[Hay] FLORA OF NORTHERN NEW BRUNSWICK 133 
The first one of our modern scientific explorers to make this journey 
was Professor L. W. Bailey, in 1863, and his description’ contains the 
first contribution to the geology and botany of this region that we 
possess. The fine scenery along the Tobique river, the ease with 
which it can be navigated in canoes, and the wildness of the Nepisi- 
guit valley, will always make this a favourite route of the admirers of 
river and woodland scenery, at least, while our forests are preserved, 
which it is hoped may be for a long time to come. The movement 
to set aside a wild park in this picturesque region, with a view to 
preserve and study our forest conditions and the hoarding up of the 
water supply of the rivers is an example that deserves imitation and 
the support of governments and scientific men everywhere in Canada. 
The botany of the main Tobique is not so rich in rare species and 
boreal types as the Restigouche, and to a lesser degree of the Nepisi- 
guit. It has broad expanses of fertile meadows well suited for agri- 
culture and some of the best farming land in the province is to be 
found along its valley. 
Of its tributary streams, the Sisson branch is the most picturesque, 
especially the “Gorge,” six miles from its mouth, which is one of the 
wildest and most picturesque spots in New Brunswick. A succession 
of cataracts and rapids, from a height of one hundred feet, flow 
through a gorge walled by perpendicular rocks. Here were found 
Asplenium viride, Arnica mollis, Woodsia Ilvensis and W. hyperborea, 
Aster graminifolius, and on rocks further down the stream, Aspidium 
fragrans and Woodsia glabella. 
The southwest branch of the Tobique, whose sources are con- 
tiguous to the northwest branches of the Miramichi, drains a lake 
country which is one of the most remote and least visited regions 
of the province” Its forests abound in big game—moose, caribou, 
deer —and numerous small fur-bearing animals. It is one of the 
few districts in the province where beavers are still to be found, exer- 
cising their industrious and ingenious habits of constructing their 
dams and dwellings. The country is dotted with lakes and ponds, 
and traversed with streams in every direction. It is a virgin forest 
untouched as yet by forest fires, and into the remotest districts of 
which the lumberman has not yet penetrated. Some of its lakes 
are deep, with rocky wooded sides, while others are shallow and bor- 

1 ‘“ Notes on the Geology and Botany of New Brunswick,” Prof. L. W. 
Bailey, Canadian Naturalist, 1864. 
? “Notes on the Physiography of the Basin of the Negoot or South Tobique 
Lakes, W. F. Ganong, Natural History Society of N.B., Bulletin, Vol. IV., 
Part IV. from page 324; also ‘‘ The Flora of the South Tobique Lakes,” G. U. 
Hay, Nat. Hist. Soc. Bulletin of N.B., Vol. IV., Part V., from page 472. 
Sec. IV., 1902. 7. 
