SYDNEY. 387

There is a court-house, market, church, a Dissenting and Catholic chapel. The courts for the county and district are held at Sydney; causes are decided according to the laws of England, and the provin- cial statutes of Nova Scotia. A captain or subaltern officer,with a detachment of from thirty to forty sol- diers, are stationed here for protecting the town.

The harbour of Sydney has a bar at its entrance, but there is sufficiently deep water over it for large ships, and there is abundant room and good anchor- age at Dartmouth river on the west side of the town, and at the West Arm.

Few places have improved or prospered less than Sydney since it was first built, although it possesses many advantages. It is conveniently situated for the fisheries, and the adjacent lands are adapted for agriculture and grazing. Timber, suitable for build- ing houses and fishing—craft, is abundant; and the coal mines in its-immediate neighbourhood are an- other eminent advantage. It is probably not the most judiciously situated for the chief town in the colony; and in consequence of the island being now under the government of Nova Scotia, Arichat will conti- nue to be, as it now is, the most flourishing settle- ment.

The coal trade has been the chief business carried on from Sydney; the mines, however, on the north side of the bay, and without the bar, are very incon- venient for shipping; and the mode of drawing them from the mines, and conveying them on shipboard, has hitherto been tedious and awkward. Proper