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222 sea that takes its waters from the Atlantic and covers an area of four hundred and fifty square miles in the centre of Cape Breton, is removed but fifteen miles from the Gut of Canso. East Bay, diagonally opposite West Bay, extends to within the same distance of Sydney. The way to the ocean is northward through Little Bras d'Or, and out a narrow channel past Boularderie Island.

Between Orangedale and lona the car windows afford recurring glimpses of surrounding heights and the broad body of the Lake which in places attains a width of 20 miles. There must have been a time when the gap which divides lona from Grand Narrows was closed against the incursion of the sea. Barra Strait has a width of but half a mile. Through it, as through the man-made canal at St. Peter's, the ocean is admitted to the Great Bras d'Or.

The rail journey from Iona to Sydney (46 m.) continues by way of Grand Narrows, a hamlet well situated as a centre for trips up and down the lakes, to East Bay, Marble Mountain, et cetera. A railway bridge more than a third of a mile long links the shores of the strait. The road keeps close to the bank of the beautiful Little Bras d'Or, the views being best beyond Barachois. At a distance of a mile or two are the tree-lined shores of Boularderie Island, which has an extreme length of nearly 30 miles. At George's River the rails leave the lake, and from North Sydney Junction follow a circuitous course to Sydney, metropolis of Cape Breton.

The steamer which plies between lona and Baddeck calls at Grand Narrows, the place where