218 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. chap. xxxv. 



balls and 600 bombs were discharged by the assailants, 

 and the city was taken on the forty-ninth day after in- 

 vestment. The conquest of the city was regarded by 

 Smollett as the most important achievement of the war of 

 1744 ; and the First Lord of the Admiralty at the time 

 declared that, ' if France was master of Portsmouth, he 

 would hang the men who would give Cape Breton in 

 exchange.' 



Louisburg was restored to the French at the peace of 

 Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 ; but in the succeeding war it 

 was again invested in 1759, and Louisburg fell a second 

 time before a force which consisted of twenty-nine ships 

 of the line, eighteen frigates, a large fleet of smaller 

 vessels, and an army of 14,000 men. 



Louisburg may yet rise again ; the site of the ancient 

 fortress and capacious harbour is 200 miles nearer to 

 Europe than Halifax. The Island of Cape Breton is 

 separated fi'om the mainland by the Gut of Canso, not 

 more than 900 yards broad in its narrowest part ; across 

 this strait a steam railway ferry could always keep up 

 communication with the mainland, and yet leave free 

 this valuable entrance to the Gulf.* 



The political importance of the North American 



* Tlie Gut of Canso, separating Breton Island from Nova Scotia, is fre- 

 quented by a great number of vessels, amounting to several thousands 

 annually, who pass tbrough it from the Atlantic to the Gulf of St. Lawi-ence. 

 Admiral Bayfield considers it by far the most preferable route for home- 

 vrard-bound vessels trading between the southern ports of the Gulf and 

 Great Britain, as it affords a safe anchorage until an opportunity offers for 

 sailing with the first fair wind. The length of the passage of the Gut is 14^ 

 miles, and its least breadth 900 yards. The depth of water is seldom less 

 than 15 fathoms. Cape Porcupine, on the western shore, rises 640 feet 

 above the sea, and is a very remarkable object. The rocks on each side 

 belong to the lower carboniferous series. 



