218 Messrs. Jackson and Alger on the 
connected with the continent by a narrow isthmus, and is bound- 
ed on the north by the Strait of Northumberland, on the north- 
east by the Gut of Canseau, by which it is separated from Cape 
Breton, on the south and southeast by the Atlantic ocean, and 
on the west by the Bay of Fundy. The whole Province is 
nearly three hundred miles in length, by one hundred and fifty 
in breadth, and embraces not less than fifteen thousand square 
miles of surface. 
The face of the country presents, with some irregularity, 
three distinct ranges of high land, two of which have some claim 
to the title they bear, of mountains, although they rarely attain an 
elevation of more than five hundred feet above the sea. The 
other range consists of rounded hills of inconsiderable elevation, 
extending through the county of Cumberland, and the districts of 
Colchester and Pictou. The first two ranges are called the South 
and North mountains ; the former extending through the Province 
in the direction east-northeast, and crossing the counties of 
Annapolis, Kings, Hants, Colchester, and Pictou. This range is 
bounded, on the north and west, by the valley through which the 
facts relating to the geological structure and mineral productions of Nova Scotia, 
as have come within the scope of our personal examination. We are aware 
that a large blank remains to be filled up on the subjects of which it treats, before 
these interesting branches of the natural history of that region can be fully eluci- 
dated or its real mineral resources made known; and we can only repeat, what we 
have said on a former occasion, that we hope soon to see it filled up by the exami- 
nations of our own countrymen, as well as of the inhabitants of Nova Scotia, to 
whom, more properly, the labor seems to belong. But we trust that enough will be 
said, to show that the country, in her mineral constitution, has treasures laid 
up, which will afford ample materials for the exercise of the native skill and 
industry of her citizens, and will always secure to her the advantages of an export- 
ing trade. 
