NATURAL HISTORY AND PHYSIOGRAPHY OF NEW BRUNSWICK 
439 
What now 4s the origin of the Tracadie down to this point? 
Since the entire river runs through rocks of uniform hardness 
(the soft gray Carboniferous sandstones ) ? it is plain that the 
parts of the river above and below this meadowy basin, being so 
different in their character, must have had very different origins. 
Turning now to the maps we notice that the Pokemouche waters 
here approach very near to the Traoadie, especially at the bend of 
Tracadie a mile above Meadow Brook; further we note that the 
Meadow Brook basin lies directly in line with the main valley of 
the Pokemouche; and further that the Tracadie above the basin 
is parallel with the northerly branches of the Pokemouche, while 
(to a slight extent at least) the Tracadie below the basin is 
parallel with southerly branches of the Pokemouche. All facts 
taken together seem to make it probable that the Pokemouche 
formerly flowed across this basin, and the Upper Tracadie was 
one of its branches, while possibly the Tracadie for a short dis- 
tance (a mile or two) below the basin was another. This idea 
falls in perfectly with the theory advanced in the preceding note 
that the Pokemouche occupies the eastern end of another of the 
great primitive Northumbrian valleys,' — the Pokemouchian 
Valley, which, extending across this basin, headed in Portage 
River and the Northwest Miramichi. As to the cause of the 
turning of the upper Tracadie from the Pokemouche southward 
into its present course, it is very likely, as will be shown below, 
that this is in some way a result of the glacial period ; and I ven- 
ture the prediction that the watershed between the Tracadie basin 
and the Pokemouche waters to the eastward will be found to be 
formed by a line of glacial drift thrown across the ancient 
Pokemouchian valley. 
Below Meadow Brook, as already noted, the character of the 
valley changes greatly, the valley walls rising rapidly, until at 
Pokemouche Landing, two miles below Meadow Brook, the river 
enters a remarkable gap in a flat plateau. Descending, the valley 
zigzags abruptly, and its walls rise higher and higher, so steeply 
withal as to become in places almost of a gorge-like character, 
with occasional nearly vertical sandstone cliffs. These features 
become more and more pronounced until, about half way between 
