Some two hours from Halifax we came to Truro at the head of Cobequid Bay, the easternmost arm of the Bay of Fundy. Scientists who have studied the forty-foot Fundy tides attribute them to its pocket-like shape. The tides are highest in the numerous deep inlets at the head of the Bay. In the Petitcodiac River, which forms the northernmost arm, as the tide comes in a wall of water two or three feet high rushes upstream. These tides are felt far back from the coast. The rivers and streams have deep-cut banks on account of the daily inrush and outflow of waters and are bordered with marshes through which run irrigation ditches dug by the farmers.
With his poem of Evangeline, Longfellow made famous the old well at Grand Pré, the scene of the expulsion of the Acadians because they wanted to remain neutral in the French-British wars.
When the tide goes out at Digby, vessels tied to the docks are left high and dry. At some points on the Bay of Fundy the rise and fall of the water exceeds forty feet.
Truro is a turning-off point for the rail journey down the Bay side of Nova Scotia through “Evangeline Land” and the Annapolis Valley, and also for the trip north and east up to Cape Breton Island. This island is part of the province of Nova Scotia. It is separated from the mainland only by the mile-wide Strait of Canso, across which railroad trains are carried on ferries. In the southern part of the Island is the Bras d’Or Lake, an inland sea covering two hundred and forty square miles.
Because of the deep snows in winter the Quebec farmhouse usually has high porches and often a bridge from the rear leading to the upper floor of the barn. The older houses are built of stone.
Spinning wheels and hand looms are still in use among the French Canadian farm women. Besides supplying clothes for their families, they make also homespuns and rugs for sale.