Nova Scotia

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over a dam built in the 1950s.

In broad morphological terms Nova Scotia is part of the Appalachian system, from which the peninsula is only separated by the Bay of Fundy, which itself splits into two narrow arms of the sea, Chignecto Bay and the Minas Basin. Its rocks are part palaeozoic granite and sediment, Pre-Cambrian slate and quartz, but also part magmatic.

The landscape of much of the peninsula is determined by the Atlantic uplands (150 to 300m (492 to 985ft)) which gradually slope down to the coast, and the Cobequid Mountains, 350m (1149ft) high in places, the Pictou-Antigonish Range and the North and South Mountains. Nova Scotia's highest point, at 532m (1746ft), is on Cape Breton Island.

The scenery often shows the telltale signs of the last Ice Age - glacially rounded outlines to the hills, drumlins showing the direction of the flow of the ice, and over 3000 lakes completing the picture of a morainal landscape. The biggest of these is Bras d'Or Lake on Cape Breton Island, linked to the Atlantic both in the north (Great Bras d'Or, Little Bras d'Or) and the south (channel to St Peter Inlet). Nova Scotia's coastlines are very different, with the Atlantic coast an indented mass of fiords and bays, while the Bay of Fundy has saltmarsh and mudflats. Here too is Nova Scotia's most amazing natural phenomenon, the greatest tidal fall in the world which can be as much as 15m (49ft) in its uppermost reaches, and even 20m (65ft) at spring tides. With this enormous difference between high tide and low tide the surging seawater rushes in at a speed that may be only 5 kmph (3 mph) at the mouth of the bay, but can reach about 17 kmph (10.5 mph) where the estuary narrows in the Minas Basin. Owing to the braking effect exercised by the floor of the bay, as the tidal surge spills into the river estuaries in Fundy's furthest reaches, such as the Petitcodiac out of Chignecto Bay, it pushes before it an advance wave, a tidal bore sometimes up to 1 m (3 ft) high, travelling at a speed of up to 17 kmph (11 mph), with a roar like a distant express train. For visitors, it is an unforgettable sight.

In these maritime latitudes Nova Scotia has a pleasantly breezy if rather damp climate. Average temperatures in July are around 17-18°C (62-64°F), and in January around 23°C (26°F). Total rain and snowfall is generally between 1200 and 1300 mm (47 and 51 in.). Weather conditions can often cause fog in winter, and when the Arctic winds blow in from the north Nova Scotia can suffer from blizzards combined with a sharp drop in temperature.

A good 80 per cent of Nova Scotia is still covered with woodland, mostly deciduous and predominantly ash, alder, maple and larch, but fir and pine can also feature prominently in places. Those worth mentioning include the Kejimkujik National Park in the west and the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

Nova Scotia's culture has largely been shaped by almost 500 years of European colonisation. Before the advent of the Europeans all of what is now Nova Scotia (including Cape Breton Island), Prince Edward Island and the north and east of New Brunswick was the hunting grounds of the Micmac Indians who, unlike the Huron, a tribe of gatherers rather than hunters, roamed the land as nomads, hunting elk, bear, beaver, porcupine and caribou in winter, and camping on the coast under their skin wickiups in spring and summer, trapping sea otters and catching fish. They had no metal tools but fashioned implements from animal bones, stone or wood. Unfortunately Nova Scotia has not retained any Indian settlement as such.

European settlement, and the consequent inroads into Indian lands, began around 1500, although there is a theory that Leif Erikson may have also touched the coast of Nova Scotia around ad 1000, but there is still no historic confirmation of this.

The actual history of the discovery by Europeans began with John Cabot, originally Venetian Giovanni Caboto, in 1497/1498, sent by the English king to look for a shorter way to the Far East, in higher latitudes. He reached either Labrador or the northern tip of Cape Breton, but failed to leave records on the subject.

The area was explored in 1528 by Verrazano, a Florentine merchant working for the King of France, and he christened the peninsula New France. In 1604 the French, including Samuel Champlain, settled the Annapolis Valley, founding Port-Royal, the first lasting European settlement north of Florida. They called it Acadia, a name that eventually came generally to refer to French settlement on Nova Scotia.

In 1621 the British succeeded in their attempt at settlement. King James I had granted landrights to Scottish noblemen led by Sir William Alexander, hoping for settlement by British colonists, on the grounds that the discovery by John Cabot duly entitled him to do so. Hence the peninsula came to be called "Nova Scotia".

Disputes between the two nations over the territory continued until finally Nova Scotia, if you were British, or Acadia, if you were French, was assigned to Great Britain in 1713 by the Treaty of Utrecht. The first large British settlement to be founded was Halifax, in 1749, as a garrison to counter the French's Vauban-type fortress of Louisbourg built on Cape Breton Island after 1719. Captured by the British in 1745, then returned to the French in 1748, Louisbourg was finally retaken by the British in 1758, and this time destroyed. Also in order to counter the French and their Catholicism the British encouraged Protestant settlers in the late 18th c., including the 2000 Germans who founded Lunenburg. Because about 10,000 French settlers refused to swear England unqualified allegiance, most of them were deported and their lands confiscated. With the ending of the American War of Independence about 7000 Loyalists came and settled here (around Shelburne, for example), and in time many of the Acadians eventually returned to their former territory.

In 1867 Nova Scotia joined Québec, Ontario and New Brunswick to form the Dominion of Canada, and became a Canadian Province.

The place names in Nova Scotia already indicated that the people living there came from England, Scotland, France, Germany and Holland. When Nova Scotia became Canadian about 350,000 people lived on the peninsula. The figures rose steadily to 883,000 in 1986, and by now they are over 900,000. At the last census 75 per cent put themselves down as originally British, 11 per cent French, 5 per cent German and 3 per cent Dutch. In terms of religion, 34 per cent were Catholic, 22 per cent United Reformed, 18 per cent Anglican, 14 per cent Baptists, and 7 per cent Presbyterian.

Three-quarters of the people live in towns. The largest of these is Halifax.