WINDSOR.—THE AVON AND THE TIDE.—THE STEAMER FOR ST. JOHNS, NEW
BRUNSWICK.—MINES BASIN.—COAST SCENERY.—THE SCENE OF
EVANGELINE.—PARSBORO.—THE BAY OF FUNDY.—NOVA SCOTIA AND NEW
BRUNSWICK SHORES.—ST. JOHNS.—THE MAINE COAST, AND GRAND MANAN.
WEDNESDAY, _July 27_. Windsor, N. S. Soon after our arrival, I walked
down to the Avon, an arm of Mines Bay, itself an expanded inlet of the
great Bay of Fundy, to view the wonderful tide. It was not coming in, as
I had hoped, but quite out, leaving miles of black river-bottom entirely
bare, with only a small stream coursing through in a serpentine manner.
A line of blue water was visible on the northern horizon. After an
absence of an hour or so, I loitered back, when, to my surprise, there
was a river like the Hudson at Catskill, running up with a powerful
current. The high wharf, upon which, but a short time before, I had
stood and surveyed the black, unsightly fields of mud, was now up to its
middle in the turbid and whirling stream, and very nearly in, the
steamer from St. Johns, N. B.
In the course of an hour more I was on board, and waiting for the turn
of the tide, upon which, of necessity, the boat takes her departure. I
had missed, after all, seeing the first approach of the tidal wave, and
had to content myself with what I have described, and with a short walk
in the town, of late esteeming itself noteworthy on account of being the
birthplace of General Williams, the hero of Kars, of whose fine personal
appearance I have spoken.
We are now at the opening of the Avon into Mines Bay or Basin, as they
call this small sea, and look upon scenes of which Longfellow speaks in
the first pages of his Evangeline. It is simply a pleasant-looking
farming country, checkered with fields of green, now of a yellow tint
and then of a blue. Shores of reddish rocks and sand make a pretty
foreground line along the west, and rise to the picturesque as they wind
away northward. Headlands of gray and red rocks in slopes and precipices
stand out in bold relief crowned with underwood and loftier trees. The
clouds are clearing away before the breeze, and letting us have a
sparkling sea, a fine blue sky, and landscapes dappled with light and
shadow.
Parsboro, a village on the north shore of the Basin, enjoys more than
its share of broad, gravelly beach, overhung with clifted and woody
bluffs. One fresh from the dead walls of a great city would be delighted
with the sylvan shores of Parsboro. The beach, with all its breadth, a
miracle of pebbly beauty, slants steeply to the surf, which is now
rolling up in curling clouds of green and white. Here we turn westward
into the great bay itself, going with a tide that rushes like a mighty
river toward a cataract, whirling, boiling, breaking in half moons of
crispy foam. Behind us is the blue reach of Chignecto Bay, the northern
of the two long and winding horns of the main body of water, up which it
would be play for a fortnight to hunt romantic scenery, and witness the
“bore,” that most brilliant of all tidal displays.
Here is a broad sea, moving with strange velocity for a sea. The
prospect to the south is singularly fine. Nova Scotia, sloping from the
far-off sky gently down to the shores, its fields and villages and
country dwellings gleaming in the warm noon-day, or darkening in the
shadow of a transient cloud—a contrast to the northern, New Brunswick
coast, iron-bound and covered with dark forests. Drops from a coming
shower are wasting their sweet freshness upon the briny deep, an
agreeable discord in the common music of the day, and chime in, among
pleasant incidents, with the talk of the Prince Edward’s man, and the
sparkling conversation of the Newfoundland gentleman. “And so sail we”
into the harbor of St. Johns, the last of the waters of this divine
apostle, in time for supper and a pleasant ramble about the city. You
might call it the city of hills.
* * * * *
THURSDAY, _July 28, 1859_. St. Johns, N. B. This is my last date, and I
write it out in full, in the light of a fine morning, on the deck of the
steamer for Portland. The coast of Maine, truly picturesque as it is,
with its rocky points, lake-like bays, and islands bristling in their
dark evergreens like porcupines, and particularly Mount Desert Island
and Frenchman’s Bay, is the mildest form of Newfoundland scenery as you
see it on the Atlantic side, with an additional dressing of forest and
vegetation, sparsely studded with towns and habitations.
Speaking of Mount Desert Island, recalls Cole to memory, who was, I
believe, the first landscape painter of our country that visited that
picturesque region. I remember with what enthusiasm he spoke of the
coast scenery—the fine surf upon Sand Beach—the play of the surge in
the caverns of Great Head—the Ægean beauty of Frenchman’s Bay—the
forests, and the wild, rugged mountains, from the tops of which he could
count a multitude of sails upon the blue ocean, and follow the rocky
shores and sparkling breakers for many and many a mile. Familiar to me
as all that has long since become, I shall not pass it to-day without
emotion.
Grand Manan, a favorite summer haunt of the painter, is the very throne
of the bold and romantic. The high, precipitous shores, but for the
woods which beautify them, are quite in the style of Labrador. I look
upon its grand old cliffs with double interest from the fact that he has
made me familiar with its people and scenery. As it recedes from my
view, and becomes a dot in the boundless waters, I will put the period
to this record.
THE END.
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Transcriber’s Notes:
Archaic spellings and hyphenation have been retained. Punctuation and
obvious typesetting errors have been corrected without note. Some
illustrations have been moved slightly from their original positions to
keep paragraphs intact. There are many references to St. Johns,
Newfoundland throughout the book which have been left as printed but
which would normally be spelled as St. John’s.
page xiv, Steamer for St. Johns, New Brunswick. ==> references to St.
Johns, New Brunswick in the Contents and throughout Chapter LXIV most
likely refer to St. John, New Brunswick.
page xiv, Mines Basin. ==> Mines Basin as given in the Contents and within
Chapter LXIV most likely refer to Minas Basin.
page 326, to Truro, on Mines Bay, ==> likely refers to Minas Basin
* * * * *
[End of _After Icebergs with a Painter_, by Louis Legrand Noble]