ter and South Hants, Stewiacke, Shubenacadie, Newport, Windsor, Gay's River, and parts of Musquodoboit, may be given as good specimens of this class. The soil of all these localities is entitled to the character of first-class uplands, not to be surpassed by the upland of any country, when properly tilled.*

2. There are the clays, sands, and stony grounds of the carboniferous district. These are light-colored or reddish stiff clays, white and gray sands, and ground filled with flaggy fragments of hard sand-stone, and sometimes pebbles and other rocks. This soil is greatly inferior to the kind last described, though often in its close vicinity, and even intersecting it.

3. Loams and Sands of the New Red Sandstone. Those are limited to the country bordering on the Bay of Fundy. They occur near Truro; they skirt both sides of Cobequid Bay; occur in several places in Hants, but more extensively in the Valley of Cornwallis, and onward toward Annapolis. Generally they are of a bright-red color, and vary from loams to sandy loams, and light sands. When not "run out," the red loams and sands abound in oxide of iron, lime, and gypsum, but they are deficient in phosphates and alkalies. They are admirable for the culture of the apple and other fruits, also for potatoes and Indian corn; while as grain soils they are inferior to the best soils of the carboniferous and silurian districts.

4. The soil of the TRAP district, which is confined to the North Mountain of Kings and Annapolis, and its prolongation in Digby, and to a few isolated patches on the opposite side of the bay, yields well at first, but soon becomes degenerated. It is best fitted for pasturage, and is being largely used for that purpose.

Fourth. These are the Alluvial soils. These are the best soils of Nova Scotia. There are three varieties of this class: Red Marsh, Blue Marsh, and Intervale.-1. The

*The quantity of ungranted land of this superior class is about two hundred thousand acres.

Red Marsh is far the best. There is no soil in the world to surpass the best portions of it. Some portions of the Grand Pré of Horton, and the Cornwallis Midd.e and Upper Dykes, have been cropped for upwards of 200 years without manure. The richness of this soil is such, that when carted on upland it makes excellent manure. It has 87.00 per cent. of silicious sand, very fine,

in its composition. Organic matter.

Chlorine.

The weak point of tais soil is the small proportions of phosphates it contains; and although it may bear cropping for generations without manure, it will gradually run out. Draining is essential to its fertility. Admitting the sea-water to deposit new layers of mud, is one method of restoring its power. Bone-dust and guano are the best restoratives.-2. Blue Marsh-which is also known by the names, inshore dyke, low marsh, corky dyke, and gray marsh is much inferior to the red marsh. It contains more vegetable matter than the red, and is often not much superior to boggy swamp. Draining and heavy liming have been tried on this kind of marsh with excellent effect. When drawn out and composted with lime or marl, it makes an excellent top-dressing for upland grass.-3. The Fresh-water Alluvium of Nova Scotia is generally of very good quality. There is hardly a river, or even a brook in Nova Scotia which is not skirted with more or less of this beautiful and productive soil. It is spoken of usually under the name Intervale. There are about 40,000 acres of alluvial soil ungranted in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton.

Fifth.-There are the Bog Soils. Much of the bog land of Nova Scotia is called meadow, and is covered with natural grass. Other portions are covered with spruce, alder, and other trees, and usually called swamps; and others again are covered with low shrubs and moss, and are known simply by the name bogs. The greater part of the bog soil of this province is at present unproductive. It is, however, being rapidly reclaimed. When cleared, and burned, and drained, and limed, and sanded, it is found to be equal in productiveness to good marsh land. After being once well cultivated, it will yield a succession of crops without manuring.

The natural capabilities of Nova Scotia, as an agricultural country, will be best illustrated by the subjoined table, compiled from authoritative documents:

What relates to the United States, Canada, and New Brunswick, is taken upon the authority of Professor Johnston and Principal Dawson. The rates per acre in Nova Scotia are on the authority of the Secretary of the Central Board of Agriculture, James Iron, Esq., verified by my own observation, and the testimony of practical farmers. In Cornwallis, well-manured upland yields 300 bushes of potatoes per acre; while on the dyked land of that place, 600 bushels have been raised off one acre. Seventy bushels of oats have been raised off the same land. Also forty bushels per acre of wheat. This is of the very best dyke land, but without being manured.

ZOOLOGICAL.-Like most of their brethren on this continent, the aborigines of Nova Scotia lived by hunting and fishing. The early immigrants too found the chief attraction in the chase and the fishery, which the forests and rivers, and lakes, and shores of the country afforded. They prosecuted the department of hunting with such excessive eagerness, that in less than one century, more than one valuable species became extinct, at the same time that the most valuable, both for fur and food, became very

scarce.

Among the native quadrupeds of the province, the moose, cariboo, bear, fox, lynx, weasel, martin, otter, minx, fisher, woodchuck, hare, raccoon, porcupine, beaver, musquash, squirrel, rat, mouse, are still to be found.

The moose is the most splendid animal of our forest. He is generally sixteen hands high. His palmated horns, which he sheds annually in February, weign from thirty to forty pounds. He has no brow antlers. His head is long, neck short, ears large and pointed, and nostrils greatly dilated. His upper lip is very broad and pendent, his legs long, tail short; his hoof is cloven, and when he trots the clattering of it can be heard a long distance. His color is light gray, mixed with a dark red. His flesh is tender, delicate, easy of digestion, palatable, and nourishing. He ruminates like the ox, and feeds on moss, on the natural grass of intervales, and on the tender buds and leaves of a species of maple called moosewood.

The cariboo is distinguished by having brow antlers, which are rounder than the horns of the moose. It is not so tall as the moose, but more swift. Its flesh is very tender, and much esteemed for its nourishing qualities. Both moose and cariboo were very numerous in Nova Scotia forty years ago, but they are fast disappearing.

The only kind of bear in Nova Scotia is the black bear, which attains to a very large size, and weighs from 500 to 800 pounds.

We have four varieties of fox-the red, gray, silver, and

black. Their fur, with that of the otter, minx, and beaver, forms a valuable export. That it is not surpassed by any other fur in the world, may be fairly inferred from the fact, that "a medal was awarded to W. J. Coleman, Esq., for a very choice collection of skins-fine specimens of silver, red, and cross fox, otter, and minx," by the jury of the Great International Exhibition of 1862.

The native birds of Nova Scotia are too numerous to be even enumerated here. Each of the six orders into which birds have been divided, is well represented. Of the order Raptores are two families: the falcons and owls; prominent specimens of which are, the bald-eagle, the fishhawk, hen-hawk, and sparrow-hawk; of the owls, we have the white owl, great-eared owl, speckled owl, horned owl, barn owl. Of the order Perchers, there are the shrikes, warblers, thrushes, fly-catchers, chatterers, finches, crossbills, crows, creepers, humming-birds, king-fishers, swallows, night-hawks; under each of these families there are many species, which I attempt not to enumerate. Of the order Climbers, the woodpecker is the most familiar family in Nova Scotia. Of the order Scrapers, the grouse and pigeons are the chief families in Nova Scotia, of which the birch-partridge, spruce-partridge, and wild-pigeon are well known specimens. Of the order Waders, there are herons, snipes, phalaropes, and plovers. Of the last order, the Swimmers, we have six families—the ducks and geese, divers, auks, gulls, gannets, and grebes.

The

The reptiles of Nova Scotia are not very numerous, neither are they large in size, nor injurious to man. principal are the tortoise (fresh water); several species of snakes; some lizards; several species of frogs, toads, and

newts.

Fish forms one of the chief natural resources of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. With the exception of Newfoundland, no other country on this continent can approach Nova Scotia in the article of fish. Her seas, bays, and coasts abound with inexhaustible quantities of mack