144 PHYSICAL FEATURES OF NOVA SCOTIA.—MURPHY. 
SOUTHERLY SLOPE—SOUTH MOUNTAIN. 
If we were to follow a course along the South-eastern or 
Atlantic slope of the South Mountain, keeping parallel with the 
trend of its summit and lower than the granitic outcrops, we 
would traverse a district of much interest which is known to 
few, and would find many places obscure and lonely, possessing 
great natural beauty and fertility. Along the southernmost slope, 
this belt, varying from ten to fifteen miles in width, is reticulated 
by many green patches of foliage and luxuriant growth of 
timber, exhibiting remarkable contrast with the barren denuded - 
surface of a great portion of the country further down. If you 
would follow this varied yet regular range of landscape, alter- 
nating with lake and woodland, many strange phases of primitive 
grandeur would present themselves. Some noble forest trees of 
vigorous growth, some far gone in years, some shattered by the 
winds and frosts, bent and broken, lying athwart their neigh- 
bours, others long since departed yet still bolt upright with their 
bare white rampike branches atop, and here and there small 
clumps of new growth shewing all the beauty and vigour of 
youth. Further on is the “hardwood hill,’ with its stately 
white limbed birchen or maple, shewing smooth firm trunks and 
wide protection of bough, as regular and as trim as if pruned 
and trained by the expert to beautify some lawn or avenue in the 
frequented and ornamental parks of Europe. Rising from a 
carpeted floor of crisp leaves, at remarkably regular distances 
apart for their convenience of growth and development, these 
trees, indigenous, clothe receding hill sides for many miles. We 
notice that the lines are somewhat finely drawn between the 
domain of each of its kind, each generally keeping within its own 
boundary. There are, of course, many intervening patches of a 
mixed growth of pine, birch, maple and others, yet generally 
speaking, the first named three keep within the zones of their 
kind. Long vales of meadow, with a copious covering of grasses, 
frequently are met with. They .generally encompass lakes, 
or border streams on alluvial or peaty surface, and often open up 
glades that permit the eye to range over a prospect beautiful 
and extensive. Rosignol, with its clustered islands, secluded 
