NATURE IN ACADIE. 9 



known as Three- Mile House, from the fact of its being 

 situated at a distance of three miles from Halifax. 



Near the head of the Arm, and on the side away from 

 the town, another pretty little inlet opens out of it, forming 

 a shallow basin in the midst of wooded heights that tower 

 around it ; at the mouth of this inlet is a tiny island, 

 occupied by the military, and known as Melville Island. 

 Dense woods climb the steep sides of this extremely 

 picturesque little basin, obtaining a precarious footing 

 among the giant boulders or fragments of granite which 

 are piled in confusion everywhere, or with their roots 

 uncovered by the fury of one of the numerous torrents 

 which descend these rugged slopes after a rainstorm, 

 tearing huge boulders and blocks of granite from their 

 beds, and launching them with the momentum of an 

 avalanche down their furrowed channels, accompanied 

 by a shower of the debris which is for ever finding its 

 way down to the already shallow basin below. It is 

 curious to see these doomed trees, half uncovered by 

 the violence of the flood, yet clinging with all their re- 

 maining arms, or roots, to the torn and jagged sides of 

 the watercourse, like a despairing swimmer, grasping 

 with his ebbing strength some jutting rock in the vain 

 hope of escape from the relentless torrent which bears 

 him swiftly away. 



On climbing to the ridge above, one finds oneself 

 standing upon a more or less revealed plateau of granite, 

 forming the crest of this mighty upheaval, and running 

 away on either hand in ribs or buttresses, which 

 form miniature valleys between, filled with a dense 

 undergrowth springing up between the scattered granite 

 boulders ; or with solemn moss-draped firs, and pines, 

 and hemlocks, staggering up the rocky slopes and 

 standing out triumphantly here and there on the arid 

 crown, alternating now and again with graceful maple 

 and birch, while sometimes one looks down into a verit- 

 able Valley of Death, the vegetation having had its brief 

 day and moved on elsewhere, leaving gaunt, lifeless 

 stumps, or prostrate and whitened stems and limbs, for 

 all the world like a great littered mass of bleached 



