James and grandson of Joseph McIsaac would be given the appellation, James Jim Joe. Mary Ann Angus (father's name) Big John (grandfather) is the way Mary Campbell might be addressed. Similarly, Jessie Red Alex Neil Findlay and Alice Big Dave are known to the townsfolk, and John Alex Roary, Roary being the contraction of the ever popular Roderick.
Frequently a whole family labours and sacrifices "at the fishing," or in the mine or with the crops that one child may be educated. Not a few notable professional men have come from these plain communities. The ambition of the young girls is to go to Boston, where they are in demand as domestics. When they return in the summer with new and stylish wardrobes, they are known locally as "Boston swells." The men are of enormous physique. The Argyll Highlanders, a body of militia from Inverness County, have an average height of nearly six feet,—and 98 per cent, of them speak Gaelic.
One of the most striking views in the province is obtained from Cape Mabou Mountain. The road mounts steeply, leaving behind the gulf and smoke-wreathed Inverness. On the far side of the forested height lie the superb Valley of Strathlorne and bonny Lake Ainslie o'er-topped by still more distant ranges. On the borders of the lake, source of the Southwest Margaree, are bountiful farms where one hears tunes from the Gaelic song-book
