Stellarton, 40 miles beyond Truro, is on the border of the Pictou coal deposits which cover thirty-five square miles. A brief journey by branch railway brings one to Pictou, a trig port on Northumberland Strait from which the steamer of the Charlottetown Steam Navigation Company departs every week-day, unless deterred by ice. In the winter, ice-breaking craft ply between Pictou and Georgetown, Prince Edward Island. Other boats leave here in the open season for Georgetown, and Montague, for Souris, P. E. I. and the Magdalen Islands, and for Mulgrave and the west coast of Cape Breton.
A colony organised by Benjamin Franklin first inhabited this shore, and were succeeded by Scotch farmers who came ten years after Canada became wholly a British possession.
Pictou coal fired the engines of the Royal William, first steamer to cross the Atlantic all the way with-out recourse to sails. She sailed from this harbour for Gravesend, England, in August, 1833.
The century-old Scottish Academy is of interest. In the environs of Pictou are some fine fishing-streams which run through a hill and meadow country.
Pictou-Magdalen Islands, twice a week by S.S. Lady Sibyl. Distance, about 100 m. The thirteen islands which comprise this archipelago are chiefly visited in the spring by fishing fleets in search of bait and the cod on the banks. They were once part of the Colony of Newfound-
