THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 101

circle of hikers when he has been to Skye. Wherever else he may have gone does not seem to matter. A visit to Skye is his final degree for the Royal Order of Hikers. There is something about Skye that is different.

There is something about Belfast that is different. Perhaps it is its memories. Yet it must be more than that, or other places would be as frequented. It guards well the spirit of its second settlement. It is an old district; old, that is, in the reckoning of the New World. Years and years ago, when Lord Selkirk was still playing with toys, and the Polly was only a dream, if even that, the French inhabitants of Isle St. Jean had established in this district a tiny French settlement. With their usual French eye for beauty, and ability to translate it into words, they named the place “La Belle Face”—the beautiful Vista. Came the year 1758. The French were snatched from their beautiful vista and carried back to the shores of old France. ”La Belle Face” became an unhappy sight of tumble-down houses, and overgrown fields. Under— growth and new trees sprang up to hide the site of the deserted village.

The name ”Belfast” probably comes from the French name La Belle Face, although there is record of another interpretation.

A man of war, called the Alermaid, touched here; the Captain has got a fine lot of 20,000 acres, which has the good remains of a village upon it, with a

church; it was called Prim by the French, but he intends to name it “ Belfast, ” after a village in Ireland.

To-day visitors wonder at the Irish name of a Scots settlement. Perhaps it is just another Scots joke-— since the name is really French.