20 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



Let me attempt to give you a few general ideas of the 

 topographical features of this northern heritage of ours. 

 I may remind you that the chief watershed of New 

 Brunswick extends from the extreme northwest limit of 

 the province southeasterly to Baie Verte ; that the eastern 

 slope extending from this is drained by the Restigouche, 

 Nipisiguit, Miramichi, and by a great number of smaller 

 rivers. The south-western slope is drained by the St. 

 John and its tributaries, and by smaller rivers. Next to 

 the St. John and Miramichi the Restigouche is the 

 largest river in New Brunswick. It is 150 miles long 

 and drains an area within the province, of 2,200 square 

 miles, about one-fifth of that drained by the St. John, 

 and less than one-half the area drained by the Miramichi, 

 although, as a whole, the basin of the Restigouche 

 is nearly as great as that of the Miramichi. Its 

 chief tributary from the south is the Upsalquitch, and 

 three chief branches from the north are the Katawam- 

 kedgwick, the Patapedia, and the Metapedia, one of 

 which at least is larger than the main stream ; but 

 the main stream is considered to have the right to the 

 name because of its generally direct course from the 

 watershed in Northern New Brunswick to the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence. The Metapedia is wholly a Quebec river, 

 the Patapedia forms the boundary between this province 

 and Quebec in the lower half of its course, while the 

 Katawamkedgwick, wider andof greater volume than the 

 Restigouche, where it joins the latter, flows only for the 

 last forty or fifty miles of its course within New Bruns- 

 wick territory. The wide divergence of these four 

 tributaries from the main stream is the origin of the 

 Indian name Restigouche (river of the five fingers). The 

 Restigouche takes its rise in the north-east of the County 

 of Madawaska, near Prospect Peak, and about twenty- 



