150 Mineralogy and Geology of a part of Nova Scotia, 
Lignites are very abundant. Some specimens appear to 
have been trunks of trees or succulent piants of an enormous 
size, and they are found, not traversing the strata of the 
— like the stony casts of the reeds, but lying between 
em 
The Isthmus connecting Nova Scotia with New Bruns- 
wick, situated between Cumberland Basin and Bay Verte, is 
but twelve or fourteen miles wide from one shore to the other, 
and being composed of a friable decomposed sandstone, op- 
poses a feeble resistance to the rushing waves of Cumberland 
Bay, where the tides rise to the height of sixty feet; while 
on the shores of Bay Verte they scarcely sino the elevation 
of eight or ten feet. One would suppose such frail barriers 
would give way before the seshbine and Bi of the con- 
flicting tides. It is, however, a remarkable fact, that the 
same waves which cause so much devastation along the 
rock-bound coast of the Bay of Fundy, undermining and 
tumbling in confusion the lofty trap rocks, roll harmless 
these shores, Sneed by the bold promootories of 
‘ape Chignecto and Meringuin, depositing their spoils taken 
from the opposing rocks, quietly on the shores of Cumberland 
asin, and thus fortifying the isthmus in its weakest point. 
The inhabitants assist the process, securing by dykes the 
soil deposited on their lands, and profitably use the tenting 
naeped at their doors by the tumultuous sea. 
m the shores of Chignecto Bay the sandstone and 
Ris ee: the county of Cumberland, extend to the wa- 
ters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the north, pie gee stretch- 
ing eastwardly towards the county of Sidney, “regina 
part of the districts of Colchester and Pictou. The int 
of Cumberland county was not eos by <i oe 
we were credibly ahorue by intelligent persons residin 
ee the extent of the sandstone ih as represe oma 
e geo map accompanying this es 
‘Springs have been found in various slanin near the 
ioe of the | tulf of St. Lawrence. One of the most im- 
portant exists near th meet Philip. The brine of this spring 
contains a at larger pr ion of salt than the water of 
ocean, and it has” a, economically obtained by evapo- 
: ration of the water. In the year 1811 large quantities were 
vufactured at re A word salt n occurs at Pictou, 
