Page:Tourist's Maritime Provinces.djvu/383

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PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
323

covering 30 acres, and some thoroughly delightful hill drives.

Georgetown, 12 miles distant by railway, is a port on Cardigan Bay facing across the gulf to Cape Breton. When the ice blocks the strait harbours the Pictou steamer calls here in the winter. It must be some such exigency as this which would inveigle the traveller to so flat and arid a town as the moribund capital of Kings County. Its shipping interests are said to be considerable but the streets have no charm of scene or life. Shuttered stores indicate that the shire-town has been drained of even its one-time commercial vigour. The county’s inhabitants poke fun at King George’s sprawling namesake and say that it is in truth well laid out. Neighbouring rivers and bays attract hunters of sea fowl and fishers of sundry kinds of the omnipresent and versatile trout.

Souris bears the same relation to the east coast as Tignish to the west. The railway from Charlottetown by way of Mt. Stewart halts there after a winding journey of 60 miles. The towns on either side the road invite anglers and summer boarders in search of an economical and peaceful holiday. Souris was settled by the Scotch who came to the island in 1803 under the patronage of a Highland Earl. In the vicinity are lakes, rivers and estuaries where fabulous catches of fish are taken and plover, duck, brant, partridge and cur-