132 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
including the Tobique and Nepisiguit lakes and the picturesque region 
about them as a provincial wild park, similar to the reservations in 
Ontario and many of the United States, for the preservation of its 
hitherto untouched forests, its game and water supply, and to serve 
as a place of resort and instruction for coming generations. The 
idea was first broached by Prof. W. F. Ganong,’ and, with the aid 
of a committee of the Natural History Society of New Bruns- 
wick was brought to the attention of the government with the 
result mentioned above. In connection with this wild and pic- 
turesque region I may here mention that Prof. Ganong, with great 
industry and ingenuity, has devised a system of names for some of 
its prominent physical features, chiefly its mountains, which hitherto 
lacked any distinctive appellation, or were designated by meaningless 
repetitions of names given elsewhere in the province. The plan 
which Prof. Ganong has followed? aims to commemorate the names 
of some of the early discoverers and explorers of the province, its 
governors, and its scientific men. Group names are given to ranges 
or to those mountains which naturally form a group, such as the 
“ Geologists’ Range,” the “ Governors’ Plateau,” etc. 
THE TOBIQUE. 
The Tobique, emptying into the St. John river at Andover, is 
a larger stream and its drainage area much greater than that of the 
Nepisiguit. At its head a curious forking takes place: the Sisson 
Branch and South West Branch coming in nearly at right angles to 
the main stream, while the Little Tobique and Mamozekel are more 
nearly in line with it. These tributary streams, branching so widely, 
form a network of communication by means of short portages, with 
the Restigouche, Nepisiguit and Miramichi. No such system of 
rivers anywhere afford more favourable conditions for exploration 
for the naturalist and sportsman; and the well-beaten portage paths 
at the headwaters of the streams show that from times immemorial 
they have been used by warriors, hunters and explorers in their 
expeditions across the province from the St. John river to the Bay 
de Chaleur and Gulf of St. Lawrence. One of the most common 
routes, described by Governor Gordon in his “ Wilderness Journeys” 
of New Brunswick, is the route up the Tobique, thence by the Little 
Tobique to the Nepisiguit and down that river to the Bay de Chaleur. 


* See Bulletin of Natural History Society of New Brunswick, Vol. IV., 
Part 3, p.24i: 
? “Proposals for a Nomenclature of New Brunswick Hills and Mountains,” 
Bulletin Nat. Hist Soc. of N.B., Vol. IV., Part 3, p. 248. 
