THE TIDES OF THE BAY OF FUNDY—MURPHY. 51 
above low water. One pair remained thus from the 19th of 
August until the 19th of December last (1887), just 122 days, 
when it became necessary to remove the mud or silt that had 
accumulated or was deposited by the tide within that time, so as 
to continue the concrete upwards; as the next succeeding 
section of tube required filling. There was within each tube a 
depth of 30 inches of fine sand and mud of the same consistency, 
or just as compact, as the ordinary deposits on the flats at low 
tide, a short distance down stream from the bridge. Allowing 
two tides for each 24 hours there would be deposits during each 
flood tide to a depth of decimal .012 of aninch. The Avon bridge 
is 10 miles up the river from Mines Basin, there would therefore 
be a more rapid deposition of the coarser sediments further down. 
The waves, acting with violence above the level of low tides 
abrade every cliff and bank within their reach. Exposed sand- 
stone strata here so frequent, and beds of gravel and earth so 
easily removed are eroded, carried with them and deposited over 
long stretches of the inlets, flats and marshes. The roots of 
coarse grasses, striking deep into the muddy banks, bind 
earth, mud and sediment firmly together, whilst their growth 
upwards protects and retains the deposits. In this way the 
land-making process goes rapidly on, until the surface is 
lifted by the hand of nature to be within the reach of practical 
reclamation by the hand of man. Thus the dykes “that the 
hands of the farmer raised with labor incessant to shut out the 
turbulent waters” drain a rich alluvial soil of great natural 
fertility, capable of yielding for centuries, without the application 
of manure, abundant crops of grains and grasses; and in this 
manner over 48,000 acres of marsh Jand have already been 
reclaimed within the Province of Nova Scotia. 
Man scarcely begins to realize such productions of nature 
until he considers the practicability of utilizing them. The early 
settlers were not slow in recognizing the value of these marshes 
and the feasibility of their acquisition by dyking. 
The currents, too, are considered, studied and applied by 
the mariner, and made to subserve his purpose in bearing him 
rapidly along with more unerring precision than the no less 
