238 ROYAL SOCIETY OV CANADA 



not marked upon our recent ma])s. 1 have made a special effort to deter- 

 mine tlie exact courses of tliese porlac^es befoie the}' arc lost forever, and 

 where 1 have been able to find them by the aid of ichidents, I have given 

 them on the small maps accompanying this paper, (Maps No. 2-11.) All 

 portages known to me are marked upon the map of New Brunswick, in 

 the Pie-historic or Indian j)oriod accompanying this paper (Map No. 12), 

 and their routes of travel are in red on the same map. The lines show 

 how thoroughly intersected the ])rovince was by their routes. This map 

 does not bj' any means mark all of the navigable rivers, but only those 

 which formed parts of through routes of travel. The relative import- 

 ance of the routes I have tried to represent by the breadth of the lines, 

 the most important routes having the broadest lines. 



^lany of the most ancient portages had distinct names, but I have 

 not recovered an}- of these. Kidder gives as the ancient Indian name of 

 the Eel River-North Lake Portage, the name Metagmouchchesh (vari- 

 ously spelled by him), and I have heard that more than one was called 

 simply "The Hunters Portage" by the Indians, possibly to distinguish 

 the less important ones used only in hunting from those of the through 

 routes. When Portages are spoken of at this day they arc usually given 

 the name of the place towards which they lead ; thus, a per.son on the 

 Tobique would refer to the portage at the head of that river as the 

 Nepisiguit, or the Bathurst Portage, and on the Nepisiguit, he would 

 speak of it as the Tobique Portage. This usage seems to be old, and 

 perhaps is widespread. Thus Bishop Plessis, in his journal of 1812, 

 speaking of the portage between Tracadie and Tabusintac Rivers (the 

 latter leading to Neguac) says (page 1(j9) : " We reached a portage of 

 two miles which the people of Tracadie call the Nigauek Portage, and 

 those of Nigauek the Tracadie Portage." ' 



The situations of many of the old portages are preserved to us in 

 ])lace names. Thus we have Portage Bricljc^ at the head of the Misse- 

 guash ; Portage Bank, on the Miramichi, near Boiestown (not on the 

 maps); Portage River, on the Northwest Miramichi, also as a branch of 

 the Tracadie, also west of Point Escuminac, and also south of it ; Port- 

 age Brook, on the Nepisiguit, leading to the Upsalquitch ; Portage Lake, 

 between Long and Serpentine Lakes ; Portage Station, on the Inter- 

 colonial Railway. Kingston Creek, at the mouth of the Belleisle, was 

 formerly called Portage Creek. Anagance is the Maliseet word for Port- 

 age; and Wayan and Wagansis, on the Restigouche and Grand River, are 



* Probably Cumberland Hay, on Grand Lake, is another case, as it was on an 

 old route to Cumberland. This same bay is called on the DeMeulles-Franquelin 

 map of 108G I'ichkotkouet, which seems like a form of the Indian name for the 

 Petitcodiac. Again, on Lake Metapedia, is a river called the Mntane, from which, 

 I believe, there was a portage to the Matane. Yet another example may be the 

 name Nipisif/ouichich, "l^ittle Nepisiguit," applied on the DeMeulles-Franquelin 

 map to the Nictor branch of the Tobique, which does lead to the Nepisiguit, 



