SAINT JOHN RIVER

river rising in Guinea, West Africa. Its source is northwest of the Nimba Range, and with its upper reach (the Mani River) it forms part of the Guinea-Liberia border. Entering north-central Liberia it very nearly bisects the country, discharging into the Atlantic at Edina, where the Benson and Mechlin rivers empty into its estuary. The Saint John River's southwesterly course of 175 miles (282 km) is interrupted intermittently by rapids. The river (whose basin drains 6,650 square miles [17,220 square km] in Liberia and Guinea) is so named because it was discovered on the feast day of St. John by 15th-century Portuguese navigators. large river rising in Somerset county in northwestern Maine, U.S., and flowing northeast to the Canadian border, where it gradually turns southeast to form the international boundary for 80 miles (130 km). Just above Grand Falls, the river enters Canada and flows through New Brunswick into the Bay of Fundy at Saint John. At Grand Falls the river drops 75 feet (23 m), and at its mouth are the reversing falls rapids, caused by the strong tides of the bay, which at high tide force the river to reverse its flow. The river, discovered by the French explorers the Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain in 1604 and named for St. John the Baptist, is 418 miles long and drains 21,000 square miles (54,000 square km), 14,000 square miles of which are in New Brunswick and Quebec. The lower 81 miles are tidal and navigable as far as Fredericton. There are hydroelectric power developments at Grand Falls, Beechwood, and Mactaquac on the St. John, as well as on its tributaries, the Tobique, Aroostook, and Madawaska rivers.