194 J. G. BOUEINOT 



The harbour of Louisbourg lies on the southeastern coast of Cape Breton and is a port 

 very easily made by vessels coming from Europe. The cape from which the island takes 

 its name, and which was always the landfall anxiously looked for by the Breton, Basque 

 and English mariners in the old times to which I have referred, lies only about two 

 leagues in a northeasterly direction from the most easterly point of the harbour where a 

 lighthouse has always stood since the days of French occupation. The harbour runs 

 from southwest to northeast and has a length of about two miles and an average width of 

 half a mile. It has a depth of from three to six fathoms of water, and affords safe anchorage 

 at all seasons for a large fleet of vessels. It is rarely blocked by drift ice compared with 

 other ports on that coast of Cape Breton and is open all winter, the little northeastern 

 harbour being the only part frozen. It has a remarkably easy entrance from the sea of 

 probably a third of mile in width between the rocky shore of Lighthouse Point and a 

 chain of islets and rocks which form an impassable barrier to any approach from the 

 ocean to the oblong neck of land on the southern shore of the port, where the fortified 

 town of Louisbourg was built by the French. This point rises gradually from the 

 harbour and forms a slight acclivity where the buildings stood, and then gently declines 

 into the low ground, made up of swamp, rocky knolls and scrub, which lies between it 

 and the great bay of Grabarus, which stretches to the southwest for a distance of from a 

 mile and a sixth to four miles from the fortifications, White Point being the nearest and 

 Freshwater Cove the furthest in this direction. At the southwest extremity of the har- 

 bour there was and is still a little barachois — a name generally given to a pond connected 

 with the sea, — while the port narrows towards the northeast and forms an arm between 

 the western shore and a rocky promontory, covered with scrubby spruce, averaging from 

 a mile and a quarter to half a mile in width. This sheltered arm has been always the 

 favourite anchorage of the fishing boats and schooners from the earliest times. On the 

 most prominent point of the promontory, at the entrance of the harbour, stands the light- 

 house, from which a most magnificent view of the Atlantic can be had on a clear day. 

 On the northeast side the French had a careening wharf where men-of-war could heave 

 down and be repaired. On the opposite shore there were a large number of rude stages 

 where the fishermen made their fish. The shore of the promontory is exceedingly rugged 

 and precipitous in places, but between the lighthouse point and Cape Breton there are 

 three picturesquely formed coves or small harbours, which have been always the resort 

 of fishermen, and one of which is memorable as having been the scene of Lord Ochil- 

 tree's abortive attempt to establish the first British colony on the island. The western 

 side of the harbour has a very gradual ascent into the interior of the island, and was 

 covered with a thick grove of small spruce, except where it had been cleared to make 

 room for batteries and buildings and to prevent a cover for an attacking force too close to 

 the town. The hilly country, which practically commands the town on this side of the 

 port, stretches as far as Lake Catalogne, and beyond to the beautiful river and bay of 

 Mira, a distancé of about twelve miles. On this river, in the course of time, French 

 people had comfortable farms and even gardens, and here and there the visitor can still 

 see the narcissus growing among the ruins of their old homes and the stumps of old 

 apple and plum trees which had been evidently planted by these early inhabitants of 



