Here is a map from 1776, showing a similar area as that described in my last post,  but with more detail:

Halifax Harbour
By: Des Barres, Joseph Frederick Wallet
Courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.

It demonstrates how close the city was to an untouched wilderness, filled with woods and lakes.

I’ve also stumbled upon an aerial diagram of Halifax from 1777— the cleared area seems consistent with the Chart of Halifax Harbour from the previous post:

The Harbour of Halifax, by Joseph Frederick Wallet Des Barres, 1777. Courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.

In this image, houses are  popping up in the early suburbs and the streets are expanding. The forest has more detail— it is clearly hilly and judging from the many rivers and streams pictured, it must have been lush. There would have been waterfalls, like the one pictured below in the small circle etching:

[Views in the vicinity of Halifax]
By: Des Barres, Joseph Frederick Wallet, 1777
Courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.

These etchings are images of the coastline around Halifax, drawn from the decks of ships passing by.

And so here are more clues about what the hinterland would have been like. Actually, the waterways give some sort of indication of the wildlife that would have been present; there must have been fish swimming through the city— trout perhaps? Salmon? What animals bent to drink from these cool waters, or nested beside the riverbanks?