1917/04/07

Melville writes to his mother from New Brunswick, en route to Halifax. He talks about crossing the Victoria bridge and seeing Evelyn Snider (also from Oakville). He describes his experiences travelling across Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

April 7th 1917

Dear Mother,
We are well into New Brunswick now. We left Montreal about ten o'clock on Friday morning. We crossed the Victoria bridge and it certainly is a great one, about a mile and a half long. Just after crossing the bridge the train stopped and I saw Evelyn Snider and I was talking to her for a couple of minutes. Yesterday

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and last night we only travelled about 80 miles. The train was stopped at half a dozen different places. The kids would come around selling things and not one could speak English, they are all French Canadians and speak nothing but French. The villages and towns we went through yesterday were all French and in every one, no matter how small, there is a fine looking church with two or three other large buildings around

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it. They are connected in some way with the church and are the only decent looking buildings I have seen. The farms are all very narrow and long with a house and a barn at one end. Along all the country roads the houses are only about 100 yds. apart.
Just now we are going along the southern shore of the Gaspé basin and can see the mountains of the Gaspé peninsula on the other side. To-day we have been travelling pretty steady and have

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gone through some beautiful country. It is now twenty minutes to seven. The last station we passed was Campbellton where we put our watches on an hour.
Those boxes certainly did come in handy. We finished the one with the sandwiches in it on the first night and I have some of the other left yet. We expect to be in Halifax to-morrow morning.

Your Loving Son,
Melville

2017.22.107