66 
MUSEUM BULLETIN NO. 2, 
storm beach which encloses Lake Frye at its northern end. 
This beach has a Crestline altitude, determined by instrumental 
levelling, of just 4 feet above high tide — the old ridges from 
thirteen to twenty-six have an average Crestline altitude of 3*82 
feet. If the facts on Miscou Grande Plaine can be used as 
evidence in this disputed question, therefore, they testify that in 
the last three centuries or so, there has been no measurable 
subsidence nor elevation of the coast. 
CONCLUSION. 
Summing up the several lines of physiographic evidence 
which have been presented by earlier writers, in support of the 
view that subsidence is now in progress on the coast of New 
Brunswick, we may draw the following conclusions: — 
(1) The rapid recession of cliffs and beaches along the coast 
at the present time proves nothing either for or against modern 
subsidence. If the coast had been stable for centuries, the same 
cliff-cutting would be expected as has been described by investi- 
gators of the cartography and history of this coast. 
(2) The presence of estuaries of the drowned valley type 
proves that there has been submergence, and, in view of the 
depth of the drowning over a wide area, coastal subsidence, at 
some time in the past. It proves nothing about modern or very 
recent movements of the coast. In fact, the valleys in question 
seem to be products of pre-Glacial or interglacial stream erosion, 
drowned very deeply during the Champlain submergence, and 
only partially lifted out again by the subsequent upwarping of 
the region. 
(3) Barrier beaches are not evidence of coastal subsidence. 
They are normal features in the simplification of a shore-line 
which is initially irregular, whatever the cause of that irregularity 
may be. It is as natural to interpret the lagoons behind them as 
bays, shut off by reefs which have grown up between headlands, 
as it is to regard them as river mouths which have been drowned 
since the barriers were formed. Indeed, the former explanation 
is the more natural one, since it involves only those processes 
of shore drift and deposition which can be seen actually in 
