86 OLD FORT BAY. 



the supposed seat of the old French and Indian wars traditional 

 to this locality. Old Fort bay is really a most beautiful piece of 

 nature's fancy work. Just outside its mouth a large expanse of 

 water is surrounded on all sides by islands, between which narrow 

 channels, in many cases too small and shallow for the passage of 

 vessels, connect with the sea. Old Fort island, the largest here, 

 except Esquimaux island, as it is the largest on the coast for miles 

 around, is in a line with the mouth of the bay. The open water I 

 have mentioned is relieved by a single rock prominent at high tide 

 even ; all about is deep and safe water in which vessels may anchor. 



As you enter the bay, the hilly character, at least of this part of 

 the coast, attracts your attention at once. The hills between three 

 and five hundred feet high at the left send their wooded or precip- 

 itous slopes down to the sea, while the highland extends far back 

 in series of crests. At the extreme end of this left hand promon- 

 tory, and midway between the front face of the hill, stands the 

 dark mouth of a sort of cave or natural hollow among the rocks, 

 within which tradition stores treasures inestimable, guarded by 

 apparitions most hideous and terrible ; below it a grassy slope 

 extends slanting towards the sea ; above it on the right, the crest 

 of one of the hills forms a good outlook to the whole surrounding 

 region. 



It is here that many affirm was the last standing place of a fort or 

 battery which the settlers inside the bay (and the ruins of whose 

 houses at a late date, though nothing now remains, were plainly 

 seen,) were credited as having erected for the better defence of 

 their abodes. The theory that the battery would be raised in such 

 a place is very probable, and it would be quite likely that a battery 

 would be placed outside the harbor rather than within it. I men- 

 tion this as there are some persons who believe the fort to have 

 been within the bay on the top of a long glacial ridge, which if it 

 were not known to be of nature's own formation, would strike a 

 stranger, especially one not examining the height personally, as 

 being the most likely place for such a fort. 



Inside, on the right hand, the elevations are low, seldom over 



