It has extensive coal-mines;
one seam of coal is said to be thirty feet thick.
At present it is a most
insignificant place, and the water of the harbour is very shallow. The
distance from Pictou to Charlotte Town, Prince Edward Island, is sixty
miles, and by this route, through Nova Scotia and across Northumberland
Strait, the English mail is transmitted once a fortnight.
A fearful catastrophe happened to the Fairy Queen, a small mail steamer
plying between these ports, not long ago. By some carelessness, she sprang
a leak and sank; the captain and crew escaping to Pictou in the ship's
boats, which were large enough to have saved all the passengers. Here they
arrived, and related the story of the wreck, in the hope that no human
voice would ever tell of their barbarity and cowardice. Several perished
with the ill-fated vessel, among whom were Dr. Mackenzie, a promising
young officer, and two young ladies, one of whom was coming to England to
be married. A few of the passengers floated off on the upper deck and
reached the land in safety, to bear a terrible testimony to the inhumanity
which had left their companions to perish. A voice from the dead could not
have struck greater horror into the heart of the craven captain than did
that of those whom he never expected to meet till the sea should give up
her dead. The captain was committed for manslaughter, but escaped the
punishment due to his offence, though popular indignation was strongly
excited against him. We were told to be on board the Lady le Marchant by
twelve o'clock, and endured four hours' detention on her broiling deck,
without any more substantial sustenance than was afforded to us by some
pine-apples. We were five hours in crossing Northumberland Strait - five
hours of the greatest possible discomfort. We had a head-wind and a rough
chopping sea, which caused the little steamer to pitch unmercifully. After
gaining a distant view of Cape Breton Island, I lay down on a mattress on
deck, in spite of the persecutions of an animated friend, who kindly
endeavoured to rouse me to take a first view of Prince Edward Island.
When at last, in the comparative calmness of the entrance to Charlotte
Town harbour, I stood up to look about me, I could not help admiring the
peaceful beauty of the scene. Far in the distance were the sterile cliffs
of Nova Scotia and the tumbling surges of the Atlantic, while on three
sides we were surrounded by land so low that the trees upon it seemed
almost growing out of the water. The soil was the rich red of Devonshire,
the trees were of a brilliant green, and sylvan lawns ran up amongst them.
The light canoes of the aborigines glided gracefully on the water, or lay
high and dry on the beach; and two or three miles ahead the spires and
houses of the capital of the island lent additional cheerfulness to the
prospect.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 20 of 249
Words from 9869 to 10383
of 129941
