of the Eastern States. 249 



miles." It is to be remembered that this vast amount of mate- 

 rial was removed after the close of the Mesozoio age. 



Every geologist is familiar, from the writings of Lyell, 

 Logan, and Dawson, if not from personal observation, with 

 the wonderful " Section of the South Joggins," on the eastern 

 shore of the northern portion of the Bay of Fundy. There the 

 geological traveler may follow for a distance of ten miles a 

 shore section of Carboniferous beds dipping uniformly towards 

 the southwest, at an angle of 19 degrees. Included in the 

 great number of strata that are exposed in these shore dips, 

 there occur more than seventy seams of coal. The vertical 

 thickness of these beds is given by Dawson as 14,000 feet.* 

 Although this mass of sediment is less in thickness than the 

 amount we have assigned to the Triassic beds, yet it repre- 

 sents a far greater period of time and a physical history that is 

 full as interesting. While standing on this shore, which pre- 

 sents one of the finest geological sections in the world, and 

 observing the cliffs composed of steeply inclined sedimentary 

 beds, stretching away on either hand as far as the eye could 

 reach, I attempted to restore in fancy the mighty arches of' 

 which the strata in the level-topped cliffs are a portion, but 

 found it impossible to form even a dim idea of the magnitude 

 and extent of the degradation which had there taken place. 



The extent to which the surface of our country has yielded 

 to the forces of denudation, has never been as fully studied 

 and illustrated as it deserves to be. Sections drawn on a large 

 scale, and having the same value for vertical as for horizontal 

 distances, serve to bring out these features very forcibl}^. This 

 method has been very successfully employed by Professor 

 Ramsey, in his paper " On the Denudation of South Wales and 

 the Adjacent Counties of England. "f Although the sections 

 obtained in Wales are not so extensive as many which our 

 country affords, yet degradation is shown to have occurred 

 there on the grandest scale. In speaking of the denudation in 

 South Glamorganshire, Ramsey states that " it is not unlikely 



* Acadian Geology. 1868, p. 151 . 



t Memoirs of the Gaol. Survey of Great Britain, Vol. I, p. 297. 



