ites with the
waters of the Pacific. For the purposes of this narrative, however,
the Eastern and largest division--also the oldest historically--must be
separated into two distinct divisions, known as Acadia and Canada in
the early annals of America.

The first division of the Eastern region now comprises the provinces of
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, which, formerly,
with a large portion of the State of Maine, were best known as
Acadie,[2] a memorial of the Indian occupation before the French
regime. These provinces are indented by noble harbours and bays, and
many deep rivers connect the sea-board with the interior. They form
the western and southern boundaries of that great gulf or eastern
portal of Canada, which maritime adventurers explored from the earliest
period of which we have any record. Ridges of the Appalachian range
stretch from New England to {6} the east of these Acadian provinces,
giving picturesque features to a generally undulating surface, and find
their boldest expression in the northern region of the island of Cape
Breton. The peninsula of Nova Scotia is connected with the
neighbouring province of New Brunswick by a narrow isthmus, on one side
of which the great tides of the Bay of Fundy tumultuously beat, and is
separated by a very romantic strait from the island of Cape Breton.
Both this isthmus and island, we shall see in the course of this
narrative, played important parts in the struggle between France and
England for dominion in America. This Acadian division possesses large
tracts of fertile lands, and valuable mines of coal and other minerals.
In the richest district of the peninsula of Nova Scotia were the
thatch-roofed villages of those Acadian farmers whose sad story has
been told in matchless verse by a New England poet, and whose language
can still be heard throughout the land they loved, and to which some of
them returned after years of exile. The inexhaustible fisheries of the
Gulf, whose waters wash their shores, centuries ago attracted fleets of
adventurous sailors from the Atlantic coast of Europe, and led to the
discovery of Canada and the St. Lawrence. It was with the view of
protecting these fisheries, and guarding the great entrance to New
France, that the French raised on the southeastern shores of Cape
Breton the fortress of Louisbourg, the ruins of which now alone remain
to tell of their ambition and enterprise.

Leaving Acadia, we come to