Natural history and physiography of new Brunswick. 211 
The portage left Cains River, as shown by the accompanying 
map, about twenty one miles from its mouth. Up to this point 
both Cains River and Miramichi are extremely easy for canoe 
navigation at all stages of water, being comparatively deep, 
quiet, and free from rapids, the few of these which occur being 
of insignificant difficulty. To one ascending the river, the 
approach to the portage is marked, in one of the very prettiest 
parts of the whole stream, by the presence, on the north side of 
the river, of an immense and conspicuous solitary sandstone 
boulder, a flat fragment of ledge which has slipped down from 
the low cliffs above and now rests slanting against the bank. 
This rock is known universally to all who use the river as Portage 
Rock. On its flat surface, by the way, can be traced a crude 
suggestion of a human face, and no doubt the Indians had some 
interesting legend, now forever lost, to explain this noticeable 
feature. Some 200 to 300 yards further up river, on the south 
side, started the portage, as all evidence agrees. Thus far the 
matter is plain, and it is only when we try to locate the exact 
spot at which the path left the river that we meet with any 
uncertainty. There is in the Crown Land Office an important 
plan of the timber lands on Cains River made by Fairweather 
in 1836, and exactly at the crossing of a timber-line of his in this 
vicinity there is written in pencil, faintly but unmistakeably, 
old portage leading from Cains River to Gaspero , and there is also 
a plan of lots on the river which refers to this line as Deputy 
Fairweather' s line at the old portage. These references appear to 
show that the line started exactly at the portage, which could 
thus be located if the line could now be found. All trace of it 
in this vicinity has, however, vanished, though it could perhaps 
be recovered by a skilled surveyor; and its location is not known 
exactly even by the one man who would be likely to know it best, 
viz., Mr. Alexander Arbo, who formerly lived on a farm, now 
abandoned, a half mile above the portage, and who has known the 
river intimately since early boyhood. Mr. Arbo has been so kind 
as to give me a great deal of information about the river and 
the portage, both by letter and by word of mouth ; for I had 
the great good fortune to meet him almost on this very spot 
during my visit in July last. Mr. Arbo remembers that the 
line came down to the river in the near vicinity of the camping 
ground marked on the map, but he cannot remember exactly 
where. He himself does not remember the actual Indian path, 
but he does remember that the old wood road, marked as 
ascending the hill upon the map, and which was early cut out 
and used for travel through to the Gaspereau, has always been 
