76 ALTERNATE LAYERS OF DRIFT 



narrows, an exceeding beautj. While on the opposite 

 bank, though still lying in the shade, the hemlock and 

 cedar trees, with their long waving locks of hoary lichen 

 —which selects these trees as favourite spots for its para- 

 sitical growth— contrasted strikingly with the dark-green 

 foliage of the towering spruce and the lighter hues of the 

 white birch. 



For five miles we passed through the Indian reserve, 

 which, as I have said, amounts in this place to about 

 16,000 acres. Much of it is good land, though soft wood 

 prevails on the river banks, above the fringe of yellow 

 birch and maple, which usually skirts the margin of the 

 stream. 



The slate rocks, as we ascended, were usually highly 

 inclined, and covered with a thick coating of drift. The 

 angles of inclination, however, where they became visible, 

 after we had made some progress up the river, appeared 

 to lessen, and occasional indications of nearly horizontal 

 beds were seen. 



At the upper end of the Indian reserve, on the right 

 bank of the river, beneath the site of a small saw-mill, 

 the slate rock appears rising about twenty feet above the 

 river bed, and dipping down the stream at a high angle. 

 But, above the section of rock, a deep bed of what 

 appeared to be rolled slate-drift fills up the break — as if 

 the ledge of rock had arrested it while moving ; and a 

 little above this again, the gravel bank consists of about 

 twenty feet of this slate-drift, overlaid by about six feet 

 of red sandy drift ; and thin traces of this reddish cover- 

 ing are spread over the surface at considerable distances 

 from the sandstone country to which the ascent of the 

 Tobique conducts us. If these two layers of drift 

 were deposited by the agency of the same current run- 

 ning in the same direction, they ought to be differently 

 disposed — the red sand below, and the slate-drift above — 

 as the newer red sandstone rocks would be carried away 



