ST. ANDREWS NB 150 YEARS AGO — ONE MAN’S VIEW 1882

Not a mile from our visit to St. Croix Island now stands St. Andrews, one of the oldest of New Brunswick towns, and also one of the fairest.

Its harbour is unsurpassed, but St. John has drawn off much of the trade that formerly flowed through the St. Croix mouth, and much of what remained has moved upriver to the busy little town of St. Stephens. Therefore St. Andrews is now more dignified than lively, from a commercial point of view, and her chief treasure lies in the beauty of her surrounding scenery, the purity of her clear, green waters, the unfailing coolness of her salt breezes on the cloudless days of summer, all which attractions combined make her a very delightful watering-place.

Peace is the word that comes to our thoughts when St. Andrews is mentioned, and our next thought is of sunshine. How tempting to bathers are the long, warm, tawny beaches, sloping down to the crystal lip of the tide. Bathing is the right thing to do in St. Andrews, and it is done heartily, by happy parties of young men and maidens, and elderly women and children. The waves look refreshingly cool as they come lapping up the sands, and they do not belie their appearance. They are icy cold in fact, and, in our judgment, those choose the better part who stay locates in the warm grass or couched in the sand, watching, with comfortable commiseration, the crowd of gasping revellers.

YACHTING AND LOBSTER SPEARING

The other things which one is expected to do, and will do without much persuasion, are to go yachting on the bay and to visit Chamcook Mountain. A more questionable delight is lobster-spearing, which, however, does excellently in combination with the yachting.

In the cool of the morning, when the tide suits, there is some excitement in being rowed stealthily over the transparent water, while each one, spear in hand, peers sharply into the masses of brown weed that ride at anchor on the level bottom at a depth of some five or six feet. In these bunches of weed lurks the bottle-green prey we are in search of, closely resembling his surroundings in colour, but betrayed by his red points. Not seldom the excitement reaches…