Down North and Up Along 
Torquil must be pronounced " turkle," and 
Cape Breton on the spot must be called Cape 
" Britton." It is supposed by some that the 
island got its name from the Basque sailors who 
came to these shores from Cape Breton near 
Bayonne, in very early times. Be that as it 
may, the Basque sailors are no longer there to 
see justice done their mother tongue, and Cape 
" Britton " it is in the mouths of these former 
subjects of the British Empire. 
Torquil McLane's ferry was quite as pic- 
turesque as Torquil himself, and resembled 
nothing so little as our narrow-minded ideas 
of a " ferry." To see it was to understand 
and sympathise with Mr. A.'s concern that we 
should have a horse willing to cross it ! 
It had no landing whatever other than the 
pebbly beach provided by nature. The ferry- 
boat resembled a retired dory, grown broad 
and flat-bottomed with increase of years. We 
reached this promising form of transportation 
by pitching down a stony embankment upon 
a stony beach. 
Torquil was waiting for us, for had he not 
seen us enter town the night before, and did 
he not hope and trust that we should be cross- 
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