NATURAL HISTORY AND PHYSIOGRAPHY OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 317 
■with the general river directions of this region and the presence 
of an apparent old valley at the big bend four miles below, sug- 
gests the possibility that the present Little South Branch is 
recent, if not post-glacial, and that its old course was into the 
.above-mentioned bend. 
7. From Little South Branch to {Main) South Branch . — 
Por a mile below the Little South Branch the river continues 
open, pleasant and smooth ; then abruptly its bed becomes choked 
with great numbers of huge boulders and acquires much fall, 
which conditions continue, with few and only local intermissions, 
•down to within two miles of the Main South Branch, making this 
part of the river extremely difficult for canoe navigation, par- 
ticularly at low water. The fall in this distance, 1M/2 miles, is 
some 603 feet, an average of over 41 feet a mile. This part of 
the Renous is without doubt the roughest piece of river of its size 
.and length, at least in which the roughness is due to boulders, 
in New Brunswick. The bed is, however, invariably of drift, 
though ledges occur often upon one side or the other. The val- 
ley itself continues of much the same character as above, though 
apparently in places somewhat narrower. Its character is finely 
shown by the extensive views allowed by some elevated burnt 
•country three miles below the Little South Branch. Here the 
-country may be seen extending as a great plateau in every direc- 
tion, remarkably level to the south and east, but rising somewhat 
into loftier ridges to the west, where, just below the Little South 
Branch, an elevated region appears to cross the river, doubtless 
continuous with the similar region described in an earlier note 
(No. 54) as crossing the Little Southwest Miramichi. Into this 
plateau the river has cut a somewhat wide and moderately mature 
valley, some 300 or 400 feet deep, so abruptly that one must needs 
be close beside the valley before he could be aware of its presence. 
Two miles above the main South Branch the river issues suddenly 
from this elevated region of ancient hard rocks into the much 
lower open country, formed by the Carboniferous sandstones, 
the edge of the former, as seen from the latter, presenting almost 
the abruptness of an escarpment. Thence the river flows more 
