A View of the Town and Harbour of Halifax from Dartmouth Shore

‘Certainly the most astonishing single contribution to the pictorial description of early Canada was made by J.F.W. Des Barres, the eminent military cartographer (1722-1824). He was of Huguenot origin, and was distinguished in military expeditions between 1756 and 1762. In 1763-1773 Des Barres surveyed the coast of Nova Scotia, and The Atlantic Neptune was the result. It is a collection of charts and aquatint views of the coast, intended for the use of ship’s captains in the British Navy and it is possible that it is the greatest single monument of the science of cartography now existing. … Superb as the charts are … the principal interest of The Atlantic Neptune today lies in the remarkable series of views in aquatint … the larger views have a great deal of artistic interest.’ (Spendlove, pp.18-19)