Grand Lake emerges between the curved shores of the Jemseg. The largest colliery in New Brunswick is on the banks of this sizeable body of water which is traversed bi-weekly by steamers from St. John to Chipman, on the Salmon River, a total distance of 100 miles. The estimated supply of the Grand Lake coal-field is 150,000,000 tons. Duck, deer and moose inhabit this district.
The mouth of the Jemseg was chosen as a strategic point of defence by the French in 1640. The fort erected here was the object of an assault by the English in 1654 and was held under the English flag for nearly twenty years. Villebon, Governor of Acadie, made Jemseg his capital until 1692 when, on account of its susceptibility to floods, he abandoned this position for one 30 mile's up-stream nearer the Malecite villages. A memorial has been set up on Emenenic Island to a company of Frenchmen from St. Malo who established a settlement there in 1611.
Tributary to Grand Lake are Maquapit and French Lake on whose borders have been unearthed examples of pottery used in the Stone Age. One urn tooled in the rush pattern and decorated with lines of dots, is in the possession of the New Brunswick Historical Society. It was taken from an island in Maquapit Lake in 1904. Similar discoveries have been made in the Kennebecasis Valley, where implements fashioned from carnelian and chalcedony have been spaded from
