170 THE RECENT BIRD TRACKS 
look over nearly the whole Basin and the surrounding 
country. In front of us is the Basin; to the left, some- 
what, Cornwallis, with its low, undulating lands dotted 
with farms’ and farm-houses, and beyond, the North . 
mountains that border the whole southern shore of the 
Bay of Fundy like a wall, breaking down abruptly on 
the western shore of the Basin of Minas, forming a noble 
promontory, Cape Blomidon, whose bright red sandstone 
cliffs and frowning trap-crags are not less grand than the 
Palisades of the Hudson. We see the high ridge of the 
Cobequids stretching along the northern shore eastward 
_ as far as the eye can reach, while just east of the Avyon 
are the Carboniferous hills of Cheverie, and on our right 
and almost at our very feet is the Grand Pré. 
At Halifax, and along the Atlantic shore of Nova Sco- 
tia, the tide rises but a few feet; but, as every one knows, 
the rise at the head of the Bay of Fundy amounts some- 
times to seventy feet. 
Arriving at Halifax by steamer, we take the cars to 
Windsor, a little town on the Avon, a few miles above 
its mouth, whence a small steamer plies to St. John, New 
Brunswick. We arrive two or three hours before the 
steamer is expected in. There is a crowd on the wharf, 
and we go down to see what is the matter, but to our as- 
tonishment we see a wide, deep valley, like a great mud 
ditch, and no water, except a narrow stream, excessively 
turbid, which meanders over the expanse of soft choco- 
late-colored mud and sand at the bottom. At the foot of 
the wharf, which is some twenty or more feet high, a bank 
of soft mud, scored with trough-like depressions made by 
the keels of vessels, slopes off ten feet further to the bed 
of the river. Vessels lie high and dry at the wharves, 
w E Fe 
