Resumes:

Cape Tormentine, N. B. by the Steamer “ Stanley ” and between Charlottetown and Pictou, N. S., by the “ Minto.” When ice conditions become insurmountable at these points. both boats ply between Georgetown and Pictou. a distance of forty miles, where there is more open water and Where ice jams are less frequent. The first effort to carry out continuous steam communication between the Island and the Mainland—one of the Confederation agreements between the respective Governments—was made by the “Albert”, an old steamer wholly unsuited for the service. Then followed the “ Northern Light,” which buffetted the ice of the Northumberland Straits with more or less success for 12 years. Later came the “Stanley” and “ Minto.” These boats were specially designed for the strenuous work of com- batting the ice floes and have been wonderfully successful, often pushing their way through “ shoved ice eight feet in thickness.” The steamers are so constructed that they run up on heavy ice and break it by sheer weight. The “ Stanley ” was built at Govan, on the Clyde, in 1888, and is constructed throughout of Siemen’s Martin steel. Her dimensions are : length 207 feet, breadth 32 feet, depth 20 feet 3 inches. She is a screw boat of 914 tons gross, and 300 horse power, and attains a speed of nearly 15 knots in clear water. The “ Minto” was built in 1899, at Dundee, Scotland. She is 225 feet long, 32 feet six inches broad, and 20 feet six inches deep ; 1,089 tons gross tonnage, indicated horse power 2,900, nominal 362 ; with a speed of 15 knots.

In mid-winter, the work of the two ice- breakers is supplemented by the ice-boat service between Cape Traverse on the Island and Cape Tormentine on the New Brunswick shore, a distance of nine miles—both points been tapped by railways. For about two months of every winter this service affords the quickest and most reliable means of crossing. It has always been attended with difficulty, and in some cases in the past with danger. Of late years, however, the service has been

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At the Capes