41 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



tributing their waters to the stream which discharges at the 

 harbour of St. John. The rivers of the Middle and South- 

 ern States How with a rapid course from mountain ranges 

 to the plains, where they enter the sea by broad estuaries ; 

 those of the I^^ew England States descend from a broken 

 country to enter the sea by fjords, or by shallow estuaries • 

 the Hudson alone dividing tliese two groups of states 

 has physical features whicli maybe compared with those 

 of the St. John. These streams are alike in their long, 

 navigable courses, and in the fact that each drains a flat, 

 interior region and forces its way to the sea through 

 obstructing ranges of hills. The St. John, however 

 flows through a rolling and elevated country before it 

 reaches the interior plain, while the Hudson gathers its 

 waters off the low plateau or plain of Central New 

 York, and then passes directly through the hills to the 

 sea. 



I do not propose to discuss this evening all the features 

 of this remarkable river, but rather to tr}^, if possible, to 

 throw some light on the question of earlier outlets of the 

 St. John than that which now exists, and to sketch the 

 genesis of the several valleys which now form the channel 

 by which the waters of the interior are poured into the 

 sea at St. John.^ 



Inception and growth op the valleys near the Outlet. 



To trace the history of the valleys which give passage 

 to the St. John, near its mouth, will carry us back to the 

 remotest period of geological history, almost to the dawn 

 of life, quite to that dawn as measured by the standard. 

 of fifty years ago. 



•J. W. Bailey has lately published a little book on " the St. John river, specially 

 intended for sportsmen and tourists, in which the physical geography of this stream 

 and its affluents is graphically presented. (" The St. John river in Maine, 

 Quebec and New Brunswick," Cambridge, Mass., 1894.) 



