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' Kxt*vW'P 6mm HI).. ...II•fwm tMW.?(V- WWfcSffiVf.wuxiy#:lt;h-.1 e.•/;/ By HERB SHANNON -vS;: 1 • /v ~^I,PfT Trayel Editor ';i - ^EW= BRUNSWICK, /.CANADA -%This :is; .high tide.- country. The daily-^.surge off.the Atlantic curls. aniUnd ' the! ^Nova? Scotia peninsida on the opposite1 ■ . -^shore'vof the Bay of^Fuhdy and-comes. g*yW for. a crash landing-along ’the south'- : ern coastline of ...Canada’s Maritime ‘Picture,Province.*’I 'A'V/v ' ‘ .M; some seasons,' the .faighty' bpre* which Washes up the narrowing north* •. em reaches of the hay floods inlets and'. estuaries’ with as: ihuch • as-, a: 40-foot;^ differential, the...world’s highest: • •' pr:\The rei0ntless pounding of ;cehtiiriesV fij?Bal- produced/ unique coastal- views'1 Av; along the; entire :2Q0 'miles of harbors,; beaches, fishing villages and green*’-- clad cliffs between the borders of Maine and Nova Scotia. Some of them . can only be described as phenomenal ;■ - One is the famous “Reversing ■; Falls” at St. John, Canada’s oldest ’*• incorporated city, and our first stop on : a self-drive tour of the Ocean Drive •• s route hugging the. south coast of New •'•-Brunswick’s unspoiled 28,000 square % miles. We rented the car at the airport ' /-in Fredericton, the inland provincial ; capital, after a short Air Canada flight • • across the tip of Maine from Quebec City.By cruising around Fredericton and r-visiting the Universito of New Bruns-f wick campus for about an hour, we managed to time our arrival at. St.S John to coincide with the turning of the J tide as scheduled in a tour brochure. At the port city downriver, we parked on a !. bluff overlooking the Reversing Falls\ marker.. WE JOINED a flock .of tourists hanging over the safety rail and watched the river cascade over a series of rocky rapids and around a wide bendtoward its. mouth on the bay, It.wasn’t the vertical drop I .had pictured, but the water.; Was- clearly, -flowing aown-. stream. A few indecisive eddies in the lower section portended the promised changejof direction./ . Since, there was ;stai 20 minutes be-. fore the scheduled reverse. action, we• decided'to.spend the time investigating ; another advertised-*tourist attraction in :the neighborhood,. There was some-: thing .familiar about the MartelioTower,'-a .historic/fortification erected to protect St. :John harbor from' Ameri-cap attack during.the War of 1812.v/ The'.cylkdrical stone: construction recalled an almost identical tower built •by.the British .at about the same.time at the entrance to'Dublin harbor in Irelands The Irish fortress is now known as Joyce’s Tower for the tempo-rary occupancy by novelist James' Joyce as a squatter after ii fell into disuse by the military.Inside the Canadian counterpart, I found another Irish connection. One exhibit on the basement level described the discovery of an 1866 plot by . the Irish-American Fenian Society to seize the tower. take control of British Cana-• da and mount a- war of . liberation, for their native land. An attempt to carry out the plan foundered in the first phase when the Irish immigrants started fighting among themselves. •'/When we returned to the Reversing /alls, the.tidal turning point was long past. The tourists who had stayed for the full performance now were marveling at the cascades below, boiling upstream with the same turbulence as in. the opposite direction an hour before.BUT THE MOST spectacular evidence of the power of-the Fundy* tides is to be found in the provincial park known as The Rocks, 100 miles fartherl*ov Btocfc, ciih., Mw it iw4 INDEPENDENT, PRESS-TELEGRAM-l/S-9mmmm• • • • . • • • * • * * • '• lt;• f .»r (XX. - . . ... .r». V. •• •*»•*. W .V... ».*. -Vi'.v.«a v•• * vjV-'• ■\ k v -*« v ’Vl ' -A\Art. }rA/‘:«*/'■ %'s.'*$$■fidi, h . *. hi .mu.; y... i. ; vi'vviv'Ui; ':i i-; •; • VNEW BRUNSWICK’S POWERFUL BAY OF FUNDY CARVED ‘THE ROCKS'Sfaff photo by Herb Shannoneast along the coastal route. Here a combination of geological mishaps, glacial action and the tides have created a seaside wonderland of pine-crested pinnacles, shoreline caves and picturesque mini-canyons.. ...The Rocks are reached via a cutoff from the Trans Canada Highway which traverses Fundy National Park, an 80- • square-mile wildlife preserve and recreational area untouched by civilization except for selected campgrounds and one resort center. Route 114 returns to the bay at the eastern edge of the park and continues along the. shore to Hopewell Cape near-the northern extremity of Fundy Bay.The wooded cliffs at Hopewell Cape give no clue to the'fantastic formations on the beach. Well-marked trails andwooden staircases lead from the picnic tables on the clifftop to the caves and mammoth natural statuary below.As with Reversing Falls, it is necessary to time the visit to the tides in order to see The Rocks^ The beach is safe from advancing waters from two hours before to one hour after low tide. Other times require hip boots and diving gear.During the low tide period, the pebbled beach drains rapidly, providing firm walking among'the. tall monoliths. Some, carved by the winds and water action, stand like the petrified remains of dinosaurs of a prehistoric age. To other visitors* the giant pedestals with ' trees and greenery om their flat tops resemble huge natural flower pots.The creation of this phenomenonbegan some '300 million years ago, when streams carried sand and rocks from nearby mountains to form a thick bed of conglomerate in the area. This natural concrete later was’ cracked with fissures by natural upheavals, and then overlaid with soil by glaciers. •The strong tides and frequent winds etched away the loose material in the cliffs and carved out the columns and sea-stacks which today make a visit a memorable experience, This process can be seen today in the erosion of large blocks from the cliffs and caves in various'stages of dcvclopement.But you'd better hurry. The conglomerate cliff from which The Rocks are carved extends only about 1,000 feet inland. It may not last more than a couple hundred years..
Newspaper Details
Independent Press Telegram
Long Beach, California, US
Sun, May 12, 1974
Page 129
Full Page
Clipped by
Kevin S.
CA 23 Feb 2018
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