iBAiLEY] PRESENT CONFIGURATION OF NEW BRUNSWICK 47 



To these must be added low undulations transverse to the above 

 which, though barely if at all perceptible in surface features, are of im- 

 portance in the separation of drainage areas. 



The general trend of both ridges and troughs in New Brunswick is 

 northeast-southwest in correspondence with the northeast system of 

 trends of the whole Atlantic sea-board of the continent. But while the 

 course of the northern highlands is almost exactly northeast, the southern 

 ranges have a greater amount of easting, thus leaving between the 

 slightly diverging lines of elevation the great central basin of triangular 

 form, widening to the St. Lawrence gulf. The trend of the Bay of 

 Fundy shore does not quite coincide with that of the formations which 

 border it, especially west of St. John, but, taken as a whole, the coast is 

 almost straight, and, excepting for Passamaquoddy Bay, without im- 

 portant indentations or harbours, while that of the Gulf is a broadly 

 open, crescentic and meridional curve, corresponding to that of Northum- 

 berland Straits, and significant of the basin-like form of the area of 

 which it forms the margin. 



The entire area of the Province embraces in the form of a parallel- 

 ogram 27,260 square miles; its transverse diameter or diagonal is 245 

 miles in length, its breadth about 200 miles, and the extent of its coast 

 line over 700 miles. 



The drainage system of the Province is complex, the entire area 

 being maturely dissected. The average rain fall is 34 inches, and the 

 average depth of snow in mid-winter from four feet in the southern to 

 six or eight feet in the northern counties. The average duration of the 

 winter is sit months, from November to April inclusive, and the maxi- 

 mum and minimum temperatures respectively are 90° above and 40^ 

 below zero. Comparatively sudden variations of temperature, amount- 

 ing in some instances to as much as 70° in twenty-four hours, are not 

 uncommon during the winter months, and in the northern Highlands a 

 change from 80° in the day time to 40° or even lower at night is not 

 unusual. Severe atmospheric disturbances are infrequent, but cyclonic 

 storms of a destructive character occasionally occur. Earthquakes, al- 

 though not unknown, are of rare occurrence and of a mild tjjye. 



The river systems of the Province show in part a correspondence with 

 the general slopes of the land or with the distribution of its more im- 

 portant tectonic features; but in many instances, the course of the 

 streams is transverse to the latter, as though the present configuration 

 of the land were only a subordinate factor in the determination of those 

 courses. Thus some of the most important tributaries of the upper St. 

 Jol-m, such as the St. Francis and the Madawaska, arise within or on the 



