OF THE VALLEY OF ANNAPOLIS. 27 



between the two ridges was through the Gut of DIgbj or 

 Annapolis — a gut or opening through the lower end of 

 the North Mountains into the Bay of Fundj — and here 

 it would therefore enter when the waters reached it on 

 their way up the Bay of Fundy. But through this nar- 

 row gut the tide could not advance with a velocity equal 

 to that with which it ascended the open bay, and thus 

 the tidal waters would round Cape Blomedon into the 

 Bay of Minas, and, rushing westward towards Cornwallis, 

 would meet the smaller arm of the tide which had come 

 through the gut somewhere in the strait. Here a struggle 

 would ensue, which would be repeated every tide, would 

 shift its locality a little with the height of the tidal waters, 

 and with the direction of the wind, but the effect of which 

 would be to sweep into, and deposit on the site of the 

 struggle, all the loose materials which the rains and 

 streams brought down from either mountain-side, or 

 which the tides themselves might tear from them. Thus 

 a growing sandbank, and finally a bar, would be estab- 

 lished in the strait, which would be a virtual water-shed, 

 separating, as now, the tidal waters of the Bay of Anna- 

 polis from those of the Bay of Minas. On either side of 

 this dividing line, the muddy waters of each bay would 

 begin to deposit the rich slime which has consolidated into 

 the fertile dyked land. And as the tendency always is, 

 where such deposits take place, to raise the land highest 

 near the water, the first formed dividing bank would 

 remain at a lower level than the alluvial soil of newer 

 formation, and thus a lake would be formed upon it, to 

 dry up sooner or later into a bog or marsh. The great 

 Carriboo bog, which still forms the water-shed and the 

 origin of both rivers, stands on the site of the original 

 bank, the scene of the once daily struggle of the two 

 opposing tides. 



The rest is easy. The deposits from the muddy Avater 

 have gone on as they are doing now, till they have filled 



