401 



DETAILED DESCRIPTION. 



The railway at Grand Falls station and for some distance 

 northwards, runs on the floor of a river terrace having 

 an altitude of 507 feet (154-5 m.). A short distance north 

 of the station, there is on the west side of the railway tracks, 

 a small cutting in cross-bedded sands and gravels illustrating 

 the nature of the material in which the terraces have been 

 car^^ed. 



About 200 yards (180 m.) north of the railway station, 

 a road crosses the railway tracks and runs for some distance 

 to the southwest up the slopes of the ridge bounding the 

 St. John valley on the west. In the opposite direction, 

 to the northeast, the road forms the principal street of 

 the town of Grand Falls and leads to the bridge crossing 

 the St. John river below the falls. At this road crossing, 

 the eroded scarp of the 507-foot terrace floor on which 

 the railway runs, is plainly visible a short distance to the 

 west rising to a second terrace floor having an elevation 

 of about 530 feet (161-5 ni.). Beyond this another scarp 

 is visible rising to a terrace floor having an elevation of 

 about 560 feet (170-7 m.). Still farther up the slope of 

 the hill which rises to an altitude of about 690 feet (210 m.), 

 other, more faintly marked, bench-like steps occur. Be- 

 sides the main terrace scarps, other much more faintly 

 marked intermediate ones occur. These terraces were 

 presumably formed when, after the main valley had been 

 filled in to a height of about 600 feet (180 m.) by stratified 

 sands and gravels, the St. John river commenced to re- 

 excavate its valley, and they mark successively lower stages 

 of the probably rapidly falling river level. 



The 507-foot terrace floor and the scarp rising from it 

 form the most strongly developed terrace in the neighbor- 

 hood. This terrace is present on both sides of the St. 

 John valley and extends up the valleys of the several tribu- 

 taries. It also occurs in the centre of the valley surround- 

 ing the rising ground on which the town of Grand Falls 

 is built. At the time when the river flowed over the 507- 

 foot terrace floor it occupied two channels separated by 

 an island now the site of the town of Grand Falls; the 

 eastern channel eventually developed into the present 

 channel of the river, while the western channel which 

 35063— 13A 



