4 ACADIAN GEOLOGY. 



extremity of Acadia, and whose aboriginal people were called by the 

 English the Quoddy Indians, perhaps because of the frequent occur- 

 rence of the word in their names of places. This name remains 

 in Quoddy Head, the last point of the United States next to Acadia. 

 Secondly, the name, as suggested by me in the first edition of "Acadian 

 Geology," may have originated in the frequency of names with this 

 termination in the language of the natives. The early settlers were 

 desirous of information as to the localities of useful productions, and 

 in giving such information the aborigines would require so often to 

 use the term "Cadie," that it might very naturally come to be 

 regarded as a general name for the country. I still think the latter 

 explanation the more probable. 



Acadia, therefore, signifies primarily a place or region, and, in 

 combination with other words, a place of plenty or abundance. 

 Thus it is not only a beautiful name, which should never have been 

 abandoned for such names as New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, but it 

 is most applicable to a region which is richer in the "chief things of 

 the ancient mountains, the precious things of the lasting hills, and 

 the precious things of the earth and of the deep that coucheth 

 beneath," than any other portion of America of similar dimensions. 



Farther, since by those unchanging laws of geological structure 

 and geographical position which the Creator himself has established, 

 this region must always, notwithstanding any artificial arrangements 

 that man may make, remain distinct from Canada ©n the one hand, 

 and New England on the other, the name Acadia must live ; and I 

 venture to predict that it will yet figure honourably in the history of 

 this western world. The resources of the Acadian provinces must 

 necessarily render them more wealthy and populous than any area of 

 the same extent on the Atlantic coast, from the Bay of Fundy to the 

 Gulf of Mexico, or in the St Lawrence valley, from the sea to the 

 head of the great lakes. Their maritime and mineral resources 

 constitute them the Great Britain of Eastern America ; and though 

 merely agricultural capabilities may give some inland and more 

 southern regions a temporary advantage, Acadia will in the end 

 assert its natural pre-eminence. 



The above considerations justify me in retaining the title of 

 " Acadian Geology " for the present edition of this work, notwith- 

 standing that the name has been overlooked in the new political 

 constitution recently bestowed on Acadia and Canada by the Parlia- 

 ment of Great Britain ; and in which the name " Canada " is extended 

 over the whole of British North America. The title is farther 

 appropriate for a work of this nature, from the circumstance that the 



