48 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Yol. X. 



causing the somewhat anomalous courses of strise which I have 

 described. 



Admitting, then, that the contour of the Bay Chaleur and con- 

 tiguous country was the same or nearly so in the Post-Pliocene 

 epoch as at the present day, and that the region was covered 

 with a glacier sufficiently large to produce the effects I have in- 

 dicated, we might next enquire what the approximate extent 

 and thickness of such an ice-sheet were. A glacial mass such as 

 I have supposed covered the area in question must have had its 

 source in the elevated region in the north-west of New Bruns- 

 wick, and probably also in the Shickshock Mountains near the 

 head waters of the Metapedia. In its eastward descent it would 

 follow the courses of that river and of the Restigouche, which 

 unite thirty miles above the mouth of the latter. From their 

 junction eastward to the Bay its movements would be controlled 

 by the Restigouche valley. Its leogth, therefore, would not be 

 less than 125 to 150 miles, and may have been much greater ; 

 its width after leaving the Restigouche hills would be twenty-five 

 to fifty miles or more ; and its thickness in the Restigouche 

 valley not less than 1000 feet ; between the Dalhousie hills and 

 Heron Island 500 to 600 feet, and Between Bathurst and Bon- 

 aventure probably 300 to 350 feet. In these statements I have 

 given what I consider the lowest estimate of its dimensions, but 

 it is almost certain that they exceeded this very considerably. 



This extensive iner de glace was evidently an independent body, 

 guided in its flow by the configuration of the surface of the 

 region ; and as it advanced eastward its different parts converged 

 or were deflected towards the lowest area, namely, that which 

 now forms the mouth of the Bay Chaleur. 



Further, I infer that the glacier was a local one, and not part 

 of a continental ice-sheet, for the following reasons : 



1. From its easterly and north-easterly course, as shown by the 

 strise in the Restigouche valley and at Bathurst, thus diverging 

 from the normal movements of glaciers as evidenced by their 

 markinsjs on the eastern coast of America. 



2. From the close parallelism between the courses of the striae 

 and the trends and sinuosities of the Restigouche estuary and 

 Bay Chaleur, showing that the ice-sheet must have been one of 

 no very great thickness and with an independent movement, to 

 be thus controlled by the contour of the region ; and 



