154 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



form a network over the whole province, — the delight of the canoe- 

 man now as they were in former times of his brother, the dusky 

 savage. 



In the summer of 1896 T accompanied Dr. Ganong down the 

 Restigouche, an account of which trip was published in Bulletin XIV 

 of the Society's proceedings. As we passed the mouth of the Upsal- 

 quitch we formed a plan to ascend that stream in the summer of '98, 

 make our way from its headwaters to the Nipisiguit, reach the 

 sources of that stream, and thence descend the Tobique to the St. John. 

 Owing to difficulties in the way, chiefly the lowness of the water in 

 the Upsalquitch, we decided to ascend the whole length of the Nipisi- 

 guit. The course for canoe trips is usually up the Tobique from 

 Andover, and down the Nipisiguit to Bathurst. The reason of this is 

 obvious ; the Nipisiguit is the more difficult river to ascend, having a 

 rise of 996 feet from Bathurst harbor to Big Nipisiguit Lake at its 

 source, a distance of 80 miles, while the Tobique from the St. John 

 river to Lake Nictor rises 625 in a length of 95 miles. 



On the eighth of August we started from Bathurst with a canoe, 

 camping outfit and a four weeks' supply of provisions, and were carried 

 by team to Grand Falls, 21 miles up the river. A few miles beyond 

 Bathurst we left the last settlement and soon the last house. Our 

 intended course stretched through a wilderness, which for over one 

 hundred miles contains no sign of a human habitation except a fishing 

 lodge at the Grand Falls. The lower Nipisiguit is rougher than the 

 upper portion, which some of its enthusiastic admirers told us was 

 '• full of quiet pools, and every pool full of fish." I well remember my 

 first canoe trip many years ago from Bathurst to Grand Falls and 

 return. Everywhere the scenery is strikingly wild and pictm-esque, 

 and the river tossed into foam by numerous rapids and small cataracts, 

 or whirling round huge granite boulders which lies scattered every- 

 where in the bed of the stream. The names "Rough Waters," 

 " Chain of Rocks," " Moorhead's Rocks," " Pabineau Falls," and 

 " Round Rocks," are suggestive of some of the perils of navigation on 

 the lower Nipisiguit. The occasional glimpses obtained of the river 

 as we lumbered along over the rough wagon road, gave it a ureal 

 fascination when compared with dreary stretches of burnt lands with 

 blackened dead trunks and branches along the road. The Pabineau 

 Falls, about twelve miles from Bathurst, is a wild and beautiful spot, 

 the ri\er tumbling and breaking over a granite ledge into a deep 

 chasm beneath — a choice spot for salmon fishers. On the adjacent 



