132 NOVA SCOTIA. 



diminishing supply, has become a matter of serious 

 concern." 



To an Englishman the reckless waste of timber that 

 takes place in the forest regions of North America is 

 positively appalling. The old-country man is very tender 

 with trees, the Canadian ruthlessly destroys them. The 

 latter, like the beaver, may be described as a tree- 

 chopping animal, From the day the back settler's little 

 son is able to lift his father's axe up to the day of his 

 death he wages incessant war against the forest. If he 

 wants a stick for any purpose he chops a dozen to choose 

 from. If he wants bark, instead of chopping one or two 

 trees and peeling them he " rings " a hundred. But the 

 axe alone, even when swung by the best choppers in the 

 world, is not the worst enemy of the forest. Fires, the 

 result of wantonness and carelessness, have devastated some 

 of the finest forest regions of North America. 



The summers and autumns in Nova Scotia are charming ; 

 the cool breezes and fogs of the Atlantic temper the heat. 

 The winters are severe. I know of no other part of 

 British America where the changes are so sudden. The 

 prevailing wind is the north-west, which, blowing over a 

 frozen continent in winter, brings frost ; in summer, dry 

 clear weather. The south-east wind, blowing in from the 

 " misty Atlantic," brings rain both in winter and summer. 

 Snow comes generally from the north-east. Changes of 

 40 of temperature occur in a few hours, consequently the 

 snow does not lie as in Lower Canada, and sleighing is 

 uncertain. It is not unusual to see the rain as it falls 

 form a coating of ice on the ground. But, notwithstanding 

 the severe cold and the sudden changes, the climate is 



