NATURAL HISTORY AND PHYSIOGRAPHY OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 527 
104. — On the Physiographic Characteristics of the Lower 
North (or Apskwa) Branch of the Little South- 
west Miramichi. 
Read December 4. 1906. 
The Little Southwest Miramichi, though our maps do not 
show the fact, is our largest and finest wilderness river. It is 
formed by the confluence of five great branches, all of which I 
have had the satisfaction of studying. Four of them are 
described and mapped in earlier notes of this series (Nos. 55, 86, 
87, 99), while an account of the fifth here follows.* 
We note first the devlopment of our knowledge of this branch. 
It appears for the first time, though crudely, upon the Franquelin- 
deMuelles map of 1686, under its Micmac name apchkouau , f and 
persists, though without name, through maps of the French 
period. It is first clearly shown upon a modern map from survey 
on a plan of 1837 by Peters, where it is called simply the North 
Branch, while Berton’s plan of the Little Southwest, made in 
1838, shows its mouth bearing the name Little North Branch. 
But the first survey actually to touch its waters was made in 
1880 by Sadler and Fish, who located Guagus Lake and ran 
timber lines in the vicinity. A year later Freeze ran the lines 
which located its headwaters, and since then Fish and McClinton 
have run the other lines shown upon the map. All of these 
* Based upon two visits, one in 1905, described in Note 99, and another in 
July, 1906. In the latter I was accompanied by my friend, Professor A. H. Pierce. 
We went on foot (carrying our outfit in packs, and without guides or other aid) 
from Guagus Lake to and up the Branch, across by the upper portage road to 
the North Pole Branch, to the headwaters of that stream, Freeze Lake, the source 
of this Branch, Kagoot, the North Branch Sevogle, and down that stream to the 
Square Forks and the Northwest Miramichi. From this route we made side 
excursions in various places. 
f Its modern Micmac name is Ap-oos-kwok, which is evidently the same word 
It might well be simplified for use to Apskwa, which would form a good and dis- 
tinctive substitute for the present cumbersome name. Guagus is Micmac, and 
said by the Indians to signify “ rough stream.” The upper branches of the stream, 
as I am assured by both lumbermen and guides, have been hitherto unnamed, and 
I have therefore ventured to apply' to them the names of the surveyors who have 
run the lines in' or near the valley. The other names on the Branch are all 
obviously descriptive, and have been gievn by * 1 lumbermen or guides. The stream 
is commonly known simply as “The Branch,” which distinguishes it from ‘‘The 
Pole.” 
