XII 
BADDECK 
CAPE BRETON ISLAND is the wild 
and rocky portion of northern Nova 
Scotia, which seems intended for a 
bulwark against the northeast storms 
that come down past Newfoundland, which 
lies a few miles away from its northern point. 
The island is cleft nearly in two by the sea. 
Its central portion is a deep valley filled with 
salt water and affording safe anchorage to ships 
that come in through the Great Bras d'Or 
Channel, a narrow arm of the sea making down 
from the northeast. Parallel to this is another 
channel, the Little Bras d'Or, through which 
only the smaller vessels pass. 
Many bays and inlets are given off from the 
central basin, the southernmost and broadest 
portion of which is called the Great Bras d'Or 
Lake, while north of that and partly separated 
from it by a point of land is the Little Bras 
d'Or Lake. 
The Bras d'Or lakes and their branches 
almost cut Cape Breton in two, for St. Peter's 
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