1877.] Concerning Foot-Prints. 409 
land is slowly rising; a similar movement is taking place in 
Northern Europe; while, on the other hand, areas of equally 
great extent in some portions of the Indian and Pacific oceans 
are slowly sinking. That a gradual subsidence and an equally 
gradual deposition have together determined the mode in which 
great thicknesses of sediments have accumulated during many of 
the geological ages is clearly shown by the formations that con- 
tain from base to summit the indisputable evidences of shallow 
water origin. 
-~ The material that is continually deposited by the waters of 
the Bay of Fundy is furnished, for the most part, by the wearing 
away of the rocks along the shores of the bay. This process can 
nowhere be better seen than at the picturesque promontory at 
Hopewell, situated at the head of Shepody Bay. The Carbonif- 
erous conglomerate there forms a bold headland, which is being 
rapidly eaten away by the waves at high tide, so as to make one 
of the most interesting bits of coast scenery that we evey had the 
pleasure of seeing. ‘The waves have not only worn the hard con- 
glomerate into many dark caves and ragged capes, but have also 
cut out high archways, forming natural bridges that connect out- 
Standing masses of rock with the shore. In some cases these 
bridges are wanting or have been washed away; and what were 
once bold headlands are now separated from the shore, but still 
bear on their summits a crown of trees and shrubs that were 
once continuous with the vegetation on the mainland. The 
masses of rock thus separated from the shore — frequently calling ` 
to mind the outstanding “ buttes”’ along the Green River, and 
in other cañons of the far West — form islands at high tide, and 
are worn away at their base by the action of the waves, so that 
each is supported by a constantly diminishing column of stone, 
which at length gives way, and brings down the huge mass into 
the reach of the waves, which fast reduce it to sand and mud, to 
be spread out once more by the waters. The pebbles that com- 
pose the conglomerate, after being imprisoned in the rock for un- 
known ages, are again rolled up and down the beach as they 
Were in the Carboniferous days when they received their form. 
We were interested to observe the ripple-marks on. the coarse 
rocks, made when they were the loose sand and pebbles on the 
Shore of the Carboniferous ocean, only a few inches from the sim- 
ilar forms impressed upon the soft mud by the retreat of the 
Morning’s tide. So exactly alike were the ripples in each case — 
that a person could with difficulty appreciate the fact that one 
