"240 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



ever made, resulting in the accompanying map (Fig. 6). I used a fair 

 prismatic compass, and a simple home-made apparatus on the stade 

 principle for measuring distances ; the general shape must be nearly 

 accurate, though its proportions may be somewhat in error.* 



The lake must have witnessed events of no small interest, but 

 these are unwritten and lost. It was one of the most ancient and 

 frequented highways across the province, and has seen the passing of 

 warriors, hunters, missionary priests, traders, grand seigniors, govern- 

 ors and scholars. It was probably somewhere in this vicinity that the 

 good Father Bernardin perished on his way from the Nepisiguit to the 

 St. John, in 1621, as related by LeClercq. The first mention of it in 

 print that I have found is in Wightman's report on barometric 

 measurements, made in 1839, contained in a British boundary Blue- 

 book of 1840. Governor Head was here in 1849, as Gordon tells us, 

 but he left us no account of his travels. Governor Gordon came in 

 1863, and has left us in his " Wilderness Journeys" a most interest - 

 ing account of his impressions, as well as the first printed description 

 of the lake. He admired it as possessing " more beauty of scenery 

 than any other locality I have seen in the province, except, perhaps, 

 the Bay of Chaleurs," meaning, of course, the head of the Bay, above 

 Dalhousie. He gave to Bald Mountain the name Sagainook — (mount 

 of chiefs) — which it still bears. Later in the same year Professor 

 L. W. Bailey visited the lake, and has given us our first scientific 

 notes upon it, particularly its geology, t Since then Messrs. Hind, Ells, 

 Chalmers, and Hay, have briefly visited it with results contained in 

 well-known reports, t There are references to Nictor Lake in various 

 reports, guide books, sporting books, etc., but I believe the above- 

 mentioned include all real sources of information. Nearly every 

 writer, from Gordon to the present, speaks of the beauty of the lake. 



Place-Nomenclature. On the map (Fig. 6) are two sets of names, 

 one in Roman letters, including those already more or less in use (for a 

 list of which I am indebted to Mr. George Armstrong, of Perth Centre), 

 and another set in italics which now appear for the first time. The 

 latter I have myself given, for reasons and upon a principle fully set 





* I was accompanied and aided by my brother, Mr. Arthur Ganong. The preceding 

 summer I was with Mr. Q. U. Hay, who has described our trip in this Bulletin (XVII. 153). 



tin his "Report on the Mines and Minerals of New Brunswick," (1864), and also in his- 

 " Notes on the Geology and Botany of New Brunswick," (Can. Nat., 1864). 



X Geological Reports : this Bulletin IV, 104. 



