HALIFAX. 3 



straggling in every direction ; the streets nar 

 row and a foot deep in mud ; the lower class 

 of the inhabitants, particularly the black po 

 pulation, in their appearance squalid and po 

 verty struck, and the horses very wretched 

 animals. 



Nova Scotia, of which Halifax is the ca 

 pital, has been a colony of Great Britain 

 for about eighty years. Considerable atten 

 tion has been paid during that time to its 

 improvement in agriculture, chiefly under the 

 auspices of societies instituted for that laudable 

 purpose, but a rugged and generally unpro 

 ductive soil has proved a great obstacle, and 

 I could see that coastwards but little impres 

 sion has been made in overcoming its na 

 tural poverty. As far as the eye could car 

 ry me, the country appeared rocky, bare, 

 and sterile ; the timber trees all cut down, 

 and only dwarf firs remaining ; and the land 

 upon the whole much resembling the bleakest 

 parts of the east coast of Scotland, to a resem 

 blance to which the country may well owe its 

 name. 



