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440 



AUDUBON 



" wolfy." The man returned, put out the pine-knot — the 

 linch-pin could not be found — and another quarter of 

 an hour was spent in repairing with all sorts of odds and 

 ends. How much longer Ingalls could, or would, have 

 held the horses, we never asked him, as from different 

 exclamations we heard him utter we thought it well to be 

 silent on that subject. The day dawned fair and beautiful. 

 I ran a mile or so ahead of the coach to warm my feet, and 

 afterwards sat by the driver to obtain, if possible, some 

 information about the country, which became poorer and 

 poorer as our journey proceeded. We were all very 

 hungry, and were told the " stc^nd" stood twenty-five miles 

 from the lost linch-pin. I asked our driver to stop wher- 

 ever he thought we could procure a dozen or so of hard- 

 boiled eggs and some coffee, or indeed anything eatable; 

 so he drew up at a house where the owner looked us over, 

 and said it would be quite impossible to provide a break- 

 fast for six persons of our appearance. We passed on and 

 soon came on the track of a tolerably large bear, tn the 

 road, and at last reached the breakfast ground at a house 

 on the margin of Green Lake, a place where fish and game, 

 in the season, abound. This lake forms part of the channel 

 which was intended to be cut for connecting by canal the 

 Atlantic, the Baie of Fundy, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 

 at Bay Verte. Ninety thousand pounds have been ex- 

 pended, but the canal is not finished, and probably never 

 will be; for we are told the government will not assist the 

 company by which it was undertaken, and private spirit is 

 slumbering. We had an excellent breakfast at this house, 

 seventeen miles from Halifax ; this place would be a most 

 delightful summer residence. The road was now level, but 

 narrow ; the flag of the Halifax garrison was seen when two 

 miles distant. Suddenly we turned short, and stopped at a 

 gate fronting a wharf, where was a small ferry-boat. Here 

 we were detained nearly an hour; how would this work in 

 the States? Why did Mrs, TroUope not visit Halifax? 



