Acadia 
the actual scene before us : the opening of the 
five rivers was a fairy picture, so dainty was 
the blue and green of the water against the 
faint red sands. 
For the three tidal rivers are not all the 
rivers we see from our high place. From 
behind a long point of land in the distance 
over by Grand Pre shines the silvery mouth 
of the Gaspereaux, which flows through a 
valley of the same name behind the high- 
land that far away looks so blue, and the 
broad mouth of the Avon makes up like a 
wide bay into the distant land. 
At our very feet is the valley of the Pereau. 
But where is the river Pereau ? It is where the 
Habitant and the Canard will one day be ; 
for where once a tidal river guided the waters 
back to the sea are now green meadows. 
The Pereau has been diked down to within 
an inch of its life and within a mile of the sea. 
This broad little mile-long river has a pretty 
curved dike across its head. It cannot reach 
above the dike, and it can hardly reach to it, 
for this stern dike has not only cut off all 
advance, but is the cause of the filling in of 
what little of the river is left. And one day 
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