The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-10-07

with the officers Of the ship, and the
passengers take their seats in the steri
Of the ferry, or the rear platform of the
cars, and watch the jelly fish being
churned up by the screw. The waters
of the Straits are dark blue, fiecked
with brown-sailed fishing boats, and
the church spire stands up clear against
the evening sky behind US. The cross
ing occupies less than half an hour, and
there is nothing else in the timetables
of the "Inter-coloniar' to indicate that
Cape Breton is an island"
Less than four years ago Sydney was
village, with a population of about
three thousand, and principally known
as summer resort for American tour
lists. To-day it claims to have fifteen
thousand inhabitants, twenty-five hum
dred of whom are in the employ of the
Dominion Iron and Steel company. In
the immediate neighborhood is the enor-
nous coal district owned by the Do
minion Coal company, covering one hum
dred and sixty square miles, and con-
tanning some 1900 100000 tons of coal.
About year ago the latter company
was leased by the former, but arrange
ments are now being made to operate
the two as seperate concerns, as the
iron and steel industry has not yet sufff-
Gent market to enable it to run at its
full capacity. Another difficulty with
which it has had to contend is that of
making good metallurgical coke out of
Dominion coal, but the management
think they have now solved this pro-
blem, after much study and experiment.
There are three ingredients besides
coal that govern the manufacture Of
steel; first; ore, now principally OBJ
tanned from Wabana, an island in Con-
ception Bay, Newfoundland, some four
hundred and two miles from Sydney;
second, limestone, from Marble Noun
tain, in the Bras dor Lake district.
little over fifty miles away; third, dolo-
mite, now carried by rail from Georges
river, sixteen miles distant from the
works. When you add to these natural
advantages the fact that the works of
the Steel company are situated on one
of the. best harbors in America, it can
be seen that there is foundation for the
arrangements assertion that when the
plant is in full operation, we can make,
here in Sydney, cheaper steel than can
be made anywhere on the coast, or put
to the coast, on this continent"
The foundations of the blast furnaces
were laid on October II, 1899, in the half
cleared farmlands on the outskirts of
the town. To-day there are four such
a;e Gr,n ;orI1 p
eighteen feet in diameter, and having
capacity of two hundred and fifty tons
of pig iron in working day; four hun
dred and fifty by-product coke ovens
have been built, utilizing the gas, coal
tar and ammonia; and ten fifty-ton
open-hearth fitting furnaces, served by
two seventy-flve-ton cranes, have been
constructed, besides gasometers, ma
chine shops, foundries, etc. II
The whole business is ROW under Ca
madam capital, and an extension Of the
boundaries established by the Dominion
government in 1897 and 1899 was agreed
to by the House of Commons on August
4, additional bounties being granted on,
two classes of goods not now made in
Canada-viz., upon wire rods, an arti-
Gle which is largely used in making wire
and ultimately in making wire nails and
manufactures of that character, and
also on structural iron and steel. Mills
for these purposes, and also for the
mannranufacture Of steel rails, are now
about half completed. mi IS.
Five miles away from Sydney, across
the harbor, is the shipping and CONNER
cial part of North Sydney, and about
three miles farther on is the settlement
of Sydney Mines, now under the control
of the Nova Scotia Steel company.
New works, too. are being rapidly
pushed at New Glasgow, one hundred
and fifty miles aor lso west of the sgd
neys.-Cape Breton Correspondence OF
the London Times.