By metre is meant a regular recurrence of accented syllables among unaccented syllables.

"Evangeline" is written in what is called hexameter, having six accents to the line.

An accented syllable is followed by one or two unaccented.

A line must begin with an accented syllable, the last accent but one be followed by two unaccented syllables, and the last by one.
Representing an accented syllable by O and an unaccented syllable by a -, the first line of the poem would be as follows: O - - O - - O - - O - - O - - O - This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks, "The measure lends itself easily to the lingering melancholy which marks a greater part of the poem." "In reading there should be a gentle labor of the former half of the line and gentle acceleration of the latter half."-- _Scudder_.
[Illustration: NOVA SCOTIA AND VICINITY.] ACADIA AND THE ACADIANS.
Acadia, now known as Nova Scotia, was settled by the French in 1607.

Many of the colonists settled in the fertile region about the Bay of Minas, an arm of the Bay of Fundy.