From Halifax a railroad leads northward across Nova Scotia to Pictou.
It passes through the gold-digging regions of Waverley, Oldham and
Renfrew, then over the rich red soils of the head of the Bay of Fundy
and down the Shubenacadie River, meaning the "place of wild potatoes,"
and reaches Truro, an active manufacturing town of over five thousand
people near the head of Cobequid Bay. Beyond, through forests and
hills, it crosses the peninsula to the Pictou coal-fields and comes
out on Northumberland Strait at Pictou harbor. The coal is sent here
for shipment, the name having come from the Indian word _Pictook_,
meaning "bubbling or gas exploding," in allusion to the boiling of the
waters near the coal-beds. Over across the Strait is Prince Edward
Island, its red bluff shores along the edge of the horizon surmounted
by a fringe of green foliage. The Micmacs recognized its peculiarity,
calling it Epayquit, or "Anchored on the Wave." It is one hundred and
thirty miles long and rather narrow, having deep bays, sometimes
almost bisecting the island. The surface is low and undulating, with
fertile soils mostly derived from the old red sandstone. The French
first called it the Isle de St. Jean, but after the cession to England
an effort was made to call it New Ireland, as Nova Scotia was New
Scotland, and finally in 1800 it was given the present name in honor
of Queen Victoria's father. It raises horses, oats, eggs and potatoes,
and relatively to size is the best populated of all the Maritime
Provinces. Charlottetown, inside of Hillsborough Bay,--called
popularly "Ch-town," for short,--is the capital, a quiet place with
about eleven thousand population, the Parliament House being its best
building. A narrow-gauge railway is constructed through the island,
near its western terminal being Summerside, on Bedeque Bay, where
there is a little trade and three thousand people, probably its most
active port.