[GANONG] HISTORIC SITES IN NEW BRUNSWICK 235 



11. MiramicU-Nepisiguit. 



A.— Along the Sea-coast. In common with the rest of the North Shore, canoe 

 travelHng was easy along this coast ; by carrying across occasional narrow 

 sand-necks, nearly the whole voyage from Miramichi to Bay Chaleur could 

 be made inside of islands and through lagoons. The route is fully described 

 by Smethurst, who in 1761 went over the route, going southward. He says 

 of it : "We coasted this afternoon thirty miles upon these inland salt lakes. 

 This country is so full of the finest possible conveniences for canoes, that it 

 must blow a perfect storm to disturb them" (p. 14). Smethurst mentions a 

 portage six miles south of Shippegan, evidently that from Pokemouche to 

 Tracadie Lagoon, and also another, evidently that from Tracadie to Tabus- 

 intac. The latter was by what is still called Portage River. It is mentioned 

 also by Plessis in 1812 (Journal, 169). There appear to have been other 

 portages from Tabusintac to Miramichi, for on the former river on a large plan 

 a "portage brook" is marked just below Stymest's Millstream. There was 

 also probably a portage from the upper Pokemouche to the Gaspereau creek, 

 for an old plan names the small creek (a mile east of Mattampeck on the 

 south) forming the eastern boundary of the Indian Reserve Waginchitch, i.e. 

 0-ivok-un-chich, " little portage. " It is mentioned in Perley's report of 

 1841. 



It is stated in Slafter's Champlain that there was a portage from Tracadie 

 to Bass River, but probably this is an error. 



Early plans of Shippegan Island name the large cove south-west of the 

 present Pandora Point, Portage Cove or Portage Bay, but this probably has 

 reference to an early "Portage road," through the interior of the island to 

 Alemek Bay. 

 B.— Portage River-Gordon Brook. This was a much used route. It leads from 

 Portage River into Gordon Brook, which is called by the Micmacs 0-wok-un, 

 "a portage." This brook, though rough at its mouth, affords fairly easy 

 canoe travel for some fourteen miles to the portage. A road probably fol- 

 lowing nearly the course of the portage is shown on Wilkinson's map, and 

 it is known to residents of the Miramichi though now abandoned, i The 

 portage is mentioned by Denys in 1672 (183). LeClercq, in 1677, mentions 

 two routes from Nepisiguit to Miramichi, a longer, which was probably 

 this, and a shorter, leading through the woods from near the " Sault des 

 Loups marins" (probably Pabineau Falls) directly through the woods, used 

 apparently only in winter and traversed on snowshoes. By this he went 

 himself to Denys' Fort, (probably near Neguac) in winter, suffering great 

 hardships. 



Above Bald Mountain, on the Nepisiguit, is a valley called Emerys 

 Gulch, extending south six miles to the North-west Miramichi. A winter 

 portage road now follows it. Probably it was anciently used as a portage 

 route, but I can find no record of it. 



In Dashwood's " Chiploquorgan," an account is given of his passage 

 from the Nepisiguit, near the Main South Branch, through to lakes on the 

 Sevogle, but this could not have been a regular route. No doubt the Indians 

 often struck away through the woods regardless of portages, leaving their 

 canoes, as in this case. 



1 A branch of it ia said to have run from near the north branch of the Portage Biver to the 

 Narrow», and over this Sir Edmund Head passed about fifty years ago. 



