NATURAL HISTORY AND PHYSIOGRAPHY OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 
Stillwater character in meadows for two or three miles, when 
it gradually enters a region of low gravel banks and terraces 
and begins to drop over small gravelly rips which gradually 
give place to sandstone, forming, evidently, the western rim 
of the basin in which the great meadows lie. Then the 
country becomes higher, and the river runs in a series of long 
stillwaters separated by short smooth rips, flowing between 
terrace banks, burnt of old time and still partially and pleas- 
antly open. Thus it continues past the Upper North Branch, 
a swift stream, and the Middle North Branch, a meadowy 
stream, some cut banks of sand plains showing between the 
two. Below, the river becomes somewhat swifter with more 
drop and more frequent rips, which finally develop into mild 
rapids over a rough sandstone bottom,— all in a still higher 
country presenting some low cliffs to the river. Then it 
enters an open pleasant basin in which it receives the united 
East and South Branches, which make their junction only a 
little way from the main stream. All the river down to this 
point we found a most easy and pleasing canoe stream. 
We had, however, good water to aid, and it is said to be 
well-nigh unnavigable at times. 
Below this fork of the river, the stream becomes somewhat 
swifter, with occasional sandstone rips in a higher country, 
which at the new railroad bridge shows cliffs on the east bank. 
The great height of this bridge (eighty feet above the stream, 
which is here about 150 feet above the sea), shows that the 
general elevation of the country is higher above the river than 
one would suspect. The bridge itself permits one to see that 
this valley is a very wide, and hence presumably ancient, 
trough, into the bottom of which the modern river has cut 
a deeper channel. This ‘ ‘rejuvenated” type is indeed by far 
the commonest type of valley in the province. Then the 
river keeps the same general character, a charming stream 
which might, however, give the canoeman trouble at low 
water, down to the Lower North Branch, a large meadowy 
stream, where the country opens out to form an immense 
intervale-filled basin. 
