2-889-267 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Louisburg Harbour, Cape Breton, 1850. '...the once renowned harbour of Louisburg suggests itself as the locality [for a railway terminus]; it being situated in the important island of Cape Breton - the most eastern land and harbour of Nova Scotia [in Canada], and, consequently, the nearest by many leagues to the Continent of Europe...it is scarcely possible to imagine one of easier and safer access. It is capacious, and very capable of containing an immense fleet...the circular spot of rock in the foreground is called Wolfe's Battery...Directly below this eminence, lining the shore, are the ruins of [the] fort and its two remaining towers, the eastern and western. The lighthouse is the building on the left distant headland. The harbour entrance is about 400 yards wide, and has a deep unobstructed channel, limited to this breadth by the three islands on the right...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.