THE SMILING ISLE OF PASSAMAQUODDY
shoals, are caught behind the brush walls of the weirs, and held until men arrive with boats and nets to scoop them out. The sardine season is short, lasting only four to six months, usually throughout the summer.
With all this business going on on the the borderland between two great countries, it is necessary that each nation should look assiduously to the protection own interests. The boundary its between Maine and New Brunswick is no imaginary line, but a well-surveyed bound indicated by buoys that extend in a long series from the coast across Quoddv and between the islands to the Atlantic. The Canadian fishery cruiser Curlew and an American cutter are in charge of these precincts and allow no trespassing on their respective domains, and in consequence there is a pretty In fact, lively occasion now and then. there is always a good deal of rivalry between things Canadian and things American. In everything from boat racing to politics you meet that tireless spirit of good-natured competition.
The population quite equally divided between Liberals and Conservatives, British subjects, inhabitants of British soil, descendants for the most part of Loyalist emigrants from Connecticut and New York at the time of the Revolution, who nevertheless are stanch friends of the United States and show their appreciation of the advantages this country has to offer by sending their children to its schools and colleges.
Many of the people have traveled; some of them often spending the winter in Florida or some part of the South or in California, though to be sure the snowy months are not over-rigorous in the West Isles, so pure is the air. All are fond of merrymaking, so that lodges flourish, and social gatherings and moonlight excursions are frequent. You cannot help liking and admiring these whole-souled, unassuming folk as much as you like and admire their home. And when you have once been so fortunate as to gain admission to their pleasant fellowship you will be of those enthusiastic ones who "come and come again."
