Page:The Englishwoman in America (IA englishwomaninam00birdrich).pdf/28

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
14
FIRST MOMENTS ASHORE.
Chap. II.

CHAPTER II.

An inhospitable reception—Halifax and the Blue Noses—The heat—Disappointed expectations—The great departed—What the Blue Noses might be—What the coach was not—Nova Scotia and its capabilities—The roads and their annoyances—A tea dinner—A night journey and a Highland cabin—A nautical catastrophe—A joyful reunion.

The Cunard steamers are powerful, punctual, and safe, their cuisine excellent, their arrangements admirable, till they reach Halifax, which is usually the destination of many of the passengers. I will suppose that the voyage has been propitious, and our guns have thundered forth the announcement that the news of the Old World has reached the New; that the stewards have been fee'd and the captain complimented; and that we have parted on the best possible terms with the Company, the ship, and our follow-passengers. The steamer generally remains for two or three hours at Halifax to coal, and unship a portion of her cargo, and there is a very natural desire on the part of the passengers to leave what to many is at best a floating prison, and set foot on firm ground, even for an hour. Those who, like ourselves, land at Halifax for the interior, are anxious to obtain rooms at the hotel, and all who have nothing else to do hurry to the ice-shop, where the luxury of a tumbler of raspberry-cream ice can be obtained for threepence. Besides the hurried

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.