22 bulletin of the natural history society. 
At least such seems to me a reasonable general hypothesis, one 
which I trust some successor of mine will try ere long to test by 
more prolonged study of these interesting questions. 
108 . — The Physical Geography of the North Shore Sand 
Islands. 
Read (in Abstract) May 1. 1906. 
Those who have knowledge of the physical geography of 
New Brunswick are aware that our North Shore, all the way 
from Miscou to Buctouche, is fringed by a line of long, low, 
narrow sand islands; but few have any idea of their great scien- 
tific interest or know that they constitute the finest example 
of this particular physiographic structure found any where upon 
the American coast north of New Jersey. In the course of 
three summer trips in that region, during which I have coasted 
in a canoe throughout practically their entire length, I have 
been interested to observe their salient characteristics, upon 
which I would now offer the following comments. 
The eastern part of New Brunswick, from Miscou far to the 
southward, consists of a great low plateau sloping gently east- 
ward until it dips gradually beneath the sea. This plateau is 
drained by a series of ancient broad shallow valleys, now occupied 
by rivers far smaller than those which originally formed them; 
and these valleys are separated by low-swelling ridges. Where 
land and water meet, there the ridges project as low headlands, 
while the valleys are entered by the sea in the form of markedly 
inbow r ed coves, cut in some place or other by the channel of the 
present river. It is across these coves, converting them into 
lagoons, that the sand islands extend, festooned from headland 
to headland in great curves inbowed by power of waves and 
wind, and cut here and there by the unstable and shifting gullies 
which give exit to the waters of the rivers. These islands, which 
are often peninsulas, are composed almost wholly of gray sand, 
derived from the wear of the sandstone headlands, but with 
some intermingled gravel, small cobbles, shells and sea-drift. 
Towards the sea, where they are endlessly pounded by the great 
billows, they present a moderate slope, smooth and hard, which, 
