We spent a total of ten days in two separate campgrounds in the
Cape Breton National Park. The Park is
beautiful, large and has a vast variety of landscapes including ocean coastal,
wooded lakes, tundra, and both hardwood and boreal forests. We hiked every day when it did not rain
including the trails: Skyline; Bog; MacIntosh Brook; Lone Shieling; Salmon
Pools; Benjie’s Lake; Jack Pine; Coastal; Jigging Cove; Green Cove; and Middle
Head. (Wow, while typing them I realize
that we hiked a lot!). We heard so many
birds singing and whistling on the trails, yet they were a tease and very hard
to locate as was most of the wildlife.
We saw a total of two Moose, and included one picture within even though
we were unable to get him to show his face.
They seemed hard to find and very, very timid when we did find
them. We saw the local Green frog (his
actual name), beautiful butterflies and many dragon flies in various colors. We
traveled the entire Cabot Trail and also visited Meat Cove, Bay of St.
Lawrence, Cape North, Dingwall, White Point, Lakies Point, Ingonish and Cape
Smokie. We put a lot of miles in our boots yet saw something different each
place we explored. We have provided a
lot of pictures, hoping to display the enormous beauty here.
While here we also visited the Whale Interruptive Center in
Pleasant Bay. We were reminded of many things we learned in years past and
learned some new things as well. While
we knew that whales are cetaceans we had forgotten that all cetaceans swim by
moving their tail flukes up and down as opposed to sideways as in fish. Worldwide there are 79 known species of
Cetaceans with 68 of those species being toothed and 11 being baleen which
strain their food from the water. Even
after the moratorium on commercial whaling was imposed in 1986, it is estimated
that almost 25,000 whales have been killed since the moratorium came into
effect.
Whales hear their world like we see ours. Their reliance upon hearing and for some
species magnetism is key. Scientists
have tracked the sounds of Baleen whales over 1000 miles away. Many whales use not only their ears to hear
but also the vibrations through their jawbones and through the ‘melon’ which
comprises their forehead. They use their
sounds to communicate with other whales often many miles away.
Their brains are 6 times the size of ours, being the largest on
the planet. They can perform tasks that
require complex learning, they display elaborate social behaviors and they have
substantial memories. They also display
individual temperaments, needs for play and companionship. Many scientists believe that their intelligence
may match our own. It really makes one
think more deeply about what we as humans do in places like Sea World.
We learned about the incredible respiratory systems that whales
have that enable some species to dive to depths greater than 3,000 feet and
stay submerged for more than 2 hours. Their
respiratory system involves not only strategic placement of organs but also a
slowing of their heartrate as they dive.
They truly are incredible creatures.
We left this museum with a realization of how little we understand
regarding these giants as well as a love in our hearts for these beautiful
creatures.
One of the days that it rained while in Cape Breton, we drove up
to Baddeck, Nova Scotia to visit the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. At the museum we learned so much more about
Bell than just the telephone (including his tie to Canada).
March 3, 1847 Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh,
Scotland. Both his father, Alexander
Melville, and grandfather were pioneers in phonetics. His mother was an accomplished artist and
pianist despite her progressing deafness.
After a poor high school career, Alexander Graham spent the year of 1862
in London with his Grandfather. It was that
year that Alexander Graham attributed to turning his life around, becoming
engrossed in the lessons that his Grandfather created for him. In 1864, Alexander Graham Bell’s father,
Alexander Melville Bell, created a phonetic alphabet that he called ‘Visible
Speech’. At the age of 21, Alexander
Graham began teaching deaf students in London.
Using his father’s system of Visible Speech, he had great success at getting
his deaf students to speak.
Right after Alexander Graham began his teaching career, his young
brother Ted died of tuberculosis in 1867 and then his older brother Melly died
as well of the same disease in 1870. A
short time later, Alexander Graham was ill too.
In 1870, the father decided he had better move his family to a better
climate. The family then relocated to
Ontario, Canada where Alexander Graham regained his health.
In 1871, Alexander Graham traveled to Boston to teach his father’s
Visual Speech at Boston’s School for Deaf Mutes. At the Boston school Alexander
Graham also has many private students.
One of these students, age 15, is Mabel Hubbard. Just three years later Alexander Graham asks
his private student Mabel to marry him. Alexander’s
father provided his judgement (shown below) and her father gave his
approval.
In 1876 he receives the patent for the telephone. One year later,
in 1877 Alexander Graham at the age of 30 is married to his private student
Mabel Hubbard, age 19. As a wedding gift
to Mabel he gave her all but 10 shares of the Bell Telephone Company. In 1878
their first daughter is born, Elsie May. Two years later they have a second
daughter, Marian. In 1881 they lost
their first son to breathing difficulties at birth. In 1883 they lost yet another son at
premature birth.
In 1881, Alexander Graham experiments with Edison’s phonograph,
creating his own invention the graphaphone.
He sells his interest to this invention for $200,000 which he uses to
establish Voltra Bureau, a repository for information on the deaf.
Eight years after getting married, the new Bell family visits
Baddeck, Nova Scotia for the first time.
Alexander says it reminds him of Scotland and in 1886 they purchase 50
acres with a cottage.
In 1887, Alexander Graham begins working with Helen Keller. She has given Alexander Graham much credit
for her ability to both speak and write.
In 1895 Alexander began experimenting with kites. From these experiments he developed in 1902
the principal of tetrahedral construction.
In 1905 he developed the 1300 celled tetrahedral kite that supported
Neil MacDermid on a rope……and he begins dreaming of aviation.
In 1909, Alexander with the AEA (Aeronautic Exploration
Association) developed the Silver Dart.
It becomes the first powered flight in Canada. One of its amazing features was a water
cooled radiator for it's engine.
Not as well-known and/or appreciated was the HD-4, a hydrofoil
water craft. It was first launched in
1918 and set her world water speed record run at 114 KPH in 1919. She was originally developed to support the
US Navy, but when the war ended in 1918, her original intentions were gone. We remain convinced that these inventions
were precursors to other inventions by others.
In the museum there were also some personal videos to share. One that comes to mind were the Bell
children, now elderly, that talked of playing as children….playing atoms,
bouncing off one another, and others just not understanding them. Another was a worker that remained thankful
that Bell paid off his house in full.
From what we learned, he was a generous man. Of all the many things that we learned about
Alexander Graham Bell, the biggest takeaway was that he loved to invent and
explore and quickly sold off inventions, with no interest in following to
commercial development. And, his real
love was his work with the deaf. While
Alexander is gone now, James Grosvenor Watson, the Great-Great-Grandson of
Alexander Graham Bell continues to carry on developing advanced methods of
working with the deaf today.
