In 1833, JJ Audubon stopped in Nova Scotia on his way to and from Labrador. In a way, he was just another whiney tourist.....
- “ all shockingly sea-sick, crossing that worst of all dreadful bays, the Bay of Fundy.”
- “About a dozen houses form this settlement; there was no Custom House officer, and not an individual who could give an answer of any value to our many questions.”
- “The remainder of our day was spent in catching lobsters, of which we procured forty. ”
- “We had been in view of the southeastern coast of Nova Scotia all day, a dreary, poor, and inhospitable-looking country.”
- “the country is too poor for comfort; the timber is small, and the land, very stony. Here and there a small patch of ploughed land, planted, or to be planted, with potatoes, was all we could see evincing cultivation. Near one house we saw a few apple-trees, yet without leaves.”
- “on the 20th of May last year, the sea was a complete sheet of ice as far as a spy-glass could inform.”
- “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. ”
Actually, the diary is a good deal more interesting than that. Audubon spent time in Pictou with Professor McCullough and witnessed the Fundy tides at Windsor.
Excerpts From: John James Audubon. “Audubon and his journals.” iBooks.
Here's a map of the Nova Scotia part of the journey (he liked Truro). Click the eagles for text.
