240
May.
HISTORICAL   JOURNAL
of any other healthful exercife in fafety, rendered our lituation in-, conceivably irkfome and difagreeable to men naturally fond of and aecuflomed to activity j our difcontented reflections, under all thefe circumftances, may be better conceived than exprefTed.
The government of Nova Scotia was merely nominal until the year 1747, when a fettlement was eftablifhed by the then Governor, Cornwallis, on the weft-fide of Chebucto harbour, called Halifax (before defcribed) and is now the metropolis: here are two houfes of affembly, called the upper and lower; the former is compofed of the Lieutenant-Governor and Council, who, with the Governor, are all appointed by the King ; and the other is formed of the Reprefentatives, who are chofen by the freeholders; to whofe choice, however, the Governor has it in his power to object.
Though this province is fituated in a very favourable part of the temperate zone, yet its winters are at leaft {ev&n months long, four of which are almqfl infupportably fevere ; we are flrangers here to the fpring, that delightful feafon of the year in other countries; the winter being immediately fucceeded by fummer, which, though of no long continuance, is as much upon the extreme, for intolerable heat and clofe air, as the other is for intenfe cold. For fome months the weather is very uncertain, often changing faddenly from fair and moderate to tempeftuous- and violent rains; from the latter end of May to the fame time in September, they are wrapped up in the gloom of a perpetual fog, during which fpace, the muf-keta's, and othef infects, are moft inceffantly tormenting, even by night, as well as by day; the autumnal feafon is of no long duration : and, notwithstanding the great extremes of weather, and fe-verity of the winter months, it is an exceeding healthy climate, and agrees as well with ftrangers as with the natives, who are remarkable here for their longevity.
In all the uplands, 1 obferve the foil is thin and barren; and yet, what is very furprifing, they are covered with large timber trees or
great