Audubon and his Journals Volume I Part 23

Towards sunset we arrived in view of this pretty, scattered village, in sight of the head waters of the Bay of Fundy. What a delightful sensation at that moment ran through my frame, as I realized that I was within a few days of home! We reached the tavern, or hotel, or whatever else the house of stoppage might be called, but as only three of us could be accommodated there we went across the street to another. Professor McCullough came in and introduced us to several members of the a.s.sembly of this Province, and I was handed several pinches of snuff by the Professor, who _loves it_. We tried in vain to obtain a conveyance for ourselves to-morrow morning instead of going by coach to-night; it could not be done. Professor McCullough then took me to the house of Samuel George Archibald, Esq., Speaker of the a.s.sembly, who introduced me to his wife and handsome young daughter. I showed them a few drawings, and received a letter from Mr. Archibald to the Chief Justice of Halifax, and now we are waiting for the mail coach to proceed to that place. The village of Truro demands a few words. It is situated in the middle of a most beautiful valley, of great extent and well cultivated; several brooks water this valley, and empty into the Bay of Fundy, the broad expanse of which we see to the westward. The buildings, though princ.i.p.ally of wood, are good-looking, and as cleanly as those in our pretty eastern villages, white, with green shutters. The style of the people, be it loyal or otherwise, is extremely genteel, and I was more than pleased with all those whom I saw. The coach is at the door, the cover of my trunk is gaping to receive this poor book, and therefore once more, good-night.

_August 24._ Wind due east, hauling to the northeast, good for the "Ripley." We are now at Halifax in Nova Scotia, but let me tell thee how and in what manner we reached it. It was eleven last night when we seated ourselves in the coach; the night was beautiful, and the moon shone brightly. We could only partially observe the country until the morning broke; but the road we can swear was hilly, and our horses lazy, or more probably very poor. After riding twenty miles, we stopped a good hour to change horses and warm ourselves. John went to sleep, but the rest of us had some supper, served by a very handsome country girl. At the call, "Coach ready!" we jumped in, and had advanced perhaps a mile and a half when the linch-pin broke, and there we were at a stand-still. Ingalls took charge of the horses, and responded with great energy to the calls of the owls that came from the depths of the woods, where they were engaged either at praying to Diana or at calling to their parents, friends, and distant relations.

John, Lincoln, and Shattuck, always ready for a nap, made this night no exception; Coolidge and I, not trusting altogether to Ingalls'

wakefulness, kept awake and prayed to be shortly delivered from this most disagreeable of travelling experiences, detention--at all times to be avoided if possible, and certainly to be dreaded on a chilly night in this lat.i.tude. Looking up the road, the vacillating glimmer of the flame intended to a.s.sist the coachman in the recovery of the lost linch-pin was all that could be distinguished, for by this the time was what is called "wolfy." The man returned, put out the pine-knot--the linch-pin could not be found--and another quarter of an hour was spent in repairing with all sorts of odds and ends. How much longer Ingalls could, or would, have held the horses, we never asked him, as from different exclamations we heard him utter we thought it well to be silent on that subject. The day dawned fair and beautiful.

I ran a mile or so ahead of the coach to warm my feet, and afterwards sat by the driver to obtain, if possible, some information about the country, which became poorer and poorer as our journey proceeded. We were all very hungry, and were told the "_stand_" stood twenty-five miles from the lost linch-pin. I asked our driver to stop wherever he thought we could procure a dozen or so of hard-boiled eggs and some coffee, or indeed anything eatable; so he drew up at a house where the owner looked us over, and said it would be quite impossible to provide a breakfast for six persons of our appearance. We pa.s.sed on and soon came on the track of a tolerably large bear, _in the road_, and at last reached the breakfast ground at a house on the margin of Green Lake, a place where fish and game, in the season, abound. This lake forms part of the channel which was intended to be cut for connecting by ca.n.a.l the Atlantic, the Baie of Fundy, and the Gulf of St.

Lawrence, at Bay Verte. Ninety thousand pounds have been expended, but the ca.n.a.l is not finished, and probably never will be; for we are told the government will not a.s.sist the company by which it was undertaken, and private spirit is slumbering. We had an excellent breakfast at this house, seventeen miles from Halifax; this place would be a most delightful summer residence. The road was now level, but narrow; the flag of the Halifax garrison was seen when two miles distant. Suddenly we turned short, and stopped at a gate fronting a wharf, where was a small ferry-boat. Here we were detained nearly an hour; how would this work in the States? Why did Mrs. Trollope not visit Halifax? The number of beggarly-looking negroes and negresses would have afforded her ample scope for contemplation and description. We crossed the harbor, in which rode a sixty-four-gun flag-ship, and arrived at the house of one Mr. Paul. This was the best hotel in Halifax, yet with great difficulty we obtained _one_ room with four beds, but no private parlor--which we thought necessary. With a population of eighteen thousand souls, and just now two thousand soldiers added to these, Halifax has not one good hotel, for here the attendance is miserable, and the table far from good. We have walked about to see the town, and all have aching feet and leg-bones in consequence of walking on hard ground after tramping only on the softest, deepest mosses for two months.

_August 25._ I rose at four and wrote to thee and Dr. Parkman;[237]

Shattuck wrote to his father, and he and I took these letters to an English schooner bound to Boston. I was surprised to find every wharf gated, the gates locked and barred, and sentinels at every point. I searched everywhere for a barber; they do not here shave on Sunday; finally, by dint of begging, and a.s.suring the man that I was utterly unacquainted with the laws of Halifax, being a stranger, my long beard was cut at last. Four of us went to church where the Bishop read and preached; the soldiers are divided up among the different churches and attend in full uniform. This afternoon we saw a military burial; this was a grand sight. The soldiers walked far apart, with arms reversed; an excellent band executed the most solemn marches and a fine anthem.

I gave my letters from Boston to Mr. Tremaine, an amiable gentleman.

_August 26._ This day has been spent in writing letters to thyself, Nicholas Berthoud, John Bachman, and Edward Harris; to the last I have written a long letter describing all our voyage. I took the letters to the "Cordelia" packet, which sails on Wednesday, and may reach Boston before we do. I delivered my letters to Bishop Inglis and the Chief-Justice, but were a.s.sured both were out. John and Ingalls spent their evening very agreeably with Commissary Hewitson.

_August 27._ Breakfast eaten and bill paid, we entered the coach at nine o'clock, which would only contain five, so though it rained one of us sat with the driver. The road between Halifax and Windsor, where we now are, is macadamized and good, over hills and through valleys, and though the distance is forty-five miles, we had only one pair of horses, which nevertheless travelled about six and a half miles an hour. Nine miles of our road lay along the Bay of Halifax, and was very pleasant. Here and there a country home came in sight. Our driver told us that a French squadron was pursued by an English fleet to the head of this bay, and the seven French vessels were compelled to strike their colors; but the French commodore or admiral sunk all his vessels, preferring this to surrendering them to the British. So deep was the water that the very tops of the masts sank far out of sight, and once only since that time, twenty years ago, have they been seen; this was on an unusually calm, clear day seven years past. We saw _en pa.s.sant_ the abandoned lodge of Prince Edward, who spent a million pounds on the building, grounds, etc. The whole now is in the greatest state of ruin; thirty years have gone by since it was in its splendor.

On leaving the bay, we followed the Salmon River, a small rivulet of swift water, which abounds in salmon, trout, and other fish. The whole country is miserably poor, yet much cultivation is seen all the way.

Much game and good fishing was to be had round the inn where we dined; the landlord said his terms were five dollars a week, and it would be a pleasant summer residence. We pa.s.sed the seat of Mr. Jeffries, President of the a.s.sembly, now Acting Governor. The house is large and the grounds in fine order. It is between two handsome fresh-water lakes; indeed, the country is covered with lakes, all of which are well supplied with trout. We saw the college and the common school, built of freestone, both handsome buildings. We crossed the head of the St. Croix River, which rolls its impetuous waters into the Bay of Fundy. From here to Windsor the country improved rapidly and the crops looked well. Windsor is a neat, pretty village; the vast banks of plaster of Paris all about it give employment to the inhabitants and bring wealth to the place; it is shipped from here in large quant.i.ties. Our coach stopped at the best _boarding-house_ here, for nowhere in the Provinces have we heard of hotels; the house was full and we were conveyed to another, where, after more than two hours'

delay, we had a very indifferent supper. Meantime we walked to see the Windsor River, on the east bank of which the village is situated. The view was indeed novel; the bed of the river, nearly a mile wide and quite bare as far as eye could reach,--about ten miles. Scarcely any water to be seen, and yet the spot where we stood, sixty-five feet above the river bed, showed that at high tide this wonderful basin must be filled to the brim. Opposite to us, indeed, the country is diked in, and vessels left dry at the wharves had a strange appearance. We are told that there have been instances when vessels have slid sidewise from the top of the bank to the level of the gravelly bed of the river. The sh.o.r.es are covered for a hundred yards with mud of a reddish color. This conveys more the idea of a flood or great freshet than the result of tide, and I long to see the waters of the ocean advancing at the rate of four knots an hour to fill this extraordinary basin; this sight I hope to enjoy to-morrow.

_August 28._ I can now say that I have seen the tide waters of the Bay of Fundy rise sixty-five feet.[238] We were seated on one of the wharves and saw the ma.s.s of water acc.u.mulating with a rapidity I cannot describe. At half-flow the water rose three feet in ten minutes, but it is even more rapid than this. A few minutes after its greatest height is attained it begins to recede, and in a few hours the whole bed of the river is again emptied. We rambled over the beautiful meadows and fields, and John shot two Marsh Hawks, one of each s.e.x, and we saw many more. These birds here are much darker above and much deeper rufous below, than any I ever procured in the Middle States or farther south. Indeed, it may be said that the farther north I have been, the deeper in tint have I found the birds. The steamboat has just arrived, and the young men have been on board to secure our pa.s.sage. No news from the States.

_Eastport, Maine, August 31._ We arrived here yesterday afternoon in the steamer "Maid of the Mist." We left Windsor shortly before twelve noon, and reached St. John's, New Brunswick, at two o'clock at night.

Pa.s.sed "Cape Blow-me-down," "Cape Split," and "Cape d'Or." We were very comfortable, as there were few pa.s.sengers, but the price was sufficient for all we had, and more. We perambulated the streets of St. John's by moonlight, and when the shops opened I purchased two suits of excellent stuff for shooting garments. At the wharf, just as the steamer was about to leave, I had the great pleasure of meeting my most excellent friend Edward Harris, who gave me a letter from thee, and the first intelligence from the big world we have left for two months. Here we were kindly received by all our acquaintance; our trunks were not opened, and the new clothes paid no duties; this ought to be the case with poor students of nature all over the world. We gave up the "Ripley" to Messrs. Buck and Tinkham, took up our quarters with good Mr. Weston, and all began packing immediately.

We reached New York on Sat.u.r.day morning, the 7th of September, and, thank G.o.d, found all well. Whilst at Boston I wrote several letters, one very long one to Thomas Nuttall, in which I gave him some account of the habits of water-birds with which he was unacquainted; he sent me an extremely kind letter in answer.

FOOTNOTES:

[172] These terms were not, however, held to by the owners of the vessel, and the provisioning was left also to them, the whole outlay being about $1500 for the entire trip.

[173] Now commonly spelled Canso--not Canseau.

[174] _Plectrophenax nivalis_, the Snow Bunting.--E. C.

[175] _Canachites canadensis_, the Canada Grouse.--E. C.

[176] Foolish Guillemot.

[177] Black Guillemot.

[178] Great Blue Heron.

[179] Razor-billed Auk.

[180] Spotted Sandpiper, now _Act.i.tis macularia_.--E. C.

[181] Dusky Duck.

[182] Scoter Duck.

[183] The Least or Wilson's Sandpiper, _Tringa (Actodromas) minutilla_.--E. C.

[184] A mistake, which Audubon later corrected. The Herring Gull is of course quite distinct from the Black-backed. The former is of the variety called by me _Larus argentatus smithsonia.n.u.s_, as it differs in some respects from the common Herring Gull of Europe.--E. C.

[185] Perhaps Forster's Tern, _Sterna forsteri_.--E. C.

[186] Charles Lucien Bonaparte.

[187] No doubt the common species, _Phalacrocorax carbo_, as Audubon afterward identified it. See beyond, date of June 30.--E. C.

[188] That is, the species which Audubon named the Florida Cormorant, _Phalacrocorax florida.n.u.s_, now known to be a small southern form of the Double-crested Cormorant, _P. dilophus_.--E. C.

[189] This is the so-called Bridled Guillemot, _Uria ringvia_. The white mark is not characteristic of s.e.x, age, or season. The bird is not specifically distinct from _Uria troile_.--E. C.

[190] _Merula migratoria_, the American Robin.

[191] Kinglet, _Regulus calendula_.--E. C.

[192] An interesting note of this new species figured in B. of Am., folio pl. 193, and described in Orn. Biogr. ii., 1834, p. 539. It is now known as _Melospiza lincolni_.--E. C.

[193] The Common Puffin, now called _Fratercula arctica_.--E. C.

[194] This is the usual sailors' name of the Razor-billed Auk in Labrador and Newfoundland, and was the only one heard by me in Labrador in 1860 (see Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1861, p. 249).--E. C.

[195] Now _Otocorys alpestris_.--E. C.

[196] Now _Anthus pennsylvanicus_.--E. C.

[197] Common Cormorant. See note on page 370.

[198] _Loxia leucoptera._

[199] _Le pet.i.t caporal, Falco temerarius_, AUD. Ornith. Biog. i., 1831, p. 381, pl. 85. _Falco columbarius_, AUD. Ornith. Biog. i., 1831, p. 466, pl. 92; v., 1838, p. 368. Synopsis, 1839, p. 16. B.

Amer. 8vo, ed. 1., 1840, p. 88, pl. 21. _Falco auduboni_, BLACKWALL, Zool. Researches, 1834.--E. C.

In vol. v., p. 368, Audubon says: "The bird represented in the last mentioned plate, and described under the name of _Falco temerarius_, was merely a beautiful adult of the Pigeon Hawk, _F. columbarius_. The great inferiority in size of the individual represented as _F.

temararius_ was the cause of my mistaking it for a distinct species, and I have pleasure in stating that the Prince of Musignano [Charles Bonaparte] was the first person who pointed out my error to me soon after the publication of my first volume."

Bonaparte alludes to this in his edition of Wilson, vol. iii. p. 252.

[200] American Ring Plover, now known as _aegialitis semipalmata_.--E.

C.

[201] Great Northern Diver or Loon, now called _Urinator_, or _Gavia_, _imber_. The other Diver above mentioned as the "Scapegrace" is _U., or G., lumme_.

[202] Red-throated Diver, now _Urinator_, or _Gavia_, _lumme_.--E. C.

[203] The White-crowned and White-throated Sparrows are now placed in the genus _Zonotrichia_.--E. C.

[204] Jager.