Field and Forest Rambles

ideas, and teaches us to take close as well as comprehensive views of objects, and argue from facts and not from notions, -a Temple of Science, to enter which in a suitable mood of thought will awaken the holiest and most lofty conceptions, and where the mind of the worshipper, instead of being dwarfed as heretofore, will find its powers become colossal, and be expanded by the Genius of the place. "The reason," says Aristotle, "why men do not sufficiently attend to facts is the want of experience, hence those accustomed to physical inquiries are more competent to lay down the principles which have an extensive application; whereas others, who have been accustomed to many assumptions without the confutation of reality, rarely lay down principles, because they take few things into consideration."* So spoke the great Stagirite 2,200 years ago; it cannot therefore be otherwise than gratifying to such of Dame Nature's disciples as have devoted their lives to a consideration of her rich and inexhaustible stores, to observe how her grand truths begin to be appreciated, and that too in academic halls where not long since it was considered an offence to associate natural science teachings with the humaniora.

I shall now proceed with the thread of a narrative which began long years since, and has been continued on to Malta, from whence I now take it up.

With persons who have devoted considerable attention to the physical phenomena of any region, there is engendered an amor loci almost like that for one's native land. I can well remember the 24th of March, 1866, when, from the deck of the troopship "Simoom," I watched the familiar cliffs of the above-mentioned island fading in the distant horizon, and how there came over me feelings of regret at bidding adieu to scenes which for the previous six years had afforded me much mental instruction and pleasurable occupation. But having been heretofore a wandering student of nature, and

* "De Gen. et Corr.,” 1, 2,.316.

accustomed to sudden interruptions before my programme was completed, I had no alternative but to submit to the decrees of fortune, and break fresh ground where she chose to place me. Our vessel reached Gibraltar in the course of a few days, when I enjoyed a hurried visit to the famous bonecaves of the Rock. Among members of the public services, civil, naval, and military, whose avocations call them frequently, and at very short notice and considerable risks, to sojourn in foreign and often inhospitable lands, there is a small class who, without any professed knowledge of science, collect stores of natural objects, which they freely deposit in home museums or hand over to the cabinet naturalist for description. Such an example, and one of the most painstaking and indefatigable, was the late Captain Brome. This enterprising cave explorer, by means of the military prisoners under his command, conducted a series of excavations which eventuated in very important discoveries in connection with the bygone history of the Rock, during periods far anterior to any written records, but possibly coeval with the presence of man on this portion of Spain, when there was a direct land communication between the two continents. These researches would therefore be of intense interest to me, in connection with similar phenomena I had been investigating in the little insular group just left; inasmuch as, when the two are compounded, they furnish very cogent proofs of the great physical changes which the entire basin of the Mediterranean has undergone during epochs no doubt far back in the ordinary computation of time, but of modern date in the chronology of the geologist. Nineteen days after leaving Gibraltar we entered the Bay of Fundy, and shortly afterwards proceeded to New Brunswick, where the following notes were taken. These I will now lay before the reader, much in the same form as I have already attempted to describe the natural objects of other lands.

Here I must express my obligations to those gentlemen

who have furnished me with valued information. To the late Governor, the Honourable Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon, G.C.M.G., my thanks are due for several interesting facts in connection with the local natural history, besides what will be referred to in the sequel. I am also indebted to my friend Dr. Jack, LL.D., Principal of the University of New Brunswick, for many important points in connection with the physical geography of the region; and to Mr. Hannay, for data referring to the early colonization of the Province and the history of the aborigines.

My best thanks are owing to Mr. Pope, of Prince Edward Island, for several observations on the local natural history, as well as a very interesting collection of ancient stone implements found by him in the island.

Lastly, I am indebted to the master-hand of my distinguished friend J. Gould, F.R.S., for the appropriate vignette on the title-page, and also to my esteemed young friend R. De Courcy Laffan, Esq., for valued aid.

To Mr. G. Taylor, photographic artist, Fredericton, I am under obligations for the care and trouble bestowed by him in taking photographs of several of the natural objects in the work.

LONDON, January, 1873.

CONTENTS.

PART I.

CHAPTER I.

New Brunswick: General Sketch of its Resources, Physical

Aspect, Climate, and Natural Products-Arrival at St. John-

Local Politics River Scenery - Fredericton-Natives, their

Past and Present-Stone Age, Sculptures, Ancient Kitchen

Middens-Disappearance of certain Animals during the His-

torical Period

PAGE

CHAPTER II.