150 Mineralogy and Geology of a part of Nova Scotia. 



Lignites are very abundant. Some specimens appear to 

 have been trunks of trees or succulent plants of an enormous 

 size, and they are found, not traversing the strata of the 

 rocks hke the stony casts of the reeds, but lying between 

 them. 



The Isthmus connecting Nova Scotia with New Bruns- 

 wick, situated between Cumberland Basin and Bay Verte, is 

 but twelve or fourteen miles wide from one shore to the other, 

 and being composed of a friable decomposed sandstone, op- 

 poses a feeble resistance to the rushing waves of Cumberland 

 Bay, where the tides rise to the height of sixty feet ; while 

 on the shores of Bay Verte they scarcely attain the elevation 

 of eight or ten feet. One would suppose such frail barriers 

 would give way before the pressure and violence of the con- 

 flicting tides. It is, however, a remarkable fact, that the 

 same waves which cause so much devastation along the 

 rock-bound coast of the Bay of Fundy, undermining and 

 tumbling in confusion the lofty trap rocks, roll harmless 

 against these shores, protected by the bold promontories of 

 Cape Chignecto and Meringuin, depositing their spoils taken 

 from the opposing rocks, quietly on the shores of Cumberland 

 Basin, and thus fortifying the isthmus in its weakest point. 

 The inhabitants assist the process, securing by dykes the 

 soil deposited on their lands, and profitably use the bounties 

 heaped at their doors by the tumultuous sea. 



From the shores of Chignecto Bay the sandstone and 

 slate, forming the county of Cumberland, extend to the wa- 

 ters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the north, and, stretch- 

 ing eastwardly towards the county of Sidney, constitute a 

 part of the districts of Colchester and Pictou. The interior 

 of Cumberland county was not examined by ourselves, but 

 we were credibly informed by intelligent persons residing 

 there, of the extent of the sandstone district as represented 

 on the geological map accompanying this essay. 



Salt springs have been found in various places near the 

 shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. One of the most im- 

 portant exists near the river Philip. The brine of this spring 

 contains a much larger proportion of salt than the water of 

 the ocean, and it has been economically obtained by evapo- 

 ration of the water. In the year 1811 large quantities were 

 manufactured at this spring. A spring also occurs at Pictou, 

 which was advantageously worked for salt on an extensive 

 scale for several years, but is now abandoned, from what 



