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=