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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



children will be distinguished as Donald 

 Angus and Sandy Angus, etc. The 

 grandchildren become Angus Donald- 

 Sandy or Sandy Donald-Sandy, and so 

 on, to unbelievable lengths. 



If, as often happens, there are more 

 persons of one name than can be so dis- 

 tinguished, one family may be known as 

 Sandy Ruadh (Red), or Sandy Ban 

 (White), or Big Angus, or Little Angus, 

 or Angus the Cobbler, and the adjective 

 may persist to the third or fourth gen- 

 eration. 



A generation ago these by-names fol- 

 lowing the surnames could be found on 

 the electoral voting lists in Cape Breton, 

 and country merchants frequently re- 

 sorted to them to identify the Duncans 

 and Donalds, Normans and Neils on 

 their ledgers. Even today the bracketed 

 "John's son" or "Rory's widow," which 

 avoids the confusing of the persons with 

 others of the same name, are very 

 common. 



In the same way Angus Matheson, 

 carpenter, is distinguished from another 

 Angus Matheson, mason, or from a third 

 who is a wheelwright ; and occasionally a 

 genuine family by-name appears like 

 Ranald Macdonald (Bain) or Ranald 

 Macdonald (King), the respective Ran- 

 alds being better known as Ranald Bain 

 or Ranald King than by their mutual 

 surname. 



In the Cape Breton "nickname," pure 

 and simple, there is the same personal 

 touch that goes with a nickname any- 

 where — not often complimentary, but 

 very much to the point. Besides "Johnny 

 the Widow" or "Mary-Ann Captain Dan 

 Sandy," which are strictly patronymics, 

 there may be ''Duncan the Bear," origi- 

 nating with some personal exploit of 

 Duncan's, or "Willie Holy," whose 

 father was Holy Willie, his piety leaving 

 as much to be desired as the sobriety of 

 Sober Neil, who took his whisky neat 

 and often, like a good Cape Bretoner. 



J. A. H. Cameron, in his "Colonel 

 from Wyoming." illustrates this typically 

 Cape Breton form of nickname with the 

 story of Angus the Ox. The hero of the 

 tale was Axe-handle Angus, "who used 

 to do some coopering in the shape of 

 making axe-handles for some of the Syd- 

 ney merchants. He stole an ox once. 



long, long ago, and sold it to Archie the 

 Brewer for ten gallons of home-made 

 whisky; and when he came home, after 

 spending three months in jail, instead of 

 calling him Axe-handle Angus, they 

 called him Angus the Ox ; they called 

 his brother Donald the Ox and his sister 

 Nancy the Ox." 



The family was ever after known as 

 "The Oxen," and the poor people were 

 so sensitive about it that they gave up 

 raising oxen, even for their own farm- 

 work. 



CHANGING THE ISLAND'S CLIMATE A 

 REMOTE PROSPECT 



The summer weather has no extreme 

 heat, while the island's insular position 

 and proximity to the Gulf Stream give it 

 a winter climate less severe than many 

 more southerly parts of the mainland. 



The island is in the latitude of south- 

 ern France, and if the blocking of the 

 Straits of Belle Isle is accomplished, di- 

 verting the cold Labrador currents that 

 now retard the spring. Cape Breton may 

 share with the New England coast in 

 orange and olive growing, and perhaps 

 sunny vineyards will replace the storm- 

 tossed forests on Smoky's rugged face. 



The prospect is sufficiently remote,, 

 however, to leave undisturbed for the 

 present those of us who prefer Smoky as 

 it is, and the autumn tints of maple and 

 beech and birch, which give gorgeousness 

 to Cape Breton Octobers, to the sunniest 

 vineyards. 



Whether it is due entirely to the rugged 

 stock from which they come or (in part) 

 to some virtue of the climate, these Cape 

 Breton descendants of the Scots are re- 

 markably long-lived. Indeed, it would 

 seem that Ponce de Leon missed his ob- 

 jective only by taking too southerly a 

 course, and that in this bracing island air. 

 rather than in softer climes, is the magic 

 elixir of eternal youth. 



As "Sam Slick" has summarized it: "I 

 don't know what more you'd ask. In- 

 dented everywhere with harbors, sur- 

 rounded with fisheries, the key of the 

 St. Lawrence, the Bay of Fundy, and the 

 West Indies : prime land above, one vast 

 mineral bed beneath, and a climate over 

 all temperate, pleasant, and healthy : if 

 that ain't enough for one place, it's a pity;, 

 that's all !" 



