1864.] GEOLOGY AND BOTANY OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 93^ 



Below this point, the bed of the river is strewed with small and 

 rounded boulders, of the size of paving-stones, and presents a very- 

 singular appearance. They are of three kinds, a bright red (felds- 

 pathic), a dark (syenitic), and green stone, and being polished 

 briglitly by the water, suggest the idea of a mosaic pavement. More 

 ferruginous strata soon appear, dipping westward, and granitic 

 boulders again become common. Granite ridges soon appear in 

 situ, and seem to have displaced and to have been thrust through the 

 other strata. The stream becomes rapid and violent, the vegetation 

 of its banks poor and stunted. 



The above-named rocks continue for a short distance only. 

 About five or six miles above the Grand Falls, they are succeedc d 

 by beds of slates and s'aty sandstones, with some limestone, dip- 

 ping into the bed of the river at an angle of 60° to the north, 

 the river here running about northeast. The course of the stream 

 is nearly at right angles to the strike of the slates, which form pre- 

 cipitous cliffs, perhaps seventy-five or one hundred feet in height. 

 Like the similar gorge at the mouth of the Tobique, this spot is 

 called the Narrows, and can only be navigated by the most skilful 

 Indians. 



Between the Narrows and the Grand Falls, sandstone beds ap- 

 pear with a strike about north and south, and dip to the west- 

 ward at a high angle. 



The Grand Falls of the Nepisiquit are too well known to re- 

 quire description here, their beauty and the excellent salmon-fish- 

 ing at their base having long since attracted travellers to the spot. 

 Geologically, the fall has been the result of the gradual wearing 

 away of consolidated strata ; the direction of the current having 

 been probably determined by some pre-existing fissure in the beds. 

 The rocks composing the gorge below the falls (which is about half 

 a mile in length) are composed of contorted ferruginous slates, hav- 

 ing a strike nearly north and south, and a dip of 50° to the west- 

 ward. Through these slates the water has worked its way, 

 gradually widening the channel, and running for a portion of its 

 course directly opposite to the dip of the strata, but towards the 

 lower part making a sudden turn southward, and then nearly follow- 

 ing their strike. On the rocks l)elow the falls I noticed in flower. 

 Campanula rotundifolia, Potent ilia arg a ta, and wild roses. Many 

 of these rocks are filled with numerous crystals of cubic pyrites. 



Leaving the gorge, we soon passed over more sandstones and 



