«O ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



character of the coasts, being of marine origin, and second fiuviatile and 

 lacustrine effects, with the development of lake and drainage systems. 



As regards the coasts their direction has already been referred to as 

 being due in the case of the so-called North Shore to its being the rim 

 or margin of an open or shallow basin, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and 

 therefore in the form of an open curve, while that of the Bay of Fundy 

 is nearly but not quite coincident with the general trend of the rock 

 formations which border it. The two are as strongly contrasted in char- 

 acter; that of the north being generally low, with outlying islands and 

 bars enclosing shallow bays and lagoons, while the Bay of Fundy shore, 

 especially to the east of St. John, is bold and high, with deep water and 

 few islands or harbours. In the former case the features referred to 

 are the direct result of the soft nature and easy removal of nearly hori- 

 zontal Carboniferous rocks, in the latter to the fact that the bordering 

 beds are very ancient and highly altered, and standing in attitudes which 

 are nearly vertical. Where, however, on the southern coast the Pre- 

 Cambrian rocks are bordered by the softer strata of the Devonian, Car- 

 boniferous or Triassic periods, as about St. Martins and the coast of 

 Albert county, sea-sculpture is manifested on a scale probably not else- 

 where equalled on the Atlantic sea-board of America. The rocky shores 

 of Grand Manan are also remarkable for the illustrations which they 

 afford of marine erosion. 



The bearing of the relative hardness of rocks on the comparative 

 ease of removal is well shown, not only in the contrasts between the 

 northern and southern shores as a whole, but also in the disposition of 

 headlands, and the more marked promontories, especially of the Bay of 

 Fundy coast, such as Point Lepreau, Pisarinco, Eed Head, Quaco Head, 

 Owls Head, Point Wolf and Cape Enragé, corresponding to the occur- 

 rence at these points of hard and resisting strata; while such indenta- 

 tions as Musquash and St. John harbours, Courtney Bay, Lepreau basin, 

 etc., correspond to softer beds, more easily removed. 



The generally steep shores and powerful tidal currents of the Bay 

 of Fundy prevent, along most of its length, the formation of marine 

 or fluvio-marine deposits of any extent, but through the action of these 

 same tides, as differently affected towards the head of the bay, are de- 

 termined accumulations which are among the most marked physical 

 features in the physiography of Acadia. The dyked marshes of Albert 

 and Westmorland counties, like the similar ones in Nova Scotia, are of 

 vast extent and unsurpassed fertility, the result of the fine deposits 

 spread over them from time to time by the turbid waters of the Bay. 



Passing now to land-erosion and the evolution of New Brunswick's 

 'drainage systems, an interesting question suggests itself as to when and 



