424 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY 
and a Laurentian System on which I hope soon to make some 
observations before this Society. I need hardly emphasize that i 
the present paper is by no means final in its conclusions ; like its I 
predecessor it is rather intended as an organization of the avail- 
able facts, and for the formulation of an hypothesis to serve as a j 
guide for further study. 
The system I call the Northumbrian (because lying principal- j 
ly in Northumberland County or else tributary to Northumber- 
land Straits), includes all the rivers emptying into the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence from Bay Chaleur (but excluding the Restigouche) 
to Baie Verte, together with certain branches of the lower St. i 
John which belong morphologically with them. 
Viewing the system as a whole, we find that its valleys pre- j 
sent certain resemblances and certain differences, the latter being | 
marked enough to make it natural to consider th:m in some four 
groups, each distinguished by peculiarities of topography. By 
far the largest part of the system falls within the limits of the 
great central-eastern Carboniferous Basin of the province, a low 
plateau country having a gentle easterly slope and formed of soft : 
undisturbed Carboniferous sandstones. It is in this basin that 
the rivers all have that parallel southwest-to-northeast course i 
which is so characteristic, while the deviations from this direction I 
are determined by the crystalline highlands either on the north- i 
west or the south of the basin. But we can best consider the ; 
valleys in groups. 
The first group of Northumbrian valleys embraces those from J 
Shediac to Baie Verte, and extending thence into Nova Scotia, j 
(compare the accompanying map). This group, however, I ! 
wish to reserve for further study, and will merely note here that | 
I believe the original valleys headed in a line of crystalline high- i 
lands (an extension of the “Old Eastern Watershed”) now j 
represented by the Cobequid Mountains and the highlands of > 
Albert County (this range being now cut completely across by I 
Chignecto Bay). They emptied northeasterly ibo the present North- I 
umberland Straits and across them and Prince Edward Island to | 
the sea, the many inlets of the Island representing the remnants j 
