432 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
swale. Tracing its course inland as the country rises, the 
rivulet becomes more distinct and the stony swale narrows, 
until, a hundred yards from shore, the tiny stream is running 
down among stones in a distinct little gully or small open ravine 
cut some dozen or fifteen feet into the rather steeply rising 
river bank, while fifty yards farther inland the gully opens 
gradually out on the higher level of country, which then slopes 
evenly and gradually back to the higher land. This gully, 
for the most part densely wooded, is wide enough for a road as 
well as a path, and does afford a markedly easy grade permitting 
the avoidance of the otherwise rather steep ascent at this place ; 
and moreover, as it is bottomed with stones deep among which 
the waters runs, it would give always a firm and dry footing. 
It was Up this gully, accordingly, I have not the slightest 
doubt, the old Indian portage path ran. Very likely the path 
kept for the most part right up its middle, but where it had 
to take to one bank or the other that was probably the western, 
i. e. nearest the direction the path took towards Cains River, 
which was west of north.* The camping ground, also, which 
marked the ends of all of these ancient Indian trails, lay west 
of the path, as Mr. Welch personally knows. The low upland 
both east and west of the stony swale is now partially cleared 
as a persistance of an old lumber brow at this place; and one 
can see that a tolerably good camp site lies to the westward, 
with a much less favorable possibility on the east. Eastward 
the bank remains very low for some distance, but westward it 
rises gradually until, just beyond the limit of the map, it becomes 
too high and steep to be easily ascended. The old lumber roads 
marked on the map, near the path and camp ground, are still 
distinct though faint, but of course will presently disappear. 
The lower one is thought by Mr. Welch to be a persistence of 
a road which the early lumbermen cut along the old path clear 
through to Cains River. 
There is no doubt, I think, that the path left the river about 
or near the spot marked on my map: that the principal camp 
ground lay just west of it: and that the little cove formed the 
canoe landing, which is an excellent one. Allowance must be 
made of course for changes since the days the path was in use, 
but the main features have doubtless changed little. All geo- 
graphical probabilities likewise favor this site, since it is in 
reality, for portage purposes, the nearest practicable point of 
the Gaspereau to Cains River. The shoals and bars marked 
on the map interpose a great obstacle to ready access to the 
shore for a considerable distance above the cove, while before 
