14 Field mid Forest Rambles. 



the meshes held together.* I thought of the poor Maltese 

 fisherman who so often slaves all day and catches little, and 

 of the adventurous natives of old Albion, who frequently go 

 forth on the same errand never to return, while here among 

 crowded steamboats and heavily-laden wood vessels, the hardy 

 New Brunswicker encloses such great multitudes of fishes that 

 his net fills the boats until they wellnigh sink. 



The interesting locality famous for the beautiful specimens 

 of fossil plants met with in the above-mentioned Old Red 

 Sandstone beds is fully a mile distant from Carleton. The 

 " Fern Ledges," as they are familiarly called, comprehend 

 shelves of shale covered by seaweed, which the geologist 

 must remove before cleaving the rock, when he will disclose 

 most beautiful and perfect impressions of ferns and numerous 

 other cryptogamic plants, many of which have been described 

 by Mr. Hart and Dr. Dawson,f and doubtless more remain for 

 the assiduous palaeontologist. 



One of the chief characteristics of New Brunswick scenery 

 is its flatness, — the traveller's difficulty being to attain an 

 elevation wherefrom a prospect can be obtained. Excepting 

 the ridges and low hills in the neighbourhood of the city 

 of St. John, and the higher lands in the northern part of 

 the province, it is rare to meet with an eminence command- 

 ing anything like an extensive view. To him, therefore, who 

 has sojourned on the Continent of Europe, there will come 

 an occasional feeling of disappointment — such as that which 

 strikes the tourist on the Nile, when, in the absence of 

 monuments of antiquity, he is continually surrounded by 



* " The annual catch of this shad in the harbour of St. John varies 

 from 12,000 to 16,000 barrels, and sometimes reaches 20,000 barrels." 

 This represents an enormous weight of fishes, seeing that a barrel is cal- 

 culated to contain about 196 lb. of flour. Of course a smaller figure 

 would be required for fish, unless when packed herring-fashion. — See 

 Per/ey's Catalogue, p. 208. 



f Hart, Appendix A., p. 131, Bailey's Report, and Dawson, Acad. GeoL, 

 p. 514 ; and Jour. % GeoL Soc. London, vol. xvii., p. 296, 1862. 



