THE iMARlTLME PROVINCES. 



17 



tlie frequent footprints of birds and animals on the suc- 

 cessive depositions of mud, dried by tlie sun, and easily 

 detached with the layers on AN-hich they were stamped, 

 are interesting features in connection with the geology of 

 this district. 



The Fauna and Flora of the three provinces constitut- 

 ing Acadia (the name, though, is now seldom applied 

 otherwise than poetically) are almost identical with those 

 displayed on the neighbouring portions of the continent, 

 in New England, and the Canadas, though of course, and 

 as might be expected, a few species swell the lists of 

 either kino-dom furtlier inland and on recedinu; from the 

 ocean. There are one or two noticeable differences 

 between the provinces themselves. Thus, for instance, 

 whilst the white cedar (Thuya occidentalis) is one of the 

 most common of the New Brunswick coniferae, frequent 

 up to its junction with Nova Scotia, there are but one or 

 two isolated patches of this tree existing, or ever known 

 to exist, in the latter province, and these not found near 

 the isthmus, but on the shores of the Bay of Fundy, 

 near Granville. Again, not a porcupine exists on the 

 island of Cape Breton, though abundant in Nova Scotia 

 up to the strait of Canseau, in places scarcely half a mile 

 broad. The migratory wild pigeon, formerly equally 

 abundant in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, has now 

 entirely deserted the latter, though still numerous in 

 summer in the fonner province. 



The Canadian deer (Ccrvus virginianus), connnon in 

 New Brunswick, has never crossed the isthmus ; and the 

 wolf (Canis occidentalis), though now and then entering 

 Nova Scotia, apparently cannot make up its mind to 

 stay, though there is an amplitude of wilderness country : 



