THE CHARM OF CAPE BRETON ISLAND 



47 



Sm^ss^l^S 



dr. bell's hd-4 at rest: cape breton (see; also pages 48 and 49) 



Next in importance to Cape Breton's 

 mineral wealth are her fisheries. The 

 cod, the ancestor of North American ex- 

 ports, has formed the principal catch of 

 these waters since Sebastian Cabot re- 

 ported them in such numbers as to im- 

 pede the navigation of his ships, and 

 Charlevoix asserted the fishery of more 

 value to France than the mines of Peru 

 and Mexico. Cape Breton fishermen 

 took a toll of nearly $4,000,000 from the 

 coast waters of the island in 1918. 



The salmon and trout fishing of the 

 streams is well known the continent over 

 and the tuna fishing at St. Anns Bay at- 

 tracts sportsmen yearly (see page 51). 



three great names associated with 

 cape breton 



It is singular that Cape Breton should 

 be associated with the work of the three 

 men who have done most to make neigh- 

 bors of the nations — Morse, Bell, and 

 Marconi. 



It was on Cape Breton shores, at Cape 

 North, that the first successful Atlantic 

 cable was landed in 1867 ; and for years 

 through the lonely North country of the 

 island, ran the land line of the cable com- 

 pany — the slender link between conti- 

 nents that united two civilizations. 



One of the biggest problems of the 

 company's superintendent was to prevent 



the interruption of world news by the 

 marksmanship of young Cape Breton, 

 who, heedless of tidings of the rise and 

 fall of empires, found the wire a novel 

 target. 



"beinn bhreagh" a center op 

 scientific experiment 



The laboratories of Alexander Graham 

 Bell at his estate, "Beinn Bhreagh" 

 (Beautiful Mountain), near Baddeck, 

 have been for nearly thirty-five years the 

 center of the great scientist's work of re- 

 search and experiment in subjects rang- 

 ing all the way from aerial locomotion to 

 the breeding of a multi-nippled, twin- 

 bearing stock of sheep. 



Dr. Bell's work is of special interest to 

 the members of the National Geographic 

 Society, of which he was the second 

 president and a member of its Board of 

 Trustees since its founding. 



Preserved in the laboratory museum is 

 one of the first commercial graphophones 

 (a phonograph as well, for it both re- 

 corded sound and reproduced it), which 

 Graham Bell used here in his experiments 

 in multiplying phonograph records by 

 means of printing from molds of plaster 

 and agate cement. A collection of these 

 molds is another exhibit. 



These Cape Breton experiments with 

 the graphophone followed Dr. Bell's work 

 with his associates of the Yolta Labora- 



