86 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Historic Sites. 



237. I have found a few cases in ]^ew Brunswick of Indian trails 

 which seem not to have been regular portage-paths. Thus on the 

 Miramichi a trail is locally known, called " Sock Eenou's Trail," leading 

 from Blackville (mouth of Batholcmews) to the Eenous. and another 

 "Big Louis Trial/^ from Indiantown (Eenous) to Eocky Ledge (Little 

 Southwest?) Of this character also was, very likely, the trail from 

 Dorchester to Sackville, and that from near Neguac, later mentioned, to 

 Portage Brook, near the important Indian village of Cains Point on 

 Tabusintac. No doubt there were many such trailsl, as distinct from 

 portage paths, between the Indian villages on parallel rivers. 



A reason for the early abandonment of the Indian portage paths 

 was the early building of roads parallel with them, whereupon the 

 Indians naturally abandoned their inferior paths for the better roads. 

 This seems to have been the case with the Tabusàntac-Tracadie, the 

 Tracadie-Pokemouche (South Branch), and the Pokemouche-St, Simon 

 paths. No doubt in general in the early-settled parts of the province 

 this soon occurred, and hence there the Indian trails were very early 

 abandoned, and their locations are now locally unknown. I have seen 

 myself a modern instance of this in the Trowser Lake — Long Lake 

 portage on Tobique. The old Indian trail isi still used on the Trowser 

 Lake half, but beyond that it has been abandoned for lumber roads lead- 

 mg in the same direction. 



237. Another reference to Indian canoes built of material other 

 than birch bark is in Pote's Journal, where (page 54) he speaks ot 

 canoes of elm and ash bark. Mr. E. Jack, (Acadiensis, V, 142) speaks 

 of spruce bark canoes, and Dr. Philip Cox tells me his Indian guides 

 have constructed them. 



239. The importance of the portage routes in the early days of New 

 Brunswick is well illustrated by inscriptions upon the Sproule map of 

 1787. One of them, mentioning the Micmacs on the Eestigouche, reads, 

 — " They communicate by this river with the St. John tribe, and it also 

 forms a convenient intercourse with Frtdericton for the new settlors! on 

 Chaleurs Bay." Again under bearings and distances from Fredericton 

 it reads : — " The distance to Miramichi, by an inland water communi- 

 cation through the Grand Lake, a branch of the St. John [of course via 

 Gaspereau — Cains EiverJ 140 miles — 6 miles land carriage." And 

 again, — " To Fort Cumberland, by the Kennebecasis^ a branch of the St. 

 John and Petcoudiac, which discharges into the Bay of Fundy, 190 miles 

 — 3 miles land carriage." In general, all the early maps and narratives 

 make much of the portage routes. 



