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Halifax. -- Glacial Furrows in Nova Scotia. -- Difference of Climate of
Halifax and Windsor. -- Tracts covered with Kalmia. -- Linnea borealis.
-- High tides of the Bay of Fundy. -- The Bore. -- Recent deposits of Red Mud
hardened in the Sun. -- Fossil Showers of Rain. -- Footprints of Birds,
and casts of the same. -- Cracks caused by Shrinkage. -- Submerged
Frost. -- Recent Glacial Furrows at Cape Blomidon. -- Loaded Ice. --
Ice-ruts in Mud.
[140] [Regarding mudflats in Nova
Scotia during the neap tides] "When I arrived in this region it was the
period of the lowest or neap tides, so that large areas, where the red
mud had been deposited, were laid dry, and in some spots had been
baking in a hot sun for ten days. The upper part of the mud had thus
become hard for a depth of several inches, and in its consolidated form
exactly resembled, both in colour and appearance, some of the red marls
of the New Red sandstone formation of Europe. The upper surface was
usually smooth, but in some places I saw it pitted over with small
cavities, which I was told were due to a shower of rain which fell
eight or ten days before, when the deposit was still soft. It perfectly
recalled to my mind those 'fossil showers' of which the markings are
preserved in some ancient rocks, and the origin of which was first
correctly explained to an incredulous public by Dr. Buckland in 1838.
... In addition to the smaller cavities de to rain, there are larger
ones, more perfectly circular, about the size of large currants, which
have been formed by air-bubbles in the mud.
... On the surface of the dried beds of red mud ... I observed many
worm-like tracks, made by Annelides
which burrow in the mud; and what was still more interesting to me, the
distinct footmarks of birds....""
