PROGRESS BY LAND, 1818-1910 165 



iialions avoided one another, the Beothics keeping to the 

 centre, and the Micmacs to the south coast and its neighbour- 

 hood. The actual coast was only used as a starting-point for 

 those hunting grounds, from which the Beothics were now 

 completely excluded, and of which the white men were as 

 yet completely ignorant. The Micmac route lay north on to 

 the table-land, either by White Bear River ^ to where its 

 waters interlock with the sources of the Upper Exploits River, 

 or by the east arm of D'Espoir Bay up to a region of lakes, 

 amongst which Crooked Lake and Newfoundland Dog Lake 

 are conspicuous. The latter route was described by Cormack 

 as ' the grand route of the Indians ', partly because it led 

 straight into the centre of the country, and partly because it 

 was the middle of three possible routes and the other two 

 routes could be reached from it. Thus the table-land at the 

 head of White Bear River could be reached by a westerly 

 route from Crooked Lake ; and an easterly^ route to the 

 ' Eastern IVIaelpeg Lake ', which is now usually reached from 

 the north end of Fortune Bay, was also within easy reach of 

 Conne Bay and Newfoundland Dog Lake. The grand route 

 was like the trunk of a tree, the first and third routes were like 

 creepers or parasitic plants depending from its two principal 

 boughs, and Conne Bay was at the bottom of the trunk. For 

 that reason, as well as for purposes of segregation, the 

 Micmacs clung, and still cling to Conne River. But the 

 trunk reached far beyond Crooked Lake ; and its left and 

 right branches reached far beyond the source of White Bear 

 River and the shores of the Eastern Maelpeg Lake respec- 

 tively, and led to distant goals situated on the mouths of rivers 

 which belonged to other water-systems. These further routes 

 were threefold and led to the west (or north-west), north, and 

 north-east (or south-east). 



In Cormack's time there were several distant goals to i^ard^L's^. 



1 Not Little River as Cormack thought. Jukes, oj). cit., vol. ii, ^ '^ 

 p. 243. 



