ABSTRACT
The province of Nova Scotia lies off the coast of New Brunswick, Canada, and the United States state of Maine. Its name means New Scotland and was bestowed by the Scots who first settled there. To all intents and purposes it is an island, just a bit smaller than Ireland, being 360 miles long (575 kilometres) and on average 80 miles wide (130 kilometres). It is separated from the mainland by the Bay of Fundy, at the top of which is the Minas Basin where the tides usually rise and fall more than 33 feet (10 metres) every 121/2 hours, the highest tides in the world.
