AT LOUISEOURG, CAPE BRETON. — McINTOHH. 267 



better to illustrate our case, any depression of the Island of 

 Cape Breton with reference to the ocean , would have the effect 

 of correspondingly submerging islands and proniontariesin Bras 

 d'Or Lake, provided, of course, that the rivers flowed as before, 

 and the channel connecting Bras d'Or Lake with the ocean did 

 not have an increased or a decreased capacity. Briefly, grant" 

 iug the conditions above stated, the relation of waters as to 

 height would remain the same as before, even supposing the 

 mean height of the lake water was some feet above the mean 

 height of the ocean water in the flrst instance. 



Let us now apply tliis law to the case of the pond at Louis- 

 bourg. The flow of water into the pond is small, and cannot 

 have changed for centuries ; its present wa}'' of egress is, at 

 any rate, not more free than when a sluice-way connected the 

 pond with the Atlantic Ocean ; consequently any subsidence of 

 the general area must be accompanied by a corresponding sub- 

 mergence of all objects standing out in the pond. Yet if my 

 memory does not deceive me, the gorge of the Maurepas Bas- 

 tion presents the same little pond in the plan by Lieutenant 

 Gridley, made in 1745, that my notes present in the year 1901 

 —there is no evidence of subsidence. We will now direct our 

 attention to the neighborhood of the sluice-way, at the western 

 extremity of the pond, and I will flrst state the facts as they 

 appear: at this end of the pond, and extending for some dis- 

 tance along its northern shore, the land, instead of being a 

 deset-t of sand and shingle as is the remainder of the beach, is 

 covered with grass to the line of wave action, and there are 

 still remaining, in its grassy swells, those characteristic zig-zags 

 so puzzling to the unmilitar}' eye, and upon which French mili- 

 tary engineers spent much thought one hundred and flfty 

 years ago. 



Carrying our investigations further towards the waters of 

 the harbour we find a line of post-stubs, showing their ends 

 above the rounded beach-rocks, and here, aj^ain, the character- 

 istic zig-zag presents itself. Further investigation reveals the 



