186 PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 



quence. But nobody is hurt. Each competitor claims 

 the heat, swearing lustily that all the rest " broke ; " each 

 man is upheld by a circle of his own backers, the judge is 

 bonneted, and the crowd, pending the next heat, is 

 supplied with alcoholic refreshment by a speculative indi- 

 vidual who has driven a puncheon of rum on a sled to the 

 racecourse. How the winner is ultimately decided upon 

 is a mystery, nor does it matter much, for the stakes are 

 small, and as for the honour and glory they are equally 

 divided. 



The population of the island is about 90,000. Amongst 

 these are a number of Scotch Highlanders, descendants of 

 the old colonists sent out by Lord Selkirk a century ago. 

 It is generally supposed that Scotchmen do well wherever 

 they go. But the Scotchmen in Prince Edward Island 

 are by no means a good class of settlers. Other immi- 

 grants rapidly assimilate themselves to the people they 

 find in a new country, but the Scotch Highlander never 

 changes. He still speaks Gaelic in Prince Edward Island, 

 sometimes it is the only language he knows. Neither 

 are the French Acadians good settlers; they also are 

 clannish, and stick to their own language and peculiar 

 costume ; they live on potatoes and fish, marry in their 

 teens, and seem to have no ambition to improve their 

 condition in life. These people, however, are not nu- 

 merous. The majority of the population is of English 

 and Irish extraction, and not only in appearance but in 

 manners and customs they bear a stronger resemblance to 

 the parent stock than perhaps any other people in the 

 Dominion. 



And the likeness to England is not only to be traced in 



