NOTES ON GEOLOGY AND BOTANY OF DIGBY NECK BAILEY. 69 



PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



Under the designation of " Digby Neck" will be included, for 

 the purposes of this paper, not only the long narrow ridge 

 properly so called, together with the isthmus by which this is 

 connected with the mainland of Nova Scotia, but also what is 

 clearly but a former extension of this ridge through Long and 

 Briar Islands. 



As thus regarded, the area naturally becomes divided phy- 

 sically, as it is also geologically, into two portions, of which the 

 one, comprising the isthmus referred to, is comparatively low, 

 while the other, more by the abruptness of the contrast than by 

 the possession of any considerable altitude, may almost be termed 

 mountainous. This latter is indeed the extension, westward of 

 Digby Gut, of what, eastward of the latter, is commonly known 

 as the North Mountain range. 



The total length of this belt of high land, from the Gut to the 

 extremity of Briar Island, is 44 miles ; and for much of the dis- 

 tance the breadth varies but little from a mile and three quar- 

 ters. There are, however, places, as at Sandy Cove, where inden- 

 tations on opposite sides of the peninsula considerably reduce 

 the actual distance from water to water, while at Petite Passage, 

 and again at Grand Passage, transverse gorges, excavated com- 

 pletely through the peninsula and of great depth, give free 

 movement to those waters as well as to navigation, from side to 

 side. On the other hand, the breadth of the isthmus connecting 

 the mountains with the mainland is, between the one and the 

 other, only about three miles, while between Annapolis Basin 

 and the head of St. Mary's Bay it is about five miles. Near the 

 town of Digby the connecting isthmus includes some rather high 

 and no very low land, but the elevation declines both in the 

 direction of the foot of the higher hills and again towards the 

 head of St. Mary's Bay, where, upon the ebb of the tide, the low 

 shores are prolonged outward into extensive mud-flats. 



The maximum elevation of the hilly range is about 350 feet. 

 It would be very incorrect, however, to regard this as a simple 

 ridge extending through the peninsula and sloping from a 



