Page:Tourist's Maritime Provinces.djvu/306

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THE TOURIST'S MARITIME PROVINCES

high against tall cliffs that hurl it back again in the face of old ocean.

The length of the island from north to south is under 20 miles, the extreme width 7 miles, the distance from the borders of Maine, 9 miles, and from Campobello, 12 miles. The steamer lands at North Head, the principal port of the island with unpretending hotel accommodations. Here the bluffs rear sky-ward with the vigour of Blomidon. Behind the town is a cemetery filled with graves of the ship-wrecked. The west coast opposes to the mainland a wall several hundred feet high which affords only one refuge for fleeing vessels. Dark Harbour and Money Cove are haunted by tales of treasure-trove and Captain Kidd. A road from North Head passes through half a dozen little fishing-ports and emerges upon the out-flung ledge of Southwest Head, where gulls wheeling about the light-house remind us that on this point Audubon studied these sea-birds before writing his book about them. Gannet Rock, 4 miles to the southwest, is the most isolated of the Manan group. On the fangs of its spreading shoals many a fog-blinded pilot has driven his ship to its death. Board may be obtained at small inns or private houses in North Head, Whale Cove, Grand Harbour and Sprague's Cove. For the splendour of its marine and cliff views, its unconventional villages and bracing atmosphere. Grand Manan merits high praise as a vacation island.