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scraped
from the land here and dumped off the coast, creating a fertile
series of “banks.” The soils that could have supported good farming
were stolen from us and given to the fish. As the ice melted, the
sea rose over the banks of soil left out there, creating a great
place for minute life to develop, leading to higher forms who fed
on the lower ones until a massive population of fish cruised around
the Grand Banks and George’s Bank. It was here that the collision
of the Labrador Current and the Gulf Stream took place, a
fortuitous combination that enhanced the production of teeming sea
life. The great Arctic current of the Labrador, 400 metres deep and
350 kilometres wide, is packed with rich minerals and tiny northern
sea creatures. The Gulf Stream, which is positioned 400 to 800
kilometres off the coast of Halifax, mixes with the cold water
here. The mineral-rich northern waters and the warmer southern
waters provide perfect conditions for the breeding of plankton
which are fed on Pby small fish such as capelin and small cod.
They, in turn, feed the bigger fish that are harvested by people.
Then we overfish without regard to the future and suddenly
something goes wrong. The cycle ends. Given time, the planet may
repair itself. No one knows how much time this can take.
        In the heyday of the Grand Banks, cod was harvested by the
ton. A codfish can grow to noinety-six kilograms if left to survive
into old age. A female codfish is (or was) enormously fecund,
carrying as many as nine million eggs at once. Cod are omnivorous
and have been known to eat seabirds, bars of soap, metal, whole
scallops, lobsters or nearly anything. But drag the ocean floor for
decades destroying the habitat and even they cannot continue to
survive. Spawning must take place between 1.5 and 7°C. As global
temperatures change, that too may make successful breeding
impossible for the cod. And once the cod disappear, other ispecies
will not be far behind. The recent disaster in the fishery of the
Atlantic suggests that we may not see the recovery in our lifetime.
Perhaps it will take longer than our children’s lifetime. As the
history of Nova Scotia unfolds, the logic of this result seems all
too, well, logical. The British and the French first came here to
carry off whatever they could that was of value. They came to
exploit and that destiny has been fulfilled for these several
centuries in the fishery and to a lesser degree in the forests.
Once the exploitation is over, it will be time, we hope, for repair
and recovery.
    Mastodons, Moose and Men
    Before the ages of ice, Nova Scotia
had a rich diversity of animal and plant life. No major mountain
ranges impeded the traffic of wandering creatures or emigrating
plant life in any direction. Each interglacial period, however, saw
less variety and intensity of life. There were times of tundra and
vast fields of northern grasses with shrubs and sedge growing from
the moraines and the glacial till. In the valleys grew sugar maple
and hemlock, balsam fir, white spruce and white pine. The landscape
of much of Nova Scotia six thousand years ago may have looked a lot
like the barrens of Peggy’s Cove today. Sable Island, however,
probably has the same vegetation today as existed there 11,000
years ago. It wasn’t until as recently as 5,000 to 3,500 years ago
that the mixed forests of the province developed.
        Well after the dinosaurs romped around, the mighty and hairy
mastodon could be found here. In the early 1990s, workers at the
National Gypsum quarry near Stewiacke (previous claim to fame:
“Halfway from the North Pole to the Equator!”) uncovered not one
but two mastodons that were about 70,000 years old. Mastodons, like
the modern moose, preferred to hang out in lakes and swamps. Near
Middle River, Cape Breton, an even “younger” mastodon from 30,000
years ago was unearthed. Cuts and scrapings on the bones imply that
the beast was hunted down by men, suggesting that Nova Scotia