6 FROM BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



eluded all salt water. Longfellow's picture is 

 of salt meadows flooded annually by tlie sea, 

 and surix)unded by a forest country, romantic 

 in character. We saw forests far away on 

 Blomidon, and back of us in the upper reaches 

 of the Gaspereaux; but near the Basin of 

 Minas and the dike coimtry of Grand Pre the 

 apple-tree and the willow are, in this generation 

 at least, kings among trees. To flood Grand 

 Pre with salt water would be to carry ruin and 

 desolation to its fertile acres, and sorrow to the 

 hearts of its thrifty owners. Its best lands are 

 worth four hundred dollars an acre, and require 

 no enrichment. When the sea floods them, as 

 it occasionally does, owing to the breaking of a 

 dike, three years are required to bring the land 

 back to even fair condition. 



The next afternoon a pair of Kentville horses 

 carried us sj^eedily towards Blomidon. We 

 crossed the Grand Habitant or Cornwallis River 

 at Kentville, and then followed the general 

 direction of the shore of the basin until we had 

 crossed in order the Canard, Habitant, and 

 Pereaux rivers, and gained the North Mountain. 

 Striking a ravine in its side, we ascended a well- 

 made road to the summit at a point called " the 

 Look-off." I know of no other hill or mountain 

 which gives the reward that this one does in 

 proportion to the effort required to climb it. 



