DIKED MARSHES. FRESH-WATER ALLUVIA. 33 



The principal localities of diked marshes in Nova Scotia are, 

 Chiegnecto Bay and Ciunberland Basin, Cobequid Bay, Minas Basin, 

 and Annapolis Basin, all of which are parts of the Bay of Fundy. 

 The quantity of marsh in these several places appears from the 

 census of 1851 to be as follows : — 



36,382 ... 



A considerable breadth of marsh on the New Brunswick side of 

 Chiegnecto Bay is not uicluded in the above statement. 



The value of the marshes in an agricultural point of view can 

 hardly be overrated. For the maintenance of cattle, and the pro- 

 duction of butter and cheese, the marsh counties of Nova Scotia and 

 New Branswick possess facilities unsurpassed and perhaps unequalled 

 by those of any other part of North America. 



The principal Fresh-water Alluvia are the river intervales, and 

 the deposits forming in the beds of lakes. The intervales occur 

 on the banks of all the streams. They usually consist of fine friable 

 soil resting on hard gravel, and they constitute most productive 

 land for farming purposes, while their fine elms and alder copses 

 form most pleasing features in our river valleys. I am not aware 

 that they present any geological features requiring detailed notice. 

 The rivers of Nova Scotia are of small size, and do not present, 

 in so far as I am aware, any marked examples of high-level gi'avels 

 or river terraces; and the gravel ridges which occur on the sides 

 of their valleys are rather to be attributed to the action of the sea 

 before the elevation of the country. On the larger rivers of New 

 Brunswick, and especially the St John River, there are alluvial 

 deposits on a more extensive scale; and Professor Hind has pointed 

 out some terraces, of no great elevation, as distinct from those which 

 belong to the sea-margins of the Post-Pliocene period. The lake 

 deposits must be very considerable in amount, as there is an immense 

 number of lakes all receiving sediment from the streams which 

 flow into them. On the most detailed maps of Nova Scotia, about 

 four hundred lakes, varying in length from half a mile to fifteen miles, 

 may be counted, and these are but a part, perhaps not much more 



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