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CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

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BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY

HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE

_ Corner! University Library

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"'®'°irjfiiiiffi!,.,!lii!?9* ^°""*yi Nova Scotia he

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3 1924 028 897 936

otber Booft0

By Dr. Eaton

The Church op England in Nova Scotia and ths Tory Ci,ergy of THE Revoi,ution

The Heart of the Creeds, Histor-

ICAI, S.EI.IGION IN the I<IGHT OF

Modern Thought

Acadian Legends and Lyrics

Acadian Bai,i,ads

The Lotus of the Nii,e and Other Poems

Poems of the Christian Year

Poems in Notable Anthologies

Magazine and Bncyclop^dia Ar-

TICI,ES

Family Historical Monographs Educational Works Compiled

The History

OF

KII^GS COUNTY

NOVA SCOTIA

HEART OF THE ACADIAN LAND

GIVING A SKETCH OF THE FRENCH AND

THEIR EXPULSION; AND A HISTORY

OF THE NEW ENGLAND PLANTERS

WHO CAME IN THEIR STEAD

WITH MANY GENEALOGIES 1604 - 1910

BY

ARTHUR WENTWORTH HAMILTON EATON, M. A., D. C. I.

Prieat of the Diocese of New York; CorreipondinK Member of the Nora Scotia Hletorlcal

Society; Honorary Hembor of the New BruDBwiek Historical Society; Life

Member of the New England Historic Genealogical

Society ; Member of the Boston Authors Clnb

SALEM, MASS.

THE SALEM PRESS COMPANY

1910

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TO

Of My Brother FRANK HERBERT EATON, M. A., D. C. L.

This Book is Affectionatei,y Inscribed

The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028897936

CONTENTS

Faqb

Preface ... ix

I. King's County 1

II. The Micmac Indians . . 16

III. The Acadian French 23

IV. The Acadians to the Expulsion 39

V. The Coming op New England Planters to Corn-

wallis and Horton 58

VI. The Township of Aylesford 90

VII. The Township of Parrsborough 115

VIII. Kentville, the Shire Town 123

IX. WoLFviLLE, Canning, Berwick, and other places 147

X. County Government, Public Officials .... 159

XI. Roads and Travelling, Dyke Building .... 176

XII. Chief Industries op the County 190

XIII. Houses, Furniture, Dress 207

XIV. Marriages, Domestic Life, Slaves, Etc 224

XV. The Anglican Church 240

XVI. The Congregationalist Church, and the Alline

Revival 271

XVII. Early Presbyterianism 294

VUl CONTENTS

FAOB

XVIII. The Rise of the Baptists 303

XIX. Early Methodism 322

XX. The Roman Catholic Church 329

XXI. The Progress of Education 334

XXII. Acadia University 348

XXIII. Literature, Authors, Newspapers 360

XXIV. Politics, Representatives to the Legislature . 410 XXV. The County's Militia 426

XXVI. Current Events 441

Population at Different Periods 458

Biographies 461

Family Sketches 542

Index 885

PREFACE

As the most prosperous part of the whole Acadian country in French times, and as the scene of conspicuous events at the tragical period of the Acadian expulsion, King's County, Nova Scotia, will always have a wider interest for the world than is possible with most rural localities. That part of the county which borders the Basin of Minas is the scene of the early part of Longfellow's Evangeline, and all through the two original townships of Horton and Cornwallis, which compose the eastern part of the county, were scattered the clustered hamlets and individual homes of those thrifty French people who in 1755 were forcibly taken from their fertile farms and rich dyke-lands into suffering exile in unfriendly colonies, and placed as wretched paupers among people who had no sympathy with their traditions or habits of mind, who were unfamiliar with their faces, and who profoundly hated their speech. "When the Acadians had been deported the red tide-floods of the Bay of Fundy bore to Minas Basin's shores a new population, repre- senting families that had long been conspicuous for energy and worth in various parts of New England, and with these began a fresh civilization in King's County, that continued and conserved much that had been best from the beginning in New England's own life. From such favoured towns as New London, Norwich, Say- brook, Colchester, Lebanon, and Lyme, and from similarly inter- esting places in Rhode Island, these King's County successors of the Acadians were largely drawn, and it is with them and their institu- tions and their deeds that the volume here introduced will be found chiefly to deal.

That the descendants of these New England planters in the favourable conditions in which they found themselves in the fruitful Acadian country in not a few cases have carved out for themselves brilliant careers will not seem strange when one remembers the fine qualities of the stock from which most of them sprang. In King's

X KING'S COUNTY

County the first New England owners of the land with untiring industry replanted the long tilled but now vacant upland soil, rebuilt and enlarged the great marsh spaces reclaimed from the sea by their predecessors, set out new orchards, sowed flourishing fields of flax and com, bnilt churches, established schools, and by their intelligence and piety laid the foundations for a college, where, in one of the loveliest regions in eastern America, for seventy years now.'sound learning has been constantly fostered and solid principles have been taught. At the close of the Revolutionary War between thirty and thirty-five thousand Loyalists, from New Eng- land, New York, New Jersey, and colonies farther south, poured into Nova Scotia, and in King's County a certain number of these refugees also established their homes. To these later important settlers a certain amount of attention has naturally been given in this book.

In the history of any colony the origins and interrelations of families have an important place, but in a general History complete Genealogies are, of course, impossible. In the laborious task of writing this History the last three years have almost entirely been spent, and not by any means the least difficult part of the task has been the compilation of the many family sketches the book contains. To make these sketches complete family histories, several lifetimes would have been demanded and many volumes required to be filled, but if the sketches here given, brief as some of them necessarily are, shall give the families themselves chiefly concerned an impulse for more thorough genealogical research on their own part, the author's purpose in making them shall have been fully served. That some families are not represented in the book at all is due to the fact that the author's request in the newspapers for further genealogical information, except in two or three cases has received no response. On such omitted families, and on any families whose Genealogies are nowhere yet fully in print, the author urges the necessity for the careful preservation and collation of records. For many decades until recently Nova Scotia has had no public registra- tion of vital statistics and this fact makes more imperative the

PREFACE xi

careful preservation of private records of births, marriages, and deaths.

To several persons, in and out of the county, for material aid in the writing of this book, the author desires here strongly to express his thanks. Major Robert William Starr, of Wolfville, has the widest knowledge of any person living in the county of the general details of the county's history, and from first to last the author has had Major Starr's cordial and most important help. To Mr. John Burgess Calkin, LL.D., of Truro, Mr. John Elihu Wood- worth of Berwick, Hon. Judge Savary, the accomplished editor and part author of the valuable Calnek-Savary History of Annapolis ; to Harry Piers, Esq., of Halifax, Miss Donohue, Acting Librarian of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, the Bev. Edward Manning Saunders, D.D., of Halifax, Mr. Gustavus E. Bishop, of Greenwich, Mr. John E. Chapman, of Boston, and in connection with the chapter on authors and literature the Bev. Arthur John Lockhart, of Winter- port, Maine, the author owes deep debts of gratitude. For con- tinual inspiration and suggestion he owes much also to his cousin, Dr. Benjamin Band, of Harvard University, one of the best friends Nova Scotia, and indeed Canada at large, has in the United States. By his cousins, Ralph Samuel Eaton and Mrs. Wilford Henry Chip- man, of Kentville, the author has also been helped in important ways.

In the preparation of family sketches the well known news- paper articles, now in scrap books, of the late William Pitt Brechin, M.D., of Boston, have been of great assistance. Dr. Brechin was an indefatigable genealogist of Cornwallis families, and although his work has been available for this History only as furnishing a basis for sketches, in the cases of several families such basis it has formed. Owing, however, to the loyal labour in summer vacations of Dr. Benjamin Rand in copying completely the vital records in the Cornwallis Town Book the author has been able to make direct appeal to the original source from which a very considerable part of Dr. Brechin's material was drawn. In the fifty-fourth volume of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register a slight sketch of Dr. Brechin and his work by the author of this book wiU

xii KING'S COUNTY

be found. Among the many sons of King's County who in other parts of the continent have kept loyal to their native traditions and have reflected honour on the country of their birth, Dr. Brechin's name deserves an important place.

Another debt of gratitude owed by the author, which he can never adequately repay, is here gladly acknowledged. The History of King's County has been written entirely in the Library of the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston, and to the kindly encouragement and unvarying courtesy of the able Libra- rian of the Society, Mr. William Prescott Greenlaw, as also to the friendly interest of the accomplished Assistant Librarian, Miss Mary Ella Stickney, is due the fact that the book has come into being at all. Much of the material for the History has been gradu- ally collected during the author's twenty years residence in New York City, but the writing of the book could hardly have been done elsewhere than in Boston, and in Boston it could have been done nowhere so pleasantly or so thoroughly as under the genial auspices mentioned above. The most liberal subscriber to the book before publication has been Mr. Arthur Watson Eaton, of Pittsfield, Mass., whose intelligent appreciation of the necessity for such a work as the present has greatly strengthened the author's courage in carry- ing to completion his laborious and dil&cult task.

Boston,

July, 1910.

IMPORTANT EVENTS

De Monts, Ghamplain, and Poutrincourt visit Minas . . . 1604

Ghamplain again visits Minas 1606

Poutrincourt and Biencourt yisit Minas 1607

First Settlement at Minas shortly before 1680

Col. Benjamin Church visits Minas and cuts the dykes . . . 1704

Acadia finally conquered by England 1710

Unconditional Oath of Allegiance refused 1755

Expulsion of the French 1755

Representative Assembly created in Nova Scotia 1757,

Proclamation for Settling French Lands adopted .... 1758

Townships of Horton, Comwallis, and Falmouth erected . 1759

Coming of New England Planters 1760- 61

Anglican Mission established 1762

Congregationalist Church founded about 1765

Eev, James Murdoch comes to Horton 1766

Henry Alline begins to preach 1776

New Light Congregationalist Church of Comwallis founded 1778

Hants County formed 1781

Migration to New Brunswick about 1783

Loyalists settle at Aylesford and Parrsborough 1783

The Congregationalist Church of Comwallis becomes Presby- terian 1785

Aylesford Township erected about 1786

The Baptist Church of Comwallis founded 1807

The Shire Town named 1826

Horton Academy founded 1829

Parrsborough separated from King's 1840

Acadia College chartered 1840

King's County changed to a municipality 1879

Kentville incorporated 1886

Wolfville incorporated 1893

CORRECTIONS

In the printing of this volume certain slight errors have crept into the text, these the author urges the owner of the book kindly to correct with his pen.

Page 45, line 6, omit in his place.

" 59, line 10, for ajfected read effected.

" 158, line 32, for speitt read spend.

" 163, line 31, for Cottman read Cottnam.

" 173, line 11, for Coronors read Coroners.

" 240, line 25, for Lunenberg, read Lunenburg,

" 240, line 27, for Louisberg read Louisburg.

" 256, line 13, for have ministered read may have ministered.

" 268, line 20, for have lost read have been lost.

" 269, line 32, for Earl Gray read Earl Grey.

" 273, line 10, for was he had sold read was that he had sold. ; " 288, line 20, for shut not read shut out.

" 303, line 11, omit other.

" 304, line 32, for a chaplain read as chaplain.

" 352, line 22, for Hon. S. P. Robie read Hon. S. B. Robie.

" 603, line 17, for Tarnar ( Troop) Starr read Tamar (Troop) Starr.

" 603, line 30, for as physician read as a physician.

" 611, line 28. The proper date of John Cogswell's birth is Sept. 26, 1781.

" 624, DeBlois family sketch, line 11, omit George.

" 643, 8th line from the bottom, for Volumtown read Voluntown.

" 651, line 5, for George, born April, 1790, read April 6, 1790.

" 716, at the end of line 19 insert his.

*' 731, lines 1, 2, 3, should read: You are on a summit of a hill over- looking the valley. Before you lies its whole length of about 10 miles ( ?) and a mile of breadth. Through its centre flows the narrow Gaspereau stream, etc.

" 747, line 8, omit influence.

" 843, Thorpe family sketch, line 4, for gives as much light read gives us much light.

" 859, line 7, after b. Dec. ij, 1837, insert m. (married).

NOTE It was originally intended to add to this History a list of the chief sources from which the materials for it have been drawn. Among these would have been mentioned two manuscript historical sketches of King's County, written many years ago for the Aikin Prize, and since then preserved in the library of King's College, Windsor. The writers of these interesting manuscripts were Charles S. Hamilton, Esq., Counsellor at Law, of New Haven, Conn., a native of Horton, winner of the Aikin Prize, and Lieut.-Col. Wentworth Eaton Ros- coe, K.C., Barrister, of Kentville, a native of Comwallis. To both these man- uscripts the author is indebted for valuable suggestions.

CHAPTER I KING'S COUNTY

In the history of Nova Scotia at large there is a certain dram- atic interest that belongs to few portions of the American continent. The little peninsula which with the island of Cape Breton now forms this maritime province, for more than a century served as the chief contending ground for empire in America of two great European nations, whose strifes ceased only when the noted French strongholds, Louisburg and Quebec, at last fell decisively into English hands. To Port Koyal, now Annapolis Royal, in the county of Annapolis, and to Fort Beausejour, now in Cumberland county, attaches a stronger military interest than to any point in King's County, but in the whole Acadian province there was not so pros- perous a district as MinaS, and though Beaubassin, Cobequid, Piziquid, and Port Royal share deeply in the tragic interest of the expulsion, in the village of Grand Pre, and the country near it that borders on the Gaspereau, the saddest romance of the expulsion seems always to lie. In King's County was the district of Minas, and the populous adjoining district at first included in Minas, known in French annals as Riviere aux Canards.

Through the county, into Minas Basin, flow the five rivers, with names now only slightly anglicized, the Gaspereau, the Grand Habi- tant, the Riviere aux Canards, the Petit Habitant, and the Pereau. From north-east to south-west run the two ranges of hills known as the North and South mountains, the North Mountain terminating at Minas Channel in rugged Cape Split and the bold bluff, Blomidon. The county's northern and eastern boundaries, respectively, are determined by the Bay of Fundy and Minas Basin, and the bordering counties, that make its western and southern boundaries, are the counties of Annapolis, Lunenburg, and Hants.

2 KING'S COUNTY

Within its ancient limits as a county, King's was one of the largest counties in the province, with its present limits it is one of the counties of second size. It now contains in all but eight hundred and eleven square miles, hut its importance is not measured by its acreage, for its landscape is so beautiful and the fertility of its soil so great that it long ago came to be called appropriately, "the Garden of Nova Scotia." In shape the county is very like the letter V, the vertical point resting on the county of Lunenburg. Nova Scotia's civil government began with the founding of Halifax in 1749 ; and August 17th, 1759, at a meeting of the Council, Messrs. Jonathan Belcher, Benjamin Green, John Collier, Charles Morris, Eichard Bulkeley, Thomas Saul, and Benjamin Gerrish being present, the first division of the province into counties was made. The names given the five counties then created, were Halifax, Cumberland, Lunenburg, Annapolis, and King's. The boundaries of King's were described in the following way: "King's to be bounded westerly by the county of Annapolis, and of the same width, and from the southeasterly corner of said county to run east 24 degrees north to the lake emptying into Pisiquid (the Avon) River, and thence continuing near the same course to the river Chibenaccadie, opposite to the mouth of the river Stewiack ; thence up said river ten miles, and thence northerly to Tatmaguash, and from Tatmaguash, westerly, to the river Solier, where it discharges into the channel of Chignecto." From this description we see that King's County first comprised, besides the present county, a corner of Lunenburg, almost the whole of Hants, more than a third of Colchester, and about half of Cumberland. Between 1759 and 1785 four other counties, Hants, Sydney, Shelburne, and Queens, were formed, and in the latter year the Council had the limits of all the counties in the province described. The most important change which had been made in the territory of King's since the beginning, was the creation from it of Hants, and the boundaries of the reduced King's were described as, "beginning at the bridge on Seven Mile Brook in Wilmot, being the beginning bound of the county of Annapolis, thence to run north ten degrees west to the Bay of Fundy, and from the said bridge south, ten degrees east to the

KING'S COUNTY 3

north line of Lunenburg County, thence to run north seventy-five degrees east until it comes to the south-west limit of Hants County, thence north thirty degrees west until it comes to the south-east angle of Horton township and by the dividing line of Horton and Falmouth to the River Pizzaquid now called Avon, and bounded on the north and north-east by the waters of the Bay of Fundy, Minas Gut, and Basin, and River Avon aforesaid, and also including the Tswnehip of Parrsborough and other granted and ungranted land on the northern side of the Gut and Basin of Minas, which are ascer- tained by a line drawn from Cape Chignecto to the northern bound- ary line of Parrsborough, and thence to the south boundary of Francklin's Manor, and thence to begin at the east boundary of land granted Benjamin De "Wolf and John Clark on the north side of the Basin of Minas aforesaid, thence to run north nine miles, and thence to the south boxmdary of Francklin's Manor aforesaid".

At the meeting of the Council, December 16, 1785, when this description was submitted, there were present, the Honourables Richard Bulkeley, Henry Newton, Jonathan Binney, Alexander Brymer, Isaac Deschamps, Thomas Cochran, and Charles Morris.

In 1821, '22, and '24, acts were passed calling for a new defini- tion of county limits. Pursuant to these acts, such definitions were prepared, and by another act, passed in 1826, were by the Council affirmed. The boundaries then settled, as regards King's at least, were, however, precisely those that had been fixed by the Council in 1785. Since 1826 no re-definition of the boundaries of King's has been necessary, or has been made.

May 21, 1759, the two townships of Horton and Cornwallis had been created, and July 21st of that year the township of Falmouth was made. In 1761, from the part of Falmouth east of the Piziquid, which was known as East Falmouth, the township of Newport was set off, and in 1764 the township of Windsor was formed. In 1781 these last three King's County townships petitioned to be erected into an independent county, and July 2d of that year Fal- mouth, Newport, and Windsor, "with the lands contiguous to them", became the county of Hants. As early as July 1, 1761, the settle-

4 KING'S COUNTY

ment of Cobequid, now Masstown, in Colchester County, was thrown into the county of Halifax, and finally new limits for the early formed county of Cumberland were drawn. In Cumberland today, most of the old township of Parrsborough, on the north side of Minas Channel, is to be found, but until 1840 the district of Parrs- borough remained a township of King 's.

The third of the three present townships of King's is Aylesford, but the exact time or manner of the recognition of it as a separate township we haVe never ascertained. "A part of Wilmot was now set off as a separate township and named Aylesford", says Murdoch, writing of the year 1786, but diligent inquiry has failed to give us any more light on the matter.

May 13, 1784, it was resolved in Council that a large district now in Cumberland county should be included in King's. This tract is described as comprising "all that tract of land situate on the north side of the Basin of Minas and Gut, and bounded on the south by the shores thereof, on the western part by Cape Dore and along the coast of Cape Chignecto, on the north by a line drawn from the point of said cape to the north-western angle of a tract of land called Francklin Manor and by a line from thence seventy degrees east, twenty miles, and thence by a line to the north-east corner of land granted to Benjamin Gerrish, Esq., by the said land to the Basin aforesaid". It would seem from this action of the Council that the tract here referred to, which covers the south-western part of Cumberland, had up to this time lain outside of any county limits, but possibly before this it may have been roughly included in the county to which it now belongs. The history of the gradual forma- tion of the present county of Cumberland bears a close relation to the history of the formation of King's, but the details of the fixing of Cumberland's boundaries must be left to the future historian of that most northerly section of the Nova Scotian peninsula.

The County of King's is thus now limited to what, until the erection of the county into a Municipality, in 1879, were the three townships of Horton, Cornwallis, and Aylesford, Horton being much the largest township of the three.

KING'S COUNTY 5

Of the general appearance of the townships of Horton and Cornwallis as one comes to them from the east, Judge Haliburton in his History of Nova Scotia eloquently says : "After leaving Pal- mouth and proceeding on the great western road, the attention of the traveller is arrested by the extent and beauty of a view which bursts upon him very unexpectedly as he descends the Horton mountains. A sudden turn of the road displays at once the town- ships of Horton and Cornwallis, and the rivers that meander through them. Beyond is a lofty and extended chain of hills, pre- senting a vast chasm, apparently burst out by the waters of nine- teen rivers that empty into the Basin of Minas, and here escape into the Bay of Fundy. The variety and extent of this prospect, the beautiful verdant vale of the Gaspereaux ; the extended town- ship of Horton, interspersed with groves of wood and cultivated fields, and the cloud-capt summit of the lofty cape that terminates the chain of the North Mountain, form an assemblage of objects rarely united with so striking an effect. * * * No part of the Province can boast more beautiful and diversified scenery than the township of Horton. Beside the splendid prospect from the moun- tain just mentioned, and those in the vicinity of Kentville, there are others still more interesting at a distance from the post road. It would be difiicult to point out another landscape at all equal to that which is beheld from the hill that overlooks the site of the ancient village of Minas. On either hand extend undulating hills richly cultivated, and intermingled with farm houses and orchards. From the base of these high lands extend the alluvial meadows, which add so much to the appearance and wealth of Horton. The Grand Prarie is skirted by Boot and Long Islands, whose fertile and well tilled fields are sheltered from the north by evergreen forests of dark foliage. Beyond are the wide expanse of waters of the Basin of Minas, the lower part of Cornwallis, and the isles and blue highlands of the opposite shores. The charm of this prospect consists in the unusual combination of hill, dale, woods, and cultivated fields; in the calm beauty of agricultural scenery, and in the romantic wildness of distant forests. During the sum-

6 KING'S COUNTY

mer and autumnal months, immense herds of cattle are seen quietly cropping the herbage of the Grand Prarie ; while numerous vessels plying on the Basin convey a pleasing evidence of the prosperity and resources of this fertile district."

Of the fertility of the soil of Horton and Cornwallis too much cannot possibly be said. Besides the present fifty thousand acres of beautiful dyked land which these townships contain, a rich alluvial country in successive epochs reclaimed from the sea, there are perhaps seventy thousand acres of tilled upland, where grains and root crops grow luxuriantly, and where apple, pear, and plum orchards come to magnificent fruitage. Across the South Mountain lies a large area of forest land, and even here there is some good agricultural soil. It is in the so called "Annapolis Valley," how- ever, between the North and South mountains, that the rich farms and wonderful fruit orchards of this far famed region of the province of Nova Scotia are to be found. An almost magical charm, indeed, lies over this whole valley, its wide-spreading dyke-lands, pink-blossoming orchards, scarlet-maple clad hills, clumps of droop- ing willows, sturdy groves of oak, the graceful sweeping elms that throw soft shade over country and town — where else in northern America can such beauty be found! "The outlooks from many of the most elevated points," says a recent writer, "are admirable pic- tures of rural loveliness. Notable among them is the 'Lookoff', on the North Mountain, from which portions of five counties are visible, and where the eye ranges some ninety miles westward till it reaches the shores of Annapolis Basin. When seen in the early October haze it is a panorama of unforgettable charms. One has but to turn one's head from this view of the valley to see in its loveliness the historic Basin of Minas, framed in green and azure, fretting the wide curves of its shores with far-famed tides that race over the tawny flats, back and forth, from age to age. Another turn of the head, and we have in view Minas Channel, and on its farther shore the bold hills of Greville Bay and Spencer's Island, and the frowning cliffs of Cape D'Or."

Of the beauties of the township of Aylesford, lying to the west

KIN<J'S COUNTY 7

and south-west of the other townships, somewhat less is to be said in praise. The township covers a flat, sandy district between the North and South mountains, part of which is a bog about five miles long, known as the Aylesford or Caribou Bog, where cranberries are largely cultivated, but it contains also much as good soil for agricul- ture as Cornwallis and Horton. Of the large region which includes Aylesford and "Wilmot, the Rev. Dr. Saunders says: "Not many years have passed since it has been found that the swampy lands in the valley could be drained, and were of excellent quality. Now this section of the country is known as possessing all kinds of soil, from barren sand to thick red clay. Much of it is the very best soil for fruit raising, other parts are excellent for pasturage and hay lands. Hence the products of this part of the valley are very numerous." The distance from the eastern to the western boundary line of Aylesford township, by the old road, in the Almanacs of the 18th century used always to be given as exactly ten miles.

On the geological structure of King's County many longer or shorter treatises are to be found. Of these may be mentioned Jackson and Alger's discussion of the Mineralogy and Geology of Nova Scotia, 1832; Dr. Abram Gesner's "Remarks on the Geology and Mineralogy of Nova Scotia", 1836, and "Industrial Resources of Nova Scotia", 1849; Sir William Dawson's "Acadian Geology", 1855 and 1878; Dr. Honeyman's paper on "Nova Scotian Geology", in the Nova Scotia Institute of Science, Vol. 5, Part 1 ; a paper by Professor Ernest Haycock, in the publications of the Nova Scotia Institute of Science, Vol. 10, Part 2 ; and a Summary Report of the Geological Survey Department, with a map, 1901.

On the rich alluvial King's County marshes, and the remark- able Minas Basin tides, no one has written so well as King's Coun- ty's scholarly son, the late Frank Herbert Eaton, D. C. L., whose knowledge of the county's natural history and resources was ac- curate and wide. In an article in the Popular Science Monthly for June, 1893, Dr. Eaton described the marshes and tides, and his description is so graphic that with a few slight changes we repro- duce part of it here.

8 KING'S COUNTY

"Among the many littoral indentations of the western Atlan- tic", says Dr. Eaton, "no other possesses so many unique and in- teresting features as the Bay of Fundy. Of this truly extraordinary sheet of water the single fact is usually recorded in the school books that it is noted for its very high tides. But so meagre a reference to what is in itself an imposing exhibition of gravitational energy, helpful as it may be in a mnemonic way to the learner of geograph- ical catalogues, gives no hint either of the remarkable series of physiographical conditions which are the cause of this phenomenon, or of those which it creates. The Bay of Fundy is remarkable not simply for the grandeur of its tidal phenomena, but equally so for the exquisitely picturesque sculpturing of its coast line, and the diversity, range, and richness of the geological evidence thereby revealed; for the unique character of the extensive alluvial tracts that skirt its head-waters ; and for the wealth of legend, tradition, and romantic incident embodied in the early history of the people that dwell about it.

"North of Cape Cod, the continental coast line recedes abruptly westward and then sweeps in a long curve north-eastwardly till the head-waters of the Bay of Fundy are reached. Turning again on itself, its course is westward to Cape Sable, from which it stretches away toward the east as the southern shore of Nova Scotia. Thus between capes Cod and Sable lies the long, narrow, open Bay of Maine which terminates toward the north and east in the land-locked Bay of Fundy. In the shallower waters of this open bay, the tidal impulse which over ocean depths moves only as a wave of vertical oscillation, is gradually changed into one of trans- lation. Under the influence of this transformation, the whole body of water moves slowly shoreward, and sweeping round with the curv- ing coast line, skirts the southern shores of Maine and New Bruns- wick till it reaches the narrow strait between Briar Island and Grand Manan. Compressed between these closer limits, the water is forced onward with increasing velocity into the Bay of Fundy, part finding its way into the Annapolis Basin and its tributary rivers, the main current, however, moving onward till it meets

KING'S COUNTY »

the tongue of land which terminates in Cape D'Or. Here this cur- rent divides, the northern portion filling Shepody, and Chignecto basins; while the southern half rushes onward through the nar- row entrance to the Basin of Minas. As it passes capes Split and Blomidon, the swirling, eddying, foaming tide attains a velocity of ten miles or more an hour. Thus, twice a day the low and un- protected marsh-lands which former tides have made along the Minas, Shepody, Chignecto, and Annapolis shores are covered by the tidal flood, while in the tributary rivers the mingled salt and fresh water fills the channels for many miles into the interior to a height of ten, twenty, or thirty feet above the normal level of the stream. Thus it is that the long sickle-curved Maine coast grad- ually gathers up the water rolled upon it twice a day by the ocean tide-wave, and throwing it backward, presses it into the long fun- nel-shaped Bay of Fundy, within whose confines are exaggerated, far beyond their normal limits, all the spectacular and physiograph- ical effects of ordinary tidal phenomena.

"Such is the general character of the Fundy tides, while local conditions determine great diversity in the height, velocity, and specific effects. In some places the extreme elevation of the flood- tide above low water mark is as great as sixty feet ; in some rivers the upward flow against the fresh-water current forms a rapidly moving wall or bore several feet in height, the rushing sound of which can be heard at considerable distance, while in others the two currents meet and mingle so quietly that an observer can hardly tell where the backward flow begins.

"Lining the shores of the headwaters of the bay, and spread- ing far inland up the valleys of its river tributaries, are extensive tracts of alluvial marsh land of remarkable fertility. These great alluvial tracts are unlike any other so-called marshes known to exist. In general, alluvial deposits are formed as river basins by materials washed down from higher levels by fresh water floods; here the whole deposit is of tidal origin. Every incoming tide bears land- ward its burden of finely comminuted sediment, formed by the wearing action of the tidal currents upon the sides and bottom of

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the bay. During the interval between the flood that covers the unprotected river and basin margins and the ebb that leaves them bare again, the suspended sediment is precipitated as a film of soft and glistening mud, upon the partly dried and hardened deposi- tions of previous tides. Thus, layer after layer accumulates, until the flat becomes too high for any but extraordinary tides to cover.

"Instructive illustrations these marsh flats often give of Na- ture's methods in the preservation of those records by which the geologist reads our earth's early history. So plastic and impres- sionable is the mud which the out-going tide has left, that it easily takes and holds the tracings of any disturbing contact. A wind- blown leaf, a resting insect, or a drop of rain, may make a tiny mould, which hardening somewhat before the next incoming flood, receives thereafter successive linings to which it gives its form. In this way the rain marks of a passing shower have been fixed, and then completely covered up; and yet when subsequently exhumed, so perfectly were the spatter marks preserved that one could tell in which direction the wind was blowing when the shower fell.

"It is obvious that the deposition of tidal sediment can in gen- eral be made only between the lower and higher limit-levels of the daily ebb and flow. The accumulation of mud to greater depths than these can only be accounted for on the supposition of a grad- ual subsidence of the littoral areas — a movement which would con- comitantly widen the area of tidal inundation. That such a steady and prolonged subsidence of the Fundy marsh-lined shores has • been in progress since the marsh began to form, is attested not only by the surprising depths of mud accumulated, but also by the occur- rence in many places of deeply buried forests, which were clearly once above the coexistent tidal levels.

"A general idea of the geological features of the depression in which the Bay of Fundy lies, is necessary to a fuller tmderstand- ing of the nature of these marshes and especially of the sources of their wonderful fertility. In earlier geological times, but subse- quently to what is known as the Carboniferous Age, the bay was much wider and somewhat longer than it now is. The long ridge of

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trap rock known as the North Mountain did not then exist, and the waters of the bay extended uninterruptedly over the whole of the Annapolis Valley to the base of the Silurian hills, which under the name of the South Mountain form the southern enclosure of the valley. Eastwardly the headwaters of the ancient bay washed the Devonian and Carboniferous rocks of the Cobequid Hills, while the northern shore line of the present bay, skirting the southern limit of the Paleozoic rocks of New Brunswick, is in the main identical with that of the original bay. In general character, the tidal move- ments of this larger Atlantic inlet were the same as in the modern smaller bay; and the semi-daily ebb and flow of the waters, by incessant and violent attrition with the Carboniferous limestones, shales, and sandstones, and the other ancient rocks that formed the bed and margins of the bay, produced immense quantities of sand and mud, sediment which was redistributed over the greater part of the Fundy valley. Subsequent changes of level caused a reces- sion of the waters to their present limits, and brought to view as the Triassic or New Red Sandstone, extensive areas of the sediment- ary deposits that had been accumulating beneath the surface. These red sandstone strata are still to be seen in shreds and patches, at various points in the Annapolis Valley and on the shores of the Minas, Cumberland, and Chignecto basin. Their general dip towards the north indicates that the epoch-closing movement which narrowed the Bay of Fundy to its present limits was a subsiding of its bed along its northern, or New Brunswick border. Follow- ing this subsidence, as concluding events in the series of seismic ■convulsions — by which the region gained its present contour-fea- tures— occurred the volcanic eruptions in which the North Moun- "tain had its origin. This long trappeau wall forms the southern boundary of the bay, from Cape Split to Digby Neck, a distance of •a hundred and twenty-five miles; the only interruption to its continuity being the singular gap called Digby Gut, which gives an entrance into the beautiful Annapolis Basin. The effective shel- ter from northerly storms afforded by this wall of trap renders the climate of the apple growing region on its southerly incline, the mildest in Eastern Canada.

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"Though there were probably many volcanic vents along the line of fracture, yet the scene of greatest eruptive activity was no doubt near Cape Split, at the entrance to Minas Basin, scattered along the shores of which, on either side, are isolated patches of amygdaloidal trap. There are indications, too, that transverse ridges of trap run at intervals across the sandstone bottom of the bay. From these two Triassic rocks, the sandstone and the trap, that form the floor and margins of the bay, subjected to the erosive action of the ceaseless movements of the Fundy waters to and fro, mainly derives the material which constitutes the fertile alluvium at the head waters of the bay. The sandstone yields, of course, the greater part of the marsh-creating sediment. Its detritus con- sists of a large percentage of silica, a little clay, the iron which mainly determines its reddish colour, and the calcareous matter which served as a cement in the parent rock. This material, in the extremely comminuted form in which it occurs in marsh-land soil, would itself afford conditions highly favourable to the sup- port of vegetable life. But an additional cause of the wonderful fertility of these marshes is the richness of the trap-rock in various salts of potash, lime, and alumina, which the action of the water mingles freely with the sandstone mud. The plant supporting power of this complex soil is increased still further by contribu- tions from the upland soils through the medium of the streams and rivers flowing towards the bay.

' ' The great fertility of this alluvium may be inferred from the fact that portions of the Annapolis, Cornwallis, Grand Pre and Cumberland marshes have been producing annually for almost two centuries from two to four tons per acre of the finest hay. Besides, it is a common practice, after the hay has been removed to con- vert the marshes into autumn pastures, on the luxuriant, tender after-growth of which cattle fatten more rapidly than on any other kind of food. Thus virtually two crops are annually taken from the land, to which no fertilizing return is ever made. The only portions of the Acadian marshes that have as yet shown signs of exhaustion are those about the Chignecto branch of the bay, on the

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cliffs and bed of which the Triassic rocks do not occur, but in their stead a series of blue and gray 'grindstone grits' of an earlier formation. In this region the marshes situated well up towards the head of the tide, where the red soil of the uplands has been mingled with the gray tidal mud, are good, while those lower down are of inferior quality and less enduring. Efforts are being made to renew and improve these inferior tracts by admitting the tide upon them.

"In general, however, the necessity for periodic innundations by the muddy waters of the bay in order to maintain the produc- tiveness of the marshes, as implied in the passage from Evan- geline : —

'Dikes that the hand of the farmer had raised with labour incessant

Shut out the turbulent tides; but at stated seasons the flood-gates

Opened and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er the meadows' —

not only does not exist, but on the contrary, some two or three years are required