Page:Tourist's Maritime Provinces.djvu/131

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CHAPTER V

WINDSOR—GRAND PRÉ—WOLFVILLE
BLOMIDON

One of the oldest communities in the Province which Sam Slick called "good above and better below; surface covered with pastures, meadows, woods and a nation sight of water privileges, and under the ground, full of mines" is Windsor. The "water privileges" of this immediate region comprise those of the spreading Avon, which flows high, or ebbs low, at the beck of lunar laws. The river drains into the Basin of Minas. The latter is affected by the tides of the Bay of Fundy of which it forms the northeastern fork. Twice a day the tide of the Atlantic sets from Cape Sable northwestward through the broad gate of the Bay of Fundy at a speed of two to three knots. The vast body of water rushing up, and the Bay narrowing suddenly opposite St. John, causes the Basin of Minas and Chignecto Bay to fill with tremendous rapidity. The rise at Grand Manan is 15 feet; at Eastport, 20 feet; at St. John, 30 feet; at Parrsboro and Windsor, 40 to 50 feet. From Truro to Yarmouth the Fundy tides pro-

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