DCHP-1 Online
witch-pole Maritimes, Obs. 
n. See quote.
- 1849 There is a singular story connected with the Upper St. John's, regarding witch-poles. [Fn.] Lieutenant Simmons had lately been in a canoe with an old Indian hunter, on one of the lakes of the St. Francis River, and they came to two smooth and green poles, without branch or leaf, and apparently growing out of the bottom; they stood eight feet above water. On sounding, the depth was found to be 30 feet, and on shaking one pole; the other also moved. The hunter said these poles had been there since his childhood, and always had stood there since two witches had come up the lake to fish, and thrusting their poles to the bottom to make fast their canoe, they had grown there.
- 1849 There is a singular story connected with the Upper St. John's, regarding witch-poles. [Fn.] Lieutenant Simmons had lately been in a canoe with an old Indian hunter, on one of the lakes of the St. Francis River, and they came to two smooth and green poles, without branch or leaf, and apparently growing out of the bottom; they stood eight feet above water. On sounding, the depth was found to be 30 feet, and on shaking one pole; the other also moved. The hunter said these poles had been there since his childhood, and always had stood there since two witches had come up the lake to fish, and thrusting their poles to the bottom to make fast their canoe, they had grown there.