82 CHANGES OF LEVEL 



instances is there any accounting for the facts but by actual subsidence. No in- 

 dications of elevation were observed in this quarter. 



New Brunswick. — Proceeding in a northerly direction, we arrive at the River 

 Schoodiac, or St. Croix, the dividing line between the United States and the 

 British Province of New Brunswick. Instead of submergence, an elevation of 

 the land is here clear and distinct. It extends in a northerly direction upwards 

 of twenty miles, and probably to a still greater distance along the coast in the 

 direction of the Bay of Fandy. The greatest elevation is near the centre of 

 this area, which has been but little raised at its edges. The solid rocks beneath 

 the modern marl-beds are chiefly red sandstone, syenite, and granite, with in- 

 trusions of trap-rocks. 



At St. Andrew's, St. Stephen's, Lubec, Eastport, and numerous sites in the ad- 

 jacent districts, there are extensive deposits of sand, marl, and marly clay, con- 

 taining relics of shells and sea-weeds which still inhabit the present shores ; and 

 the former are so numerous, that they have contributed sufficient lime to some 

 of the strata to render them valuable for fertilizing-purposes. At first these 

 marl-beds were supposed to be Tertiary deposits ; but late observations have 

 determined their more recent origin. The greatest elevation observed was near 

 the town of St. Andrew's, where the marl with recent shells is found 28 feet 

 above the level of the highest tide. 



Among the numerous islands of Passamaquoddy Bay the writer observed many 

 of indications of elevation ; nor is it difficult to discover along the borders of 

 the creeks and rivers the sites from which the sea has been slowly and gradually 

 withdrawn. Strata of marl and clay with shells like those before mentioned, 

 appear at Beaver Harbour, where the elevation has been less considerable. 



Grand Manan is a beautiful island, situated off the mouth of the St. Croix 

 River, and 12 miles from the American line. It is 25 miles long and 5 miles in 

 breadth. The north-west side is a somewhat lofty range of trap-rock, unin- 

 habited and presenting to the sea perpendicular and overhanging cliflfs. The 

 opposite side of the island is inhabited ; the industry is agriculture and fish- 

 ing ; and a number of small islands and harbours afi^ord shelter for vessels. 



The most remarkable circumstance connected with this isolated part of New 

 Brunswick is the fact, that the entire south side of the main and its islets have 

 within a recent period been submerged to the depth of 18 feet and upwards. — 

 There ^still remains a tradition that there once existed between the main, the 

 three Duck Islands, and Nantucket Island, a kind of marsh of several thousands 

 of acres. This marsh has slowly disappeared beneath the sea ; and its surface 

 is only partially uncovered by the water at the lowest spring-tides. The roots 

 stumps, and trunks of a great number of trees (the pine, hemlock and cedar) 

 etill remain firmly attached to the sunken earth, and at the very sites where 

 they flourished. The once living forest with its branches and leaves is now 

 deeply covered by each succeeding tide. The anchors of small craft are often 

 held fast among the wood of the bottom of the harbour. It was by this subsi- 

 dence that several islands became isolated ; for the marshes that formerly at- 

 tached them one to another have been denuded and washed away by the waves. 

 The subsidence extended to the distance of several miles westward ; but it U 



