NOVA SCOTIA 



Iou draw a line roughly in a diagonal direction across the 

 map, you divide Nova Scotia into two distinct portions. One 

 half i> rocky and unsuitable to the needs of the farmer, though 

 full <>i at tr.u lions to the sportsman. The other is a land of slow 

 brimming rivers and fertile meadows, of smiling orchards and well- 

 cultivated areas of productive tillage. Cumberland County, with 

 st stretches of rich dyke lands, Yarmouth County and the 

 IxMiitiful Annapolis Valley, contain the best stretches of fertile 

 lands, and here the meadows, dotted with graceful elms, and the 

 Ming farmhouses, nestling in their luxuriant orchards, are often 

 SHgestive of the peaceful country -side of the mother land. In 

 other sections the Englishman, unaccustomed to the dark northern 

 fir forests, finds a reminder of Norway or Sweden. The Annapolis 

 Valley is known as the Garden of Nova Scotia. Here, as Hon. 

 h Howe used to say, ' You can ride for fifty miles under apple 

 ins'; had he lived to-day he might have said for one hundred 

 jiniles. ' Here,' it has been said, 'the tidal waters of the great Bay 

 of Fundy, rushing along the coast outside, seeking for admission into 

 khe heart of the province, have found an opening three miles wide 

 n the huge trap needles of Cape Split and a cape on the 

 -ite shore. Swirling round Cape Split, and pressing through 

 [the narrow passage like a mill-race, the turbid waters peacefully 

 id into the Basin of Minas. The broad basin reposing at 

 \"iu feet looks like a wide open hand, sending out beneficent fingers 

 ill round into the heart of a grateful country. One of these fingers 

 the valley of the Comwallis, and into its tips stream the 

 Md.tl UMTS dyked by the old Acadians. On these fat and fair 

 Uk'-d lands dwells to-day another race with other customs and 

 ige in large modern farmhouses embowered in roses and 

 "ti'-YMirkle. Here the tidal rivers find a winding way deep into 

 he pasture ; the dykes, first built by the Brittany peasants, pro- 



1 The old French name for Nova Scotia was Acadie : sometimes New 

 ami a portion of the State of Maine were included under the 



