44 GEOLOGICAL AGE AND FORMATION. 



the whole. This cedar swamp bottom, it will be perceived, 

 extends out under the marsh for a considerable distance, 

 and, beyond where it is marked as extending, stumps and 

 logs are frequently found low down in the mud. 



The marshes on the sea-side are well represented by the 

 accompanying Section, from the edge of the upland, opposite 

 the stone marking nine miles from Cape Island, to Five-mile 

 Beach, two hundred and twenty rods below its northeast 

 extremity. The marsh appears to occupy a hollow or valley 

 between the mainland and the beach, and to increase in 

 depth very gradually from either side towards the middle; 

 slight inequalities only being noticed on the bottom. Mr. N. 

 C. Price, who constructed this section, says, that in sounding 

 the depths, " the mud was quite soft until I got within 

 about thirty chains of Grassy Sound ; then I struck some- 

 thing similar to a sand-bar about eighteen inches from the 

 bottom, and this seemed to rise as I neared the Sound ; 

 after driving the rod through this bar, it would pass down 

 very easily to the bottom. Upon reaching the Sound, this 

 bar was about three or four feet below the bottom of the 

 wiater, and very hard to penetrate. Crossing the Sound, I 

 found many such bars or layers of sand; sometimes there 

 would be three or four, one below the other, with a few feet 

 of soft mud between, quite down to the bottom. The rod 

 always brought up very fine sand sticking to it after meet- 

 ing these bars. Sometimes the mud would be soft near the 

 bottom for several feet, and then again only for a few 

 inches. When about half a mile from the Five-mile Beach, 

 these sand-layers would come almost to the top of the 

 marsh ; then, in a direction to the northeast, there would 



