36 FROM BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



did not like the sensation of passing this spot. 

 When I heard that the mail carrier went by it 

 in his sulky or sleigh night after night, summer 

 and winter, I wished that the highway commis- 

 sioners for this district could be compelled to 

 travel with him on his dangerous way. Soon 

 after leaving this place, the road came out on an 

 open hillside commanding an uninterrupted view 

 of all that part of Cape Breton lying north of 

 Cape Smoky. The coast in profile extended 

 northward until its details were lost in dis- 

 tance. Bays, headlands, islands, sandy beaches, 

 lighthouses, cosy villages, passing ships, sailing 

 ravens, and sjiarkling waves shone on the right, 

 while on the left mountain after mountain, all 

 heavily wooded, though showing many a bare 

 cliff or sculptured summit, filed away from fore- 

 ground to distance in mighty ranks. A huge 

 mass of storm cloud, sent down from the Bay 

 of St. Lawrence, was sweeping proudly across 

 the sky from west to east. At some points it 

 was inky black and quivering with lightning, at 

 others it was white or gray, while on the edges 

 of the thunderheads golden reflections from the 

 hidden sun gleamed as the banners of the cloud 

 army which slowly spread across the plains of 

 blue. In the north there arose the dim out- 

 line of a high mountain. We knew that it must 

 be very near to Cape North, and we fancied that 



