in a 
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1903] VEGETATION OF THE BAY OF FUNDY MARSHES 165 
and reclaimed marsh and bog, together with the outlines of 
these marshes, may be gathered from the accompanying map 
(fig. 2) drawn to the scale of two miles toan inch. The marshes 
on Minas Basin are much less in area than those on Cumberland 
Basin, but in the aggregate there are at the head of the Bay of 
Fundy not far from 70,000 (or as Hamilton estimates, 80,000) 
acres of marshes and bogs, of which by far the greater part is 
diked and under cultivation. The extent of the diked marshes 
may be yet better understood when it is stated that, according 
to Shaler, the entire area of all of the diked salt marshes of the 
eastern United States does not exceed 5,000 acres. 
The characteristics of the marsh country. 
The country around Cumberland Basin is of ancient 
(Palaeozoic) formations, rounded into low smooth hills and 
ridges separated by radiating river valleys. Among the ridges 
lie the marshes, seemingly level as the sea; and, like it, they fill 
bays, surround islands and are pierced by points. Seen from 
the neighboring ridges, the marshes have an aspect characteristic 
and beautiful. They are treeless, but are clothed nearly every- 
where with dense rich grasses in many shades of green and 
brown, varying with the season, with the light, and even with 
the winds. For the most part the merging of the colors is 
irregular; but in places, owing to the different treatment given 
by different owners to their land, or to the presence of fields of 
grain or pasture-lots, there is something of the checkered 
appearance usual in highly cultivated land. The frequent ditches 
marked by denser growths, the rare fences and the occasional 
roads or railways are other signs of the operations of man. 
Towards the sea are narrow fringes of unreclaimed marsh, 
poorer in vegetation and generally duller in color, while farther 
back the green of the marshes gives place to the brown and 
gray of the bogs, which are further distinguished by irregular 
shrubbery and trees, and many little lakes. Nobody lives upon 
the marshes, but scattered upon them are many great barns, all 
of one and the simplest pattern, unpainted and gray from the 
weather, standing at any and every angle. These barns are 
one of the distinguishing features of the marshes, and give to 
