Lake Ainslie is the largest natural freshwater lake on Cape Breton. The Southwest

Margaree River The Margaree River (''Abhainn Mhargaraidh'') is a river on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. The northeast branch of the river derives from the watershed of the Cape Breton Highlands, while the Southwest Margaree flows northeast from Lake Ainslie. ...

starts at the lake and empties into the

Gulf of Saint Lawrence , image = Baie de la Tour.jpg , alt = , caption = Gulf of St. Lawrence from Anticosti National Park, Quebec , image_bathymetry = Golfe Saint-Laurent Depths fr.svg , alt_bathymetry = Bathymetry ...

. The lake is approximately 20 km long and averages 5 km in width. Lake Ainslie1

It was formed during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

, about two million years ago, when glacial outwash blocked the drainage of the valley of Loch Ban. It is underlain primarily by sedimentary deposits of the

Horton Horton may refer to: Places Antarctica * Horton Glacier, Adelaide Island, Antarctica * Horton Ledge, Queen Elizabeth Land, Antarctica Australia * Horton, Queensland, a town and locality in the Bundaberg Region * Horton River (Australia), ...

and Windsor Formations, dating back about 350 million years. A number of

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

s nest around the lake. The lake was named after

George Robert Ainslie George Robert Ainslie (1776–1839) was a Scottish general of the British Army, with a short lived and controversial career in the Caribbean, a Lieutenant Governor of Cape Breton, and noted for his coin collecting pursuits. Biography Mili ...

, the Lieutenant Governor of Cape Breton Island from 1816 to 1820, when Cape Breton became part of

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

References

{{authority control Ainslie Ainslie