reminder of old Germany in
+the ox-teams, curiously yoked together by the horns.</p>
+
+<p>Mahone was once a popular rendezvous for pirates.
+Their long crouching crafts were so often harboured there
+that the early French settlers dubbed the bay “Mahonne,”
+an old French term for a low-lying boat. Later the name<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span>
+was anglicised, and extended to the town which snuggles
+at the head of the bay, half-hidden by encircling hills.
+From the tops of the hills the old-time beacons blazed a
+message of distress or a flash of warning to the neighbouring
+settlements when the Indians trod the war trail.</p>
+
+<p>Now the beacon sites are vantage points for viewing the
+glorious stretch of island-studded bay below. Shaggy, uncombed
+pines surmount the hillsides, and charge the air
+with revivifying odour.</p>
+
+<p>Chester is a popular summer resort for Haligonians,
+whose charmingly wooded hills, now so redolent of peace,
+were once the rendezvous of pirates; notably, so tradition
+says, of that estimable scoundrel, Captain Kyd. The Oak
+Island Money Pit, within easy sighting distance of the
+Hackmatack Inn porch, is a tantalising memorial of piracy
+on the Spanish Main. A million dollars have been spent
+by joint stock companies trying to dam out the Atlantic
+and pump the Pit dry; but the treasure is still uncovered,
+and doubtless will always be hidden—a source of mystery
+and romance to many visitors. The bay, flanked by long,
+sprawling hills, and protected at its mouth by a barrier of
+rocky islands, is a beautiful stretch of water, twenty miles
+long and twelve miles wide. Both bay and shoreline are
+littered with points of interest. The names alone are a
+delight—Oak Island, Murderer’s Point, Heckman’s Island,
+Hobson’s Nose, The Ovens, Mount Aspogotan, Ironbound
+Island, and The Tancooks. How R. L. Stevenson would
+have revelled in them!</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">ON THE GOVERNMENT’S FARM</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">To me</span> Truro had a twofold interest. The first was that
+it was the chief scene of the propaganda of that extraordinary
+Irishman, Colonel M’Nutt, who figures so largely
+in that Romance of Emigration which some day I am
+going to write; and it is the theatre of that admirable new
+institution, new, so far as New Scotland is concerned, the
+Agricultural College and Government Experimental Farm.</p>
+
+<p>After spending some days on this farm, I make bold
+to say that, in the hands of the zealous and energetic
+Professor Cumming, it is the best thing I saw in New
+Scotland, and, considering everything, one of the most
+perfect institutions of its kind on earth.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-192">
+<img src="images/i-192.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="594">
+<p class="center smcap">Main Hall—Nova Scotia Agricultural College.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>What a great advantage it is to come late! You
+benefit by the mistakes and the achievements of your forerunners.
+That is why, to take an instance at random,
+Budapest in the domain of hospital and urban sanitation is
+so superior to London. The Hungarians were thousands
+of miles behind the times a decade or two ago; when
+they decided to go ahead they were untrammelled by
+customs, habits, systems, and expensive old plants. From
+having nothing at all they acquired the best, the latest
+appliances of science. For generations Nova Scotia has
+been tinkering at agriculture. The soil of the province<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span>
+is so varied that the early pioneers did not know what to
+make of it. What would suit one part was hopeless in
+another. Instead of settling down, farmers migrated from
+one district, from one country to another. Some who sold
+their farms profited, others, who for want of application
+and also for want of knowledge, fared worse, until it was
+difficult for a stranger to ascertain with any sort of precision
+just what were the agricultural possibilities of the
+Province. Ninety years ago an enthusiastic agriculturist,
+John Young, published a remarkable series of letters under
+the <em>nom de plume</em> of “Agricola,” in which he gathered
+together all the current English ideas on the subject of
+scientific farming, and earnestly urged their adoption by
+his fellow-countrymen. These letters of Agricola in book
+form attracted wide attention. Young did more: he set
+about the forming and consolidation of agricultural societies
+throughout Nova Scotia, at which prizes were offered
+for stock cereals and vegetables, and for a time agriculture
+undoubtedly benefited. But many causes, external and internal,
+conspired to render farming in Nova Scotia a far
+less prosperous undertaking than it deserved to be. The
+constant exodus of the young men from the farms was a
+serious handicap; so was the exclusion of produce from
+the American markets, the remoteness of some possible
+markets, and the scantiness of others nearer home. But
+still the great obstacle to success was want of knowledge
+and want of method.</p>
+
+<p>Some twenty-one years ago there was organised in the
+Province of Nova Scotia an Agricultural School, which
+achieved some excellent work, but which, owing to the lack<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span>
+of equipment, did not make the impression which might
+have been made had the institution been dealt with in a
+more generous manner. There was also carried on from
+the year 1896 a School of Horticulture at Wolfeville, which,
+like its sister institution in Truro, was carried on a rather
+too modest scale. However, after studying the institution
+at Guelph, and consulting with the professors at that institution,
+and with Dr. James Robertson, then Dominion
+Commissioner for Agriculture, the Government of Nova
+Scotia decided to incorporate these two institutions into one
+Agricultural College. This institution was formally opened
+in February 1905, under the principalship of Mr. Melville
+Cumming, a native of Nova Scotia, and a graduate of
+Dalhousie University, Halifax, and of the Ontario Agricultural
+College at Guelph. The faculty was composed of the
+Principal of the old School of Agriculture, the Principal of
+the School of Horticulture, the Superintendent of the
+Provincial Government Farm, together with lecturers from
+the Provincial Normal School, with which institution the
+College is affiliated. In addition, the service of some of
+the leading men at Guelph and Ottawa have, from time to
+time, been secured, especially to assist in the short courses.
+Beginning with an enrolment in the regular course of
+fifteen students, and in the short courses of sixty-eight,
+the College has in these years advanced to an enrolment
+of seventy-seven in the full course, and three hundred and
+forty-two students in the short course, and this, it must be
+remembered, in a constituency scarcely one-tenth larger than
+that from which the Ontario Agricultural College draws
+its pupils. While the College is primarily a Nova Scotian<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span>
+institution, yet its doors are thrown open to students from
+all the Maritime Provinces, the opportunity being taken
+advantage of by the young farmers of Prince Edward Island
+and New Brunswick to the extent of sixteen and twenty-one
+students respectively. It is, moreover, the hope of
+those who are most interested in the institution that it
+shall become, in name as well as in fact, the Maritime
+College of Agriculture.</p>
+
+<p>The College was purposely located in the same town,
+Truro, as the Provincial Normal School, in order that the
+teaching staff at the latter institution might come in
+contact with the technical teaching of agriculture, and that,
+in turn, the agricultural students might profit from the
+literary and scientific teaching of the members of the
+Normal School faculty. As a further effort at affiliation
+of the forces of these institutions, for the purpose of improving
+conditions in the rural schools, there is held each
+summer during the school vacation a School of Science,
+classes of which are held at the Agricultural College
+building, the instructors being composed of men from
+the faculties of these institutions, assisted by some of the
+leading men engaged in scientific teaching in Canada. The
+importance of this affiliation can scarcely be overestimated,
+for, unless the College is in close touch with the rural
+schools, and unless the scholars at these schools are directed
+towards the College, neither can prove as effective in bettering
+rural conditions as it is desirable for them to be.</p>
+
+<p>The equipment of the College is much the same,
+although not as extensive, as is to be seen at Guelph and
+other centres of agricultural education. However, under<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span>
+the conditions described above, it is only natural that the
+outstanding feature of the institution should be its live
+stock equipment. In the stables on the College Farm, and,
+in some cases, in stables in other parts of the Province, but
+owned by the College, are to be found one of the finest
+collections of live stock which has been gathered together in
+any part of the Dominion, There are herds of Holsteins,
+Ayrshires, Jerseys, Shorthorns, and Herefords, composed of
+outstanding individuals, and headed by some of the best
+sires to be found in Canada. The Holstein herd of cows
+averaged last year 13,500 pounds of milk.</p>
+
+<p>In the horse stables are to be found animals of famous
+lineage and splendid specimens of their breed. There are
+seven pure bred Clydesdale mares, three having been extensive
+prize-winners in Scotland. The College at present
+owns three Clydesdale stallions.</p>
+
+<p>Equal attention has been paid to the selection of swine
+and poultry, so that, taken altogether, the live stock
+equipment at the College is such as to afford splendid
+ideas for the students in attendance, and also to effect
+improvement in the general character of the stock of the
+Province.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-197">
+<img src="images/i-197.jpg" alt="" width="498" height="850">
+<p class="center smcap">At Kingsport.</p>
+<p class="center smcap">“Calling” a Moose.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>“Each Province in Canada,” observed Professor Cumming
+to me, “has its own peculiar agricultural conditions and
+problems, and before one can pronounce judgment upon
+the degree of progress which each has made, he must
+understand the special conditions under which the people
+have been working.” Nova Scotia, as has been said, is a
+province of varied resources, in the forests, the seas, and the
+mines. While these various natural resources have added<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span>
+largely to the wealth of the Province, yet their presence
+cannot be termed an unmitigated blessing. There is a
+tendency for the people to direct their energies in too many
+avenues of employment, and a corresponding lack of continuity,
+especially in methods of agriculture. There are
+exceptions, for example in the fruit-growing counties and
+in local areas in various parts, where the people have
+adhered strictly to agriculture. But there are thousands
+enrolled in the census as farmers who have little more right
+to be included in that class than has the porter in an office
+to be called a lawyer or a doctor. As, however, the forests
+are increasing, and the pursuit of the sea and mines are
+becoming more specialised, those who are living on the
+lands are taking a greater interest in the subject of agriculture,
+and are seeking such information which will help
+them to improve their conditions.</p>
+
+<p>One great enemy of agriculture in New Scotland is the
+natural tendency of the farmer’s sons to migrate to the
+south or the west. The proximity and easy accessibility of
+Boston and other large American cities was long irresistible,
+just as London and England allured the youth of Old
+Scotland. But the trend of western immigration must
+sometime cease, and life in American cities is proving less
+lucrative than of yore, the result being a marked tendency
+on the part of the young men of the Province to devote
+themselves to farming.</p>
+
+<p>The type of farming long favoured in Nova Scotia was
+that which minimised the amount of labour required, except
+at those seasons of the year when seeds must be sown and
+harvests reaped. As a consequence, one saw herds of live<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span>
+stock, too small in numbers, often of inferior quality, and
+still more indifferently kept. The selling of hay and oats,
+and roots of all kinds, was found an easier solution of the
+difficulties of farming than raising live stock, and the selling
+of butter, and cream, and milk, beef, eggs, and other animal
+products. Many an impoverished field and many a run-out
+farm still greets the traveller, robbed of its virgin wealth of
+humus, and of the elements of plant food. The cure for
+this is live stock and live stock alone, and this is the gospel
+which Professor Cumming is preaching.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, in the fruit areas of Hants, King’s, and
+Annapolis counties, this want is not so keenly felt. Green
+crops, like clover, peas, and vetches, are grown and ploughed
+under to supply humus with which to improve the physical
+condition, and nitrogen with which to increase the plant
+food of the soil, on which the apples, and plums, and other
+fruits are grown. But even here more live stock is a
+necessity.</p>
+
+<p>For the development of a high type of agriculture
+Nova Scotia offers most favourable conditions. About the
+only drawback, as compared with the inland parts of Canada,
+is a somewhat protracted spring, a drawback which frequent
+showers of rain and moist conditions natural to any maritime
+province, largely mitigate. Live stock, when properly
+cared for, flourishes to an unusual degree, and the markets
+for all kinds of agriculture produce are not only unusually
+good but easily accessible—so easy of access, in fact, as to
+have oft-times prevented successful co-operation, especially
+in butter and cheese making. For when a farmer can find
+within a few miles of his door a population of miners who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span>
+will buy his products and pay him cash on delivery, he is
+often discouraged if he has to wait for a little longer to
+receive his returns from a creamery. The result of this has
+been to promote private dairying and private marketing of
+all sorts of produce at the expense of the more desirable,
+and, in the end, more profitable system of co-operative
+manufacture and marketing.</p>
+
+<p>Dairying might well prosper here. Pastures, when properly
+cared for, are good and well watered, cows do well
+under the moist, humid conditions which prevail, and
+should the local market for dairy products ever become
+over-supplied, no province has easier access to the markets
+of the outside world. Beef cattle, too, have their place,
+especially in proximity to the large tracts of inexhaustibly
+fertile dike marsh lands, lining the headwaters of the
+Bay of Fundy and its river tributaries. There are also
+isolated river valleys where cheap pastures afford the means
+of raising beef at a minimum cost. Sheep find the land
+most congenial, and when well bred and cared for, the
+sheep of Nova Scotia will rival those of any other part
+of Canada. But for more than one reason sheep-raising
+has not been sufficiently exploited, although according to
+the census of 1907 it has made more progress during
+the past half decade than the forty years previously.</p>
+
+<p>Horses, and swine, and poultry, as might also be expected,
+have their place in Nova Scotian agriculture, and, under
+efficient treatment, will give as good an account of
+themselves as in Ontario or any of the older provinces
+of Canada.</p>
+
+<p>In the matter of crops New Scotland is peculiarly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span>
+adapted to the production of hay and roots. The large
+marsh and interval areas produce heavy crops of hay, and
+nowhere in America can one see finer fields of turnips
+than on some of these maritime farms. In a recent
+bulletin issued by the Department of Agriculture on
+“Root-Growing in Nova Scotia,” there are recorded replies
+from twenty-five representative farmers living in various
+parts of the Province, from whose records it appears that
+the minimum yield of roots per acre for the last year
+was 600 bushels, with a maximum of 1200 bushels, and
+an average of 864 bushels. Despite, however, the splendid
+facilities for growing roots, many farmers, because of the
+reasons already hinted at, devote little or none of their
+acreage to this most profitable crop. Although there are
+exceptions, yet, for the most part, the cereal crops do not
+flourish to quite the same degree as further inland, and corn,
+whether grown for ears or ensilage, is generally an uncertain
+crop. The Federal Department has already in operation
+an extensive experimental farm, operated for the benefit
+of the Maritime Provinces, at Nappan, N.S. Truro,
+labouring under the disadvantage of being outside of the
+so-called fruit-growing areas, will have its work well supplemented
+by the establishment of this station.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to that which is carried on within the
+College ground, a strong effort is being made to promote
+College extension work. Recently one hundred of the
+leading farmers of the Province, together with representative
+men from the adjoining Provinces, co-operated
+with the College authorities in testing varieties of grain,
+grown singly and in mixture, and also in testing nitro-bacteria<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span>
+for various leguminous crops. This latter line of
+investigation has already been carried on for three years,
+and has been productive of some striking results.</p>
+
+<p>An extensive series of institute meetings, addressed
+by members of the College staff, successful farmers in Nova
+Scotia, and some of the Ontario men, are regularly carried
+on. There is a Farmers’ Association, which holds a three-days’
+annual meeting in different parts of the Province, and
+a Fruit-Growers’ Association, which holds regular meetings
+in the fruit sections of the Province. In addition, each
+county, with a few exceptions, has a regularly organised
+County Farmers’ Association, whose object it is to promote
+the educational campaign, and to deliberate upon matters
+of common interests.</p>
+
+<p>But perhaps the most aggressive and successful body
+of organised farmers is constituted in the agricultural
+societies, of which there are 200, situated all over the
+Province. Under the auspices of the various agricultural
+societies and associations of the Province, the various
+members of the Agricultural College staff lecture and give
+demonstrations on improved agriculture. Co-operative
+experiments in crops, methods of cultivation, fertilisation,
+and soil inoculation are being directed from the College.
+A series of model orchards, thirty-five in number, have
+been established in the various counties of the Province,
+from Cape Breton in the east to Yarmouth in the west,
+and are under the direct supervision of the horticulturist
+at the College. Insect and fungus pests, such as the
+brown-tailed moth, are being studied and kept in control
+through the efforts of the biologist and other members<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span>
+of the College faculty. The principal object for which
+these agricultural societies exist is the improvement of live
+stock. Each society keeps from one to sometimes six or
+more pure-bred bulls. These societies are bonused by the
+Government to the extent, during the present year, of
+76 cents for each dollar subscribed by the members of these
+societies. Now new lines of work are opening up, of which
+perhaps the most interesting is the campaign which is being
+organised to encourage the more extensive draining of farm
+lands.</p>
+
+<p>Authorities who have studied the matter carefully are
+convinced that money judiciously invested in the under-drainage
+of farm lands will return from 15 to 50 per cent.
+or more per annum on the investment. Many of our
+own best farmers already know this from experience; but
+there are a great many farms in the Province of Nova
+Scotia sadly in need of drainage, which are to-day yielding
+unprofitable crops because they have not been drained.
+With a view to encouraging the under-drainage of these
+lands, the College, I was told, are about to supply at a
+nominal cost men who will survey and take levels of fields
+which it is purposed to drain, and give advice in regard
+to the most efficient means of doing this. To further
+facilitate the matter, the College has bought, at the cost of
+several thousand dollars, the most improved drainage machine
+that is to-day on the market. The College authorities are
+constantly on the alert to push forward progressive measures
+of all kinds.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-205">
+<img src="images/i-205.jpg" alt="" width="565" height="800">
+<p class="center smcap">Truro—the “Joe Howe Falls.”</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>During the visit a year or so since of Earl Grey to
+the Agricultural College, the Hon. Sydney Fisher, then<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span>
+Dominion Minister of Agriculture, said that the exhibition
+of live stock which he saw there was the best he had ever
+seen at any of the public institutions in the whole Dominion.
+Mr. Fisher being himself a farmer, and owning one of the
+best live stock farms in the Province of Quebec, no one in
+Canada is more competent to pronounce judgment upon
+such matters. Mr. Fisher further added, “You have taken
+me entirely by surprise, for although Minister of Agriculture
+for Canada, and more or less in touch with its agricultural
+institutions, yet I had not realised that you of the East have
+been advancing as rapidly as I now observe.”</p>
+
+<p>I find I have said nothing of the flourishing town of
+Truro itself—of its shaded streets and pleasant people.
+After all, the Government Farm and Agricultural College
+is its chief title to distinction.</p>
+
+<p>A few miles from Truro, and at the eastern end of the
+Cobequid Mountains, are the chief iron deposits of this port
+of New Scotland. Londonderry reminds us once more of
+the native town of that ubiquitous pioneer, Colonel M’Nutt,
+and from this place a branch railway runs to the Acadia
+mines and iron works. Stages also run to this busy industrial
+centre and to great village Economy and Five Islands. The
+Londonderry iron has been pronounced to be almost equal
+to the Swedish for steel manufacture; the mines yield both
+limonite and spathic ores.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">PICTOU AND NEW GLASGOW</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Old</span> Scotland has no advantage over New Scotland
+in the matter of coal. My first introduction to Nova
+Scotia’s coal was made at Stellarton, in what are called
+the Pictou coal-fields. Coal has been mined hereabouts for
+upwards of a century, and one of the very earliest railways
+on the Continent was that built from the Albion mine to
+Pictou Landing, six miles away. That was in 1836-39.
+The promoters of this miniature line of rail showed considerable
+prescience in building it of a width then considered
+unusual, but which has since come to be the “standard
+gauge.” Stephenson’s rival, Hackworth, built the first
+engine used thereupon for over forty years, and now considered
+a great curiosity. It was shown at the World’s
+Fair, Chicago, and later at St. Louis.</p>
+
+<p>About 1825 an English company received, under certain
+terms from the Crown, the right of working mines and
+minerals in Nova Scotia, and this company shortly thereafter
+commenced spirited operations both at Pictou and at Sydney
+in Cape Breton, restricting themselves to coal-mines and
+iron works from imported material. Previously coal came
+chiefly from surface pits, and was of inferior quality.
+“The principal shaft,” we read in the original prospectus<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span>
+of the company, “has been sunk to the depth of two
+hundred and fifty feet below the surface, and steam power
+has been applied for the usual purposes of draining and of
+raising minerals. The veins of coal laid open by this procedure
+are of a quality much superior to those formerly
+discovered. The coal is overlaid by a decayed blackish
+shale; it is of jet-black colour, and contains a large proportion
+of bitumen. Excellent coke is made from it, and
+for the furnace it is highly esteemed. The Cape Breton coal
+is preferred for household use on account of its producing
+less of the white or brown ashes than that of Pictou.”</p>
+
+<p>The lease was granted to the company for sixty years
+to work all minerals belonging to the Crown, save in such
+tracks as had already been reserved to others. One of these
+was then worked by the Annapolis Iron Company, which
+was in fact the only competitor of the General Mining
+Association. It was then, eighty years ago, observed that
+the mining industry was proving of greater apparent benefit
+to the valley of the East River than upon Pictou Town.
+“Good roads, increase of settlement, numerous waggons
+and horses where none were previously kept, and a market
+well supplied where none formerly existed, are outward and
+visible signs indicative of the neighbourhood of two hundred
+well-paid beef-eating and porter-drinking operatives.”</p>
+
+<p>The result being then foreshadowed, New Glasgow and
+Stellarton sprang into being formidable rivals to Pictou,
+which, from its marine situation, has been almost side-tracked
+by the railway. Other mines flourish in these parts,
+such as the Drummond and Acadia Collieries in Westville,
+and the Vale Colliery at Thorburn. But the character of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span>
+the mines is the same here on this side of the Atlantic as
+that which depressed the soul of John Ruskin and gladdened
+the heart of Samuel Smiles.</p>
+
+<p>Stay! I think this statement required some qualification.
+It would be manifestly unfair not to take notice
+of the system here inaugurated by which so many of the
+miners—nearly all the married ones—own their own homes.
+And there is even an effort, and by the miners themselves,
+that these homes shall be tasteful within and without, and
+that each shall have his garden. Nothing has ever struck
+me so forcibly when perambulating the mining districts of
+the Black Country of Wales as the indifference with which
+men, immured for at least a third of their lives in the
+darksome bowels of the earth, regard the amenities of the
+home and its surroundings of lawn and flower and vine.
+More passionately because of their long deprivation would
+one expect them to cling to the superterrene light and
+colour of life, and the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">res pulchra domi</i>. Far otherwise is it,
+and all the more refreshing to see here a brawny Cornishman
+hurrying from the pit, and after washing the grime from
+his face and hands, employ the remaining hour of daylight
+in rolling his bit of turf and hoeing his patch of flower
+garden. Will a time come, we wonder, when no human
+occupation shall be too strenuous, too sordid, for a man to
+spend his leisured hours in decency and calm. No vain
+visions have I of pitmen and navvies reading Tennyson in
+velvet smoking jackets and slippers, or pit foremen in dress
+clothes sipping port wine; but I do look forward confidently
+to the time, in England, when a man may, without remark,
+boast the domestic virtues and enjoy the higher domestic<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span>
+comfort, even though he engage in an occupation in which
+for so many hours a day the wearing of a white shirt, or of
+any shirt at all, is totally dispensed with. Some steps
+towards the realisation of this I witnessed with my own
+eyes at New Glasgow, where a man who had been broiling
+half-naked before a fiery furnace all day, was at twilight
+seated in cool, clean raiment, in his own little parlour (very
+tastefully furnished, too), playing one of Sousa’s marches
+on a pianola!</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-211">
+<img src="images/i-211.jpg" alt="" width="850" height="590">
+<p class="center smcap">The End of Bruin.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>A thriving town is New Glasgow, and very beautiful
+when viewed from the other side of the East River. Here
+are coal-mines, iron and steel works, shipbuilding yards,
+glassworks, and other industries. Here, two miles from
+the heart of the town, is the headquarters of the Nova
+Scotia Steel and Iron Company, the pioneer steelworks in
+Canada, with open-hearth converters, the latest equipped
+rolling mills, steel hammers, &amp;c., altogether employing
+800 men. On the way thither I passed a cemetery filled
+with the tombs of the early settlers, nearly all Highland
+names, many hailing from Old Glasgow, who would
+probably be very much astonished and highly gratified
+to-day at the prosperity and size of the town they founded.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Cantley, the able manager, told me something
+about the operation of the works for three months of the
+year. Increases had been made in practically every line
+of work in connection with the company, referring by this
+to the coal mined, the coal shipped, and outputs in
+the mills and forges. The increase in the output of
+ingots from 17,508 tons for the first quarter of the previous
+year, to 20,372 tons for the corresponding period of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span>
+the year following, or an increase of practically 19 per cent.;
+an increase in the amount of coal mined of 8 per cent., and
+of coal shipped 20 per cent. Increases were also recorded
+in the forge department, steel department, and in fact in
+practically every department; in addition to that, the most
+important feature was that the average nett prices now
+obtained from steel sales showed an increase of 2.01 dollars
+per ton.</p>
+
+<p>As to the steel tonnage now on the books of the
+company, it amounted to about 15,000 tons, which was
+all he cared to see on the order sheets of the company
+for the present until prices had improved.</p>
+
+<p>The population of New Glasgow is about 6400 souls,
+and an electric tramway connects the town with Stellarton
+and Westville. The islands around the town are particularly
+fine. From Fraser’s Mountain, an eminence
+350 feet high, one may form an excellent idea of the lie
+of the country round about Pictou and Pictou Islands,
+the Strait of Canso as far as Cape St. George, the far
+distant hills of Inverness, even the extremity of Prince
+Edward Island. To the southward the eye meets the
+fertile land dotted with churches and settlements, stretching
+thirty miles away to the mountains of Antigonish.
+In the foreground courses tortuously the glistening East
+River on its way to Pictou and Northumberland Strait.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-216">
+<img src="images/i-216.jpg" alt="" width="850" height="604">
+<p class="center smcap">Pictou—Norway House. (The property of Lord Strathcona.)</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>The town of Pictou is situate upon the north side of
+a capacious harbour, into which three rivers empty, the
+harbour’s mouth being three miles from the town. It is
+certainly very much in its disfavour that in winter the
+basin is closed by ice and is therefore inaccessible between<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span>
+December and April. Pictou was once the second town
+in the Province, to-day it has been left far behind; yet
+it enjoys a peculiar old-world character of its own, and
+is the most Scottish town in all New Scotland. In this
+district the French had made certain settlements before
+the Peace of 1763. On the conquest of New France
+these were deserted, and their farms were again overgrown
+with forest. In 1765 one Doctor Weatherspoon became
+the leading spirit of the Philadelphia Company, and, obtaining
+an extensive grant in the Pictou district, sent hither
+a number of Maryland families. By way of bounty each of
+these received a farm-lot, and a supply of provisions.</p>
+
+<p>Following these came thirty families from the Scottish
+Highlands, who were landed here in the good ship <em>Hector</em>,
+late in 1773, without sufficient food to carry them through
+the winter, with the natural result that they nearly starved,
+many making their way across the forest primeval to the
+Basin of Minas for assistance. But the settlement struggled
+on; it was later joined by further families from Dumfries,
+and gained a great addition to its numbers in 1784, after
+the American Revolution, by the immigration of many
+disbanded troopers, who, however, being rather wild and
+dissolute, greatly shocked the simple-minded, God-fearing
+pioneers. Not until 1786 did the first pastor, Dr. M’Gregor,
+arrive to administer to the flock and to preach the Gospel
+in Gaelic. In the decade following several other ministers
+arrived at Pictou and the district put forth a great store of
+grain and godliness. More shiploads of Highlanders landed
+in Pictou Harbour, and an Academy was founded, which
+flourishes to this day. But the corner-stone of the first house<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span>
+in Pictou town was not laid until 1789. Once started the
+growth to a village and then to a town was rapid. It became
+the resort of coasting vessels from all parts of the Gulf
+of St. Lawrence, and the quantity of oil and fish brought
+thither annually being large, the exports to the West Indies
+increased proportionately. More than a century ago at
+least 100 ships left Pictou loaded with timber for Great
+Britain, worth, together with other exports, £100,000.
+Houses of well-to-do merchants went up—houses of stone—which
+are as staunch to-day as the day they were built.
+“The air of the place,” wrote a traveller nearly ninety years
+ago, “strikes a stranger’s eye as peculiarly Scotch. Keen-looking
+fellows in bob-tailed coats, <em>à la Joseph</em>, of many
+colours, stand in knots about the streets discussing in broad
+Scotch or pure Gaelic the passing topics of the day; while
+in the distance, a long scarlet robe floating gaudily in the
+wind, as if in mockery of the sedate air of the student who
+bears it, carries us back to the classic precincts of Aberdeen
+or Glasgow. The Academy, to which these students to
+the number of about fifteen belong, is an ordinary wooden
+building neatly painted outside, but not yet finished within,
+and contains nothing remarkable if we except the learned
+professor and his little museum consisting (chiefly) of
+native animals.”</p>
+
+<p>At the northern and eastern parts of the town are
+suburban residences with spacious grounds enclosed with
+hedges of English hawthorn, from whence a commanding
+view can be had of the Straits of Northumberland and the
+blue waves of the great St. Lawrence Gulf.</p>
+
+<p>On clear days the shores of Prince Edward’s Island are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span>
+distinctly visible; and out beyond the harbour light, Cape
+St. George and the distant outline of Cape Breton’s rocky
+coast can be seen jutting out into the wide Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>Many years ago a dreadful catastrophe happened to a
+small mail steamer, the <em>Fairy Queen</em>, plying between Pictou
+and Prince Edward Island. Through the captain’s carelessness
+she sprang a leak and went to the bottom. The
+captain and the crew succeeded in escaping to Pictou in
+the boats, which were spacious enough to have held all on
+board. On landing they related a tale of the disaster,
+believing that no human voice would ever reveal the true
+story of their cowardice and cruelty. It chanced, however,
+that although many perished, including a promising British
+officer and five young ladies, one of whom was bound for
+England to be married, a few passengers floated off on the
+upper deck and ultimately, after many hardships, reached
+land in safety. Along the coast they struggled to Pictou,
+there to raise a voice from the dead to strike terror and
+remorse into the hearts of the cowardly captain and crew.
+The captain was arrested for manslaughter, but, although
+the popular wrath was great, managed to escape the punishment
+he merited.</p>
+
+<p>As time wore on in Pictou the Highland bonnet, slouching
+like a night-cap on the heads of the first generation of
+settlers, disappeared, to give place to native straw in summer
+and fur in winter. But the kilts, banned in the old land,
+sprang up at clan gatherings, and the bagpipes and the
+Highland ballads and Highland spirit are in vogue to this
+day.</p>
+
+<p>The morning was warm and balmy as I strode along the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span>
+harbour front, past the cottages and villas of wood and stone,
+to a point of land called the Battery at Pictou. Several
+mounted cannon were pointing seaward, and a weather-beaten
+man, with his back towards me, shaded his eyes as
+he gazed intently in the same direction. When he became
+aware of my presence, he turned and bade me good
+morning. “Waiting for my molasses ship from Jamaica,”
+he said, jerking his thumb outward. “I thought I saw her
+in the offing, but I guess I was mistaken.”</p>
+
+<p>We fell to talking about fish, and molasses, and mining.
+He had been interested in a mine in Newfoundland, and
+knew something of the ways of Yankee company promoters.
+He had speculated in many things, but found West Indian
+produce safest.</p>
+
+<p>“Do you see that building across there—with the tall
+chimney and the wharves in front of it, and the rails running
+down to the wharves?”</p>
+
+<p>I said I did.</p>
+
+<p>“Would it surprise you if you found that chimney built
+of rubble, with no outlet top or bottom?”</p>
+
+<p>I said it would surprise me very much indeed.</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose it would astonish you also to know that only
+one ship had ever been at that wharf, and no engine or truck
+on that railway, and no men ever at work in that swelter?”</p>
+
+<p>When I had duly satisfied my companion that these
+things stood in need of some explanation, he volunteered
+one.</p>
+
+<p>“That yonder’s the relics of the Pictou Copper and
+General Mining Company, Limited—capital, Lord knows
+how many thousands of pounds! When I was in England<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span>
+they told me that for these cinematograph exhibitions they
+get up sample fires, imitation explosions, intentional railway
+collisions, and collapse old buildings merely on purpose to
+photograph ’em. Well, that there’s a dummy copper-mine,
+got up on purpose to photograph, and I’m bound to say the
+photograph looked darn well in the prospectus. There it
+all was, and nobody who saw it could get away from it—engine
+puffing away on the rails, hired for a day from the
+Inter-Colonial Railway; smoke pouring out of the chimney—they
+had lit a bushel of brown paper on top; schooner at
+the wharf, also hired for the occasion—and dang me, sir,
+there never was a more realistic thing! The capital was
+raised in no time. People here in Pictou, who weren’t in
+the secret, expected all manner of things. Then the Boston
+promoters lit out for home, and they ain’t been seen or heard
+of since. There’s their dummy establishment—I guess you
+could buy it for a hundred pounds—and there are a lot
+of people somewhere, in some corner of the earth, who,
+when they hear the very name Pictou, turn pale and grind
+their teeth.”</p>
+
+<p>I could not refrain from inquiring whether this was an
+incident of frequent occurrence.</p>
+
+<p>“I know where it’s happened before and since. Lord
+bless you, these here Maritime Provinces, including Gaspé,
+are a perfect hunting-ground for that sort of thing. Now,
+down at Chignecto....”</p>
+
+<p>But it is needless to retail all the ensuing conversation,
+or the instances with which my friend on the Battery at Pictou
+illustrated it. It suffices to say that every wild-cat scheme
+engineered by astute and unprincipled financiers from across<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span>
+the border, damages to the extent of its operation, multiplied
+by ten, the good name and the prospects of New Scotland.
+All should be alert to inquire into the <em>bona fides</em> of all schemes
+ostensibly directed to the exploiting of their locality, because
+the failure of such is certain to redound to that locality’s,
+nay, the whole Province’s, disadvantage.</p>
+
+<p>The best house in Pictou—perhaps the best-built private
+one in New Scotland—is Norway House, which, together
+with 200 acres of farm land adjoining, is the property
+of Lord Strathcona. Seventy or eighty years ago it was
+built of stone brought from Scotland, and, as I mention
+elsewhere, is an excellent specimen of the kind of house
+that is popular with Canadian insurance companies. I only
+wish that Lord Strathcona could be induced to work this
+farm, instead of allowing it to lie fallow, if only because it
+would in active able hands be an effective advertisement for
+the agricultural possibilities of this part of New Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>The town is the seat of Pictou Academy, which deserves
+a passing mention. The academy was established for the
+purpose of affording to the children of Dissenters, excluded
+from the honours of King’s College (Windsor), those literary
+and scientific requirements which might qualify them for the
+learned professions. The corporation consists of twelve
+trustees, the choice for whom, in virtue of an annual Government
+grant, has to be ratified by the governor. They are
+required to be Presbyterians or members of the Anglican
+body. As, however, no religious tests are required of the
+students, the academy is attended by youths of all denominations.
+The curriculum is a sound one, and from the first
+Pictou began to send forth what the Province sadly needed,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span>
+a race of qualified schoolmasters. Some very eminent
+Canadian scholars have been educated at Pictou, including
+Professor Dawson and Principal Grant.</p>
+
+<p>Forty-three miles by railway from Stellarton is Antigonish
+(accent, please, on the last syllable). A century ago
+Antigonish was called Dorchester, in honour of Sir Guy
+Carleton, first Lord Dorchester, Governor of Canada. But
+the district round about had the Indian name long before
+that. The first white inhabitants were a few Acadian
+families at Pomquet, Tracadie, and Au Bouché, whose
+descendants are still to be found at St. George’s Bay. Just
+after the American Revolution a number of officers and
+men of the Nova Scotia Regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel
+Hierlihy and Major Monk, got grants of land
+here, and immured themselves for several winters without
+roads of communication to any other part of the Province.
+After a dozen seasons or so they were joined by Scottish
+immigrants from the Isles and the Highlands. They
+found the agricultural country far superior to any they
+had ever known, and indeed one of the best in New
+Scotland. Upon the rearing and export of horses, horned
+cattle and sheep, grain, butter, and pork, they quickly
+prospered; and the production of shingles and stones, when
+the large timber was exhausted, was carried on upon a large
+scale. The shire town of Dorchester or Antigonish was
+described nearly a century ago as “one of the prettiest
+villages in the eastern section of Nova Scotia, and the
+neatness and simplicity of its appearance amply compensates
+for the absence of bolder scenery.” Judging from
+that description, I do not think Antigonish has greatly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span>
+changed. My train brought me there about midnight,
+and a buggy driven by the landlord himself brought me
+along a wide street, lined with majestic elms, through
+whose dark foliage the moon sent spangled rays of light,
+to a quaint little inn. It is true the quaintness of the
+inn, architecturally speaking, hardly corresponded with its
+name: the Queen Hotel (how they love these high-sounding
+titles! I have a recollection of a certain Chateau
+Frontenac at Rimouski, P.Q., where they gave me a single
+sheet to my bed), and the quaintness was in directions rather
+disconcerting. For instance, when morning came, I was
+suddenly aroused by the apparition of an uncouth figure
+in my room. He was in the act of closing a closet door,
+from which he had apparently just emerged. I sprang up.
+“What do you want?” I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing,” returned the intruder calmly.</p>
+
+<p>“But what are you doing in my room? I locked the
+door last night.”</p>
+
+<p>“What am I doing in <em>your</em> room? How else do you
+think I am going to get out of <em>mine</em>?” He jerked his
+thumb in the direction of the closet in an aggrieved
+manner, as if I had meanly suggested his climbing out of
+the window in order to pursue his daily avocations. All
+the same, I do not think highly of these peculiar inn-keeping
+arrangements; nor do I hold that the employment
+of the title of Majesty on a long sign-board can altogether
+atone for their primitive simplicity.</p>
+
+<p>Before I leave the inn at Antigonish I am tempted
+to recall another trifling association. A traveller, commercial
+or otherwise, will have noticed throughout Nova<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span>
+Scotia, as in the American States, that all maid-servants
+perform their functions, with rare exceptions, in a singular
+spirit of protest, as if they were really not enjoying themselves
+in the most becoming and most appropriate of all
+feminine <em>rôles</em>, to wit, the handmaiden of man. It is
+really most provoking of the dear creatures! More
+especially is this uncomfortable spirit manifested towards
+strangers. My belief is that a too profuse native chivalry
+is at the bottom of it. You have noticed the scorn and
+independent air of the British barmaid? her affability
+and condescension when addressed by her familiars under
+the names of “Flossie,” “Beryl,” or “Sadie?” Well,
+then, you have put your finger on that which vexes
+the traveller’s soul here. Yet I am bound to say that
+there were several inns in the Province where I was
+waited upon with a celerity and good humour which
+went far to atone for inevitable gastronomic shortcomings.</p>
+
+<p>She was rather a comely wench, was the handmaiden at
+Antigonish, but sadly spoilt, and a shrewish wrinkle marred
+her brow. She showed her sense of my coming down late
+to breakfast by conducting me to a seat where a great
+draught blew.</p>
+
+<p>“Ye’ll sit there,” she said.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh no, thank you. I will sit <em>here</em>,” I rejoined pleasantly,
+taking a seat by the wall. She paused in angry
+astonishment. A smile curled her lip. “Oho,” she
+seemed to say to herself, “I’ll teach you, my fine gentleman.”
+I ordered fish. “There’s no fish.” “Very well.
+I’ll have eggs, boiled in the shell three and a-half minutes,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span>
+dry toast and coffee.” With a toss of her head the damsel
+slowly disappeared. In something under twenty minutes
+she re-entered, bringing a tray upon which reposed a large
+cup of weak tea, a plate of fried eggs, and some very
+bilious-looking buttered toast. These having been noisily
+and carelessly deposited before me, I turned over a fresh
+page of my newspaper and observed nonchalantly, “Please
+remove all this stuff, will you, and bring me what I
+ordered—boiled eggs, boiled for three and a-half minutes
+in the shell, coffee, and some dry toast. Look sharp,
+please.” She did look sharp—sharp and shrewish, yet
+with a something almost of consternation withal. I met
+her glance with a smile. For ten seconds we confronted
+one another—a ludicrous situation. Then, gathering the
+breakfast back again upon the tray, the poor girl departed.
+When she reappeared she was quite cheerful—the novelty
+of the experience had, it seemed, taken her fancy. She
+waited upon me with alacrity. So far from diminishing
+I multiplied my wants, preferring them with punctilious
+courtesy. We parted friends, and at luncheon she greeted
+me with smiles. It is a great pity that the tendency to
+spoil and pamper girls in menial situations, especially
+when they are pretty, is not confined to Nova Scotia. It
+does not make them any the happier, but is, on the contrary,
+productive of a good deal of unhappiness and discontent.
+A little less familiarity on the part of those
+served and a little more attention to business on the part
+of those serving would be far better. Less than a century
+ago one could chuck the inn chambermaid under
+the chin and call her “my dear” without loss of dignity,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span>
+eliciting only a prim and grateful curtesy. It is different
+now.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-228">
+<img src="images/i-228.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="539">
+<p class="center smcap">View on the outskirts of Antigonish.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>An attractive little town is Antigonish. The houses,
+built on low ground, are shaded by trees, while the hills
+rise on all hands. Here is the seat of the Roman Catholic
+Bishop of Antigonish, St. Ninian’s Cathedral, and St.
+Francis Xavier College. Chiefly of Highland extraction
+is the community—the names of the chief clans so abound
+that in the case of the Macdonalds and Frasers it is usual
+to mention the Christian names or initials to indicate certain
+leading individuals. One hears of “E. M.,” and “J. S.,”
+and “D. C.” in common conversation. Gaelic here is
+still spoken, especially amongst the older folk, and for
+the benefit of these latter sermons are occasionally
+preached in the cathedral; which building is of stone and
+capable of seating 1200 persons. As I recall the taming
+of the shrewish maidservant at Antigonish I must not
+omit mention of my encounter with one whom I was
+informed was the Episcopal body-servant and factotum.
+A more astonishingly grotesque individual I have never
+set eyes upon in my life. Somewhat portly, you only saw
+fragments of his puffy, white face, owing to a thick growth
+of beard, which left a space of about two inches between
+it and a pair of bushy eyebrows. Beard and eyebrows
+had been red, but were now dyed a startling blue-black,
+which looked purple in the sunlight. His aspect was truly
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">farouche</i>.</p>
+
+<p>“Is his lordship at home?”</p>
+
+<p>“Ah!”</p>
+
+<p>“Will you take him my card?”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Eh?”</p>
+
+<p>The factotum was engaged in climbing into a buggy.
+He stared for a second at the proffered card, crossed
+himself, gathered up his reins, said “Gaw!” to his steed
+and drove away, leaving me standing there. I watched
+him until he had turned the corner, thinking what a weird
+and beautiful pirate this beady-eyed purple-whiskered
+joker would have made—what a loss to the comic
+opera stage!</p>
+
+<p>“Eh, ye’ll no see his reverence the day,” murmured an
+old woman in my ear; and so I came away.</p>
+
+<p>The College of Saint Francis Xavier is an educational
+institution, of which not only Antigonish, but also the
+whole eastern section of Nova Scotia is greatly proud.
+Students come hither from nearly all parts of Canada and
+America. The number in attendance is increasing from
+year to year, and the accommodation is becoming taxed
+to such an extent that a further addition to the present
+commodious building has been found necessary. The
+number of students at present is over one hundred and
+fifty. Besides the College, and to some extent affiliated
+with it, is Mount St. Bernard’s Seminary, attended by about
+seventy young ladies from many of the counties in the
+Province, and from beyond it. Although both are Roman
+Catholic, I found that students of all denominations are
+welcomed, and no better illustration of the broad-mindedness
+that prevails is the fact that at least two of the
+Professors at the College are Protestants. Besides these
+two institutions of higher education, Antigonish boasts
+two well equipped “separate schools” of three departments,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span>
+each conducted by competent and experienced
+teachers.</p>
+
+<p>It was prize-giving day amongst the young lady pupils
+at the seminary, and I had an opportunity of seeing “sweet
+girl graduates” from all parts of Nova Scotia, and also
+from the other provinces. I cannot say that they were all
+very beautiful or very graceful, but oh—I am sure that they
+were very, very good! And amongst themselves they were
+very merry, and spoke of their failures in this or that
+“exam” with resignation. Many of these girls, I was
+told, were destined to be teachers.</p>
+
+<p>A Catholic newspaper is published at Antigonish called
+<em>The Casket</em>. I enjoyed a chat with the editor, a quiet,
+enlightened man, who aims at “restraint and accuracy,” a
+journalistic motto which one wishes were only more prevalent.
+<em>The Casket</em> is an excellent little paper, and a
+relief from the journalistic horrors elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>Eight miles from Antigonish is the mouth of the harbour,
+with a wide sandy beach, much used for bathing, and
+a number of Antigonians have summer cottages there.
+But the gem of the district is Lochaber Lake, on the road to
+Sherbrooke, distant some dozen miles. The lake is five miles
+in length, very narrow, and a pretty road runs along the shore
+the whole distance. On the whole the roads are capital
+hereabouts, and the landscape scenery well worth seeing.</p>
+
+<p>The banks on either side of this lake rise from it
+abruptly to a considerable height, but without rocky precipices.
+The water is as clear as a spring, and very deep.
+It is the last body of water in the district to freeze, and
+even in January frequently shows a ripple over miles of its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span>
+limpid surface. How often has the Highland emigrant,
+home-sick for the heather, sat by its banks and dreamt of
+the old land and the old faces, ere he or she set out for
+the new land to see “Lochaber no more”!</p>
+
+<p>Which reminds me that while at Pictou I was taken
+to see the shanty of an old Highland woman, once well
+known to travellers by coach, Nancy Stuart of the Mountain.
+Many stories are still told of Nancy, her sons and
+her dogs—as well as the “Oiche Whaith Chuibh. Brannachd
+luibh” with which she parted from any who had
+ever been in the Highlands.</p>
+
+<p>The views throughout the whole of this part of the
+peninsula are superb. Standing on the top of Sugar-Loaf
+Mountain, which is close to Antigonish, one obtains a spectacle
+that is well worth climbing to gain. Gaspereau Lake,
+also close at hand, is situate 500 feet above sea-level, and is
+a great resort for wild geese and ducks. Here is a famous
+centre for partridge shooting. These birds, nobody’s preserves,
+are often seen in dense coveys close to the railway.</p>
+
+<p>If we follow the line of this lake—the St. Mary’s road,
+we cut right across the eastern end of the peninsula,
+and come to Sherbrooke, a few miles from the Atlantic, at
+the mouth of the St. Mary’s River. Sherbrooke is the
+headquarters of a busy fishing community, and there is
+some gold mining carried on hereabouts.</p>
+
+<p>Journeying eastward twenty miles by rail from Antigonish
+we reach Tracadie, close to a good harbour, opening
+into St. George’s Bay. There is an Indian reserve in the
+neighbourhood, but the place is famous for its monastery
+of Our Lady of Petit Clarivaux, which was founded in 1820.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span>
+The members of the community are Cistercian Monks,
+commonly called Trappists, from their obedience to the
+rule of La Trappe, the founder of the order. The life of
+a Trappist is consecrated to prayer, manual labour, and
+silence. The ordinary hour of rising is two o’clock in the
+morning, except on Sundays and feast days, when the hour
+is half-past one. The remainder of the morning, or rather
+the night, is spent in chanting the offices of the church, in
+meditation, and other religious duties. The fast is broken
+by a light meal at 7.30 in the summer, and 11.30 in the
+winter, the latter season being kept as a Lent. The Monks
+never eat meat, fish, or eggs, and it is only of recent years
+that butter has been allowed in the preparation of the
+vegetable food. The discipline is strict in all other respects,
+for the Trappist life is the most rigorous of all the
+monastic orders. Conversation, when necessary, is carried
+on by signs, except in addressing the abbot.</p>
+
+<p>Besides their own manual labour, the monks furnish
+considerable employment to others who assist them in their
+work, and they are excellent farmers. In their religious
+duties they seek to make reparation for the sins of the
+outside world. Despite what seems a severe life they
+enjoy excellent health, and as a rule live to a great age.
+All their life, however, is a preparation for death. The
+burial place is close to the monastery, where it is continually
+in sight. When a monk dies, he is buried in his habit,
+uncoffined; and when the grave is filled in another grave
+is opened to remind the survivors that one of them must
+be its tenant in his appointed time.</p>
+
+<p>There is also a convent of Sisters of Charity at Tracadie.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">CAPE BRETON</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">There</span> are few pseudo-historical anecdotes which stand out
+more vividly in the pages of history than that which
+Smollett tells of the eccentric Duke of Newcastle crying
+out to a courtier, “Cape Breton an island! Wonderful!
+Shew it me on the map. So it is! Sure enough. My dear
+sir, you always bring us good news. I must go and tell
+the King that Cape Breton is an island!”</p>
+
+<p>An island indeed is Cape Breton, and such an island—a
+mingling of hill, and dale, and lake, mountain, moor, and
+tarn—rock, and crag, and fell—once called L’Isle Royale, and
+under the flag of the lilies—now the most eastern and most
+northern division of Nova Scotia, and the most Scottish
+portion of New Scotland. This island is equal to about
+one-fifth part of the whole Province.</p>
+
+<p>Sailing out into the unknown territories of a world
+which if as old as the old was new to them, the early
+adventurers sought to make their surroundings congenial
+by a nominal association with the countries, provinces,
+towns, and villages they had quitted, perhaps for ever.
+This, the despair of the geographer, is the very poetry of
+geography. It began with Columbus—nay, it began with
+Leif with his Markland and Vinland, and it continues
+down to the days of Peary, and Shackleton, and Scott. Is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span>
+there not something pathetic in the fact of a great bleak
+headland, locked in an eternal Arctic frost, being named
+after some fair Devon hamlet or Essex village, where the
+daring sailor first saw the light or loved a lass? The
+Arctic and Antarctic seas are full of such names.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-235">
+<img src="images/i-235.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="462">
+<p class="center smcap">Strait of Canso, Port Mulgrave.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>On the south-west coast of France, near Bayonne, is a
+Cape Breton, from whence hailed the sixteenth century
+sailor who first descried the headland here to which he
+gave that name, probably the oldest in North American
+geography. When the name of this cape became extended
+to the whole island is unknown, and as may be guessed from
+the Duke of Newcastle’s remark, many were ignorant of its
+wider application even in the eighteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>“The English ministry,” wrote Haliburton, “in the
+time of Mr. Pitt was said to have considered the island
+worse than useless, and would have rejoiced that Cape
+Breton had sunk to the depths of the ocean, being continually
+apprehensive that other Powers might obtain
+possession and thus establish a post of annoyance, which
+motive caused the destruction of the fortifications.”
+Utterly neglected, therefore, for a long period after it
+had passed into our possession, it remained a useless
+appanage to Nova Scotia until a separate government
+was established at Sydney, and by the enterprise of Lieutenant-Governor
+Des Barres, Cape Breton began to increase
+and multiply, and only received a temporary set-back when
+it was re-annexed to Nova Scotia in 1820. That event, of
+course, lost the island the coal-mining and excise revenues,
+and its fees on Crown lands, as well as the salaries of
+officials spent on the island; and it naturally took some<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span>
+considerable time to recover from these effects, especially
+as for thirty years the income had been outlaid upon
+much needed roads and bridges.</p>
+
+<p>Cape Breton was long considered strategically the key
+to Canada. Now, however, that ships of large burden can
+and do pass by preference through the Straits of Belle Isle,
+it can no longer be said to command even the Gulf of
+St. Lawrence. The island is separated from the mainland
+by the Strait of Canso. At Port Mulgrave a beautiful
+marine view opened up before me, as the Intercolonial
+railway train began to transfer its whole huge bulk on
+board the waiting ferry boat. The distant cliffs and fishing
+hamlets were bathed in sunlight, the blue waters were alive
+with multi-coloured anemones; sails of smacks and schooners
+darted hither and thither along the surface; there was a
+hurrying to and fro of tourists and fishermen on the
+green-clad shores; the whole scene was one of picturesque
+animation. One noted on the mainland the lofty Cape
+Porcupine, from whose summit, before submarine cables
+were sunk, the telegraph wires were crossed high in mid-air
+over the Strait to Plaister Cove. This stretch of wire was
+then part of the link connecting Europe and North America,
+and when it broke, as, of course, it frequently did, communication
+was suspended between the Old World and
+the New. I am told that a pleasing juvenile pastime of
+the fishermen’s children in former times was aiming stones
+at the wire, probably occasioning from time to time a rude
+interruption of the speech between two hemispheres.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-239">
+<img src="images/i-239.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="558">
+<p class="center smcap">A Splendid Moose near Lake Rossignol.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mulgrave has a population of about 1500 souls, and is
+a centre for bathing and fishing, but its chief institution is,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span>
+of course, the ferry. I have never seen such a perfectly
+equipped or managed piece of ponderous mechanism.</p>
+
+<p>The train is divided into two parts and shunted on to
+the gigantic and specially designed steamer <em>Scotia</em>, which
+bears the burden without a whimper. Across the Strait we
+steam, the passengers either descending and walking about
+the deck, standing clustered on the car platforms, or craning
+their necks out of the windows in order not to miss the
+succession of views. In a quarter of an hour or so we are
+safely landed; the metal rails on shore join up to the metal
+rails of the <em>Scotia</em> as true as steel itself, and staring about us
+we are confronted by Point Tupper. From here a railway
+runs to Inverness, a district which no visitor to Cape Breton
+should miss, and which I will advert to later.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, let us note that for the first thirty miles or
+so there is nothing in the scenery, and certainly nothing in
+the very few specimens of the population that meet his eye
+to attract the traveller’s attention. Then come glimpses of
+interest at Seal and Orange Cove, Mackinnon’s Harbour,
+and certain inlets of the Denys River. Near M’Donald’s
+Gulch, which is crossed by a steel trestle 90 feet high and
+940 feet long, an occasional birch lodge of the dwindling
+Micmacs met my eye.</p>
+
+<p>And Denys River! How that brings back historical
+memories of the early French adventurer, the right worthy
+old Nicholas Denys, Sieur de Fronsac, victim of Charnisay!</p>
+
+<p>We open and shut our eyes—we are on the verge of
+dozing, when in a flash the lake of the Golden Arm is upon
+us. There is no inland sea in the world quite like the
+famous Bras d’Or, that unique salt flood imprisoned in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span>
+land, 50 miles long, and taking all shapes—bays, inlets, and
+havens, studded with islands, half-broken by peninsulars
+never the same, always disclosing fresh beauties and picturesque
+variations.<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">[20]</a> The name Bras d’Or is doubtless of Spanish origin, as are many other
+names in this part of the world. There is Mont Real or Montreal, Anticuesta
+or Anticosti; Puerto Nueva; Placentia, Basin of Minas, and several
+Spanish rivers, and probably Le Bras d’Or and Labrador (labourer) have a
+similar origin.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>One is bound to observe that, as regards the Bras d’Or
+scenery, the body of waters is so vast, and conveys so much
+the illusion of the ocean itself, that to produce a proportionate
+effect the surrounding land ought to be on a similar
+scale of grandeur. The alternate low hills and flat shore
+consequently rob the lake at large of its due effectiveness,
+although in the vicinity of the arms and inlets, and towards
+the northward at St. Anne’s, there is some compensation in
+a bolder and more rugged order of scenery. Viewed from
+the heights of the shore, however, this criticism does not
+apply, and the tourist’s eye is rewarded by scenes which for
+sheer beauty it would be hard to match throughout the
+length and breadth of the Continent.</p>
+
+<p>On one hand are daintily wooded islets, on another a
+long lagoon, cut off from the lake in rushes. Enclosing it
+all are the mountains decked in the primeval wood, sloping
+gradually from the marge or rising sheer and naked until
+their summit springs into verdure.</p>
+
+<p>This first portion is the Great Bras d’Or Lake; later
+on, at Grand Narrows, it becomes still further enclosed,
+and is called the Little Bras d’Or. Altogether these waters
+have an area of 450 square miles. Its extremest width is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span>
+less than 20 miles, but owing to its eccentric contour there
+are places where it is only a mile across. The depth also
+greatly varies, in the same ratio as the hills—here as much
+as 700 feet, there 50 or 60 feet.</p>
+
+<p>The Bras d’Or waters have a surface area of 450
+square miles, and while the width from shore to shore is as
+much as eighteen miles in one place, there are times when
+less than a mile separates shore from shore. So, too, the
+depth varies in somewhat the same ratio as rise the surrounding
+hills. In one part of Little Bras d’Or there is a
+depth of nearly 700 feet, the depression equalling the height
+of the surrounding land. Every variety of landscape meets
+the eye of the delighted stranger, and it is because of this
+variety that the eye never wearies and the senses are never
+palled.</p>
+
+<p>In following the railway the tourist will occasionally
+see what looks like a shallow pond, a hundred feet or so in
+diameter. It may surprise him to learn that the bottom is
+sixty or a hundred feet from the surface. This is a country
+of heights and depths. At times the train runs through
+long cuttings where the white plaster rock appears marvellously
+like snowdrifts on each side, to travel for hundreds
+of yards on high embankments in which the excavated
+material has been made to bridge a valley.</p>
+
+<p>After all, the inland sea is but a part of the Atlantic,
+and an outside sea may sweep its waters into fury. I was
+told that to cross the Bras d’Or in a gale is not an enviable
+experience. The direction of the wind makes all the
+difference.</p>
+
+<p>Whycocomagh is reached by a drive of seven miles from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span>
+Orangedale (a name singularly infelicitous), where teams
+are in waiting on the arrival of express trains. Orangedale
+is at the head of one of the numerous little arms of the
+Bras d’Or which are found in this part of the journey, and
+near at hand are Denys River Basin, and Great and Little
+Malagawaatchkt (pronounced “Malagawatch”). The latter
+are two inlets of the great lake at the head of West Bay, on
+the northern shore.</p>
+
+<p>Whycocomagh is situated on the basin forming the
+termination of St. Patrick’s Channel, which has its mouth
+more than twenty miles to the eastward, beyond Baddeck.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know a more refreshing place for a summer
+sojourn than Baddeck. This village, long since popular
+with Americans, and lately of considerable celebrity as an
+experimental ground for flying machines, occupies the site
+of an old Indian encampment named Ebedek, called by the
+French Bedeque. To reach it one leaves the train at Iona,
+and takes the small steamer which connects with the
+through expresses from Sydney or Halifax, and steams a
+dozen miles upon the waters of the Bras d’Or. Once
+out of the Narrows, one emerges into a vast and gleaming
+expanse of water, dotted with sails, which seem almost
+shocking in their whiteness, so intense is the sunlight.
+The place-names hereabout are ultra-Micmac, and as
+difficult to pronounce at sight as any in Swift. Yonder
+is Moolasaalahkt Harbour.</p>
+
+<p>“What does that mean?” I heard a Yankee ask an Indian.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, that means Big Harbour,” answered the Indian
+with a grin.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-246">
+<img src="images/i-246.jpg" alt="" width="615" height="650">
+<p class="center smcap">King Street, Shelburne (the town of the Loyalists).</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>“<em>Big</em> Harbour? Then why don’t ye <em>say</em> Big Harbour<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span>
+and have done with it?” was the indignant surrejoinder;
+which seems reasonable. Then three miles later we came
+to an upstanding and outstanding headland.</p>
+
+<p>“What’s that?” we asked.</p>
+
+<p>“That?” said the captain glibly, “Oh, that’s Watchabuketckt.”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t believe it!” retorted the Yankee.</p>
+
+<p>Some visitors entertain the firm opinion that the late
+Mr. Dudley Warner, an American humorist, who used to
+stay in this locality, invented a good deal of the nomenclature.
+But it is not so; it is all in Haliburton.</p>
+
+<p>Apropos of inventors, there is a spacious, well-built
+mansion on our right, which was long ago built by, and
+is still the residence of, that Scottish-Canadian genius to
+whom the world is indebted for that perennially-amazing
+instrument the telephone. Strange how many thousands,
+even hundreds of thousands of people in London, who
+daily see the emblem of a bell on the telephone call-offices
+connect that emblem with Alexander Graham Bell, the
+white-haired old gentleman who combines work and play
+at his summer home here at Ben Bhreagh. Glimpses of
+outbuildings can be had as the steamer moves along—laboratory
+and workshops; and on the lake in front of
+Ben Bhreagh rose the first working aeroplane in Canada,
+in which Dr. Bell has taken a keen interest. It must have
+been from some aerial craft that the name of Spectacle
+Island was given to the <em>insula minor</em> which flanks the
+harbour of Baddeck. Myself, gazing at it from terra
+firma or the deck of a small steamer, should never have
+detected any resemblance to a pair of spectacles.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span></p>
+
+<p>But here we are at Baddeck, a village of 1500 souls,
+built on land sloping upwards from the land-locked
+harbour. There is here yet no large summer caravanserai—such
+as I had expected to find—adorned with
+spacious verandas, pretty girls, and a Blue Caledonian
+orchestra; but there is plenty of accommodation in smaller
+hotels and boarding houses, and I am bound to say one
+meets some very nice people in Baddeck. Amongst them
+was a Harvard professor and his two daughters, and a
+Brooklyn yachtsman with his two yachts, and it would
+be hard to say which was the fairer, yacht or damsel;
+although as regards the young lady who discussed with
+me Dr. Wallis Budge’s quartos on <em>The Gods of Egypt</em>, none
+might allege that <em>she</em> was in any sense fast.</p>
+
+<p>O young lady by the shores of Baddeck, take thy Budge
+with thee into the wilderness and hook the romping trout,
+or paddle the gay canoes with Budge under thy shapely
+arm and the gods of Egypt in thy brain, for in such wise
+only may any fair Bostonian unbend and frolic with Chloe
+while offering at the shrine of Minerva! If it is true that
+I chaffed thee, why</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent6">“... Nunc ego mitibus</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Multare quaero tristia, dum mihi</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Fias recantatis amica</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Opprobriis, animumque reddas.”</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>From Baddeck many in the season set out for the
+salmon pools of the Margary River, thirty miles distant,
+over a good road, and to numerous trout lakes much
+nearer at hand. Sea trout fishing, of course, may be had
+at Baddeck. All this is Victoria County, a great slab of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span>
+territory which runs straight northward to Cape North and
+St. Lawrence Bay.</p>
+
+<p>One returns to Iona and Grand Narrows, and entrains for
+Sydney and the east. I shall not quickly forget the railway
+station at Grand Narrows on account of a curious custom
+which prevails at this place. The refreshment room is
+managed by a gentleman with a large family. All trains
+stop here twenty minutes for dinner and supper. A
+sonorous bell is rung. The doors are opened, and a flock
+of hungry travellers troop in at fifty cents a head to
+discover, not without chagrin, the restaurateur’s family at
+dinner occupying the best places and already hard at work.</p>
+
+<p>“It gives ’em an unfair start,” complained a commercial
+traveller to me as he filled his pipe. “By the time I’d
+located the dining-room, although I sprinted down the
+platform as hard as I could go, I was sixty seconds too
+late, and—there was only dough-nuts left!”</p>
+
+<p>Which reminds one of the swift gastronomic feats which
+greeted the eyes of Chuzzlewit on his arrival in New York
+seventy years ago.</p>
+
+<p>I must not forget to mention that there is held here
+annually under the broad and open sky, Nature’s own great
+cathedral, a famous Gaelic Communion service.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst this Gaelic population are counted many
+bards, inspired men who compose epic ballads as they
+did centuries ago and do still in the land of Ossian. And
+the songs of the Highlands, the “Fhir a Ohata,” the
+“Tamhuil mòr, mac sheann Tamhuil,” still float out upon
+the air; while the traditions of old Highland feuds or the
+Jacobite risings of ‘15 or ‘45 still linger, eked out by such<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span>
+visible memorials as one may see, beside the rude chimneypiece—an
+ancient dirk or a rusty claymore that some long-vanished
+ancestor had flourished at Culloden or Falkirk.</p>
+
+<p>But few of the aboriginal red men, the Micmacs, crossed
+my path in Cape Breton, and those that did were very
+much civilised. One stalwart specimen who travelled with
+me to Mira River wore a starched high collar, and was
+ready to discuss such questions as Home Rule for Ireland
+with me. To find the Micmacs in any number one must
+seek out their settlements, chiefly about the Bras d’Or,
+or attend one of their annual reunions. Years ago the
+Micmacs professed subjection to the Mohawks, and used
+to send a deputation in a canoe up the St. Lawrence to
+pay homage to the chiefs of that tribe in Canada.
+A century or two ago they were savage warriors in the
+pay of the French, and gave the English a great deal of
+trouble in the eastern and south-eastern parts of Cape
+Breton, and were especially active in scalping any survivors
+of wrecked vessels which came their way. Nor did they
+go unrewarded by titles and dignities. There is still, I
+believe, in existence a parchment commission, signed by
+Louis <abbr title="the fifteenth">XV</abbr>., conferring on a certain savage the kingship
+of the tribe, which is preserved by his collateral descendants;
+and there is more than one medal of honour
+yet worn emanating from the same exalted source. To-day,
+however, the Cape Breton Micmacs are no longer
+distinguished for ferocity; such pleasing mementoes as
+English scalps have been solemnly burned before the
+camp-fire; they have proved amenable to religion, they
+have taken kindly to farming on reserved lands, and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span>
+few hundreds who survive seem on the whole very honest,
+sober, and good-natured.</p>
+
+<p>It happened at Christmas Island station. There was
+an island opposite, long and low, with firs at either end,
+and there were newly-made green-clad furrows upon it.
+Between it and the mainland was a lagoon formed by a
+low reef, upon which a number of thrifty cattle grazed
+peacefully. In the water adjoining was the skeleton of a
+vessel—perhaps some ship which had been driven ashore
+in a winter storm. In the distance the clouds hung so
+low as to shut out the base of a range of dark green hills.</p>
+
+<p>“Why is it called Christmas Island?” I enquired of
+the girl, who seemed about eighteen, with a comely face and
+a profusion of dark chestnut hair. She was dressed in
+some light muslin or poplin stuff, and upon her feet she
+wore a pair of something which puzzled me at first, until
+I recognised in them the saffron-coloured football boots
+of Northampton. They were several sizes too large for
+her; and I have no doubt the damsel marvelled much
+at their shape and colour, but was reconciled by the
+thought that they were the latest fashion in the Old
+World “across yonder.”</p>
+
+<p>To my question she replied:</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I think it’s because they discovered it on Christmas
+Day. The Indians go there to hold their feast every
+year.”</p>
+
+<p>We strolled together to a small cottage marked “Post
+Office.”</p>
+
+<p>“I am waiting for the mail to be sorted,” volunteered
+my companion.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span></p>
+
+<p>“You expect a letter?” I asked.</p>
+
+<p>She blushed and nodded.</p>
+
+<p>“Is <em>he</em> far away?”</p>
+
+<p>She answered: “Mother and me are always ‘expecting
+letters.’ You see, I have two brothers in the steel works at
+Sydney, another out in Manitoba, and father’s mostly away
+fishing.”</p>
+
+<p>“And <em>he</em>?” I persisted.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, <em>he</em>?” She laughed. “Well, I don’t get any
+letters from <em>him</em>. He’s a brakeman on the Intercolonial,
+and I can see him every day if I like. I’ve written a piece
+for a prize poetry competition in a Boston paper, and I’m
+wonderin’ if I’ll get my five dollars <em>or if it’s only a snide</em>.”</p>
+
+<p>One other scene of a different kind I should like to give,
+because it will always live in my memory. It was of an
+aged, yet stalwart Highlander, who in early youth had
+migrated to the new Inverness across the ocean. I watched
+him as he sat by the roadside with his little granddaughter
+on his knee; and she told me afterwards he was singing to
+her (as he often did) a little Gaelic song he had sung sixty
+odd years ago over the grave of his mother and his first
+sweetheart, which he had dug with his own hands. It was
+a year of famine in Cape Breton, but he had not lost
+courage. At first he had hardly missed the heather, “but
+now grandfather’s hopin’ to see the heather again—across
+yonder.”</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">THE SYDNEYS</p>
+
+<p>“<span class="smcap">I suppose</span> you know the Sydneys?” was one of the
+questions addressed to me by a charming lady during
+my sojourn in Halifax.</p>
+
+<p>“No,” I replied, as visions of various individuals from
+Sir Algernon Sidney to Mr. Albert Sidney floated in my
+mind, only to be rejected as inappropriate. “I can’t say
+that I do. Who are they?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I don’t mean people, but the towns—the places.
+Sydney, North Sydney, East Sydney, Sydney Harbour, and
+Sydney Mines.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, <em>those</em>!” I rejoined; “Oh, yes. I know those
+almost as well as I know the Croydons, and the Bromleys,
+and the Hampsteads.”</p>
+
+<p>And, in truth, why “the Sydneys”? Is geographical
+nomenclature in New Scotland so poverty-stricken that
+places separated by five miles of water, and seventeen miles
+of rail, of different origins, different periods, and different
+interests, should all be called Sydney? I will not say
+altogether different interests, because the Sydneys are all
+joined together literally and figuratively by coal.</p>
+
+<p>It is the old Spanish bay of the sixteenth century
+British navigators. That great Canadian, Le Moyne
+d’Iberville, the founder of Louisiana, set sail from here in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span>
+1692, on one of his famous expeditions. Hither Admiral
+Hovenden Walker took refuge after his withdrawal from
+Quebec in 1711, asserting Queen Anne’s sovereignty over
+Cape Breton by erecting a wooden cross, duly inscribed, on
+the shore. In the war of the American Revolution a
+naval battle was fought here. Three years later, in 1784,
+Governor Des Barres founded the town of Sydney.</p>
+
+<p>The harbour of Sydney, which used to be called on the
+old maps Spanish River, has an entrance two miles wide,
+four miles above which it forms into two branches called
+the North-west arm and the South-west arm, both being
+protected from the sea by a low bar. It is on the east
+side of the last named that the town of Sydney was built
+a century and a quarter ago by disbanded soldiers, American
+Loyalists, together with some Irish and Scotch, the chief
+magnet even then being the mines; although the magnificent
+harbour and contiguity to the Mother Country no
+doubt influenced the pioneers.</p>
+
+<p>And what a harbour is this of Sydney? Of great
+depth, and so sheltered as to protect it from the force of
+the ocean, none could be more secure. It is an ideal
+place for yachting and boating of every description—and
+every craft from a man-o’-war to a birch-bark canoe may
+be seen skimming over its surface. There is a prosperous
+yacht club, and on a summer afternoon one may see here
+a lively regatta in progress, and the whole harbour alive
+with boats. The motor-boat and the steam-launch are
+also popular here.</p>
+
+<p>Sydney, which was a long time in fulfilling any of the
+predictions current three-quarters of a century ago, now<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span>
+has a population of 15,000. But when Haliburton wrote
+it had less than 500 souls. “The tide of fortune,” he
+observes, “has not yet set towards Sydney, and it appears,
+together with Louisbourg, to be neglected for places that
+cannot vie with it in natural capabilities.”</p>
+
+<p>The country round about is well worthy of agricultural
+development; the advantages for a fishing population are
+marked, and the harbour opens up fine commercial possibilities.
+But not until steel came to Sydney did it really begin
+to flourish. In those distant days when Cape Breton was a
+separate province, independent of Nova Scotia, the Lieutenant-Governor
+and the other officials made this their capital, and
+spending their incomes here, that money, and the comparatively
+little derived from coal-mining, seems to have been the
+chief resource of the place, and the trading community was
+content. Within a square at the north end of the town I
+saw the remains of the barracks and commandant’s house.
+A court-house was also here, and a well-built Anglican
+Church of stone. The houses boasted well-cultivated gardens,
+in which there were many fruit trees, and the settlement on
+the whole bore a considerable, and, on the whole, not surprising
+resemblance to Pictou on the mainland.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after the foundation of Sydney bituminous coal
+began to be mined regularly. As early as 1735 a cargo had
+been shipped to Martinique, but not until a century later
+did the General Mining Association begin operations on the
+north side of Sydney Harbour.</p>
+
+<p>Gradually the enormous extent of the coal-fields became
+revealed. The North Sydney Colliery extended a
+considerable distance under the sea, vessels in the harbour<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span>
+passing over them. This gave rise to numerous witticisms
+amongst the miners, formerly fishermen, whose mates were
+trawling aloft. The pit came to yield 180,000 tons
+annually.</p>
+
+<p>In 1892 the total yield of the district was a million
+tons, nearly four thousand men being employed in the
+mines. Operations from their beginning at what is now
+called Sydney Mines had spread across the harbour, between
+Sydney and Grace Bay. A syndicate of Canadian
+and American capitalists some years ago acquired or held
+options over all the working mines in the district.</p>
+
+<p>On the south side of the harbour are the Victoria
+Mines, and the others worked by the Dominion Coal Company
+in the district between Sydney and Cow Bay, twenty-two
+miles distant, are the Gardner, the Old Bridgeport, the
+International, and eight or nine others, which names, I was
+sorry to observe, have been superseded by mere numbers.
+But of this hereafter.</p>
+
+<p>It was in 1892 that Mr. Whitney, of Boston, first
+became interested in Nova Scotian coal properties. Under
+his energetic management the slow and cautious methods
+which had marked the output of coal since 1880 gave place
+at once to development on a gigantic scale. Instead of
+a long winter of idleness the men were employed continuously,
+and there was a great increase in the number of
+hands employed, and a general advance in wages.</p>
+
+<p>In five years the wage bill was $400,000 higher than at
+any time when the old companies were operating the mines.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was it on coal alone that the Whitney syndicate
+concentrated their attention. The Dominion Iron and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span>
+Steel Company sprang into being, and forthwith another
+great industry was added to Canada.</p>
+
+<p>Coal, however, was all very well; the difficulty was to
+find an immediate market for it. When at length it was
+realised that as much iron ore as was wanted could be had
+from adjacent parts, and when the Dominion Government
+offered a bounty on Canadian steel, steel works became
+inevitable. The capital came in the first instance chiefly
+from America, and one day Sydney awoke to find itself
+the chosen locality for the operations of the Dominion
+Steel Company. Other industries quickly followed in their
+wake, and Sydney was in the grip of a “boom.” Thousands
+began flocking into the little town—mechanics, artisans,
+labourers of all kinds; owners of real estates found their
+properties enhanced beyond their wildest dreams, and the
+building speculator began his operations. People rubbed
+their eyes when they heard all this, for “booms” were
+associated with the West, not with the extreme East.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the Dominion Coal Company had built a
+line of railway from Sydney to Louisburg, traversing its coal
+territory. The potential supply of coal has been estimated
+at a thousand million tons, not including the innumerable
+seams less than four feet thick, nor the vast submarine bed
+of coal between Cape Breton and Newfoundland, one
+area of which contains at least three thousand acres. Of
+course the coal trade alone means a large shipping business
+for Sydney and the neighbourhood, and besides the regular
+colliers, many steamers call here regularly for coaling. A
+coaling station of the French navy is situated here, and
+frequent are the visits of French cruisers.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span></p>
+
+<p>As has been said, Sydney is most favourably situated
+for the production and shipment of iron and steel.
+Although there are iron areas contiguous, yet the
+Dominion Iron and Steel Company in starting business on a
+large scale, decided to avail itself of the almost inexhaustible
+supply at Bell Island, Newfoundland, where its property
+is believed to be capable of yielding twenty-nine
+million tons of ore, besides submarine deposits. Then, again,
+the limestone and dolomite employed in the manufacture of
+steel is near at hand. Four large blast-furnaces have been
+erected at Sydney along the harbour front, eighty-five feet
+high and eighteen feet maximum diameter. Each of these
+furnaces will yield about three hundred tons of pig-iron
+daily. There are five great blowing-engines, of two
+thousand five hundred horse-power each, and each engine
+will supply fifty thousand cubic feet of air per minute.
+The boilers consist of sixteen batteries of two boilers, each
+of sixteen thousand horse-power, and capable of pumping
+six million gallons of water per day of twenty-four hours.
+The area of ground covered by the works of the company
+is four hundred and eighty acres, and is one of the busiest
+spots on the continent.</p>
+
+<p>The works are most advantageously situated in every
+respect, being close by the waterside, connected with the
+Intercolonial Railway, and with an abundant supply of
+water for manufacturing purposes. The latter is procured
+from the Sydney River, where a dam has been constructed
+which is capable of supplying three million gallons of fresh
+water daily. The length of the water main is eight miles.
+The grounds and works are lighted by electricity, and in all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span>
+the operations machinery of the most modern description
+has been employed. The limits to which the works may
+be extended cannot be defined, but the possibilities are,
+as the reader may judge for himself, very great.</p>
+
+<p>The whole works form virtually a town within themselves,
+and, with the blast-furnaces, the stock-yard, offices,
+open-hearth ovens, blooming-mill, rail-mill, plate-mill,
+machine-shop, foundry, shacks, hospitals, store-rooms, &amp;c.,
+a complete system of a busy city is found. The machine-shop
+and foundry of themselves cover more than 60,000
+square feet of ground. The company has a capital of
+over $20,000,000.</p>
+
+<p>The wonderful advantages of Sydney for producing
+iron and steel at the lowest prices can best be shown by a
+comparison of it with Pittsburg. At Sydney the coal is
+close at hand, and the coke ovens save all the volatile constituents
+of the coal. At Pittsburg the coal is brought
+from a distance of about eighty miles by rail, and the limestone,
+which at Sydney is on the spot, has to be brought
+a distance of one hundred and thirty miles to Pittsburg.</p>
+
+<p>Only last year were these coal and steel companies
+amalgamated, and thereby much rivalry and conflict of
+interests terminated in a happy marriage. At first the
+two companies were known as the “Dominion Steel and
+Coal Corporation,” the name being afterwards changed to
+“Dominion Steel Corporation,” which offered one share of
+its stock for one of the common stock of the Coal and
+Steel Companies. This offer was duly accepted, and in
+a few months only a fraction over one per cent. of the
+350,000 shares involved were outstanding.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span></p>
+
+<p>The board of directors of the Corporation was formed
+of the members of the Boards of the component companies,
+Mr. J. H. Plummer being chosen president. The
+principal executive officers exercise jurisdiction in both the
+Steel and Coal Companies.</p>
+
+<p>Now that such economic and administrative initial
+difficulties have been overcome, the strength of Sydney’s
+position is manifest to all. For here all the materials can
+be assembled at lower cost than anywhere else on the
+continent, and the finished product can be shipped from the
+mills to any of the world’s ports at less cost than from any
+other point, for by water, as I heard it phrased sententiously,
+“Sydney is nearer everywhere than anywhere else.”</p>
+
+<p>Sydney rails within the past twelvemonth have been
+sent to India, Australia, and England. The Grand Trunk
+Pacific is using them largely in construction, being shipped
+by rail to the extreme sections of the line. They are
+despatched by water to Fort William, at the head of Lake
+Superior, and well into the interior of Canada, to build
+the central portions of the road; they have been shipped
+around Cape Horn to British Columbia to lay the extreme
+western sections from Prince Rupert east; Europe, South
+Africa, the West Indies, Mexico, are among the other
+countries to which Sydney exports, although the bulk of her
+products are consumed in the rapidly extending home
+markets. Apart from this, Sydney is one of the most
+convenient seaports on the Atlantic coast, whereas the
+nearest seaport to Pittsburg is over 350 miles by rail, and
+that seaport, Philadelphia, 878 miles further from Europe
+than Sydney is. It will thus be seen what enormous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span>
+advantages lie within the iron gateway of the great
+Dominion!<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p>
+
+<p>And Sydney harbour at night. The waters very still and
+glittering, and the light of Cassiopeia and the Pleiades all
+but drowned in a great luminous effusion like a Milky
+Way, and the whole northern horizon lurid with flames
+and patches of red glow. Then lights—lights—dozens,
+scores, hundreds of lights—like those on a seaside esplanade
+or pier. Behind those distant lights—in the midst
+of those lights, grimy men, stripped to the waist, are
+toiling—are fulfilling the curse of Cain, or, as some think,
+the blessing—earning their bread by the sweat of their
+brow. Ah, God, and they do sweat! The very flesh on
+their bones seems to melt, and the marrow to ooze from
+their joints, and their eyes to sear, and their hair to singe.
+Ah, say what you like, it is devil’s work to look at; but it
+is to do, and those fellows do it manfully. It is not for
+them to pick and choose their calling—no loafers or
+shirkers are they—they have enlisted with Pluto and Vulcan—they
+are at grips with fire and molten steel, and the
+night-shift wrestles with both grimly.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">[21]</a> The principal items of production of the steel works for the year 1910
+are as follows:—</p>
+
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td></td>
+<td class="tdc1">Tons</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Coke</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="exports">410,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Pig-iron</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="exports">255,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Steel ingots</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="exports">304,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Steel blooms</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="exports">268,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Steel billets</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="exports">88,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Steel rails</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="exports">140,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Steel wire rods</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="exports">79,000</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Sulphate of ammonia</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="exports">3,100</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Tar</td>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="exports">3,900,000 gallons.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>All the coke made is used in the works for smelting purposes. Only a
+small proportion of the production of pig is sold as such, the greater part
+being made into steel ingots which are all rolled into blooms. A considerable
+tonnage is marketed in this form, but about eighty-five per cent. is
+advanced a further stage, and is sold in the form of rails and wire rods.]</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span></p>
+And who are these men who sweat their bodies to
+running oil in mighty furnaces in the night, on the shore
+where of late was the primeval wilderness? Whence comes
+this hardy race? Would you believe it if I said they were
+fishermen—pliers of nets who have been coursing, and
+their fathers before, the briny deep? These fellows have
+shipped their rudder and beached their craft, and the salt
+foam splashes their manly bosoms no more.
+
+<p>The chief and practically only industry of Sydney Mines
+is the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company. The town
+depends entirely on this corporation, which was founded
+through the operations of the company’s predecessors, the
+General Mining Association, and its recent growth and
+expansion has been due to the “Scotia” Corporation (as it
+is colloquially called) in acquiring that property and greatly
+extending the field of its operations.</p>
+
+<p>The collieries and the iron and steel furnaces here
+furnish employment to nearly four thousand men, and the
+company’s Sydney Mines wage-bill is nearly two millions of
+dollars annually. Five collieries, a blast-furnace, four open-hearth
+furnaces, 150 coke ovens, coal-washing plant, machine-shops,
+and thirteen miles of railway make up the plant here.
+At North Sydney, a few miles away, are the coal-shipping
+and iron-ore discharging piers.</p>
+
+<p>Glace Bay is the centre of the Dominion Company’s
+operations, the general offices being here, and the largest<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[199]</span>
+and most productive of the shafts not far distant. One is
+helped to realise the gigantic scale of the company’s operations
+by the official statement that in 1911 they produced
+3,892,958 tons. There are 5530 men on the pay-roll,
+nearly all of whom command high wages and live accordingly.
+Glace Bay, a desert a few years ago, has now a population
+of 16,562, and is the third town in the whole Province.</p>
+
+<p>New Scotland has not been free from labour troubles.
+During 1909 the coal-mining districts were the theatre of
+great and prolonged strikes. There was a famous strike at
+Lingan in 1882, but since then none until 1909. Cape
+Breton was free from disturbances of this kind, and as for
+Pictou County, with the exception of a few days lost
+at a couple of the collieries, there has been no strike in
+twenty-three years. I do not suppose any coal-mining district
+on the continent can show a similar period of freedom
+from industrial strife.</p>
+
+<p>But not many months ago the long peace was broken
+when an alien society, with its intolerable methods, appeared
+on the scene. These foreign unionists alleged they had
+come to help the Nova Scotia miners, who were weak and
+helpless, and at the mercy of the bloated capitalists. As a
+matter of fact, the Cape Breton miners are freer, in the best
+sense of the word, than their brethren over the border.
+Certainly they had never hitherto been under the heel of the
+labour “delegate.”</p>
+
+<p>“Our miners,” I was told, “labour under far more
+favourable conditions than the miners across the border.
+Their comfort and safety while in the mine is better cared
+for; they are better housed; and although Nature has<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</span>
+ordained that coal-mining in Nova Scotia must be attended
+with difficulties unknown in many districts of the United
+States, fatal accidents are 50 per cent. fewer here than there,
+due to our more advanced legislation, to a better enforcement
+of the mining laws, and to the greater energy, skill, and
+intelligence of the officials of our mines.”</p>
+
+<p>There are many persons who advocate Government operation
+of the coal-mines. In mining legislation Nova Scotia
+enjoys the proud distinction of having, during the last thirty
+years, led the world, but this is like similar proposals for
+State-operated railways in Britain. There is one scheme
+which the Province Government might adopt, and that is
+a Government training mine as part of the education of the
+people, whether that education be common, industrial, or
+technical. The Government might operate a mine not for
+profit, but for practical purposes and the solution of the
+problems frequently occurring in the operation of coal-mines.
+A training mine might be a fitting appendage to
+the Nova Scotia Technical College.</p>
+
+<p>For a serious problem is that of the underground
+unskilled labour, or loader question. Another is the
+“boy” question.</p>
+
+<p>Many humanitarians are looking forward to a boyless
+colliery, when it will be unprofitable for mine-owners to
+employ boys in the mine. Not so long ago boys of five or
+six were employed; the age limit was extended to ten, then
+to twelve, and on to fourteen, and the cry now is that the
+limit should be extended to sixteen.</p>
+
+<p>The solution of the whole difficulty is the elimination
+of both the boy and the horse, and the substitution of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</span>
+mechanical haulage, and this, in spite of hindrances to the
+general application of such a system and lack of capital,
+will probably some day be brought about.</p>
+
+<p>I have mentioned the technical education of the miner,
+of which Mr. Drummond is an advocate. Novices would
+pass through a Government training mine, where all underground
+men would be miners, timbermen, and roadsmen
+in turns, and from which a novitiate, after a given period,
+say nine months, would be given his discharge papers and a
+necessary third-class certificate as miner. In the mine the
+novices would be under instructions from an experienced
+working miner. On the whole there is very much to be
+said in favour of the scheme, and Nova Scotia, which is a
+pioneer in mining legislation, might lead the way.</p>
+
+<p>The northern shore of the Great Bras d’Or entrance,
+opposite Newfoundland, exhibits a precipitous range of
+gypsum crags and pits, concealed by forest growth, and
+forming a barrier between the Strait and St. Anne harbour.
+The southern shore is really the long narrow Boularderie
+Island, settled by Highlanders, and comparatively low-lying,
+after which comes the entrance to Little Bras d’Or. The
+transit by sea between the two channels is often dangerous
+owing to the formidable out-jutting point of Aconi, about
+which many tales are told. There is a sunken bar at the
+entrance of the Little Bras d’Or, which prevents the entrance
+of any but the smallest vessels. There is a road leading
+southward from hence to North Sydney, and there is
+another road crossing Boularderie Island to the Bras d’Or.
+In this district both farming and fishing are carried on, but
+the mines and steel works draw away most of the menfolk.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</span></p>
+
+<p>Off the coast south of Mira Bay lies the triangular
+island of Scutari, projecting two of its points to the ocean
+and a third towards the village of Mainadieu. This island,
+five miles long, is the extreme easterly point of the Dominion
+of Canada. The soil is poor, but it offers a convenient
+station for fishermen, and there is a lighthouse, to warn
+incoming vessels of the vicinity of Coromandière rocks.
+South of Scutari Island is Cape Breton, better known to
+the coast mariners as Port Novy Land, from the little
+islet of Puerto Nueva. It is from this low rocky point,
+beaten by the Atlantic surge for centuries, yet standing firm
+and compact, that the whole island of Cape Breton takes
+its name, another illustration of the little tail wagging the
+big dog.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of names, down the coast I looked with keen
+curiosity for L’Orembeck, so often mentioned by Wolfe in
+his letters during the siege of Louisburg in 1758, and where
+he planted a battery. I was struck by the frequency with
+which the name “Lorraine” occurred on the coast between
+Port Novy and the Louisburg harbour lighthouse. Little
+Lorraine, Big Lorraine, Lorraine Head, and Lorraine
+River; but no L’Orembeck was in evidence until I met
+with an old French fisherman, who pointed to Lorraine
+Head, and said, “La voilà—Lorraine Bec,” and the
+mystery was instantly solved.<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> There is a landing cove
+here, and a mile inland is the terminus of the Sydney and
+Louisburg Railway.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">[22]</a> Bec was often applied to bold, jutting headlands. “Quel Bec!”
+cried the mariners when they saw Cape Diamond, and the exclamation
+gave a name to a city and province.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</span></p>
+
+<p>Eighteen years ago (1893) Louisburg could only be
+reached from Sydney by sea or by a truly infamous road,
+which had the effect of cutting it off from the itinerary of
+most tourists. Between Sydney and Lingan, which is the
+next harbour on the coast, a fertile and timbered country
+was settled by the Irish, who called their settlement Low
+Point, and the deep circular pond hard by Kilkenny Lake.
+Before the advent of the coal-mining population, Lingan
+used to be noted for the giant flocks of wild geese frequenting
+this region, to feed upon the seaweed and the
+vegetation of the harbour flats. So prevalent and exposed
+are the veins of coal hereabouts that the surface of the
+ground used to present a dead appearance in many places,
+from having been reduced to a cinder by a fire which once
+ranged and continued burning in the recesses of the cliff
+between Glace Bay and Port Morien for a period of several
+years. Between Cape Percy and Mira Bay a barren peninsula,
+five miles long and two wide, juts out, ending in Cape
+Morien. This peninsula is joined to the mainland by a
+low strip of sand, called False Bay Beach, which often used
+to deceive the mariner approaching from the sea by tempting
+him to essay a passage through to Port Morien. Inshore
+hereabouts was settled by American Loyalists, and their
+descendants are here to this day. Rounding the coast we
+find ourselves face to face with Mira Bay, a “crescent of
+fair sandy beach.” The Louisburg Railway has more or
+less followed the contour of the land, and its station of
+Mira is not far from the sea towards the centre of the bay,
+into which empties the beautiful Mira River. Here is the
+favourite summer resort of the holiday-making folk of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</span>
+Sydneys and the mining district. The beach is a mile long,
+sloping gradually. Here one sees in large numbers the
+celebrated leaping tunny-fish, which afford sport both to
+spectators and fishermen. These fish, sometimes called
+horse-mackerel, grow in Atlantic waters to a monstrous
+size, frequently weighing 400 lbs., and even fish double
+that size are met with. They leap from the water like
+salmon, but have not yet been captured with rod, line,
+and hook, though one Sydney fisherman stuck to one
+monster for twelve hours before he was forced to “sever
+the connection.” The tunny season begins about the
+middle of July. Mira River is perhaps more of a character
+of a long narrow lake, prolonged by what is called Mira
+Gut, until it touches the sea. It is fed by the Salmon River,
+which rises some thirty miles from the coast, and the chain
+forms of river and lakes practically runs the whole length
+of this part of Cape Breton. For those who wish to take
+a pleasure cruise into the interior, a little steamer runs from
+Mira daily. After passing the Gut a gorgeous panorama of
+land and water meets the eye, as the steamer courses through
+a somewhat irregular waterway with numerous tree-clad
+islets. Navigation for steamers of small burden is practicable
+for twenty-five miles. About half-way up is Sangaree
+Island, which divides the river in two, and upon which some
+enterprising hotel-keeper has established “Kamp Kill Kare,”
+an orthography which should delight the heart of the late
+Mr. Josh Billings or of Mr. Andrew Carnegie. In the
+height of the summer the islets and the shores are filled
+with campers, for the salmon fishing is excellent.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[205]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">LOUISBOURG</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">I found</span> it a far different thing arriving at Louisbourg by
+land from arriving by sea. In the latter case, one enjoys
+a rapid <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">coup d’œil</i> from the moment one turns Lighthouse
+Point, of the harbour, Goat Island, the new village of
+Louisburg, and the site and ruins of the old town on the
+left. The first impression is that of a rapid transition
+from a violent running sea into a spacious harbour strangely
+quiet, considering what seems to be the exposed state of
+the entrance. But this exposure is not real, because Louisburg
+Harbour is protected by a sunken bar, not uncovered
+even at low tide. After the rugged and precipitous rocks
+succeed a series of hillocks here and there covered with
+stunted firs, and the land for a mile inland is poor and
+barren. An air of desolation broods about the place, which
+is hardly lessened by the great and grimy scaffoldings which
+form the wharves of the coal company, or the groups of
+fishermen’s cottages close to the water’s edge, although the
+eye catches glimpses of two or three trim white painted
+churches scattered along the borders of the harbour.</p>
+
+<p>But were the prospect greyer and more morose to the
+ignorant eye, nothing could destroy the light which the
+spectacle will ever lend to him who has read Louisbourg’s
+story, or restrain the thrill it imparts when seen for the
+first time.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[206]</span></p>
+
+<p>To the visitor by road or rail the surroundings of the
+modern village of Louisburg are apt to disenchant. Not
+even the presence of the two French cannon at the railway
+station, updrawn a few years ago from the depths of the
+harbour, quite offset the mile long stroll upon a creaking
+plank side walk through a succession of hideous clap-boarded
+stores, the bank, the lawyer’s office, the post-office,
+and eating-house. The older dwellings of the village
+are already falling into decay, and one old woman, one of
+the M’Alpines, who had seen better days, complained that
+the walls of her house, her home for forty years, scarce
+now sufficed to keep out the weather; and she and her
+faithful companion trembled lest it should not endure as
+long as their few remaining years. For it was no longer
+theirs: it had somehow together with most of the others
+passed out of their hands into those of the coal company,
+which like most corporations knew no mercy towards
+poor tenants.</p>
+
+<p>But there is a great ray of light in New Louisburg,
+and as for me I shall not easily forget the memory of one
+plucky English clergyman who, amidst poverty and squalor,
+and social and spiritual dreariness, for twenty-eight years
+has fought a cheery battle against these forces, and under
+conditions in many ways far harder than those which face
+a Houndsditch curate, has not trampled down his flag, or
+even allowed himself to be discouraged. His name is the
+Rev. Fraser Draper—(although I have called him, and I
+believe he calls himself an Englishman, there is a Scottish
+element in him), and his parish covers, I think, some forty
+square miles. To this he ministers either on a bicycle<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[207]</span>
+or afoot. Far less affluent is he than the Roman Catholic
+priest, who would seem to have so many votaries hereabouts,
+or even of the Presbyterian minister; yet this Anglican is
+the man for his work and his flock, and has strongly stirring
+within him that cheery manly something which is
+more the backbone and support of an Englishman’s religion
+than the Thirty-nine Articles, and shines more in a
+selfish world than all the candles on all the altars. My
+friend is a great authority on the history and topography of
+Louisbourg (mark the spelling—Louisburg is the modern
+town), and has himself quite a collection of objects of
+interest connected with both sieges. He told me of the
+visits to him of Lord and Lady Minto, Lord Dundonald
+and others, and of the pleasure it gave him to show them
+over the site of the famous town. From his parsonage in
+the very centre of the harbour’s crescent shore there arises,
+three miles away to the right, a small upstanding column
+on the horizon. This was my beacon as I set out for Old
+Louisbourg—the shaft erected by the men of Massachusetts
+fifteen years ago to commemorate William Pepperell and
+the first siege of Louisbourg in 1745.</p>
+
+<p>A French officer reported that Louisbourg was so strong
+that it might be held against any assault by an army of
+women. Yet English prisoners who had dwelt in the
+fortress believed Louisbourg might be taken, and their hopes
+were eagerly seized upon and shared by Governor Shirley of
+Massachusetts, a lawyer by profession, full of energy and enterprise,
+who now resolved upon the capture of Louisbourg.
+Unless the English had control of the whole coast from
+Cape Sable to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, the safety, nay,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[208]</span>
+the very existence of New England was in constant jeopardy.
+The discontent and bad discipline of the Louisbourg garrison,
+which consisted of 1300 men, was a promising factor. The
+ramparts were, moreover, said to be defective in more than
+one place, and, besides this, if the French ships which came
+over sea with provisions and reinforcements could be intercepted,
+Shirley felt there was no small chance of success. He
+wrote instantly to London asking the Government to help
+him with ships. Without waiting for a reply a little fleet was
+raised, and a land force of 4000 men, chiefly composed of
+artisans, farmers, fishermen, and labourers, commanded by a
+merchant named Pepperell, was mustered for the expedition.
+Although lacking military experience, Pepperell possessed
+courage and good judgment, and was anxious to distinguish
+himself. On the 24th March 1745 the ships left Boston,
+reaching Canso ten days later. Here they remained three
+weeks, waiting for the ice to melt in the bays and harbours.
+Here, too, they were joined by the English commodore,
+Warren, whom King George had sent to assist in the capture
+of Louisbourg.</p>
+
+<p>The command of Louisbourg was in the hands of M.
+Duchambon. One night, just after a public ball, a captain,
+attired in his night-clothes, came rushing into the Governor’s
+chamber to report that a strange fleet had been sighted by
+the sentries entering Gabarus Bay, five miles distant. Soon
+the cannons were booming loudly from the walls, and a peal
+of bells rang through the town. Pepperell made a pretence
+of landing his troops at a certain point so as to deceive the
+French. A skirmish took place, in which the French were
+beaten back and some of them taken prisoners. Before<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[209]</span>
+nightfall 2000 of the New Englanders had planted foot on
+the shore, and the next day the siege of Louisbourg was
+begun. A hard and dangerous task was the landing of the
+artillery and stores, owing to the rolling surf. There being
+no wharf, the men had to wade through the sea to bring
+the guns, ammunition, and provisions on shore. This alone
+consumed an entire fortnight. Batteries were thrown up, in
+spite of sallies made from the town by French and Indians
+to prevent them. An outside battery was captured, mounted
+with twenty-eight heavy guns, which now belched forth shot
+and shell amongst the besieged. Warehouses and other
+places took fire, and great columns of smoke hid the fort
+from view for days at a time. The walls were at last seen
+to crumble, and when the guns of the Americans began
+to close up on the fortress, Duchambon summoned to
+surrender, replied that he would when forced to do so by
+the cannon of the foe. Upon the island battery being
+silenced, the English fleet entered the harbour and turned
+upon him its 500 guns. Duchambon’s supply of gunpowder
+being now exhausted, Louisbourg surrendered after a siege
+lasting forty-nine days.</p>
+
+<p>The fall of Louisbourg, the key to French power in
+North America, seemed almost incredible to the French.
+It was resolved at Versailles that an expedition should be
+sent out to Cape Breton to recapture it at all hazards. One
+of the finest fleets that ever left the shores of France sailed
+from Rochelle the following year, commanded by the Duc
+d’Anville, consisting of thirty-nine ships of war, with orders to
+recapture Louisbourg and Cape Breton, and to ravage Boston
+and the New England coasts. But a fierce tempest dispersed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[210]</span>
+the whole squadron. When, at Chebucto, D’Anville arrived
+with the remnants of his fleet, his mortification was so great
+as to induce an apoplectic stroke, from which he died, and
+on an island in what is to-day known as Halifax Harbour,
+his body was buried. On the afternoon of the very day on
+which the French commander died, his Vice-admiral, Destournelles,
+arrived with three more ships. More than 2000
+men of the fleet were stricken with fever and perished.
+Destournelles, seeing no hope for success, proposed that the
+expedition should be abandoned and that the fleet should
+return to France, a proposal which most of his officers
+resisted. They desired to attack Annapolis, which was weak
+and had a small garrison. Once it was captured, Acadia
+was regained for France. Admiral Destournelles, thinking
+his action reflected on his character and honour, retired, and
+next morning they found him stabbed by his own hand
+through the breast.</p>
+
+<p>Ere the French fleet could reach Annapolis, another
+great storm arose, scattering the ships, and after 2500 brave
+Frenchmen had been lost in this ill-fated expedition, the only
+course remaining was to return.</p>
+
+<p>In 1748 was signed the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, and
+Louisbourg was handed back to France. Ten years later
+Pitt resolved upon its final destruction, and the story of the
+second siege is known to every schoolboy. In the interval
+between the two sieges the fortress had been considerably
+strengthened, and its new commandant, M. Drucour, was a
+man of great ability.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-275">
+<img src="images/i-275.jpg" alt="" width="850" height="651">
+<p class="center smcap">The road to Louisbourg.</p>
+<p class="center smcap">Louisbourg—the last of the Dauphin Gate.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>The summer sun battled with sea-fog upon the miles
+of brown moorland, scrubbed birch, and rocky beach as I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[211]</span>
+set out for Old Louisbourg—the scant ruins of the French
+fortress—lying some three miles away on a low-lying spit
+of land, Point Rochefort, on the south-western side of
+the harbour. This present village—a collection of shops
+and miners’ and fishermen’s cottages, and the wharves
+and lofty ruins of the coal company—occupies the site
+of the old royal battery which Brigadier-General James
+Wolfe seized and turned on the enemy. A century and
+a half ago from this distance the eye could have discerned
+across the harbour the roofs, spires, and stately battlements
+of a busy town. Now one’s only beacon along the barren
+shore is that slender shaft the Americans have there erected
+to commemorate the first siege. I followed the winding,
+rock-strewn road to this once-famed spot, where stood the
+“Dunkirk of the North.” A moderate familiarity with the
+military maps of the period enables one to trace out the
+chief features of the neighbourhood. To-day it is all a
+desert. There is no place like it, save Carthage. I crossed
+the bridge over the land-locked inlet called the Barachois.
+On my left, before the mouth of the harbour, lay Goat
+Island, where the French had a strong battery. Immediately
+in front are the remains of Wolfe’s siege works, when
+the young warrior knew he had the town in his grasp;
+and here, a pistol-shot further on, stood the Dauphin’s
+Gate, where the same leader and his victorious soldiers,
+“swarthy with wind and sun, and begrimed with smoke
+and dust,” entered on the morning of the 27th of July
+1758. Some ruins of the Dauphin’s Bastion still remain,
+and a little further on are the relics of the bomb-proof
+casemates of the King’s Bastion. I gained the summit<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[212]</span>
+of one of the green mounds which once were citadel,
+bastion, ramparts, and glacis. “Here,” I could say with
+Parkman, “stood Louisbourg; and not all the efforts of
+its conquerors, nor all the havoc of succeeding times, have
+availed to efface it. Men in hundreds toiled for months,
+toiled with lever, spade, and gunpowder, in the work of
+destruction, and for more than a century it has served as
+a stone quarry; but the remains of its vast defences still
+tell their tale of human valour and human woe.” A cow,
+a few lean sheep, a little group of fishermen’s children,
+are all that infest the spot and unwittingly consort with
+the spirits of the past. Here, at a charge of ten millions
+sterling, the most celebrated contemporary military engineers
+of France had reared a fortress without parallel in the New
+World. Within its ramparts dwelt some 10,000 souls.
+On this barren, wind-swept point, nestled a busy town
+behind sheltering walls, crowned by a citadel and adorned
+by lofty buildings. Here numerous regiments in the
+white-coated uniform of France, naval officers, monks,
+missionaries, mingled with the fisherfolk and the New
+England traders. To-day all is silence and desolation.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly seven miles in circumference is Louisbourg
+Harbour, whose mouth is so blocked with reefs and islands
+that the entrance is hardly above half a mile wide. This
+was commanded by Goat Island carrying an effective
+battery. For a distance of several miles westward the
+shores of the Bay of Gabarus offered a stern and precipitous
+natural barrier to the foe, broken here and there by
+entrenched caves or inlets. Breastworks formed of wooden
+stakes also help to prevent a landing. I strolled over<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[213]</span>
+the uneven turf with feelings of deep emotion. It is
+still easy to trace the lines of the fortifications, to mark
+the sites of the buildings, and the lines of the chief streets.
+In the Rue du Roy I picked up a fragment of a French
+ramrod; and a fisherman offered me a French wine-bottle
+of curious shape he had found in the cellar of the
+Governor’s house. Grape-shot and bullets still strew
+the site. But only too well did the victors do their work
+of demolition. For six months soldiers and sailors toiled
+at the task, and the remnants of two bastions, with bomb-proof
+casements, a heap of stones here, a pile of bricks
+there, are all that remain, On the site of the Intendant’s
+palatial dwelling is the wooden cottage of a fisherman.</p>
+
+<p>In the teeth of a high wind I pushed along the shore
+west of the King’s Bastion. There I saw and felt the
+breastworks of spruce still protruding from the surf-swept
+beach. I saw where Lord Dundonald fell, and where his
+bones now lie, and gazed across to Coromandière Cove to
+the spot where Wolfe landed. The very rock that felt the
+impact of his boat’s prow is still reverently pointed out.</p>
+
+<p>Should not all this theatre of stirring events be preserved
+as historic ground? Its former renown was universal; its
+present oblivion is a national reproach.</p>
+
+<p>I was interested in ascertaining to whom the ground of
+Louisbourg now belongs. Some years ago a claimant
+appeared in the person of a Captain Kenelly, who, purchasing
+the land of certain squatters, proceeded to put his
+own peculiar ideas concerning the preservation of Louisbourg
+into execution. But it is to be feared that the worthy
+captain, besides having no very clear title, was altogether<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[214]</span>
+ill-advised in his proceedings. He even went the length of
+repointing the French masonry, skirting the site of the town
+with a barbed-wire fence, and exacting a fee for admission
+to tourists.</p>
+
+<p>Few are the tourists who penetrate to this spot, and
+those that come hail chiefly from New England. Fifteen
+years ago, on the 150th anniversary of the first capture of
+Louisbourg by Sir William Pepperell, funds were raised
+in Boston for a monument to commemorate the event, and
+a band of pious pilgrims duly established a granite shaft
+on the site of the Dauphin’s Gate. And again, quite
+recently, a large party from Halifax, consisting of members
+of the Halifax Board of Trade (<em>anglicè</em> Chamber of Commerce)
+and their friends, arrived on a holiday excursion,
+bringing with them a brass band. On that deserted Atlantic
+shore, near the forgotten cemetery which holds the graves
+of thousands of French, English, and American dead, there
+floated out on the air the strains of “The Maple Leaf”—the
+first martial music to awaken echoes in this spot for a
+century and a half.</p>
+
+<p>The seafaring Kenelly is dead, his schemes are in abeyance,
+and his title to the land is vigorously disputed.
+Indeed, there seems to be little doubt that the whole site
+of this fortress is Imperial property, and the sooner an
+arrangement is devised which will give Louisbourg into
+the charge of the Battlefields Commission or some body
+appointed to conserve it, the better. It would be an eternal
+reproach to the Dominion if it allows these sacred vestiges
+to be swept from the face of the earth, save for the memorial
+which the piety of Americans have placed on British ground<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[215]</span>
+in memory of the exploit of their forebears. Why should
+we British do less for our victory and our victors? And,
+may I add, for the valour of a defeated foe?</p>
+
+<p>There is much agricultural land hereabouts, chiefly
+cultivated by Highland Scots. “Quaint, indeed, are the
+ways of many of them,” says one traveller, “amusing their
+maxims, and droll their wit.” Can it be that this writer
+forms his notion of Highland drollery from the exhibitions
+of Mr. Harry Lauder? The truth is being forced upon a
+reluctant and prejudiced world that the Scots and the Jews
+are the true humorists of the world, but I do not think that
+humour is typical of the Gaelic folk. Personally I have
+seen none of it in them either in Old World or New, and
+my experience of the “droll Highlanders” of Cape Breton
+is that their ideas of drollery are rather Lancastrian in their
+cold-bloodedness. Hospitable these folk are, doubtless,
+but only upon occasion and when the mood takes them. I
+have heard of a traveller, a mining engineer, whose buggy
+broke down, and who sought in vain for refreshment for
+miles in this part of Cape Breton. “Some bread.” “We’ve
+nae bread.” “Some cheese.” “We’ve nae cheese.” “Some
+water.” “The well’s dried up; try the store.” This was
+a colloquy which took place after a half-a-dozen attempts
+with folk who shook their heads and had “nae English.”
+At the store, as he enumerated each item of his wants, the
+storekeeper looked blank and replied, “We’ve nae call
+for it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Have you no crackers?”</p>
+
+<p>“We’ve nae call for them; there’s some ship’s biscuit
+and some molasses.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[216]</span></p>
+
+<p>Ship’s biscuit and molasses! Hurrah! God’s own
+country! Ship’s biscuit, unless very mouldy, are milk-white;
+molasses is, in respect of its saccharine quality,
+something like honey. So we have come to twenty
+square miles of tillable country not exactly flowing, but in
+one spot oozing, let us say, something resembling milk and
+honey. One wonders, casting an eye over the sun-kissed
+rolling earth, at the quivering pines, birch and beeches, why
+human beings should for so long be content with so small a
+measure of material prosperity as this.</p>
+
+<p>“Them,” says a guide in my ear, “why, them fellows is
+rich. Ain’t they got stockingsful of guineas in their cellars?
+Don’t you waste any pity on them farmers. When they
+ain’t farming they’re fishing, and when they ain’t fishing they
+take a spell o’ mining. They cling to what they get, and,
+barring a little smuggled gin or rum, get their living cheap,
+I tell you.”</p>
+
+<p>The country between Glace Bay and Louisbourg ought
+to be a famous grazing country, especially for sheep.
+The cattle I saw at Mira Bay looked fat and comely, and
+in the western parts of Cape Breton a great sheep-raising
+industry might well be established. When it is understood
+that the food demands of the mining and manufacturing
+population are already far greater than the Nova Scotian
+farmers can supply, it will be seen at once how great is the
+opportunity here to establish a paying market, especially for
+mutton, poultry, vegetables, and dairy products.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-284">
+<img src="images/i-284.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="458">
+<p class="center smcap">Louisbourg—the Obelisk commemorating the First Siege.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>As for sport hereabouts, besides large and small game
+in season, the existence of so many small streams ensures
+an abundance—even a superabundance—of fish. I heard<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[217]</span>
+an angler on the Mira River who, two days before my
+arrival, had caught eighty trout in one day! They were,
+for the most part, useless to him, and he had to leave them
+behind. Such “sport” is bound to pall—one takes refuge
+in the reflection that it cannot last. Cape Breton, like
+Newfoundland, is being discovered by hunters of moose,
+snarers of trout and salmon, and seekers of wild-fowl and
+shore birds from afar, and trains and steamers are pouring
+their human freight into the solitudes of yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>Than a “Sportsman’s Paradise” I know no phrase so
+absurdly abused; but if getting what he wants and all he
+wants in the way of fish and fowl and fauna generally constitutes
+a sportsman’s idea of happiness, I know of no place
+where he can be quite so happy.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[218]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">A NEW INVERNESS</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Skirting</span> the south coast of Cape Breton one comes to one
+of the places where Cape Breton gains an additional island
+by the presence of a narrow water passage between two
+sections of land. In this instance it is the work of man
+and not of nature. As man found Cape Breton, the whole
+four hundred and fifty square miles of water of the great
+interior lake of Cape Breton was by the Little Bras d’Or on
+the north-east coast, so that the early settlers wishing to
+go from the Strait of Canso to Sydney, for example, had
+to go and sail around the Cape Breton coast. This was
+intolerable, considering that at St. Peter’s Bay, a neck of
+land, half a mile wide, alone prevented a south-west passage
+to and from the Bras d’Or, not only a saving of
+hundreds of miles, but an abolition of the risks, sometimes
+serious enough, of navigating the coast. A century ago
+the importance of the scheme to cut a canal across this
+narrow isthmus of St. Peter’s was realised, and in 1825 an
+engineer named Hall surveyed the isthmus and made an
+estimate for the cutting, which, I believe, was done for little
+more than <em>£</em>20,000. Up to that time there had been a
+portage here for very small craft. St. Peter’s was settled
+by the French even before Arichat, and came very near
+being settled as the site of the great French fortress<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[219]</span>
+which was destined for Cape Breton, and which was ultimately
+fixed at Louisbourg. At a spot in the locality
+called Briquerie Point the clay was dry for the brick used
+in building the town of Louisbourg, one of the very bricks
+of which lies before me on the table as I write.</p>
+
+<p>The canal is about 2400 feet long, with a breadth
+of 55 feet, and a depth of 19 feet, debouching at its
+northern end into St. Peter’s inlet, which in turn flows
+into the widest part of the Bras d’Or. Through this canal
+the steamer from Mulgrave passes along the Strait of Canso,
+and through Lennox Passage to St. Peter’s.</p>
+
+<p>The sites of both English and French forts are easily to
+be traced at the present time. The latter, indeed, is close to
+the canal, and the house of the lockmaster is upon it. The
+old earthworks are plainly to be seen, and occasional finds
+of bayonets and other evidences of warfare are made. A
+few years ago a hooped cannon was unearthed, undoubtedly
+belonging to a period long prior to the building of the
+“Port Toulouse” fort here in 1749. It had probably been
+the property of Denys de Fronsac, who had a settlement here
+as long ago as 1636. Fort Granville, used after the English
+occupation of Cape Breton, was on the hill to the east of
+the canal lock. In this locality is Jordan Chapel island,
+where the first chapel for the use of the Micmacs is said to
+have been erected by the French over two centuries ago.
+It is the scene of several interesting legends still related by
+the Indians.</p>
+
+<p>There is good bathing at St. Peter’s, and as a matter of
+course there is every facility for boating, both in the bay and
+the inlet at the other end of the canal. Excellent trout-fishing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[220]</span>
+may be had by going a short distance. Some of the
+best streams are river Tiere and its branches, two miles
+distant; Scott’s River, seven miles; Thom’s Brook, fifteen
+miles; and Grand River, a like distance. There are salmon
+in the last-named river.</p>
+
+<p>A good deal has been said about the indifferent roads
+in Nova Scotia, but those about here are well made,
+and from the nature of the soil do not become muddy.
+Among attractive drives are those to river Bourgeois,
+five miles; and to Grand River along the shore through
+l’Ardoise. A favourite water excursion, on the Bras d’Or
+side, is to the quarries at Marble Mountain, a distance of
+fifteen miles. On the way thither is Point Michaux, or
+Cape Himlopen or Hinchinbroke. It has all three names,
+but is usually known by the first one. Here there is a
+beautiful driving beach, two miles long, and an eighth of
+a mile wide. It is very level, and of such hard, smooth
+sand that the hoofs of the horses make little more impression
+on it.</p>
+
+<p>St. Peter’s Inlet is studded with islands clad in verdure,
+and there are times when the scene is unusually beautiful,
+even for a land of which beauty is everywhere. On a calm
+summer morning, for instance, the peaceful sea is a mirror
+which reflects in rare beauty the red, purple, and golden hues
+which the sunlight gives the hills. On the land the colours
+are strangely bright, while the waters soften and blend the
+whole into a picture which must ever linger in the memory.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-289">
+<img src="images/i-289.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="510">
+<p class="center smcap">La Bras D’Or Lake. (Cape Breton.)</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>St. Peter’s may also be reached from Point Tupper on
+the opposite side of the Strait of Canso, by taking the Cape
+Breton Railway, a journey of thirty-one miles.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[221]</span>
+The tides run through the Strait of Canso at the rate of
+from four to six miles an hour, and they defy the tide-tables
+by rising superior to all rules by which men look for
+tides to be governed. Their course is determined to a
+large extent by the force and direction of the winds outside,
+and they may flow in one direction for days at a time.
+The tourist can tell whether the steamer is going with
+or against the tide by watching the spar buoys and noting
+the direction in which they point.</p>
+
+<p>Arichat, situated on Isle Madame, with about seven
+hundred souls, was formerly the seat of the Bishop of
+Arichat, until the see was removed to Antigonish. It
+is built on high ground, and has a fine harbour. There
+is another good harbour at West Arichat. The situation
+of the island makes the climate delightfully cool
+in the warmest of weather. This place was one of the
+important stations of the Jersey fishing houses, and the
+Robins still have an establishment here. In the township
+are many Acadian French, some of the families having
+come here from Grand Pré at the time of the dispersion.
+Houses are easily procured at Arichat by those who wish
+to reside here during the summer, and several Americans
+have been regular visitors for years, making the village a
+centre from which to take various trips through the
+surrounding country.</p>
+
+<p>So far I have spoken of the middle and the eastern
+Cape Breton. But there is, as the map will show you,
+another side, the western, where is situated the county of
+Inverness, whose coast-line stretches from St. George’s Bay
+northward to Cape Lawrence, All this region settled by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[222]</span>
+Highlanders and French has been only recently opened up
+by the Inverness Railway, a line built to tap the great
+coal deposits in the vicinity of Port Hood, Mabou and
+Broad Cove. This line starts from the Intercolonial Railway
+at Point Tupper, and has opened up a fine piece of
+farming country, and provided a winter outlet for the
+large quantities of coal being produced at Port Hood and
+Inverness. The road follows the coast-line for the entire
+distance from Port Hastings to Inverness, and an exceedingly
+fine panorama of land and sea is disclosed to the
+view. A daily passenger service has been inaugurated,
+connection with the Intercolonial being made at Point
+Tupper.</p>
+
+<p>A steamer runs from Mulgrave to Port Hood, a distance
+of twenty-six miles, on regular days of each week.
+Port Hood is near the entrance to the Bay, and from there
+the journey may be continued to Mabou, Inverness,
+Margaree Harbour, and Cheticamp. My solitary fellow
+passenger was a gentleman from Antigonish, whom I neither
+flatter nor depreciate when I say he was the most typical
+Highlander I have ever seen. Tall and spare, with florid
+skin and high cheek-bones, and hair and beard which a
+decade ago or so must have been violently red, the beard
+jutting out in true Highland aggressiveness, it was something
+of a surprise to me to find that he did not say
+“whateffer,” and an eternal disappointment that he spoke
+anything but Gaelic. But indeed he had the Highland
+brevity of speech, and glowered about him from under his
+bushy eyebrows much as such a man should properly glower
+when in kilts, and with a claymore in his hand.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[223]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Who is that man?” I asked the conductor of the
+train.</p>
+
+<p>“That—oh, that’s old MacTavish.”</p>
+
+<p>“I knew it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then what did you ask for?”</p>
+
+<p>“I mean, I knew he must be a MacTavish. I was
+afraid you would tell me he was a Mr. Tompkins of
+Boston. He seems preoccupied.”</p>
+
+<p>“Occupied? Aye, he’s a busy man is Senator
+MacTavish.”</p>
+
+<p>I could not restrain a start of surprise. In the old
+days, a couple of centuries ago, in the old and real Inverness
+country, this man would have been a chieftain of
+freebooters and cattle-lifters, and doubtless played his part
+as deftly, as daring, and as dourly as under the changed
+conditions of our modern civilisation he plays it now.
+Afterwards, I had some conversation with Mr. MacTavish,
+and not once I am glad to say did he abandon his character
+or fall away from the high opinion I had formed of him
+at sight. I only mention this trifling <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">rencontre</i>, because
+shortly after my return to England, I read a telegraphic
+despatch in the <em>Times</em> to the effect that “Senator X. Y.
+MacTavish has been appointed to”—well, to very high
+office.</p>
+
+<p>The train has arrived at Port Hood, which is the county
+town of Inverness. There are not many of the amenities
+of life here, and one could not reasonably expect more,
+because the two thousand souls here are in the swirl and
+centre of the Port Hood coal boom. The property worked
+at present by the company is on the coast, sixteen square<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[224]</span>
+miles in extent, and there are two principal seams, some
+seven or eight feet thick, supposed to contain nearly
+150,000,000 tons of coal, which are being mined at the
+rate of some 500 tons a day. Yet Port Hood is already
+looking up as a summer resort, and many denizens of towns
+and cities who wish to leave the beaten track have fixed
+upon this place and its picturesque environs as a capital
+centre for boating, fishing, and bathing.</p>
+
+<p>Coal is the great factor of Cape Breton, and it would
+make a Londoner’s mouth water to see how cheap and
+accessible it is. There are places where, as has been said, a
+man can, without leaving his farm, go down to the seashore
+and dig his winter’s coal as easily as he digs his
+potatoes. Coal in abundance is frequently struck in digging
+for fence posts, and around Port Hood in Inverness county
+you are sure to strike it if your spade goes deep enough.</p>
+
+<p>There are a couple of islands off Port Hood, one of
+which had a great interest for me. It is called Smith’s
+Island; that this is no arbitrary title will be gathered from
+the fact that of the fifteen families on Smith’s Island,
+thirteen are Smiths. But then, of course, Smith is almost
+as much Highland as MacGregor. These thirteen families
+of Smith have divided the 500 acres of the island into farms,
+producing four or five tons of hay to the acre, root crops,
+and maize. Each family goes in for sheep-rearing, and
+there are fifty or sixty cows besides. But this does not
+exhaust the resources of the Smiths; they are fishermen,
+and make use of the fish offal as manure, which practically
+accounts for the land’s fertility, and there is a flourishing
+business in lobster canning. The fish caught is not dried<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[225]</span>
+exclusively, as was formerly the case, but a proportion of it
+is shipped fresh in government bait freezers and refrigerator
+cars, a system which is happily coming into vogue throughout
+Maritime Canada. Now I feel sure that if a similar colony
+of Browns, Jones, and Robinsons would emigrate and settle
+on Outer or any of the other islands about the coast, a like
+prosperity awaits them.</p>
+
+<p>From Port Hood the railway goes on northward to
+Mabou, and to still further coal-fields. Beautifully situated
+is Mabou on a stream a few miles from Mabou harbour,
+and there is an abundance of trout fishing hereabouts.
+Past Mabou the line skirts Lake Ainslee, the largest
+freshwater lake in Cape Breton.</p>
+
+<p>Inverness, now the chief town of Western Cape Breton
+Island, is only about a decade old. In 1900 the population
+was less than 100. In 1911 it had nearly 3000 souls.</p>
+
+<p>The locality was formerly known as “Broad Cove
+Mines,” or “Loch Leven,” and it was originally the
+“Shean.” “Shean” means, I was told, the “home of the
+fairies.” It nestles under the towering heights of lofty Cape
+Mabou, close to the waters of the gulf.</p>
+
+<p>The inhabitants of Inverness are already infected with
+the spirit of enterprise, and have a gude conceit of themsel’.
+Take the following description by a local writer:—“Looking
+down upon this site, the town of Inverness,
+much like a picture on the bottom of a piece of eighteenth
+century crockery ware, you behold by night the electrically
+bejewelled homeplace of about 4000 souls; by day you
+note that the erstwhile fir-thatched roof of the home of
+the fairies is covered over with workshop and cottage,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[226]</span>
+bank-head and power-house, halls, schools, and churches, the
+homeplace of the modern fairy and his co-workers in other
+avocations—the homeplace of the hard-working, thrifty,
+fearless and frugal coal-miner and his family.”</p>
+
+<p>Is not that wonderful? And yet there are people—even
+Canadians—who say Nova Scotia is not going ahead
+fast enough!</p>
+
+<p>From Cheticamp, where is an old establishment of the
+Jersey fishing firms, the coast becomes higher, barer, and
+more rugged, and more dangerous to mariners, until Cape
+Lawrence is reached. Of this coast it was said long ago:
+“The north-west storms of November and December hurry
+many a vessel on to this long straight lee-shore, where the
+wretched crews, even if they effect a landing, wander in
+ignorance of the course to be taken, until their limbs are
+frozen, and they are obliged to resign themselves to their
+fate. In some instances they have succeeded in reaching the
+settlements to the southward, though eventually with the
+loss of hands and feet. Often, however, the only record of
+their distress is the discovery of their bones, whitening on
+the shore.” I am glad to say these tragedies are very infrequent
+nowadays, owing to a greater knowledge of the
+coast and the interior, and also to the existence of settlements
+hereabouts. The northern extremity of the island
+is only eight miles wide, that being the distance between
+Cape St. Lawrence and Cape North, the intervening shore
+forming a crescent, the land southwards sloping down to
+the water, and sheltered by the two capes. It is said to be
+of good quality, and, indeed, agriculture and grazing are
+not neglected there.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[227]</span></p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-298">
+<img src="images/i-298.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="526">
+<p class="center smcap">Landscape near Stellarton.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>Cape North has been called the Watch Tower of the
+Gulf of St. Lawrence, but this was before the Straits of
+Belle Isle came to be so generally used. It is the northernmost
+bulwark of New Scotland, a promontory two miles
+wide, extending four miles into Cabot Strait.</p>
+
+<p>Who, standing on the promontory of Cape North, can
+look unmoved on that terrible island of St. Paul, which
+looms up ten miles to the north-east? This barren, rocky
+isle shares with Cape Sable the infamy of having been the
+grave of thousands of brave men. St. Paul, since the
+erection of a suitable lighthouse, has been largely robbed of
+its terrors for the living, but nothing can blot out the
+memory of the past. I have now all but completed my
+itinerary of New Scotland. From one extremity of the
+peninsula to the other had I travelled and remarked the
+people and the prospect. There is still an important corner,
+where it joins the New Brunswick mainland, undescribed.
+Let us retrace our steps.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[228]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">AMHERST</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Once</span> again we approach a district of memories—the seat
+of the long feud between French and English for the
+mastery of Acadia.</p>
+
+<p>In the county of Cumberland, on the south-western
+side of the narrow isthmus severing the Bay of Fundy from
+Northumberland Straits, and on the edge of the Province,
+surrounded by marshes, is the small and flourishing town
+of Amherst. Flourishes indeed, blossoms all the year
+round with an unconquerable prosperity—-the very type
+of “hustling,” boosting, busy little town one sees in the
+West, resolved never to look backward, and Mark Tapley
+like, to be cheerful and smiling under any and all circumstances.
+Such is the little town on the little Amherst
+River, named after the victor of Montreal, to whom the
+French surrendered Canada. “Busy Amherst,” as it likes
+to proclaim itself, even on the sign at the railway station.</p>
+
+<p>Amherst, I was told, “claimed a population of 8000.”
+The “claim” really turned out to be short of the truth,
+perhaps to the surprise of Moncton and Frederickton across
+the border. For after all, had it been an exaggeration, one
+sees it is only a cheerful symptom and aspiration of growth.
+Here you find growth must not be spiritual, or intellectual,
+or artistic, but material. For has not the great apostle of
+Imperialism in our time told Canada, “Get population and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[229]</span>
+all these things will be added unto you.” Of what value
+are the doubters here? And with what perplexity would
+an Amherstian hearken to the plaint my ears have heard in
+many English towns and villages, “Alas, I fear the town is
+growing. It is no longer what it was.” The vain sighers
+after a London or a Bexborough, “small, white, and clean,”
+would meet with scant sympathy in Amherst. But
+Amherst is still only in the first stages of its journey,
+and it is still, with all its aspirations towards Pittsburg
+or Lowell, still a pleasant country town filled with a
+pleasant people intensely attached to Amherst. Even
+politics are not taken seriously, otherwise how account
+for that bewildering phenomenon which met my eyes on
+the second floor of a handsome building in the heart of
+the town. Can you conceive of Mr. Pott of the <cite>Eatanswill
+Gazette</cite> and the editor of the <cite>Independent</cite> of the same
+town, not merely dwelling in unity under the same roof,
+but holding forth in the same office, even going to the
+incredible extent of assisting one another in the stress of
+production! Yet this is the case of the editors of the
+<cite>Amherst News</cite>, a Liberal organ, and the <cite>Amherst Courier</cite>, a
+Conservative organ. What a lesson in professional amity!
+It is not as if party feeling did not run high in the press of
+Nova Scotia. Alas, it runs as high and as tempestuously
+as ever it did at Eatanswill, if one is to judge from the
+columns of the two rival Halifax papers. One can imagine
+the weary editor of the <cite>News</cite> saying one evening to the
+editor of the <cite>Courier</cite>, “My dear sir, <em>would</em> you mind
+finishing this editorial for me? I am sorry I must run
+away to keep an appointment. Just go on from this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[230]</span>
+sentence:—‘Borden, the leader of a discredited, disheartened,
+and disorganised gang of Tory office-seekers, is
+endeavouring to fling his disgraceful wiles over the Western
+farmers, but....’” “I’ll do it with pleasure,” returns the
+editor of the <cite>Courier</cite>. “Leave it to me, I see the point,”
+and taking up a pen he continues tranquilly, “but as the
+<em>News</em> has long since pointed out in our merciless exposé of
+Tory methods and Tory prevarication, these tactics are only
+laughed at by the sturdy commonsense yeomen of Manitoba,
+Saskatchewan,” &amp;c., &amp;c. Or, if it is the other way about,
+the <em>News</em> man boldly (but merely professionally) declares in
+the columns of the <cite>Courier</cite> that “Laurier and his renegade
+troop may extract what satisfaction they like from the
+howls and cheers of their Yankee, Armenian, Hungarian,
+and Doukhobor supporters in the north-west who masquerade
+as loyal Britons and Free-traders, but who, as we
+have so often shown,” &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>And upon reflection I am inclined to suspect that even
+at Halifax, in the very thick of the party heat and storm,
+the rival editors are not quite as truculent and vindictive
+as one might gather from their charges and imputations;
+although perhaps nothing short of necessity—such for
+example as a loaded pistol at his head—would induce the
+editor of the <cite>Chronicle</cite> to edit the <cite>Herald</cite>, or vice versa. But,
+you see, the Amherst editors are too busy booming their
+town to regard Dominion or Provincial politics as anything
+but an intellectual or social diversion. No one would
+credit the articles they write about Amherst—Amherst’s
+yesterday a good deal, Amherst’s to-day a great deal,
+Amherst’s to-morrow a very great deal, I assure you....</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[231]</span></p>
+
+<p>Among the chief establishments here are car works,
+engine and machine works, a large boot and shoe factory,
+woollen mills, a coffin factory (fancy anything so suggestive
+of mortality being associated with Amherst!), an iron
+foundry, planing-mills, and saw-mills. Amherst seems to
+have solved the problem of cheap power, being the first
+to prove the practicability of Edison’s notion of power
+supplied direct from the mine. An enterprising company
+here was the first on the Continent to fix a plant for the
+generation of electricity at the mouth of a coal-mine, for
+the purpose of distributing power to distant industries that
+require it, and it is to be hoped that Amherst will ultimately
+avail itself to the full of the advantages such
+enterprise offers. The great power plant is situated at the
+mouth of the Chignecto mines, about six miles from the
+town. Coal from the shovels of the miners is carried in
+cars to the surface and dumped into the screens, and the
+screenings, hitherto looked upon as almost waste, are carried
+in endless conveyors to immense bins, from whence they are
+fed through chutes to the furnaces. With fuel so close at
+hand, requiring no second handling, it is possible to generate
+power at a low cost and transmit it to a territory included
+in a radius of several square miles. The successful inauguration
+of this experiment elicited a prompt telegram of
+congratulation from the great Edison.</p>
+
+<p>It is worthy of remark that there is no vertical shaft at
+Chignecto. The coal is hauled up a “slope,” in trucks
+containing 1500 lbs. each, by a cable. When the trucks
+reach the surface they continue the journey upon a similar
+slope in the open air (built like a toboggan slide), until<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[232]</span>
+they reach the top of the bank-head. Here an elaborate
+system of trucks and switches sends each truck exactly where
+it is wanted, and its contents are mechanically dumped into
+rockers and over screens, which accomplish marvels in the
+way of “natural selection” before the good coal reaches the
+railway cars below, waiting to receive it. The final process,
+however, is an expert system of hand-picking, by which
+slates and other impurities are removed without stopping
+the progress of the coal for an instant. The slack or culm
+is mechanically carried to holders in the boiler-room by
+endless conveyors, where it is conveyed by gravitation to
+mechanical stokers, thus obviating the necessity of the fuel
+being handled in any way by human labour.</p>
+
+<p>More substantial new buildings, either of brick or freestone,
+are built every year in Amherst—the freestone here
+being much in demand for building in other and distant
+parts of Canada. I do not think the private residences
+exhibit a very high taste, but they compare favourably
+with those of other parts of the Province. Nova Scotia, as
+I have already more than hinted, is, with all its natural
+beauties, hardly an architectural paradise.</p>
+
+<p>The country surrounding Amherst is flat and marshy,
+but interesting, both scenically and historically. A century
+and a half ago Amherst was the French Acadian settlement
+of Beaubassin, and who that has ever read Parkman’s
+narrative can forget Fort Lawrence and Beauséjour?</p>
+
+<p>When Louisbourg and Cape Breton were restored to
+France by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, the
+British Government sought to offset this blunder by the
+English settlement of Nova Scotia. A proclamation was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[233]</span>
+issued offering all officers and private men retired from the
+army or navy, and to many others, a free passage to Nova
+Scotia, besides supporting them for a year after landing, and
+giving them arms, ammunition, and a grant of land to build
+a dwelling. Parliament having voted £40,000, in the summer
+of 1749 more than 2500 settlers, with their families, arrived
+at Chebucto, forthwith rechristened in honour of the Earl
+of Halifax.</p>
+
+<p>The commander of the expedition and the chief of the
+new colony was Colonel Edward Cornwallis, a man both
+able and lovable. One of Cornwallis’s first cares was this
+very Acadian district of Beaubassin.</p>
+
+<p>Some 13,000 Frenchmen were at this time settled in
+some ten villages in Acadia. To the northward the French
+had built a fort of five bastions, which they called Beauséjour,
+and another one much similar at Baie Verte. Their
+idea was to keep up communication with Louisbourg until
+they could strike a blow against the English and get back
+Acadia again into their own hands.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after Cornwallis’s arrival he issued a proclamation
+in French and English to the French Acadians calling upon
+them to assist his new settlers. He did not fail to remind
+them that while they had so long enjoyed possession of their
+lands and the free exercise of their religion, they had been
+secretly aiding King George’s enemies. But this would be
+condoned if they would at once take the oath of allegiance
+as British subjects.</p>
+
+<p>It was at Fort Beauséjour that the priestly fanatic Le
+Loutre laboured to create dissatisfaction and sow the seeds
+of revolt amongst the thrifty, ignorant Acadians, who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[234]</span>
+otherwise would have been happy and contented. Their
+minds filled with Le Loutre’s threats and promises, they
+refused to take the oath of allegiance, and even to supply
+the English settlers with labour, timber, or provisions,
+though good prices for these were offered. Cornwallis
+warned them. “You will allow yourselves,” he said, “to
+be led away by people who find it to their interest to lead
+you astray. It is only out of pity for your situation and
+your inexperience in the ways of government that we condescend
+to reason with you, otherwise the question would
+not be reasoning, but commanding and being obeyed.”</p>
+
+<p>He told them that they had been for more than thirty-four
+years the subjects of the King of Great Britain. “Show
+now that you are grateful for his favours and ready to serve
+your King when your services are required. Manage to let
+me have here, in ten days, fifty of your people to assist the
+poor to build their houses to shelter them from the bad
+weather. They shall be paid in ready money and fed on
+the King’s provisions.”</p>
+
+<p>Le Loutre, disregarding all this warning and exhortation,
+aroused the native Indians of the province, the
+Micmacs, against the English newcomers. He despatched
+them stealthily to slay and to destroy. Twenty Englishmen
+were surprised and captured at Canso while gathering hay.
+Eight Indians, pretending to barter furs, went on board
+two English ships and tried to surprise them. Several
+of the sailors were killed. A sawmill had been built near
+Halifax. Six unsuspecting men went out unarmed to
+hew some timber. Of these four were killed and scalped,
+and one was captured. So frequent became the Indian<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[235]</span>
+attacks that the men of Halifax formed themselves into a
+militia, and a sentry paced the streets every night. Cornwallis
+offered £100 for the head of Le Loutre. Ten guineas
+were offered for an Indian, living or dead, or for his scalp.</p>
+
+<p>To build a fort to counterbalance the Fort Beauséjour
+of the French was imperative. The latter was situated on
+the western bank of a little stream called the Missaguash,
+which the French claimed as the boundary between Canada
+and Acadia. Opposite, near Beaubassin, Colonel Lawrence
+was sent with 400 men to build the English fort. Le
+Loutre and his Acadians did their utmost to prevent the
+English landing and building the fort, which was christened
+Fort Lawrence. The commander of this post, Captain
+Howe, reasoned with the stubborn Acadians, many of
+whom perceived the good sense of his arguments and acknowledged
+his good influence. One bright autumn day
+a Frenchman in the dress of an officer advanced to the
+opposite side of the stream waving a white handkerchief.
+Howe, ever polite, advanced to meet him. As he
+did so, some Indians, who were in ambuscade pointed their
+guns at him and shot him dead. La Corne, the French
+commandant, was filled with shame and horror at this
+dastardly murder. He would like to have got rid of
+Le Loutre, but the priest was too strong for him. His
+influence with the Quebec authorities was great, and the
+Acadian people dreaded Le Loutre’s fierce anger.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding, there were a number of Acadians who
+consented to take the oath of allegiance to King George.
+When the French Governor at Quebec was apprised of
+this he issued a proclamation that all Acadians must<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[236]</span>
+either swear loyalty to France and be enrolled in the
+Canadian militia, or suffer the penalty of fire and sword.
+By way of rejoinder, the English Governor of Nova Scotia
+declared that if any Acadian taking the oath of allegiance
+to King George should afterwards be found fighting
+amongst the French soldiers, he would be shot. Thus
+were the unhappy Acadians between two fires. A considerable
+number removed their settlements to the Canadian
+side of the boundary. Some travelled even as far as
+Quebec. But the majority who remained continued to
+cause great anxiety to the English authorities in Nova
+Scotia.</p>
+
+<p>In 1754 the French contemplated an invasion of Nova
+Scotia, much to the alarm of Halifax, knowing that in the
+absence of the English fleet Louisbourg could send a force
+in a few hours to overrun the country. Were not the
+Acadians there to furnish provisions to the French invaders,
+and in forty-eight hours 15,000 armed Acadians could be
+collected at Fort Beauséjour. The outlying English forts
+would be destroyed, and Halifax starved into surrender.
+With New Scotland reduced, New England would be the
+next victim. Lawrence and Governor Shirley of Massachusetts,
+taking counsel together, resolved to strike a blow
+instantly before troops from France or Quebec could arrive,
+and drive the French out of the isthmus. Two thousand
+men were raised, and the command given to an English
+officer, Colonel Monckton. On the 1st June 1755 the
+English war-party arrived here in Chignecto Bay.</p>
+
+<p>As commandant at Fort Beauséjour one Vergor had
+succeeded La Corne. When he saw the English ships<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[237]</span>
+approach, Vergor issued a proclamation to the neighbouring
+Acadians to hasten to his defence. Fifteen hundred
+responded, and three hundred of these he took into the
+fort. The others he ordered to retire into the woods and
+stealthily harass the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>When the bombardment was at its height, and Vergor
+was hourly expecting help from Louisbourg, a letter arrived
+to say that assistance could not come from that quarter.
+An English squadron was cruising in front of Louisbourg
+harbour, and the French frigates were thereby prevented
+from putting out to sea.</p>
+
+<p>The Acadians became disheartened, and in spite of
+threats deserted by dozens. One morning at breakfast a
+shell from an English mortar crashed through the ceiling
+of a casemate, killing three French officers and an English
+captain who had been taken prisoner. Vergor saw that he
+had begun to strengthen his fort too late. There was now
+no hope—the guns of the English were too near. He despatched
+a flag of truce and surrendered Fort Beauséjour.</p>
+
+<p>Having got Fort Beauséjour (renamed Fort Cumberland)
+into his hands, Monckton summoned another French
+stronghold at Baie Verte to surrender. The commandant
+complied, and the campaign was over. The danger to
+English settlers in Nova Scotia was removed for ever.</p>
+
+<p>From the portals of the excellently appointed Marshland
+Club in Amherst I set out in a Canadian-built car
+with a friend, an ex-member of the Dominion Parliament,
+to pay a visit to Fort Lawrence and Fort Beauséjour—household
+words to a Canadian boy versed in even the
+rudiments of his country’s stirring history. We had some<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[238]</span>
+difficulty in finding the exact site of Colonel Lawrence’s
+fort, which has wholly disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>Yet odd to relate, a prosperous farmer named Lawrence
+occupies the ground, and upon the site of the old commandant’s
+house his dwelling is built. At the time of
+my visit a youth was actively engaged with a scythe in
+a field where Lawrence’s artillery was placed, the breastworks
+having long been levelled. Bullets and other relics
+were occasionally picked up. A couple of the cannon I
+afterwards saw in use as gate-posts before a private house
+in Amherst. My friend deplored with me the indifference
+of the New Scotlanders, and especially the people of
+Amherst, to their historic shrines—the spots where the
+deeds in Canada’s story were wrought which make of
+the Canadian people a free people to-day. I was delighted
+to hear him say, “Every stone, every brick, belonging to
+our days of struggle should be a priceless memento—worth
+its weight in gold.” For I knew that when such sentiment
+finds utterance on the lips of one good man the root of
+the matter is there, the idea will flourish, and the fruit
+will in good season appear.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-312">
+<img src="images/i-312.jpg" alt="" width="625" height="650">
+<p class="center smcap">The Site of Fort Lawrence.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>On we went to Beauséjour, on the other side of the
+Missaguash. Here ruins very similar to those at Louisbourg
+meet the eye, solid casements and bastions which
+have resisted the tooth of time, and where now cattle
+browse peacefully. One of the longest structures, the
+Governor’s house, solidly built of stone, is now a veritable
+cattle-shed, in which I counted ten cows herded closely
+together. But the view across the marshes and Cumberland
+Basin, across to the Elysian fields and the distant<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[239]</span>
+Cobequid mountains, was entrancing. The foreground was
+bathed in golden sunshine, the background seemed pale
+purple, as of a mist, while overhead mighty picturesque
+masses of creamy cumulus cloud rolled like a full sail
+of some divine argosy. A great dismantled wooden
+mansion, built in pretentious Georgian style, caught my
+eye a stone-throw from the fort, dating probably from the
+Fort Cumberland period, and I bent my steps towards it.</p>
+
+<p>I have never before viewed such complete desolation
+and decay, the result merely of age and neglect, and not
+of fire or earthquake. One step within the portals convinced
+me that to venture further would be to endanger
+life and to invite the instant collapse of the whole edifice,
+whose every beam and rafter trembled on the brink of utter
+destruction. And yet because the house, though expensively
+built, was built of wood, there was nothing venerable
+about it or dignified—it rather inspired contempt, as of a
+dissipated old rogue, whose vices had wrecked his constitution,
+and was ready to tumble into the gutter. Eager as I
+am for the preservation of ancient monuments, it was with
+something like relief that I reflected that this rollicking old
+ruin was on the other side of the New Scotland frontier.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty miles from Amherst is Joggins, the centre of
+the Cumberland county coal-fields, which begin at Maccan.
+I have not the slightest idea who Joggins was, but I feel
+certain that were he alive to-day he would have every
+reason to feel proud of the growth and prosperity of his
+name-place. The output of coal here is very large. The
+Joggins shore extends along Chignecto Bay, with imposing
+cliffs, occasionally three or four hundred feet high. Here<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[240]</span>
+are exposed some wonderful petrified forests and sections of
+carboniferous strata, which have been visited and described
+by scientists of such eminence as Sir Charles Lyell, Sir
+William Dawson, and Sir William Logan.</p>
+
+<p>The coal area extends inland without a break forty or
+fifty miles to the neighbourhood of Oxford, the most
+important colliery being at Springhill, where the annual
+output is over half a million tons.</p>
+
+<p>From an old resident I got an interesting purview of
+this part of New Scotland in the early ‘60’s. Half a century
+ago the whole district, from the mouth of the river Philip
+to the upper waters of that river, was known as “River
+Philip.” Neighbouring settlements bore distinctive names,
+such as “Mount Pleasant,” now Centreville, “Moores,”
+now Rockley, “Goose River,” now Linden, and “Little
+River,” which still retains its name.</p>
+
+<p>Four post-offices, kept generally in trunks, served the
+commercial and social wants of the whole length of the
+river. They were listed as “Mouth of the River,” somewhere
+on the post road between Pugwash and Amherst.
+“Head of Tide,” now Oxford. “River Philip Corner,”
+where the old road from Amherst to Londonderry crosses
+the river, and “Upper River Philip,” where at that time
+one Rufus Black, one of Samuel Slick’s hosts, carried
+on an extensive lumbering and mercantile business. There
+were no railways nearer than Truro on the one side
+and Moncton on the other. The only prophetic suggestion
+of the present Intercolonial Railway was a stretch of
+embankment somewhere on the Nappan marshes, which
+had been thrown up in some spasmodic, perhaps electioneering,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[241]</span>
+effort, in the days when Joseph Howe was strenuously
+contending for an “Inter-Provincial,” “All British” line
+from Halifax to Quebec.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-315">
+<img src="images/i-315.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="340">
+<p class="center smcap">On its last legs—Cumberland House, near Amherst, N.S.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>What is now the town of Springhill, with a population
+of 5700, was then a sparsely-settled farming district on the
+foothills of the mountain, with, perhaps, ten or fifteen
+farm residences in the whole section, the most important of
+which was the old “Nathan Boss” place, as a stopping-place
+on the road between river Philip and Parrsboro,
+where travellers frequently took passage by sailing packet,
+from Parrsboro to Windsor, and thence to Halifax by rail.</p>
+
+<p>At Springhill, the coal areas, then almost unknown and
+undeveloped, were held by the “Old English Mining
+Association.” One pit, or more correctly speaking, a hole
+in the ground, was operated in a small way, the coal being
+raised by horse-power and distributed to consumers in
+adjacent districts by horse and cart. The thing was but an
+experiment, and the consumption, even for a small district,
+was very limited, as the best of hard wood existed in
+abundance for fuel.</p>
+
+<p>At Athol one may motor or take a regular stage-coach
+across the isthmus by a beautiful road to Parrsboro on the
+Basin of Minas, or one may take the Cumberland Railway
+at Springhill Junction, distant thirty-two miles from Parrsboro.
+I found Parrsboro but little changed from my last
+visit. To my mind it is one of the pleasantest little towns
+in the whole of Nova Scotia, and is visited by many
+summer tourists who appreciate the fishing, shooting,
+boating, and beautiful scenery to be had hereabouts. The
+harbour is sheltered by Partridge Island, a pleasant headland<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[242]</span>
+hard by, upon which a hotel is built, and from which
+there are pretty views of the Basin and neighbourhood.
+Parrsboro is a lumber port, handling nearly all the product
+of the southern forests of Cumberland as Pugwash does
+on the north. To the north and west of Parrsboro some
+of the best moose hunting in New Scotland is to be had,
+while partridge, geese, brant ducks, and other marine birds
+are abundant. A few miles behind me the Cobequid Hills,
+a long range running east and west from Cape Chignecto
+to north of Cobequid Bay.</p>
+
+<p>From Parrsboro, where there is a good deal of shipping,
+a steamer plies across the Basin of Minas to Kingsport,
+Hantsport, and Windsor, and another to St. John. Indeed
+it is only eight or ten miles across the Basin, whereas it is
+ten times that distance round by land.</p>
+
+<p>On my return journey to Halifax, I must not forget
+to record that I enjoyed the privilege of a spirited conversation
+in pidgin English with a Canton Chinaman, who
+smoked a large cigar, and wore a queue under his Panama hat.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-319">
+<img src="images/i-319.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="508">
+<p class="center smcap">A Fine Catch near the Mira River.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>Odd as this Far East of Canada seems as a habitat for
+Chinamen, yet there is hardly a town or village where Wun
+Lung, or Sam Kee, or John Sing has not penetrated, and set
+up his peculiar and odoriferous little establishment for the
+destruction of linen. It is one of the curiosities of industry
+why the Chinese should have taken to this particular
+occupation. It began in the Far West, when the affluent
+miner and rancher, discovering the merits of a boiled shirt on
+Sundays, and that a glazed front and collar is an additional
+mark of gentility, sent his linen all the way to ‘Frisco.
+Then up rose the wily heathen to hit upon another use for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[243]</span>
+the rice flour of his native larder, and thereby gratify, at ten
+cents the garment, the vanity of the early Argonauts. The
+art he communicated to others of his race, it spread north,
+south, east, and west, and in the process of time one hundred
+thousand flat-irons were actuating from Los Angeles to
+Labrador. Thus was the immediate industrial future of
+the invading Mongol assured.</p>
+
+<p>The Legislature was not in session at the time of my
+visit to Halifax. But I met in a friendly way many of the
+legislators, and I learnt a good deal of the local needs, real
+or fancied, which agitate this community and all other
+communities on the face of the earth, but which are of
+little interest to the outside world. Considering that the
+population of the Province is only half a million souls, the
+machinery of government would seem somewhat cumbrous.
+First of all, Nova Scotia sends 20 members to the Federal
+House of Commons at Ottawa, and 10 members to the
+Senate. The Provincial Parliament consists of 38 members:
+there is a Legislative Council of 21 members and an Executive
+Council of 10 members. Moreover, there is a system
+of local government operating in the eighteen counties.</p>
+
+<p>The Federal Parliament alone deals with such important
+matters as revenue duties, railway grants, the judiciary and
+the postal system, leaving to the Halifax Legislature the
+schools, public roads and bridges, local railways, and the
+royalties on minerals owned by the Province. The County
+and Township Councils regulate the taxation for roads,
+schools, and other purposes, every citizen directly voting
+his own taxation, although such taxes are supplemented by
+grants from the Provincial Government, which has a unique
+and perennial source of wealth in the mining royalties.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[244]</span></p>
+
+<p>Although the Legislature and Council is so numerous,
+the real labour of the Executive really falls upon two or
+three pairs of shoulders—chiefly those of the Premier and
+the Attorney-General and the Commissioner of Works and
+Mines. Although the Hon. George Henry Murray, K.C.,
+is only fifty, he has been the First Minister of the Crown
+in New Scotland for sixteen years, succeeding Mr. Fielding
+when the latter joined the Laurier Cabinet in 1896. Mr.
+Murray is one of those politicians who, like his party chief,
+Sir Wilfrid Laurier, exhibits prudence and probity in power,
+and having the honour of his country at heart fully enjoys
+the confidence of the people.</p>
+
+<p>Under his political leadership, which is not likely to be
+disturbed, save by considerations of health, now, I was glad
+to find, no longer imminent, the fortunes of both land and
+people are certain to advance hopefully into the future.</p>
+
+<p>Considering its unrivalled water-power facilities, New
+Scotland might easily become a great manufacturing country,
+as New England has long been. Manufacturing has made
+considerable progress in recent years; but the Province
+only occupies the third place in manufactures, Ontario
+and Quebec far outstripping her. There are now some
+twelve hundred establishments, with a total capital, including
+lands, building, machinery and motive power, tools
+and implements, and working capital, of 34,586,416 dollars,
+paying out 4,395,618 dollars in wages to 21,010 men,
+women, and children.<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">[23]</a> Nova Scotia puts a very small tax on its industries. The total provincial
+and municipal taxes on manufacturing industries in the census year
+were but 73,276 dollars, and of this only 2566 dollars augmented the revenue
+of the Province.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[245]</span></p>
+
+<p>The products of Nova Scotia’s manufactories were
+63,700,000 dollars in 1911. These included food products,
+textiles, iron and steel products, paper and printing,
+liquors and beverages, chemicals and allied products, clay,
+glass and stone products, metals and their products, tobacco,
+vehicles for land, vessels for water, and miscellaneous industries.
+The value of the manufactured products in Nova
+Scotia has more than doubled in a single decade, and to
+this result the increased output in connection with the iron
+and steel industries has of course greatly contributed.</p>
+
+<p>The province’s position now may well be called, in
+respect to the establishment of manufacturing industries,
+truly strategic. Her situation on the ocean highway enables
+her to assemble all the raw materials cheaply, and to
+manufacture at lowest cost for the home and foreign
+market. Here are the only coal-fields in Eastern Canada,
+those on the seaboard being practically inexhaustible. Pig-iron
+from the increasing furnaces of the Province has
+already been exported to markets distributed along the
+whole seaboard of the United States, to most parts of
+the world, and to some parts of Germany. Gold, steel,
+gypsum, pulp for paper manufacturing, grindstones, building
+stones, timber, fish, fruit, and many manufactured
+goods are exported abroad. Nova Scotia’s ships for 200
+years frequented the ports of the world, and carried on a
+thriving and ever increasing trade.</p>
+
+<p>All this abundance of coal, and other minerals, combined
+with her geographical position in relation to Great
+Britain and Europe, the North Atlantic Coast of America,
+the West Indies, and South America, leaves no room for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[246]</span>
+doubt that the Province is destined to become one of the
+great manufacturing centres of the world.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know what more you’d ask,” cried Sam Slick;
+“almost an island, indented everywhere with harbours,
+surrounded with fisheries. The key of the St. Lawrence,
+the Bay of Fundy, and the West Indies; prime land above,
+one vast mineral bed beneath, and a climate over all temperate,
+pleasant and healthy. If that ain’t enough for
+one place, it’s a pity—that’s all.”</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>And so I part from this little book about New Scotland—an
+imperfect survey, but not intended to be compendious;
+only that to the British reader, willing to know
+something of the people, the land, and the resources of
+our great Western Dominion, a new Province may, like the
+film pictures of a cinematograph, “swim into his ken.”</p>
+
+<p>More and more will the Nova Scotians increase in
+culture as in wealth, more and more will their country
+become a great Imperial asset. To apply here to New
+Scotland a famous passage of Froude’s concerning the
+story of Old Scotland, turn where one may, “weakness
+is nowhere; power, energy, and will are everywhere.
+Sterile as the landscape where it will first unfold itself, we
+shall watch the current winding its way with expanding
+force and features of enlarging magnificence, till at length
+the rocks and rapids will have passed—the stream will have
+glided down into the plain to the meeting of the waters—from
+which as from a new fountain the united fortunes of
+the British Empire flow on to their unknown destiny.”</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[247]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="APPENDIX_A">APPENDIX A</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">TO ENCOURAGE SETTLEMENT ON FARM<br>
+LANDS IN NOVA SCOTIA</p>
+
+
+<p>The following interesting measure became law during the 1912
+session of the Nova Scotia Legislature. Further particulars respecting
+its operation may be obtained from Mr. Arthur S. Barnstead,
+Secretary of Industries and Immigration, 197 Hollis Street, Halifax,
+and Mr. J. Howard, Agent-General, 57<span class="allsmcap">A</span> Pall Mall, London, S.W.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">An Act for the Encouragement of Settlement on
+Farm Lands</span></p>
+
+<p><em>Whereas</em>, it is desirable that agricultural settlement should be
+further promoted in this Province, and that facilities should be
+afforded whereby settlers will be encouraged to purchase or acquire
+for themselves farm holdings:</p>
+
+<p><em>And whereas</em>, there are in the Province farms unoccupied and
+untilled, arable tracts not yet brought under cultivation, and other
+lands available for settlement and suitable therefor:</p>
+
+<p><em>And whereas</em>, it is desirable to settle on those lands selected
+farmers from the British Isles or elsewhere, who wish to acquire
+lands of their own, but are unable to do so, and it is further desirable
+to give assistance in the purchase of farms to those who are already
+engaged in or desire to engage in agriculture within the Province
+who possess the necessary qualifications:</p>
+
+<p><em>And whereas</em>, there are in the British Isles and elsewhere many
+men with practical experience in farming, who might be induced<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[248]</span>
+with advantage both to themselves and to the Province to settle in
+Nova Scotia, or to return to this Province, if previously resident here,
+provided facilities are available that will assist them, in the purchase
+of farm land and buildings by way of loans or mortgages;</p>
+
+<p>Therefore be it enacted by the Governor, Council and Assembly
+as follows:</p>
+
+
+<p><em>Interpretation.</em></p>
+
+<p>1. In this Chapter, unless the context otherwise requires, the
+words “loan company” or “trust company” mean any loan
+company or companies, or loan society, carrying on the business
+within the Province of Nova Scotia of lending money on mortgages
+of real estate.</p>
+
+<p>The word “farmer” includes persons who have removed, or who
+contemplate removing to this Province from other places, to settle in
+this Province and engage in farming, and other persons who may
+already be engaged or about to engage in farming in this Province.</p>
+
+<p>The word “inspector” means any inspector or assistant inspector
+appointed by the Governor-in-Council under the provisions
+of this Act.</p>
+
+<p>2. Whenever a loan company will agree, upon receiving the
+guarantee herein mentioned, to advance to a farmer on mortgage of
+farm lands and buildings thereon on terms approved by the
+Governor-in-Council, an amount not exceeding eighty per cent. of
+the value of such farm lands and buildings as appraised by such loan
+company, the Governor-in-Council upon such appraisement being
+confirmed by the inspector, and upon receiving a report from the
+inspector, is empowered from time to time to authorise the Provincial
+Secretary or Deputy Provincial Secretary to give a guarantee
+in writing to such loan company against loss on any such mortgage
+to an amount not exceeding the difference between fifty per cent. of
+such appraised value and the amount of the loan, together with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[249]</span>
+interest thereon. Such guarantee may be in the form in the
+Schedule to this Act, or to the like effect.</p>
+
+<p>3. Whenever a loan company will agree to advance to a farmer
+on a first mortgage of farm lands and buildings thereon, on terms
+approved by the Governor-in-Council, an amount up to at least fifty
+per cent. of the value of such farm lands and buildings as appraised
+by such loan company, the Governor-in-Council upon such appraisement
+being confirmed by the inspector and upon receiving a report
+from the inspector, may arrange with such loan company to advance
+to such persons through such loan company out of funds provided
+for the purpose an additional amount not exceeding the difference
+between fifty per cent. and eighty per cent. of such appraised value,
+provided that this additional amount of advance on any one loan
+shall not exceed the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars.</p>
+
+<p>4. All repayments of principal made on any mortgage given
+under the provisions of the next two preceding sections of this Act
+shall be first applied by the loan company making the same, towards
+the reduction of any Government guarantee or advance; provided
+that the Governor-in-Council may agree to defer the repayment by
+the farmer of the instalments of principal and interest on the
+additional amount loaned or guaranteed by the Governor-in-Council,
+under the preceding sections, for a period not to exceed five years
+from the time of effecting the loan.</p>
+
+<p>5. The Governor-in-Council may appoint an inspector or
+inspectors to appraise and report on farm lands and buildings thereon,
+and to perform such other duties as may be delegated by the
+Governor-in-Council. The Governor-in-Council may also appoint
+such assistant inspectors and other officers, assistants and persons, as
+may be necessary for the carrying out of the provisions of this Act,
+and may prescribe their duties and may fix the salaries, compensation
+or fees of any person appointed under the provisions of this section.</p>
+
+<p>6. The Governor-in-Council is authorised from time to time to
+purchase real estate in farming districts, sub-divide it into farms or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[250]</span>
+lots, erect buildings and fences, prepare the land for crops and sell
+said real estate to farmers in such parcels or lots and on such terms
+as may be approved by the Governor-in-Council.</p>
+
+<p>7. The Governor-in-Council may make regulations for the
+carrying out effectively the provisions of this Act.</p>
+
+<p>8. The Governor-in-Council is authorised to borrow on the
+credit of the Province, a sum not exceeding two hundred thousand
+dollars, for the purpose of providing a fund for the purposes of
+this Act.</p>
+
+<p>9. The Provincial Secretary shall make an annual report to the
+Legislature of all loans effected and the terms thereof.</p>
+
+
+<p><em>Schedule.</em></p>
+
+<p>In the matter of Chapter ...., Acts 1912.</p>
+
+<p>The Province of Nova Scotia hereby guarantees the payment
+of ...., principal to the extent of $ .... of
+a mortgage from (name of farmers) to .... (name of
+Loan Company) on the lands hereinafter described, and interest
+thereon provided that all repayments of principal on said mortgage
+shall be first applied towards the reduction of the amount so
+guaranteed.</p>
+
+<p>The said lands are described as follows, that is to say: (description).</p>
+
+<p>Dated at Halifax, N. S. the .... day of ....,
+A. D., 19....</p>
+
+<p>
+.......................<br>
+<br>
+<em>Provincial Secretary.</em><br>
+</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[251]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="APPENDIX_B">APPENDIX B</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">SPORT IN NOVA SCOTIA</p>
+
+
+<p>It is a little singular that although Nova Scotia is one of the most
+interesting and prolific sporting countries in the world, it has
+attracted so few British tourists. It certainly offers abundance of
+game and fish, and when it is made easily accessible, thousands of
+Englishmen might profitably spend a happy, bracing holiday there. It
+is celebrated for the greatest of the deer family, the moose, which
+was killed last year in nearly every county in the Province,<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> and the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[252]</span>
+species is steadily increasing in numbers, thanks to a stricter carrying
+out of the game law. The woodcock shooting in Nova Scotia is
+celebrated, and the ruffed grouse (partridge), the king of game
+birds, was killed last year in unprecedented numbers; while in the
+countries to the south of us its gradual decrease has been bitterly
+mourned. Duck and geese are abundant in some districts. Bear
+and wild-cat are plentiful, too plentiful in fact, though hard to
+approach. Hares offer a fine opportunity for the beagles.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">[24]</a> <em>Moose Killed in Nova Scotia.</em></p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">County.</span></td>
+  <td class="tdc"><span class="allsmcap">Number.</span></td>
+  <td class="tdc"><span class="allsmcap">Bulls.</span></td>
+  <td class="tdc"><span class="allsmcap">Cows.</span></td>
+  <td class="tdc"><span class="allsmcap">Sex not<br> Given.</span></td>
+  <td class="tdc"><span class="allsmcap">Killed in<br> 1907.</span></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><em>Annapolis</em></td>
+  <td class="tdc">106</td>
+  <td class="tdc">52</td>
+  <td class="tdc">48</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 6</td>
+  <td class="tdc">54</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><em>Colchester</em></td>
+  <td class="tdc">29</td>
+  <td class="tdc">11</td>
+  <td class="tdc">14</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 4</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 21</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><em>Cumberland</em></td>
+  <td class="tdc">21</td>
+  <td class="tdc">12</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 4</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 5</td>
+  <td class="tdc">10</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><em>Digby</em></td>
+  <td class="tdc">42</td>
+  <td class="tdc">20</td>
+  <td class="tdc">21</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 1</td>
+  <td class="tdc">25</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><em>Guysboro</em></td>
+  <td class="tdc">61</td>
+  <td class="tdc">35</td>
+  <td class="tdc">22</td>
+  <td class="tdc">41</td>
+  <td class="tdc">48</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><em>Halifax</em></td>
+  <td class="tdc">151</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 72</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 62</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 17</td>
+  <td class="tdc">153</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><em>King’s</em></td>
+  <td class="tdc">15</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 8</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 7</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 0</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 8</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><em>Lunenburg</em></td>
+  <td class="tdc">12</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 6</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 5</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 1</td>
+  <td class="tdc">24</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><em>Queen’s</em></td>
+  <td class="tdc">12</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 6</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 5</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 1</td>
+  <td class="tdc">7</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><em>Pictou</em></td>
+  <td class="tdc">47</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 28</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 12</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 7</td>
+  <td class="tdc">49</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><em>Shelburne</em></td>
+  <td class="tdc">30</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 18</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 10</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 2</td>
+  <td class="tdc">33</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><em>Yarmouth</em></td>
+  <td class="tdc">47</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 26</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 20</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 1</td>
+  <td class="tdc">40</td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td> </td>
+  <td class="tdc">——</td>
+  <td class="tdc">——</td>
+  <td class="tdc">——</td>
+  <td class="tdc">——</td>
+  <td class="tdc">——</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><em>Total</em></td>
+  <td class="tdc">590</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 300</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 240</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> 50</td>
+  <td class="tdc">486</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>Adding to these about 100 that were not reported, owing to a misunderstanding
+of the new law, and another 100 probably killed illegally and never
+reported, we arrive at a total of some 800 moose killed in Nova Scotia
+during the autumn.</p>
+
+<p>As for fishing, in no country in the world are trout more
+plentiful nor more gamey, and one variety, the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">salvelinus fortinalis</i>,
+or speckled brook-trout, is the most beautiful of all. There is
+good salmon-fishing, which is likely to become better still, as
+public opinion is awakening to the dangerous breaches of the law
+on the part of the net-fishermen at the mouths of the streams.</p>
+
+<p>According to the Nova Scotia Game Act (1909), the Moose
+season is from September 16th to November 16th. Moose are
+hunted in two ways, “calling” and “still-hunting.” Calling is
+the method almost exclusively pursued in the mating time, which
+lasts approximately from the first week in September to the 20th of
+October. It consists in luring the bull-moose within rifle-shot by
+means of imitating, through a speaking-horn of birch-bark, the call,
+or low, of the cow, or sometimes, though much seldomer, the
+challenge of a rival bull. This can be done only in absolutely
+calm weather, since the bull, which trusts for its safety to its
+abnormal sense of smell, will otherwise infallibly go to leeward of
+the hunter, get his scent, and then, of course, retire without
+showing itself. A calm is also necessary if the sound of the call
+is to penetrate to any distance. A certain class of writers, nearly
+all inexperienced, have decried the method of calling as unsportsmanlike,
+insisting that it is an easy art, that the moose is off its
+guard and all too ready to be fooled, and that the guide does all
+the work, while the hunter merely waits and shoots when the
+quarry appears. There are many fallacies in this view. Calling
+is not an easy art, the bull is by no means off its guard, but just
+the very contrary; and the argument against the secondary rôle of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[253]</span>
+sportsman might also be applied to bird-shooting over dogs. It is
+very fascinating to witness the art of the guide as he calls a moose,
+and there are moments, as the bull approaches and appears, that
+still-hunting cannot match for excitement. Besides, there is no law
+against the sportsman doing the calling himself, if he has a mind,
+and many have attempted it successfully after some years of
+experience with good callers.</p>
+
+<p>When the moose have paired, the bull can no longer be called,
+and the method employed for the rest of the season is that of still-hunting,
+or stalking (creeping up to) the animals under cover of
+a wind while they are in their “yards,” a yard being the range, of
+greater or less extent, covered by one moose-family during the late
+autumn and winter. It commonly consists of a combination of
+swamp and ridge, though this differs according to the character of
+the country. The ideal conditions for approaching the game are
+a high wind and soft-going underfoot, either soaked with rain, or
+better, covered with light snow, which makes tracking much
+easier. Still-hunting requires much more physical exertion on the
+part of the hunter, and is not recommended to ladies, or in fact any
+but the robust. Still-hunting gets better as the season approaches
+its end.</p>
+
+<p>The caribou is a cousin of the European reindeer, and ranges
+from Maine and Newfoundland northward and northwestward to
+Hudson Bay and the Pacific. There are two general species, the
+woodland and the barren-ground, the latter inhabiting the regions
+farther north. The woodland caribou (<em>rangifer caribou</em>) is the
+largest of its kind, and once overran the whole of Nova Scotia, but
+is now practically confined to the island of Cape Breton, where it is
+still plentiful. A very large specimen weighs about 400 lbs., and
+stands four feet high at the shoulders. The peculiar construction of
+the caribou’s hoofs enables it to travel easily over snow into which
+any other of the deer family would sink helplessly. It is polygamous,
+one bull possessing several cows.</p>
+
+<p>It is killed by still-hunting. The outfit is the same as for moose,
+with the addition of a good field-glass.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[254]</span></p>
+
+<p>The caribou is protected by the Nova Scotia law until 1912.</p>
+
+<p>Bruin’s representative in Nova Scotia is the Black Bear or
+<em>Ursus americanus</em>, a large specimen of which will weigh about 400
+lbs. It will eat anything from ants to sheep, and has a predilection
+for calf-moose, many of these helpless little creatures falling victims
+to his voracity, in spite of the mother’s defence. A bear will
+almost never face a man, but a mother with young cubs forms
+a distinct exception to this rule, and should an unarmed sportsman
+meet such a combination in the woods, the best thing for him
+is not to wait for a nearer introduction. The only practical way to
+hunt bears systematically is by means of a good bear-hound (fox-hound
+trained to this work), which tracks Bruin to his den. Bears
+are often met by accident and shot, and in this Province they
+have a way of coming to a moose-caller, hoping for a meal of calf.
+Many are trapped, sometimes in a large dead-fall, but usually in a
+steel Newhouse bear-trap, so placed that the bear must walk over
+the trap to get at the bait, which is either of meat or a bundle of
+trout, soaked sometimes in molasses or honey. In some counties
+there is a bounty of $2 on bears, which might be made general
+throughout the Province.</p>
+
+<p>Wild-cats are very numerous and play havoc with game-birds
+and hares, as well as with the farmer’s lambs. There is therefore
+a bounty of $1 on them in some counties. The wild-cat (<em>lynx
+rufus</em>, bay lynx or bobcat) is a strong, savage, and exceedingly shy
+animal, almost never seen unless tracked and brought to bay by
+trained hounds, or when caught in traps or snares. A very large
+one will weigh 40 lbs. and measure four feet from tail to nose.
+Its pelt makes a pretty mat. In spite of all backwoods traditions,
+there is no record of a wild-cat attacking a man.</p>
+
+<p>Nova Scotia offers excellent game-bird shooting, the three classes
+of wild-fowl, forest-birds, and shore-birds or waders, being well
+represented. They comprise wild ducks, geese, ruffed grouse
+(partridge), woodcock, snipe, plover, yellowlegs, sandpiper, curlew,
+and others. The best places and seasons for these birds may be
+ascertained at the Capital.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[255]</span></p>
+
+<p>At present in Nova Scotia there is a tendency to protect game-birds
+of all kinds, and on that account non-residents are required to
+pay the same license for shooting them as for moose, $30, a tax the
+size of which is not conducive to the encouragement of visiting bird-hunters.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Fishing.</span>—Along the entire shore of Nova Scotia the usual
+salt-water fish may be caught in abundance, such as cod, pollock,
+perch, flounders, &amp;c., but neither the native nor the visitor has
+as yet paid much attention to the big game fishes that occupy so
+much of the angler’s time farther south. Two of these are among
+the choicest there are, the striped bass and the leaping tuna, though
+the latter is not eaten on this side of the Atlantic, except by our
+Italian fellow-citizens.</p>
+
+<p>The two great game fishes of Nova Scotia are the Atlantic
+<em>salmon</em> (<em>salmo salar</em>), and the speckled or <em>brook trout</em> (<em>salvelinus fontinalis</em>).
+Large toque (<em>salvelinus ramaycush</em>), or lake trout, are found
+in several lakes, as in Nine-Mile Lake, Lunenburg County. A
+land-locked variety of the salmon, the <em>Sebago salmon</em> (<em>salmo salar
+sebago</em>), is found in some waters, as Grand Lake and Beaver Bank
+Lake in Halifax County.</p>
+
+<p>Nova Scotia was once famous for her salmon-streams, and such
+rivers as the Medway, Mersey, St. Mary’s, Margaree, Tusket,
+Salmon, Petite Riviere, Tangier, Mira and others, still offer really
+excellent sport, which is sure to increase in quality with greater
+care in the preservation of the fish.</p>
+
+<p>Many conditions combine to make Nova Scotia an ideal trout
+fishing country, such as the extensive waterways and literally
+innumerable lakes, the uniform coolness of the water combined
+with the richness in insect life, and the fact that, though in former
+times cruelly maltreated by the lumbermen, the forests to a very
+great extent still stand, thus preserving the water-supply, which
+experience shows us must decrease and even disappear with the
+cutting down of the trees. At last the lumber dealers are alive to
+the benefits of economic forestry, and the Government to the
+evident fact that streams and lakes must be yearly restocked with
+fingerlings of both salmon and trout.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[256]</span></p>
+
+<p>Food conditions in this Province do not favour the growth of
+gigantic trout, one of three pounds being a rarity, but nature has
+made up by giving a never-ending supply of good fish, ranging
+from 1 to 4 lb. up to 3 lbs., the average in the best waters being
+between 3 to 4 and 1 lb. in weight, which any experienced fisherman
+will acknowledge to be very large. This may not sound so
+grand as some of the promises of certain interested parties, but it is
+<em>literally true</em>, and the statement can be added that Nova Scotia yields
+to no country in the world in the number of trout that can be taken
+by hook and line at any part of the open season.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Season.</span>—The trout-fishing season opens by law on April 1,
+and ends on August 31. Fishing through the ice for trout is
+prohibited, a fact which prevents much fishing before middle of
+April, as the ice does not commonly go out of the lakes before
+that date, though exceptions occur. Fishing is at the height of
+excellence about May 1 or soon after, and continues fine until
+July, when it falls off somewhat, on account of the trout seeking
+the cooler waters of the lakes and pools. Nevertheless there is
+no time, even in the hot weather when a “string of fish” cannot
+be caught with a fair amount of trouble and skill. Towards the
+last of August the fishing looks up again and remains fine until
+the season ends. This period has the advantage of total immunity
+from insect pests.</p>
+
+<p>As to fishing grounds it would be difficult to find a country
+hotel in the Province near which some good trout-brook or lake
+cannot be found; in fact it is always possible to live at a regular
+country boarding-place and still get all the fishing wanted without
+spending a night in the woods. But it nevertheless remains true
+that the farther from the regular haunts of men you go, the better
+will the fishing be, and most anglers, far from deeming it a disadvantage
+to live in the open, consider it a priceless privilege to
+combine the joys of their particular craft with the delights of
+canoeing and camping out.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Fairy Lake</span> (Kedgeemakooge in the Micmac Indian tongue)
+is one of the largest (about 10 miles by 5 miles) and most beautiful<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[257]</span>
+bodies of water in the Province, lying in Annapolis and Queen’s
+Counties, and surrounded by the best moose-country, especially on
+the west and south. The Maitland, West, Little, and other
+streams flow into it, all affording the best canoeing and leading up
+to wonderful trout-waters. In the lake itself the fishing is of
+the very best, such places as the mouths of the streams mentioned,
+Jeremy’s Bay, &amp;c., being famous, The best pools of all are found
+near the exit of the Liverpool River, in the celebrated George’s
+Runs (East and West Runs) and Eelweir, while the river itself
+is a series of celebrated pools from Fairy Lake down to the great
+Lake Rossignol.</p>
+
+<p>In the early days the land about Kedgeemakooge was granted by
+the Government to the Micmac Indians as a reservation, but they
+have passed away or scattered, and their former camping grounds
+have been deserted for many decades. Lying so long idle, the
+Department of Indian Affairs recently decided to lease the lands
+and apply the yearly rental to the Indian fund of the Treasury.</p>
+
+<p>The lease luckily fell into the hands of a sportsman and a lover
+of nature who proposes to still preserve, in its natural beauty, this
+great recreation ground, and open it to a limited number of seekers
+after health, rest, or sport. Under his conservative supervision the
+Kedgeemakooge Rod and Gun Club of Nova Scotia, Ltd., has been
+organised, and incorporated by letters patent. Accepted members
+are granted all the privileges conveyed by the original lease, as well
+as the same rights on other lands in the vicinity owned by the
+lessee.</p>
+
+<p>Initiation fee has been fixed at $100.00, with annual dues such
+as seem necessary to sustain the requirements of the club, probably
+not exceeding $5.00.</p>
+
+<p>Building sites, all having water frontage, are free to members,
+who may select their own lot, put up a tent or a substantial cabin,
+and own a permanent summer home for their families or friends—a
+retreat in primitive wilds where real life and perfect freedom,
+unshackled by social forms, make for health and supreme happiness.
+Fishing licenses are provided free for members.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[258]</span></p>
+
+<p>Reliable licensed guides are retained by this club, and kept in
+readiness with motor boats and canoes.</p>
+
+<p>Telephone, daily mail and livery afford constant communication
+with the outside world for those whose inclination or business interest
+will not permit entire isolation. On the whole I cannot imagine
+anything more deserving of the epithet <em>sport de luxe</em>.</p>
+
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Printed by <span class="smcap">Ballantyne, Hanson &amp; Co.</span></span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Edinburgh &amp; London</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">THE END.</p>
+
+<div class="transnote"></div>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" title="" id="end_note">Transcriber’s Notes</h3>
+<p class="tdl"><a href="#Page_74" title="" >Page 74</a>—changed uged to <b>urged</b></p>
+<p class="tdl"><a href="#Page_116" title="" >Page 116</a>—changed six to <b>five</b></p>
+<p class="tdl"><a href="#Page_246" title="" >Page 246</a>—changed West Indgies to <b>West indies</b></p>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77572 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
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+This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
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+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #77572
+(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77572)