NATURE IN ACADIE. 29 



stood guard for ages over the unbroken solitude of these 

 fairy islets. Now and again, through the forest, one 

 catches a glimpse of the barren but inexpressibly grand 

 masses of the eternal granite hills, with the army of grim 

 old firs and pines halting stubbornly half way up their 

 rugged sides ; baffled for centuries, but still with that 

 hoary tempest-braving line presented to the foe. 



The moose and the cariboo have from time imme- 

 morial shared this undisturbed wilderness with their 

 sometime enemy, the Mic-Mac, who still makes this spot 

 the scene of his hunting operations. Here, too, the bear, 

 the beaver, the racoon and the porcupine are still found, 

 while the American goshawk and the great white-headed 

 eagle retreat into these fastnesses with the spoils of the 

 chase, and here raise their broods secure from the gun 

 of the farmer or the enterprise of the roaming egg- 

 collector. 



All along the coast stretching away to the south- 

 westward of Halifax harbour, the great white-headed or 

 " bald " eagle carries on his depredations. He is not 

 quite such a " royal" bird as many writers have made 

 him appear, unless indeed kingliness is not to be distin- 

 guishable from despotism. The white-headed eagle is at 

 all times something of a despot. I think the favourite 

 articles of his diet are fish and carrion, hence his 

 partiality for the bays and estuaries of this wild and 

 rocky coast. In connection with his liking for fish, 

 Alexander Wilson's description of the bald eagle's spolia- 

 tion of the osprey may occur to some. But he is also 

 a great enemy to the poultry of the farmer, and has been 

 often knqwn to destroy young lambs, while he at all 

 times commits great slaughter among the defenceless 

 water-fowl, such as wild geese, ducks, the various 

 species of gulls and other seabirds. 



