important centres are Springhill, Acadia Mines, Stellarton and Glace Bay (C.B.). It is shipped as far west as Montreal, and to the New England states. Iron is largely produced, chiefly in the vicinity of the Cumberland and Pictou coal-fields. The deposits include magnetite, red haematite, specular, limonite and carbonate ores. Blast furnaces are in operation, especially at New Glasgow, Sydney and North Sydney, though most of the ore used at Sydney is imported from Newfoundland. The quarries of easily worked limestone, the product of which is used as a “flux” in the blast furnaces, add to the value of the iron deposits. Gold occurs in workable quantities in the quartz all along the Atlantic coast, and several small but successful mining enterprises are in operation, yielding about $500,000 annually. Large deposits of gypsum occur, especially at Windsor in Hants county. Manganese and copper are also worked on a small scale.
Agriculture.—The attention paid to lumbering, fishing and shipping, and the subsequent emigration westwards have lessened the importance of this industry. Mixed farming is however largely carried on, and of late years dairy farming has been greatly extended and improved, and much butter and cheese is exported to England. Both the Dominion and the provincial governments have endeavoured to introduce scientific methods. Nova Scotia ranks second to Ontario in its production of apples and peaches. The centre of this industry is the valley of the Annapolis, where, it is said, one “may ride for fifty miles under apple-blossoms.” At the head of the Bay of Fundy and on Minas Basin the low-lying meadows produce splendid crops of hay. Owing to high Fundy tides, the air in the neighbourhood is constantly in motion, the result being a cool temperature, even in the height of summer, which is well fitted for stock-raising.
Roads and Railroads.—Road-making machines are employed for the improvement of the ordinary highways, and steel bridges are replacing the wooden structures; but the roads in the country districts still leave much to be desired. The Intercolonial railway, owned and worked by the Dominion government, is the chief means of communication with the other provinces, and for the carriage of local traffic. Besides the main line from Halifax to Amherst, a branch runs from Truro to Sydney, and another from Oxford Junction to Pictou and Stellarton. The Canadian Pacific railway has running rights over it from St John (N.B.) to Halifax; on its completion, similar rights will be granted from Moncton to Halifax to the Grand Trunk Pacific. The Dominion Atlantic railway extends from Windsor junction, near Halifax, to Yarmouth; the Nova Scotia Central railway from Lunenburg to Middleton on the Dominion Atlantic railway. A line along the Atlantic coast connects Halifax and Yarmouth, whence a daily line of steamers sails for Boston. Other lines connect Halifax with a number of the S.W. coast and inland towns, and a line has been projected from New Glasgow to Guysborough and the coast. Several smaller lines are owned by the various coal-mining companies. Telegraph and telephone lines extend all over the province, and there are two cable stations—one at Canso and the other at Sydney. The Marconi Company has stations for wireless telegraphy at Halifax, Cape Sable, Sable Island and Glace Bay.
History.—Nova Scotia may well have been the Markland of early Norse and Icelandic voyages, and Cape Breton was visited by the Cabots in 1497–1498, but not till 1604 was any attempt at permanent colonization made by Europeans. In that year an expedition was headed by a Frenchman, Pierre de Guast, Sieur de Monts (1560–c. 1630), who had received from Henry IV. full powers to explore and take possession of all lands in North America lying between the 40th and 46th parallels of north latitude. De Monts and his friend de Poutrincourt (d. 1615), endeavoured to form settlements at Port Royal (now Annapolis), St Croix (in New Brunswick) and elsewhere, but quarrels broke out with the Jesuits, and in 1613 the English colonists of Virginia made a descent upon them, claimed the territory in right of the discovery by the Cabots, and expelled the greater part of the inhabitants. In 1621 Sir William Alexander obtained from James I. a grant of the whole peninsula, which was named in the patent, Nova Scotia, instead of Acadia, the old name given to the colony by the French. During the reign of Charles I. the still existing order of Baronets of Nova Scotia was instituted, and their patents ratified in parliament. The treaty of St Germain-en-Laye (1632) confirmed France in the possession of Acadia, Cape Breton and New France; but fierce feuds broke out among the French settlers, and in 1654 a force sent out by Cromwell took possession of the country, but by the treaty of Breda (1667) it was restored to France by Charles II. Continual
