58 
MUSEUM BULLETIN NO. 2. 
typical barrens, including one on Miscou island, one at the 
head of Saint Simon inlet, and one near Point Escuminac. 
Natural cross sections of these bogs, cut by the sea, were in- 
spected, and many soundings were made with a Davis peat 
sampler, with the expectation that the deposits would prove 
to extend to a considerable depth. 
On Miscou island, half a mile inland from Miscou point, at a 
place where the surface of the barren is about ten feet above 
high tide mark, the sounding instrument penetrated decayed 
sphagnum to a depth of thirteen feet, where it struck something 
hard. Another group of borings 150 feet away from the first 
one, at the edge of a tidal “pond,” gave the following section: — 
Surface; typical salt marsh, with Juncas gerardi (?) the dominant grass; 
at mean high tide. 
0 to 6 inches; brown, spongy peat, containing very little sediment, with 
many vertical fibres (salt marsh). 
6 to 12 inches; brown, very compact, woody peat, without sediment; splits 
horizontally. 
12 to 18 inches; reddish brown, very soft, fibrous peat (sphagnum). 
18 to 24 inches; no core (frequently the case in boring through soft sphagnum 
deposits). 
24 to 30 inches; same rotten, reddish brown peat. 
30 to 36 inches; stiller, rather firm, reddish-brown peat. 
36 to 42 inches; brown, slippery, muddy peat in upper two inches, followed 
below by watery mud. 
42 to 48 inches; muddy brown sand, with hard, gritty sand below, through 
which the sounder could not be driven. 
The significant points about this section are: (a) that the 
salt marsh is merely a thin veneer over the bog peat. This 
agrees with the physiographic evidence that this “pond” is 
one of the numerous fresh-water pools on the barren, which has 
very recently been invaded by an advance of the sea, cutting 
back the cliffs into one end of it; ( b ) that the sphagnum deposit 
extends to a depth of only three feet and a half below mean 
high tide. This much submergence does not prove coastal 
subsidence. The bog may have grown up in a basin whose 
floor, although below high tide mark, was above mean tide 
level, and whose water, consequently, was fresh, and supported 
fresh-water vegetation. Later, as the sea cut its way into the 
pond and flooded it to high tide mark, opportunity came for 
a salt marsh deposit to form on top of the fresh peat, around 
the border of the nond. 
