230 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



siles. The counties on the Atlantic ai-e called Cape Breton and Victoria 

 counties. An officiai description may be found in a small book, published 

 with the authority of the lieutenant-governor of the province, as fol- 

 lows : " This county (Victoria) is 80 miles in length and only 15 to 20 

 " miles wide. The northwestern part is mountainous and but scantily 

 " settled. The southwest is better adapted for agriculture, and the soil is 

 " particularly^ good in many parts." Of the other the description is as 

 follows: "There is good land, suitable for agricultural purposes, in this 

 " (Cape Breton) county, but it is not in general well cultivated. Daiiy 

 " farndng is carried on to some extent, and a good deal of butter is ex- 

 " ported to Newfoundland. A large number of the people are engaged 

 " in mining and shipping coal, and many earn a living by fishing." 



Mr. Richai'd Brown resided on the island for many j'ears as agent for 

 some English mine owners. The following is his account of it : 



" The summers of Cape Breton, say from May to October, may chal- 

 " lenge comparison with those of any country within the temperate 

 " regions of the world. During all that time there are, perhaps, not 

 " more than ten foggy days in any part of the island, except along the 

 " southern coast, between the Gut of Canso and Scatari. Bright, sunny 

 " days with balmy westerly winds follow each other in succession week 

 " after week, while the mid-daj^ heats are often tempered by cool, re- 

 " freshing sea-breezes. Of rain there is seldom enough ; the growing 

 " crops more often suffer from too little than from too much." (History 

 of the Island of Cape Breton, etc., by Eichard Brown, F.Gr.S., F.E.G.S., 

 London, 18G9, p. 6.) 



The following is Charles Dudley Warner's description of the climate. 

 Mr. Warner's writings are classic in America. 



" There was an inspiration in the air that one looks for in the moun- 

 " tains rather than on the sea-coast ; it seemed like some new and gentle 

 " compound of sea-air and land-air which was the perfection of breath- 

 *' ing material. In this atmosphere which seems to flow over all these 

 " Atlantic isles at this season one endures a great deal of exercise wnth 

 " little fatigue, or he is content to sit still and has no feeling of sluggish- 

 " ness. Mere living is a kind of happiness. 



" Certainly, as we glided out uj^on the summer waters and began to 

 " get the graceful outline of the widening shores, it seemed as if we had 

 " taken passage to the Fortunate Isles. It was enough to sit on deck and 

 " absorb by all the senses the delicious day." (Baddeck, by Charles 

 Dudley Warner.) 



The cape of Cape Breton is a projection of a band of Primordial 

 rock protecting the Carboniferous basin of the island. It is five miles 

 wide from the sea to a narrow band of Silurian three miles wide, and 

 then the Carboniferous rocks succeed. There is an outlier of Carbonifer- 

 ous limestone on the south side of Mira bay, and at the north point the 

 coal comes out on the shore in the Tracy seam. Scatari island is of Pri- 

 mordial rock also. It is seven miles long, of a remarkable triangular 

 shape and deeply indented by the sea. The outer portion consists of high 

 barren moors 100 to 150 feet above the sea, not marshy, but with shal- 

 low ponds, and the remainder is scantily wooded. The point of the cape 

 consists of low moors with shallow ponds, backed by hummocky hills 

 and thickly wooded with dwarf spruce. Only six miles distant fi'om the 

 point of the cape is Mira bay, into which the Mira river falls — "a noble 

 " stream which broadens a few miles from its mouth into a long, expan- 



