Province, ed. Francis W.P. Bolger, 1973, p. 326). So in the early 1900 s the stage was set for smuggling the stuff in, and the North Shore around Stanhope was well-suited for this sort of activity. Supply ships from the States, the Caribbean, and St. Pierre et Miquelon would arrive off-shore with a code of ﬂashing signals after dark, and Stanhope residents would go out to meet them in small boats. The contraband brought ashore, it would be hidden until it could be sold. Some was buried, and some was stashed away in cellars and barns. There are tales of sleighs and carts with false bottoms, and of cellars and cup- boards with false walls — all sorts of ingenious hiding places. And it wasn’t only the Mounties who had to be outwitted — watch had to be kept for other entrepreneurs who might come and remove the hidden treasure, and sell it themselves, without having to pay the supply ship! An elderly lady tells of rowing up and down, up and down the Stanhope shore of Covehead Bay, looking for a safe place to land and ’ bury their cargo; her companion was quite sure they had been observed by some neighbour, and they had to go on rowing until he was cert- tain no one could see their hiding place.

Another reminiscence, from Miss Louise Warren: — During prohibition, considerable rum-running was carried out here. One dark night as a boatload of contraband liquor was heading into Covehead Bay, a lookout on board caught a glimpse of what appeared to be someone smoking a cigarette on Stanhope Cape. Suspecting this to be the Mounties, they decided to cut the engine and sail in with the tide. Now my father Bert had built a raft which he kept anchored in the Bay, and seeing this, the smugglers quickly decided to stash their illegal cargo on Bert ’s raft. They then continued up channel and pulled in at a previously arranged dock, only to be apprehended by the waiting Mounties. Clean as a whistle, the Mounties let them go their way, and before the light of morning the smugglers paid a visit to the raft and retrieved their cargo. For‘the longest time, whenever the smugglers saw my father, they would say, with great emphasis, ‘Great raft you’ve got there, Bert”, which puzzled him greatly. Finally one day they told him what had happened.

Moonshine was probably made from the very early days; an inventory taken at Stanhope Farm on October 23, 1788 lists A Copper Still and Worm — the latter item was the curly tubing where the alcohol condensed. Later, stills were quite common in the woods; any secluded area that had a spring or brook to cool the distillate was suitable. The sites can be identified in aerial photographs as little paths in the woods leading to small clearings. Materials used included molasses, corn, barley, potatoes, and sugar. Rationing of the latter during World War II caused great concern among the moonshine men. The fuel used was wood in the early days, and later Coleman stoves,