INNER HAEBOUR OF HALIFAX. 15 



It, or that the inhabitants are deficient in industry; or 

 that, from want of agricultural skill, their labour is not 

 turned to the best account, and the capabilities of their 

 soil not fully brought out. 



From my brief stay in the province, and the peculiar 

 aridity of the season, I had not an opportunity of deter- 

 mining these points by my own observation ; but, from 

 all I have learned, I am inclined to attribute much of the 

 comparative deficiency of produce in the province to a 

 want either of skill or of persevering industry on the 

 part of the cultivators. 



On the morning of Thursday the 9th of August I left 

 Halifax, by stage, for Windsor, whence the steamboat 

 proceeds across the Bay of Minas and the Bay of Fundy, 

 to St John in New Brunswick. The morning was 

 fine, and the ride up the west side of the bay very 

 delio:htful. The harbour of Halifax consists of an 

 outer and an inner bay, both of great extent. The inner 

 bay, which is completely land-locked, is as yet little 

 frequented, even by boats ; and one laments to see so 

 many fine sites for houses and clearings, on both shores, 

 unoccupied and almost desolate. The land in general is 

 poor and stony, and wealth has not yet so largely accu- 

 mulated at Halifax as to give a value to the compar- 

 atively unproductive margins of this wide inner lake. 



A ride of ten miles brought us to Sackville, at the 

 head of the lake, where we stopped to breakfast. In 

 passing over these first ten miles on a new continent, a 

 native of Great Britain or Ireland, though not learned in 

 trees, can hardly fail to be struck with the new and 

 varied general outlines, forms of leaf, and appearances of 

 bark, which force themselves upon his attention. The 

 varieties of pines, maples, and birches, and the pecuHar 

 foliage of the native oak and ash trees, give much novelty 

 to the journey along the borders of this lake. Little spots 

 of land occurred along its margin, of various quality, and 



