BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
of Canada, V, 1899, ii, 240 and XII, 1906, ii, 90, where also 
the known later references are given. 
The general situation of this portage is indicated by its 
representation on the early English maps of the Province 
(those of Bonnor of 1820, Baillie and Kendall of 1831 and 
that of Baillie of 1832), in conjunction with the geographical 
relations of the two rivers concerned. It left the Petitcodiac 
near its westerly bend and reached the Canaan somewhere on 
the southerly bend west of Prices Brook. But a general 
location for these ancient and once-important routes of travel 
does not satisfy the interested student of local events, who 
desires to place his foot upon the very ground where the old 
paths ran, and look upon the identical banks and waters which 
experienced the company of the old voyageurs. For such 
exact location of this particular portage no extant map or 
description suffices, and we turn perforce to other evidence. 
First, of course, is tradition, which, for events as recent as 
the use of these portages, has value, especially if used chiefly 
as a guide in the search for other evidence. As to tradition, 
I was told some years ago by Dr. B. S. Thorne of Butternut 
Ridge, one of the best informed of the older residents of 
that region, (see the Transactions XII. above cited), that 
the route of the portage, according to the early settlers, is 
followed approximately by the present highway road from 
Petitcodiac through Havelock Corner to Canaan, excepting 
that (compare the accompanying with the large map), a half mile 
from the Canaan end (not a mile as stated in the Transactions 
above mentioned), the present road swings out of the course 
of the old path, which kept on and reached the river a quarter 
of a mile below the present bridge. In further confirmation 
of the correctness of this location Dr. Thorne told me (I am 
quoting his letters, later confirmed by an interview with him), 
that on the fine great intervales just below the portage the 
French had gardens planted with plum, gooseberry and 
currant bushes.* The neighboring intervales, he added, have 
been much dug over by treasure seekers, and a resident of the 
Canaan Settlement showed me the place — on the North Side 
of the river opposite and a little below where the portage 
path is marked on the accompanying map. Dr. Thorne also 
told me that many Indian relics have been found along the 
river in this vicinity. These evidences of Indian and French 
occupancy, of course, have their value in this connection 
*It is possible that this French settlement is the Village of Acadians” marked 
some maps of about 1755, at the western end of the portage. 
