IN NORTH AMERICA. 83 



"beat measured near the small islands before mentioned. Viewed altogether, it 

 would seem that Grand Manan has slowly moved upon its axis, depressing one 

 side and elevating the other. 



At the mouth of the River St. John and at the city of the same name, in the 

 Province of New Brunswick, the evidences of elevation are distinct over an area 

 of twenty square miles. Between the city and Portland there is a narrow and 

 deep valley now occupied by a church, manufactories and dwelling-houses. In 

 this valley, and above strata of clay, there are marl-beds containing marine 

 shells and decomposed sea-weeds identical with those still inhabiting the shores 

 of the harbour. These beds are about 18 feet above the level of the sea, which 

 at some former period surrounded the site of the city. 



At Manawagonis, Mispec, Emerson's Creek, and many other places in this 

 quarter, there are beds of sand, clay, marl, and marly clay exposed to the sea, 

 forming low and almost level tracts along its borders. Similar deposits also 

 occur in the banks of the St. John and Kenebecacis Rivers, above the reach of 

 the highest tides. They not only appear where the currents have exposed the 

 beds, but also remote from those streams. The shells are chiefly imbedded in 

 the sand and marl, which also contain the relics of recent marine vegetation. — 

 In these deposits upwards of twenty genera of recnt Testacea and six genera of 

 Crustacea have been obtained. Some of the shells, such as the Mt/a mercenaria, 

 Pecten, Area, &c., are well preserved. The shells of the Solen ensis and Mytili are 

 too brittle to be removed. The claws of crabs and the bones of fishes, although 

 changed, are not destroyed. The shells of the uppermost beds are more decay- 

 ed than those of the lower deposits, and appear as though the elevation had been 

 slow and gradual, and not sudden like those frequently indicated in districts 

 moved by earthquakes. The strata containing these remains are now from 10 

 to 40 feet above the level of the tides, which rise 30 feet along this part of the 

 coast at spring- tides. 



The rivers emptying into the Bay of Fundy along this line of coast are broken 

 by falls at their mouths ; but the streams which do not pass through this raised 

 district empty themselves into the bay smoothly and without interruption. It is 

 therefore not unreasonable to believe that the breaking up of the river-beds was 

 coeval with the elevation of the shelly deposits now removed far above the 

 reach of the waves. 



The next site to be noticed is remarkable for its submergence ; it is called the 

 Great Tantamar Marsh, situated 120 miles eastward of the St. John, in the County 

 of Westmorland, and at the head-water of Chignecto Bay. This marsh is 13 

 miles long, and about 4 miles broad. Large tracts have been rescued from the 

 sea by embankments, or " dikes," thrown up on the borders of the river, and its 

 creeks. At the eastern extremity of the Tantamar, there is a sunken tract, com- 

 posed of peat-bog, floating bogs, with swamps and small lakes, not less than 8 

 miles long and 3 miles in width. It is the breeding-place of great numbers of 

 wild ducks and snipes. Large trees of different kinds, collections of shells, bones 

 of fishes, &c., appear at different depths in the alluvium. But besides these, on 

 the northern border of the alluvial deposit, patches of forest-trees, some of which 

 have been felled by the woodman's axe, are now overflowed by the tides. Relics 

 of the early French settlers, Indian harpoons, and pieces of their bark canoes, and 



