It has seemed most profitable to divide the subject into two parts: in the first, under the specific title of "Portage Paths" is given a description of these routes, their nature, use, and evolution. The second part is devoted to a "Catalogue of American Portages," and in it are included extracts from the studies of students who have given the subject of portages their attention, showing style of treatment, methods of investigation and research, and results of field-work. Among these Dr. Wm. F. Ganong's _Historic Sites in the Province of New Brunswick_ and Elbert J. Benton's _The Wabash Trade Route_ are commanding examples of critical, scholarly field-work and specific historical analysis. Professor Justin H. Smith's impressive monograph on _Arnold's Battle with the Wilderness_, and Secretary George A. Baker's _The St. Joseph-Kankakee Portage_ are illustrations of what could and should be done in many score of cases throughout the United States. To Sylvester's _Northern New York_ and Dr. H. C. Taylor's _The Old Portage Road_ the author is likewise indebted. The author has attempted to make good in some degree the astonishing lack of material concerning the famous Oneida Portage in New York, a subject which calls loudly for earnest and minute study--for this portage path at Rome, New York, with the exception of Niagara, was the most important west of the Hudson River. A plea for the study of the subject of portages and the marking of historic sites occupies the concluding pages. A. B. H. MARIETTA, OHIO, May 22, 1903. PART I Portage Paths CHAPTER I NATURE AND USE OF PORTAGES There may be no better way to introduce the subject of the famous old portages of America, than to ask the reader to walk, in fancy, along what may be called a "Backbone of America"--that watershed which runs from the North Atlantic seaboard to the valley of the Mississippi River. It will prove a long, rough, circuitous journey, but at the end the traveler will realize the meaning of the word "portage," which in our day has almost been forgotten in common parlance, and will understand what it meant in the long ago, when old men dreamed dreams and young men saw visions which will never be dreamed or seen again in human history. As we start westward from New Brunswick and until we reach the sweeping tides of the Mississippi we shall see, on the right hand and on the left, the gleaming lakes or half-hidden brooks and rivulets which flow northward to the St. Lawrence or the Great Lakes, or southward to the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico. On the high ground between the heads of these water-courses our path lies.