SAND HILLS AND BEACUES. 



39 



ranges of sand hills, amounting altogether to about twenty miles 

 more (Fig. 9). 



At New London, the only place where I have had an opportunity 

 of examining these sand hills, they attain the height of forty-feet, and 

 are covered with tufts of coarse beach grass. Their northern sides 

 are frequently cut away into escarpments of loose sand ; but on the 

 whole they do not appear to be rapidly changing their form or position. 

 The sand is of a gray or light brownish colour, though derived from 

 red sandstone; its superficial coating of red oxide of iron being 

 aknost entirely removed by friction. 



Fig. 9. — Sand Hills, Neio London, P. E. I. 



'-xi^c^^^ 



No part of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick is sufficiently elevated 

 to retain any snow later than April or May. There is, however, a 

 ravine in the North mountain of Granville, opposite Annapolis, in 

 which ice is said to endure throughout the summer. I visited it 

 in April, and so could not have absolute proof of its perfection as an 

 ice-house. It is a deep ravine encumbered by blocks of trap, which 

 have fallen from its sides in landslips ; and it appears that the ice 

 which forms between these blocks in winter is sufficiently protected 

 by the sides of the ravine, the dense vegetation and the blocks them- 

 selves to be found unchanged even at the end of summer. 



Slight earthquake shocks have been felt at rare intervals in several 

 parts of the Acadian provinces. One occurred on the 8th of 

 February 1855, and was observed throughout Nova Scotia and 

 New Brunswick, and as far to the south-west as ]Joston. Its })oint 

 of greatest intensity appears to have been at the Bend of the Petit- 



