6 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



boldly undulating, at others broken up in extremely 

 irregular forms, the only absolute levels being marginal 

 on the alluvial rivers, there are no lofty mountains in 

 Nova Scotia. The Cobequid Hills, skirting Minas Basin 

 towards the junction of the province with New Bruns- 

 wick, are the most elevated, rising to 1200 feet above 

 the sea. This chain runs for more than 100 miles nearly 

 due east and west. No bare peaks protrude ; it is 

 everywhere clothed with a tall luxuriant forest, with 

 a predominance of beech and sugar-maple. 



Very similar in its general physical features to Nova 

 Scotia, New Brunswick is distinguished by bolder 

 scenery, larger rivers, and greater dimensions of the 

 more important conifers. From the forests in its northern 

 part arise sugar-loaf mountains with naked summits — 

 outlying peaks of the AUeghanies — which occur also in 

 Maine, more frequently, and on a still larger scale. The 

 mountain scenery where the Eestigonche divides the 

 Gaspe chain from the high lands of northern New Bruns- 

 wick is magnificent ; and the aspects of Sussex Yale, and 

 of the long valley of the Miramichi, are as charming as 

 those of the intervales of Nova Scotia. 



The little red sandstone island of Prince Edward, lying 

 in a crescent-shape, in accordance with the coast lines of 

 New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, in a deep southern bay 

 of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is the most fertile of the 

 three provinces, and possesses the attractive scenery of 

 high cultivation pleasantly alternating with wood and 

 water. 



The area of the Acadian provinces is as follows : — Of 

 Nova Scotia, with Cape Breton, 18,600 square miles ; of 

 New Brunswick, 27,100 square miles; and of Prince 



