But once the rain stopped I found a group of girls and couple boys parading about the streets with their flags. Afterward I walked down to the river to take advantage of beautiful, early evening light and found a dozen couples practising their dance moves in the parking lot of a building, with French-sounding music coming from a boom box.
Someone about 35 years ago decided that, with so many bottles of water or wine piling up, they would put them to good use and build a house. With its rolling fields and red cliffs beaten by endless ocean waves, PEI presents a bucolic, low-key beauty. The Cabot Trail winds its way along sheer cliffs and offers up fantabulous views of the Gulf of St.
For me, the music might be an even stronger force pulling me east from my home in Toronto. George Street in St. Halifax is the only big city I know in Canada where drivers slow down to let you jaywalk across a crowded road. I was playing golf with an important fellow in the government of St. With a local beer in hand, I spent a few minutes talking with Jerry Deveau, who was playing spoons in a band with a piano player and a teenaged girl with a voice as beautiful and clear as the fog-piercing beam from a coastal lighthouse.
Before the arrival of the first Europeans, the Mi'kmaq , who constituted a single linguistic and cultural entity, inhabited all of present-day peninsular Nova Scotia , Cape Breton Island , Prince Edward Island and southern and eastern New Brunswick. Only in the upper Saint John River valley were the Maliseet , who spoke a somewhat different Algonquian dialect but had much in common with their Mi'kmaq neighbours.
With the coming of the French, especially in the early 17th century, the Mi'kmaq-Maliseet presence in the region was challenged. From its beginnings in French Acadia gradually came into existence, a territory roughly encompassing that now covered by the Maritime provinces. Though made up largely of isolated settlements, Acadia was united by a common language, culture and economy. By France was compelled to surrender its last remaining outpost in Acadia — Louisbourg — to the British.
Therefore, in years, the region had passed from the Mi'kmaq and Maliseet to the French; then, after , to the dual sovereignty of France and Britain; and finally, after , to undisputed British control. Once Britain controlled the entire region, ethnic variety characterized its settlement.
This basic Anglo-Saxon and Acadian ethnic mix was virtually unaffected by the hundreds of thousands of European immigrants who, bypassing the Maritimes, flooded into Canada, especially after At Confederation in , the Maritime provinces had little in common with Canada.
The region's development was radically different, being significantly influenced by the interplay of three major forces: those of the Atlantic Ocean, New England and Britain. The Atlantic was for many inhabitants of the area a frontier of space and economic abundance, and for them its metaphors coloured many of the cultural expressions of their region. The second formative force was that of neighbouring New England. Until the American Revolution shattered the Anglo-American empire, the Maritime region was "New England's outpost," and even today economic, cultural, religious and social ties between the regions are surprisingly strong.
The British connection was the third formative force. After France's direct exercise of power in North America was eliminated, Britain's influence over the Maritimes was unrivalled. The arrival of thousands of Loyalists during and after the American Revolution , and the tens of thousands of British immigrants who settled in the region during the 19th century, reinforced Britain's influence.
The interaction of these forces before gave the inhabitants of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island a strong sense of provincial identity. Before Confederation, many Maritimers believed that their region had unlimited economic potential and that theirs was the most sophisticated and best-administered of all the British colonies possessing responsible government.
Another climatically sensitive aspect of Aboriginal life centres on the importance of country foods. Seal, salmon, caribou, rabbit, partridge, ducks, berries and other foods offered by the land and sea all form part of the diet of Aboriginal communities Degnen, ; Hanrahan, Changes in climate and habitats that may alter the quality and quantity of these resources pose further problems. Country foods add important nutrients, particularly in Labrador where purchased food is very expensive.
The spiritual and cultural health of many communities depends upon food procurement activities. For example, Mukushan, a communal meal celebrated by Innu after a successful caribou hunt to honour the spirit of the caribou, is an important part of Innu culture.
Communal trips into the country, where families spend two or three months hunting, fishing and gathering food supplies, are a significant cultural activity for Sheshatshiu and Natuashish Degnen, ; Matthews and Sutton, Traditional knowledge is maintained by participating in such activities and by passing the knowledge on to younger generations. Changes in the availability of country food could jeopardize this process of cultural continuance. Although climate change is just one of many concerns facing Aboriginal populations, the importance placed on protecting sources of traditional foods and medicine, and the sacred value of water, can rapidly become a priority.
The ecological diversity of Atlantic Canada is demonstrated by the number of terrestrial ecozones Figure 2 ; Environment Canada, b and ecoregions Sabine and Morrison, Climate regions range from cool humid-continental through subarctic to arctic tundra, with the influence of the warm Gulf Stream in the south giving way to that of the cold Labrador Current in the north.
Seasonal conditions reflect competing tropical and polar, continental and maritime influences. Along the Atlantic Ocean coastline, multi-decadal variability in weather systems and their effects, particularly in winter, are associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation NAO; Marshall et al.
The Gulf of St. Lawrence coast of New Brunswick forms a plain that slopes gently eastward, with long shallow embayments and salt marshes. Rolling to rugged uplands, with much terrain more than m above sea level, characterizes western New Brunswick, the margins of the Bay of Fundy and most of Nova Scotia. Coastlines are deeply indented, dominated by cliffs and gravel beaches, and characterized by steep offshore bathymetry.
The Nova Scotia coast of the Bay of Fundy has steep cliffs flanking the shoreline. Inland is a steep escarpment to m high. The topography of the low-lying plain of the Annapolis Valley, and the rolling hills of the Nova Scotia Uplands, trend northeast.
Cape Breton Island has irregular hills, steep escarpments and flat-topped to rolling plateaus, dissected by short steep streams with numerous cataracts and waterfalls. Prince Edward Island is an undulating plain of low relief with well-developed sand dune and beach systems.
The Atlantic Maritime ecozone is the warmest in Atlantic Canada, with southern to mid-boreal climates. Mean summer temperatures vary regionally between 13 and Mean annual precipitation ranges between and mm. The New Brunswick climate varies with distance from the Gulf of St. Lawrence Lowland regions influence the region. Interior areas have a more continental climate, whereas regions along the Bay of Fundy have cool summers and mild winters. Fog is common in exposed coastal areas.
Nova Scotia is constantly influenced by the ocean, but coastal regions of the province still have cooler springs and summers and milder winters than interior sites.
Ice cover on the Gulf of St. Lawrence during winter brings cooler temperatures and a later spring. Prince Edward Island receives the strongest maritime influence of the three provinces, and has mild winters, late cool springs and moderate windy summers. Mixed-wood forests are the primary vegetation in this ecozone. Red spruce, balsam fir, yellow birch and sugar maple are the main species, with significant numbers of red and white pine, and eastern hemlock. Acadian Forest assemblages were the pre —European settlement vegetation in most of Prince Edward Island, southeastern New Brunswick and sheltered areas of mainland Nova Scotia.
Boreal species, such as white birch and black and white spruce, are also present. Shrubs in the ecozone consist of willow, pin cherry, speckled alder and blueberry.
In terms of a natural resource —based economy, forest industries represent a major economic component of this ecozone, together with fisheries mostly lobster, finfish and aquaculture and local mining. The island of Newfoundland, the southeastern corner of Labrador, and the shoreline of Lake Melville are part of the Boreal Shield ecozone Figure 3c , d. The island of Newfoundland features diverse topography. The Avalon Peninsula has rolling uplands interspersed with small plateau regions, embayments, short rivers with steep-gradients and cliffs up to 65 m high.
The central part of the island includes ridges interspersed with undulating terrain and small plateaus. Relief is generally less than m. The coastline is ragged, marked by deep indentations, cliffed headlands and numerous islands and skerries.
0コメント