Cape Breton Island

Cape Breton Island is a large island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It is part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada, and is located east-northeast (ENE) of the peninsula that composes the province's mainland.

The island measures 6,352 square kilometres in area (3,970 square miles) and is composed mainly of rocky shores, rolling farmland, barren headlands, mountains, forests and plateaus. Geological evidence suggests that Cape Breton Island was originally a piece of Scotland that "broke off" when the North American tectonic plate separated from its European counterpart approximately 100 million years ago.

Principal saltwater features are the Bras D'Or Lakes system and the Canso Strait. Principal freshwater features are: Lake Ainslie, Margaree River(s), and the Mira River[?]. Marine vessels can navigate the strait between the island and the mainland, and can enter the Bras D'Or Lakes through Big Bras D'Or, Little Bras D'Or, or St. Peter's Canal. The Mira River is also navigable for more than twenty kilometres. Fierce tidal currents are known in several places around and within the island.

Cape Breton is now joined to the mainland by the Canso Causeway, completed in 1955 enabling direct road traffic to and about the island, but constraining marine traffic through its canal locks. The small port of North Sydney[?] provides a ferry link to the island of Newfoundland across the Cabot Strait of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The principal thruway is the Trans-Canada Highway.

Nova Scotians tend to think of Cape Breton Island and the Nova Scotian mainland as distinct regions of the province.

The four main cultures are: Miq'mac, Acadian, Scottish, and English; with respective languages: Miq'mac, French (français), Scottish Gaelic, and English. English is now the primary spoken language, though Gaelic and French still thrive alongside.

Originally inhabited by Miq'mac[?] Indians, and in the 18th century by French settlers (Acadians), a significant influx (around 50,000) of Highland Scots immigrated in the first half of the nineteeth century as a result of the Highland Clearances. Today their descendants dominate the culture, though significant settlements of French-speaking Acadians and Miq'macs still prosper, and it is not unusual to find bilingual names (examples?).

Cape Breton Island is famous for:

• the Cabot Trail, a scenic road circuit around and over the Cape Breton Highlands;
• Cape Breton violin music[?], a two-century-old Scottish dance form preserved by Scottish descendants and readily accessible along the Ceilidh Trail;
• Fortress Louisbourg, a restored Eighteenth Century fortified French harbour town; and
• Alexander Graham Bell of Baddeck, the famous inventor of the telephone, hydrofoil, hearing aid[?], and a few other things.

See also:

• Canada
• Canadian provinces and territories
• Nova Scotia