172 ' THE RECENT BIRD TRACKS 
the channel. An hour afterwards, when the boat leaves, 
the marsh meadows are overflowed, and all the bordering 
flat lands would be deluged, were they not protected from 
the flood by a line of embankments, called “dykes.” 
Away goes the steamer with the turn of the tide, a few 
little vessels drop down on its current, and five hours af- 
terwards little boys wade across in the mud above the 
bridge to avoid paying the toll. 
The northern and southern shores of the Basin of Minas 
are bordered by bluffs of Lower Carboniferous sandstone 
and shale, and soft, bright-red beds of clayey sandstone 
belonging to the “New-Red” or Trias formation of geol- 
ogists. The western shore is wholly composed oii this 
One would expect that the action of tidal currents, 
such as we have described, combined with the amount of 
surface exposed to wave-action, between high and low 
water, would cause a great wear of the coast ; and such is 
the case, both in the Bay of Fundy and the Basin of Mi- 
nas. Frosts heave off every year great masses from the 
trap cliffs of Blomidon, or the shale and sandstone bluffs 
of the coast of the Basin, and every year sees them more 
or less completely removed, by the joint action of currents 
and floating ice. The wear and tear of the softer rocks 
furnishes a copious fine red mud, which is distributed by 
the currents over the whole bay.* During the intervals 
between ebb and flow, when the waters are stationary, 
this sediment that is deposited forms extensive banks, ex- 
posed over large tracts along the shores at low tide. Each 
tide adds its Hayes to et banks and sloping shores, 
samir vi but an exceedingly Di film, at others, espec- 
4 M Tin a * fFu et +h + of Se aes 
even, as We info d by fisher » a8 far ok a 
bec River. — EDITORS. ; 
