370 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Yol. ix. 



up to the 40-fatliom contour Hue ; but on the south side the 

 sand and gravel extend up to the shore. Of still coarser mate- 

 rial is the bottom composed in Minas Channel, where the current 

 pours over submarine ledges with great swiftness and force. 



Such is the condition of the bottom of the Bay of Fuudy as a 

 whole, in the deeper parts : but both in the deep water and along 

 the shores gravel banks have been formed or exposed by the 

 currents which traverse it. Such are those which lie on each 

 side of the deep water area off Grand Manan and iri'places along 

 the Nova Scotian shore. The most considerable gravel-bank in 

 the Bay is that which begins on the eastern side of Saint John 

 Harbour, and extends, mostly in soundings of from 20 to 30 

 fathoms, nearly to Quaco Head. The tidal current along this 

 shore, having escaped the in-draft of the Saint John Biver, runs 

 at the rate of two knots an hour. A small gravel-bank also ex- 

 tends along the western shore of Grand Manan, where the tide 

 runs at the rate of three knots an hour. 



The New Brunswick shore has the greatest area of muddy 

 bottom, for on that side the largest rivers enter the sea, and the 

 tidal current is more sluggish than on the south side of the Bay. 

 The great mud bed is chiefly an accumulation of the sediment 

 which the Saint John River carries into the sea, and is spread 

 along the New Brunswick shore by the ebb-tide. It begins at 

 the harbour of Saint John and extends westward to the Wolves 

 Islands. The outer limit of this bed is nearly coincident with 

 the 50-fathom contour line. At the Wolves it connects by a 

 narrow neck of clayey bottom with another deposit of mud, 

 composed of the mingled sediment of the Saint John River and 

 the rivers of Charlotte County. This extension of the mud-bed 

 is in the deepest part of the Bay of Fundy, just eastward of 

 Grand Manan. This island shields it from the rush of the great 

 tidal wave which enters the Bay between the Old Proprietor and 

 the North-wGst Ledge. Opposite the Old Proprietor Ledge the 

 mud-bed narrows, and terminates at the last submer2;ed ledoje in 

 the sea-bottom southwestward of that reef. 



Less extensive mud-banks are found further up the Bay, 

 frinojino; its northern shores. The chief of these is a narrow one 

 extending from Quaco to Cape Enrage. =^ A knowledge of the 



* These shores being now occupied mostly by an English-speaking- 

 population, the French names have been corrupted : C. Enrage, 

 becomes C. " Rozhee," C. Maringuin, C. " Mangwin," C. Demoiselle 

 C .''Muzzle," or "Mussel," C. d'Or, C. <• Dory,'' &c., &c. 



