GEOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY OF THE TOBIQUE. 27 



at an angle. Just above are horizontal beds of fine sand. 

 •On account of the high inclination of the gravel beds, railway 

 ballast was hard to obtain, for it seemed to occur in pockets, 

 and at no place could more than two cars be loaded at once; 

 and it was the same in most of the bluffs cut into along the 

 line of the railway. 



Mr. Chalmers speaks of terraces as occurring all the way 

 to the Forks, and up the Nictor Branch, where they get 

 higher as Lake Nictor at the head of the river is approached. 

 The lakes at the heads of the branches are results of glacial 

 action, for the hollows they occupy were, before the glacial 

 period, supposed to have been filled with disintegrated rock. 

 Glaciers scooped this out and dammed up the hollows with 

 drift. Lake Nictor, Long and Tobique lakes, and others, were 

 formed in this way. 



There is strong reason for believing that Lake Nepisiguit 

 formerly discharged into tbe Tobique, but was dammed by 

 drift at its southern end, and forced to empty its waters by 

 the Nepisiguit into Bay Chaleur. 



Botany and Zoology. 



I had very little time to give to the botany of the district; 

 where possible I pressed specimens of the rarer kinds of plants. 

 One of these — Aster corymbosus — is not mentioned in the 

 last New Brunswick list.* Some of the others had not before 

 been reported from this region. 



I outline the chief habitats met with, with some plants 

 noticed in each. 



First. — The Hard Wood Ridges — notably those of Birch 

 Kidge and Leonardos Settlements, back of Red Rapids. Birch, 

 beach, and maple, are the commonest trees, they grow to a 

 large size and afford valuable timber. There is no thick 

 undergrowth in these woods though the ground is carpeted 

 with green plants — ferns, trilliums, etc. 



* Mr. e. F. Matthew, however, had coUected it near St John. 



