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BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
127. — On the Stability of the New Brunswick Coast. 
Read June 4, 1912. 
In various notes presented before this Society (Nos. 43, 83, 
of this series), I have given evidence from different sources 
tending to show that the coast of the Province is steadily sinking. 
None of the items of evidence are wholly conclusive in themselves, 
but their aggregate weight has seemed considerable. Last 
summer our North Shore was investigated from this very point 
of view by two prominent American geologists, Professor J. W. 
Goldthwait, of Dartmouth College, working for the Geological 
Survey of Canada, and Professor D. W. Johnson, working for 
the Shaler Memorial Investigation of Harvard University. 
Professor Goldthwait has not yet published his conclusions, so 
far as I know, but he has informed me in brief as to their tenor; 
while Professor Johnson’s are contained in a brief note in Science , 
35, 1912, 318, and more fully in Annales de Geographie , No. 
117, 1912, 193-212. In substance, the conclusions of both 
investigators differ from mine, for they consider that the evidence 
shows the coast to be stable at present, although recent extensive 
subsidence is of course evident. They hold that the facts which 
have been interpreted as demonstrating a progressing subsi- 
dence really do not sustain that conclusion and are otherwise 
explainable. Having the greatest respect for the conclusions 
of experts, I am ready to believe they are probably right, but 
must hold my opinion in abeyance until their material is 
worked over by other experts; for it is only after the acquisition 
of ‘‘impersonal validity” that such conclusions can be accepted 
as science. 
Meantime, however, I would like to contribute these two 
items to the subject. 
First, it occurred to me some years ago that a valuable 
criterion of coastal movements would be afforded by a com- 
parison of the position of the head of tide on our rivers as shown 
by the earliest plans and its position at present; and I have 
since been collecting data on this subject, though so far I have 
more facts from the plans than I have been able to work out 
