"The rising tide sweeps away the fine material from every exposed bank and cliff, and becomes loaded with mud and extremely fine sand, which, as it stagnates at high water, it deposits in a thin layer on the surface of the flats. This layer, which may vary in thickness from a quarter of an inch to a quarter of a line, is coarser and thicker at the outer edge of the flats than nearer the shore; and hence these flats, as well as the marshes, are usually higher near the channels than at their inner edge. From the same cause,--the more rapid deposition of the coarser sediment,--the lower side of each layer is arenaceous, and sometimes dotted over with films of mica, while the upper side is fine and slimy, and when dry has a shining and polished surface. The falling tide has little effect on these deposits, and hence the gradual growth of the flats, until they reach such a height that they can be overflowed only by the high spring tides. They then become natural or salt marsh, covered with the coarse grasses and _carices_ which grow in such places. So far the process is carried on by the hand of nature; and before the colonization of Nova Scotia, there were large tracts of this grassy alluvium to excite the wonder and delight of the first settlers on the shores of the Bay of Fundy. Man, however, carries the land-making process farther; and by diking and draining, excludes the sea water, and produces a soil capable of yielding for an indefinite period, without manure, the most valuable cultivated grains and grasses." The mud of these great tidal flats is at the surface of a red colour, and so fine that when the tide leaves it and its surface becomes dry, it shines in the sun as if polished. It is thus capable of taking the finest impressions. When the tide is in, numerous small fish of various species occupy the ground and may leave marks of their fins and tails as they gambol or seek their food. Shell fishes, worms, and Crustaceans scramble over the same surface, or make burrows in it. As the tide recedes flocks of sandpipers and crows follow it down, and leave an infinity of footprints, and even quadrupeds like the domestic hog go far out at low water in search of food. It is said that in some parts of the Bay the hogs are so assiduous in this pursuit that they even awake and go out on the flats in the night tide, and that they have so learned to dread the dangers of the flood, that when in the darkness they hear the dull sound of the approaching bore, they squeal with fear and rush madly for the shore.