1903] VEGETATION OF THE BAY OF FUNDY MARSHES 167 
that picturesque but ill-fated country. The student in his 
wanderings meets with many a reminder of the ancient régime. 
The geological origin of the marshes. 
An understanding of the origin and formation of the marshes 
is so important to the interpretation of some of the peculiarities 
of their vegetation, that a somewhat full account of it is needful 
here. 
The subject was first touched upon by Lyell (in his Zravels 
in North America, 1845), but received its first systematic discus- 
sion from Dawson (in his Acadian Geology, 1855, repeated in 
later editions). Subsequent accounts, with some additional 
facts, are given by Monro (1883), by Chalmers(1895), by 
Trueman (1899), and in more popular fashion by Dixon (1899); 
while an extremely good synopsis of the whole subject has been 
contributed by Eaton (1893). From the point of view of the 
tidal action in their formation there are papers by Hamilton 
(1867), by Matthew (1880), and by Murphy (1886), and of 
course scattered references by others. 
The central fact in the formation of the marshes is this: they 
have been, and still are being, built in a subsiding basin out of 
inorganic red mud brought in from the sea by the rush of the 
tides, whose height is the determining factor in their height. 
Practically no part of their mass has been built from detritus 
brought down by rivers, which in this region are altogether 
insignificant in volume; nor has vegetation, either marine or 
land, helped to any appreciable extent to build them. I believe 
no observer of the mode of their formation could doubt that 
they would be as high and wide as they are today had never a 
plant grown about or upon them. It is these two facts, their 
formation out of a purely inorganic mud brought in by the sea, 
and the lack of cooperation of plants in their building, which 
differentiate them from the salt marshes so common elsewhere 
about the mouths of tidal rivers. 
Whence, then, comes this great store of rich mud? On this 
all students agree; it is from the red Permo-Carboniferous sand- 
Stones forming the sides and bottoms of the channels between 
the marshes and the Bay of Fundy. These soft rocks are 
