Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. We returned to Amberst, and set off the next day for Sackville, where we found, in a creek off the bay, a dirty steamer waiting to take us to St. John's. It was, indeed, a filthy steamer. It had a large beam engine projecting above the deck, as is usual in this part of the world. Steam was escaping in large quantities from the boiler and pipes, which, with the rest of the machinery, were rusty and dirty as can be conceived. The head of the vessel was pressed down in the water by the cargo, and a large flock of sheep. Fortunately the night was calm, and we arrived at our destination without accident. But we had rather a rough sample of colonial life on board. The smoking, and spitting, and tobacco-chewing, and the various stenches that assailed us, were anything but agreeable. A despatch (dated October, 1853) from the Lieut.- Governor of Nova Scotia, upon the resources of the province, has lately been published, which is rather a " curious " document. His Excellency begins by felicitating himself at being able to say that among other articles " coal" commands a high price. But he does not mention why it is so dear, nor how it is that in the neighbouring province of Canada it is undersold by the American coal of Pennsylvania. He next calls attention to the very extraordinary A DESPATCH FROM NOVA SCOTIA. 13 growth of the " mercantile marine " of Nova Scotia, and compares it first, under the heads of shipping and tonnage, with that of several of the European nations, and after that, under the latter head of " tonnage," with several of the United States, remarking that the "comparison which he is bound to institute may abate a little of the arrogance with which the citizens of the republic are apt to challenge rivalry with all the world." Those who remembe...