NATURAL HISTORY AND PHYSIOGRAPHY OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 95 
Such is the present geography, but it is evident that very 
careful study of the region is needed to yield conclusions of 
value as to its past changes. Evidently, however, the main 
stream flows almost entirely in the highlands, a part of the 
southern branch of the central mass ; and it is altogether probable 
that its direction is determined by that of the great bounding 
intrusive ridges between which it runs. Possibly the basin below 
Beaver Lake may have emptied originally to the Clearwater, and 
it is wholly likely that the older mouth of the Branch lay to the 
westward, where there is a high gap. Whether or not an old 
course of the river south into the Taxis can be traced, I am not 
sure, though I found some indications thereof. 
The Big Clearwater * 
This is the largest of the great branches of the upper part of 
the Main Southwest Miramichi. As the map will show, its main 
source interlocks with those of the Gulquac, though not, as would 
be supposed from the general topography of the region, in a 
mountainous country, but in an extensive open flat trough or 
basin lying about 1400 feet elevation (as shown by railway survey 
levels), in the very heart of the highlands. 
In earlier notes presented before this Society I have mention- 
ed frequently the great Central Plateau which lies in between the 
Tobique, Nepisiguit and the Little Southwest Miramichi, and I 
* This stream is called Pichidmek on the Franquelin-DeMeulles map of 1686, 
meant for its Indian name. The Maliseets call it Pes-ki-o-mi-nek, as two of our 
best authorities agree (Chamberlain, Maliseet Vocabulary, 58, and Jack, Journal 
of American Folk-Lore, VIII, 207), with which word the Pichiamnack, applied 
on the map of 1686 to Burnt Hill seems identical, and I suspect that, as in some 
other cases, the names are misplaced. According to Jack the word means “ a 
branch,” but obviously this applies only to the first syllable, which has that 
meaning in other Maliseet words (e. g. Peskahegan). I suspect that the remainder 
of the word is identical with the Maliseet a-moo-i-nec (of which Muniac is a 
corruption), meaning “a deep gulch.” Hence the word would mean “Gulch 
Branch.” The Indian name for Burnt Hill is, appropriately enough, the diminu- 
tive of this. The word could be simplified for use to Peskomek (accent on the 
last syllable). 
The name of the Branch (in common use “The Big Clearwater”) is descrip- 
tive of its water in its lower course where it has cleared itself of the brownish 
color it exhibits in its upper part. It appeared first on Allen’s map of 1831. 
