INHABI'I‘ANTS. 407

of the island, but they do not hold the same by any tenure but that of possession and sufferance. These tracts are at Escasoni, Chapel Islandf’e River Denys, VVagama-takook,\Vhycocomah, within the Bras d’Or, and at Marguerite. One or more of these places are their rallying points, where they meet during sum- mer, and where some families remain stationary. These possess some cattle, and cultivate a little Indian corn, and a few potatoes.

From the badness and want of roads, and the con- sequent difficulty of travelling, that intercourse which is so common in Canada, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, between the inhabitants of one set- tlement and another, does not exist in Cape Breton; nor is there yet the same facility of having children instructed in the rudiments of education, while so- ciety is also in a more simple state than in any of the other colonies. There is scarcely a good school in the

colony, if one or two at Sydneyand Arichatumfltg: ' ”J

“u, uuld eXCe tions. It is mme- _ . thatILU provision is made by the colonial legislature

for establishing good schools, although the present condition of the island warrants the same.

The inhabitants, especially the Acadians, and Scotch and Irish Catholics, adhere to the tenets of

5* On this island they have a chapel and burying-ground. 'If‘hey received a present of some red paint for the former, I believe mm the provincial government ; but the colour, which, inmost cases, the Indians admire, did not please in this mstance; their obJection,

as they expressed it in English, was, “ Because certain make chapel

' -" ' ' rica bcin r usuall look all same as one store , walehouses 1n Ame g y

painted with red ochre and oil.