Cape Breton's Magazine

would have to occur during glacial retreat. It seems extremely unlikely that the stan? dard answer, "Glaciers," can be true. Subsidence also seems unlikely because the Big Bras d'Or and St. Andrews channels are arrow-straight for more than 20 miles. Each cross several different types of rock formations which would have caused major tuims, if it were subsidence. Subsidence doesn't seem very likely either. There has to be some other explanation. I reached the point in the argiMent sever? al years ago and was stuck until one day my youngest daughter, Stephanie, who was 8 years old, made a remark which channeled my thoughts along new lines. We had been talking about the Biblical version of Creation and how God made the Earth, when she asked, "What made God trip and fall on Cape Breton?" "What made pou ask that?" I said. "Well, you can see where God put his right hand out to save himself from falling," she replied. Sure enough, the Lakes do resemble a right hand print. Lake Ainslie is the thumb, the eas? tern channels are the fingers and the sou? thern lakes the palm print. This set me thinking about something hit? ting the area from above, say a meteor. Years before, I had conducted a test pro? gram on mountings for aircraft electronics and we had fired special equipment into prepared trays of sand. When they broke up, various items flew off aind produced tracks in the sand. Light items skimmed over the top, leaving shallow grooves, heavier items made deeper grooves and usu? ally buried themselves. All the grooves could be seen to start from the same point, the point of impact. If you take a map of Gape Breton and draw straight lines along the deepest parts of all the channels and include Lake Ainslie, Sydney Harbour, and the Mira, they all cluster together in the area of West Bay. Score one for the meteor theory. It began to look as if a meteor could have come in at a low angle, striking in the area of West Bay, breaking into pieces which gouged out the channels. Some pieces bounced, producing Lake Ainslie, St. Ann's, Sydney Harbour, and the Mira. Now the straight-line theory is good if the earth were stationary, but it isn't. It's rotating from west to east at some? thing like 500 m.p.h. at this latitude. You would only get straight lines under two conditions: if the object hitting the earth was travelling due east or west, or if it already was part of the earth and had the inertia and motion of the earth as part of its energy, for example, a bullet which travels in a straight line whichever direction you fire it. If the object came from outer space and struck the earth rotating beneath it, we 'BMumtbOnmiy LOCATED IN SOUTHWESTERN CAPE BRETON RICHMOND COUNTY OFFERS ITS VISITORS MILES OF OCEAN SHORELINE, NUMEROUS LAKES AND RIVERS FOR FISHING AND CANOEING, SPECTACULAR HIKING TRAILS, AND COIB'RY ROADS IDEAL FOR BICYCLERS. SPECIAL EVENTS INCLUDE: Arichat Ccwmunity Bazaar July 14-15 Festival Acadicn Petit de Grat Aug. 9-12 Centennial Tennis Tournament Aug. 18-19 St. Peter's Come Home Weekend Aug. 17-19 For more information write: Tourism Co-Ordinator Municipality of Richmond County P. 0. Box 120 Arichat, N.S. BOE lAO Cards for All Occasions The Card Shoppe Sydney Shopping Centre BRIAND'S CAB OmHc • • • ?? see. tiie heuutifui Cape Breton TOURS CABOT TMIL 564-6161 564-6162 ''acKiij' 2 4 2 1 PLEASANT BAY on the CABOT TRAIL