No. 8.] MATTHEW — GEOLOGY OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 437 



Abi/ss in the B a 1/ of Fundi/. — Finding that the drift strias 

 along the coast of the Bay of Fundy, in the western part of 

 Charlotte county, did not conform to the course of the rocky 

 ridges, but crossed them at right angles, I was led to examine 

 the contour lines of the bottom of the Bay. Elsewhere, along 

 the New Brunswick shore, the water deepens gradually ; but 

 south-east of the islands which shelter and shut off Passama- 

 quoddy Bay, and extending thence along the eastern side of 

 Grand Manan to Briar Island in Nova Scotia, there is a remark- 

 able gulf, in all parts of which the sounding line goes down 

 more than a hundred fathoms. A tongue of deep water extends 

 from it toward La Tete P<»ssage, and other tongues point up the 

 Bay of Fundy. The deeper part of the gulf (enclosed by the 

 100 fathom contour line) is much wider near the Nova Scotian 

 shore, where also the descent to deep water is very abrupt — 

 especially at the North-west Ledge off Briar Island, where the 

 bottom sinks down to the depth of 100 fathoms, at the distance 

 of a mile and a-half from the shore. 



This deep cavity has evidently exercised a controlling influ- 

 ence on the glacier which passed over Piissamaquoddy Bay and. 

 L'Etang Harbour ; for the strias shew a decided convergence 

 toward it from the laud to the W., N.W. and N. of it. This 

 movement was analogous to that referred to in my previous 

 article on Surface Geology, as exhibited by the strias of Nos. 46, 

 and 47, as compared with 45, 48, 49, 50 and 52 in St. John 

 county. 



[I have assumed that the abyss in the Bay of Fundy existed 

 in the Glacial epoch ; for without adducing proof that the level 

 of the adjoining land has not been greatly changed since that 

 period, there are strong reasons for supposing that this depres- 

 sion was formed in the Triassic period. It is well known that 

 the whole northern coast of Nova Scotia, as far east as Cape 

 Blomidon, is bordered by a range of volcanic hills of that period ; 

 and it has been suspected that the trap rocks of Grand Manan 

 are of the same age. This surmise was confirmed during the 

 exploration of that island undertaken by Prof. Bailey, a few 

 years ago, for the Geological Survey of Canada. Grand Manan 

 is the only part of New Brunswick where any considerable mass 

 of Triassic trap has been found, and the deep submarine trench 

 along its eastern shore would appear to have resulted from the 

 simultaneous action of volcanic forces iu New Brunswick and 



