THE MARITIME PROVINCES, AND THROUGH LAKE AND FOREST TO THE QUEEN CITY.
A long railway journey. The light streaming into the berth of a sleeper
of the Intercolonial Railway awakes me, and a few minutes afterwards I
emerge from between the curtains, to see the morning sun on the dancing
waters of Bedford Basin, the land-locked harbour of Halifax. For about
ten miles we are skirting this harbour before running into the town.
Most people would agree in thinking Halifax a charming place. There
is nothing in the primitive city, with its straight, narrow streets
of wooden houses, most of which require a new coat of paint, to make
it so. There are few public buildings worthy of notice. But the charm
lies in its position on the peninsula of land, with the deep bend in
the North-west Arm on one side, and Chebuctoo Bay on the other, leading
into Bedford Basin. Thus there is water on every side.
Halifax has a large official society, and takes some pride in being
thought very English in its habits and ways. It owes this to being the
one military station left in Canada where there are British troops, and
also to its harbouring a naval station, with a resident Admiral and
three war-ships at anchor in the bay. The Lieut.-Governor also resides
here, and so Halifax[1] is full of official residences. Each province
in Canada has a lieut.-governor, who receives the appointment for five
years at the hands of the Governor-General, with a moderate salary and
an official residence. He is generally some prominent and popular local
man, who is thus rewarded for political services by the Premier of
the day, who advises the representative of the Crown, and practically
confers the post. Each province also has its local parliament, or
legislature, which is independent of the Dominion Parliament, and forms
its own laws of internal economy, constituting a body like our County
Councils. Thus, in Canadian capitals, their public buildings always
include the Parliament House, a Government House, and Ministerial
offices.
In the afternoon Mr. Francklyn came and took us for a drive in the
beautiful park at Point Pleasant. We skirt along the blue bay, dotted
with white sails, for there is a regatta in progress, until we reach
the well-named Point Pleasant. This promontory is covered with a
magnificent pine forest, through which wind miles of splendid roads,
made by companies of the Royal Engineers when stationed here.
On one side the park is bounded by a deep inlet of the sea, running a
long way inland, and which is called the North-west Arm. At a certain
point there is a sunlit vista looking up this narrow bay, which is very
beautiful. There are pleasant country-houses out here, in one of which
Mr. Francklyn resides. It is a perfect afternoon, with warm sunshine,
and a pleasant breeze whispering and sighing in the fir-trees.
_Sunday, August 2nd._--In the morning I went to church at St. Paul's.
This is a very old wooden building with a spire. There are the same
timbers as were used for its construction in 1794, when the Hon. E.
Cornwallis landed in Chebuctoo Bay with 2000 settlers. He planned
this site for the church, and built it on the design sent out by the
Imperial Government, which was on the model of St. Peter's, Vere
Street. In 1787, when the first Bishop was appointed, he took it for
his cathedral. It has taken part in all the great functions connected
with the history of Halifax; and the walls are covered with mural
tablets to the memory of the generals and admirals who have died on the
station.
We were told to go and see the public garden, which is very well laid
out with carpet beds and a miniature river. The gardener is a resident
of Halifax, and was sent home to England a short time ago, to model it
on our London parks. In the evening we attended the Presbyterian Church
to hear Principal Grant preach. He is the able, sympathetic and popular
Principal of the Kingston University. The Presbyterians have a strong
following, and fine churches throughout Canada, probably owing to the
large number of original Scotch settlers.
From Halifax we should have gone to St. John, New Brunswick, by
Annapolis, through the beautiful country celebrated by Longfellow, and
called the Land of Evangeline, and across the Bay of Fundi, but there
was doubt as to the hour of arrival of the steamer to be in time for
a meeting of the United Empire Trade League. I must here digress a
minute to explain that it was no part of our original Canadian tour
to practically be "stumping" the country from Halifax to Vancouver on
the subject of Imperial Preferential Trade. The meetings were thrust
upon my husband, and, once begun, each city claimed its meeting in
due course. Albeit, I must confess that he fell in gladly with the
arrangement. I may fairly say that for over six weeks in Canada, I was
the victim of the United Empire Trade League.
In our schoolroom days we learnt that St. John is the capital of New
Brunswick, and Halifax the capital of Nova Scotia. In the weariness of
a hot study and the drowsiness of a summer afternoon, we may vaguely
wonder of what use this, and much else that we learn, will ever be to
us. It is pleasant now to have knowledge triumphantly vindicated, and
geography by personal visits made easy.
Lying on several peninsulas formed by the river of St. John, the
harbour, and the Bay of Fundi, the city is surrounded by water. You
cannot be many minutes in the town without hearing of the fire of 1877,
that great epoch in local history. Beginning in a blacksmith's shop,
it destroyed nine miles of streets and an entire portion of the town.
We were shown the one building that was left untouched in the midst of
the conflagration, and for what reason no one has ever been able to
ascertain. The town was rebuilt with red sandstone, granite and brick.
It looks so handsome and substantial when compared to the wooden cities
of Halifax and other Canadian towns.
The Mayor (Mr. Peters), the President of the Board of Trade (Mr.
Robertson), met us at the station and drove us about the town, and
pointed out to us such public buildings as the Custom House, the
hospital, the asylum for the insane, etc. My experience goes to tell
that they are the same in all cities of the world. We passed rapidly
from the summit of one peninsula on to the next, looking down streets
that always seem to lead to water. There are pretty views from these
heights of the large city, containing 40,000 inhabitants, spread out
over these successions of hills, with the harbour dotted with sails
below. Far away into the country, the river is seen winding amongst
grey, overhanging cliffs and pine-clad mountains. They claim for it
scenery as fine as the Hudson.
But the prettiest view of all is from the Cantilever Bridge. Here the
wide mouth of the St. John river flows through the harbour to the sea,
interrupted by rocky islands, clothed in green. They have a great
curiosity here in the shape of a reversible waterfall. The tide at the
mouth of the river rises and falls as much as forty feet. As the river
flows seawards it is forced by the volume of water coming down the
river over a ridge of rock, and forms a waterfall into the harbour at
low tide. When the tide turns, the salt water is forced backwards up
the river, and forms a waterfall the reverse way.
St. John was founded by the United Loyalists. The other day there was
a touching incident of a brave boy who went out in a storm here and
saved the life of a child, perishing in the attempt. Subscriptions
poured in for the erection of a public monument. They proposed to
erect it on a spot we were shown, but in excavating they came upon the
well-preserved coffins of twenty of these United Loyalists.
The city is the centre of a great lumber trade; 30,000 yards of timber
are cut on the banks of the river annually and floated down to St.
John's. They have free and undenominational education. The streets are
paved with blocks of cedar. Electric light is in general and domestic
use. Altogether, St. John is a most enlightened and advanced city.
We got into the "cars" at night for a long journey of two days and two
nights to Toronto.
Through the State of Maine we sped at night; one of the two American
total Prohibitionist States. Though saving 200 miles by this route, it
seems a pity that the C. P. R. could not keep their line in Canadian
territory, as, in the event of war with America, or one in which she
was a neutral ally, her connections could be severed.
During this long journey of 1500 miles from Cape Breton, through the
Maritime Provinces, to the more cultivated and open country of Ontario,
the scenery has been beautiful but monotonous.
There are two features which repeat themselves over and over again to
the eye, the ear and the senses: they are that Canada is a land of many
forests, and that Canada is a land of many waters.
For many hundreds of miles we passed through the midst of these
enduring spruce forests, the narrow track whose path has been roughly
cleared by burning, extending with its thin thread of iron through
their densest growth, lost through their trackless depths. On either
side of the clearing though these, mighty forests, there is a belt of
blackened stumps of grey, armless stems, where the fire has passed over
them. Sometimes even there will be one green living tree left standing
among the dead. And these dull grey mutilated trees look quite pathetic
in their pale nakedness, leaning hither and thither, and finding
support across one another, as if falling in their last agony, or lying
dead and uprooted on the ground. They exercise quite a fascination as
they continue for mile after mile in their dying contortions, whilst
in the background there are their living brethren, so green, hardy and
dense in their growth. The ground beneath is strewn with blackened
snags that are partly covered with green moss and ferns, their fresh
growth mingling with these dark reminiscences of man's ruthless hands.
In sedgy places there are beds of waving bulrushes, and sometimes a few
wild flowers, such as the fox-glove, the mimosa, and the golden-rod.
Hundreds of acres of these lumber forests are on every side, and
indeed, a large proportion of the Dominion is covered with these
mighty stretches of pine and spruce. There are other varieties such as
maple, birch and poplar, but the spruce fir is the chief growth, as
it covers all the land that is not cleared or occupied by water. We
see piles of ready-cut timber, stacked for transport, or cars laden
with it at every station. The rivers and lakes are full of floating
timber, and abandoned rafts. Frequently the whole surface of the river
will be blocked with lumber, which, carried by the current, arranges
itself transversely in floating down. This generally happens near a
town or village. For miles away up these deep valleys, there are men
busy lumbering all the summer. They cut down and strip the trees of
bark and then float the lumber down to the nearest place for export.
We constantly pass sawing mills where water power is used for the
machinery. The bark is only useful for "kindling" or firewood. Some of
the wood is crushed to pulp and used for the manufacture of paper.
Occasionally in the middle of these forests the engine will startle
us with an unearthly whistle. It is a sign that we are approaching a
human habitation, and in a rough clearing we pass two or three wooden
huts, with a potato patch mingling with the black stumps, and women and
children at the door. One pities their solitary life, shut in by the
impenetrable forest, and wonders how they obtain supplies. Sometimes
there is a larger clearing with more attempts at farming, but where the
fields, though divided off, are still a mass of charred stumps.
This work of clearing by the Eastern settler must be terribly
disheartening. There is, first of all, a dense undergrowth to be hewn
through and piled up ready for burning. This when dry kindles the
conflagration which is to help so materially in the task. After a spell
of dry weather and with the wind in the direction he wishes to clear,
it must be joy to the settler to see the flames leaping up and hungrily
devouring the trees. The fiercer and longer the fire lasts and the
cleaner it burns, the more pleased he is, and when it dies down he must
look sadly around at the trees still standing, knowing that now each
one must be cut down by his own labour. Then each blackened stump and
snag must be grubbed up singly. This is work done by the sweat of the
brow. It is tedious, laborious and apparently endless. Occasionally you
come across a beautifully cleaned piece of ground, which is pleasant
to look upon, but generally the land is roughly cleared, in fact you
wonder how the few cows and sheep find sufficient green sustenance
among such a black outlook of burnt stumps. The enormous waste of
valuable timber by this rough-and-ready method of clearing seems to us
reckless prodigality, but the settler surrounded by miles of similar
forests cannot see it in this light.
The variety of rough wooden fences, with their ingenious inventions to
save labour and time, become a source of interest. The roughest kind
are formed of the roots of trees, turned on their sides, the roots
forming a thorny fence. It is picturesque, untidy, but practical for
its purpose, and is called a "snag" fence. Others are formed of timber
stakes of every description, some with barbed wire. This, however, is
too expensive to be largely used. But the prettiest of all are the
snake fences. Very easy of construction, they run along in graceful
zig-zags.
The land cleared, and the ground fenced off, the building of the
house comes next. This is a land of lumber, and of course the house
is made of wood. They are simple and easy of construction, being of
one story with a door in the centre and a window on either side. The
door must be covered with wire netting, for the flies in the forest
amount to a pest. They are lined with planked wood inside and out,
and the roof is covered with shingles or flat strips of wood nailed
on like tiles. Between the outside and inside there is a lining of
paper tarred thickly over. This makes the house air-tight. In Canada
a large proportion of the dwelling-houses are built of wood. Montreal
and Toronto have streets of handsome stone houses, and in all Canadian
towns the public buildings and offices in the city are of stone
or brick. Still, wooden houses largely predominate throughout the
Dominion. It seems curious, but arctic as the winters are, these wooden
houses are more suited than stone to the climate. In the latter the
mortar absorbs and gives off damp in a thaw, whilst the wooden houses
are dry, air-tight and extremely comfortable. Most of the houses have
furnaces in the basement, which heats the warm air in the pipes of each
room, or at all events a stove in the hall. This and double windows are
a necessity in the winter.
During this long journey, we are again impressed with the volume and
extent of the lakes and rivers. The country is absolutely fretted with
these fresh-water lakes, which are full of salmon and trout. Some are
very large, like Lake Megantic, which we pass, and which is twelve
miles long; or Moosehead, which is forty miles long and from one to
fifteen miles broad. Others are only like large ponds. Then there
are broad rivers, deep and strong; wide rivers, shallow and rapid,
and mountain torrents, brown and babbling. But it is always water
everywhere, still or running, silent or noisy, blue or green according
to its depth. If you read for a little while, or your attention is
turned away from the car window, on looking up again there is sure to
be more water in sight.
We now re-visited Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto in the interests of,
and for meetings of, the United Empire Trade League, after a lapse of
six years. At the capital kindly, enthusiastic, and hospitable was the
official and parliamentary welcome to my husband, but we heard much of
the "scandals," and of the loss to the country of Sir John Macdonald.
Of the former subject we weary, as of the extravagant language
which fills the papers, the following being a specimen of the daily
head-lines:--
"Boodle and Bungle." "The Slime of the Serpent is over Them All." "A
Story of Greed, Incompetence, Extravagance and Muddle." "Another Public
Works Scandal," etc.
Montreal, with its natural attractions of the St. Lawrence and the
Mountain, is little changed. But Toronto has grown enormously, and is
now approached through some miles of suburbs. The Torontonians claim
that their "Queen City" has increased in the last few years more than
any other on this Continent, not excepting any in the United States.
They may well be proud of it.
On Saturday, August 22nd, we left Toronto, and five hours in the cars
brought us to Owen Sound. This part of the line was laid by an English
engineer, who they say had never laid a railway before; it was taken
over by the C.P.R. and was incorporated into their great line. It is
not difficult to believe that this was the case, for the car narrowly
escapes derailment by the roughness of the road.
Owen Sound is the point of departure for the C.P.R. steamers across the
lakes of Huron and Superior. I think it is a preferable route to the
railway, as it saves two days and two nights in the cars. The steamers
are very comfortable and well arranged. They are constructed to carry
a large cargo. On this voyage the cargo consists of agricultural
machinery going out west for the harvest, and soon it will be the grain
of the north-west which they will be carrying to the east. They have a
capacity for 40,000 bushels of grain, and they are constructed in such
a way that the grain can be shipped direct to and from the steamer by
the grain elevator.
For several hours we steam through the Georgian Bay or southern
extremity of Lake Huron. It is a pretty inlet with forested banks, and
a great expanse of smooth blue water. It is difficult to realize the
vast area of space covered by these Canadian lakes. Lake Huron, which
we have been crossing all night, covers 28,000 square miles; Lake
Superior, which we are about to enter, has 30,000 square miles. Lakes
Erie, Winnipeg, Michigan, and Ontario, must be added to these miniature
oceans. And we are not surprised to find, that Canada claims to have
one quarter of the whole of the fresh water of the globe on her surface.
The next morning the banks of Lake Huron are drawing closer together,
leaving us a narrow channel staked out in the centre. We are passing a
regular procession of barges. There are as many as three being towed in
line, and as the passage is narrow and devious, we could shake hands in
passing. Also, as we salute each one, and are saluted, with a threefold
whistle, the noise is continuous and wearing. These barges are laden
chiefly with lumber, but some have coal, grain, and ore.
We enter the narrow mouth of the Sault Ste. Marie River, commonly
called by the Americans the "Soo." This river is the outlet between the
waters of Lake Huron and Lake Superior. There is a fall of forty-two
feet. It is a broad and muddy river, and on the right hand we have
American soil, and on the left Canadian. Perched on the bridge in
the crisp morning air, the views are very pretty. The mountains, as
always, are covered with the dark blue-green of the familiar pines. The
banks are clothed in brilliant green, just mellowing into yellow under
autumn's golden hand. We are shown a quarry of valuable variegated
marble in the mountain side, which is proving inexhaustible. Then we
pass the wreck of the _Pontiac_. She was run down by her sister ship
four weeks ago, and lies helplessly across the course, her bows stove
in, and the bridge and hurricane deck only above water. They are
pumping her out, gallons of water pouring from her rent side.
Ten miles of this ascent of the river, and bending round a corner,
we come in sight of Sault Ste. Marie. Like so many other places, the
town has been created by the developing energy of the C.P.R., whose
cantilever railway bridge we see crossing the river, but it is typical
of the energy and "go" of the Americans, that on their side of the
river there is a town, whilst on the Canadian it is only a village. At
Sault Ste. Marie there are some pretty rapids which you can shoot in a
canoe. Communication between the two great waterways of Lakes Superior
and Huron is by a lock, where the water rises and falls sixteen feet.
The lock is on the American side, but the Canadians are making a deeper
one of twenty-two feet. This Soo Canal is of the greatest commercial
importance. Sixty vessels, in the summer season, pass through it daily,
or more, they allege, than through the Suez Canal.
There was a long procession of steamers and barges waiting on either
side for their turn. It is so shallow that little way can be allowed
to the ships in passing in and out, and for two hours and a half we
sat and were quite amused watching the skill which packed three large
steam barges into this narrow canal. It must not be thought that these
steam barges are like our dirty barges on the Thames or on English
canals. They have a tonnage of 1500 or 2000 tons, and are as smart as
white paint and polished brass can make them, being lighted, too, by
electricity.
These great lakes have a complete through connection to the ocean by
means of rivers, locks, and canals. Recently the whale-back boat was
taken from Chicago by this route to the Atlantic and across to London.
But as the commerce from the West increases, the canals will require
widening and deepening. This through waterway will have an important
bearing on the commercial development of Canada. Its drawback is that
from November until April the lakes are frozen. We, who travel through
Canada in the summer, forget what a different aspect the country
assumes, when for six months of the year it is frost and snow bound.
A few hours after passing the Soo Canal, we had left the flat banks
behind us, and passed out on to the ocean-like waters of Lake Superior,
across which we steamed for ten hours.
At eight o'clock there is the great purple promontory of Cape Thunder
in sight. It is a bold outline against the pale morning sky, clear,
with a keen north wind. It shelters inside the circular bay of Thunder,
with Port Arthur at its head. We pass Silver Island, where thousands of
dollars' worth of silver have been raised and sunk again.
After the mine had been opened, the sea broke in, and a crib had to
be constructed. The silver is there, but the difficulties in raising
it seem insuperable. The whole of Cape Thunder is formed of mineral
deposits.
We land at Port Arthur. It is a sad place. The C.P.R. has ruined the
rising town by choosing Fort William, five miles further up the river,
for its lake port. The once thriving place is deserted, the shops
closing, the large hotel empty. Such is the power of a great monopoly;
it creates and destroys by a stroke of the pen.
Before leaving the _Alberta_ at Fort William, the time is put back an
hour. It recedes as we travel westward, and advances for east-bound
travellers. The time of the Dominion is taken from Montreal, and is
numbered, for convenience and business purposes, consecutively, that is
to say, they have no a.m. or p.m. to confuse their train-service, and
their watches have the double numbers, and one p.m. becomes thirteen,
and two p.m. fourteen, and so on. A proposition has just been made in
the Dominion Parliament to equalize the time, but it will not pass, at
all events, this session.
Fort William was one of the advanced posts of the Hudson Bay Company.
It is now a swamp laid out in streets at right angles, with wooden
houses, overshadowed by some enormous grain elevators. Doubtless it
has a great future before it. We wait here five long hours for the
west-bound train.
FOOTNOTE:
[Footnote 1: Licence has been taken somewhat to alter the route
actually travelled in the Maritime Provinces, so as to fit it in better
as a continuation of my previous book, "Forty Thousand Miles over Land
and Water."]