58 BULLETIiSr OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



;Spruce Lake stream to l*isarineo cove, and was about 

 fifty feet deep ; another on the opposite side of tlie estuary 

 passed through Torryburn valley and was nearly a hun- 

 dred feet deep ; and a third, a deeper, but narrower strait, 

 existed at the present site of Drury's cove. 



As the land continued to rise the depth of water in 

 these passages diminished, until two of them were 

 entirely closed and only the present passage and that at 

 Drury's cove remained. This cove is a deep indentation 

 of the Kennebeccasis river, here a lake-like expansion 

 connected by a deep water channel with the St. John, 

 and filling the lower part of the valley in which the 

 former river runs. The cove is enclosed by rocky shores, 

 but at its head there is a low pass — oid\' about fifteen 

 or eighteen feet above high-water mark — and floored l)y 

 limestone ledges. This pass connects the cove with a 

 long narrow valle}^, now filled with marine alluvium 

 called the " Marsh," Avhich has its termination at 

 Courtenay bay, east of the city, and thus connects with 

 St. John harbor. 



When the land rose so that the sixty feet beach was 

 formed, the Torryburn ])assage Avould have been closed, 

 but there would still have been a channel forty feet deep 

 at Drury's cove and one of equal or greater depth at the 

 present passage. 



From the condition of the Marsh valley it seems 

 probable that the Drury's cove outlet continued to exist 

 for some time after this, as the land continued to rise ; 

 this it did until the sea-water was entirely excluded from 

 the Kennebeccasis and St. John rivers. When nearly 

 excluded a tidal flow of considerable importance would 

 have existed at Drury's cove as well at the main passage 

 at the falls, and only the rock}' floor at the former outlet 



