FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



CHAPTEE I. 



THE MARITIME PROVINCES. 



Paddling down a picturesque Nova-Scotian stream 

 called the Shubenacadie some ten years since in an 

 Indian canoe, it occurred to me to ask tlie steersman 

 the proper Micmac pronunciation of the name. He re- 

 plied, " We call 'em ' Segeebenacadie.' Plenty wild 

 potatoes — segeeben — once grew here.'' "Well, 'acadie,' 

 Paul, what does that mean ? " I inquired. " Means — 

 where you find 'em," said the Indian. 



The termination, therefore, of acadie, signifying a 

 place where this or that is found, being of frequent 

 occurrence in the old Indian names of places, seems 

 to have been readily adopted by the first permanent 

 settlers in Nova Scotia to designate an extensive dis- 

 trict, though one with uncertain limits — the Acadie 

 of the followers of Mons. De Monts in the first 

 decade of the seventeenth century comprising the pre- 

 sent provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and 

 Prince Edward Island, with a portion of the State of 



