124 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



world, the Ordnance Survey of the British Isles, cost about 8200 per 

 square mile, though many special areas cost far more. Such a survey 

 of New Brunswick, with its area of 27,000 square miles, would cost 

 $5,400,000. Of more practical interest is the cost in one of the 

 American States. That of Massachusetts, with its excellent contour 

 maps, cost $13 per square mile, which for New Brunswick would 

 amount to $351,000, but it would really be more than this because of 

 the unsettled state of the country and the more scanty data to start 

 with, and would probably l'each $500,000. If a survey of the Prov- 

 ince were made according to the recommendations of the topographical 

 commission which met at Washington in 1892, on a scale of one to 

 thirty thousand (half a mile to one inch), with contour intervals of 

 20 feet, it would cost at least $25 per square mile, or in all $675,000. 

 It is plain that we must wait long for a complete topographical map 

 of New Brunswick. 



15. — Upon Natural Pavements and Their Possible Misinterpre- 

 tation in Arch.eolo<;y. 



(Read November 1st, 1898.) 

 On the Nepisiguit Biver, just above the Narrows, on the left bank, 

 the beach is formed of flat stones fitted together so regularly and set 

 so nearly upon the same level as to suggest an artificial pavement. 

 Indeed many a city of western Europe has pavements less perfect. 

 The beach slopes gently towards the water and is underlaid by soft 

 clay full of small springs. The stones are water-worn boulders of 

 diverse composition, size and shape, but all have flat or nearly flat 

 surfaces uppermost, and there are no considerable gaps between them. 

 I think I have seen such pavements elsewhere, though never before 

 such regular ones, but probably they are well enough known to stu- 

 dents of surface geology. Any artificial agency in their production in 

 this wilderness is out of the question, and they are probably formed 

 by the action of the ice in the spring, which, grinding along the shore, 

 would tend to press the boulders into the soft and yielding beach and 

 to work and turn projecting angles about until a Hat surface comes 

 uppermost. If the river's course were to become changed, so that the 

 pavement were no longer on a beach it would be a most puzzling 

 structure and almost certain to be referred to an artificial origin. 

 References to pavements occur not infrequently in local archa-ologica' 



