Page:Tourist's Maritime Provinces.djvu/195

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ANNAPOLIS—KEDGEMAKOOGEE—DIGBY
155

sent five to fifteen days a catch of many thousand tons of haddock, cod, hake, pollock, cusk and halibut will enrich the owners. The profitable cod is laid to dry on the rough benches or "flakes" that cover sections of the beach. Until the sun process is complete the stiff triangular forms are spread each morning, and each night are piled in corpulent ricks under a tarpaulin. Each stack contains several thousand pounds of evaporated fish. The odour of the drying cod drifts like salty incense across the lower town and saturates the nostrils. Even the flowers before the cottages lose their fragrance in the permeating breath.

Most of Digby's cod goes to the West Indies. Thousands of barrels of lobsters, clams, mussels and winkles, and tons of dulse are also shipped from this port.

Summer visitors angle in the Basin or venture through the Gut for deep-sea sport. Tournaments and regattas enliven the vacation months. The new Lour Lodge has its own courts and bathing-beach. Other tourist hotels also provide outdoor diversions for their patrons. The roads round-about are among the best in the province. One leads to the beauteous vale of Bear River, a name corrupted from that of Simon Imbert, a Frenchman who commanded a relief ship for Port Royal in 1612. A beautiful natural highway penetrates a gentle valley known for its wealth of acacia trees, More rugged excursions are made