Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 7).djvu/114

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110
AMERICAN PORTAGES

important route. James Sullivan writing of the Kennebec in the last decade of the eighteenth century observes: "The Kenebeck . . receives the eastern branch, at fifty miles distance from Noridgewock. The main branch of the Kenebeck, winding into the wilderness, forms a necessity for several carrying places, one of which, called the Great Carrying Place, is five miles across, and the river's course gives a distance of thirty-five miles, for that which is gained by five on the dry land. At one hundred miles distance, or perhaps more from the mouth of the eastern branch, the source of the main or western branch of the Kenebeck is found extended a great distance along side the river Chaudière, which carries the waters from the high lands into the St. Lawrence. The best description of this branch of the Kenebeck, is had from the Officers who passed this route under the command of General Arnold, in 1775. . . The carrying place from boatable waters in it, to boatable waters in the river Chaudière, is only five miles over."[1]

  1. The History of the District of Maine, p. 32.