422 
BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
great Franquelin-de Meulles map of 1686, and thereafter on a 
few French maps. Its first modern appearance occurs in 1785, 
under its present name, in one of the Land Memorials preserved 
at Fredericton. It is then indicated or sketched, obviously 
because of the prominence of its portage route, on various maps, 
finally achieving a tolerable representation upon that of Bonnor, 
of 1820. 
The river, however, has never been surveyed, and its represen- 
tation on our modern maps is pieced together from land surveys 
in the lower parts and timber line intersections in its upper. 
Its lower course receives an occasional brief mention in the 
Geological Reports, and scattered references occur in several 
works, though these hardly constitute a literature of its own, 
of which it has practically none.* 
The river was settled part way up its lower course by an 
expansion of native settlers, with a few Irish immigrants; but, 
as in all the rivers of this region, the settlement is contracting 
and the upper farms are abandoned. Above, it is wholly a 
wilderness river, unburnt, and yielding much lumber. Its 
upper course abounds in trout, and the lower, for about eight 
miles up, was a favorite resort of gaspereau, whence of course 
its name, while pickerel are abundant in its sluggish lower three 
miles. Beaver are building dams across its upper cour^ and 
the tributaries, and moose are plenty. 
The Gaspereau River heads, as Mr. Farraher informs me, 
in low swampy or boggy ground lying in approximately the 
position shown by the accompanying map. I have myself seen 
*An early reference to the upper river, and especially the Lake, occurs in Cockburn’s Emi- 
gration Report of 1828 (British Blue book, 1828, 92). Some interesting material, including 
mention of early settlers, occurs in Sir James Alexander’s account of a survey for a military 
road along the country line from Moncton to Boiestown, made in 1844, as related in his book 
L'Acadie, II, 173-183. Some account of hunting trips on Pleasant Brook is contained in Dash- 
wood’s book Chiploquorgan, 122-130. A brief account of its settlement is in the Transactions 
of the Royal Society of Canada, X, 1904, ii, 133. 
We may here note also the place nomenclature of the river. Its own name is obviously 
descriptive. Alexander’s book, by the way, contains, at page 169, an interesting reference to 
the former abundance of Gaspereau in this river. Its Indian name was Obscache, meaning 
Smaller Stream, or Branch, in contrast with Salmon River ( Transactions of the Royal Society 
of Canada, V, 1911, ii, 190.) The names of the branches are all of the usual sort, either obviously 
descriptive, or else reminiscent of some lumber boss who first operated upon them. 
