[ganong] additions TO MONOGRAPHS 8S 



Historic Sites. 



grea/t game animals, especially the moose and deer, have made (in (tira- 

 velling from lake to lake as they seek ne.v feeding-grounds. Such 

 trails are no doubt the result of long trial and selection by those 

 animals, and represent as a rule the easiest, and usually the most direct, 

 route between the waters. The first Indians to come into the country 

 would have but to follow them. These trails tend naturally to follow 

 the lowest ground, especially where, as is very commonly the case in 

 JSTew Brunswick (as I have elsewhere shown Bull. N.H.S. lY, 313) 

 ancient valleys connect the waters. The portage routes show therefore 

 an interesting evolution. First an ancient valley, deprived by geological 

 changes of its original stream, connects two lakes, each a source of an 

 important navigable stream. Second at a great time past the large 

 gùuie animals wandering from water to water formed marked trails along 

 the vaUey. Third the first wandering Indian followed these trails in 

 his first explorations, thus finding the most direct and easiy route 

 between waters. Fourth he marked out the trails and made them 

 known to his fellows thus esitablishing definite portage routes. Fifth, 

 the white man came and adopted the Indian's route in his search for 

 lumber, places for settlement, etc. Sixth, the lumberman came and cut 

 out the portage paAhs to allow his lumbering teams to pass, making a 

 tolerable road. Seventh, the advance of settlement necessitates high- 

 ways which follow the same general route, deviati.ig in places to iveeip 

 upon the best-drained ground. Eighth, railways follow and taJ^e the 

 same general route parallel with the highways across the watersheds, 



236. There is another cause, in addition to the ^-emoval of woods, 

 tending' io make many streams to-day less navigable for canoes than 

 they were in pre-historic times, namely, the broadening and consiequent 

 shallowing of river beds through lumbering operations. I have been 

 assured l)y at least two lumbermen of wide experience in driving and 

 dam-building, that many streams (especially the Tracadie and the 

 Lower Sev ogle) have been extensively broadened and shoaled within 

 their own recollection. This is caused by tlie tearing away of the soft 

 banks by the rush of logs in spring, and is greatly aided by erosion from 

 the " splash-dams," dams in which water is stored and released with a 

 rush to carry lumber over rocky or shoal places. And the effect has 

 become naturally more marked in recent years since it became customary 

 t') carry on lumbering upon a very extensive scale. Thus it is no doubt 

 true that many streams, which are now too shallow for canoe travel 

 during much of the summer, were in pre-historic times narrower and 

 deeper, as well as provided with a heavier body of water. 



