Page:Tourist's Maritime Provinces.djvu/191

Rh in these untamed waters fear only the otter. If we imitate their descending lament they will answer, perhaps believing it the call of Glooscap, the departed deity who taught them to summon him when in need. Sometimes the soft dipping of the paddle does not alarm until the canoe's prow is within close sight of them. Then a plunge into protecting deeps a swift winnowing of wings, and at a long distance, the uprearing of confident heads above the gloss of ribboned necks. The road from Annapolis Royal to Digby keeps in view the Basin which Champlain described as "one of the most beautiful ports which I had seen on these coasts, where two thousand vessels could be anchored in safety." Small passenger craft which serve the towns along the inlet pass close to Goat Island where Poutrincourt had his fort. The view matures in beauty as the haven broadens. At the mouth of Bear River ravine "the Gap" appears. Beyond the rift which opens to the Bay of Fundy the North Wall takes up its interrupted course and continues toward the south.

There are bevies of hotels and vacation cabins in the vicinity of Deep Brook, Bear River and Smith's Cove. The rails cross a trestle over the water beyond the latter station and by a detour which brings into range the shore we have just travelled, and the hills which encompass the harbour, arrive in the centre of Digby.