To be read before a Map of the World
A VOYAGE round the world can be made only through the Southern Seas; for though there exists a north-west passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, it is so obstructed with ice as to be practically useless. Vessels leaving the coast of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick sail south-eastward to the Cape of Good Hope, cross the Indian Ocean to Australia and New Zealand, and continue their course through successive groups of sunny isles till they reach Cape Horn and re-enter the Atlantic, and sail homeward to some Canadian port. The reverse course may be followed. A vessel from Halifax or St. John may sail down past the West Indies and the South American coast, double Cape Horn, and thence cross the Pacific to China, Ceylon, the Cape of Good Hope, and homeward through the Atlantic. Such ocean voyages are tedious, being liable to long delays on account of calms and storms.
The tourist who wishes in these days to make the tour of the world under the most advantageous circumstances usually starts from London, the throbbing centre not of the British Empire only, but of the whole world; the largest, the wealthiest, the most influential of cities. The route is partly by sea, partly by land. Swift steamers, and swifter railway trains, contribute to make the journey rapid, safe, and delightful. Early in the nineteenth centur y, vessels sailing between England and Canada often had to battle with waves and winds for fifty or sixty days; to-day, by the Canadian Pacific route, the traveller can go round the world in sixty days.
In a few hours after the tourist has left London by rail he will arrive at Liverpool, one of the greatest seaports in the world. Itspopulation exceeds three-quarters of a million. Its docks cover six hundred acres, and its wharfs extend nearly forty miles. Steamers of every size, and from every land, arrive here with their cargoes, and carry afar the products of British industry.
Swift Canadian "liners" are ready to bear the traveller in winter to Halifax, in summer to Halifax or Quebec. Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, is a city of nearly 60, 000 inhabitants. It is beautifully situated on the west side of the harbour, and is so strongly fortified as to merit the name of the "Gibraltar of America." The harbour is one of the finest in the world-safe whatever wind blows, accessible to steamers of the largest tonnage at all states of the tides. Halifax harbour, and the sheltered "basin" which extends landward beyond it, would easily afford safe anchorage to all the ships of the British navy.
From Halifax the tourist may proceed to Montreal by①the Canadian Pacific Railwayroute by way of St. John, or
he may proceed by the Intercolonial Railway② to Quebec and thence to Montreal. The route from Halifax to St. John affords interesting glimpses of the Bay of Fundy, whose tides are among the wonders of the world, alternately rising and falling from sixty to seventy feet. The railway crosses extensive "marshes," and skirts "dike-lands" which, in the eighteenth century, were owned by the French "Acadians."St. John is the "commercial capital of New Brunswick, and is a thriving, well-built city of 47, 000 inhabitants. In its immediate "vicinity the St. John River pours its waters into the Bay of Fundy. At low tide the noble river rushes through a narrow gorge and leaps into the bay with a fall of perhaps thirty feet When the tide returns full and strong the fall is reversed: the Bay of Fundy pours its turbid waters into the basin of the river. From St. John to Montreal the route lies largely through an uncultivated country.
By taking the Intercolonial Railway from Halifax to Quebec, the tourist sees such progressive towns as Truro andAmherst in Nova Scotia, and Moncton and Campbellton in New Brunswick. Scenery of the most delightful description will be enjoyed along the Baie Chaleur, the Restigouche River, the Metapedia valley, and at length along the majestic St. Lawrence. In the province of Quebec he sees hamlets and towns reminding him of France as it was in the seventeenth century.
The city of Quebec presents peculiar attractions-new and old, French and English, past and present gracefully blending together. No city in America is more picturesquely situated, or presents a greater variety of natural and historic attractions. Cape Diamond is seen from afar as it frowns upon the low- lying portion of the city between it and the great river. The St. Lawrence as it sweeps past the Cape abates its swiftness and expands into a placid harbour, guarded by the Isle of Orleans. The city now extends from the river brink away up beyond the old walls to the famous Plains of Abraham, where Wolfe and Montcalm fought the battle which placed Canada under the British flag. The old walls and gates of the city are in as good repair as in the days of struggle and war happily long gone by.
Views of singular beauty may be enjoyed from Dufferin Terrace and other points in Quebec. The Falls of Montmorenci may be seen eight miles below the city-unquestionably the most beautiful falls in America. From this port enormous quantities of lumber and timber are shipped every season to Great Britain and other countries.
The tourist may proceed from Quebec to Montreal, a distance of 172 miles, by one of the great St. Lawrence steamers, or by either of two railways.