306 LIFE OP AUDUBON. 



season. This lake forms part of the channel which was intended 

 to be cut for connecting 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 private carriages. 

 We saw the flag of the garrison at Halifax, two miles before we 

 reached the place, when we suddenly 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 waiting for it to be opened. Why did not Mrs. TroUope 

 visit Halifax ? The number of negro men and women, beggarly- 

 looking blacks, would have furnished materials for her descrip- 

 tive pen. 



" We crossed the harbour, 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 difiBculty 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-houses, where the attendance is miserable, and 

 the table by no means good. We are, however, settled. 



"We have walked about the town; but every one of us 

 has sore feet in consequence of walking on hard ground, after 

 having roamed for two months on the soft, deep mosses of 

 Labrador. The card of an Italian was sent to our rooms, telling 

 us that he had fine baths of all sorts, and we went off to his 

 rooms and found only one tin tub, and a hole underground, into 

 which the sea-water filters, about the size of a hogshead. I 

 plunged into this hole with Ingalls and Shattuck, then rubbed 

 ourselves dry with curious towels, and paid six cents each for 

 the accommodation. We then walked to the garrison, listened 

 to the music, returned to the hotel, and have written this, and 

 now send in my card to the aide-de-camp of the Governor of 

 Newfoundland, who resides in this house. 



