THE MARITIME PROVINCES. 3 



step, from their unceasing plottings with the Indians 

 against British dominancy, receiving, of course, strong 

 support from the French, who still held Louisburg and 

 Quebec. 



Most interesting, and indeed romantic, as is the early 

 history of Acadie during her constant change of rulers 

 until the English obtained a lasting possession of Nova 

 Scotia in 1713, and finally in 1763 were ridded of their 

 troublesome rivals in Cape Breton by the cession on the 

 part of the French of all their possessions in Canada and 

 the Grulf of St. Lawrence, a history political and statis- 

 tical of the Lower Provinces would be quite irrelevant to 

 the general contents of a work like the present. The 

 subject has been ably and exhaustively treated by the 

 great historian of Nova Scotia, Judge Haliburton, and 

 more recently, and in greater bulk, by Mr. Murdoch. 

 Of their works the colonists are justly proud, and when 

 one reads the abundant events of interest with which the 

 whole history of Nova Scotia is chequered, of its steady 

 progress and loyalty as a colony, and of the men it has 

 produced, one cannot wonder at the present distaste 

 evinced by its population on being compelled to merge 

 their compact history and individuality in that of the 

 New Dominion. 



An outline sketch of the physical geography of 

 Acadie is what is here attempted, and a description 

 of some of the striking features of this interesting 

 locale. 



Nova Scotia is a peninsula 256 miles in length, and 

 about 100 in breadth ; a low plateau, sixteen miles wide, 

 connects it with the continental province of New Bruns- 

 wick. The greatest extension of the peninsula, like that 



B 2 



