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be
in the range of one to seventeen feet in length. The Otozoam, which
slinked around the mud flats, was something like a contemporary
crocodile. A lot of the creatures who ran around on the land were
the size of turkeys or ostriches. At least one mini-dinosaur had a
footprint of one centimetre, no larger than that of a
robin.
        Keep in mind that back then, well before the ice ages, Nova
Scotia was located near the equator and covered in rain forests.
Known as the Coal Age, this period of time 300-500 million years
ago allowed for the build-up of organic materials that would
eventually be crushed and formed into coal.
        A million years ago, the ice that crept down from the poles
to cover all of Nova Scotia was a kilometre and a half thick. The
glaciers advanced and retreated five or six times and between these
colder spells, animal and plant life would re-emerge. Right now, we
may well be living in one of those benevolent periods of time
between glaciers, some experts suggest.
     

Chapter 3
    Chapter 3

     
    Heavy Ice Gives Way to Glacial
Rebound
    Not long after all the depositing
of materials from the collision and separation, Nova Scotia began
to erode. Glaciers, in their advances and retreats, destroyed a lot
of geological evidence. Ice ages came and went. Global temperatures
went down, then up. Seas rose and fell, all affecting the shape of
this coast. The most recent retreat of major ice was a mere 10,000
years ago.
        If you fly over Nova Scotia, you can readily see what the
scouring and grinding of glaciers has done to us. Sediment has been
pushed off the land, leaving bare rock in many places. The lakes
tend to run north and south. Glacial action has left drumlins,
moraines and piles of till and kettle holes. Four-kilometre-thick
ice sitting on the land squeezed it and made it bulge outward into
the sea. You could have walked all the way to Sable Island on the
ice that sat on dry land in those days.
        Periods of glacial rebound followed those frosty times when
the unweighted continents could push up as the land recovered. But
the water along the coastline would also rise as the ice melted,
drowning the coast again. Even now, we are seeing the results of
glacial melting as the sea intrudes further into the land. As
salt-water levels get higher, lakes will end up being inlets as the
salt water connects to the fresh.
        The lake in front of my house, Lawrencetown Lake, seems to be
going in the opposite direction. It’s filling up with sediment and
has been for a long time. This body of water is shielded from the
sea by a wide low marsh and a set of sand dunes ravaged by sand and
gravel excavators of the 1950s. The sea will eventually have its
way here, sediment notwithstanding. It will break through. The
beach will retreat and then disappear altogether and if my
200-year-old house continues to stand, the waves will lap at my
driveway and a new breed of surfers will be riding waves where I
once gardened Swiss chard and peas. o
        Here, drumlins, those whale-shaped hills of glacial debris,
elongated and cigar-like, are abbreviated now along the Eastern
Shore. Half of each of these soft-shouldered hills at Lawrencetown,
Seaforth and East Chezzetcook are chewed off. The land has been
gobbled, digested and is silting off toward the deeper sea bottom.
Citadel Hill in Halifax is primarily a drumlin and it too may one
day feel salt water slapping at its base. Barrie Clarke says
jovially, “I already have the concession for gondolas in Halifax;
as the city goes down, it will become the Venice of North America.
You’ll be able to cruise down Hollis Street in a boat.” When all
the ice melts, the sea level can go up as much as 150 metres.
“Farewell to Nova Scotia,” the chorus sings, saying goodbye to a
sizeable chunk of the most populated city of this fair
province.
    A Paradise for Fish
    The riches of the sea were once our
greatest resource. Through four ice ages, mud and sand were