450 
HULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
river, and separated from it by only a short interval, lies the upper 
part of the Nashwaak Valley,^ while still further south in the same 
line lies the low land at the head of the Becaguimec and Keswick 
rivers. I believe, therefore, that there existed here an ancient river 
valley which emptied southward, and which has been beheaded by 
both the Miramichi and the Nashwaak. The remainder of the part 
of the river above the Taxes flows at first in a rather open country, 
but soon cuts deeper into it ; the valley becomes winding, narrow 
and with a very rocky bed, until below Kocky Brook it bends nearly 
at right angles to flow into the main river. We notice, however, 
that this part of the river is in line with the Bartholomews (or possibly 
the Dungarvon), and it seems most probable that it formerly was the 
continuation of one of those rivers, thus preserving the parallelism of 
the entire series. The change of direction, as we have seen, may be 
connected with the hinge line passing north and south just to the 
eastward. All this part of the country was, probably, once covered by 
the Carboniferous sediments presenting their regular slope to the 
eastward, and their removal has let down the river into the under- 
lying older formations, explaining its present course across them. 
So much for the more ancient history of the river ; what effect 
upon it had the glacial period ? Aside from several minor gorges and 
falls (of which a particularly fine one is described by Ells upon the 
Main Northwest, above Stony Brook t), the filling of valleys with 
drift and the formation of some small lakes, I have not been able to 
trace any important influence, though field study will, doubtless, reveal 
other glacial influences. The river has no great waterfalls anywhere 
upon its main branches, though it has innumerable rapids. 
The Miramichi, therefore, has had a comparatively uneventful 
development. The great Cretaceous peneplain must here have had 
an even easterly slope, explaining the parallelism of the numerous 
branches, which, by warpings during the peneplanation of the Tertiary 
peneplain, were considerably altered in direction and thrown together. 
The river has lost some of its old waters, perhaps to the Nepisiguit, 
to the Gaspereau, and possibly to the Nashwaak ; it has gained from 
the ancient Keswick ; its upper part has been transferred from one 
of its Ijranches to another, and some of its lower branches have been 
changed from independent courses into a single trunk. 
* The Nashwaak Mountain placed at this anpjle on the Geological Survey Map is out 
of place. 
‘ Report 1881, 20 D. 
