10 NATURE IN ACADIE. 



bones. But up from this great charnel-house even 

 now are springing new undergrowth and lusty youthful 

 trees and herbage, and soon the roving birds will come 

 here again, and the little red squirrel will make his nest 

 here once more when these firs shall have reared their 

 proud heads over this rampart of granite to look on the 

 decay of these stately neighbours of theirs. 



Even on the crest of the hill old motherly Nature has 

 covered up the grim mass of granite with a scanty film 

 of debris, and watered it with tears of rain, and the forest 

 has crept slowly up and across, and hidden the naked 

 rock under its ample cloak, except here and there where 

 a rugged patch stares barrenly out from the verdant 

 fold of moss which borders it around and creeps slowly 

 and steadily, year by year, up it from all sides, while 

 the rock's furrowed back is for ever wearing and 

 crumbling down to meet it. These are the haunts of 

 my little favourite, the black snowbird, and whenever 

 you approach softly up to one of these little rock -patches, 

 you are almost sure to see this trim little bird hopping 

 daintily, like our own familiar robin, over the harsh 

 granite, now and then pecking in a half-hearted way at 

 something, or perching motionless, with a seeming gentle 

 contentment that sends an indescribable feeling through 

 you when you involuntarily raise your eyes and glance 

 around at the vast, silent forest — without a path, a habi- 

 tation, and hardly a sign of animal life — which closes in 

 around you. 



All the way along from the heights above the North- 

 West Arm, and above the valley previously mentioned, 

 and above the great Bedford Basin, one vast continua- 

 tion of granite ridges, and forest, and lake, and scrub- 

 covered upland, runs back for miles upon miles, and 

 here it is that most of my spare time during my stay at 

 Halifax was spent, and most of the information given in 

 the following pages was gathered. 



