Page:Tourist's Maritime Provinces.djvu/260

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THE TOURIST'S MARITIME PROVINCES

two islands in reality form the one known as the Island of Cape Breton.

Inverness County extends for its whole length of a hundred miles along the Gulf of St. Lawrence, facing Prince Edward Island. The railway, constructed within recent years, follows the north edge of the strait from Point Tupper to Hawkesbury, Hastings and Troy before emerging in sight of St. George's Bay and the Gulf. Thereafter for 20 miles the rails conform to the curve of the shore along the base of the Craignish Hills. Place-names grow increasingly Scottish—Craigmore, Campbell, Mackay Point. A short way beyond Judique, unrivalled for the stature and belligerency of its Highlanders, the train crosses the southern extremity of the coal seams which slope toward and under the sea from Cape Susan to Cheticamp. At Port Hood, the county seat, 34 miles from Point Tupper, coal has been mined on an extensive scale. Some of the veins lie so close to the surface that ordinary spading on beach or farm may unbare them. From this point, Whycocomagh, on an arm of the Bras d'Or, is about 20 miles across country by wagon-road. Mabou is a delicious little spot in a river vale overlooked by low hills. North from the harbour mouth is Mabou Cape, nearly a thousand feet high and a landmark for all this part of the coast.

The road creeps at the foot of the South Highlands through the picturesque gorge of Glendyer