" s " * 1 Dwight, Summer Birds of Prince Edward Island. -7 



The geological formation of the island is a red, crumbling sand- 

 stone that gives rise to low bluffs ten to twenty feet high along 

 the coast, these reaching a height of sixty or seventy feet at some 

 points, notably near North Cape, at East Point, and on the 

 north shore near New London. The bluffs (or 'cliffs' as they are 

 called by the natives) are practically perpendicular, the waves 

 eating them away below, and usually there is a gravelly beach of 

 detritus at their base. They are often guttered by streams, and 

 sloping down, parallel to the water's edge, may be replaced by 

 reaches of gravel or sand, or perhaps low islands, behind which 

 are found lagoons and salt marshes, but in a few miles, perhaps 

 in a few hundred yards, they may again unexpectedly rise to con- 

 siderable height. The wind-swept sand beaches are chiefly 

 along the north shore, interrupted at times by the red bluffs; 

 and although there is always a perceptible reddish tinge to the 

 sand, it is surprising how white it may become in some local- 

 ities. The drifted sand-hills, fringed with more or less scanty 

 grass, suggested the possibility of finding the Ipswich Sparrow, 

 and yet my efforts were unrewarded, the Savanna Sparrows met 

 with in such places being in no wise lighter-colored than those 

 of adjacent fields. 



A green belt of farming country encircles the island, the pas- 

 tures in many places extending to the very edge of the bluffs, and 

 back of them the land is slightly rolling, nowhere reaching any 

 considerable altitude. The only marked inequalities are due to 

 the erosion of small brooks, and the general effect is that of a flat 

 country. In the central section, the best settled, the farms 

 extend from shore to shore and have succeeded the forest that 

 once clothed the whole island. The timber has been nearly all 

 cut, and no large bodies remain except in the western and eastern 

 sections, where bears, still surviving in limited numbers, indicate 

 the nature of the unsettled tracts. A few 'blueberry barrens' 

 were noticed. Most of the island appears to be well drained and 

 comparatively dry. I met with no extensive swamps, nor are 

 the shores of the fresh water lagoons and lakes (particularly 

 abundant near East Point) especially swampy. The lagoons 

 have been made by the damming back of small streams behind 

 the sandbars formed by the wearing away of the bluffs. At Tio-- 

 nish the woods were in patches interrupted by fields, this style of 

 country being characteristic of a large part of the island. It rep- 



