72 PORT HOOD HARBOUR MCKINTOSH. 



The collection and preservation of data that had been neglect- 

 ed and were in danger of being forgotten was the motive that 

 prompted the writer of this paper. Interest grew with the work, 

 however, and its scope has been enlarged so as to present what, 

 in the writer's opinion, is the probable development of Port 

 Hood Harbour into a safe natural haven, the manner in which 

 it became changed into a less safe refuge, and, likewise, to attract 

 attention to the probable future of the port. 



Location of Port Hood' Harbour. 



The County of Inverness embraces the western side of Cape 

 Breton Island from Cape St. Lawrence to the Strait of Canso. 

 From Cape St. Lawrence, the general trend of the coast line is 

 south-west for about eighty-five miles in a straight line to Cape 

 Linzee near Port Hood, the shiretown of the County. From 

 here it bends south with an easterly component and extends to 

 Point Tupper, about thirty-five miles. Two islands lie off the 

 coast to the south west of Cape Linzee and are a continuation of 

 the north-east trending land to the north, and formed at one 

 time an integral portion of it. The outer or Henry Island 

 is over a mile beyond Smith Island, the larger of the two. The 

 latter island is situated a mile from the mainland and op- 

 posite the town of Port Hood. Between Smith Island and the 

 mainland is the harbour which'is the subject under consideration. 

 (.See Fig. I.) 



Events of the Distant Past. 



It is afar cry from the Port Hood Harbour of today to the time 

 in which the coal-measures were laid down. The rocks around 

 the harbour are associated with that period of time. They are 



I . Just au Corps (Just' au Corps) corrupted by the Elnglish to Chestico, 

 was a former name for Port Hood. Mr. Brown in his History of Cape 

 Breton, quoting from a report on the state of the island, says that "the 

 Acadians had built small vessels during the winter of i 764-65 at Just au 

 Corps seven leagues to the northward of the Gut of Canceau, for the French 

 merchants at St. Pierre and Miquelon." There is added as a footnote: 



"Mr. Morris states that during the French occupation of the island, fifty 

 men were constantly employed at Just au Corps quarrying freestone for 

 Louisburg and the French forts in the West Indies." Port Hood is the name 

 used by Brown in reference to grants of land made during Macormick's 

 administration, begun in 1787. This name appears also on Desbarres charts, 

 and was given the place in honour of Admiral Hood of the British Navy. 



