Canada Guide

Eastern Canada is an easy place to reach. Travelers from the north-eastern United States can drive throughMaine and into New Brunswick, or they can take themile-saving ferries fromeither Portland or Bar Harbor (both in Maine) to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Many people like to take the ferry one way and drive along the Quoddy and Fundy shores on the other, forming a circle of diverse land and seascapes. Flying is a faster way to get here, with most flights routed through the hub at Halifax, from which you can fly to all the other major cities and areas.

Winter sports are a Canadian specialty, and the Fundy Coast has its share. Natural snowfall, while not always predictable so close to the coast, is usually abundant enough to guarantee cross-country skiing and snow-covered trails for snowmobiling. The changing tides and cold tem- peratures combine to create unique and ever-changing ice sculptures along the bays and estuaries. Ice on the lakes and inner bays is substantial enough to support skating and ice fishing, which you can sample on a Day Adventure (see Fishing, above). In St. Martins, where the changing tides leave long ex- panses of frozen beach, firm underfoot and free of snow, walking the beaches is a popular winter activity. These are bordered by carved and sculptured rock cliffs; be sure to check the tide schedules.

Border disputes have never been an issue among the four Atlanticprovinces, where water separates them all (except for a tiny umbili-cal cord that holds Nova Scotia to New Brunswick). Although firmlyattached to the continent on the west, where it borders both Maine and Qué-bec, New Brunswick has more coastal than land boundaries. In the threesouthern provinces, most of this coastline is bordered in beaches – miles ofgolden, red, gray and white sand. The waters of the Northumberland Straitare warm – New Brunswick has the warmest saltwater swimming north of Virginia – as are those off the beaches of Prince Edward Island and Nova Sco-tia. What Newfoundland and Labra-dor lack in beaches (the water thereis not warm), they more than makeup in breathtaking coastal scenery.
Nova Scotia lies east and south ofNew Brunswick, with tiny PrinceEdward Island off its northernshore, across the NorthumberlandStrait, which also separates it fromNew Brunswick. East and north ofthese lies Newfoundland, an islandof many peninsulas, separated fromQuébec and Labrador on the on themainland by the narrow Strait ofBelle Isle. Its closest point to theother Atlantic provinces is CapeBreton Island, afive-hour ferryride away. Cape Breton Island itselflies off the northeast end of NovaScotia, attached to it since the1950sby a causeway. The other most noticeable geograph-
ical features are the Bay of Fundy,which nearly separates Nova Scotiafrom the mainland, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which cuts Newfound-land off from Quebec. Through New Brunswick’s north run the AppalachianMountains, which surface again in western Newfoundland. The rest of theterrain is gently rollingand fairly low, except for the northern part of Cape
Breton Island, where the highlands rise to low, but rugged mountains. PrinceEdward Island is fairly flat, itshills gentle and covered with a patchwork of green fields and meadows.