162 CAPE BRETON. 



source of wealth to the province. The Cape Breton men 

 are fond of horseflesh, and are fast and apparently reckless 

 drivers ; only apparently, however, for the little nags are 

 as sure-footed as goats; were they not, the road from 

 Port Hawkesbury to West Bay would be one hecatomb 

 of mangled travellers. The roads are bad. If anyone 

 wishes to see a trap driven down a steep hill at the rate 

 of 12 or 15 miles an hour, on a road full of deep holes 

 and covered with big boulders, I can recommend him to 

 Cape Breton. He will also (a rare sight in North America) 

 see the farmers and their wives and daughters riding to 

 church or to market. Sometimes the ladies go in pairs, 

 and stout indeed must be the little nag who can carry the 

 buxom charms of two Cape Breton lasses. 



The Scotch settlers in Cape Breton are a fine, hardy, 

 good-looking race of people. The old men who were born 

 in Scotland complain that the young fellows are falling 

 off in strength. If there is any falling off, it is caused by 

 their neglect of the commonest rules of health. The inha- 

 bitants of these maritime provinces would be the strongest 

 men in the world, and live to extreme old age if they only 

 took ordinary care of themselves. They utterly disregard 

 wet and cold, ice and snow, and treat their digestive 

 organs with contempt. Neglecting the good old porridge 

 which strengthened their ancestors, and the coarse but 

 nutritious bread made out of the home-grown corn, they 

 now eat quantities of the finest American flour, badly 

 cooked, and washed down with a black and bitter infusion, 

 called tea. They do not take the trouble to grow any 

 vegetable but the potato, and very rarely eat fresh meat. 



Scotch settlers, even in the third generation, still speak 



