Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 7).djvu/15

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PREFACE
11

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