Bras d'Or Lake

Bras d'Or Lake, known to the Mi'kmaq as Pitu'paq, fills much of the interior of Cape Breton Island. Salt water enters through channels to the sea, creating a great inland waterway of islands, bays and wooded shores. At its southern end a narrow isthmus separates the lake from the Atlantic, where the Mi'kmaq carried canoes between the waters. French traders established Saint-Pierre there in the 1630s; the later settlement and fort were destroyed by the British in 1758.