84 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



APPENDIX. 



Report on the Sum.mer Camp at French Lake. 



(Held August, 1893.) 



The principal object of the visit to this district was the 

 study of the remains of the Stone age, which from information 

 we had known were to be found there. August was chosen as 

 the best time to visit this lake, as during this month the St. 

 John river is usually at its lowest stage, and the shallows along 

 the shores are then above the surface of the water, or near to it. 



Topography antd Geological, Conditions. 



French Lake is the uppermost of three consideral)le sheets of 

 water that lie in the lowest part of the central plain of New 

 Brunswick. These lakes are not individually in direct connection 

 with the St. John river at the ordinary stage of that stream; 

 for while the river traverses this depressed part of the central 

 plain in which the lakes are situated, it has built up for itself 

 on each side, banks of alluvium, which bound its channel, and 

 shut it off from the lakes. 



As a consequence, the outlet of the lakes is by a narrow, 

 deep channel (the Jemseg) which enters the St. John several 

 miles below the last of the chain of lakes (Grand Lake). Similar 

 deep passages, locally called "thoroughfares," connect the mid- 

 dle lake (Maquapit) which the other two. 



The current is not always downward through these passages, 

 for when the river St. John rises, owing to rains in the upper 

 valleys of that stream, the water runs backward in the thorough- 

 fai-es, and the lakes become reservoirs for the storage of the 

 surplus waters of tlie river. The thoroughfares being the only 

 means of connection between the lakes, and with the river at its 

 ordinary stage, and as also giving access to the numerous creeks 

 and shallows around the lakes, swarm with fish at certain seasons 

 of the year. In former years, these passages were black with 

 gaspereaux and shad, pressing forward into the lakes to spawn 

 in the shallows, and even now fish abound in them. 



A people capable of taking these fish by spear, net or line, 

 would find an easy means of subsistence on the shores of these 



