Night Ride to Halifax. 371 



or boiled eggs ; but the proprietor said it was impossible 

 foi him to furnish a breakfast for six persons of our ap- 

 pearance. 



" We passed on, and soon came to the track of a 

 good-sized bear in the road, and after a wearisome ride 

 reached the breakfast ground, at a house situated on the 

 margin of a lake called Grand Lake, which abounds with 

 fine fish, and soles in the season. This lake forms part 

 of the channel which was intended to be cut for connect- 

 ing the Atlantic Ocean and the Bay of Fundy with the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence at Bay Verte. Ninety thousand 

 pounds have been expended on the enterprise, and the 

 canal is not finished, and probably never will be ; for the 

 government will not assist, and private efforts seem to 

 have exhausted themselves. This point is seventeen 

 miles from Halifax, and must afford a pleasant residence 

 for summer. 



" The road from that tavern to Halifax is level and 

 good, though rather narrow, and a very fine drive for pri- 

 vate carriages. We saw the flag of the garrison at Hali 

 fax, two miles before we reached the place, when we sud- 

 denly turned short, and brought up at a gate fronting a 

 wharf, at which lay a small steam-ferry boat. The gate 

 was shut, and the mail was detained nearly an hour wait- 

 ing for it to be opened. Why did not Mrs. Trollope visit 

 Halifax ? The number of negro men and women, beg- 

 garly-looking blacks, would have furnished materials for 

 her descriptive pen. 



" We crossed the harbor, in which we saw a sixty-four 

 gun flag-ship riding at anchor. The coach drove up to 

 the house of Mr. Paul, the best hotel, where we with dif- 

 ficulty obtained one room with four beds for six persons. 

 With a population of eighteen thousand souls, and two 

 thousand more of soldiers, Halifax has not one good 

 hotel, and only two very indifferent private boarding- 



