NATURAL HISTORY AND PHYSIOGRAPHY OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 97 
able, and its explanation a physiographic problem of the first order. 
In the eastern part of this basin, in a country of flat bogs, 
lies the main source of the Clearwater, while other important 
branches are shown by the map. I have not seen it above the 
upper Forks (two or three miles above Red Stone Brook), where 
it iis a sluggish brown stream winding through gravelly pools. 
Downward, it becomes swifter and more broken, soon merging 
over to a swift rough stream, rushing noisily along over cobbles 
and boulders. Meanwhile, in a valley that is evidently ancient, 
it is entering the highlands, which rise into splendid great 
wooded ridges. Thus it continues down to the Forks which lie 
in a pleasant open basin, receiving the darkwatered Northwest 
Branch, which in turn near its mouth receives the smaller and 
very clear Little Northeast Branch. Below these Forks this 
river is swift and broken, running over coarse drift in a wide 
valley between great ridges parallel with the stream, and this 
character at keeps clear down as far as I have seen it, that is, a 
little below Moose Brook. In this part, it receives a number of 
small branches, some of which, e. g. Moose Brook, have cut 
very deep gorge-like gulches into the granite hills, while another. 
Lake Brook, empties a most attractive lake lying in a niche of 
the highlands. In its lower five miles, as Mr. J. W. Bailey tells 
me, it is very rough and steep-walled, with several rocky falls. 
Turning now to the question of its physiographic origin, I 
must admit that no stream in all New Brunswick has puzzled 
me so much as this. Its upper part west of the Highlands may 
once have been tributary to the Tobique, but the part in the 
Highlands seems ancient and homogeneous. The great ridges 
on each side, now parallel with its course, suggest that the valley 
is not wholly of erosive origin, but is primarily a trough between 
these intrusive ridges. The very rough character of its lower 
course implies that this is new, possibly even post-glacial, in 
which case its old course was very probably through the present 
Gilman Brook. But there is no sign whatever, that I could find, 
of such an old course as one would expect southward into the 
Taxis system. 
