Over the small
streams or brooks they consisted of three pines covered with planks,
without any parapet - with sometimes a plank out, and sometimes a hole in
the middle.
Over large streams they were wooden erections of a most
peculiar kind, with high parapets; their insecurity being evidenced by the
notice, "Walk your horses, according to law," - a notice generally
disregarded by our coachman, as he trotted his horses over the shaking and
rattling fabric.
We passed several small streams, and one of a large size, the
Shubenacadie, a wide, slow, muddy river, flowing through willows and
hedges, like the rivers in the fen districts of England. At the mouth of
the Shubenacadie the tides rise and fall forty feet.
In Nova Scotia the animals seemed to be more carefully lodged than the
people. Wherever we changed horses, we drove into a lofty shed, opening
into a large stable with a boarded floor scrupulously clean, generally
containing twenty horses. The rigour of the climate in winter necessitates
such careful provision for the support of animal life. The coachman went
into the stable and chose his team, which was brought out, and then a
scene of kicking, biting, and screaming ensued, ended by the most furious
kickers being put to the wheel; and after a certain amount of talking, and
settling the mail-bags, the ponderous vehicle moved off again, the leaders
always rearing for the first few yards.
For sixty miles we were passing through woods, the trees sometimes burned
and charred for several miles, and the ground all blackened round them. We
saw very few clearings, and those there were consisted merely of a few
acres of land, separated from the forest by rude "snake-fences." Stumps of
trees blackened by fire stood up among the oat-crops; but though they look
extremely untidy, they are an unavoidable evil for two or three years,
till the large roots decay.
Eleven hours passed by not at all wearisomely to me, though my cousins and
their children suffered much from cramp and fatigue, and at five, after an
ascent of three hours, we began to descend towards a large tract of
cultivated undulating country, in the centre of which is situated a large
settlement called Truro. There, at a wretched hostelry, we stopped to
dine, but the meal by no means answered to our English ideas of dinner. A
cup of tea was placed by each plate; and after the company, principally
consisting of agricultural settlers, had made a substantial meal of
mutton, and the potatoes for which the country is famous, they solaced
themselves with this beverage. No intoxicating liquor was placed upon the
table, [Footnote: I write merely of what fell under my own observation,
for there has been so much spirit-drinking in Nova Scotia, that the
legislature has deemed it expedient to introduce the "Maine Law," with its
stringent and somewhat arbitrary provisions.] and I observed the same
temperate habits at the inns in New Brunswick, the city of St. John not
excepted.
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