Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

SHELBURNE COUNTY.

45

and on the east by ungranted lands. Its medium length is about twenty, and its breadth twelve miles. It comprises about 100,000 acres of land, exclusive of allowances for lakes, of which eight have been already explored. The principal one, Lake George. is, next to Rossignol, the largest in the province. Besides these lakes, the township is intersected by the Yarmouth, Chebogue, Chegoggin, Beaver, Salmon, and Tusket rivers. The face of the country is very agreeably diversified, and in point of scenery it is one of the most beautiful portions of Nova Scotia. The climate is more temperate than that of less insulated parts of the province, the mercury very rarely falling as low as Zero, nor rising higher than 80° : the mean temperature is about 48°. At a short distance from the salt water, apples, plums, and cherries, succeed well; and on the banks of the Tusket, pears, peaches, and melons ripen. The seabreeze and the fogs, which occasionally occur in summer, render Yarmouth more suitable for the production of potatoes and grass, the manufacture of butter and cheese, and the rearing of cattle, than for the culture of grain, of which not more than 5000 bushels were raised in 1827. The soil of the upland is in general strong and productive, but requires much labour in the first instance, before it can be brought into a state of culture. The marshes, though extensive, are very inferior to those at the head of the Bay of Fundy. They yield, when dyked, good grass, but are too spongy to admit of the use of the plough, partaking more of the quality of peat, than of alluvial deposit. The principal harbour is Cape

Forchu, which is large and well sheltered. It is surrounded by mud flats, that are bare at low tides, but the channel is navigable for large ships, as far as the upper part of Yarmouth village, and for small craft, as far as the foot of the rock at Milton, while the sound affords good anchorage for vessels of any size.

Yarmouth has always been in a state of steady improvement; and from its local advantages, and the enterprising spirit of its inhabitants, it promises to become a most flourishing and wealthy place.

souls. houses. hornd. cat. horses. sheep.
1425 92 1330

swine.

In 1790 there were 1300

200

370

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Of these there are forty families, belonging to the Church of England, amounting to 200 souls; and families of Catholics, amounting to 40; and 720 families of Dissenters, of different denominations. There are 10,000 acres of land, 1000 acres of dyked marsh, and 2000 of undyked marsh, under cultivation, of different kinds. From which are annually produced, among other articles, about 5000 tons of hay, 120,100 bushels of potatoes, 100,000 pounds of butter and cheese. The three latter have most deservedly a high reputation. There are in the township a Court House (including within it a jail), an Episcopal Church, and a Congregationalist, Baptist, and Methodist, Meeting-house, eighteen small school-houses, fourteen grist mills, and six hundred and twenty dwelling-houses.

[blocks in formation]

Two of these are employed in the trade with Liverpool, in England. About twenty voyages are made annually to the West Indies, and the rest of the shipping is employed in coasting and fishing. The duties collected at this place, and paid into the Provincial Treasury, are upwards of 1000l. a year. On all the rivers there are contiguous lines of settlement, and the clusters of the farm-houses, in some places, approach to the village form, as at the Chebogue Cove, Ohio, Wellington, &c. Yarmouth and Milton are classed among the towns of Nova Scotia. The former is situated on the east side of the principal harbour, and contains, in the length of a mile, seventy-five dwelling-houses, exclusive of stores and other buildings. There are nine trading establishments in it, besides small retail, and mechanics' shops. It has also a social library, established by subscription. At the latter place there are twentytwo houses within a less space, and three trading establishments; and at Chebogue four more. Chebogue river is navigable six or seven miles from the sea, and expands at its mouth into a good harbour.

[blocks in formation]

Shelburne

1323

2697 3133 295 2611 42701 2408 41 2428
Barrington 2186 1687 20 590 47020 1651 16
Argyle...... 2790 2640 151063 103837 3212 42
Yarmouth 4345 10039 115 4798 114692 5022 220

2566

3722

4993 1754 4002 1221

3940 1555

7817 1456

Total... 12018 17499 445 9062 308250 12293 319 10039 20752 5986

The foregoing details, however tedious they may appear, will convey to a philosophical mind a more perfect idea of the actual state of the colony, as also its distribution of population, better than any topographical descriptions, however elaborate and minute. The great extent of land under cultivationthe produce (though the returns here stated are all under the mark, as a tax was dreaded) thereofand the stock thereon, will all demonstrate that Nova Scotia is not the barren, foggy land it has so unjustly been represented.

CHAPTER IV.

GOVERNMENT-MILITARY DEFENCE-FINANCES-COMMERCE -SHIPPING-PROPERTY-RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS PRESS

SOCIAL STATE, &c.

NOVA SCOTIA is governed somewhat after the manner of Upper and Lower Canada-i.e. by a Governor (styled Lieutenant-Governor, as in Upper Canada), Council, and House of Assembly. The President of the Council is the Chief Justice of the province; the next in station is the Bishop, and there are ten other members. The House of Assembly contains forty members, each of the ten counties returning two, except the county of Halifax, which returns four, and the town of Halifax two. The following towns return each a member to the Provincial Parliament:-Truro, Onslow, Londonderry, Annapolis, Granville, Digby, Lunenburg, Amherst, Horton, Cornwallis, Windsor, Falmouth, Barrington, Liverpool, Newport, Shelburne, and Yarmouth.

This is independent of Cape Breton, which is connected with Nova Scotia as a county, and returns two members to the provincial House of Assembly.

The House of Assembly, as in Lower Canada, claims the entire control over the provincial revenue, offering in return to grant a reasonable fixed civil

NOVA SCOTIA.

E

« EdellinenJatka »