448 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vii. 



of Central New Brunswick by hills 600 feet in height. Yet 

 although the western branch at its junction with the eastern is 

 100 feet higher, the current passing through it in the Syrtcnsian 

 epoch, was not strong enough to cast the dehris which it bore 

 along into the lower valley, but the gravel and sand was piled up 

 at its mouth and along the flanks of the hills to the south. The 

 current coming over the hills to the north and sweeping through 

 the closed valley was the more powerful of the two, and kept 

 possession of the main channel after the two united in the lower 

 part of Douglas Valley. 



This combined current swept a clean and deep passage through 



this part of Douglas valley, but was in turn arrested at the valley's 



mouth by a more powerful one coursing through the Nerepis 



Valley. Here the arrested current deposited its burthen of gravel 



and boulders in a triangular, flat-topped bank at Welsford station. 



The flat area on the top of the bank is diversified with , hillocks 



and holes : it slopes gently to the north, the direction from which 



its materials came ; but much more steeply on the side facing the 



Nerepis Valley, which is here scooped out to the sea- level. This 



hollowed part of the Nerepis valley extends downward for nearly 



three miles from the mouth of Douglas Valley, where a sudden 



bend and constriction again arrested the current and caused the 



accumulation of another mass of gravel 150 or 200 feet deep, 



through which the Nerepis River at a later period cut a channel 



to within a few feet of tide-level. 



On reviewing the relation of the gravel deposits in these 

 valleys to the configuration of the land, observing especially the 

 way in which the banks are built up in and around the gorges 

 by ocean waters which, to produce these results, must have 

 passed over barriers of 400 to 600 feet in height, the conclusion 

 can scarcely be avoided that this was the work of a deep, pow- 

 erful and elastic current. 



Formation of Lake Basins hy the Arctic Current. 



Since the Polar Current has thrown up these mounds and 

 banks of gravel, it cannot be doubted that it formed correspond- 

 ing depressions. Just northward of the gravel bank at Wells- 

 ford Station, there is a lakelet (Harcourt Lake) exemplifying 

 in miniature hundreds of sheets of fresh water, scattered over 

 the face of the country, which have been produced by this 

 agency. These lake basins have been "pHdcUed" hi/ nature: 



