EARE n i 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
Vol. I.—JUNE, 1867.—No. 4. 
THE RECENT BIRD TRACKS OF THE BASIN 
OF MINAS. 
BY C. FRED. HARTT, A.M. 
Atmost in the very heart of Nova Scotia is the Basin of 
Minas, a beautiful sheet of water communicating with the 
head of the Bay of Fundy by a narrow strait. It is 
triangular in shape, the longer, or northern shore being 
about sixty miles in length, running nearly east and west, 
skirting the Cobequid hills. The western or shortest 
side runs about north and south, along the edge of 
the fertile New-Red Sandstone district of Cornwallis, 
known as the “Garden of Nova Scotia,” or “Corn-and-po- 
tatoes-wallis.” At the southern angle of the triangle enter 
two rivers, or, more properly, estuaries; the Cornwallis, 
which comes from the west, and the Avon, which enters 
from the south-east. Between the mouth of these two 
rivers is the Grand Pré, the home of Evangeline, ren- 
dered celebrated by the delightful poem of Longfellow. 
The scenery of this part of Nova Scotia is very pictu- 
resque and beautiful. Almost at the mouth of the Corn- 
wallis is the pretty little village of Wolfville, the seat of 
Acadia College. From the cupola of that Institution we 
Ceres Oa aecoratin to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by the ESSEX INSTITUTE, in the 
AMERICAN NAT., VOL. I. 22 
