"The situations of many of the old portages are preserved to us in place names. Thus we have _Portage Bridge_, at the head of the Misseguash; _Portage Bank_, on the Miramichi, near Boiestown (not on the maps); _Portage River_, on the Northwest Miramichi, also as a branch of the Tracadie, also west of Point Escuminac, and also south of it; _Portage Brook_, on the Nepisiguit, leading to the Upsalquitch; _Portage Lake_, between Long and Serpentine Lakes; _Portage Station_, on the Intercolonial Railway. Kingston Creek, at the mouth of the Belleisle, was formerly called _Portage Creek_. _Anagance_ is the Maliseet word for Portage; and _Wagan_ and _Wagansis_, on the Restigouche and Grand River, are the Micmac for Portage, and a diminutive of it."[36] The chief routes of travel were along the sea-coasts and up and down the valley of the St. John River--the latter routes being of most importance. "Of all Indian routes," writes Dr. Ganong, "in what is now the Province of New Brunswick, the most important by far was that along the River St. John. This river was, and is, an ideal stream for canoe navigation. It not only has easy communication with every other river system in this and the neighbouring provinces, but it is in itself very easy to travel.... The St. John rises in Maine and its head waters interlock with those of the Penobscot, and with the Etechemin flowing into the St. Lawrence near Quebec." Under the system of the St. John-Restigouche portage Dr. Ganong thus describes the Grand River--Wagan path: "This was the most travelled of all routes across the Province. The Grand River is easy of navigation up to the Wagansis (i.e., Little Wagan), up which canoes could be taken for some two miles. A level portage of two or three miles leads into the Wagan (Micmac _O-wok-un_, 'a portage') a muddy, winding brook, which flows into the Restigouche, which to its mouth is a swift but smooth-flowing stream, unbroken by a fall, and almost without rapids. The total fall from the portage is not over 500 feet, and hence it is far easier to ascend than the Nepisiguit, and consequently was the main route across from Bay Chaleur to the St. John. For the upper waters of the St. John a route from the mouth of the Nepisiguit by Bay Chaleur to the Restigouche and thence to the St. John would be both considerably shorter and much easier than by the Nepisiguit--Tobique route.