Down North and Up Along 
was once a great lake with a wall of rock ex- 
tending across the end from Blomidon to Par- 
tridge Island. It was the home of the beavers, 
and the Great Beaver threatened to flood the 
country with his monster dam. The people 
appealed to Glooscap, and he and the beaver 
had a conflict, in which Glooscap won, and 
swinging the end of the dam about made an 
outlet for the waters of Minas, the same out- 
let through which the tides surge in and out 
to-day. Up to that time the Cornwallis Val- 
ley was a part of the lake and was connected 
with another lake that occupied what is now 
the Annapolis Valley ; but after the opening of 
the dam at Blomidon and the gap at Digby 
Gut, both of which Glooscap achieved, the 
water drained away and left the valleys as we 
find them to-day. 
"If you do not believe it, you will when we 
pass Blomidon," M. assured me, " for then you 
can see the dam," 
As we neared Blomidon, its great wall be- 
came more and more impressive. The iron 
front of basalt frowned aloft, a stupendous clifi\, 
resting on the rock below in fine turrets. Be- 
neath it we saw in detail the terrace of amyg- 
104 
