NATURAL HISTORY AND PHYSIOGRAPHY OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 91 
feet across, lie heaped together, flattening at points of contact 
as if they had been soft sponge-like masses which became 
petrified and cemented together as they lay piled in masses. 
Obviously this part of the valley is very different in origin from 
that above. It is far newer, though long pre-glacial, and 
although the bottom rocks are sedimentary, the lofty hills on both 
sides have every appearance of intrusive origin. We have here, 
I believe, a case in which a stream is cutting into a mass of 
sedimentary rock caught between intrusive ridges, a condition 
common in the valleys of this region. 
Below the Falls the character of the river changes again. 
The hills, which seem to be closest at the Falls, open out, and 
gradually the river issues from the highlands into a great open 
basin which will be described below. Its bed continues shoal, 
broad and swift down to Fifteen Mile Brook (a dark, narrow 
swift stream), but a mile or two lower the stream becomes 
deeper with less fall, and comes to wind in a flat country between 
low gravelly banks. Near Bedel Brook, a stream which lies 
largely in a flat country and has much deadwater, ledges of a 
soft easily-crumbled granite appear. Downward the stream 
becomes quieter and deeper, receives West Brook (which heads 
in a pass of 1170 feet elevation through which the new Trans- 
continental is built), and finally, winding smoothly but swiftly 
in a flat open country amid pleasant low banks and gravel bars, 
it reaches the Forks. Through all its lower course it is a pleas- 
ing canoe stream, and indeed a skilled canoeman willing to work 
his way, could in fair water bring a canoe all the way from the 
East Branch and even, with some effort, from the deadwaters. 
Although apparently of simple origin, I believe this Branch 
is a composite, its upper part at least belonging originally to the 
Tobique system. The directions of valleys imply that West 
Brook is the real morphological head of this Branch, while the 
part above may originally have been tributary to McKeel Brook 
through a part of Bedel Brook. The reason why the originally 
Northwest-southeast valleys have been replaced by north and 
south valleys is found, I think, in the cutting down of softer 
rocks lying in between great north and south intrusive ridges. 
