too safe, the fleet with which Sir Humphrey Gilbert crossed the sea to
plant his colony in the new land must seem a frail protection indeed
against the dangers of the western ocean.

Perhaps in no way can the progress made since the beginning of the
nineteenth century be more forcibly brought before the mind than by
comparing the immense iron steamships of the present day with the small
wooden vessels with which commerce was carried on and battles were
fought and won a hundred and fifty years ago.

The Isthmus of Chignecto separates the waters of the Bay of Fundy from
those of Bay Verte, and constitutes the neck of land which saves Nova
Scotia from being an island. It is seventeen miles between the two bays
at the narrowest point, and considering the town of Amherst the south-
eastern limit, and the village of Sackville the north-western, it may
be put down as a little less than ten miles in width.

The southern slope is drained by four tidal rivers or creeks, namely,
La Planche, Missiquash, Aulac and the Tantramar. These rivers empty
into Cumberland Basin, and their general course is from north-east to
south-west. In length they are from twelve to fifteen miles, and run
through narrow valleys, the soil of which is made up largely from a
rich sediment carried by the tide from the muddy waters of the basin.
These valleys are separated from each other by ridges of high land
ranging from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet above the sea
level.

The Tidnish River, and several streams emptying into the Bay Verte,
drain the Isthmus on its northern slope. The Missiquash and Tidnish
rivers, each for some part of its course, form the boundary between the