8 MICMAC INDIANS. 



gent, but less patient of restraint than the negroes. Little 

 real success has attended the many attempts which have 

 been made to educate and localise them. Thej have 

 become faithful Roman Catholics, are obedient to their 

 priests, regular at confession, and very honest ; but they 

 do not settle steadily to the monotonous labours of agri- 

 culture, or to the confinement either of domestic service, 

 or of regular handicraft or mechanical trades. 



In the first vrigwam I entered, I found half-a-dozen 

 men playing at cards ; and, in the next, as many women 

 and children making baskets. Their English is broken, 

 and to each other they converse in their native tongue. 

 They are diminishing in numbers, many having been 

 carried off some time ago by a fever, which raged spe- 

 cially among themselves; but there are said still to remain 

 five thousand of them in Nova Scotia. 



In the harbour of Halifax, I saw few large ships ; 

 there were, however, many small vessels employed either 

 in the fisheries or in the coasting trade to the States 

 and the Canadas. There are four circumstances which 

 seem to concur in promising a great future extension to 

 this maritime portion of Nova Scotian industry. In the 

 first place, the sea and bays, and inlets along the whole 

 Atlantic border, swarm with fish of many kinds, which 

 are the natural inheritance of the Nova Scotian fisher- 

 men. Second, this coast is everywhere indented with 

 creeks and harbours, from which the native boats can at 

 all times issue, and to which they can flee for shelter. 

 Thirdly, there exists in the native forests — and over three 

 millions of acres in this province probably always will 

 exist — an inexhaustible supply of excellent timber for the 

 shipbuilder. And, lastly, from the influence of the Gulf 

 stream most probably, the harbours of Nova Scotia are, 

 in ordinary seasons, open and unfrozen during the entire 

 winter ; while, north of Cape Canseau, the harbours and 

 rivers of Prince Edward's Island and of the Canadas are 



