Offshore Islands of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick

Susanne Day is a retired education specialist whose focus was physically
challenged, blind, and speech-impaired children.

A great deal of research has gone into Allison Mitcham’s Offshore Islands of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and also, one would suspect, a considerable amount of hazardous and adventurous travel. The Atlantic and Bay of Fundy coasts are noted for their rough seas and rocky shorelines, so visiting these islands is a feat in itself. To live on these islands is to have more courage and stamina than most. The earliest European inhabitants were the same handy breed who fished the Grand Banks — mostly French, at first, and later, English. Most of the dozen islands are inhabited now only by seabirds and some small animals, but they were thriving communities before progress and the lure of a more sophisticated and easier lifestyle enticed the inhabitants to the mainland. Now all that remains are the decaying foundations of their lighthouses, wharves, homes, schools, stores, and churches; stories passed on by their descendants on the mainland; and their ghosts, mingling now with the ghosts of the Indians who had preceded them. On the several islands still inhabited life is good, though precarious. But despite all the inconveniences and dangers that abound, those hardy souls say, “There’s no life like it,” and they wouldn’t live anywhere else but on their lonely, rocky, storm-swept islands.

The fine black-and-white drawings by Peter Mitcham create interest in the stories and serve to indicate where these islands are located.