232 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



found to be 2,500 feet, as given in his Geological report. The geolo- 

 gical map marks it, however, as 2,700 feet; but as Mr. Ells is the only 

 one who has measured it, the greater height upon the map appeared 

 to be an error. Mr. Chalmers, however, has recently written me as 

 follows : " So as to settle the question of the height of Big Bald 

 Mountain, South Branch Nepisiguit, as far as it is possible to do so 

 with the aneroid, Mr. Ells and I have gone carefully over his notes 

 and barometric readings again. He has two sets of readings, one 

 taken while going up river from Bathurst Harbour, the other taken 

 when returning. Observations were made regularly every day, and 

 at the camping grounds morning and evening several times. Work- 

 ing out the figures both ways we find the results to be very close, 

 and the mean elevation of Big Bald Mountain to be 2,715 feet above sea 

 level." This gives a definite basis for the height of 2,700 feet com 

 monly assigned to that mountain. 



Some new facts as to the height of its rival, Mount Carleton, are 

 here to be presented. In August last, I climbed and measured it. I 

 made it by direct measurement with aneroid 112 feet higher than Mount 

 Sagamook, and this I made by a mean of two measurements, 1,633 

 feet above Nictor Lake. Nictor Lake I made by a mean of fourteen 

 measurements, all corrected from simultaneous readings at Fredericton, 

 (see later Note 31) 837 feet above sea level. This would make Carleton 

 2,582 feet above the sea level. I have reason to think, however, that 

 this result is considerably too low. I have found that my barometer 

 moves slightly sluggishly, and moreover other good measurements of 

 Nictor Lake and Sagamook Mountain have given considerably higher 

 results. Thus Mr. Chalmers gives the height of Nictor Lake as 878 

 feet, and Sagamook as 1659 higher. On this basis Carleton would be 

 2649 feet. There is, however, another set of measurements of lake 

 and mountain which cannot be disregarded, the more especially since 

 they were made with mercurial barometers, which are much more 

 reliable than aneroids. In 1839 a series of such measurements, 

 checked by comparison with a fixed station at Grand Falls, was car- 

 ried across the province by way of Nictor Lake, by a Mr. Wightman, 

 employed by the British government in connection with the elucidation 

 of the highlands of the boundary disputes, and the results are given in 

 full in the Blue-book, "The North American Boundary," 1840. All 

 of his measurements however, while relatively accurate, are absolutely 



