land only by the mile-wide Strait of Canso, across which railroad trains are carried on ferries. In the southern part of the Island is the Bras d'Or Lake, an inland sea covering two hundred and forty square miles.

Though Cabot landed on the coast of Cape Breton Island after his discovery of the Newfoundland shore, it later fell into the hands of the French. They found its fisheries worth more than all the gold of Peru or Mexico. To protect the sea route to their St. Lawrence territories, they built at Louisburg a great fortress that cost a sum equal to twenty-five million dollars in our money. Today, hardly one stone remains upon another, as the works were destroyed by the British in 1758. Not far from Louisburg is Glace Bay, where Marconi continued the wireless experiments begun in Newfoundland, and it was on this coast, also, that the first transatlantic cable was landed.

Cape Breton Island was settled mostly by Scotch, and even to-day sermons in the churches are often delivered in Gaelic. As a result of intermarriage sometimes half the people of a village bear the same family name. For generations these people lived mostly by fishing, but the opening of coal mines in the Sydney district brought many of them into that industry. The Sydney mines, which normally employ about ten thousand men, are the only coal deposits on the continent of North America lying directly on the Atlantic Coast. They are an asset of immense value to Canada, yielding more than one third of her total coal production. One of the mines at North Sydney has the largest coal shaft in the world. Because of these enormous deposits of bituminous coal, and the presence near by of dolomite, or limestone, steel industries

have been developed in the Sydney district. Ownership of most of the coal and steel properties has been merged in the British Empire Steel Corporation, one of the largest single industrial enterprises in all Canada. It is this corporation, you will remember, that owns the Wabana iron mines in Newfoundland.

In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and north of the isthmus connecting Nova Scotia with the mainland, is Prince Edward Island, the smallest, but proportionately the richest province in the Dominion of Canada. It is not quite twice the size of Rhode Island, and has less than one hundred thousand people, but every acre of its land is tillable and most of it is cultivated. The island is sometimes called the "Garden of the Gulf."

The

Prince Edward Island is a favourite resort of Americans on vacation. It leaped into fame as the scene of the first successful experiments in raising foxes for their furs, and now has more than half of the fox farms in Canada. business of selling fox skins and breeding stock is worth nearly two million dollars a year to the Prince Edward Islanders. The greatest profits are from the sales of fine breeding animals.

Most of the west shore of the Bay of Fundy and many of its northern reaches are in the third and westernmost of the three Maritime Provinces. This is the province of New Brunswick. It is Maine's next-door neighbour, and almost as large, but it has less than half as many people. The wealth of New Brunswick, like that of Maine, comes chiefly from the farms, the fisheries, and the great forests that are fast being converted into lumber and paper. Its game and fresh-water fishing attract a great many sportsmen from both the United States and Canada.

St. John, the chief city of New Brunswick at the mouth of the St. John River, used to be a centre of anti-American sentiment in Canada. This was because the city was founded by the Tories, who left the United States after we won our independence. St. John to-day is a busy commercial centre competing with Halifax for first place as Canada's all-year Atlantic port. It is the eastern terminal of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, whose transatlantic liners use the port during the winter. It enjoys the advantage over Halifax of being some two hundred miles nearer Montreal, but, like Halifax, suffers on account of the long railway haul and high freight rates to central Canada. As a matter of fact, New England, and not Canada, is the natural market for the Maritime Provinces, and every few years the proposal that this part of Canada form a separate Dominion comes up for discussion. Such talk is not taken seriously by the well informed, but it provides a good safety valve for local irritation.

CHAPTER VII

IN FRENCH CANADA

OME with me for a ride about Quebec, the oldest city in Canada, the ancient capital of France in America, and a stronghold of the Catholic Church. We go from the water-front through the Lower Town, up the heights, and out to where the modern city eats into the countryside. The Lower Town is largely French. The main part of the Upper Town used to be enclosed by walls and stone gates, parts of which are still standing. The dull gray buildings are of stone, with only shelf-like sidewalks between them and the street. Most of the streets are narrow. The heights are ascended by stairs, by a winding street, and in one place by an elevator. The old French caleche, a two-wheeled vehicle between a jinrikisha and a dog-cart, has been largely displaced by motor-cars, which can climb the steep grades in a jiffy. Even the ancient buildings are giving way to modern necessities, and every year some are torn down.

As a city, Quebec is unique on this continent. It fairly drips with "atmosphere," and is concentrated romance and history. You know the story, of course, of how Champlain founded it in 1608, on a narrow shelf of land under the rocky bluff that rises nearly three hundred and fifty feet above the St. Lawrence. Here brave French noblemen and priests started what they hoped would be a new empire for France. Between explorations, fights

with the Indians, and frequent British attacks, they lived an exciting life. Finally, General Wolfe in 1759 succeeded in capturing for the British this Gibraltar of the New World. Landing his men by night, at dawn he was in position on the Plains of Abraham behind the fort. In the fight that followed Wolfe was killed, Montcalm, the French commander, was mortally wounded, and the city passed into the hands of the English. If General Montgomery and Benedict Arnold had succeeded in their attack on Quebec on New Year's Eve, sixteen years later, the history of all Canada would have been different, and the United States flag might be flying over the city to-day.

The British built in the rock on top of the bluff a great fort and citadel covering about forty acres. It still bristles with cannon, but most of them are harmless compared with modern big guns. The works serve chiefly as a show place for visitors, and a summer residence for dukes and lords sent out to be governors-general of Canada. The fortification is like a mediæval castle, with subterranean chambers and passages, and cannon balls heaped around the battlements. Below the old gun embrasures is a broad terrace, a quarter of a mile long. This furnishes the people of Quebec a beautiful promenade that overlooks the harbour and commands a fine view of Levis and the numerous villages on the other shore.

The Parliament building stands a little beyond the entrance to the citadel. As we go on the architecture reflects the transition from French to British domination. The houses begin to move back from the sidewalk, and to take on front porches. I saw workmen putting in double windows, in preparation for winter, and noticed that the sides of many of the brick houses are clapboarded to keep