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.