Page:Tourist's Maritime Provinces.djvu/266

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216
THE TOURIST'S MARITIME PROVINCES

by letter or telephone Callie McLeod at "Northeast" will provide lodgings overnight, or for as long as may be agreed. "Red" McLeod, the father, was known the country over for his hospitality. Even now, doorkeys are never turned at night in the McLeod homestead lest a wayfarer in need of shelter should happen by after the family had retired to bed.

"Northeast" is 23 miles from Inverness and 28 miles from Baddeck. Aside from the splendour of its valley scenery, this branch of the Margaree has renown among fishermen as the best salmon stream in Nova Scotia. There is good trout-fishing within two minutes of the highway. Caribou are hunted 14 miles from the junction of the Baddeck and Valley roads. Partridge are abundant in season. A team to Inverness or Baddeck can be hired here for $6 (one to three persons), and a "single team" for $2 a day. It is difficult to conceive a vacation place more satisfying to every sense.

Dark, craggy ranges wall a gorge with level floor down which the river glides between low pastures, here called intervales. As the stream nears the sea the mountains descend in height. Farmhouses appear on the cloud-shadowed slopes and church spires gleam on the banks. Northeast Post Office is two hours distant from Margaree Harbour. At the gulf -edge the hills become high buttresses over whose crest the road goes on to