made choice of a site there for settlement, and explored the Minas Basin. Later they founded Port Royal, in the year 1605, but abandoned it a few years after. Some Scottish settlers endeavored to open up the country. They made little progress, and it was the French who increased most in numbers. Then came the Acadian Expulsion, followed by a more rapid . general settlement; for by this time Halifax had been ‘ founded, German colonists began to arrive, and, in later years, disbanded British regiments and United Empire Loyalists commenced to swell the population. In the meantime the province as part of Acadia, and later as Nova Scotia, had several times been owned in turn by the French and English; but finally after the taking of Quebec by Wolfe, and after the close of the American Revolutionary War, a lasting peace ensued, and Nova Scotia, as part of Canada and the British Empire, has prospered. Other details of history that are of sufficient importance are brought out in connection with the descriptions of localities. Resuming the description of the country traversed by, and that tributary to, the lntercolonial Railway, at the boundary line of the two provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the rail— way, immediately after crossing the line, reaches Amherst, not far from Cumberland Basin. The bright and prosperous town of Amherst is a pleasant centre for a number of other interesting places. To the north is Tidnish on the Northumberland Straits, a little watering place where good boating and deep-sea fishing may be enjoyed. Stages run N.E. to Head of Amherst, and there are other places, remote from the rail- road, that are quite interesting. The works of the (Thignecto Marine Transport Railway are within easy reach by carriage. This abandoned project was intended to lift ships of a thousand tons, place them on huge ship—carriages by means of hydraulic power, and then haul them by locomotives to the terminus on the Northumberland Straits near Tidnish, where they were again to be put in the water and so save the great distance a vessel must now go to reach the St. Lawrence from the Bay of Fundy. A few miles north-west of Amherst are the ruins of Fort Cumberland beyond the Aulac River. On this site formerly stood the French fort of Beausejour. It was from Fort St. Lawrence, also in the immediate neighborhood, that the attack was made on the 232