CHAPTER XVII
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=