The peninsular part of Nova Scotia is not nearly so mountainous as the sister provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick, although it is much more so than Prince Edward Island; but the island part of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, has ample variety of mountain and vale, and has in many parts of it all the bold features found in rugged and mountainous countries. The peninsula is not without its own mountains and chains of hills; but its bold and striking scenery is found chiefly on the Atlantic coast side, the rocky bays and headlands of which receive the full force of the fierce winter gales.
Nova Scotia has a coast line of over one thousand miles, and it is rich in bays, inlets and fine harbors. Its rivers, though numerous, are not large. No great system of intercommunicating waterways is found in the province, but the peninsula is so well watered by lake, river, and stream that fully one fifth of its area is thus occupied. In Cape Breton, for instance, the inland sea known as the Bras d’Or Lake is about fifty miles long. It fully answers the purposes of great intercommunicating waterways, for this enclosed sea has an interior reach over a very large extent of country. Peninsular Nova Scotia has numerous lakes, mostly of moderate and small dimensions, although Rossignol Lake and a few others are quite large.
The province is bountifully blessed with many beautiful bays. The easterly extension of the Bay of Fundy, known as Minas Basin, reaches inland some sixty miles; and here the equinoctial tides have been known to show the wonderful difference in level of forty to fifty feet.
The Maritime Provinces are bound together by the strongest ties. Each province has its own advantages peculiar to its situation and natural resources. In many cases what one has the other has not; and climate and beauty of scene will be found in such delightful contrast in passing from one province to the other that few not acquainted with these facts could believe.
It is now matter of general knowledge that the early settlement of Nova Scotia was made by the French. De Monts and Champlain explored parts of the south shore, entered the Annapolis Basin, made choice of a site there for settlement, and explored the Minas Basin. Later they founded Port Royal, in the year 1605, but abandoned it a few years after. Some Scottish settlers endeavored to open up the country. They made little progress, and it was the French who increased most in numbers. Then came the Acadian Expulsion, followed by a more rapid general settlement; for by this time Halifax had been founded, German colonists began to arrive, and, in later years, disbanded British regiments and United Empire Loyalists commenced to swell the population. In the meantime the province as part of Acadia, and later as Nova Scotia, had several times been owned in turn by the French and English; but finally after the taking of Quebec by Wolfe, and after the close of the American Revolutionary War, a lasting peace ensued, and Nova Scotia, as part of Canada and the British Empire, has prospered. Other details of history that are of sufficient importance are brought out in connection with the descriptions of localities.