Sketches of Gaspe #265714

It is my hope that the kindly people of the Gaspé Coast, to whom these sketches come and who will be first to detect their shortcomings, may not be indisposed at this attempt to picture some aspects of their country. Where settlements are so venerable it may seem a somewhat intrusive enthusiasm that regards this ancient coast a theme for special discourse, but I have approached Gaspe less with a tourist's eye than with a mind absorbed by some of its scientific problems. The effort to solve the latter has awakened a lively appreciation of its other attractions and a geologist's interest in the rocks and fossils of the country has served to sharpen my apperceptions of the rest. To other readers I may say that there may be some excuse for these untechnical sketches in the fact that very little has been written in English of this inviting country, save in the way of statistical reports or unpoetical inducements to colonization.<br><br>In the presence of the ancient settlements of Gaspé, the scion of modern towns must feel a proper deference, the decent outcome of respect for a long, if uneventful, past. Life has gone slowly on this coast, not with the leaps and bounds of newer invasions, but nevertheless in obeisance to an all pervading law of nature. Upon the earth of today and of the long yesterday are everywhere types of animal and plant life which have rested complacently without change through the ages while their associates have strode on leaving their early companions far aside in the forward or backward evolution of the race. In a world so solely given over to competition, so abandoned to the purpose to arrive, the conservative is unusual enough to be fascinating; it is the anchor which enables the ship to ride out the onrush of the waves; the steamer's sail which serves to steady its progress; it is the rotund and comfortable mother fortifying and ensuring all that is best in the race.<br><br>If amongst my readers there are any unfamiliar with this coast let me give a proper location for these observations.