The ancient ruins display even yet the most
attractive object to the eye. The outline of these neglected mounds,
you observe, is boldly marked against the sky, and induces a visit to
the spot where the fortress once stood. Louisburg is everywhere
covered with a mantle of turf, and without the assistance of a native
it is not easy to discover even the foundations of the public
buildings. Two or three casemates still remain, appearing like the
mouths of huge ovens, surmounted by a great mass of earth and stone.
These caverns, originally the safeguards of powder and other
combustible munitions of war, now serve to shelter the flocks of sheep
that graze upon the grass that conceals them. The floors are rendered
nearly impassable by the ordure of these animals, but the vaulted
ceilings are adorned by dependent stalactites, like icicles in shape,
but not in purity of colour, being of a material somewhat similar to
oyster shells. The mass of stone^1 and brick that composed the
buildings, and which is now swept so completely from its site, has
been distributed along the shores of America, as far as Halifax and
Boston, having been successively carried away for the erections in
those places and the intermediate coast, which contains many a chimney
bearing the memorials of Louisburg. The remains of the different
batteries on the island and round the harbour are still shown by the
inhabitants, as well as of the wharves, stockade, and sunken ships of
war.
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