Down North and Up Along 
The Half Way House stands on the cleared 
brow of a high hill with somewhat sombre 
though rather pleasing views of denuded high- 
lands and interminable reaches of spruce, fir, and 
hemlock on three sides ; while the fourth side, 
toward which the house faces, overlooks the sea, 
whose surf is heard pounding against the rocks 
a mile away. Down there on the rocks by the 
sea can also be seen one corner of Neils Har- 
bour. For here, in the loneliest and most 
dangerous part of that lonely and dangerous 
coast, lies the little settlement of English 
people who were the peculiar care of their 
devoted friend, Parson Gibbons. For these 
people came from Newfoundland, and are not, 
like most of the settlers of Cape Breton, High- 
land Scotch. 
We found the air of this northern coast 
splendidly exhilarating. Although it was now 
well along in September and the air was spark- 
ling with cold, particularly in the early morning, 
we never felt chilly. Its effect was to make 
the blood flow faster, and there was none of the 
sense of chill and depression one so often feels 
after driving for several hours in the same 
temperature in southern New England. The 
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