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The Georgian Bay 
 
 AN ACCOUNT . 
 
 OF 
 
 ITS POSITION, INHABITANTS, MINERAL INTERESTS, 
 FISH, TIMBER AND OTHER RESOURCES 
 
 WITH 
 
 MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Papers Read Before the Canadian Institute 
 JAMES CLELAND HAMILTON, M. A., LL.B., 
 
 CHAIRMAN OF THE HISTORICAL SECTION, 
 
 Author of "The Prairie Province." 
 
 TORONTO : 
 The Carsweli, Company, Limited. 
 
FC309? 
 H3 
 
 Entered accordiug to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand 
 eight hundred and ninety-three, by Jambs Gjjkland Hamilton, in the office 
 of the Minister of Agriculture. 
 
TO 
 
 The Crew of the "White Squall" 
 
 AND 
 
 To ALL THE Jolly Fishermen 
 
 WHOSE NETS ARE CAST 'mONG THE ISLES OF 
 
 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 Bosedak, Toronto, 
 May, 1893. 
 
The photograph of Champlain's astrolabe is from the 
 original, through the courtesy of R. S. Cassels, Esq. 
 The other illustrations are from original pencil sketches 
 made by Mrs. Jameson during her "Summer Rambles" 
 of 1837, in possession of Mr.. Robert Bain, who has 
 kindly permitted their reproduction in this volume. 
 
" And this our life, exempt from public haunt, 
 Innds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
 Sermons in stones, and good in everything.^'' 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Incidents of a Canadian Midsummer Excursion. — The 
 ' White Sc^uall ' and her crew start from Wiarton — They 
 visit Parry Sound — The Minks — Join in the fishermen's 
 gayeties— See the vessels and mode of life there and at the 
 Bustards — French River — Fishermen and fish stations — 
 Killarney— Squaw Island — Club Island — Tamarack Har- 
 bour — The Manitoulins — Rattlesnake Harbour — Half 
 Breeds — Indians — Rattlers — Camp-fire fun — The South 
 Channel— Tobermory— The Big Tub and the Little Tub— 
 The Flower Pots — Wingfield Basin — Cape Croker — Sau- 
 geen Peninsula — Back to Wiarton 9-27 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Historical and (iEocrai'Iiical. — Mr. David Thompson and 
 his labours as traveller and astronomer — The Bay described 
 — Its strategic imi)()rtance — The Saugeen Peninsula — The 
 North Channel — Collingwood — Thornbury — Meaford — 
 Wiarton — Penetanguishene and Sir John Franklin — Ste. 
 Marie and the Jesuits — The Christian Islands — Railway 
 from Parry Sound — Names of places — How derived — Some 
 from the Hurons — Stmie fanciful, as Flos, Tiny and Tay — 
 Others in honor of soldiers, seamen and statesmen — The 
 "Temporary Judicial District of Manitoulin," how bound- 
 ed—The Island railway 28-38 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Geological Formation and Mining Interests. — The Lauren- 
 tians — Graphite, appatite and mica — The Huronian forma- 
 tion — The "Folding process" — Early volcanic activity — 
 The Silver Islet and Bruce mines — The Ophir Gold Mine 
 — Nickel deposits — Their great value — Professor Williams' 
 discussion of the volcanic agencies north of the Georgian 
 Bay — Nickel known to the Chinese and ancients — Found 
 in meteorites — The "Copper Devil" — Cronstedt's views — 
 
 (vi) 
 
Contents. 
 
 vH 
 
 CoiTipositcs of nickel — Its various uses — The Sudbury nickel 
 belts Hnd mines — Eunnens' Tables of nickel-iron-sulphides, 
 gersdorftito — Mr. CJeorgo Mickle's opinion — The Wallace 
 mine — A long watch — Use of nickel by the English Admir- 
 alty and United States navy — They buy it at Sudbury — 
 Important experiments made by United States Government 
 and great metal firms — The result — Public and domestic 
 uses of nickel increasing fast — Gold mining — Platinum — 
 Other metals — The Bird's Eye formation — Trenton lime- 
 stone — Hudson River formation — Medina marls — Tho 
 Clinton and Niagara limestones — Deposits of a Silurean sea 
 — Spencer's views — Chains of lakes— Runways — Indian 
 trails — Falls and cascades — Proposed railway from French 
 River to the C. P. R 39-02 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Native Inhabitants. — The Assikinacks — Distinguished chiefs 
 and warriors — Charter of Indian rights — Customs — Shoot- 
 ing Matsi Manito — Mode of government — Land of the 
 Hurons, their remains — Ottawasand Chippewas — Patriotic 
 sentiments — Mr. S. J. Dawson's story — Education — Wards 
 of Government — C. T. Keejek — Francis Assikinack — 
 Macinac massacre — Fort Dearborn — Chicago — Taken by 
 Ottawas — The place described — The "Black Partridge 
 Medal" — Assikinack's activity in war of 1812 — The 
 "Tigress" and "Scorpion" captured — Archdeacon 
 McMurray's narrative — Mrs. Jameson's story, as to Macinac 
 — the "Soo" North Channel and Manitoulin Indians — 
 Schoolcraft's Algonquin researches 03-83 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Indian Life and Traditions (continued). — The origin of the 
 " Song of Hiawatha" — The legends of Manabozho — Alex- 
 ander Henry's version — The Isle of Nanibojou still vener- 
 ated — Rev. W. M. Beauchamp — Dr. A. F. Chamberlin, 
 Mr. J. Mclntyre and others refer to the Canadian demi- 
 god Manabozho or Nanibojou — Assikinack tho Ottawa 
 " Blackbird " once a pagan warrior, becomes a Christian of 
 sterling character — Captam Anderson gives him a severe 
 lesson — Career of Francis Assikinack, a "warrior of the 
 Odahwahs " — He claims an Asiatic origin for his people — 
 Romantic characteristics — The Mohawks as warriors — 
 Sahgima's watching tower — Oratory and legends . . . 84-99 
 
Viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PiONERK Vessels. — Climntic influences — The fisheries — 
 Excellence of the white fish— Size of the salmon trout — 
 Opinions of travellers — The industry described by the fish- 
 ermen — Fish-oil making — A man of Lewis — Proulx's great 
 luck— Thel*tiBhing stations — Official and other statistics as 
 
 %• to value of^4he catch — Number of men and vessels and 
 fathoms of net employed in the Georgian Bay and Lake 
 Huron — Depletion of supply — Opinions as to this and the 
 remedy by D. W. Port and others 100-113 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Wild Animals of the Region — Fruit, Flowers and Forestry. 
 — The moose, deer, wapiti and other large game — Birds and 
 small game — The gulls, owls, grosbeaks, swans, ducks, geese, 
 pigeons, partridges, rabbits — Varieties of wild fruit — The 
 trees described — Age of maples, oaks and pines — A great 
 forest fire — Beauty of the vegetation in autumn — F<orestry 
 and lumbering — Fire-rahgers — Value of the timber interest 
 — Extent of the lumber region qfOntario — The old voyageur 
 route described, as used by^X^umplain and Sir George 
 Simpson — The Railway adoptil it — Canals proposed — The 
 Hurontario Ship Railway . .y;*^^. . . . » 114-137 
 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 '1 
 
 Champlain's Astrolabe, lost on the Ottawa, found after 254 
 years — History and description of it — Iiand and timber 
 north of North Bay, as described by J. C Bailey, C.E. and 
 othors — James Bay — Ontario's broad expanse — A National 
 Forest and Park proposed — Territory recommended for the 
 purpose— Its situation and extent defined— Fisherman delfh'e 
 a McKinley policy — Conclusion — '"Mong the isles of the 
 Georgian Bay". 138-157 
 
 »■--. ■ '■'■''if 
 
 'Appendices. — A. Census of Indians of Ontario and Quebec ; 
 B. Shinguaoose, the Chippewa chief ; 0. Captain Thomas 
 George Anderson ; D. Official' signatures of F. B. Assiki- 
 nack and his son Francis ; E. The Algonquin language — 
 Indian Namea x>f Persona- and PlaceBt— Totems or Do 
 daims \.... 158-170 
 
 
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THE GEORGIAN BAY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INCIDENTS OF A CANADIAN MIDSUMMER EXCI^RSION. 
 
 Deiis nobis haec otia fecit. — Vircil. 
 
 [n)USH her off'," cried Ernest, the 
 Skipper ; " cast free the painter, 
 ' Misery,' my boy ; look after the 
 mainsail, Jack, and " Ninety' "' haul 
 away on the peak halyard. Up vvitli 
 the fo'sail. Here she ^oes round. 
 Now clear the sheets ; all hands 
 down on the thwarts." And so on a 
 hazy August afternoon, the staunch 
 little vessel, the ' White Squall,' 
 started out from the harbour of 
 Wiarton, bound for a cruise round 
 the beautiful inland sea, which 
 bears the name of his late Majesty, 
 King George the Third — The Georgian Bay. 
 
 (9) 
 
10 The Georgian Boy. 
 
 The Skipper, an accomplished, thougli amateur 
 sailor, had his compass and box of government charts 
 of these waters as prepared from survey by Comman- 
 ders Bayfield and Boulton, H.N. This is the vessel we 
 were in, usually called a Macinac. She was 32 feet from 
 stem to stern, 8 feet 4 inches beam, her fo'castle was 10 
 feet 6 inches, and a small locker was also at the stern, 
 which was pointed as the bow. The two masts car- 
 ried six tijindred feet of canvas. Large stones and 
 wooden railway ties formed the ballast. A tent, oval 
 in shape, 7 feet 6 inches by 10 feet, lay rolled up ready 
 to be raised as night fell, and fastened with hooks to 
 the deck. A six leen foot skifl was towed behind as a 
 dingy. The Dominion flag flew from the peak of the 
 mainsail. The craft had been used as a fishing smack, 
 but was cleaned and refitted, under our good Skipper's 
 direction, for this trip. We were seven, but one waited 
 till the port of Parry Harbour was reached and there 
 joined the party. For personal comfort, each had his 
 valise and bag of blankets. Alfred the Steward had 
 charge of the provisions ; and well filled boxes under 
 the fore-deck attested his assiduity. To the Skipper 
 we owed much for brilliant foresight ; 25 yards of cot- 
 ton at five cents a yard, made into narrow cases and 
 filled with hay, formed comfortable mattresses at night 
 and, during the day, were stowed in the fo'castle, or 
 used as seats. Old and warm clothing was in order. 
 * Misery ' had his guitar, * Ninety ' had his little flutes 
 in three keys. We started on an even keel, with even 
 tempers, and dull care and Colpoy's Bay were soon left 
 far behind. 
 
Canadian Midsummer Excursion. 11 
 
 The sails are full ; wharfs, prett}' villas and farms 
 are past. High limestone cliHs rise up in the west; 
 Cape Croker is in view, and we sheer off eastward, 
 past Hay Island. The open is soon reached. As night 
 comes on, the liglits of Owen Sound and Cape Rich 
 are seen, but the course is through the centre of the 
 big Bay and with the Christian Islands far on our 
 starboard. 
 
 The wind for a time blows a gale and double reefs 
 are taken in the sails ; still on she goes with us all up 
 on the weather gunwale, and the water giving an oc- 
 casional dash over the coamings as she heels over to 
 the freshening gale. This lasted for a couple of hours, 
 then a calm fell, and we almost drifted and got some 
 sleep, with a lantern hung out. When the sun rose, 
 we were pretty seedy, but a cup of coffee, concocted 
 over the coal-oil stove, steadied our nerves and a good 
 breeze generally bore us along till we came to the Red 
 Rock lighthouse, where we hailed a fishing smack and 
 asked for the course to Parry Sound. " If you will 
 haul up a bit I'll go with you," answered a young fish- 
 erman. Glad of his company, we soon had Adam Brown 
 on board and in charge of the tiller. A jolly fisher was 
 he ; every rock in the bay and each short cut, through 
 the mazes of the islands, was familiar to him. We 
 were tied up in Parry Harbour as the sun set. Here 
 we had our first supper, using a vacant shed for dining 
 room. Some rested on board, others in the shed, and 
 all slept soundly and awoke ready for our bath and 
 breakfast. Then we went up through the village, had 
 
The Georgian Bay. 
 
 a fine view from the hctel site — a beautiful spot set 
 high over the bay — waited till some showers passed 
 and, with Adam and sunshine, were off for the Minks 
 soon after noon. We stopped an hour at Kill-bear 
 Point, and, after a fine sail, got to the Minks about 9 
 p.m. The fishermen welcomed us heartily and gave us 
 the use of a shanty, where supper was soon spread. We 
 were invited to the gaieties going on near by, where 
 appeared a house full of a merry party. A visiting 
 fiddler made music, and shoes, not the lightest, beat 
 the floor, not the smoothest, and happy couples per- 
 formed, as they were called, cotillions, (juadrilles and 
 Sir Roger. * Misery,' our amiable musician, brought 
 his guitar, and all went merry as a marriage bell. 
 
 " Take your places," " First couple advance," " Prom- 
 enade all," were some of the orders of the young fish- 
 erman, with broad weather-beaten face, full of enjoy- 
 ment, who acted as dance master. The guitar's sweet 
 tones aided the fiddler. Little ones dozed in the arms 
 of their smiling mothers, sitting on hard benches, and 
 the rugged features of the men relaxed as they looked 
 on. Such fun had not been at the Minks for many a 
 night. All was laughter and music and hammering 
 of feet. It was a strange contrast to the quiet scene 
 before us, as we passed the open door. Waves splashed 
 and sparkled in moonlight so clear that we could see 
 the roses and hyacinths that sprung from crevices in 
 the rocks. Orion was up in the east. The Aurora 
 flashed and danced to and fro in the north-west hori- 
 zon, and the red shield of Mars, nearer to us that night 
 
CamadioM Midswnnner Exciivs'wn. 13 
 
 than he would be for many a year, lield guard over 
 the south. 
 
 All aboard again, a young fisherman took the helm, 
 the breeze caught the sails, a quick run was made 
 across a little bay, then a tack was taken, the painter 
 thrown out and our vessel was run up on a shelving 
 rocky shore. A vacant cabin was given us, where we 
 were soon settled, and in bunks, for what remained of 
 the night. 
 
 In the morning we found the Minks to consist of 
 a number of rocky islands, on parts of which was 
 sufficient soil to sustain grass, bushes and flowers, 
 among which were the single pink rose, violet and 
 strawberry, red raspberry and whortleberry plants. 
 A solitary cow roamed through the bushes. Next 
 morning we arose late, had breakfast, some fished ; a 
 party took the ' White Squall ' and sailed to Franklin 
 island. They got back at 9 p.m., without game, but 
 had seen some ducks and partridges, an eagle on a 
 high pine, and a rattlesnake. A fisherman brought in 
 a snake, which looked like the Fox- snakes in the Cana- 
 dian Institute collection. He called it a Copperhead. 
 It was five feet long, and swam towards his boat hold- 
 ing up its head, when he shot it. In the evening, some 
 of the young men came and joined our camp. They 
 were intelligent and pleasant companions. One of 
 them had fished oflf the Orkneys, but most of those at 
 this station were Canadians from Collingwood, Mea- 
 ford or Owen Sound. All were excellent sailors and 
 could, without a chart, steer their boats on the shortest 
 
^) 
 
 14 The GeoTfiian Bay. 
 
 course through the mazy channels of the Bay. The 
 arms of some were tatooed, sailor fashion, with boats 
 or anchors. Their songs were of the salt water : 
 
 * Tom Brown,' ' Charley Taylor, Ruler of the Sea,' 
 
 * The Three Brotliers, a sad tale of the Spanish Main.' 
 Their management of the vessels was interesting. 
 They moved, among the islands and over shoals, as a 
 bicycle on the asphalt. Flocks of gulls, grey and 
 white, and of the smaller reddegged species, here 
 called "garnets,"* flew about or rested tamely on the 
 rocks ; when the fish are cleaned, they come and 
 greedily devour the offal, here thrown away, but at 
 other stations utilized for the oil which it yields. 
 
 The weather was windy, so that the men did not 
 go to their nets, nor were we successful with our 
 lines. We took the dingy and went from one to ano- 
 ther of the Minks islands, throwing our hooks into 
 the pools. Our want of success was to some extent, 
 perhaps, due to the fact that the watchful fishermen, 
 when they find a pool full of fins, haul a seine in it 
 and secure even the bass and pickerel. They never 
 use a rod, but sometimes throw a troll. We walked 
 about and picked flowers on the parts of the islands 
 covered with verdure. Wild roses and hyacinths, or 
 blue bells, and violets were common, and of fruits, the 
 raspberry, whortleberry, a dark currant and small 
 gooseberry, haws, bil-berries and pin-cherries were 
 ripe, and there were many vines of the strawberry, 
 pigeon -berry and wintergreen. " Is your fishing off 
 the Orkneys like that here ? " we asked of the young 
 
Canadidn Mklsammer Excuraiov . 15 
 
 Orkney man. " Oh, no," lie said ; " here we sometimes 
 have a little rough and foggy weather, but the men 
 know how to manage and don't often get into danger. 
 The nets may have to be out a few days longer than 
 we wish, but ofi' the Orkneys we go in rather bigger 
 vessels, set our nets for the herring, ar.d then, as the 
 tide goes out. we must stay by anJ follow them, rain 
 or shine, haul and bring them in, as the tide turns 
 and comes with us. Here we fasten the nets to an- 
 chored floating buoys and leave them, until we have 
 good weather to go out to them, from five to fifteen, 
 or even twenty miles away, as the weather permits. 
 The nets go down to the bottom, ten to forty fathoms, 
 but when so far down it is hard work hauling them." 
 There were no steam craft used here, but the vessels 
 of some of the men, notably the Messrs. Farr, were 
 rigged with top-sail and jib and fitted up almost as 
 yachts. Their centre-boards were of wood and were 
 found safer and easier to manage than if of iron. 
 These vessels were all pointed, fore and aft, like our 
 own, and none more than 35 feet long ; while the grafts 
 of Lake Huron fishermen which we met were almost 
 invariably square in the stern, but of a like tonnage. 
 Some of them were of " partridge build," the prow 
 sharp and rising gracefully above the water. 
 
 On Saturday p.m. we steered away with a good 
 wind, took the outer channel northward, passed the 
 lights of Point au Baril and Byng Inlet, made more 
 than fifty knots, with scaice a tack, until we neared 
 the light off the Bustards. It was dark, so we did 
 
16 The Gforyian Baj/. 
 
 not vt'iitui'e thr()U|L;li the shorter but intricate channel, 
 but went round the rocky reef to the west and tied 
 up opposite the wharf of Yankee island, had supper 
 and slept on board. Next day we visited French 
 River, three miles across the Bay, a o;veat lumber 
 centre, with two mills, immense piles of pine boards, 
 and lonf^ elevated tramways for the removing and 
 hauling of the lumber. We returned to the Bustards, 
 tying up at ' Highland Home,' another island. Here 
 were many shanties but most of the fishermen were 
 goin), as the season was waning. Some of them were 
 from Lake Huron and will fish there in October. One 
 of them said that he and his partner had taken 25 
 tons of fish this season. He was unusually fortunate, 
 from 8 to 10 tons were as much as most of those here 
 admitted to have secured. They got $70 a ton from 
 the Buffalo Fish Company, whose agent is here. As 
 the smacks come in from the grounds they are un- 
 loaded, the fish dressed by removal of their entrails, 
 weighed, and then packed in ice in the waggons, or 
 boxes set on wheels, ready to be removed, as each box 
 is filled, on the tugs— ' The Clark' or 'The Jones.' 
 Each box contains 1200 pounds of fish. Here, too, 
 " the barbarous people showed us no little kindness." 
 We used a shanty for dining-room and had good 
 company and music from the active young agent in 
 cliarge of the store, and others. We left the Bus- 
 tards on Tuesday morning, had a good run on a 
 westerly course, landed for dinner on a rocky island 
 which rises very bold and large out of the water. 
 
(■(tnadian }fi<JsnmhK>r Excursimi. lY 
 
 It was the resort of innumerrtble ouHh that rose, 
 scream rn^r, as we approached. The top of the rock 
 gave an excellent view of the surrounding bay and 
 of the shore lying to our north, witli rocks and 
 islands ininniierahle stretcliing into the misty dis- 
 tance. Tliis rtgion has not yet been surveyed or 
 fully delineated on the government charts, and it is 
 li<jped that Connnander Boulton will be permitted to 
 complete his admirable work, so invaluable to all 
 navigators of these waters. 
 
 We arrived at Killarney at 1 1 p.m., in rain, and tied 
 up at a wharf. Three of us went to the Algoma Hotel, 
 the others had the more room for comfort on board, 
 under cover of tent and sails. Next morning the in- 
 teresting village was seen. Three large steamers came 
 in on their way to or from the Soo'. Many Indians* 
 were strolling about, dressed as wdiite folk, all com- 
 fortable and happy in appearance. They were from 
 the Reserve on Manitoulin Island, called Wikwemi- 
 kong. I conversed with two of them. Tom Salter, or 
 Skeabunk, and Edward Seiko, and found that" the 
 language of the Missisaugas, of Scugog, as given in 
 the thesis of Dr. A. F. Chamberlain, of (^'lark Univer- 
 sity, was well understood by them. They are mostly 
 Chippewas. Several Macinacs were at the wharf, 
 owned by Indians and used in fishing. Now they 
 carried squaws and papooses and bushels of whortle- 
 berries, picked by them. The young squaws were 
 bartering on the wharf, stout old dames held the 
 babies and kept order in the vessels among the little 
 
IS The (Jamp/in Hay. 
 
 red folk ami their dogs. There are many half bieeds 
 at Killarney, mostly French and Roman Catholic, and 
 there is a small Koman Catholic church. Killarney is 
 at the eastern termination of a rich mineral region, as 
 yet little develo})e(l, but very interesting to geologists. 
 The scraping of the ice, as the gj-eat bergs gromid 
 slowly along in a I'emote age, trom the north-west to 
 the south-east, is distinctly visible on the Hat rocks 
 in the steandioat channel. The formation is Huronian. 
 The nickel deposits, now worked with much proHt, 
 are in the Sudbury district, north of Killarney, and 
 will be further referred to. (a) 
 
 Leaving Killarney, we made sail along the coast 
 easterly a few nules and entereil a pretty cove. Here 
 we anchored ; some fished and others wandered over the 
 land with guns for awhile. The moss, covering rocks 
 and stumps, here and elsewhere on this shore, was deep 
 and yielding to the touch, and in hue, rich and varied, 
 from soft sea-green to heathery purple. As the sun 
 shone on its dewy spires, they glistened like gems. 
 
 With wind astern, we next struck south for Squaw- 
 island, going for a time with sails ' wing-a-wing.' 
 Many islands were passed, rocky and barren, but 
 Green island appeared to our left as an oasis clad with 
 verdure of trees, shrubs and flowers. We entered 
 Squaw Island harbour, in shape a horse-shoe, 500 
 yards across. The houses, the usual summer shan- 
 ties, are on the south side. As our boat passed in, a 
 score of men and boys came to rpeet us. We ran 
 
 (a ) See Chapter III. 
 
Oifnadian Midnumwer E.rrnvtiiov. 10 
 
 upon a Htony neck of land to the east and proceeded 
 to prepare for supper. The fishini^ begins at the t;nd 
 of April and (^nds al)Out the middle of Auf^ust. There 
 had been forty-seven smacks and three tugs employed 
 here. Twenty-seven of the vessels had left. There 
 were many nets on reels and spiead on the rocks. 
 Men were unrolling them, women and children were 
 about the houses, all looking happy and coniforta))le. 
 The island is of limestone, two miles long an«l half as 
 wide. A light soil lias formed over part of the n ck, 
 and this is covered with low cedars, spruce, balsam 
 and juniper uuslies. Among these may be found some 
 wild fruit. The people are from various parts of the 
 Bay, CoUingwood, Lion's Head, Meaford and Killarney. 
 Though of diverse creeds, all here, including a good 
 Chippewa, joined in b\.:lding a Mission Church, of 
 which the missionary was architect and chief carpen- 
 ter. The wonien do not work at the fishing or nets. 
 The children go to a schoo" conducted by Mr. Menzies, 
 the excellent young Presbyterian missionary stationed 
 here for the summer. ' • 
 
 August 11th. Dashed out of the heel of the horse- 
 shoe, with a spanking breeze on a south- w^est course. 
 Grand Manitoulin was before our prow, with Cape 
 Smith on its north-east, and the Killarney and La 
 Cloche mountains covered with clouds beyond. 
 
 Club island appears to the east, a large fishing sta- 
 tion, which we did not visit. The green Rabbit island 
 is also seen. Far off in the Bay, is the long and low 
 Lonely island, a desolate spot to which a tale is at- 
 
20 The Georcfidn Bay. 
 
 tached. It is reported that, somewhere among its 
 rocks, there is a human skeleton in a pine box or 
 rude coffin, hut anything more of the poor fellow lying 
 there, under the scream of the gulls and amid the 
 dashing billows, we could not learn. We lan into 
 Tamarack Harbour, a sheltered cove, found a tripod 
 of three sticks, left by former visitors, whereon we 
 hung our kettle and had dinner. This was the only 
 point on the Great Manitoulin touched. Then, across 
 the Ba3^ for Rattlesnake Harbour, on Fitzwilliam, or 
 Horse island, which stretched before us, large and cov- 
 ered with verdure. Entered this romantic spot at 6 
 p.m., crossed through the heart-shaped harbour in four 
 fathoms of water and ran upon a stony beach. Behind 
 us was a rising ground covered with small boulders, 
 smooth and polished, and ending in a steep limestone 
 clitt". We had left the Lauren tian ranges behind on 
 the north shore. The cliff was full of fissures and 
 little caves. Across the harbour, nets were drying. 
 There was a small shop, a fish-packing and ice house, 
 two or three shanties, tlien a large tent occupied by 
 a half-breed familv, the father a fisherman, with sons 
 who aided him, and two pretty daughters, who have 
 been at school at the Manitowaning Convent, and are 
 now remaining with their father, who is a widower 
 and likes to have his dear ones about him. Beyond 
 that were four conical tepees, of bark and slabs, occu- 
 pied by red folk from the Reserve, the squaw o making 
 mats of sweet-scented grass and birch bark colored 
 with diamond dyes, girls cleaning fish, and little fel- 
 
CanadiuM Midsuwmer Ejccursion. 21 
 
 lows, fat and jolly, playing themselves. An old 
 Nokomis, blear-eyed, bent and wrinkled, looked out 
 of a tepee and smiled at ns. Pots and diying fish 
 were hung on tripods, over fires before the tents, and, 
 though the weather was warm, a little fire burned on 
 the floor of one of the tents, the smoke circlin , in it, 
 till it passed out through an opening at the top. 
 Three fishing smacks, belonging to the Indians, lay at 
 the shore : one came in with a fine lot of white fish, 
 taken with a troll, made of a big hook baited w^ith 
 a herring. Nine of these fish weighed 80 pounds when 
 dressed, and were sold at the packing house at three 
 cents a pound. A great raft of logs filled one end of 
 the harbour ; a strong tug w^as working it into shape 
 for a tow to Detroit. We were warned of troublesome 
 neighbours on our side, rattlesnakes from the lime- 
 stone cliff behind. 
 
 A young man was pointed out who had killed thir- 
 teen this summer. One of the Bois bruR'S girls stepped 
 with a bare foot, on a rattler, but escaped and the 
 deadly rattler was killed by her brother. These. rep- 
 tiles arc, in this climate, sluggish and will not attack 
 unless hurt or angered. When roused, they shake their 
 tails and rattle, and then prepare for fight by coiling, 
 and projecting the fangs hidden in their jaws, and as 
 this takes half a minute or so, an agile person can soon 
 jump clear of danger ; but woe to him who comes un- 
 aware on the angry and alert snake, if the fang sti ikes 
 a vein or artery ! 
 
 We had supper on the beach and a quartette played 
 
22 Tke Georgian Bay. 
 
 \> their favorite game by the camp fire ; but we all slept 
 oil board as usual and had snakes in our dreams. The 
 morning broke with a beautiful sunrise. The playing 
 quartette v/ere hard to arouse. By 8.30 a.m. we bowled 
 out amid adieus from our friends on the beach. A 
 quarter breeze took us along the north side of Horse 
 island at a great pace, the mainsail had to be lowered, 
 then the foresail was double reefed, as the mast bent 
 like a sapling. The Manitoulin shore was soon lost 
 to view as we wended southward into the open water, 
 arrived opposite the fine Cove island light at 11.50; 
 
 ' but as there was a stormy sea, passed on and into 
 
 the south-west arm of Tobermory harbour. Turning 
 to the right, we entered, in twelve fathoms, a wonderful 
 natural harbour, extending half a mile between lime- 
 stone rocks. Its breadth is one hundred and fifty 
 yards and depth from three to eight fathoms, unim- 
 peded with shoal or rock. 
 
 - No wharves are used, rings are fastened to the nat- 
 ural stone walls and to these vessels are made fast. This 
 beautiful refuge has, as breakwaters near its mouth, 
 the small green Doctor island, the large Russell island 
 and the Flower Pots. This is usually called the ' Big 
 Tub.' Another bay, the ' Little Tub,' or east arm, is 
 around a point from the lighthouse. Here are a few 
 houses, a telegraph office and fish station. We are on 
 the north end of the Saugeen Peninsula. Under the 
 clear water of the ' Big Tub ' may be seen the ribs of a 
 large batteau, said to have carried guns eighty years 
 ago, and to have been sunk and abandoned here when 
 
Canadian Midsuninier Excursion. %^ 
 
 peace became permanent. The like remains of two 
 old gunboats may be seen in the Penetang harbour. 
 They were sunk after the war of 1812, their guns and 
 tackle being previously removed ; a careless way of 
 disposing of them, as they, to some extent, impede 
 navigation, and are hard to raise, when imbedded and 
 Waterloo fifed. 
 
 After dinner, four of the party went witli guns to 
 Hay harbour to look for game. They lost their way, 
 in I'eturning after nightfall, so retraced their steps 
 back to the water's edge, made a camp fire, slept under 
 an abandoned macinac, and held the fort until morn- 
 ing, when they caught sight of some ducks and two 
 deer. A lynx had enlivened the night with his music. 
 The boys came in tired and hungry, as tlie breakfast 
 camp fire was blazing. 
 
 Struck camp at 9.30, August 13th, and with a good 
 breeze and a couple <'f tacks, bowled out past the light. 
 The old keeper, a tall man with wrinkled w^eary face 
 and black pipe, but with his bright girl of ten and 
 barking dog beside hin), waved us farewell. Passed 
 between the Doctor and Russell islands, and, to our 
 left, a couple of miles out of course, to observe the 
 Flower Pots, two rocks that rise like great urns at the 
 end of a wooded island. Then struck for Winoffield 
 Basin, where we arrived at 2.30 p m. This is a heart- 
 shaped harbour, lying between high picturesque rocks 
 and woods. It had formerly a fishing station, which 
 was burned. The entrance is not protected and is 
 shoally ; its sides are covered wdth " the panther-peo- 
 
> 
 
 84 The Georfjidn Bay. 
 
 pled forests," and rise in places to hills of some height, 
 wild and unsettled. The growth of trees, sliruhs and 
 flowers was very complete. There were vine tvehises, 
 garlanded with a species of clematis, and we gathered 
 red pin-cherries, small gooseberries, sugar-plr.ms and 
 pigeon-berries for dessert. 
 
 Left at 3 p.m., with fair wind. Cabot's Head and 
 Dyer's Bay are passed, and Cape Croker comes in 
 sight in the blue distance. As we pursue our south- 
 east course, Lion's Head, Barrow Bay, Hope Bay with 
 Barrier island off its mouth, are in the great bay, 
 called Melville Sound, all the east side of the Saugeen 
 Peninsula, so jutting out in long limestone cliffs. Be- 
 hind is McGregor's harbour. On turning Cape Croker, 
 we ran close-hauled with both sails, south-west, with 
 the three Giants' Steps, large green protuberances on 
 the peninsula, in view-. Met the Canada Pacific Kail- 
 way steamer ' Manitoba,' going north, and entered 
 Colpoy's Bay. (^amped on the west side of Hay island. 
 
 The critical may ask why two of our number were 
 given names so peculiar, and this may be a suitable 
 time to rise to explain 
 
 "Ninety" was a member of the loyal battalion 
 bearing that number during the Kiel episode in our 
 North- West. The figure was emblazoned on part 
 of his attire and stood out on his manly breast. He 
 held rank on our trip as " captain of the dingy " 
 " Misery," being the soul of goo<i humor liJid received 
 that cognomen by way of contradiction. Ft fitted so 
 well that no other was thought of. 
 
Canndlau MiiLsujiimer Excursion. 25 
 
 During nearly every day of our sailing, there were 
 hours when our vessel glided smoothly along in the 
 sunshine ; while Ernest, the skipper, held the helni^ 
 an extempore table was made over the centreboard, 
 on which lunch was spread or " pedro " pla^'ed. The 
 guitar would then come from its case under the 
 quarter deck, " Ninety's " flute joined in the melody, 
 which floated over the waters, or he w^ould tell us of 
 the gallant dash with his battalion down the woody 
 slope, where the rebel bullets were flying at Batoche. 
 The skipper, too, had his yarns of the Itay, and 
 described a sad calamity wliicli he had witnessed but 
 a fortnight ago. A happy paiiy of nine had come from 
 Cape Croker in an Indian Macinac. The vessel had got 
 safely into Wiarton Bay and lay in sight of wharfs 
 and dwellings, when a sudden rushing wind coming 
 down overturned her with the loss of seven of her 
 passengers before help came. 
 
 The days of l(S12-14 were remembered, when, after 
 the naval engagements on Lake Erie, some of the 
 war schoonei's came up to these waters, and the boom 
 of their cannon and the shouts of wai-riors were 
 echoed back by the I'ocks of the North Channel and 
 the lofty pines and spreading elms along the banks 
 of the Nottawasaga. Then the hardy loyal voyageurs, 
 and their painted and feathered allies, sped in swift 
 canoes over these waters, hundreds of miles through 
 the channels, past the Sault and St. Joseph, to attack 
 the enemy at the Michilli macinac strt)nghold (a). 
 
 {a) See chapter IV. 
 
26 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 Now each produced liis book or pipe, or. when more 
 socially inclined, gave a story or a song. 
 
 While all were not equally placid in temperament, 
 or agreed in opinion, it was in good time remembered 
 that " Love is hurt with jar and fret." Little kind- 
 nesses and constant consideration were shewn, and he 
 was held a Jonah who disputed. Thus was avoided 
 
 "The little rift within the lute, 
 That, by-and-bye, will make the music mute 
 And ever widening, slowly silence all." (6) 
 
 We were resting ni the " White Squall " for the last 
 night, in view of the lights of the Indian houses on 
 Cape Croker. 
 
 The moon shone over the water between us and the 
 Cape. The dark green of the trees stood up as a wall 
 behind. An anchor held our vessel's stern so that 
 the waves passed by and broke monotonously on the 
 shore. Jumbo, the little black spaniel, which had 
 been our companion throughout the trip, and well 
 guarded our belongings, lay curled on the deck. For 
 a time the lights of the Indian houses glimmered and 
 then went out. The moon, too, sunk down. Mars, 
 Arcturus and the Pleiades, moved over head ; the tent 
 above the deck protected our couch, and we thcmght 
 of the lines of the Mohawk poetess Pauline Johnson : 
 
 " O little lake with night-fall interlink't, 
 Your darkling shores, your margin indistinct, 
 More in your depths' uncertainty there lies 
 Than when you image all the sun-set dyes j 
 Like to a poet's soul you seem to be, 
 A depth no hand can touch, no eye can see. 
 
 (6) Tennyson. 
 
CamaJian Mlchummer Excursion. 
 
 27 
 
 The next niorniri^r we prepared cmr attii-e for 
 civilized society, then the anchor was hauled in, the 
 sails wei-e set, and with a li^dit wind and many 
 tacks, we made Wiarton in the afternoon. 
 
 And now a few words as to tlie re^non traversed 
 and its interests. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL. 
 
 r^^s^^AVlD THOMPSON was bom in West- 
 minster, England, 30th April, 1770, was 
 ^%~ educated as a " Blue-coat School " boy, 
 and was perhaps a short time at 
 Oxford. He entered the service 
 of the Hudson Bay Company, in 
 ^ October, 1 789, and spent the main 
 
 Ijfe P^^^ o^ ^^^ 'i^^ ^s a surveyor and 
 -^5- astronomer, for that Company 
 and the North-West Company. 
 He surveyed the shores of Lake Superior 
 and passed the Falls of Ste. Marie, in May, 
 1798. He again visited this region and 
 surveyed the north shore of that lake in August, 1812. 
 He then retired, living in Lower Canada for some 
 time, employed in preparing a map of Western Can- 
 ada on a scale of fifteen miles to an inch, which map 
 is in possession of the Ontario Department of Crown 
 Lands, and is entitled " Map of the North-West Terri- 
 tory of the Province of Canada, 1792-1812, embracing 
 the region between latitudes 45° and 5Q° and longi- 
 
 (28) ,. 
 
ffisforiail ((n</ C^coiirit [)li'u<(l , 29 
 
 tu.los 84" and 12+ \ made for tlie North-West Coni- 
 paiiy. 1818-1814." 
 
 Mr. Thompson tlion engjaged in defining' tlie bound- 
 ary, on the part of Great Britain, hetween Canachi 
 and the United States. In 18.S7 he made a survey 
 of the canal route from Lake Huron to the Ottawa 
 River. He died in Longueil, opposite Montreal, on 
 lOtli of February, 1857 at nearly 87 years of age. 
 H. H. Bancroft gives the following account of his 
 personal appearance : " David Thompson was an 
 entirely different order of man from the orthodox 
 fur- trader. Tall and fine-looking, of sandy com- 
 plexion, with large features, deep set, studious eyes, 
 high forehead and broad shoulders, the intellectual 
 was well set upon the physical. His deeds have 
 never been trumpeted as those of some others, but 
 in the westward exploration of the North-West Com- 
 pany, no man performed more valuable service, or 
 estimated his achievements more modestly." (a) 
 
 Mr. Thompson gives in his journals, now almost a 
 century old, an account of the Geor^fian Bay, which 
 he treats as the eastern part of Lake Huron. He 
 also left a MS. treatise on the area and drainage of 
 the lakes and rivers of the continent, and as this has 
 not before been in print, we give the part relating to 
 our subject as follows : 
 
 " Lake Huron is next in order to Lake Superior, the discharge 
 
 (a) A brief narrative of the journeyinga of David Thompson in 
 North- Western America, by J. ]^. Tyrrell, B.A., F.G.S. Proceed- 
 ings of Canadian Institute, Vol. 24, 135. October, 1888. 
 
80 
 
 c^-v The (h'orijiaii Bay, 
 
 of this iHtter Irtke is by the FhIIh of Ste Mario or more pro- 
 perly rapids, of about throo-([uarters of a mile in length. Their 
 descent is 15 ft. 10 in., which, with the current below, may give 
 a difference of level of 17 ft., down to Lake Huron. The sides 
 of this lake are, in places, of moderate height, but a groat part 
 of them is lowland. By a strait at Cabot's Head, it may be said 
 to be divided into two lakes, the eastern part is called the (Jeor- 
 gian Bay. The lake is remarkable for its groat number oi 
 islands and islets. Of the former, several are large, they lie 
 along the north shore, but the islets are in gonorai small, of 
 low rock, and very many not 100 yards stjuaro. Lieutenant 
 Collins, who was on the survey of the lake, counted 47,000 
 islands and islets. The islets lie so close on the oast shore, 
 southward of the French River, that the main shore is not 
 known. The north part of the east side has also much cojiper 
 ore, its value is not yet known, but accounted the best mine. 
 At the north-west corner of this lake is the once far-famed 
 Island of Michil-a-Mac-a-Naw (The great Tortoise). From its 
 shape it commands the strait to Lake Michigan. The French 
 very early erected a fort and a trading house. The Indians 
 were then very numerous. The country everywhere abounded 
 with game, to and beyond the Mississippi. However dispersed 
 in winter, the then numei )us tribes of Indians, early in sum- 
 mer assembled in this island, at times to upwards of two 
 thousand men. A great trade was carried on, French manufac- 
 tures exchanged for furs, maize, maple-sugar, and some wild 
 rice. The French fort was twice taken and destroyed by 
 strategem. The Indians all declared they had never given 
 permission to erect a fort, which was only a few neat log houses, 
 surrounded by stockades of about 12 feet above the ground, 
 sharp-pointed, with two gates. It was the depository of the 
 goods of the fur traders, from whence they drew the supplies 
 they wanted, as the fur trade required. It was natural to the ' 
 French garrison to keep their gates closed when such an over- 
 whelming force was on the island, but this the Indians did not 
 pretend to understand, and it is curious to remark, that while 
 
ffistoricifl n nd (if'iH/i'dph icdi. SI 
 
 tho Indians dostroyed tlio fort, the fur trm'fjrs in their tem- 
 porary cabins, covered with birch-rind, exposed to every turn 
 of fr»rtune, were respected by tho Indians, not the value of a 
 co{>per waH taken from them. Tho fact is, that had tho French 
 garrison thrown open their gates and allowed tho Indians free 
 admission to hold their councils and consi<ler the ground to be 
 theirs, however builded upon, all would have boon well. But 
 tho French brought garrison duty with them, which tho [ndiaiis 
 could not understand. At tho cession of Canada to lOngland, 
 the Mritish took posHcssion of the island, and its trade con- 
 tinued as before, though tho Indiana were not so numerous, 
 from tho small pox, yet the trade was considerable, especially 
 in maplo sugar, which was made into what is calkd muscovado, 
 a close imitation of the West India sugars. The area of Lako 
 Huron is 14,H<12 scjuaro miles." 
 
 The (jleoroian Buy has a lerif^th from north to south 
 of one hundred and twenty miles. Its southern boun- 
 dary is 05 mik}s by rail, noi th from Toronto, the capital 
 city of the Province of Ontario. Tlu^ 4(]th parallel of 
 north latitude passes along its upper end; on either 
 side are the SOth and 82nd meridians of west longi- 
 tude, its average breadth being oO miles. It is 
 separated from Lake Huron by the Saugeen Penin- 
 sula and the Grand Manitoulin Island. Between 
 these is a chaimel thi'ough which the Canadian 
 Pacific Company's steamers and other vessels pass on 
 their course to the upper lake ports. Tliere is 
 another passage, the North Channel, between the 
 Grand Manitoulin and the north shore, and on this, at 
 the north-west corner of the bay, is the Village of 
 Killarney. 
 
 The bay has, on its south sliore, the important towns 
 
32 
 
 ^ The, tinny iti II M'//. 
 
 of Colliiit^wood, Thonilmry, Mealoiel, Owen Sound 
 and Wijirton ; on tlie cast, are Penetanguisliene and 
 Midland. Near the last is the site of the old Fort 
 Ste. Marie on the Wye, occupied by the Jesuit Fatliers 
 and their Huron converts, 243 years ago. Twenty miles 
 from them, are the Christian Islands, to which they 
 were driven hy the ferocious Iroquois, who still pur- 
 sued and harried them to destruction. Here too are 
 the remains of another Fort Ste. Marie, put up hy the 
 fu<.,dtives on the island. History has no sadrler tale 
 than that of the weary exodus, from the rude wilder- 
 ness home they loved so well, across these waters under 
 the command of Father Ragueneau, on the 14th of 
 June, 1649. U'he flames flew up over the fort and 
 refuge they left, consuming in half an hour, the 
 work of nine or ten years. They passed down the 
 Wye into the bay, only to meet more trials, disaster 
 and death, (a) 
 
 From th.e " Shining sands " of Penetanguishene, as 
 the name implies, Sir John Franklin passed on St. 
 George's Day, 28rd April, 1S2.S, to join his party on 
 his second journey to the shores of the Polar Sea. 
 His paity comprised thirty-three men in two large 
 canoes provided by the Hudson Bay (Company, and 
 they paddled over the bay we have described, and 
 along the Grand Manitoiilin, to Sault Ste. Marie, 
 where they arrived on the first of May. 
 
 Penetanguishene is now a town of some importance, 
 easily reached by rail from Toronto. A Roman Cath- 
 
 (a) Relation des Jesuites, par le Pere Paul Kagueneau, 1650. 
 
]l isf<n'ir<if iiiul (rcof/niphitifl. H3 
 
 olic cliurcli coimnoinoratos the Jesuit iiuirtyrs. A 
 hir^e liotol, Imviiio; a l)rautiful outlook over tlie bay 
 and spacious (grounds, attracts nuiuy sunnner visitors. 
 Near tliis is the \vell-con<hicte(l juvenile piison or 
 ret'ortnatorv t'oi" l)oys. 
 
 Penetannuishene was, durino- tlie troubles with tl»e 
 United States, of IS 12- 1 4, a lloyal Naval Station. 
 Barracks for soldiers and marines, and store-liouse.s 
 for supplies, were erected liere, and for some years 
 after, these ([Ua»ters were occupied by a few army 
 veterans. Anne<l vessels took their departure from 
 this port for the ])rotection of British interests on 
 lakes Huron and Superior. 
 
 It cannot be doubted that the Georgian Bay is of 
 strategic interest from a military point of view. It is 
 on the water route through the upper lakes and has 
 now the Canada Pacific Railway at no great distance 
 from its easterly and noi'therly shores. The Manitoulin 
 group shields it and the North Chnnnel from exposure. 
 Jts islands and inlets afford cover and concealment for 
 vessels and there are no better sailors than the hardy 
 fishermen upon these waters. 
 
 It was with much interest that, as we moved away 
 from the Minks, a hale old sailor was pointed out. 
 He was standing before a new shanty, his white hair 
 blown by the breeze, and we were told that he was 
 in one of the later polar exploration expeditions and 
 could spin many an interesting yarn about ice-floes, 
 white beai's and walrus, but our sails were full and 
 we could only salute him at a distance. Passing 
 

 34 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 north, we came to the beautiful village of Parry 
 Sound and along this shore are, on islands and penin- 
 sulas, the vacation cottages of families from Toronto 
 and elsewhere, who, with sail or steam craft, or in 
 house-boats, enjoy in summer the most exhilarating 
 of fresh air, and pleasures only to be found around 
 the camp fire, and at an elevation of 578 feet above 
 the sea. The Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound 
 Railway, now in process of construction, will make 
 Parry Sound an important port on a direct route 
 between Chicago and Montreal. It is opposite the 
 main channel through which vessels come from lakes 
 Huron and Superior, and it is almost due west fron^ 
 Ottawa. At the north-east end of the bay is French 
 River, which was so impeded with logs as to hindei- 
 our passage through it to the rapids and falls a few 
 miles above, which impede further navigation. Other 
 visitors may be more fortunate. It unites the waters 
 of the bay with Lake Nippissing. A Government sur- 
 veyor says of it : " The scenery of the Thousand Isles 
 of the St. Lawrence is tame and uninterestmg as com- 
 pared with the endless variety of island and bay, 
 granite cliff, and deep sombre defile, which mark the 
 character of the beautiful solitarv French River." 
 
 The Grand Manitoulin is a beautiful island, in length 
 iSO miles and in breadth 20 miles, with numei'ous inlets. 
 It has various elevations on its surface, but none more 
 than 350 feet above the level of Lake Huron. 
 
 The names of places, met about the Georgian Bay, 
 remind us of the ancient inhabitants, and indicate the 
 
Historical and Geographical. 35 
 
 land whence its present people came. Some, such as 
 Ossosane, an important Huron village on the east side 
 of the bay in early days, are forgotten. Later Indian 
 names are mostly of Ottawa, Chippewa or Iroquois 
 origin. A township in the County of Peel bears the 
 name of the Chippewa chief, Chinguacose, which means 
 " The Small Pine." The Jesuits left many spots called 
 after saints, such as Ste. Marie on the Wye and Ste. 
 Marie on St. Joseph, the chief Christian island. These 
 islands were also in later days called Faith, Hope and 
 Charity. They are occupied by an excellent body of 
 Christian Chippewas. 
 
 In the centre of the Huron territory, between Wau- 
 bashene Bay and Lake Simcoe, were St. Louis and St. 
 Ignace, where Brebeauf and Lalemant, Jesuit mission- 
 aries, suffered martyrdom at the stake. When this 
 beautiful region was mapped out, nearly two centuries 
 later, into three townships, a governor's lady was 
 requested to name them, "Pray call them after my 
 dear little pet dogs," she said ; so they were christened 
 Flos, Tiny and Tay. The great bay bears the name 
 of royalty. French River was so named because of 
 the nationality of the early white traders. This river 
 would with propriety be called by its ancient name, The 
 Nipissing. Lake Simcoe and its surrounding county 
 also are so called from the first Governor of Upper Can- 
 ada, the loyal General John Graves Simcoe, Commander 
 of the famous corps, the " Queen's Rangers," in the 
 American Revolutionary War. The adjoining county 
 from Earl Grey, Barrie, the chief town of the County 
 
36 The Gfxmfian Ray. 
 
 Simcoe, bears the name of a brave naval hero, as 
 
 does its bay, that of the ill-fated Captain Kempen- 
 
 feldt, who went down at his post on the Royal George 
 
 off' Spithead, 29th August, 1782, as sun^^ in the verses 
 
 of Cowper. 
 
 " His sword was in its sheath, 
 His fingers held the pen, 
 When Kempenfeldt went down, 
 With twice four hundred men." 
 
 The road leading from Toronto to Lake Simcoe was 
 mainly opened out by the Rangers, many of whom 
 settled along it, and is called Yonge Street from the 
 Engineer officer in charge of its construction. The 
 naming of a mountain, river, lake or town was too 
 often esteemed a light matter, and the significant 
 Jndian names were forgotten or discarded in favor of 
 a local magnate, or for some merely casual circum- 
 stances. Yet we have an historical nomenclature of 
 good proportions. The Crimea gave Alma and Tnk- 
 erman ; Port Arthur and Fort William are called from 
 the present dynasty. Confining our remarks to the 
 Bay, w^e find Cockburn island in the Manitoulin group, 
 called after the naval officer hy whose connnand the 
 city of Washington was burned in 1814, in retaliation 
 for the destruction of our little tow^n of Niagara and 
 other places on our frontier. Drummond island re- 
 minds us of the hero of Lundy's Lane, a battle fought 
 from sunset to midnight within a short distance 
 of the Niagara Cataract. Captain Parry, R.N., has 
 given his name to the Sound, island, and district 
 
Historical (vml Geograj^hicul. 37 
 
 through which the rivers Muskoka, Musquosh and 
 Meganetawan pass to the Georgian Bay. The inlet 
 at the mouth of the last named river is named from 
 the unfortunate Admiral Byng ; the town of Colling- 
 wood from Nelson's second in command at Trafalgar, 
 Owen Sound from Captain Owen, R.N. The English 
 peers St. Edmund, Sydenham, Albemarle and Derby 
 gave their names to townships on the south and west 
 of the Bay ; and on Manitoulin island, Lords Cock- 
 burn, Campbell and Carnarvon are similarlj^ remem- 
 bered. Franklin island commemorates the daring 
 north sea navigator, who, as stated, passed through 
 this Bay on the way to undertake his second Arctic 
 voyage. Cabot's Head reminds us of the famous Vene - 
 tian family, of whom Giovanni was the head, and of 
 his son Sebastian, who was distinguished both in the 
 Spanish service and in that of Britain under Henry 
 Vin. and Edward VI. It is indeed claimed that he 
 discovered the American continent some months be- 
 fore it was seen b}' Columbus. Sir John Barrow, the 
 author, and for many years Secretary of the Admiralty, 
 gave his name to Barrow Baj', in front of which is the 
 cape called after the Scottish family of Dundas. 
 
 The Manitoulin Island Railway, soon to be built 
 from Nelson on the Canada Pacific Railway, across 
 the La Cloche islands to the village of Little Current, 
 and thence to Gore Bay and other places on the Grand 
 Manitoulin, will make that important island easily 
 accessible at all seasons. 
 
 The " Temporary Judicial District of Manitoulin " 
 
38 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 comprises the Great Manitoulin island, the islands 
 named Oockburn, Barrie, Fitzwilliam, Lonely, Club, 
 Wall, and Rabbit, and the small islands lying between 
 any of these and the Great Manitoulin. Sittings of 
 General Sessions of the Peace and of Division Courts 
 are held in the Grand Manitoulin. The telegraph was, 
 late in 1892, extended across from the mainland, and 
 this group of islands will, ere many years pass, occupy 
 the full status of a judicial county or district, (a) 
 
 (a) See the Ontario Statute of 1888, 51 Vic. eh. 14: The 
 Indian status and government will continue to coexist as explained 
 in Chap. IV. 
 
 ^^^^ 
 
CHAPTER ni. 
 
 GEOLOGICAL FORMATION AM) MINIXG INTERESTS. 
 
 t_*c 
 
 "^^^b ^ROM the village of Killariiey, at 
 
 ^P^^^^^P^' .^^*\-7 tlie north-west corner of the 
 ^^gp^&^^^p (Georgian Bay, to the river 
 
 Severn at its south-east- 
 ern end, is a stretch of 
 hind covered with original 
 forest trees, supported by 
 a soil formed of layers of 
 leaf- mould underlaid by 
 Ai-chfiean rocks, granites, 
 gneisses, and overflows 
 often known as the Upper 
 Laurentian formation. 
 Rivers descend to the Bay 
 here and there, forming 
 points, small bays and coves. The sliore is fringed 
 with innumerable islands, often so numerous that the 
 actual coast line is hidden from view. The islands of 
 the Bay, large and small, are estimated to be fully 
 thirty thousand, some of them of considerable size 
 
 (39) 
 
40 The Geonjlan Bay, 
 
 and wooded, but most of them of small dimensions 
 and having only a thin vegetation. Along the north 
 shore, tlie mass of islands extends for some ten miles 
 into the Bay. The channels between them are the 
 chosen breeding grounds for the white fish, here 
 caught in immense quantities, as also for the large 
 lake trout, sturgeon and other fish. The islands are 
 of granite, syenite, gneiss, or trap, with an occasional 
 limestone peculiar to this formation. The Laurentian 
 sub-structure extends south-easterly to the Severn 
 and generally north and north-east, far beyond the 
 boundaries of the Province. Bedded in this, are found 
 near the mouth of the Ottawa the great graphite, 
 apatite anJ mica deposits, producing rich out-puts of 
 mineral, disclosing untold wealth for the future. 
 
 The Laurentian formations foi-m, as far as we know, 
 the foundations of the earth's crust and are separable 
 from the rocks lying above them. The Lower Lau- 
 rentian is held to be the oldest and deepest the world 
 over. The Upper formation has been estimated to 
 be fully twenty miles in thickness in the Ottawa 
 valley. It discloses sixty-one species of mineral, the 
 Lower barely any. 
 
 Most geologists admit that no fossils have been 
 found in the Laurentians, which some interpret as 
 indicating their igneous origin. The " folding process " 
 of the earth's crust can be seen to advantage in the 
 Huronian formation, commencing at its south-east 
 boundary a little west of Killarney. In that it is 
 usual to find a layer of one kind of rock overlapping 
 
Geological Form at ion, Etc. 41 
 
 another of a different kind. Gi-eat volcanic activity 
 took place during the Huronian period. Aslie.s, tnfa 
 hroken rock and other matters were thrown out, often 
 with explosive violence. Evidence of water abiding- 
 on the earth's surface now appears, and of the wear 
 and tear of the sea on the solid rocks. The sui-face 
 reiiiained covered by shallow seas, hot and full of 
 dissolved mineral matter and unfit to support animal 
 or vegetable life. 
 
 " As a rule the Huronian rocks are less contorted, 
 or corrugated on the small scale, than the Laurentian, 
 but on a large scale they partake of the same foldings 
 which have affected the latter." 
 
 " The Huronian occurs in the midst of the Lau- 
 rentian in the form of more or less completely sepa- 
 rated areas, or with straggling connections between 
 them." 
 
 " Huronian rocks often occupy spaces with elon- 
 cfated or even anovular out-lines in the midst of the 
 Laurentian areas, both sets of rocks having been 
 thrown by pressure into sharp folds, standing at high 
 angles to the horizon, the Huronian often appear to 
 dip under the older Laurentian, but this is merely 
 the effect of over-turning and does not shew that a 
 part of the Laurentian is newer than the locally 
 underlying Huronian." (a) 
 
 The most extensive Huronian formation in Ontario 
 
 (a) Professor Bell in report of Royal Mineral Connnission of On- 
 tario, 1890, p. 7 and 17 ; also in the report of the Provincial Bu- 
 reau of Mines, 1891 ; p. 6.3. 
 
 3 
 
42 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 iH that north of the Georgian Bay, extending from 
 Killarney north-east crossing the Canadian Pacific 
 Railway in the immense Algoraa district. 
 
 The great copper and nickel <leposits are in this 
 region. The Director of the Dominion Geological 
 survey, Dr. x\. H. C. Selwyn, in his evidence before 
 the Ontario Mineral Commission in 1890, states that 
 the " Western limit of the Huronian area is on the 
 upper branches of the Vermilion and Spanish Rivers. 
 Everywhere I know of in Eastern Ontario, gold is 
 associated with the Huronian rocks. Wherever they 
 occur, you are likely to find gold-bearing veins and 
 other mineral deposits." 
 
 Were we to go, on the north shore, a few hundred \ 
 
 miles west of the Georgian Bay, we would come to 
 the Bruce and Wellington Mines, worked for thirty 
 years ending in 1876, during which copper ore taken 
 out was estimated to be worth more than ^6,000,000. 
 The work was only discontinued owing to the low > 
 
 price of that metal. High smoke stacks and large 
 buildings, surrounded by a mountain of mineral I 
 
 debris, are seen now on the place formerly so busy 
 and full of the noise of blast furnaces and render- 
 ing mills. The price of copper remains so low that * 
 it is being more extensively used in building and 
 other mechanical work. The eave-troughs and rain 
 conductors of the new parliament, and other public 
 buildings in Toronto are made of it. 
 
 The Ophir Gold Mine is in the township of Gal- 
 braith, fifteen miles north of the Bruce Mines, between 
 
Geological Fomxffion, Etc. 48 
 
 the MiHsisanf^a and Thesalon rivers. It is owned by 
 Dnluth capitalists. The ore is in a bluish ({uartz. 
 There are two veins. A deptli of 100 t'ect lias been 
 reached. The indications are promisinf^. 
 
 Persons connected with tliis work, have tested the 
 taiUnffs of the Bruce Mines and found considerable 
 traces of gold in them, so that it is not improbable 
 that they may be worked over for the richer metal. 
 Dr. Selwyn states, " They are now finding gold-bear- 
 ing veins down the Thesalon and all through that 
 region, from the north shore of the Georgian Bay to 
 north of Sudbury." 
 
 The Silver Islet mine, on Thunder Cape in Lake 
 Superior, was worked from 1870 to 1884, reaching a 
 depth of 1230 feet. The value of the out-put of silver 
 was $3,250,000. The vein still continues unexhausted 
 but the shaft is filled with water which flooded the 
 mine, (a) 
 
 One of the most interesting and remarkable features 
 of the country north of the Georgian Bay is a. basin 
 of Cambrian formation, extending from the west 
 side of Lake Wahnapitae to the centre of Trill town- 
 ship, a distance of thirty- six miles, with a breadth of 
 
 (a) All excellent account of the Silver Islet Mine, an under- 
 taking of historic interest, is given in the evidence of the late Mr. 
 A. J. Cattanach, in tlie report of the Royal Commission of 1890, p. 
 195. Mr. Simon J, Dawson, C.E., M.P. , also there gives his opinion 
 as to it and other important North-Shore mines, concluding thus : 
 " Where work has been done systematically, it has been very satis- 
 factory, and where mines have been abandoned and work stopped, 
 it has generally been on account of the want of capital." As to the 
 Bruce and Wellington copper mines, see the evidence of Wm, and 
 W. H. Plummer, in same report, p. 101. 
 
44 The Georgian Buij. 
 
 eight miles in its broadest part. This formation can 
 be best observed in the southern part of the township 
 of Balfour, and has attracted the attention of eminent 
 geoloi^ists. Proceeding; from the crossing of the Ver- 
 milion River ])y the main line of the Canada Pacific 
 Railway, a walk southwanl of two miles on the (gov- 
 ernment Road, brings the traveller to, a noticeable 
 ridixe of black slate and con<domerato. This ridoe is 
 a quarter of a mile in width ; on one of its sides is 
 seen a volcanic breccia, on the other an agglome- 
 rate schist. Dr. Bell refers to this in the Ontai'io 
 Report of 1891. Prof. Geo. H. Williams has examine<l 
 the breccia and says it is composed of sharply angular 
 fragments of volcanic glass and pumice, which still 
 preserve every detail of their original form. " The 
 fragments, even down to those of the smallest dimen- 
 sions, have the angular form characteristic of glass 
 shreds produced by explosive eruptions." 
 
 " After a careful study of this rock, I find it possi- 
 ble only to interpret it as a remarkable instance of a 
 very ancient volcanic glass-breccia, preserved through 
 the lucky accident of silicification. Nor did this pro- 
 cess go on, as is usual through devitrification and loss 
 of structure, but rather like the gradual replacement 
 of many silicified woods whose every minute detail of 
 structure is preserved. The rarity of such rocks in the 
 earth's oldest formations is readily intelligible ; but, 
 for this very reason, the exceptional preservation of 
 a rock like this is all the more welcome proof that 
 explosive volcanic activity took place at the surface, 
 
Gcologicul F(ir)natUn\, Ktc. 
 
 45 
 
 then as now, and on a scale, if possible, <^n-eat('r than 
 that with which we are familiar." (d) 
 
 NkjkEL. — This most important of Ontario ores, was 
 known to the Chinese. Baktrian coins, beM.rin(>- the 
 inscription of Km% Euthodymus, who lived 200 B.C., 
 are found almost identical in composition with the 
 nickel coins of the present day. It is often found in 
 meteorites in conjunction with iron, cobalt, silver, 
 copper, phosphorus and other materials ; the iron is 
 generally the chief component, but in the meteorite 
 from Octebbeha, the nickel was (JO per cent, and iron 
 30 per cent, of the mass. German miners endeavored 
 in vain to produce copper out of nickeliferous mineral, 
 and angrily called the product, kitpfer-nickel, or cop- 
 per-devil, which name it still bears. 
 
 In 1751 Cronstedt showed the true nature of^this 
 metal, but his views were controverted until, in 1775, 
 celestial aid was given to settle the argument. Many 
 meteors containing considerable quantities of nickel 
 fell in vai'ious places, and these being analyzed, its 
 existence as a distinct metal was admitted, and its 
 properties became better understood. 
 
 Nickel is found in combination with oxygen as 
 Bunsenite, with carbon as Texasite, but its most im- 
 portant position is as a silicate, and in conjunction 
 with other metals, in various shapes and under many 
 names. The physical properties of nickel make it of 
 great value; one gram can be drawn out into 600 
 
 (a J Bulletin of Geological Society of America, i 890, p. 1 38, 
 
46 • The Georgian Bay. 
 
 feet of wire. It can bo welded on iron or steel with 
 a covering jf only .00039 inch. Its strength is 
 greater than that of iron and equal to that of Besse- 
 mer steel. It does not oxydize at ordinary tempera- 
 tures, even in moist air. Reference will be made t() 
 the important qualities nickel possesses a ad imparts 
 as an alloy with steel, and which are only now becom- 
 ing fully understood, (a) 
 
 Nickel enters into the composition of coins of most 
 countries of the world. In Germany cooking utensils 
 nave lately been made of pure nickel. In the arts it 
 is used, alloyed with copper and zinc in making Ger- 
 onan silver; the same metals with a percentage of 
 iron, make silverine, and with silver argent de Mousset 
 is made. 
 
 The most productive nickel mines heretofore, 
 have been those of New Caledonia. Their ore con- 
 tained from seven to fifteen per cent, of metal. The 
 means of removing the matte to the sea coast, having 
 been improved ; ores of less value are there mined 
 now with profit. 
 
 The Ontario nickel mines, though in their infancy, 
 are as perfect in their equipment, and as scientifically 
 managed as any in the world. As the uses for nickel 
 increase, this industry will still further develop. It 
 is already one of great importance and promises to 
 reach vast proportions. 
 
 (a) Tho discovery of the process was announced simultaneously 
 by J. F. Hale, of Sheffield, and M. Marbeau, of France, in the 
 journal of the Iron and Steele Institute, No. 1, 1881. 
 
Geological Formation, Etc. 47 
 
 There are three jrreat nickel belts in the Sudbury 
 district; the first extending from the township of 
 Carson, through tlie townships of Blezard, McKim 
 and Snider. In this are the Blezard, Sheppard, Mur- 
 ray, Copper-ClifF, Evans and Stobie mines. The last 
 three are the property of the Canadian Copper 
 Company. The Dominion Mineral Company works 
 on lot 4 range 2 of Blezard, a mile north of the 
 Stobie mine. Near these, and in the same run, are 
 the Russell and McConnell locations. The second belt 
 runs for several miles almost parallel to the Sault 
 branch of the Canada Pacific Railway. The third ex- 
 tends from Geneva Lake through the townships of 
 Moncrief and Craig, and the unsurveyed territory to 
 the north. It is crossed by the railway about forty- 
 eight miles west of the Spanish River near Blue Water 
 Lake. All these belts run north-east and soUth-west. 
 In addition, there are several important minor belts, 
 such as that near Lake Wahnapitae and those in the 
 townships of Graham, Denison, Drury, Hyman and 
 Nairn. It is estimated that more than four-fifths of 
 the known nickel deposits of the world are in this 
 region, so that the Georgian Bay district has a prac- 
 tical monopoly of the w^orld's supply of this useful 
 metal. 
 
 The ore is much the same wherever occurring in 
 tho Sudbury district, being a mixture of nickeliferous 
 pyrhotite, or magnetic pyrites, with the chalcopyrite 
 or copper pyrites. The usual site of the formations 
 is at the junction of greenstone with some other rock, 
 such as granite, gneiss or fclsite. 
 
48 TJte Georgian Bay^ 
 
 The word 'greenstone ' is used by geologists to in- 
 clude a variety of trappean iCcks which can not 
 always be distinguished from one another in the field. 
 In the Sudbury district they consist of diabases dio- 
 rites and gabbros. (a) 
 
 All the deposits of nickeliferous copper ore of the 
 district, examined, says Dr. Bell, occur in diorite rocks, 
 and in most cases the diorite is brecciated or holds 
 angular and also rounded fragments of all sizes of 
 rocks of various kinds, the prevailing varieties being 
 other kinds of diorite, quartz-syenites, crystalline 
 schists, grey-wacke and (juartzites. The general geolo- 
 gical position of these ores is therefore in diorite and 
 more especially brecciated diorite with either gneiss 
 or quartz-syenite near one side, {h) 
 
 The occurrence of dykes of crystalline diabase near 
 some of the deposits is noted as remarkable. These 
 dykes cut through all the stratified Huronian rocks 
 of the district. Some run west, north-west, others 
 south-west, and one at the outlet of Ramsay lake, runs 
 about west, or towards the Copper-Cliff mine. The 
 composition of the dykes is newer than any of the 
 rocks through which they pass, and appears on micro- 
 scopical examination, to be apparently identical with 
 the diabase overflow of the Animikie formati(m of 
 Lake Superior, which includes the silver producing 
 rocUs. The various nickeliferous ores have been ana- 
 lyzed by Mr. C. T. Mixer and described by Mr. S. H. 
 
 (a) Dr. IJell, Report of Bureau of Mines, 1891, p. 75. 
 
 (b) Dr. Bell, Royal Coinniiasion, Out., 1890, p. 434. 
 
Geological Formation, Etc. 
 
 49 
 
 Emmens, the able expert of the Eminens Metal Com- 
 pciny, who has c^iven a table exhibiting the composi- 
 tion of each. Folgerite is so named after Commo- 
 dore Folger, chief of the United States Bureau of 
 Ordnance, in recoonition of his distinmiished services 
 in the utilization of nickel-steel. 
 
 In Blueite we find the name of Mr. A. Blue, director 
 of Ontario mines. Whartomte is named after Mr. 
 Joseph Whartcm, of Camden, N. J., on account of his 
 po.sition as head of the nickel industry in America. The 
 table indicates the relations of the known nickel and 
 nickel iron sulphides to each other. Of the very high 
 grade species given, specimens are but rare, the four of 
 lesser grade are the staples of the mines of Sudbury. 
 
 MKSSRS. EMMKXS AND MIXER'S TABLE. 
 
 Nickel and Nickel Iron Sulphides, (a) 
 
 Name. 
 
 Percentage 
 Constitution. 
 
 Ni. 
 
 Millerite . . . 
 Polydynute. 
 Beyrichite. . 
 Ferriferous. 
 Poly dy mite . 
 Folj^erite . . . 
 Pentlandito . 
 Horbachite . 
 luverarite . . 
 Whartonite . 
 Blueite . . .. 
 
 Fe 
 
 S 
 
 moleci'lar 
 Constitution. 
 
 G4.72| ' 35.28 
 
 59.47' ! 40.53 
 
 57. 00* 42.10 
 
 44.92: 14.2(1 40.82 
 
 32.87 31.30 
 22.03; 41.05 
 11 
 10, 
 
 <i, 
 
 3.76 42.06 
 
 35.83 
 
 36.02 
 
 24i 42.81 45.05 
 
 44 40.721 39.84 
 
 10; 40.681 53.22 
 
 53.28 
 
 NiS 
 
 NiSo 
 
 FeS 
 
 FeS2 
 
 1 
 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 , , 
 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 • • 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 I 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 1 
 4 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 7 
 12 
 
 (a) See Canadian Mining Review of Ottawa, volume 12, page 6, 
 January, 1893, for Mr. Enuuens' article anil tliis table. 
 
50 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 In this table no mention is made of a valuable and 
 new mineral in Canada, Gers(Jorttite, found in the 
 tliird concession of Denison township. Assays of this 
 have given fifty-five per cent, of nickel. Analyses of 
 twenty European samples made l)v Dana average 
 29.77 per cent, of nickel. 
 
 In the able paper by Mr. George Mickle of Toronto 
 read before the Canadian Institute (a) it is shown 
 that the Sudbury nickeliferous deposits increase in 
 richness as depth is reached, and it is noteworthy that 
 this conclusion has so far been verified in every case 
 by practical experiei,j; Mr. Mickle closes his paper 
 with the V ertion that the Ontario nickel mines will 
 in time assi ne the position which those of New Cale- 
 donia have occupied heretofore. 
 
 Mr. J. M. Clark, LL.B., of Toronto, is of the same 
 opinion. lie is well versecl in the mineralogy of this 
 region. Mr. Archibald Blue, the accomplished direc- 
 tor of the Ontario Bureau of Mines, states in his offi- 
 cial report for 1891, referred to, that nickel is the 
 most important of all our ores, and that there are in- 
 exhaustible supplies of it in the country north of the 
 Georgian Bay. Fifty years ago nickel was found 
 with copper on what is known as the Wallace loca- 
 tion near the mouth of Whitefish river. The proper- 
 ties of the metal were then little known or appreci- 
 ated. The proprietors of the location left it in cliarge 
 of an honest man who agreed to watch over it until 
 
 (a) Notes on Nickel by Geo. Mickle, B.A., 2()th March, 1891. 
 Transactions of ('aiiciilian Institute, vol. H, p. 77. 
 
Geological Format loti, Etc. 51 
 
 they returned to develop the property. Year after 
 year passed but they did not return. For a time his 
 wages were sent him, but for many years he received 
 no pay, yet held his shanty at the river's mouth and 
 made his living by hunting or fishing. When met by 
 the voyageur or Indian, passing down the White- 
 fish river, or paddling along the north shore, with his 
 gun and traps or net, it was known that he was re- 
 turning to his charge, and so, for nearly forty years, 
 his lonely watch was kept until new proprietors came. 
 Xittle did the sniiple-nunded sentinel dream of the 
 wonderful spirit hidilen under the dark rocks, the 
 " Copper-devil," destined at last to emerge there and 
 at Sudbury, clad in armour of Vulcan, able fo resist 
 the force of cannon of the heaviest calibre. 
 
 The construction of the Canadian Pacific R.ailwav 
 led to the important discoveries that have been made 
 in the district of which Sudbury is the centre. When 
 blasting an open cut four miles north-west of Sudbury, 
 the engineers struck an unusually hard and trouble- 
 some rock. On investigation it proved to be nickel- 
 iferous. H. H. Vivian &; Co., of Swansea, Wales, 
 secured this property, now known as the " Murray 
 Mine," and many shipments of matte have been made 
 to Wales. By the use of approved methods a matte 
 containing 35 per cent, of nickel has been secured. A 
 large working force is employed. The Canadian Cop- 
 per Company have erected Bessemer furnaces and are 
 so enabled to greatly increase the per-centage. The 
 Director of Mines states generally as to this nickel 
 
52 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 region, tliat " Ei^ht mines are being worked, three 
 large smelting plants are in operation." 
 
 Commodore Folger and Lieutenant Buckingham, 
 two officers of the United States navy department, 
 made an early visit to the Sudbury district and after 
 inspecting, reported many millions of tons of ore in 
 sight. The value of nickel when united with steel, 
 producing an alloy which combines hardness, strength 
 and freedom from fracture under heavy blows, has 
 been so amply demonstrated, that both the British 
 Admiralty and United States navy have decided to 
 use it largely. Their example has been (juickly fol- 
 lowed by other European countries, notably France 
 and Germany. 
 
 During the year 1890 the United States Secretary 
 of the Navy obtained 4,530 tons of nickel matte from 
 Sudbury, containing one- fifth that number of tons of 
 nickel, W' hich were used in the conducting of a series 
 of experiments, by which the value of the alloy as 
 armour for ships has been amply demonstrated. Tlie 
 reports of the United States Secretary of the Navy 
 foi' 1891 and 1892 give detailed statements of the 
 experiments made. Early in 1889 the department 
 had decided to use all-steel plating. Subsequently its 
 attention had been directed to the possibilities of 
 nickel-steel as a material for armour. Professor Jas. 
 Riley had raised the question in a paper read before 
 the Iron and Steel Institute in May, 1889. The pro- 
 mise held out, says Mr. Secretary Tracy, seemed too 
 great to be ignored by a government requiring 20,000 
 
Geological Format iov, Etc. 68 
 
 tons of armour for its new ileet. Tlien followed at 
 Annapolis in September LSOO, the trial of compound 
 an<l all-steel plates of amazing strength, but they 
 were shattered to pieces by projectiles from the 
 eight-inch gun used, while the nickel-steel, though 
 slightly more penetrable than the all-steel, remained 
 unbroken, and " the integrity of the plate as the cov- 
 ering of a ship's side was practical)}^ as perfect at the 
 close of the trial as if no shot had been tired." (Report 
 of 1892, p. 16). 
 
 Other tests took place in October and November, 
 1891, and in July, 1892. At the last a plate of "Har- 
 veyized" nickel-steel, lOJ inches thick, was fired at 
 with five Holtzer forged steel shells out of an eight- 
 inch gun. All these shells were smashed on the sur- 
 face of the plate, which showed little sign of injury. 
 
 In consequence of the high efhciency of nickel -."«teel, 
 so demonstrated, Congress appropriated $1,000,000 
 for the purchase of nickel matte, which the territory 
 of the United States, as far as known, did not afford. 
 Contracts were then made with the Canadian Copper 
 Company, for the delivery at Sudbury of this mate- 
 rial, which should contain not less than an average 
 of fifteen per cent, of nickel. 
 
 The U. S. Navy report shows that the Canadian 
 Company received for nickel ore sold to the United 
 States Government in 1891, $821,322. They are 
 stated to have received more than $400,000 in 1892. 
 The Secretary of the Navy claims in his report for 
 1891, that the "nickel Harveyized plate" and the 
 
54 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 high carbon nickel phite, used in the test, proved 
 superior to all the foreign plates used at the Anna- 
 polis trial, and that " the high carbon Harveyized 
 plate is undoubtedly the best armour plate ever sub- 
 jected to ballistic test." A triumphant spirit per- 
 vades the Secretary's reports as he sings pa3ans in 
 praise of Americaji steel when tempered by Canadian 
 nickel. The proportion of nickel used in making this 
 armour is 8 J per cent. 
 
 The work is done for the Government at the great 
 establishments of Carnegie, Phipps & Co , and of the 
 Bethlehem Iron Company. 
 
 The Carnegie Company arejnow constructing sev- 
 eral immense furnaces at their works in Homestead, 
 Pennsylvania, for use solely in the making of nickel- 
 steel armour plate. 
 
 The Cleveland, Ohio, RoUing'Mill Company caused 
 important experiments to be made during the autumn 
 of 1892, under direction of an experienced French 
 engineer, to determine the relative quality of steel, 
 with and without the addition of nickel. The deduc- 
 tions from the results obtained are stated to be as 
 follows: (I) Nickel-steel has an average higher limit 
 of elasticity of more than thirty per cent. (2) Its 
 tensile strength is increased over unalloyed steel by 
 about twenty per cent., and (3) the ductility is not 
 reduced by the presence of nickel. 
 
 The public and domestic uses to which this alloy 
 will be put are constantly increasing. The Director 
 of the Bureau looks forward to great activity in the 
 
Geological Fot'inntion, Etc. 
 
 55 
 
 working of the Ontario nickel mines, and with this 
 anticipates an awakening interest in the mining and 
 smelting of iron also, of which there are ample stores 
 in this region. 
 
 Gold Mininc;. — Reference has l>een made to gold 
 mining on the Thesalon river, some thirty miles north 
 of the Georgian Bay. A series of quartz veins has 
 been found, which may in time play an important 
 part in the mineral history of Canada. Most of these 
 veins are within a triangle formed by the main line 
 of the Canadian Pacific Railway, its branch to Sault 
 8te. Marie and the western boundary of Fairbank 
 township produced. In the centre of this triangle is 
 a remarkable lake, more than one hundred feet higher 
 than the Vermilion liver into which it is emptied 
 by a stream less than a mile in length. This is 
 called Gordon Lake from J. R. Gordon, C E., the 
 engineer who explored the district. 
 
 The largest of these veins, proved to be more or less 
 auriferous, presents, as Mr. J. M. Clark states, a re- 
 markable spectacle. The lead of quartz can be traced 
 for several miles, ranging in width from 15 to 150 feet. 
 Its strike is north 10' east, and the dip about 40 . On 
 an outcrop of the vein, a mile east of the Vermilion, a 
 shaft has been sunk to a depth of 112 feet, and from 
 this, drifts have been lun, all in vein matter, white 
 C[uartz, popularly known as " California quartz." 
 Though the produce is of low grade, it is stated to be 
 of large quantity. There are three other like veins in 
 the townships of Fairbank and Creighton. Similar 
 
56 The Georgian Baij. 
 
 indications are found in adjoinin<)" townships. The 
 work of development has given very encouraoin<r 
 1 esults, and those interested regard the future of these 
 (^.cpL,-its with sanguine anticipations.. One of these 
 gold veins is found about half a mile south of Ver- 
 milion lake in the township of Fairbank. The others 
 are in the vicinity of Gordon lake. The ore is said to 
 be free-milling and easily treated. A mining expert 
 of extensive American experience, who has examined 
 these localities, affirms that several of the quartz 
 veins in Fairbank strongly resemble the Homestake 
 mines of the Black Hills. Modem improvements, in 
 methods and means for reducing and treating ores, 
 have so diminished the cost, that gold ore of the char- 
 acter found in the district north of the Georgian Bay 
 can be mined, milled and treated for less than $3 a 
 ton. The mining of these veins gives employment to 
 ab )ut one hundred men at present. 
 
 Platinum. — Next in interest to the gold deposits, 
 are the platiniferous ore of this region. It is found 
 either in a free state, or in a curious chemical com- 
 pound first discovered here and called iSperrylite. 
 Professor H. L. Wells, of Yale College, examined a 
 specimen of such ore, from the Vermilion mine in 
 Denison township, in 1889, and declared it to be a 
 distinct mineral species, containing 52.57 per cent, of 
 platinum. It has since been found, in limited (quan- 
 tity, in the Huronian formation. A platiniferous vein 
 runs for several miles east and west, about two miles 
 south of tlie main line of the Canada Pacific Railway, 
 
Geological Forination. 57 
 
 through the townships of Balfour, DowHng nnd Fair- 
 bank. Rich traces of this metal, now more valuable 
 than ^old, are also stated to be found west of Sudbury, 
 along the Sault branch of the railway. Traces of an- 
 timony, rhodium, and palladium are found with the 
 platinum. Other metals, including tin, lead, copper, 
 and zinc, have been discovered in this region. No 
 doubt some of them will be found in considerable and 
 profitable quantity. 
 
 The Huronian area, like the Laurentian, is destitute 
 of all trace of organic life, unless it be the " Eozoon 
 Canadense," claimed by Sir W. Dawson to have been 
 of that character. The name ow^es its origin to Sir 
 Charles Lyell, and refers to the dawn of l)eing. Many 
 geological authorities, including Professor Bell, treat 
 this as a scientific myth. The Huronian is Archaean 
 or Azoic, and its origin is attributed largely to volcanic 
 action. The term Huronian, derived from Lake Huron, 
 was given by the Geological Survey officers, forty 
 years ago, and has been understood to include all the 
 rocks lying between the Laurentian below it and the 
 Cambrian or earliest fossiliferous rocks above. The 
 prevailing dark green and grey colors offer a marked 
 contrast to the lighter greys and reddish greys of the 
 Laurentian. 
 
 Leaving the south boundary of the Upper Lauren- 
 tian, a few miles south of the little Severn River, 
 which is the outlet of Lake Simcoe into the Georgian 
 Bay, the " Bird's eye " formation presents itself. The 
 term is derived from a fossil found in these rocks. 
 4 
 
58 The G('(W(jian Bay. 
 
 It* consists of Miiisli and dark ^rev liniestonos, with 
 intorstratifi(Ml grey sliales. It occurs on some of tlie 
 islands on the Nortli '^Jhannel also, and skii'ts the 
 southern edf^e of the Laurentian area, from Penetan- 
 . I^uishene to Kingston. The width of this deposit is 
 but a few miles. Building and lithographic stone is 
 derived from it. 
 
 Next easterly is a belt of Trenton limestone. Lake 
 Simcoe is imbedded in it. The Christian Islands are 
 formed of it and it crops out at Little Current on the 
 Grand Manitoulin. It affords excellent building stone 
 and is valuable for natural gas and petroleum. This 
 formation extends eastward to Kingston on Lake 
 Ontario and appears again at Ottawa, the cliffs about 
 the Capital being formed of it. Adjoining the Tren- 
 ton on the west is a narrow belt of Utica shale, 
 the name being derived from a town in New York 
 State. Tarry oil was distilled from this shale, wdiich 
 yielded three to four per cent, of its weight at a cost 
 of fourteen cents per gallon. When free petroleum 
 was discovered in Canada in 1858, this enterprise 
 was abandoned. Still passing westward from Colling- 
 wood is the Hudson River formation, about 700 feet 
 thick, which consists of drab marls, clays and shales, 
 interbedded with layers of limestone and sandstone. 
 
 Next is a belt of Medina red and green marls, with 
 a fine grained light grey, sometimes reddish sandstone, 
 called the " grey band," at top. This and the Clinton 
 formation, both being named from places in New 
 York State, extend to Owen Sound. 
 
(ji'ohKjical FoniKi f io n 
 
 59 
 
 Lastly, tis we surround tlie Bay, comes a ^'reat belt 
 of Niagara limestone, having a thickness of 400 feet. 
 It is one of the most marked fossil deposits in the 
 Province. It forms the sides of the f]forge of Niaoara 
 Falls, whose waters have cut through the limestone 
 104 feet, and half as far below it into the black shale 
 beneath. This formation then curves, past and under 
 the west end of Lake Ontario, through five counties, 
 and in its northerly course becomes the Blue Moun- 
 tains in the county of Grey, rising 1200 feet over 
 Lake Huron, or 1800 feet above the sea, and is the 
 main formation of the Saugeen Peninsula and Mani- 
 toulin Islands. It is valuable building stone and 
 burns to good lime. The geological terms used are 
 those fount! in the report of the Ontario Royal Com- 
 mission of 1890, though American geologists now gen- 
 erally class under Archaean both the Laurentian and 
 Huronian. Laurentian includes the Archaic gneisses 
 and granites ; Huronian includes secondary granites, 
 (juartzites and slates. Beside these come old sand- 
 stones, with conglomerates of various kinds. 
 
 On these Archaean rocks, which were at some period 
 more submerged than they are now, the Silurian sea 
 deposited limestone, so that the Lower Silurian, or 
 Ordovician, and Huronian often lie on each other, 
 witi *r bed of iron or quartz between. The west side 
 of t xC Bay is, as has been shown, Silurian, the north 
 and east Azoic ; but here and there an outlier of 
 limestone crops out on the Azoic side, as evidence that 
 it once extended across the Bay. 
 
■J- 
 
 60 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 It is thought, by Spencer and others, that there 
 was a pre- glacial river entering the Bay north of the 
 Indian Peninsula, and passing down by CoUingwood 
 through Lake Simcoe into Lake Ontario, near Port 
 Hope. 
 
 Great numbers of lakes are found in all Canadian 
 areas of Laurentian and Huronian formation. From 
 one-half to one-third of the surface is covered with 
 water. Through vast regions, these lakes, from 100 
 miles in length, to the size of ponds, exist in thou- 
 sands. 
 
 They are generally in chains or groups, and foiin 
 the means of travelling by canoe, with connections 
 by streams and occasional portages, in any direction. 
 Each watercourse is connected with those on either 
 side, by trails made and worn in the soil by wild 
 animals — deer, moose, caribou, bear and foxes. The 
 Indians used them as they sought game, stealing 
 along silently on soft moccasins or snow shoes, oi- 
 journeyed with canoe raised over the head. The trail 
 remains visible, especially when protected by over- 
 hanging trees, for years after wild animals have ceased 
 to use it as their run -way. These narrow winding 
 courses are trod with security by the explorer, hunter 
 and voyageur, as they know they are sure to lead to 
 some part of the watercourses. In maps of the new 
 townships, the trails are indicated by dotted lines. In 
 the prairies of the West they are followed by the 
 half-breeds' creaking ox-cart. 
 
 Falls, some of them of considerable height, cascades 
 
Geolog ica I Fonnaf ion. 
 
 61 
 
 and rapids, are found in the rivers and streams, con- 
 necting the lakes, of great variety and beauty. While 
 there is no tide in these inland waters, yet when the 
 wind prevails with strength for a few hours, it causes 
 a rush of water from one inlet to another. There is an 
 instance of this at the Minks Islands, where a long 
 narrow channel between high basaltic sides, ran dur- 
 inpf our visit like a mill-race, and a villao-e on the 
 Grand Manitoulin is called Little Current, from a 
 like phenomenon on a larger scale. 
 
 From variou«( causes a breeze is seldom wantinfj on 
 the bay. The yachtsman will never lie long becalmed 
 on its surface. 
 
 Numerous places throughout the area we have 
 circumscribed, have marks of extensive glaciation, 
 which took place in these Archaean regions during 
 the drift period. The surface of the rocks bears 
 these ice marks in tlutings, furrows and grooves, and 
 these are as plain on the tops of the hills as in the 
 valleys. Not only have the beds of streams and 
 poncis been so hollowed out, but the basins of the 
 lakes have l)een enlarged by glacial action. 
 
 In the metamorphic regions in the northern parts 
 of Ontario, says Dr. Bell (a) the rounaed glaciated 
 surfaces of tlie tops and sides of the hills have been 
 left almost or (piite bare in some parts. In most 
 places the smoothed and grooved or striated rock sur- 
 faces are covered by a thick deposit of stiff clay, mixed 
 with sand, gravel, stones and boulders. This is known 
 
 (a) Ont. Mineral Report 1890. 49. 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 62 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 as boulder-clay or hard pan. In Scotland it is called 
 till, and this name is being generally adopted. An 
 erroneous impression attributed these phenomena to 
 icebergs, but says Dr. Bell, " The glacial phenomena 
 of the drift period in these latitudes correspond, in 
 every way, with what may be observed on a small 
 scale in connection with modern glaciers and there 
 can be no doubt that they are due to land ice. 
 
 The strisel on rock surfaces were, it is conjectured, 
 not all produced at the same time, but by different 
 glaciers. As the great mass moved on, it became 
 divided into smaller bergs, which would follow the 
 valleys or be guided by their sides. The region of the 
 Georgian Bay, as one of the great miner il depositaries 
 of Ontario is, and will continue to be, of increasing 
 interest and importance. A railway is proposed to 
 be constructed from the mouth of the French Kiver 
 to Whitetish Station on the Canada Pacific road. This 
 project has a very considerable bearing on the mining 
 and lumbering interests and will do much for their 
 development. Whitefish was formerly an important 
 Hudson Bay Company post. 
 
I - 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 NATIVE INHABITANTS : THE ASSIKINACKS AND OTHER 
 DISTINGUISHED CHIEFS AND WARRIORS. 
 
 HE Charter under which the 
 Indians of the Pi'ovince enjoy 
 their rights, is the royal pro- 
 clamation issued by King* 
 George III, in 1768, after the 
 Treaty of Paris. Trespassing 
 on their lands, and purchasing of 
 them by the king's other sub- 
 jects, were thereby forbi(blen. 
 Indian lands were only to be 
 purchased for the public use, at 
 public meetings of the Indians 
 to be held for that purpose by 
 the Governor of the Province, The Quebec Act of 
 1774, and the Constitutional Act, forming the Dom- 
 inion in 1867, contained sinular provisions. The 
 care of the Indians, and their reserved lands, is now 
 vested in the Dominion Government. 
 
 The object of the Crown, as explained in the 
 
64 The Georgian Bay, 
 
 insti'uctions by tlie Colonial Minister, Lord Glenelg, to 
 Sir F. B. Head, when Governor in 1838, was to segre- 
 gate the red from the white population until the 
 former were, by education and paternal care, raised 
 to a level and made able to compete with the latter. 
 " The first step to the real improvement of the In- 
 dians," saj^s Lord Glenelg, "is to gain them over from 
 a wandering to a settled life, and for this purpose it 
 is essential that they sliould have a sen^e of perma- 
 nency in the locations assigned to them, that they 
 should be attached to the soil by being taught to 
 regard it as reserved for them and their children, by 
 the strongest secnrities." Before the appropriation of 
 reserves, the Indians have no claim, except upon the 
 bounty and benevolence of the Crown. After the 
 appropriation, they become invested with a recognized 
 tenure of land. They are wards of the State under 
 pupilage. They have the advantages and safe guards 
 of private citizens, having the present right to the 
 exclusive usufruct, and a potential ]-ight to become 
 individual owners in fee after enfranchisement. Such 
 part of their ancestral estate as is not required for 
 reserves, is generally sold, as demand arises, under 
 treaty arrangements, by the Government and the 
 interest derived from investment of the proceeds is 
 annually divided auK^np- the members of the various 
 bands entitled. («) 
 
 (a) The Five Nation Indians, Iroquois, are specially referred to 
 ia the Treaty of Utrecht sec. xv. See also the .St. Catharines Milling 
 Company v. The Queen, Ontario Law Reports, vol. 10, and Appeal 
 Cases, Law Reports vol. 14, 45 ; Houston's Constitutional Docu- 
 ments 72. 
 
Nat I ir Inhabitants ; Settlerne n ^s'. 
 
 65 
 
 The paternal care and fairness exercised by tlie 
 officers under Royal and Canadian authority, in the 
 conchict ot* their atikirs, have almost uniformly secured 
 the ii')od will of the aborimr.es, and have saved our 
 soil from the horrors of Indian massacres from which 
 our Southern neiohbors have often suffered. On 
 Grand Manitoulin Island, and at Cape Croker, are 
 laro'e settleinents of civilized Indians, some of wliom 
 wo met. The (Jhippewas, otherwise known as Ojil)c- 
 was, and tlie Ottawas, of Lake Huron and the Geor- 
 oian Bay, are <livided into fifteen bands, settled on as 
 many reserves on the shores of the lake and bay. 
 Most of them are Christians in faith with here and 
 there a paoan family. When meetinor the whites, 
 they aio generally reserved and reticent. We had 
 evidetice of their taciturnity towards strangers, when 
 approaching Killarney in the dark, and seeking the 
 chamiel, we juiiled some Indian vessels, using English 
 and French, and finally our best Chippewa, but not 
 a word would th«'y reply to our call of " Friend ! 
 AraU !" or " Bo jott Nitsl ! " There is probably no 
 region where folk-lore and old tales, of war and 
 romance, more abound than in the isles and on the 
 shores of the Georgian Bay. The ancient customs are 
 not forgotten and beneath every dark skin, though clad 
 in "store clothes," there is a renmant of inbred and 
 inherited superstition, which is exhibited at certain 
 seasons to a marked degree. Many of them assem- 
 bled this summer at the Shawanao-a Reserve, on the 
 east side of the bay to attend a war dance. Even 
 
^y 
 
 GO The Gaorgiaii Bay 
 
 after interment with Christian burial rites, the grave 
 is often at night strewn witli bhinkets, tin cups, pots, 
 kettles, bowls, spoons and bits of cloth, articles which, 
 according to their old superstition, would be useful to 
 the shades in the spirit world. The Algic Manito is 
 thus slow to give way before the white man's Theos. 
 The Grand Manitoulin Island is through tradition, 
 believed to be the dwelling place of both the Good 
 Spirit, Gitci Manito, and of Matci Manito, the Evil 
 One. At a chosen time each sunnner, the different 
 Indian bands of the Georgian Bay and Lake Huron, 
 meet at a selected spot on this island to " shoot the 
 Evil Spirit." After performing some wild and fantas- 
 tic dances, with much howling and contortions, each 
 man seizes his gun and a simultaneous volley is dis- 
 charged, with great shouting. Festivities follow, 
 sometimes ending in noisy orgies, for these red men 
 are not all teetotalers. The following extract from 
 the report of the late Right Hon. Sir John A. Mac- 
 donald, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, dated 1st 
 January, 1886, will be of interest for its condensed 
 information : " There are six day schools on .Manitoulin 
 Island and five on the mainland. The Indians of Mani- 
 toulin Island keep the roads, running through their 
 reserves, in good order. This is especially the case on 
 the Wikwemikong Reserve. The Indian population 
 of the Superintendency of Northern Ontario is 3,343. 
 They hold 3,120 acres under cultivation. Their crops 
 amounted in the aam-eaate to 4,201) bushels and l,2i)() 
 tons of hay. The Hsh captured by them were valued 
 
Nath'e InJiahiUinis ; CusUhuh. 67 
 
 at SI 8,450, and the furs at $5,205.50, while the revenue 
 derived from the other industries is estimated to have 
 amounted to $5,8o0." By arrangement witli the Gov- 
 ernment, the Indians of the eastern part of Manitoulin 
 have also, during 1889 and since, cut a large amount of 
 merclian table timber. 
 
 The land of the Hurons or Wyandots, lay between 
 the Georgian Bay and Lake Simc^e. Tt was a beau- 
 tiful heritage with favoured suiTOundings, pure water, 
 fertile soil, game and fish in abundance. 
 
 This re^^ion is a prolific field for the work of the 
 archeologist. When single graves are opened, the 
 skeleton is often found in a sitting posture, objects in 
 bone, shell, stone, copper and pottery are laid beside it. 
 The burial places were generally great ossuaries, pits, 
 containing the remains of from a hundred to several 
 thousand bodies. While burial sometimes took place 
 in single graves, the usual custom was, as each Indian 
 died, to place the bod}^ on a stage raised above the 
 reach of wild animals. At periods of some years, 
 fixed at solemn councils, the remains were taken down 
 simultaneously, the shreds of flesl. WT^re carefully re- 
 moved, large pits were made and into these all the 
 bones were cast with much wailing and noisy cere- 
 mony. These ossuaries are easily found, the surface 
 falling in as the decaying bones cease to support it. 
 Many of them have been opened, and specimens from 
 them, generally skulls, grace the collections of various 
 museums. It has been usually thought that the burial 
 of articles with the dead was a relimous act. If it 
 
68 The Georgian Bay, 
 
 were, tlien tlio custom would doubtless seldom have 
 been omitted, but in many of the graves no such arti- 
 cles are found, and of the ossuaries, one may contain 
 a thousand articles, and another scarcely a pipe or 
 l)ead. 
 
 Mr. C. A. Hirschfelder, who is well known as an 
 archeologist, sa^^s as to this, " We know that the In- 
 dians lived up to their belief, and if it had been an 
 act of religion to tluis bury articles, then in each and 
 every grave some article would be found. . . . My 
 theory is this, if one of these ' feasts of the dead ' 
 should occur during a propitious season, many articles 
 could be spared, but if a famine stared the Indians \\\ 
 the face, which fre(][uently happened, they would be 
 too poor to spare articles, and it appears to me that 
 the act of burial was not one of religion, but one of 
 respect." This opinion is not entirely acquiesed in by 
 other authorities. The truth probably is that the rite 
 of leaving gifts with the dead arose both from affec- 
 tion and superstition. 
 
 The Chippewas and Ottawas were not much con- 
 cerned with the internecine strife between the Iro- 
 quois and Hurons of two hundred and fifty years ago. 
 They then resided to the west of the Huron territory. 
 As the Hurons and their relations of the Neutral and 
 Tobacco nations, who held the territory south of th(^ 
 Bay as far as Lake Ontario, and along the north shore 
 of Lake Erie, were driven out of their lands, the an- 
 cestors of the present possessors came in and gradu- 
 ally occupied it, the Mohawks and other Iroquois re- 
 
Native InhabitantH ; Government. 
 
 Oi> 
 
 mainin^ in more southern regions. The Ottawas had 
 specially chosen Manitoulin Island, and the North 
 Shore and Channel, as the seat of their nation, and 
 jealously guarded them from Mohawk incursions and 
 encroachment. The Ottawas had at one time set up 
 their tepees along the waters of the Upper Ottawa as 
 far as AUumette Island, and the site of the present 
 large town of Prescott, but had not attein[)ted long to 
 hold that disputed territory. 
 
 These people live in a tribal way, the regulation of 
 their afikirs is in the hands of councils chosen by them- 
 selves. The oldest system of government on tlie con- 
 tinent is in practical operation in their council-houses. 
 Their code of rules and regulations, when adopted 
 and approved by the Governor-General of Canada in 
 Council, forms an excellent quasi-municipal system, 
 including the management of roads, fences, ditches, 
 schools and pounds. They generally exhibit much 
 interest in educational matters. 
 
 As any one may desire, there is legal provision for 
 him, with the consent of the Sup.Tintendent of In- 
 dian Affairs, to leave his band and become enfran- 
 chised, when he takes the status of a white man with 
 the like privileges and obligations. This right was 
 until recent years, rarely sought, but since the date of 
 the incident about to be related, Indian men in the 
 older provinces have had the electoral franchise ex- 
 tended to them on like terms as enjoyed by their 
 white neighbours. 
 
 Mr. S. J. Dawson, for some years member of 
 
1 
 
 70 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 Parliament Tor Al^ouia, rolatoH tliat, wIumi eaiivaHHin^ 
 for votes at West Bay on the Orand Manitonlin, lie 
 accosted a well-known Indian who was a I'ur trader 
 and had a (general store, and asked for his vote. "Do 
 you not know that I am a meml)er of my band," he 
 replied. "But why not be enfranchised? with all 
 your means you surely do not value the dole you 
 receive from government 1" "It is not that," said the 
 native patriot, " all I so receive is ^8 a year. In that 
 building is, I think, i*i>10,0()0 woi'th of goods, but I 
 would rather give all that than aban<lon the position 
 I occupy among my people, or take any step that 
 would separate me, in the least degree, from them." 
 It is from the residents along these shores, of pure 
 and mixed blood, that many of the hardy voyageurs, 
 raftsmen and axemen in lumber camps, or engaged in 
 moving the great tows of logs, covering many acres 
 in extent, are gathered. They are a jovial and hardy 
 race. They are among the bravest hunters and 
 fishermen. The old French blood mingles in the 
 veins of not a few of those occupying these northerly 
 settlements. Many of the families have become 
 known for their sterling character and independent 
 circumstances. They have interests in valuable mines, 
 some of which were discovered or developed by 
 their heads, or are well to do traders with extensive 
 business ramifications throughout the wilder country 
 to the north and west. Their young people are 
 educated at the schools at Wikwemikong and else- 
 where in the district, and at the Shingw^auk and 
 
Nat hi' InhahUiUits ; (VKihtcfcvisfirs. 
 
 71 
 
 Wawonosli Homos n(;ar Sto. Mai-ie, and thero are 
 Metes ladies who liave taken courses of niusie and 
 Freneh in Toronto, Montreal or Paris. Anionc:^ such 
 families the nanu^s of Snwyer, C^)rl)eau, Hiron and 
 ])'Lainorondiere are pi-ominent. As to the Indians 
 living in trihal manner — if happiness is to be secured 
 l»y possessing a sufficiency, freedom fi'om rent or 
 taxes, and from action in any civil court, all of which 
 these wards of the Dominion enjoy, then they may 
 be considered signally favored. 
 
 On infpiiry as to how this legal protection acted 
 on the character, we were told by wliite merchants, 
 that wliile many of the Indians honorably make good 
 their engagements, some can nt)t be trusted, and 
 bai'gains can only be safely conducted with them on 
 a cash basis. The strict honesty found by Henry, the 
 old fur trader, among their ancestors, is not so general 
 now. He relates that he had the satisfaction of 
 seeing all those to whom he had advanced the price 
 of peltries return, not thirty skins remained unpaid, 
 and this trivial deficit was occasioned by the death of 
 one of the Indians, for v/hom his family offered to 
 make good the loss, fearing that until that was done 
 his spirit would not rest, (a) 
 
 In the neighborhood of the Georgian Bay Reserves 
 wild animals abound, tlu^ moose and red deer, black 
 liears, foxes, beavers, water fowl, partridge or grouse. 
 The dread rattlesnake and copper-head disappear 
 w^hen the pig is introduced. There is much excellent 
 
 {a) Henry 'd Travels, part 1, cap. v. 
 
72 
 
 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 soil on the Grand Manitoulin. In addition to the 
 farms tilled by the Indians, are many occupied by 
 white residents in the neighborhood of the main 
 settlements, Little Current, Gore Bay, Mudge Bay and 
 Manitowaning. Shegwiandali is also an important 
 and beautiful village. Hardwood is found as well as 
 the pine, poplar, spruce and hemlock, nor do we see 
 on the shore the destruction by fire, leaving the rocks 
 bare and black, so common in the more frequented 
 I'cgion of Muskoka. 
 
 KEEJEK AND A8S1KINACK- INDIAN LIFE AND 
 
 TRADITIONS. 
 
 Ye who love the haunts of nature, 
 
 I ove the sunshine of the meadow, • 
 
 Love the shadow of the forest, 
 
 Love the wind among the branches. 
 
 And the rain-shower and the snow-storm, 
 
 And the rushing of great rivers, 
 
 Through their palisades of pine-trees 
 
 And the thunder in the mountaine, 
 
 Whose innumerable echoes 
 
 Flap like ergles in their eyries ; 
 
 Listen to these wild traditions. 
 
 — Somj of Hiawatha. 
 
 Two young men of one of the tribes, still repre- 
 sented by the Indians of the Georgian Bay, became 
 favorably known to many in Toronto more than fifty 
 years ago. Charles Tebisco Keejek entered IJppe]- 
 Canada College, where he developed much skill as a 
 linguist, and was well thought of by those who knew 
 him. He aided the late Rev. Canon O'Meara, in 
 translating the New Testament into Chippewa. Mr. 
 
Keejek ; the AssiL-hiacL:s. 
 
 78 
 
 O'Meara was then a uiissionarv to tlie Indians of tho 
 (fi-and Manit(^'^^in. Keejek settled at the Indian 
 village of Wc ' < :ish, near Owen Sound, where he 
 cultivated a small farm, and, by writing and other- 
 wise, gave much attention to the affairs of his tribe. 
 He also for a time acted as interpreter to the Rev. R. 
 Robinson, (Jonoroo-ational missionary. He was an 
 excellent scholar, retirino; in manner and of tinelv cut 
 features. He married a W(jman of his ])eople and died 
 at Wobonush more than twenty years ago, leaving an 
 intelligent and industrious faiuilv. 
 
 Francis Assikinack, the other lad, also held high 
 l)lace in his classes; was on the prize list in 1841 for 
 good c(mduct and map-drawing, and in l<S43 was first 
 form hoy and first in writing, general proficiency, 
 (jfreek and geography. He was son of a Chief who 
 lived to fi great age and who was present at the taking 
 of Macinac on the eastern shore of Michigan, four hun- 
 dred miles north of Detroit. It was sometimes called 
 Fort Michilli-Mackinack, meaning the (ireat Turtle, 
 when a boy, on the 2nd of June, 17().*}, in the Pontiac 
 v/ar. It was then that a hord of Sacs and Chippewa 
 Indians gathered round the fort in friendly disguise, 
 l)ut their sympathies were with the French. Under 
 ^n'etence of a game of baggataway, or lacrosse, they 
 i duced the unwary garrison to come, as spectators, 
 l>eyond the palisades, seized the weapons, which the 
 s(|uaws had meantime concealed under their blankets, 
 and then t :isue<l a bloody massacre of officers pud men. 
 Assikinack was then too young to take an active 
 5 
 
'T 
 
 74 
 
 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 part in tliis affair, nor did his tribe do so, though they, 
 the Ottawas, were in the neighborhood, {a) 
 
 Assikinack and his friend, Thomas George Anderson, 
 were again at Macinac when Fort Hohnes, as the cita- 
 del was named, was taken by Captain Roberts, early 
 in the war of 1812. 
 
 On the prairie, now included in the State of Illinois, 
 was a stockade, built in 1(385 by Durantaye, and in 
 1804 orcupie<l by a small American garrison. It was 
 called Fort Dearborn in honor of the General of that 
 name. Father Marquette had been there in lG7-t and 
 planted a mission station. It was in the path of the 
 explorer. La Salle and Charlevoix visited it. In 
 1790, Jean Baptiste du Sable, a colored man, settled 
 on the banks of the skunk-infested stream which cut 
 its way past the military post in the prairie down 
 to Lake Michigan. The Indians used to say that 
 " the first white settler was a negro." Then a Cana- 
 dian, John Kinzie, from Quebec, opened trade here, 
 and was for twenty years the only white resident 
 be3^ond the limits of the fort. 
 
 After Macinac was taken, Assikinack appeared as 
 the leader of a company of Ottawa and Pottawatomie 
 Indians, at Fort Dearborn. He was already known 
 to General Harrison and other American authorities, 
 and his name had been introduced into historical 
 documents relating to Indian affairs, as " The Black- 
 Bird," and sometimes as "The Black -Partridge." 
 
 fa) Pontiac was prinoipa! chief of the Otta\va.s. Tecuiuseh 
 a(lo])te(I him as his model. Tlie action of Juno, 1703, is <lescril)ed 
 in Paikmans "Conspiracy of Pontiac,"" Vol. I., p. 270; also in 
 Henry's Travels, Part I., ch. ix. 
 
Fort Dearborn Taken. 75 
 
 Captain Heald was in charge of Fort Dearborn in 
 1812. To him Assikinack went and returned a silver 
 medal he had received from his Government, saying 
 he was unable to restrain his young warriors, and being 
 compelled to act as an enemy, he could no longer wear 
 the token of friendship. On the 15th of August the 
 garrison evacuated the place, but did not escape an 
 unfortunate attack from the Indians, who were an- 
 gered because of a breach in the conditions of surren- 
 der, the soldiers having destroyed part of the ammu- 
 nition and arms which they had agreed to leave intact. 
 Assikinack warned them of their danger. He went 
 to the interpreter, Mr. Griffith, and said, in his own 
 tongue and manner : " Linden birds have been sing- 
 ing in my ears to-day ; be careful on the march you 
 are going to take." He restrained the Pottawato- 
 mies and Ottawas with him, in as far as was in his 
 power. He personally saved Mi-s. Helm, step-daughter 
 of Mr. Kinzie, from the scalping-knife. On the site of 
 this post is now the proud city of Chicago. The place 
 of conflict with the savages and where the Americans 
 surrendered to Assikinack, is about fifty yards from 
 the lake shore, south of North street, and between 
 Indiana and Michio-an avenues. 
 
 I The medal referred to was sfiven to ' Black- Bird ' at 
 
 I the treaty of Fort Wayne, made by General Harrison 
 
 I on the 30th September, 1809. An engraving of it^ 
 
 I the size of the original, is given at page 30G of Los- 
 
 I sing's Pictorial History of the War of 1812. On on(i 
 
 I side is the bust of President Madison, surrounded with 
 
I I 
 
 n 
 
 76 
 
 27ie Geonjlan Ba,'/. 
 
 1 ;• 
 
 tlie words " James Madison, President of tlie U. S. 
 1809." On the reverse two hands are clasped ; there 
 are also a tomahawk and pipe, and the motto, " Peace 
 and Friendship." It is entitled "The Black Partridge's 
 Medal." There was a distinouished Mandan Indian 
 Chief called Black-Bird, who died about the Ijeiiinninn' 
 of this century. Di'essed in warlike para])hernalia, 
 and placed on his favorite white steed, the dead chief 
 and livino' horse were buried too-ether on the banks 
 of the Missouri river, {a) 
 
 Our Ottawa chief is not to be confounded with him. 
 The Department of the Interior at Washington has 
 kindly furnished the writer with a copy of the record 
 of a conference between President Ma<lison and an 
 Indian delectation, dated Washino-ton, 5th October, 
 1811. The Ottawa Nation is there represented by 
 '' Black-Bird or Sio-inoc, Chief of the Ottawa Delea'a- 
 tion." Much complaint is set out of breach of pix)- 
 mises made by American Indian Commissioners, ami 
 yet it is alleged peace had been maintained and the 
 efforts of the Prophet, brother of Tecumseh, are re- 
 f en'ed to as of " one who has frequently endeavoured 
 to stir up a hostile disposition in our minds towards 
 the American people, but our ears are closed to these 
 bad birds wdiich sing around us, and we have returned 
 for answer that whoev^er listened to the advice of the 
 ]*ropliet or his foUower.s would be destroyed by the 
 American people." (b) Black-Bird was active during 
 
 (a) (Jeo. Catlin's Travels, vol. 2, o. 
 
 {!>) ¥ov the treaties referred to see U. S, Statutes at large, vol. 7, 
 pp. 113-115, ami Am. State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. 1, p. 701. 
 See also Appendix to this chapter. 
 
Naval Actioiis. 
 
 77 
 
 all the time of this vvrar harassiiio- the enemy at Nia- 
 wira and elsewhere. 
 
 We find him attached to Captain Worsley's Com- 
 pany in Septemher, 1814, when that officer found it 
 necessary to scuttle his schooner, the Nancy, at the 
 mouth of the Nottawasao-a, where we helieve her hull 
 still lies, he at once took canoes and passed throu^'h 
 Lake Huron to Macinac. Here he found the port 
 blockaded by Commodore Sinclair with two armed 
 American schooners. These were gallautly boarded 
 and taken, (a) 
 
 Assikinack, who is called 'Sackanaugh,' was ob- 
 served just before the attack, with tobacco pouch and 
 b(jttle of rum, scattering part of their contents on 
 the waters of the bay. This was with devotional feel- 
 ings, and by way of invoking the " spirit of the 
 waters." Then he rushed to the attack and was 
 among the first to leap on board one of the enemy's 
 vessels. " The action was crowned with success." 
 This is all Moro-an narrates. Youno- Assikinack 
 was told by his father, that he, and a number of 
 other Indians, boarded the vessel so noiselessly, that 
 the crew, who were in the cabin, only learned of the 
 attack when the war-whoop rang out, and finding 
 themselves in the power of the red warriors, surren- 
 dered at discretion. The loss of the Nancy was fur- 
 ther avenged by the taking o^ he Amei-ican schooners 
 the Tigress and Scorpior the third and fifth of 
 September, 1814, in the North Channel. Doubtless our 
 
 (a) Morgan's Guide to Canada. Longman & Co., 1824. 
 
78 
 
 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 red hero was at these events also, which were the more 
 notable as both these vessels liad been in the famous 
 engagement under Connnodore Perry and Captain Bar- 
 clay in Lake Erie in September, 1812. Morgan states 
 that ' Sackanaugh ' was a nepliew of Tecumseli, the . 
 famous Shawan(K' warrior. If so, liis l)lood was of 
 right royal strain. In Mr. Charles Mair's beautiful 
 drama, "Tecumseh," that lieroic chief is the leading 
 character. When he fell in battle after the destruction 
 of Fort Maiden, General Harrison then in command of 
 the enemy, afterwards President of the United States, 
 and grandfather of the late occupier of the White 
 House, pronounces his eulogy : 
 
 Sleep well, Tecuniseh, in thy unknown grave, 
 Thou mighty savage, resolute and brave I 
 Thou, master and strong s|)irit of the woods, 
 ITnsheltered traveller in sad solitudes, 
 \' earner o'er Wyandot and Cherokee, 
 Couldst tell us now what hath been and shall be I 
 
 The venerable William McMurray, now Archdeacon 
 and Rector of Niagara, was the first English Church 
 missionary to the Indians of the north shore of Lakes 
 Supei'ior and Huron, having been appointed by Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor Sir John Coll)orne, the late Lord 
 Seaton, on the 2nd of August, 1882. His mission 
 head(iuarters were at Sault Ste. Marie. In an inter- 
 esting note, of date loth October 1892, addressed to 
 the writer. Dr. McMurray says : " I knew Assikinack. 
 He was interpreter to the Government, both at Mani- 
 toulin Island and along tlie north shore as far as 
 Penetanguishene. He was a noted man, and held a 
 
 .III i.'ii 
 
Visit of Mrs. Jameson. 
 
 79 
 
 prominent position amon^ the Indians. The last time 
 I saw him was in the summer of 1837. Mrs. Jameson, 
 the autlior cf ' Winter Studies and Summer Rambles,' 
 paid us a visit at Sault Ste. Marie, and expressed a 
 strong desire to see the Indians receiving their presents 
 at the Manitoulin. Her wishes were complied with. 
 Mrs. McMurray and myself accompanied her in a small 
 lioat to that island. On our voyage down to the island, 
 whicli took four days, we discovered a vessel on her 
 way to the Sault. We hailed her to ascertain the news, 
 and were informed that the King had died and that 
 Queen Victoria had ascended the throne. On hearing 
 that, Mrs. Jameson exclaimed : ' Poor thing, she little 
 knows the troubles of those who wear the crown ! ' 
 On our arrival at the Manitoulin Island, we found the 
 Indians gathered in large numbers from the surround- 
 ing country. Mr. Sanmel Peters Jarvis, who at that 
 time was the Indian Commissioner, had the Indians 
 all assembled, and through the aid of his iuteipreter, 
 Assikinack, who bad l)efore this become a convert and 
 taken the Christian name of Jean Baptiste, their pres- 
 ents were given them. We parted with Mrs. Jameson 
 there, and she returned to Toronto with Mr. Jarvis." 
 
 In the third volume of the book referred to, the 
 talented authoress gives a delightful account of her 
 visit at the Sault, and of those most interesting native 
 ladies met there : Mrs. Schoolcraft and Mrs. McMurray, 
 and their aged mother, Mrs. Johnson, who was Xeengai 
 the beautiful daughter of Waub Ojeeg, a famous Chip- 
 pewa chief. The voyage to Manitowaning was made 
 
so 
 
 The Gf'onj'iu ti I >!',>/. 
 
 in a siumII luit compact and well-built lu^at. The 
 course A\ :is in the narrow part of Lake Huron, between 
 St. JoHepli's isljind an<l the niainlaiid, and tlu'ough tlie 
 North Channel to tlie east end of Manitoulin Island. 
 Thus they sailed, or rowed, past the mouths of the 
 (jrar<len and Thesalon rivers ; the Missisau^a, which 
 has its source in the interior, .SOO miles north of the 
 waters of the North Channel, and the Serpent rivei", 
 where now are the ^reat Cook lumber mills, through 
 an archipelao'o of islands, all clad in summer costume, 
 nnd with beautiful vistas, and ever changing scenes. 
 They had four voyageurs, Masta, Content, Le Blanc 
 and Pierrott, " all Canadian voyageurs of the true 
 breed, that is, half-breed, showing the Indian blood 
 as strongly as the French." She was enchanted with 
 the variety and beauty surrounding her on the trip. 
 
 Writing of the young Queen, she says: "What a 
 fair heritage is this which has fallen to her ! a land 
 young like herself, a land of hopes, and fair, most fair I 
 Does she know, <loe& she care anything about it ! 
 While hearts are beatinof warm for her and voices 
 bless her, and hands are stretched out towards her, 
 even from these wild lake shores I ' They came on 
 the fourth day to a " beautiful basin." nearly an exact 
 circle, of about three miles in circumference ; in the 
 centre lay a little wooded island, and all around the 
 shores rose sloping from the margin of the lake, like 
 an amphitheatre, covered with wigwams and lodges, 
 thick as they could stand amid intermingled trees, 
 and bej^ond there arose the tall pine forest, crowning 
 
 .-^. 
 
Munitoiranhu). 81 
 
 and onclosiiio- tlu' wIkiIo. Some hundred canoes werc! 
 dartino", Intlier and thither, on the waters, or glidinf^ 
 alono- the shores, and a beautiful scliooner hiy a<^ainst 
 the ^'reen bank. Mi-. -Tarvis, the Chief Superintendent 
 oh' Indian Affairs, and Captain Anderson, tlie Agent, 
 received tlie party. It was a very noted gatlieringof 
 tlie wild bands which was witnessed here, and even 
 yet reniend)ered and referre<l to as an historical event. 
 There were many chiefs of the Ottawas, Pottawato- 
 mies and Chippewas, whose prowess was known from 
 Thunder Cape to the Ohio. Their medicine men, 
 s<juaws and papooses were with them. Charles Kee- 
 jek and Francis Assikinack, then lads of ten or twelve 
 years, enjoyed the affair as only boys can. 
 
 Wesleyan missionaries and Roman Catholic priests 
 iiiinoled with their converts. Of the Chippewas, 
 Aisence, the Little Clam, Wai-sow-wiri-de-bay, Yellow- 
 head and Shingua-cose, were most distinguished. Two 
 Ears, a famous Pottawatomie, was fantastically dressed 
 and painted, two clusters of swansdown depending 
 from each ear. Waub-Ojeeg, son of Wayish-Ky, was 
 a splendid specimen of Chippewa manliness, six feet 
 three inches in height, his dress rich and tasteful, a 
 surtout of fine blue cloth, under which was a shirt of 
 gay colors, his fathers medal fastened on his breast. 
 His scalping knife and pouch hung from a magnificent 
 embroidered belt of wampum. His leggings were of 
 scarlet, embroidered with rich bands, or garters de- 
 pending to his ankles. Four eagle's wing feathers 
 were placed in an embroidered band around his head, 
 
82 
 
 The, GeoTfjian Bn//. 
 
 .^A 
 
 in proof of liis martial prowess. He held a tomahawk 
 in his hand. His fine features were almost femininely 
 «oft. Then followed the distril)ntion of presents 
 and an address ]»y Mr. Jarvis, who explained that 
 Governor Sir Francis Head, left Toronto intend- 
 ino- to preside, hut hearing on the way of thr 
 kiuii's death, had found it necessary to return. Old 
 As-si-Kinack; tlie Black Bird, was chief interpreter, 
 translatin*!;- the meaning- of the Superintendent's jid- 
 dress to the gi-eat assembly, raisino- Ids voice to a 
 liigli pitch, and speaking with much oratorical em- 
 phnsis. " He is, Mrs. Jameson states, the most cele- 
 brate.! orator of the Ottawa nation." She was told 
 with pride that, on one occasion, he began a speech at 
 sunrise which lasted without intermission till sunset. 
 Mokomaunish, an Ottawa chief and Shinixuacose the 
 elo([uent (Jhristian (Jhippewa, made long speeches in 
 reply, Shinguacose, the Small Pine, was father of 
 Shingwauk from whom the " Shingwauk Home "at 
 Sault Ste. Marie, an important Church of England 
 Indian school, received its name. A flag on which the 
 lion and beaver were worked, was given on the occa- 
 sion, the Indians choosing the old Ottawa chief, Kish- 
 Kenick, to receive it. Then followed canoe races, the 
 light barks paddled by squaws only, with a man to 
 steer, and a war dance, inimitably described by this 
 talented brave woman. All went on with good hu- 
 mour, and even good order, in the midst of confusion. 
 " We are tw^enty white people, with 3,700 of these 
 Avild creatures around us, and I never in my life felt 
 
Alglc Leycmh ; HiawidlKi. 
 
 8n 
 
 more security." Word was bi-ouoht the Superinten- 
 dent that a trader from Detroit, with a boat laden 
 with rum, hxy concealed in a cove, ready to waylay 
 the Indians and barter his tiie-water for their new 
 })lankets, ^ains and ti'inkets. Mr. Jarvis detailed 
 Assikinack with a canoe full of stout men, who soon 
 hoarded the intruder and threw his stijck in trade of 
 " ickutewabu," to the fishes. 
 
 '* The Black Bird is, she savs, a Christian, an<l extre- 
 mely noted for his ^^eneral j^ood conduct and his 
 declared enmity to the dealers in fire-water." A few 
 years after Mrs. Jameson's visit, Mr.^Longfellow spent 
 some time in the region of the upjier lakes. He had 
 doubtless before this become familiar with the writ- 
 ings of Henry R. Schoolcraft, who was brother-in-law 
 of Rev. Dr. McMurray, and celebrated as the great 
 (lelineator of native life and character, fi is volume 
 of Algic, or Algon(|uin, Researches, was published in 
 1839. It is also stated that Mr. Longfellow met some 
 of our north shore chiefs, and bai-ds, and had from 
 their mouths legends of the Chippewas, Ottawas and 
 Pottawatomies, as they sniokedjpipes of peace together. 
 All these were soon after embodied in the Song of 
 Hiawatha. 
 
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CHAPTER V. 
 
 INDIAN LIFE AND TRADITIONS CONTINUED, " CENSUS of 
 
 1867 AND 1891," SHINOUACOSE AND 
 
 CAPTAIN ANDERSON. 
 
 " From the Forest and the prairie, 
 
 " From the great lakes of the Northland, 
 
 " From the land of the Ojibways, 
 
 " From the land of the Dacotahs. " 
 
 HE scene of the poem is laid by 
 this American patriotically among 
 the Indians, chiefly Chippewas, of 
 the south shore of Lake Superior, 
 I but the life described was that of 
 those who met at the great gather- 
 ing at Manitowaning. The legend 
 of Hiawatha, or rather Taounyaw- 
 atha, the God of the Waters (a) is 
 a collection of the myths and folk- 
 lore of the Indian demigod called 
 Manabozho by the Algonquins, including the Chippe- 
 was or Ojibways, Ottawas and Pottawatomies, and 
 Hiawatha by the Iroquois, Schoolcraft states that 
 
 (a ) Parkman Conspiracy of Pontiac, Vol. I, 12. 
 
 (84) 
 
 ^i=^' 
 
Indian Life and Traditions. 
 
 85 
 
 these stories were first related to him by the Chip- 
 pewas of Lake Superior in 1822 [a.). He was then 
 Indian Agent at Michillimackinac. Manabozho was 
 the embodiment of the Algic conscience and manly 
 virtue. Whatever the wisest and strongest of men 
 could do, he could do ; like Hercules, he rid the earth 
 of monsters; his birth and parentage were mysterious, 
 his grandmother was daughter of tha moon, and his 
 father was the west-wind. 
 
 Alexander Henry, in 1767, gave a version of some 
 of the Manabozho legends. The Algic demi-god was 
 called also Michabou, Messou, Shectac, Nanibojou and 
 Nanibozho, and represented as the founder, and in- 
 deed creator, of the Indian nations of North America. 
 His burial place is on an Island, called Nanibozho, 
 on the eastern side of Michipocoton Bay on the north 
 shore, and was held in reverence by the natives in 
 Henry's day. " I landed, he says, and found on the 
 projecting rocks, a quantity of tobacco, rotting in the 
 rain, together with kettles, broken guns and a .variety 
 of other articles. His spirit is supposed to make 
 this its constant residence, and here to preside over 
 the lake, and over the Indians in their navigation 
 and fishing. This island lies no farther from the 
 main, than the distance of 500 yards." (b) 
 
 Such is the last resting place of the mythic Hia- 
 watha, or Manabozho. It is on Canadian soil about 
 100 miles north west from Sault Ste. Marie. The place 
 
 (a) Introduction to " Hiawatha Legends" by Schoolcraft. 
 {{)) Henry's Travels, part 2, cap. iv. 
 
80 • The Georgian Bay. 
 
 is still held in veneration as the chosen burial place 
 of the hero-god, whose name has for hundreds of years 
 been a household word in the wigwams of our Cana- 
 dian aborigines. 
 
 Longfellow claimed him as American in the same 
 spirit that the late poet Laureate made the " fore- 
 most Captain of our time, England's greatest son," 
 not deeming it necessary to state that the great Duke 
 first opened his eyes at Dungan Castle in the Emerald 
 Isle, (ti) Canada may as certainly claim to have on 
 her soil the grave of Hiawatha as can Ireland to con- 
 tain the birth place of the conqueror of Napoleon. 
 
 In a late learned article by Rev. W. M Beauchamp, 
 the archeologist, on Hiaivafha, he states, " When 
 Longfellow's Hiawatha appeared, I was prepared to 
 greet an old friend, and surprised at being introduced 
 to an Ojibway instead of an Iroquois leader. The 
 change however gave a broader field for his beautiful 
 poem, a gain to all readers, but, as he retained little 
 beyond the name, it may be needless to refer to that 
 charming work." (b) 
 
 Ta-oun-ya-wat-ha, here called the " Holder of the 
 Heavens, " is distinguished in this article from Hia- 
 watha, " the very wise man," who was an Onondaga 
 Indian. Much attention has of late been given by 
 other scholars to the study of folk-lore. The myths of 
 the Ojibways, Missisaugas, Ottawas and other Algon- 
 quins have been so well collated and analyzed by A. F. 
 
 (a) Tennyson's Ode on the Death of Wellington. 
 (a) Journal of American Folk-lore, vol. iv. 295. 
 
Maimhozho. 
 
 b7 
 
 Chamberlain, Ph. D , that it is only necessary to refer 
 to his published work, (a) From this we learn that 
 a rock on the south-east shore of Michipocoton Bay 
 marks where Manabozho rested after jumping across 
 that piece of water. 
 
 On the north shore of the lake, eastward from 
 Thunder Bay Point, is his grave, according to another 
 legend given in the journal of the late Peter Jacobs. 
 The name of Manabozho (or Nanibozhu) has also 
 been given to a mountain overhanging the waters of 
 Lake Superb r and to a point of land close by. Near 
 to that is stated to be a large impression resembling 
 that left when a man sits down in the snow When- 
 ever the Indians pass by any of these places, they in- 
 variably drop some tobacco, so that Manabozho may 
 smoke in his kingdom in the west. These are not to 
 be confounded with tlie figure of the Manito seen from 
 Port Arthur, as he lies in his long sleep, bold and 
 grand, under the sky, forming the crest of Thunder 
 Cape, three miles long and nearly one thousand feet 
 above the lake. On a smooth rock on the shores of 
 the Ottawa river, there are prints of human footsteps 
 and near by a round hole, about the shape and size of 
 a kettle. These the Ottawas and Chippawas believe 
 to be the track of Manabozho and the kettle which 
 he dropped. Into these tobacco is thrown as a luck 
 offering. 
 
 Mr. John Mclntyre, of Fort William, one of the 
 oldest employes of the Hudson Bay Company, in- 
 
 (a) Ibid, 193. 
 
88 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 forms me that a mountain in Black Bay, Lake Supe- 
 rior, is called Nanibozhu, and the Indians are never 
 known to pass it without throwing in a piece of 
 tobacco. 
 
 In Mr. Paul Kane's valuable book, " Wanderings of 
 an Artist," an account is given of Manitowaning ia 
 1845, as a village of fort}'- or fifty log houses, built hy 
 the Provincial Government tor the Indians, a mission 
 with a church, a pastor, Indian agent, doctor and 
 blacksmith, all paid by Government. Mr. Kane was 
 an eminent painter, who spent several years among 
 the Indians of the Canadian North-West. The Cana- 
 dian Government purchased many of his pictures of 
 Indian life, but most of these were unfoitunately con- 
 sumed by tire. Othei's, forming an interesting collec- 
 tion, are possessed by Senator Allan of Toronto. The 
 artist found nearly two thousand Indians awaiting 
 the arrival of the vessel freighted with their annual 
 presents, comprising guns, ammunition, axes, kettles 
 and other implements useful to the Indians. Assiki- 
 nack, called here " Sigennok," was, Mr. Kane says, 
 an acute and intelligent Indian, appointed to dis- 
 tribute to his tribe their due share of the presents 
 annually consigned to them. He was styled Interpre- 
 ter, though he could not speak English, but his natural 
 eloquence was such that he possessed great influence 
 over his tribe ; " indeed," says Mr. Kane, " it is to the 
 untiring volubility of his tongue that he owes his 
 name, ' The Black Bird.' " 
 
 Captain Anderson, then Superintendent of Indian 
 
AanikmacUs Depravity and Cure, 
 
 m 
 
 Affairs, related to Mr. Kane a sad tale of Assikinack's 
 depravity in his younger days, through excessive 
 drinking. He was, when under such influence, a 
 maniac, only to be controlled by main force, which 
 was attended with danger owing to his Herculean 
 strength. His attendants therefore, when he was so 
 crazed, plied him with more spirits, until he sank into 
 insensibility. Captain Anderson found him once in 
 such besotted state, lying in front of his lodge in 
 drunken oblivion, and bound him hand and foot with 
 strong cords, placing a decrepid boy to watch near 
 him. When Assikinack awoke, he angrily demanded 
 of the boy, who had dared to treat him with such in- 
 dignity? The boy, without replying, called the cap- 
 tain, who coming told the chief that he had been 
 bound by the boy by his orders, and left exposed to 
 the derision of the camp, a shameful position for one 
 who pretended to be a leader of his people. Then fol- 
 lowed a severe lecture on intemperance, which the 
 fettered warrior took so well to heart, that he pro- 
 mised to forever abandon his degrading habit. Cap- 
 tain Anderson then unbound him, and Assikinack is 
 said to have never been known to violate the promise 
 so made. He is also said to have used all his eloquence 
 in endeavours to persuade his people to renounce 
 heathenism for Christianity, and at a protracted coun- 
 cil or meeting, to have spoken almost without ceasing 
 for three days. A g'^ntleman, who met him at an 
 Indian 'J'reaty gathering at Penetanguishene about 
 185G found him still active and influential but much 
 6 
 
 I 
 
4\ 
 
 m 
 
 11 i 
 
 90 T/ie Georgian Bay. 
 
 bent and aged. He died on the second of November, 
 18G6, at the age of 98 years, and was interred at 
 Wikwenikong, as we are informed by the Rev. I). 
 Duranquet of that mission. 
 
 Young Francis was a noble specimen of his race, 
 stood six feet one inch in his stockings, was of lithe 
 form, jet-black hair, somewhat aquiline nose, piercing 
 eye and had small and beautiful hands and feet. 
 He mastered languages with ease, and read history 
 with avidity. He left college after entering the sixth 
 form, but continued his readings under the care of 
 Bishop Charbonnell, and some other cultivated French 
 clerics, then in Toronto, for he was a devoted Roman- 
 ist. He carried from the college excellent testimonials 
 from the principal, Mr. Barron, and from Dr. McCaul. 
 His favorite pastime in winter was the making of 
 snow forts when, sides being taken by each boy, the 
 opposing forces attacked each other with snow balls, 
 not ceasing till the stronghold was taken. In agility 
 and strength of body he distanced most competitors 
 but did not care for cricket or other games of ball. 
 Lacrosse had not then been introduced as a white boy's 
 game. He shot a robin on the wing with his bow 
 and arrow and his aim with a rifle was unerring. On 
 one occasion he ran a race in the Queen's Park with a 
 mounted English Officer and got to Queen Street in 
 a half mile run, before the galloping horse. He was 
 employed in the Government Indian Department, his 
 appointment as clerk and interpreter being dated 10th 
 August, 1849, where his knowledge of languages and 
 
Francis Assikinack. 
 
 91 
 
 of his people proved of service. When filling the 
 office of interpreter to the Department, Assikinack, 
 who styled himself " a warrior of the Odahwahs," read 
 four able and critical papers before the Canadian 
 Institute at Toronto. Three of these are in their 
 journal of 1858, the first on " Legends and Traditions 
 of Odahwah Indians," the second on their " Social and 
 Warlike Customs " and the third, which is completed 
 in the volume of 1860, on their language. The late 
 lamented Sir Daniel Wilson, then editor of the journal, 
 ai)pended an editorial note to the first article in whicli 
 Assikinack is stated to have been a fuUblood Odahwah 
 or Ottawa Indian, sent to the college by Mr. Samuel 
 P. Jarvis, Superintendent General of Indian Affairs in 
 1840, when totally ignorant of the English language. 
 In style of composition the articles referred to are 
 clear and eloquent and seem modeled after Macaulay's 
 historical essays. The proper name of his nation was 
 Odahwah, as given, but he submits to variation into 
 (fttaiva, by which it is now generally known. His 
 discussion of the nomenclature of the numerous tribes 
 of this nation, their customs " Ododams " or coats of 
 arms, their councils, marriage and funeral-rites, feasts, 
 modes of government, religion, legends and myths are 
 original and most interesting. Among the last, are 
 those of the creation of men from " mere animals 
 walking on four feet,mute, filthy, acorn-eating savages, 
 until, from constant fighting, scratching and what-not, 
 they learned to stand erect and walk upon their feet." 
 The flood with Manahbozho for Noah, is a longer 
 
I! ' ! 
 
 92 The Georgian Bay, 
 
 story. This demi-god is of course the same as Mana- 
 bozho or Hiawatha, but Assikinack does not refer to 
 Mr. Longfellow's poem, then published for some time. 
 We are given to understand that he did not regard it 
 as an entirely accurate representation of the charac- 
 teristics of his race. He felt perhaps some jealousy or 
 pique, as a warrior of the Odahwahs, because of the 
 author giving his hero the Iroquois appellation, in- 
 stead of his native Algonquin, Manabozho, thus hon- 
 oring a nation which had been at enmity with his 
 own from time immemorial, and whom he regarded 
 as but interlopers or trespassers on the north shore. 
 In the myth, as related by Assikinack, Manabozho 
 made of a piece of mud a large island which he placed 
 in the agitated waters where it continued to increase 
 until it formed the earth, as it is now. He continued 
 to reside with men some time after the flood, instruct- 
 ing them in the use of many things necessary for 
 their well-being. *' He then told them that he was 
 going away from them ; that he would fix his perma- 
 nent residence in the north, and that he would never 
 cease to take deep interest in their welfare. As a 
 proof of his regard for mankind, he assured them 
 that he would, from time to time, raise a large fire, 
 the reflection of which would be visible to them. 
 Hence the northern lights are regarded by the Indians 
 as the refl 'Action of the great fire, kindled occasionally 
 for the purpose of reminding them of the assurance 
 made of old by their benefactor. Another legend 
 was, that the tribes were one and the same people at 
 
Indian Life and Traditions. 
 
 93 
 
 tlie beginning. Then great disputes arose, as to the 
 foot of a bear which was a favorite Algonquin viand , 
 second only to roast puppy, and when they could not 
 make up their differences, they quietly dispersed in 
 various directions, and their children became distinct 
 nations under different names. A myth heard by him 
 in childhood was, he thought possibly a tradition or 
 Indian account, of the rescue of the Israelites and the 
 drowning of the Egyptians, by the waters of the Red 
 Sea. It is usually told, he said, as folbws : " Several 
 brothers, or a body of men of the tribe, were pur- 
 sued and hard pressed by fierce enemies, and being 
 driven to the end of the earth. When it was impos- 
 sible for them to retreat any further, one of them 
 suddenly turned round and struck the earth with his 
 stick, which immediately opening, all their pursuers 
 were swallowed up in the yawning abyss, the earth 
 closed again, and thus he saved his companions and 
 himself from death." 
 
 Assikinack expressed the opinion that his remote 
 ancestors entered America from Asia through what is 
 known as Russian America. Referring to the name of 
 his village, Manito waning, in the great island of the bay, 
 he shewed that the Odahwah word for god was Manido 
 oi- Mahnido, the personation of terror and irresis- 
 table power. He called attention to the remarkable 
 circumstance that the Seiks of Hindostan, and other 
 Hindoos.call their supreme God Mahadeo when viewed 
 in the liglit of Destroyer, that these words, Mahnido 
 ami Mahadeo, should resemble each other in sound 
 
94 . The Georgian Bay, 
 
 and iu signification, was, he reasoned, not altogether 
 the work of chance. The remainder of the word, 
 waning, means hollow or cave. There is a part of the 
 adjacent bay in which the Indians say they could 
 never find bottom by their longest trolling lines. From 
 this circumstance that spot in the bay received the 
 name Manitowaning. On this island his ancestors 
 were settled when Columbus first sighted the Western 
 World, from this they sent a party of warriors to 
 Montreal, on learning of the arrival of the French 
 there. When the party returned their canoes were 
 laden with strange articles which they had received 
 from the Wamitikgooshe, as they calleJ the foreigners, 
 from the fact that they kept their goods in boxes of 
 wood, as that word implies. There was a sad romance 
 in his life. He became engaged to an English lady of 
 culture and position. Then he fell ill and consulted 
 a physician, who found him suffering from decline* 
 and could not entirely conceal his anxiety, yet feared 
 to speak the truth. The young Assikinack sought a 
 friend and begged him to learn all. To him the doc- 
 tor said, " Yes, the Indian will die." On meeting him, 
 Assikinack read his fate in his friend's sad face and 
 said : " I see my friend I must die." Then he man- 
 fully put his affairs in order, wrote a touching fare- 
 well to the lady whom he had hoped soon to be his 
 bride, obtained leave of absence from his office, and 
 went home to his people on the Isle of the Manito. 
 As he discussed his sad fate with his Toronto friends 
 he said: "There is a beautiful maple grove in my 
 
Death of Assiklnack. 
 
 95 
 
 people's old camping ground, I will put up a wigwam 
 and end my days there." Soon a white marble slab at 
 Wikwcmikong marked, as it still does, his last resting 
 place. He died on the 21st November, l(S63. The 
 township, in which the village is situate has been 
 iriven his tribal name Assikinack. Komance is often 
 said to form no part of the Indian character, but we 
 know how chivalrous, as also how cruel, the warrior 
 could be. Assikinack would sometimes refer in sad- 
 ness to the decadence of the Spartan character, and 
 the vices which were destroying his race. Of their 
 oratory he once said : " J'here were good speakers 
 among the Indians formerly, but I have too much 
 reason to believe that there are no such speakers to 
 be found among them at the present day. In my 
 opinion it was chiefly owing to their deep contempla- 
 tion in their silent retreats in the days of youth, that 
 the old Indian orators acquired the habit of carefully 
 arranging their thoughts ; when, instead of the shout- 
 ings of drunken companions, they listened to the 
 warbling of birds, whilst the grandeur and the beau- 
 ties of the forest, the majestic clouds, which appear 
 like mountains of granite floating in the air, the golden 
 tints of a summer evening sky, and all the changes of 
 nature, which then possessed a mysterious signiflcance, 
 combined to furnish ample matter for reflection to the 
 contemplating youth." 
 
 He would also relate to his friends, with earnest- 
 ness and flashing eye, the valorous traditions of his 
 race. He was the youngest son of his fr.ther's third 
 
96 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 wife. Late in life the old man, blind with age, told 
 his boy many incidents of Ottawa and Iroquois con- 
 flicts. It was a tradition of his nation that they had, 
 hnnilreds of years ago, come from the south-west 
 ascending by the Mississippi and its tributaries. — 
 Representatives of both the Ottawas and Chippewas 
 occupy the reserves of the Georgian Bay in peaceful 
 pursuits. Yet they were slowly disappearing and 
 fading away, and this was more apparent in his day 
 than now. Discussing this with young Assikinack, 
 once in Toronto, he answered, " Yes, we are going it 
 is true, and when we ar-^ gone our deeds will still till 
 pages in the white man's history. We have in Canada 
 mingled in his wars, first against him, then with him, 
 against the connnon enemy." 
 
 Desirous of learning the facts as to the prospects of 
 the Indians under Government care in the older Pro- 
 vinces, inquiry made of the Minister having Indian 
 affairs under his charge has elicited the valuable table 
 giving the relative numbers in 1867 aud 1891 in On- 
 tario and Quebec, shewing a gratifying result. This 
 table is appended. 
 
 Being in a comnmnicative mood, speaking of the 
 Mohawks, and of the slaughter of the Hurons, young 
 Assikinack said, " They were great warriors, and mas- 
 ters of the art of war, as they understood it. They 
 drove the Hurons systematically from the lakes and 
 from Canada West. They attacked the French and 
 Hurons at La Prarie, within sight of fortified Mon- 
 treal. They plundered the great warehouses and 
 
Indian Legend. 
 
 97 
 
 burned their victims before the eyes of the inhabi- 
 tants and garrison, and left as (juietly as they came, 
 for their homes in the old province of New York." 
 He probably referred to the invasions of the Five 
 Nations in 1689. 
 
 There is, he said, a legend I learned from my 
 father of an affair between the Odahwahs and the 
 Mohawks, which took place near where a town is now 
 being laid out on the Georgian Bay, and a railway 
 built from Toronto. It is a high piece of land, having 
 a good outlook eastward and westward. The 
 Mohawks and other Iroquois, to the number of one 
 hundred or more, were here encamped. They used to 
 come north, to the vicinity of the Blue Mountains, by 
 the Nahdowa-Sahgi river, now called the Nottawa- 
 saga. The Odahwahs occupying the Manitoulin and 
 Saugeen Peninsula, resented their encroachments. 
 Sahgimah, their great warrior chief, found the 
 Mohawks on this high land called then, and by the 
 Indians to this day, Sahgimah's watching place.. He 
 spied out their camp and found them feasting and 
 dancing, suspecting no danger. He then gave his 
 men orders to be ready. After night fell, he entered 
 the camp alone and removed the arms, the short stiff 
 l>ows, and the guns of the sleeping warriors. The 
 Odahwahs then crept through the woods and in 
 canoes, in shadow and darkness, along the coast, and 
 gained the highland at midnight. The Mohawks 
 were sleeping in circles round their extinguished 
 camp fires. Behind each wari'ior was his property 
 
98 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 pole, on which, in a buckskin bag, hung his pemmican 
 and other effects. The war-whoop rang out over the 
 beautiful bay, and was echoed back from clifi* to 
 island, when the Mohawks found themselves before 
 a foe remorseless as panthers. A few only escaped. 
 The heads of the slain were cut off and fixed, each on 
 his property pole, with ghastly faces toward the lake, 
 in a mocking watch of horror. Sahgimah then 
 loaded a canoe with provisions and ammunition, and 
 giving it to the captives, ordered them to go home 
 and never to return and to tell their people that 
 Sahgimah held watch on the Blue Mountains, and 
 would place the head of every Mohawk who would 
 there intrude, on his pole with face turned toward the 
 lake. The site of this massacre was, as Assikinack 
 understood from his father, on the high land over- 
 looking the Georgian Bay, a little west of the present 
 town of CoUingwood. 
 
 Francis Assikinack was an interested student of the 
 late war between the Northern and Southern States. 
 When the fighting approached the old battle-grounds, 
 where his forefathers had contended, his martial 
 spirit was intensely arouseJ. More than this, he 
 seemed to have inherited something of the power of 
 his famous grand uncle, the Prophet, brother of 
 Tec mseh. On the morning of the seventeenth of 
 September, 1862, he said to a friend in his office: 
 " There is trouble somewhere, there is a great battle 
 going on. I feel it in the air." Soon the telegrapli 
 announced the terrible conflict at Antietam, betw(^en 
 
Assikinack and Keejek. 
 
 99 
 
 the forces under McClellan and Lee. Had he lived in 
 earlier days he would, no doubt, have been a noted 
 leader of his race. In the few years passed among 
 white people, his ability, industry and amiable 
 character won him many friends, and proved him 
 fitted to take an equal place with men of refinement. 
 It has been a pleasure to his few surviving friends, 
 who aided in collecting particulars of his career, thus 
 to keep his memory gi-een, as it is to the writer to 
 make known some of his excellent qualities and the 
 manner of his end, at once so sad and so characteristic 
 of his heroic race. 
 
 The school record of Keejek, whose name signifies 
 the sky, and of Assikinack is given from reference to 
 the college register by the present Principal, George 
 Dickson, M.A. He infers that Assikinack was the 
 cleverer of the two. The names appearing on the 
 class lists with these boys are of such men as Adam 
 Crooks, who lived to be a distinguished lawyer and 
 statesman; J. J. Kingsmill, a judge ; Norman Beth- 
 une, an eminent physician, and William Wedd, MA. 
 the classical scholar. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PIONEER vessels; CLIMATIC INFUEXCES ; THE 
 
 FISHERIES. 
 
 HE following account of pioneer 
 shipping on the Georgian Bay 
 is given by Mr. A. C Osborne, 
 of North Bay. Two vessels, 
 the Nawash'Aud I'ecumseth y^ere 
 built at Chippewa in 1818 and 
 were brought to Penetangui- 
 shene in 1819. The next year 
 Dr. Tarte, first military sur- 
 geon, was buried on Magazine 
 Island which is opposite the 
 present Juvenile Reformatory. The dock-yard was 
 built that year. Two side-wheel steamers and one 
 sloop-rigged vessel were built in the years 1821, '22, 
 and '23. They were named respectively Experiment 
 Minos and Bull-Frog. The last was commanded by 
 Commodore Wooden. Each of these crafts was sup- 
 plied with one cannon and manned by royal navy 
 seamen. The Wanderer was afterwards brought 
 over from Nottawasaga by Jeffery to carry stone 
 
% 
 
 *■ 
 
 
 
 
 3. 
 
 
 
 r=5?' j^^^ ^i ; 'sJ 
 
■ Pioneer Shipping. 101 
 
 for the barracks. The Water-Witch also came from 
 Nottawasaga or Macinac, having been taken from 
 the Americans. Her exact history is not known. 
 She, with the Nawash and Tecitmseth, are sunk 
 in the harbour of Penetanguishene. The other 
 vessels wore taken out of commission and dis- 
 mantled. In 1822 Lieutenant, afterwards Admiral 
 Bayfield, commenced the survey of Lake Huron in a 
 vessel called the Recovery, furnished by the Govern- 
 ment. It is not known where she was built. The 
 Wew Recovery was built at Fort William in 1825, and 
 furnished with two weeks' provisions to continue the 
 survey of Lake Superior. The old Magazine was built 
 a,t Penetanguishene in 1826-27. Its remains are still 
 on Magazine Island. Mr. Osborne procured the above 
 information from Mr. John Cowan, who was born in 
 1806 and died in 1892, in the Township of Tiny and 
 who was with Admiral Bayfield from 1822 to 1825 
 inclusive. Mr. Cowan assisted Admiral Bayfield in 
 building the Neiv Recovery at Fort William and in 
 launching and rigging her. " What became of the 
 vessel ultimately I have," says Mr. Osborne, '' no 
 means of knowing. Mr. William Fraser tells me he 
 frequently saw the Minos and Eocperiment pass up 
 the Wye River past old Fort Ste. Marie, and into Mud 
 Lake. This was years before the bridge over the 
 river was built." 
 
 In winter the Georgian Bay is locked in ice, from 
 two to three feet in thickness. It may be imagined 
 that its aspect would then be dreary. But one who 
 
102 
 
 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 has often traversed its surface, in winter, on snow 
 shoes, as well as in canoes in summer, affirms that 
 such is not always the case. The margin of the bay, 
 and the islands, produce a relieving back -ground of 
 evergreens. The maples, elms, ashes, and other deci- 
 duous trees, show their bare trunks. The colors of 
 the rocky sides, whei*e the snow has no hold, reveal 
 the syenitic red, and sibirean and granitic grey, and 
 the darker traps. The thousands of islands, which 
 fringe the north-shore, for many miles, are blended 
 in the view of the coast line. The liffht snow upon 
 the ice is driven in all directions, under a clear sky. 
 Then clouds of frozen vapour reflecting the sun's rays 
 produce novel effects, as they are whirled upwards, 
 and then onwards, on their courses, by the currents of 
 air. Watched from the window of a cosy homestead, 
 or from an eminence, they afford subject-matter for 
 contemplation and admiration. It must not be as- 
 sumed that the waters beneath the white blanketing, 
 are motionless. The currents move in their courses as 
 they did in summer, with the variation caused by 
 protection from the direct action of the wind on the 
 bay itself. The currents from the many rivers are 
 soon lost in the mass with which they mingle, but the 
 winds upon Lake Huron blow up the waters into this 
 bay, and the lesser bays are affected by the pressure 
 caused by these greater currents. A south-west wind 
 will force the warmer and deeper waters of the lake 
 through the sixteen mile entrance, between Cape 
 Hurd on the Saugeen Peninsula, and the Grand Mani- 
 
Climatic Influences. 103 
 
 toulin, and thence it will pass along the north-shore to 
 the head of the bay, when, meeting currents from the 
 North-Channel and rivers, it will be distributed to- 
 wards the centre. The waters beneath the ice are thus 
 always in motion and of" varying temperatures. This 
 uneasiness of the water, in connection with the wind 
 pressure from above and expansion, causes the ice to 
 crack and to overlap, and force itself on points and 
 islands. Hence long seams appear from headland to 
 headland, most dangerous to teamsters and snow- 
 shoers. 
 
 In April the bay is clear of ice ; the woods give up 
 their snow, the gulls return and the fields again 
 assume their verdure Warm May brings out the 
 vi'getation in its early summer dress. The birds have 
 come back, the humming-bird is preparing for house- 
 hold duties, in sunny coves, and insect life is every 
 where active. 
 
 When the United Empire Loyalists emigrated from 
 the revolted colonies, now the United States, Canada 
 was held to be a northern Siberia, but the peach 
 stone was planted and the tree fruited. The region 
 they had come to, proved to be equal to that they had 
 abandoned. Now we know that our Great North- 
 West is the natural home of the wheat plant, and 
 also excels in root crops. The finest fruit is raised on 
 the south shore of this bay. Apples of delicate 
 flavour and free from blemish, have been produced at 
 Sault Ste. Marie, at the west end of the North Chan- 
 nel. In a few years as good will be raised at the 
 
104 
 
 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 head of the Nipiasing, 100 miles north of Owen 
 Sound. Potatoes are ripe on the first of July on the 
 Manitoulins. On the south shore of James' Bay, the 
 Windsor bean flourishes in perfection. At Temiscam- 
 ingue, 150 miles north of the Georgian Bay, maize, 
 potatoes, barley and oats are produced, all of fine 
 (juality. Much climatic influence is to be attributed 
 to the heat-preserving power of the inland lakes, 
 which tempers the cool nii;ht air. The Georgian Bay 
 is, as will be seen, south of the latitudinal centre of 
 Ontario. The fact is established, that with proper 
 cultivation, including drainage, farming can be car- 
 ried on with good results, in the enormous fertile 
 area south, east and west, of James' Bay. The day 
 will come when cattle, root-crops, barley and other 
 grains will be largely produced and exported from 
 that country, (a) 
 
 The white fish and salmon trout of the Georgian 
 Bay are highly esteemed and the business carried on, 
 in the taking of them and other fish, is extensive. 
 " There are more than 2,000 miles of nets in the 
 Georgian Bay and Lake Huron," said an intelligent 
 fisherman of the Minks. His estimate was not 
 thought extravagant by his fellow craftsmen. 
 
 Mrs. Jameson in her " Winter Studies and Summer 
 Rambles in Canada," refers with enthusiasm to the 
 whitefish of the upper lakes. " I declare to you that 
 
 (a) See Evidence of J. C. Bailey, C. E. , and others in the 
 Report of the Royal Mineral Commission, Ontario, 1890 ; also the 
 Ontario Government pamphlets on "The Algoma District," 1878. 
 The Report of Wm. Ogilvie, P. L. S., to Minister of Interior, on 
 Peace River Country, 7th April, 1892. 
 
The White iish. 105 
 
 T never tasted anything of the fish kind lialf so 
 exquisite. If the Roman Apicius had lived in these 
 latter days, he would certainly have made a voyage 
 up Lake Huron to breakfast on the white fish of St. 
 Mary's River, and would not have returned in dud- 
 geon, as he did From the coast of Africa." " It is 
 really," she says again, " the most luxurious delicacy 
 that swims the waters." ^Vnd she speaks of the 
 enormous quantities caugfit liere, and in bays and 
 creeks around Lake Superior, " Besides subsisting the 
 inhabitants, not less than eight thousand barrels were 
 shipped last year." Her visit was in 1<S37, and at 
 that time the business had not assumed the inqjortant 
 proportions which it has now attained. 
 
 We have the evidence of Alexander Henry given 
 130 years ago to the like effect (a). " The whitefish, 
 which exceed the trout as a delicious and nutritive 
 fish, are here in astonishing numbers. In shape they 
 somewhat resemble the shad. Those who live on 
 them for months together preserve their relish to the 
 end." 
 
 Let us inquire as to some of the details of this 
 industry, — the fishermen gave them, as they unrolled 
 their nets from the reels, or as we sat on the shingle 
 beside them at the camp-fire. The cost of an outfit 
 is, boat with sails and other gear, S225.. three gangs 
 of 12 nets at S300, $900, in all $1125. This is a 
 very complete outfit and should, when worked by two 
 
 (rt) Henry's Travels and Adventures in Canada, 1760 to 1776, 
 Vol. 1, o4. 
 
 7 
 
IOC 
 
 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 or three men, take, in the season, 18 or 20 tons, worth 
 at the stations $70 to $80 a ton. The net is of four and 
 a-half inch mesh, according to law, is live feet broad, 
 w^eighted with lead, and lias oiled, wooden floats. The 
 mesh is made in Kilbirnie, Scotland, and is worth $2.00 
 a pound. It is hung on No. 82 cotton cord. It takes 
 five hanks of cotton to hang one 7 J lb. net. This 
 would make the length of the gill net 1560 feet, or 
 the small gang of six nets would reach 9300 feet. 
 Each proprietor has his own color of buoy, one of 
 which, with a little flag attached, is placed at each 
 end of the gang and anchored. The nets are left out 
 two (jr three nights, or more if the sea be rough. 
 The flsh caught are white fish, lake trout, pickerel, 
 catfish, herring, bass, and an occasional sturgeon. 
 
 The fishermen pay no rent or taxes and are under 
 regulations of the Dominion as to the time and mode 
 of fishing. They pay an annual license fee. Novem- 
 ber is the close season, and this is objected to because 
 the Americans have not the same close season and so 
 get the benefit of our law, as the fish know no bound- 
 ary line. The large whitefish, of from 8 to 10 pounds 
 in weight, come into the shoals in November. 
 
 At some of the fish stations the entrails are boiled 
 down and fish oil made. At Squaw Island between 
 40 and 60 barrels, at the Bustards half that number, 
 or, on the average, one barrel to each vessel is made 
 annually, worth in Toronto $10 to $12 a barrel. So 
 malodorous is the process, that it is always carried on 
 at a distance from the places of residence. At Squaw 
 
[Fish-oil Mahiiuj. 107 
 
 IslaiKl we saw the oil factory across tlie Bay. On 
 the Bustards the perfume carrie<l about by an old man 
 from the Lewis Islands, proclaimed him mjuster of the 
 vats. He told us in broken Kn^lish of his cottage, 
 garden and two cows in a pleasant lake-side village, 
 where his good wife had charge in his absence. Nor 
 had he forgotten Stornoway and the herring fishing 
 in his younger days off the Butt of Lewis in his 
 native Hebrides. His calling here had a wonderful 
 interest for the simple-minded old man, and he 
 insisted on our visiting his den. Sitting in an cily 
 scow, he took the oars, and passing out among some 
 islands, and into a little bay enclosed with high rocks, 
 we came to a shanty, with an iron crane over the 
 doorway, and empty barrels about it. Landing, he 
 ushered us into the rude laboratory. Noisome messes 
 stewed slowly in two iron vats, crude oil rising to the 
 surface. The good man proudly exhibited his 
 apparatus, crane, vats, barrels and stock on hand. 
 He stirred up the simmering rich stuff, in which he 
 seemed as interested and as unconscious of any 
 unpleasantness, as a painter mixing colors on his 
 palette. Alas ! our unaccustomed senses could not 
 abide the terrible odors that arose. Waiting till his 
 back was turned, we escaped and were soon breathing- 
 purer air on an adjacent mossy rock-top. 
 
 The largest salmon trout taken in recent years in the 
 Bay w^ere two caught in 1892, by Messrs. Brown and 
 Farr while fishing with nets on Snake Island shoals. 
 Their joint weight was 110 pounds, "and I think," 
 
 I 
 
108 TJte Georgian Bay. 
 
 writes Mr. Adam Brown, " that there was not a pound 
 of differ ^.nce between the two fish." Alexander Henry 
 refers to trout taken by his men with Hnes through 
 lioles in the ice in Lake Huron, weighing sixty pounds 
 and upwards. While the catch is generally but a moder- 
 ate recompense for the outfit and labour and some are 
 disappointed, there are occasions when fortune smiles, 
 so that the nets break witli the contained fish. One 
 such instance occurred last July ; William Proulx, a 
 fisherman from Sarnia, upon the i-iver St. Clair, 
 worked for some time in the channel near Killarney. 
 He was about to return home disappointed, when he 
 perceived a school of whitefish, and at once hauled a 
 seine and caught a ton, he threw again and so worked 
 for about fourteen days with three assistants, bring- 
 ing to the agents of tlie Buffalo Fish Co., Messrs. J. 
 cV C. Noble, who verify this statement, in one trip 
 4800 lbs. in another 4*770 lbs. and in all 18 tons, 
 which realized S1350 or more. Messrs. Noble state 
 that " There has been no other such catch of fish in 
 recent years." 
 
 In the autumn, pickerel are worth more per pound 
 than any other fish here taken, for the peculiar reason 
 that they can be exported undressed and so keep longer 
 than the others. The Jews therefore buy them as the 
 Rabbinical law prohibits the use of any meat, except 
 such as the Hebrew butcher has prepared. 
 
 An attempt is made, under an Act of the Dominion 
 Parliajient and inspectors appointed to visit the fish- 
 ing grounds, to hinder the wholesale destruction of 
 
Protection of the Fisheries. 109 
 
 the finny tribe. Seines are prohibited in certain sea- 
 suns, trap and pound nets at all times, yet we heard 
 sufficient to make us fear that many tons of fish are 
 unlawfully taken in bays and rivers, and on shoals, 
 where if allowed to spawn, they would add many 
 thousand fold to their kind, and even in deep waters, 
 a person alert, and with local knowledge, could find 
 many pound and trap or fyke nets and many mis- 
 chievous trespassers. A change in the mode of sur- 
 veillance was suggested, by one who knows the 
 circumstances, namely, the appointment of resident 
 inspectors — one in charge of each station of thirty 
 or more vessels, smaller stations to be grouped ; each 
 tug used in fishing to be counted as three sailing ves- 
 sels, and a well paid and reliable visiting Captain with 
 steam-cutter, to be placed over all in the lake and bay 
 to enforce the law. The fishermen regard with favor 
 the restocking of the waters from the Government 
 Pisciculture stations, but this cannot keep pace with 
 the loss caused by the fouling of the rivers and bay 
 bv the lumbermen with saw-dust and lumber refuse. 
 The present wholesale destruction goes on, with but 
 short cessation in November, and greedy evasion of the 
 law. The fisheries, and tlie forests and land game, 
 are under different jurisdictions, the first are con- 
 trolled by the Dominion, the others by the Province, 
 otherwise one set of Inspectoi's could look after, if not 
 all, probably the fish and game with profit to the 
 country, (a) 
 
 {a) Proof of otticial activity has l)eeii amusingly given since the 
 "White 8quair' was returned ])y our skipper to her owners. The 
 vessel and outfit were seized and tied up for alleged poaching. 
 
110 , The Georgian Bay. 
 
 The use of steam and American capital in our in- 
 land fisheries is every year increasing. It would be 
 well if the same time could be agreed on as the close 
 season for the American, as well as the Canadian fish- 
 ing in these waters. 
 
 As to the vahie of these fisheries Mr. George John- 
 son, Statistician of the Department of Agriculture and 
 Commerce, Ottawa, has kindly furnished the writer 
 the following information of date August 29th, 1892. 
 
 " The fisheries of the Georgian Bay and Lake Hu- 
 ron for 1880 and 1885, show the following result : 
 
 1880. 1885. 
 
 lbs. lbs. 
 
 Whitefish 4,813,978 4,079,640 
 
 Trout 3,555,300 6,519,780 
 
 Herring 442,600 2,835,650 
 
 Sturgeon 209,000 1,041,300 
 
 All other kinds 2,881,195 7,275,600 
 
 Total pounds 11,902,075 21,751,970 
 
 Total value 8406,461 S903,795 
 
 Persons employed .. . 1,047 1,967 
 Steam tugs employed • 12 25 
 Value steam tugs em- 
 ployed $16,700 895,100 
 
 Boats, number 307 890 
 
 Boats, value 838,008 880,346 
 
 Nets and seines, value 8125,177 82+1,253 
 
 " The above includes both the American and Cana- 
 dian catch." 
 
Value of the Fisheries. Ill 
 
 • Referring to the Government returns as to the 
 fisheries for 1890, we find that, in the Georgian Bay 
 Division, there were then employed 15 tugs, valued 
 at $39,400 and 152 boats valued at $29,040. There 
 were 788,000 fathoms of gill nets valued at $116,205; 
 and 4-05 fathoms of seines worth $550. The total value 
 of the catch is stated to le $5*30,500. The whitefish 
 taken weighed 2,858,000 pounds. Next in value were 
 the trout, 2,44-4,000 pounds, then the pickerel 4Gi,300 
 pounds, and the remainder of the catch was made up 
 of bass, sturgeon, herring, pike, maskinonge and 
 " coarse fish." In the Lake Huron Division for the 
 same year there were 10 tugs and 131 boats em- 
 ployed. The total catch was worth $223,752, of which 
 the whitefish and trout made up the largest pi'opor- 
 tions. 
 
 In the fisheries of the Province 3045 men are em- 
 ployed, 486 being in the Georgian Bay, 427 in Lake 
 Huron, and the Manitoulin section had 387. The Bay 
 had the greatest number of fatlioms of gill nets in 
 use. 
 
 The overseei's complain of gangs of fishermen from 
 the United States who carry on extensive illegal fish- 
 ing with spears and fyke nets, "They are," one ofticial 
 report states, "protected by fish dealers, who are mostly 
 agents for American firms. Some seizures were made 
 but it is hard to locate the nets and seize them with 
 this class of poachers." 
 
 The total annual value of the fisheries in the Geor- 
 gian Bay Division for 1890, is officially stated as 
 
112 
 
 Tlte Georgian Bay. 
 
 ubove, out of a total in the province of $2,009,687. 
 The Georgian Bay stands at the head of the list in 
 whitefish and lake trout. The revenue derived by 
 the Dominion Government from rents, license fees and 
 lines, within the Province of Ontario, amounted in 
 1890 to S23,6()G, out of a total in the Dominion of 
 $57,000. 
 
 Mr. D. W. Port, of Toronto, who deals largely in 
 lish, estimates the catch in the Georgian Bay for 1892 
 at nine millions of pounds. Averaging the value at 
 four cents a pound, which is less than the government 
 valuation just quoted, the receipts of the Bay fisher- 
 men for 1892 would be S360,000. He states that 
 about one-third of this is consumed in Canada ; the 
 other two-thirds are shipped to the United States and 
 are taken in free of duty, as thay are represented or 
 assumed to have been taken with American outfits, 
 boats and nets, although not one-tenth of the men 
 employed are Americans. The catch on the Canadian 
 side of Lake Huron was, in 1892, as he thought from 
 information received, about equal to that in the 
 Georgian Bay. The Dominion Government has noti- 
 fied the fishermen that after the season of 1893, they 
 must use five inch mesh, and not more than GOOO 
 yards of nets to each boat. 
 
 Mr. Poi't admits that it is very hard to enforce 
 restrictive measures on our shores, when the Ameri- 
 cans give their fishermen full liberty to use small 
 mesh nets and have practically no close season. He 
 concludes with the suggestion that a strong effort 
 
' ' Fisheries. 113 
 
 should be made to have the same regulations enforced 
 on both sides of the lakes, and then our valuable 
 fisheries would continue to be profitable. The causes 
 of loss or depletion in the fish supply, are to some 
 extent uncontrollable ; such as the changes in the 
 conditicns of life incident to the opening of the 
 country, the removal of the forests and the resulting 
 variation in the rain-fall. It is to such causes that 
 the disappearance of salmon, once abundant in Lake 
 Ontario, is attributed. 
 
 Spawning and feeding grounds are largely injured 
 by sawdust and by decayed fish and offal. The laws 
 requiring the consumption of mill refuse are suffi- 
 ciently explicit, but too often fail in the enforcement. 
 
 The fishing is sometimes impeded in the Bay and 
 North Channel by a fossil coral, having the* appear- 
 ance of a petrified sponge, in which the nets get 
 caught. It is also found in abundance on the shores 
 of the Grand Manitoulin. This fossil is the Favosites 
 heinispherica. ^ 
 
1 <:^3Lw w^ ^sr^jm^-^^^^. # . xiiic 
 
 [t^i^ma^i^^^^ 
 
 ^^^^mr^i^^->,iM'i^^i^^^ 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WILD AXIMALS; BIRDS; FRUIT; FORESTRY; EXTFXT AND 
 VALUE OF THE timber; RAILWAY DEVELOPMFNT ; 
 CANALS PROPOSED; THE HURONTARIO SHIP RAIL- 
 WAY : 
 
 HE /era' naturce,w\nch formerly 
 ^^^^M=^^^A^i\ ^abounded in this part of Ontario, 
 
 have become less plentiful on the 
 ^^ ^^^^ ^^^m south shore, but the north and east 
 
 :^^^^^ sides of the Bay are still 
 the paradise of hunters. 
 The moose, Alee America- 
 nus, is geneially conceded 
 to be identical with the 
 Swedish elk. He never f re- 
 
 ^^ quented the south shore 
 tep: from choice. A country 
 
 ' ' "*■ well watered by small lakes 
 
 \:A and streams, with ridges 
 
 and upheavals, such as are 
 
 common in the Laurentian 
 
 ranges of hills, is chosen by him, as from these he 
 
 obtains good views of the surrounding region. 
 
 (114) 
 
Wild Animals, Birds. 115 
 
 He is found by tlie prospector voyageur and hunter 
 in Northern Ontario, from the south edge of the Lau- 
 rentians to the Height of Land. During the heat of 
 summer he stands at mid-day in water in some quiet 
 cove, or inland lake, cooling his feet and enjoying 
 immunity from the annoying dies. On such occasions 
 he appears motionless, but with eye intent on every 
 intruder. In October the bull moose is to be avoided, 
 as that is his honeymoon, and he is ready to fight for 
 his mate with all who adventure near. He is then 
 dangerous to approach, even when isolated, and many 
 explorers, when not ai'med, have had narrow escapes, 
 owing to his morose temper during this period. 
 
 Later in the autumn, he herds with his fellows, all 
 discords are forgotten, the bulls feeling bound in 
 honor to defend the cows and calves. A "moose 
 yard " is then a bonanza for the hunter, generally an 
 Indian, or half-breed, who may lay in his winter 
 supply of meat, to be used fresh as long as the frost 
 lasts, or smoked for later use. 
 
 Moose-hunting tests the sportsman's utmost skill. 
 The moose is fleeter and more crafty than the deer. 
 He has been tamed when caught young, and used as 
 the reindeer by Hudson Bay employees and half- 
 breeds in the North-West. The bellow of the bull 
 moose is loud as the lion's roar, and can be heard from 
 two to three miles across the lakes. 
 
 The full-grown bull is the size of a large liorse. 
 He is fully five feet in height, and weighs from 1,000 
 to 1,200 pounds. He browses on the leaves and twigs. 
 
IK) The Georgian Bay. 
 
 ami lie likes the lily roots growing at the bottom of 
 pomls. With his long upper lip he reaches under 
 water for them, his body often entirely disappearing 
 for some minutes. His antlers are a striking feature. 
 They are most fully developed after the fifth year, 
 measuring five feet from root to tip. They are cast 
 in December or January, but so rapid is the growth, 
 that a complete new set is formed by the following 
 August. 
 
 The skin sells at 40c. per pound, but is generally 
 used in makino- mocassins. From eiaht to twelve 
 pairs can be made from each hide, for the use of the 
 household or to sell at a good price. 
 
 A few wapiti, or American elk, and an occasional 
 caribou, are found in the region under discussion, but 
 are rapidly V)ecoming extinct. The wapiti is also as 
 large as a horse, with magnificent horns, and has been 
 called the " antlered monarch of the waste." Red 
 deer are very plentiful about the north and east sides 
 of the Georginn Bay. The great hunting ground for 
 them is north of it, and following easterly by the rivers 
 coursing through the Muskoka and Parry Sound Dis- 
 tricts, and the stretch of country between the South 
 Ontario settlements and the Ottawa River and its 
 tributaries, to, and into, the Quebec Province. 
 
 In a part of this region east of Muskoka, there is 
 as much water as land, and this attracts the deer, 
 who may avoid the wolf by escaping on the run-w^ays 
 to the innumerable lakes, and drive off the tormenting 
 fly by wading in the shallows. Here, too, he roams 
 
Wild Anirnals. 117 
 
 over the broad plateaus of Archjean rocks, covered 
 with sweet herbage and shrubs. 
 
 Hunters hide near the run-ways, leading from lake 
 to lake, and shoot as he passes, or watch with canoe 
 at the coves, and secure the game as it takes the 
 water. For the protection of the larger game, which 
 was becoming scarce, an act, passed in April, ltS92, 
 prohibits the hunting of moose, elk, reindeer, or cari- 
 bou in Ontario, until after the first day of November 
 1895. 
 
 The season for deer-hunting is also limited to the 
 first fifteen days of November. In Ontario, still 
 hunting is much in vogue, which recjuires a noiseless 
 tread and alertness of eye and ear. The Indians and 
 professional hunters and trappers, take bear, lynx, 
 .wild-cat, sable or marten, mink, ermine, weasel, fox, 
 otter, iisher, wolverine, skunk, raccoon, musk-rat, and 
 an occasional wolf. Indians are exempt from game 
 laws, and may hunt when and where they please. 
 So, also, settlers in unorganized districts may capture 
 game for their families' use at all seasons, (a) 
 
 Birds of the Georgian Bay. — While it is not 
 
 ^a^ We learn from Champlain's narrative, (Book III. 151,) that 
 the range of the buffalo extended farther east in his day than in 
 later times, even perhaps into the Nipissing distiict. He had not 
 himself seen any, but saw their skins used for clothing on tlie Upper 
 Ottawa, by Indians who described the animals and the places where 
 they were slain. The limit of the northern habitat of the buffalo is 
 generally stated to be 60°, but it was sometimes found as far north 
 as 63' or 64'^. The Hon. J. C. Schultz, of Manitoba, states that no 
 buffalo has been seen east of the Red River of the North since 186.5. 
 The range of the nuisk ox is much farther north, seldom south of 
 latitude 67'', and so well within the Arctic Circle. 
 
118 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 intended to attempt a full ornithological account, or 
 even list, of the birds of this region, we cannot pass 
 without a glance at the most remarkable of them. The 
 attention of the casual passenger is first attracted by 
 the gulls, which fly in the wake of vessels, picking 
 up such food as may be thrown on the water. The 
 common white gull is the American herring gull 
 (Larus Argentatus). It is abundant on all the lakes. 
 Its young are grey in color. Tlie largest gull is 
 the great black-back gull (Larus Marinus). Jt visits 
 Ontario generally in the winter and spring, going far 
 north to breed. Bonaparte's gull (Larus Philadelphiae) 
 is a small, but plentiful, species that comes from the 
 south in spring and breeds in Canada. The gull called 
 by the fishermen the " garnet," is the common tern 
 (Sterna Hirundo) ; it has bright red bill and feet — 
 Bonaparte's gull also has some red on the feet. Fish- 
 ermen gather gulls' eggs in laige quantities in early 
 summer, and find them palatable so long as there are 
 not more than two eggs in a nest, after which they 
 are rancid. 
 
 There are three large owls w^hich are more plentiful 
 in the Georgian Bay District than farther south, — 
 the great grey owl (Ulula Cinerea), the great horned 
 owl (Bubo Virginianus), and the snowy owl (Nyctea 
 Nivea, or Surnia). The commonest small owls are 
 the short-eared owl (Surnia Brachyotos), the hawk 
 owl (Asio Accipitrinus), the screech owl (Megascops 
 Asio), and Richardson's owl (Nyctea Richardsoni). 
 
 The American hawk owl (Surnia Ulula), which is 
 
Birds of the Bay. 110 
 
 very hawk-like in appearance, is plentiful in Muskoka 
 and the Georgian Bay, though ([uite rare about To- 
 ronto. There iy no auk usually found there, as this 
 bird confines itself to the sea coast, only an occasional 
 straggler visiting the lakes. We have, in the museum 
 of the Canadian Institute, a specimen of the razor- 
 billed auk (Alco Torda), which was taken about three 
 years ago at Toronto. 
 
 There are two woodpeckers found around the Geor- 
 gian Bay, that are rarely seen in South Ontario ; the 
 artic three-toed [Picoides Arcticus] and the Pileated 
 [Ceophlocus Pileatus]. The former, as its name implies, 
 is a strictly Northern species ; the other, our largest 
 wood-pecker, used to inhabit the whole province, but 
 with the destruction of the forests, has retreated to the 
 Northern part. The French call him coq des hois, 
 cock of the woods. , 
 
 ■The Canada jay or " Whiskey Jack " is common in 
 Northern Ontario, thcmgh not found in the South, and 
 in winter, frequents the lumber camps to pick up 
 anything it can find in the way of food. 
 
 Many of the finches and warblers, that pass north 
 in the spring, breed in the Georgian Bay District, and 
 call on us again in the fall on their way to the South. 
 The pine grosbeak is a regular visitor there, though 
 it only comes south to Lake Ontario once in five or six 
 years. These birds were plentiful in Toronto in the 
 winter of 1889 and 1890. The more beautiful evening 
 grosbeak [Coccothraustes Vespertina), also then visited 
 Southern Ontario, but has not been seen here in any 
 
120 The Georgian Baij. 
 
 numbers since. This binl will dwell contentedly in 
 captivity, but its Imbitat being strictly northern, it 
 rlroops as the warm weather comes on, and seldom 
 lasts in its ca^e through the sunnner. 
 
 The loon or great northern diver, is connnon on all 
 these waters, but Lake Nipissingis its favorite resort. 
 Its plaintive note is know^n to all. So quick are its 
 movements that it generally escapes the ritle ball by 
 diving. Thirty years ago and more, wild pigeons se- 
 lected the shores of the Bay as their breeding giound. 
 Early settlei-s remember large areas of virgin forests 
 ap|)ropriated for the purpose. The noise and odor 
 were perceived a mile off. Twenty nests were often 
 on one tree, three or four on a single bough. The 
 people of Toronto frequently witnessed in the spring, 
 clouds upon clouds of pigeons coming northwards 
 across Lake Ontario. Flocks a mile in length by a 
 hundred yards in breadth, were seen passing over. 
 Many rested in the suburban woods, after their long 
 flight of nearly forty miles across the lake, and a 
 hundred miles or more beyond, going to the northern 
 breeding grounds. Their course has bec.i changed 
 to a route west of Lake Superior in consequence 
 of the grain wave developing west-ward. The natu- 
 ralists, Wilson and Audubon, describe masses of 
 pigeons, migrating in countless swarms, eclipsing 
 the sun, breaking trees as they alighted amid the 
 shouts of people, the screeches of hawks and eagles 
 and the howls of wild beasts. Wilson estimated one 
 flock to contain some millions of birds. Their flight 
 
Birds of the Georgian Ba}) , 121 
 
 was at the rate of fully sixty miles an hunr. The 
 young were fed in their nests with seed grain lately 
 planted, carried by the parents, who went, one at a 
 time, to distances of five to ten miles to get it. The 
 farmers found them very troublesome, and had often 
 to plant their grain crops twice. 
 
 Before grain was grown, on what did they feed it 
 may be asked ! The pigeon berry, omni-prtsont on 
 the Laurentian, as well as on the Huronian formation, 
 indeed from the great lakes to Labrador, was their main 
 reliance. This ])lant grows in areas miles in extent, 
 and is often in close clusters. The berry, when ripe, 
 is scarlet and the size of a pea. When a handful 
 is eaten, a pleasing pine-apple flavour is perceived. 
 The flower has a slight perfume when in its first 
 bloom. It retains, in most soils, its delicate appear- 
 ance for two months. The pigeons also fed on cran- 
 berries and red ash berries, and on the dark purple 
 seed of nana fruit, or shad beny, found in marshes. 
 The shad berrymay be classed with the medlars, and is 
 like the lilac in size of its bush, leaf, and habit ; the 
 bloom in spring is a creamy white and very fragrant, 
 not dissimilar to the elder-berry in appearance. The 
 fruit is heart-shaped of the size of a water-melon 
 seed, and held in large clusters. It is a variety of the 
 Amfielanchier Canadensis. 
 
 The " honk " of wild geese is heard over the Bay 
 in the early spring and autumn, but their breeding 
 ground is farther north. They feed on the wild 
 vetch bean and vine of James Bay, and of the Hud- 
 son Bay and its tributary waters and islands. 
 8 
 
122 TIte Georgian Bay. 
 
 The Ansoi-iria! of Ontario are divided into the 
 Canada ^'oose, ov Bernicula Canadensis ; llutcliin's 
 goose, the brant, the snow-goose, blue- winged-goose 
 and American white-lronted goose. They come 
 north in March and April, returning in November. 
 ])uring the journciy they stop at feeding grounds for 
 a week or two at a time, and it is then they may be 
 seen on the Gecji'gian Bay, and its tributary waters. 
 Within fifty years past they were well known in the 
 Toronto Bay. 
 
 Mrs. Jameson relates, in the story of lier Canadian 
 residence referred to, that as she sat at her window 
 overlooking the water on the 19th, May, 1837, she 
 saw flights of wild geese passing over, and great 
 black loons, skimming diving, and sporting, on the 
 bosom of the Bay. 
 
 These birds seem to have then spent some time on 
 the lower waters, as they generally came with the 
 breaking up of the ice and remained until the summer 
 set in. In the season referred to Mrs. Jameson states 
 that the ice had beeri bioken and swept out of Toronto 
 harbour, and the first steam vessel of the year had 
 entered it, on the fifteenth of the ^irevious April. 
 
 Swans fly over Ontario, to th '^ breeding grounds 
 in the north, but generally pass further west than 
 the Bay, and are very seldom taken in its waters. 
 They are of two varieties, the whistler swan [Oloi- 
 Columbianus] and the trumpeter swan [Olor Buccin- 
 ator.] 
 
 The duck family is very largelj^ represented in 
 
Flowers, Fruit and Forestry. 123 
 
 Northern Ontario. They come from the rice fields of 
 Georgia and Mississippi, from the marslies of Mary- 
 land, from the Pacific Coast, the Isthmus of Panama, 
 Guatemala, (yiiha and the West Indies, Amonf^ them 
 are the mallard, the ulack duck, the gadwell or grey 
 duck, the widgeon, tlio v.poonbill, the blue-winged and 
 green-winged teal, the wood duck, the canvas hack, the 
 American golden-eye, and the longed-tailed dnck or 
 old s([uaw. 
 
 The grouse, called partridge in Canada, is common 
 in Ontario. The ruflfed grouse is that generally met 
 with. Its habitat is the forests and swamps, from the 
 United States to the Arctic Sea. It is generally in Hocks 
 of eight to ten. When disturbed they fiy into trees. 
 In summer the food of this bird is bc^rries of various 
 kinds, in the winter the buds of spruce and fir. The 
 spruce partridge, a smaller and (lark(!r bird, has the 
 same range, but is less ccmnnon. Plover and snipe 
 gather on the shores of the l^>ay, in the autumn, and 
 remain some weeks before mit^ratini'' to the South. 
 Large black ravens, often cjuite tame, are about the 
 lumber camps, and are ma<le pets of by the hardy 
 axe-men. Humming-birds of an ex<iuisite plumage 
 hover over the flowers in sunny nooks. The melan- 
 choly cry of the whippoorwill came through the woods 
 each night. Rabbits, so called, are numerous in many 
 places. They ani grey, changing to white in winter. 
 The species met are the Lepus Sylvaticus, wood-hare 
 or cotton tail, and the Lepus Americanus, or American 
 hare. The pine-squirrel and ground-s(juirrel, or chip- 
 
124 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 munk are the smallest of their kind north of the Bay, 
 and take the places of the large red and black 
 varieties found south of Cbllingwood. The fl^nng 
 squirrel, and grey squirrel are seldom seen in this 
 region. 
 
 Flowers, Fruit and Forestry. — The flowers and 
 wild fruit met with have been referred to in the pre- 
 vious narrative. Were we to describe the mosses of 
 Northern Ontario, a volume w^ould be needed, there 
 being hundreds of varieties of moss on trees and rocks 
 and springs. Their little spires each stand out and 
 shine as rosebuds, and the weary foot rests on the 
 lovely bed softer than eider dow^n. {a) But we can- 
 not do more than glance at some of the more impor- 
 tant plants here found. Next to the whortle- 
 berry, pronounced " huckle-berry," and the raspberry, 
 the pigeon berry, already referred to, is probably 
 the most valuable of the native fruits, its bright 
 green carpeting large areas, and covering a succulent 
 nourishing berry which is of great service to any one 
 out of food and ammunition. The South shore of the 
 Bay is among the best fruit regions^ in Canada; its 
 apples, pears, plums, cherries and grapes are of the 
 best. The timber, which grows on the shores of the 
 Bay, is mainly white and red or Norway pine, spruce, 
 cedar, hemlock, tamarack, white and black birch, beech^ 
 maple and poplar. On the North Shore these main- 
 tain their size and vigour. The old forests, on the 
 
 (a) Note Virgil Eel. VII. 45, Muscosi fontes, et somno mollior 
 herba. 
 
Flowers, Fruit and Forestry. 125 
 
 banks of the Nottawasaffa, Beaver and Sydenham 
 rivers, were noted for their stately ebns, oaks, hicko- 
 j'ies, beeches and maples, large in ^irtli, tall and 
 straight in stem, till they soared above the silver- 
 skinned birches, iron-woods and other smaller trees. 
 Then the branches spread out their foliage, which 
 interlacing, largely excluded the summer rays from 
 the soil beneath, preserving moisture in the ground 
 until late in the spring, an essential condition of tree 
 life. Most of the forest trees are nourished at the 
 earth's surface, the thick layers of fallen leaves collect- 
 ing one upon another, j^ear after year, furnishing the 
 potash and other food absorbed by the ganglia of 
 roots spread out laterally beneath them. In the rich 
 compost below these trees, the delicate hepatica, 
 violet, trill ium, wintergreen, and other wild flowers, 
 spring. The dark green of the may-flower or trailing 
 arbutus, also called ground- laurel, spreads a sweet- 
 scented carpet over the rocks. This creeping vine 
 was the first flower that attracted the Pilgrim Fathers 
 on their landing in New-England. They called it the 
 May Flower after the vessel which had brought 
 them to America. It inhabits rocky and sandy soil. 
 In sunny glades are the wild cherry, pinberry, 
 currant, plum, shadberry, gooseberry and strawberry. 
 As the standing timber is removed, the sun's glare 
 reaches the light leafy soil covering the clays, gravels 
 and marls, and the carbonates developed by nature's 
 alchemy. The north-east winds get full play, and 
 the remaining trees also cease to flourish, and in time, 
 
126 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 make way for a new growth of poplars and ever- 
 greens. Sugar maples which have reached fully 200 
 years, are found in the primeval forests, oaks and 
 elms of twice that age, and pines and spruce older yet 
 as shewn by the rings of annual growth. Some of the 
 gieen monsters still standing had celebrated their first 
 centennial, when Columbus crossed the Atlantic, 
 and may have sheltered Champlain and his Huron 
 hordes, as the^^ passed this way.(a) When the older 
 timber is removed, the tulip tree and English elm 
 may be introduced, along the southern margin of 
 the Bay, as they have been on both sides of Lake 
 Ontario Forty-five years ago, during a remarkably 
 warm and dry summer, an extensive fire began in the 
 Lake Superior country, and advancing easterly, ran 
 along the north shore continuously during the entire 
 season. It swept over an area of five hundred miles 
 in length and one hundred in width. The smoke 
 materially interfered with navigation on the lakes 
 and Bay. Animal, as well as vegetable life, was 
 destroyed, tfie soil itself being in many places burned 
 down to the rock. Traces of the ravages so v/rought 
 
 (a) "The red pine near l^arrie, and through all the Penetan- 
 guishene (country, grows to an enormous size. I measured one near 
 Barrie no less than 2() feet in girth, and its height at least 200 feet, 
 and this was merely a chance one by the path-side." — Sir R. Bonny- 
 castle — Ca- ada anil the Canadiana in 1840. 
 
 Mr. T^inton counted the rings of an oak felled midway between 
 Lake Ontario and the Georgian Bay. He calculated that it had 
 been a sapling about the time when Sir William Wallace and Robert 
 Bruce were defending their native land. — Life of a Bnckwoodxman. 
 
 The white spruce attains an age exceeding 400 years in the Arctic 
 altitudes before it shews signs of decay. — Sir J. Riohardson, Arctic 
 Expedition, Vol. II. 316. 
 
Flowers, Fruit and Forestry. 127 
 
 are visible still on the north shore. The tire was only- 
 arrested in the low lands by the Autumn rains. 
 Entire forests of dead pines upon elevated ridges still 
 stand with blackened trunks and attest the whole- 
 sale devestation. During the construction of the line 
 of the Canadian Pacific Railroad along the north shore, 
 forest fires were frequent and very destructive. 
 
 Meliboeus happily addressed his friend as he reclined 
 under the spreading beech : 
 
 " Tityre, tu, patulrei recubaiia sub-tegmine fagi." (a) 
 
 nor have we any shade more refreshing in the 
 dog-days than that of the beech, with its outstretched 
 horizontal boughs, and green mat of leaves, palpitat- 
 ing in the August air. Probably the most beautiful 
 tree in our forest is the 
 
 " Vast Elm, impervious to daylight's beams, 
 
 Where live the Visions, and where haunt the Dreams." (6) 
 
 The Elm's festooning boughs hang down over the 
 waters of the small lakes and streams fifty to sixty 
 feet, the leaves in Indian summer being of mellow 
 yellow in strong contrast with the vines, which cling 
 to their trunks, and whose foliage is scarlet. 
 
 The white oak, rising without a lateral branch for 
 fifty feet, and spreading out as far above with bushy 
 dark green head rustling in the breeze, is the synonym 
 of majestic strength. 
 
 (a) Virgil ; Eclogue 1. 
 
 {b) Virgil ; translated by W. B. Phipps in Report on Replant- 
 ing Forests, 1383, p. 11. 
 
128 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 Charles G. D. Roberts, sings the praises of the 
 maple, one of the embles of the Canadian flag. 
 
 " Oh tenderly deepen the woodland glooms 
 And merrily sway the beeches ; 
 Breathe delicately the willow blooms, 
 And the pines rehearse new speeches, 
 The elms toss high, till they brush the sky. 
 Pale catkins the yellow birch launches, 
 But the tree I love, all the greenwood above 
 Is the maple of sunny branches. 
 
 The maple, it glows, with the tint of the rose, 
 When pale are the spring-time regions. 
 And its towers of tiame from afar proclaim, 
 The advance of winter's legions." 
 
 When in the open, as at Tamarac Cove, shrubs an, I 
 many colored flowers were on all sides. Birds flew 
 from twig to twig, butterflies and bees hovered over 
 their dewy cups. Passing a little from the shore, all 
 was still, save the occasional chatter of a squirrel, or 
 the tapping of the red-headed wood-pecker in the 
 great ever-green groves about us. Miss Johnston, our 
 Mohawk poetess, expresses the feeling engendered by 
 the occasion — 
 
 * ' The littleness of language seems the flower ; 
 The firs are .silence, grandeur, soul and power." 
 
 Upon the islands, and the edges of smaller lakes, near 
 the north shore, the lesser vegetation puts on, in early 
 autumn, a very varied dress of scarlet, rich yellow, 
 dark red, and brown. The greens of the pine and 
 ;spruce in the back ground, intermingle with the 
 
Extent and Value of Timber. 129 
 
 brigliter colors and frame a picture exhibiting nature's 
 most artistic skill. These lakelets seem then, as the 
 western sun shines on them, like emeralds set 
 among other richest gems. A river which crosses the 
 Canadian Pacific, twenty miles west of Sudbury, and 
 passes into Vermilion Lake, one of the reservoirs of 
 the north branch of the Spanish River, is named Ver- 
 milion from the color of its creeping vines. 
 
 In Mrs. Jameson's description of her excursion 
 through the Bay in 1837, in the canoe of Mr. Jarvis, 
 Indian Superintendent, she expresses frequent delight 
 at the exhibition of beauty among the rocks ; " In the 
 clefts and hollows grew quantities of gooseberries and 
 raspberries, wild roses, the crimson columbine, a large 
 species of harebell, a sort of willow, juniper, birch and 
 stunted pine; and such was the usual vegetation." 
 (Vol. 3, 326.) This traveller's experience related only 
 to the productions of the rocky shores and islands 
 and not to the interior. 
 
 The timber interest is now more important in this 
 region than the fishing industry. Ontario gets for 
 this valuable product a large annual income. ' It is, 
 indeed, a main source of revenue of the Province. 
 Many lumbermen have done well in the business ; 
 some of them have become millionaires. The whole- 
 sale cutting and deportation goes on apace, and neces- 
 sarily so under present conditions, as the encroach- 
 ment of settlements renders bush fires more common. 
 The surveyors often find that a considerable portion 
 of the timber has been scorched and more or less 
 
130 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 injured. In tlie township of Porter, surveyed in 1891, 
 one thousand acres are reported as hrule, and the pro- 
 portion is often larger than in this case. 
 
 The employment of fire Rangers, about one hundred 
 in number, at joint expense of the Province and tim- 
 ber lici'usees, has proved beneficial. These officers go 
 through the great woods and use every means to pro- 
 tect them ap'ainst the ravaofes of fire. When timber is 
 scorched, but still standing, they can secure most of 
 its value, by having it made into logs and taken to 
 market before the busy "borer" insect commits its 
 ravages, and decay ensues. I'he Rangers are also of 
 service in guarding the forests from poaching lumber- 
 men, who, in old times, removed millions of feet of 
 lumber without license or pajanent of any fee. The 
 fact that only a very limited supply of timber remains 
 in the formerly great pineries of Michigan and Wis- 
 consin, and that much American capital now seeks 
 investment in our northern limits, makes their pre- 
 servation and proper use yearly more and more a 
 matter of capital importance. 
 
 The timber on the public lands may be placed on 
 the market as soon as the lands are surveyed. It is 
 usual to sell by auction, after public notice, the right 
 to cut and remove the timber within a township or 
 other considerable space, called a timber limit or berth. 
 In addition to the sum paid at the time of purchase, 
 the buyer pays an annual ground rent of $3 per 
 square mile, so long as he works the limit, and $l.'lct 
 for each thousand feet, board measure, for the timber 
 
Extent and Value of Timber. 131 
 
 taken. In October, 1892, the Government sold two 
 limits, the township of Morgan, of 35| square miles, 
 which realized J?378,GoO, and the township of Lums- 
 den, 311 square miles, for wliich the sum of S00,^;75 
 was received. These limits are about fifty miles north 
 of the Georgian Bay. The difference in price realized 
 is attributable to the quantity and quality of the tim- 
 ber, which depends largely on the nature of the soil. 
 Lumsden being more rocky and sterile than the better 
 wooded Morgan limit. The total collections of the 
 Government for 1891 in the Woods and Forests 
 branch throughout Ontario, amounted to $1,022,019, 
 which sum includes $172,551 for bonuses, showing the 
 revenue for timber dues, rent, etc., to be $850,008. {a) 
 
 In 1892 the pine on other limited areas north of the 
 Bay was sold, together with timber in other districts, 
 the Provincial Treasury so realizing a sum exceeding 
 $2,250,000 by way of bonuses, the prices paid being 
 high beyond precedent. 
 
 The great lumber region of Ontario extends to the 
 north of Lake Abbitibbe and westward fully. seven 
 hundred miles to the Lake of the Woods and Rainy 
 River country. The town of Rat Portage is at its 
 western extremity and possesses unrivalled water 
 power for saw-mills and grist-mills. It is on the line 
 of the Canadian Pacific Railway between Lake Supe- 
 rior and Winnipeg 
 
 The white pine region again extends eastward as 
 
 (ft) Report of Hon. A. S. Hardy, Commissioner of Crown Lands, 
 Ont., 1891, VI. 
 
182 
 
 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 far as the head waters of the Madawaska and Bonne- 
 chere, which rivers largely drain the country east of 
 the Pettawawa, which is a tributary of the Ottawa 
 river. Thus the base line of the timber region of the 
 Province is about one thousand miles in length. 
 
 If a line were drawn from the mouth of the Severn, 
 on the East side of the Georgian Bay, due north, 
 such line would pass by North Bay, the chief Town 
 on Lake Nipissing. It would thence go through Lake 
 Temiscamingue; over the Height of Land and through 
 Lake Abbitibbe to the south margin of James Bay. 
 The country on either side of this line to North Bay 
 is wholly Laurcntian, containing many lakes and 
 streams upon the sides of which there is a considerable 
 quantity of agricultural land, moderately settled. 
 Much timber is annually taken from this region. 
 
 Many towns and villages have sprung up, sustained 
 by the lumbering interest. These are mostly along 
 the course of the Northern and Pacific Junction Bail- 
 way which joins the main road near North Bay. 
 This Town is so called from the Bay of that name on 
 Lake Nipissing, and numbers 2500 inhabitants. 
 
 The Nipissing is a somewhat shallow sheet of water 
 containing white-fish and salmon trout Upon its 
 shores is some excellent land. Its waters escape 
 through the picturesque Nipissing, or French River 
 into the Georgian Bay. ^'hoy flow over a mass of 
 islands and ridges of rocks wdiich sometimes span the 
 entire width of the stream. This lake and the 
 various channels of French River were surveyed 
 
Indian Navigators. 133 
 
 by the late Alexander Murray, F.G.S. and he gave 
 the names they l)ear to many places in the country 
 north of Lake Huron, which he was the hrst to lay 
 down correctly on the map. Oi the rivers flowing 
 into Lake Nipissing, the Sturgeon lias a length of 
 about one hundred miles and is much used in moving 
 timber. A creek, at the north-east end of the lake, 
 together w'ith the three small lakes, called Trout, 
 Turtle and Talons, and the Mattawan River, which 
 connects them with the Ottawa River, have had an 
 historic past. For many centuries the Algoncjuins 
 and their predecessors passed by this route in their 
 birch canoes, to attack rival ti'ibes on the debatable 
 ground to the south of the Georgian Bay. 
 
 On the ninth of July, 1()15, Samuel de Champlain 
 embarked at the isle of Ste. Helene, opposite Hoc- 
 helaga, passed with his party up the Ottawa, entered 
 the Mattawan and through it and the water course 
 mentioned, reached Lake Nipissing. Thence he 
 coursed along the Easterly shore of the Georgian Bay 
 to the Huron Territory. Here he joined the warriors in 
 hunting, and in their memorable expedition against the 
 Iroquois in the State of New York. Sir George Simp- 
 son, Governor of the Hudson Bay Company, took the 
 same route to the mouth of French River, and then 
 along the North Shore and Channel to Sault Ste. Marie 
 and the western posts. North Bay was an important 
 Hudson Bay Station. The creek referred to is called 
 Riviere de Vase. It is a muddy stream, and may be 
 found four miles east of the Town of North Bay, 
 
134 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 where tlie Northern and Pacific Junction road joins 
 the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The 
 route referred to was part of the northerly main line 
 of communication between tlie waters of the Atlantic 
 and the Pacific coast. It was through a game country 
 where meat and fish were in great abundance. In 
 July and August the whortle, or blue-berry, could be 
 gathered in handfuls from bushes knee-high, on all the 
 ridges and rocks. Raspberries and other wild fruit 
 came to maturity in August, and these were a fair 
 substitute for a more complete vegetable diet. The 
 Mattawan route has mjny portages, and in return- 
 ing from the west by this river, the trading canoes 
 were unladen and borne around the obstructions on 
 the shoulders of the crew, usually composed of seven 
 men. 
 
 Some articles were carried in the canoe, and some 
 in the hands of the voyageurs, but the heavy packs of 
 skins, proceeds of the winter's hunt, were left at the 
 beginning of the portage, necessitating a return of the 
 men for that purpose. 
 
 On the return trip, the fur packs were exchanged 
 for bales of cloth, of scarlet, red, blue and black, and 
 other goods used in trading for peltries. 
 
 The long frail crafts could, with skilful manage- 
 ment, withstand the heavy seas of the large lakes, 
 which they had often to encounter, as in many places 
 no landing could be made for several miles owing to 
 the rocky character of the coast. These canoes were 
 confined to the great lakes and rivers. At the head of 
 
Indian Navigators. 135 
 
 Lake Superioi* hulk was broken, and the packages 
 destined for Red River and the Saskatchewan were 
 transferred to smaller canoes, (a) The canoes sailed 
 in brigades for mutual protection, six to ten in a lieet. 
 whose crews mipfht, as occasion arose, aid each other; 
 and in case of mishap to any vessel, transfer its cai'go 
 and distribute the packages amongst the other canoes. 
 As the brigades approach their destination, hav- 
 ing successfully made the St. Lawrence, and are lazily 
 dropping down on its broad bosom to La Prairie, the 
 fur-entrep6t of Montreal, gaudy shirts of blue or red, 
 worsted sashes, [)laced double round the waist, new 
 deer-skin gaiters, spotless white tanned mocassins and 
 a gay tuke or bonnet rouge, are donned by the light- 
 hearted voyageur. What now of the mothers, sisters 
 and other dear ones, who, as the home-coming is an- 
 nounced in advance, hasten to meet and to grtet him 
 who, for two long years, has been absent and perhaps 
 unheard of ? Has he gone with the Sieur de Cham- 
 plain to fight the Mohawk in the Oneida country ? 
 Has death claimed him as he too hardily attempted 
 to shoot the Winnipeg or Mattawan, or braved the 
 waves of Lake Superior ? Or, has his heart been left 
 with a dusky maiden of the friendly Huron nation ? 
 How many thousands of Indians have, in old days, 
 
 (a) Twelve hundred men, say.s McKenzie, were sometimes cassembled 
 at the (Irrand Portage, often indidging in the free use of liquor, and 
 quarrelling with each other, yet always respecting their employers, 
 who were comparatively few in number. Here the "Noi"thmen" 
 or " Winterers" with their furs met the " Pork-Eaters" or "Goers 
 and Comers," as those were named who performed the journey 
 between the Grand Portage and Montreal. 
 
130 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 traversed the great route between the St. Lawrence 
 and Lake Huron in war-paint and feathers, or later, 
 as voyageurs aiding their half-brothers, the hois- 
 hrides, in propelling their light barks, or in carrjdng 
 their packs over portages ! Their ancient course near 
 the Nipissing is as well marked on the rocks worn by 
 the travel of innumerable feet, though always clad in 
 soft mocassins, is if made but a year ago. 
 
 Nor has the advancing spirit of modern commerce 
 found any better route, for the steam-engine seeks to 
 follow, as nearly as possible, the same course. Over 
 it are now borne the wheat and cattle of the prairies, 
 the wares of European make, ai- ' the goods of China 
 and Japan. The various railways connecting Geor- 
 gian Bay points now constructed, or in contemplation, 
 are subsidiary to the great central line largely con- 
 trolling the trade current of the upper half of the 
 North American continent. The fact that alone our 
 north-shore and by the old voyageur route, was and 
 is the true and natural course of commercial exchange 
 and travel from continent to continent, was boldly 
 stated not long since by a Canadian railway magnate 
 of marked ability and foresight, in the city of Boston. 
 His assertion was not contradicted, and could not be 
 disproved. The opening of a route for vessels through 
 French River, Lake Nipissing and the rivers Mattawan 
 and Ottawa by the construction of the necessary ca- 
 nals, was advocated at one time, but the plan proved 
 impracticable owing to the vast amount of granite in 
 the way. 
 
 Then a Toronto and Georgian Bay Ship Canal was 
 
Canals Projected. Vol 
 
 proposed as a means for passing grain-laden vessels 
 from the west to Lake Ontario, but the great cost in- 
 volved in tliis work was fatal to its construction. 
 
 A third plan is now before the public, theHurontario 
 Ship Railway from Nottawasaga Bay to the mouth of 
 the Humber River, on the western boundarv of 
 Toronto. On this, when constructed, large vessels, with 
 their cargo, crew and passengers, are to be placed and 
 tranEi'erred from the Bay to the waters of Lake 
 Ontario. 
 
 The late Captain J. B. Eads prepared a topographical 
 model of the proposed railway which was publicly 
 exhibited. It has been pronounced entirely feasible 
 by eminent engineers, among whom are Messrs. J. W. 
 Babcock and E. L. Corthell of Chicago, and Mr. Kivas 
 Tully,C.E,, of Toronto. 
 
 Referring to this project the London Times said : 
 " We have said this scheme is a bold one, but it is not 
 more remarkable for its boldness, as well as for its 
 
 originality, than for its engineering soundness 
 
 A careful inspection of the details of this great work 
 will convince the most sceptical that the project is 
 both possible and practicable." The distance between 
 the mouth of the Humber and the entrance to the Not- 
 tawasaga River is 66 miles, and the route surveyed was 
 declared by Captain Eads to be ren\arkably favorable 
 for such an undertaking. Practical consideration of 
 this interesting project awaits the result of the com- 
 pletion of the Chignecto Ship Railway now in course 
 of construction in Nova Scotia, from Bay Verte, on 
 Northumberland Strait, to the Bay of Fundy. 
 9 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CHAMPLAIN's ASTROLABE; THE GREAT NORTH COUNTRY; 
 A NATIONAL FOREST AND PARK ; CONCLUSION 
 " 'MONG the isles of the GEORGIAN BAY." 
 
 ^^HERE is an incident 
 of peculiar histor- 
 ical interest connected with the 
 old Ottawa route. The renowned 
 Champlain made his first trip up 
 that river as far as the present site 
 of Pembroke, about two years before 
 the journey already referred to. He 
 left Ste. Helen's Island on the 27th 
 of May, 1618, with a party of four 
 Frenchmen and one Indian. 
 Before proceeding far he exchanged one of the 
 Frenchmen for an Indian, who left a war party to 
 
 join him. 
 
 (138) 
 
Lost Ju/^E /6^ 
 
 m 
 
 
 ptt Co. 
 
 tmtmmtmmmm 
 
 mttmrnm 
 
Champlain's Astrolabe. 139 
 
 # 
 
 At various stages in liis course he took observations 
 for latitude, which are noted in his journal. At 
 Lachine he records the latitude observed as 45 degrees 
 18 minutes, which is only 5 minutes less than the 
 true latitude of that place. Arrived at the Chaudiere, 
 he describes the great waterfall in all its grandeur. 
 It was not then encroached upon by bridges, saw- 
 mills and acres of lumber-piles, as is at present the 
 case. At what is now the busy town of Hull, across 
 the river from the City of Ottawa, in full view of the 
 Parliament Buildings of the Dominion, but then a 
 primeval forest, he notes an observation which differs 
 from the true latitude by about 12 minutes. The 
 errors stated are insignihcant, when the imperfection 
 of the instruments then in use is considered. 
 
 On the 6th of June, Champlain and his party passed 
 the island called by him St. Croix, where the river 
 was a league and a half broad, mr de some portages, 
 and paddled by a number of other islands of various 
 sizes. " Here," he writes, " our savages left the sacks 
 containing their provisions and their less necessary 
 articles, in order to be lighter for going over land." 
 They had proceeded along the west side of the Ottawa, 
 up the Cheneux Rapids to Goold's Landing, about 
 two miles below Portage du Fort. Here they dis- 
 embarked to take the route by the Muskrat Port- 
 age and Lake, to avoid the rapids and falls in the main 
 river. The course from this was very irksome, owing 
 to the many portages necessary, and to a windfall of 
 uprooted trees in the way. Four small lakes were 
 
140 
 
 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 passed, when the party rested for a night, and then 
 proceeded through Muskrat Lake, where they were 
 entertained by Nibachis, an Indian chief, and in- 
 spected the rude dwellings made of the bark of trees, 
 and the cultivated fields of his people, where Cham- 
 plain found Indian-corn, squashes, beans and peas 
 growing. 
 
 He then visited Tessouat, the great Algonquin 
 chief, and his settlement, with its graveyard and gar- 
 dens, on Allumette Island, in the Ottawa. Here he 
 disclosed to the warriois the main object of his trip, 
 namely, to obtain guides and a convoy to enable him 
 to reach the " North Sea." It was only three years 
 previous that Henry Hudson, the intrepid navigator, 
 steering westward from Greenland, had entered the 
 great bay, since bearing his name. Here his crew 
 mutinied, placed Hudson, with his son and some others 
 who adhered to him, in a small boat and left them to 
 the mercy of the waves and savages. No trace of the 
 unfortunate party was afterwards discovered. 
 
 Champlain hoped to reach the sea from the south. 
 Properly supported he might have done so, and raised 
 the French flag on the shores of James Ba}?", but to 
 his mortification, the Indians, through fear of northern 
 tribes, which feeling he could not overcome, refused 
 to venture with him. Champlain, therefore, soon re- 
 traced his steps back to the St. Lawrence. 
 
 At Goold's Landing, Champlain took an observation 
 which is the last noted on this voyage, and which is 
 erroneous by more than a degree of latitude. The 
 
Ghamplaiii's Astrolabe. 141 
 
 reason for this seems to be that durintj the difficulties 
 of the toilsome march he had lost his astrolabe. It 
 was dropped on a portage, or left with other articles 
 in a cache, in order to lighten the burdens (a). Here 
 it lay, protected in the wilderness by a pine tree 
 which grew up over the spot, for 254 years. Then 
 the tree fell, its stump decayed, and a farmer plowing 
 past it, disturbed the relics hidden for two centuries 
 and a half. The astrolabe was found in 1867 on lot 
 number twelve in the second range of the Township 
 of Ross, in the County of Renfrew, about two miles 
 southerly from Muskrat Lake. The railway station, 
 called Cobden, is within a league of the place. Mr. 
 R. S. Cassels, now of Toronto, secured the astrolabe 
 from the man who had found it, and he has it still. 
 The farmer's children had used the figured disk as a 
 plaything, and neighbors had puzzled over it and 
 pronounced it a strange surveyor's tool. For a time 
 Mr. Cassels was doubtful of its use and ignorant of its 
 history. Then his ingenious and learned friend, the 
 late Mr. A. J. Russell, saw and made a study of it. 
 His interest was aroused ; he discussed the matter 
 with instrument makers and with some French 
 savants of Montreal. He next went to Quebec, and 
 in the Laval library, as Mr. Cassels understood, read 
 the records of the travels of Champlain, and thus 
 learned the story of the loss of the astrolabe. 
 
 It is of plate brass, dark with age, in diameter 
 
 (a) Voyages of Samud de Champlain, translated by C. P. Otis, III. 
 63 to 74: Champlam's Astrolabe, by A. J. Russell, Montreal, 1879. 
 
142 
 
 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 nearly six inches. The date, 1G03, is engraved on it. 
 It is fully described by the translator and editor, Mr. 
 Otis, in the " voyages " referred to, as also in three 
 learned brochures, one by Rev. Dr. Scadding, one by 
 Mr. 0. H. Marsliall, ami the third by Mr. Russell. 
 Utensils of thin copper, much oxydizetl, found with 
 the astrolabe, had been used in repairing the bottom 
 of a canoe. Some silver cups, with an engraving on 
 them, probably a crest, were sold for a trifle to a Brock- 
 ville pedlar, who, not dreaming of their value, melted 
 them for the metal. 
 
 The first application of the Astrolabe by Europeans 
 to navigation was made, according to Washington 
 Irving^ in 1481. Seamen could by its use ascertain 
 the distance of the sun from the equator. Four years 
 later, Columbus used it, and advanced into unknown 
 seas with confidence, being able to trace his course by 
 means of the compass and astrolabe (ct). This instru- 
 ment has since been improved and modified into the 
 modern quadrant. 
 
 Mr. Oassels' interesting relic is no doubt the only 
 specimen of the kind in America. A similar astrolabe 
 was, it is reported, found in Valentia harbour, Ire- 
 land, and is supposed to have belonged to a ship of 
 the Spanish Armada. A short treatise on the astro- 
 labe and its use, may be found in the works of 
 Geoffrey Chaucer. It is addressed to his son Louis, a 
 bright boy of ten years, {h) But this instrument is 
 
 (a) Irving's Life of Columbus, VI. 63. 
 
 (I)) Chaucer's treatise on the astrohibe is in the okl English of 
 
Cham plains Astrolabe. ' 143 
 
 of more ancient origin than any date (luoteil. Dr. \V. 
 Smith, late archfeologist of the British Museum, 
 relates in his published works that he discovered in 
 the palace of Sennacharib, excavated under a village 
 on the hill of Kouyungic, among other treasures of 
 antiquity, part of an astrolabe. Its circumference 
 was divided into twelve parts, corresponding with the 
 signs of the zodiac, the degrees of each being marked, 
 and with an inner circle naming prominent stars, [a) It 
 is now evident, as Mr. Russell i-emarks in the 
 pamphlet referred to, that astronomical science and 
 lore were not original with the Assyrians, but in- 
 herited by that conquering race from a more ancient 
 people whose literature and arts of civilization they 
 adopted, as Europeans have since cherished the learn- 
 ing of Greece and Rome. 
 
 Mr. Russell further remarks : " The astrolabe was 
 found in general use among the Southern Arabians, 
 by Vagues di Gama, when he discovered the way 
 round the Cape of Good Hope to India, known in the 
 
 the year 1391, and l)egins thiis : " Little Louis, my son, I perceive 
 by certain evidences, thine ability to learn sciences touching 
 numbers and proportions, and have considered thy busy prayer in 
 
 special to learn the use of the astrolabie." "I am but a poor 
 
 compiUitor of the labours of old astronomers, and have translated 
 into English only for thy instruction, and with this sword shall I 
 slay envy." As to the mode of holding the instrument, in taking 
 the altitude of the sun, Chaucer says: "Put the ring of thine 
 astrolal)ie upon thy right thumb, and turn thy left side against the 
 light of the sun." 
 
 (a) The present director of the Assyrian branch of the British 
 Museum does not share with the late Dr. Smith this opinion, but 
 informed Mr Arthur Harvey, of Toronto, during a recent visit to 
 the museum, that the Assyrian relic referred to was now generally 
 regarded as a magical instrument only. 
 
144 
 
 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 days of Pharaoh Necho."... "While we look upon 
 this astrolabe as a relic of the founder of civilized 
 society in Canada, her greatest man and most daring 
 explorer, and while we regard it with additional 
 interest as a memento of early adventure on what 
 was, even then, Canada's great interior highway of 
 commerce, and is, by the same destiny now, the site 
 of our great Pacific Railway, we may also look upon 
 it as a relic of ancient and even prehistoric science 
 and civilization." 
 
 Proceeding north from North Bay we have for our 
 guidance the observations made by an eminent 
 engineer, Mr. J. C. Bailey, C. E., who surveyed this 
 region at the instance of the Nipissing and James 
 Bay Railway Company early in 1889. He has kindly 
 place J his memoranda of the trip at our disposal, say- 
 ing : " It is a beautiful land full of possibilities in 
 mineral, agricultural, and other wealth. And yet, 
 with a heritage so rich, with its forests of pine and 
 valuable hard-wood, its buried treasures of minerals 
 known to exist, its millions of acres of the very 
 finest land, why this should be allowed to remain so 
 long in its primeval state is a mystery to me. It is 
 almost within "rifle-shot" of civilization, still there 
 are no means to develop this valuable territory. The 
 building of the railway will open up this almost 
 impenetrable region, will furnish timber in exhaust- 
 less quantities, maintain a numerous and hardy 
 population, and add millions of productive acres to 
 the assessment rolls of the province ! " The distance 
 
The Great North Country. 145 
 
 from North Bay to Moose Factory on James Bay is 
 350 miles. Moose Harbour will be about the same 
 distance from Toronto as that city is from Quebec. 
 
 The products of the whale and other fisheries of 
 Hudson Bay, as also of the mines and forests on the 
 islands and shores of James Bay, and of the excellent 
 dairy country between the Height of Land and James 
 Bay will, by this road, be brought to the markets 
 of Canada and the United States. Mr. Bailey's 
 trip was preferably made in the winter, as he has 
 found that the best season for such surveys. Lakes 
 and rivers can then be crossed with facility on the 
 ice, the trees are free from foliage, which would ob- 
 struct the view, and there are then no tlies to annoy. 
 Snow shoes were used and toboggans, on which the 
 packs of provisions, clothing, and other necessaries, 
 were put and drawn. The following is an extract 
 from this remarkable account : 
 
 "At our very start from North Bay we found good land, 
 and it continued so in large quantities to the end of our journey. 
 We were still more surprised to find much valuable timber — 
 belt after belt of red and white pine, groves of tamarac and 
 spruce, with black and yellow birch, together with black and 
 white ash, maple and whitewood. The tamarac and spruce 
 were the largest and finest trees I have ever seen, and would be 
 very valuable manufactured into lumber. Railway ties of tam- 
 arac can be counted by millions. . . . There are innumer- 
 able water powers, which will no doubt, as the material is here, 
 be utilized in various manufactures, such as pulp mills, saw 
 mills, quarrying and dressing stone and slate. The country 
 can boast, too, of magniticient scenery. Then with its endless 
 chain of lakes — deep, pure and cool water — its fishing, shooting, 
 and healthy climate, it must become one of the most attractive 
 resorts for sportsmen, pleasure-seekers, invalids, and those im- 
 mediately connected with the opening up of the mines, and 
 
146 
 
 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 when once nindo accessible by the railway, it cannot fail to 
 attract tourists ami others from all parts of the Dominion 
 as well as the United States. . . . 
 
 ** It is almost impossible to give any idea as to the number, 
 extent and beautiful scenery of these lakes, all of which teem 
 with tish. Lake Taniagamingue has been used f(»r fifty years 
 or more by the Hudson liay C.)uij)vuy, in supplying fish to the 
 other posts. This and Rabbit L'lke are full of the finest species 
 of whitetish and salmon trout, and the small streams running 
 into these lakes, as I was informed by the Indians, are full of 
 speckled trout. As to the game, I can s^y a little about this 
 myself. There are moose there by thousands, also cariboo and 
 red deer. Fur-bearing animals, such as beavers, otters, minks, 
 martens, foxes, wolves and wildcats are there in large 
 numbers. We frequently met with little animals caught 
 in the traps set by the Indians, taken them out, hung them 
 up on trees and reset the traps ; some of them were beau- 
 tiful specimens of martens. Beavers were very plentiful there 
 still." 
 
 Westward from Lake Teiniscaiiiingue about six- 
 teen miles is Lake Tamagaminguc. Unlike the 
 former lake, which is but an enlargment of the 
 Ottawa river, Tamagamingue is a large sheet of 
 water with extensive bays and many islands, some of 
 them considerable in size, and many of them mineral- 
 bearing. The w^aters of this lake branch out north 
 and south about thirty miles, and more than half that 
 distance east and west. 'J'he Montreal river drains 
 the country north-west of the Ottawa between these 
 lakes. There are immense tracts of agricultural 
 lands on the margins of the.e lakes and rivers. 
 The Blanche, which empties into Lake Temis- 
 camingue, passes through a good agricultural 
 country and is navigable for twenty-five miles. 
 The clay lands in its valley are estimated to be from 
 
The Great North Country. 147 
 
 « 
 
 500 to 600 square miles in area, ov equal to twelve 
 townships, each of 32,000 acres, {(t) The availahle 
 af'-ricultural land on the Montreal River is etjual in 
 extent to fifteen ordinary townships. Rabbit Lake 
 which is between the two large lakes just mentioned, 
 is in the midst of a ^reat white pine region. The 
 country south of Temiscamingue was found by Mr. 
 Bailey to contain excellent land with timljerof white 
 pine, black and yellow birch, spruce anil tamarac in 
 large quantity. The temperature is dry, and the cold 
 is not felt as severely as at Ottawa. " I am satistii'd," 
 says Mr. Bailey, "that as regards soil and climate, this 
 country is well suited for agricultural purposes." In 
 March and April yellow butterflies were flying about. 
 In these months crows were common, and he heard 
 the rosignol, jay, swamp robin, and Canadian song 
 sparrow. 
 
 At the Height of Land in the Nipissing District the 
 winters are severe, the summers warm. It is the 
 great water shedding ridge on whose south side the 
 streams How into the lakes, while on the other slope 
 they pass to the Ottawa. 
 
 The Height of Land stretches in a devious course 
 from north-west to south-east, from the middle of 
 Lake Tamagamingue until it strikes the St 1 '^rence 
 River near Kingston. It is the central line of a land 
 of clear streams, and beautiful lakes, w^ith no lack of 
 fish, game and timber. Proceeding northward the 
 
 («) Algoma report. 
 
148 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 climate improves owing to diminution in the elevation. 
 The temperature on the coast of James Bay rises in 
 summer to 90°. The shallow water of that bay also 
 exerts a favorable climatic influence. The only place 
 where it is deep is in a channel which passes north- 
 ward through its centre, elsewhere it is so shallow 
 that the bottom can be touched with an oar from a 
 boat until it passes almost out of sight of the low 
 shore. 
 
 The summer sun has great power upon the broad 
 expanse exposed to it. The Albany and Moose Rivers 
 and other affluents entering this bay have also a 
 moderating influence. The mean summer temper- 
 ature at Moose Factory is about G0°, and the snow 
 fall there is not as heavy as it is south of Lake 
 Nipissing. James Bay is often associated in the 
 popular mind with the Polar regions, yet no part 
 of it is within the Arctic circle, and the latitude of its 
 southern extremity is south of London. Its total area 
 is 500,000 square miles, or half that of the Mediter- 
 ranean, (a) 
 
 An indication has now been given of the vast 
 wealth in agriculture, timber, mineral and other re- 
 sources, held in Ontario's great territory. Expec- 
 tations of profit from riches so distant and at present 
 
 fa) The Algoiua Report, 37, 38 aiul 45. For statistics of the 
 weather at Moose Factory for the years 187H and '79, see report of 
 Canadian Geological Survey for 1879, '80 ; see also, Dr. Bell's 
 observations in subsequent reports of the Survey, as to valuable 
 deposits of coal and other minerals, found on the islands and shoies 
 of James Bay. 
 
The Great North Country. 149 
 
 so difficult of access, as are those of this broad northern 
 expanse, may by many be regarded as sanguine dreams 
 of the visionary. Forty years ago the endeavors of 
 Canadian statesmen to secure the Hudson JBay region 
 from the astute traders who held it was, by the unin- 
 formed, spoken of as an attempt to obtain for mere 
 pride of empire, an icy waste, lit only foi' hunting 
 grounds. Now the bufffxlo is gone, and those broad 
 hunting grounds form the great western provinces 
 and fertile territory of the Dominion. The praries 
 and hilJs are crossed by railways, steam vessels ply 
 on all the lakes and rivers, many villages and thou- 
 sands of happy homesteads deck the landscape, — elec 
 trie lamps lighten their cities and towns, and their 
 people enjoy the arts of European civilization. For- 
 eign capital is regarding each new discovery with in- 
 terest, and is ready to develop natural resources. 
 
 Children now living will see the day when the peo- 
 ple and the interests of James Bay will be referred to 
 as fre([uently and as familiarly on the streets and in 
 the Exchanges of Toronto and Montreal, as are now 
 those of Lake Michigan or the Georgian Bay. So im- 
 perial is our fair province in her proportions, so fitted 
 is her climate for the home of a free, intelligent and 
 industrious race, so all-embracing are her resources, 
 so lavish has kind nature been, tliat her children, as 
 they regard their bountiful heritage, may well ex- 
 claim — 
 
 *' Far as the heart can wish, the fancy roam, 
 Survey our empire, and behold our home." 
 
150 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 A National Park. — The matter of setting apart 
 a portion of our wild and picturesque northern region, 
 while yet in a state of nature, as a forest reservation 
 and national park, has been mooted and received 
 favorable consideration. Commissioners appointed by 
 the Provincial Government, have recommended the 
 appropriation of a tract of about 750,000 acres, south 
 of the Mattawan River, in the south-easterly part of 
 the Nipissing District. 
 
 The place selected will, it is believed, prove well 
 adapted for such Reserve. It is connected with the 
 most romantic period of our provincial history, the 
 time of Champlain, the Hurons and the hardy voya- 
 geurs. The Government which, with the friendly co- 
 operation of the State of New York, rescued the beau- 
 ties of Niagara from vandalism and made there a 
 park which bears the name of Her Majesty the Queen, 
 may well follow up the excellent and popular prece- 
 dent thus established. 
 
 In Quebec the Megantic Fish and Game Club, whose 
 membership embraces many Boston and New York, 
 as well as Montreal, Sherbrooke and Toronto gentlemen, 
 secured a ffreat tract of wild land and water, extendinj^r 
 from Lake Megantic over the Boundary Mountains into 
 Maine. This beautiful preserve is guarded by an 
 efficient warden and rangers and abounds with game. 
 It is during the season the resort of many tourists 
 from both lands, who, often accompanied by their 
 families, find here various means of health giving 
 recreation. 
 
A National Park. 151 
 
 The National Park scheme ha-s been well brought 
 before the public in former years by Mr.W. B. Phipps 
 iind Mr. A. Kirkwood, officers of the Crown Lands De- 
 partment. (<t) In a communication by Mr. Kirkwood, 
 in August, 18vS6, to the head of the department, he 
 thus refers to the region selected as the source of 
 many waters : 
 
 " A glance at the map of the Ottawa and Huron Territory 
 of Ontario shows that the Muskoka River which flows into 
 Lake Huron and the Petewawa, Bonnechere, and Madawaska 
 Rivers, which empty into the Ottawa, have their sources within 
 a very short distance of each other. Island Lake at the head 
 waters of the Muskoka, and Otter Slide L'lke at the head of the 
 Petewawa are not half a mile apart, and each is 1,400 feet 
 above the level of the sea. 
 
 The head waters of the Muskoka, after flowing in a circuit 
 of 1,000 miles through Lakes Huron, St. Clair, Erie, the 
 Niagara River, Lake Ontario and the River St. Lawrence, 
 meet and commingle in happy harmony with those of the Pete- 
 wawa, Bonnechere, and Madawaska near the city of Montreal." 
 
 Mr. William Houston, late librarian of the Ontario 
 Parliament, spoke of the park scheme in a recent 
 public address, from which the following is quoted : 
 
 To one acquainted with the growing craving oi Americans, 
 and especially of those who live far to the south f)f us, for a 
 pleasant "summe esort," the iirst sight of the Laurentian 
 Legion, as it was a century ago, would at once suggest that it 
 .should be reserved as a continental park. For such a purpose 
 it is absolutely unique, not merely in America, but so far as we 
 know, in the world. It is perfectly salubrious. It aflbrds 
 enough of sporting amusement at all seasons to stimulate to 
 
 (rt) The name proposed is Algonkin Forest and Park. The 
 tract of land selected by tlie cotninissioners, contains the following 
 nineteen townships ; Wilkes, Peutland, Jioyd i^iggar, Osier, Lister, 
 Deacon, Devine, Bishop, Creswick, Angliu, Hunter, McLaughlin. 
 Uower, Dickson, Peck, Canisbay, Sproule and Preston. 
 
152 
 
 The Georgian Bay. 
 
 physical activity. It contains an endless diversity of scenery. 
 It is easily accessible, or can be made so in every part. There 
 are enough of good farming plots to maintain a constant supply 
 of those animal and vegetable foods, that are too perishable for 
 transport from a distance. Where the country has not been 
 denuded of its evergreen forest covering, the climate surpasses 
 that of any other place in the heat of sunmiur. The United 
 States Government his set apart a national park 400 miles 
 square on the Yellowstone river, but its chief peculiarity is its 
 volcanic chararter, which is iiicituipatible with that sylvan beauty 
 which forms a more enduring attraction. New York State, see- 
 ing with regret the disai)pearauce of the Adirondack forests 
 is endeavoring at great expense to cheek destruction, and })ar- 
 tially restore the primitive condition ; but the Laurentian 
 region far surpasses the Adirondack district, alike in extent and 
 in those ])hysical characteristics which tit for park purposes. 
 Preservation of the forest is not incompatible with the 
 removal of trees that are valuable as the raw material for manu- 
 factures, or with the raising and smelting of metalic ores. In 
 view of the possible develojiment in the transmission of electric 
 power, the vast aggregate of water power now useless for any 
 local purpose may yet prove of great economic value, but its 
 continued existence unimpaired, depends absolutely on the 
 preservation and restoration of the forest. 
 
 At the present rate of destruction of the pine forests the lumber 
 industry will soon become greatly reduced in extent south of 
 Lake Nipissing, and a once beautiful landscape of rock, wood and 
 water, will be practically a barren wilderness. Along with the 
 progress of settlement, has gone the destruction of game and the 
 exhaustion of fish. It has always been, and will always be, 
 found impossible to prevent settlers from killing game at any 
 season. It is part of their food, and no system of police can 
 ever keep them from appropriating it. All the game destroyed 
 by fall hunters is insignificant in amount compared with what 
 is destroyed by settlers, who kill all the year round. Detecting 
 and punishing contraventions of the game laws by sportsmen 
 will do something to check the waste. Meanwhile, though the 
 " summer resort " idea has been left to spontaneous develop- 
 ment it has reached immense proportions. Those waters that 
 are most accessible by rail and steamer, are fringed with sum- 
 mer hotels and summer cottages, and "guiding " sportsnien 
 and other tourists has become the regular calling of a large 
 number of the residents. The remedy is apparent. 
 
 The beginning of a more enlightened treatment of this 
 
Conclusion. 153 
 
 district was made by the Legislature of the province last year, 
 when it enacted a more stringent game law, based on the report 
 of a commission of experts. A further and still more important 
 step in advance will be taken if the report of the Park Commis- 
 sion should result in the reservation of a large area of land from 
 settlement in the Nipissing district. The site suggested is well 
 fitted for the purpose and object aimed at. Fish are abundant 
 in its lakes and streams ; the locality is the natural home of 
 the moose and the red deer ; smaller game of many varieties, 
 including birds, are more plentiful than almost anywhere else ; 
 and fur-bearing animals of several highly-prized kinds are in- 
 digenous. The idea inaugurated by the commission, will, it is 
 hoped, take root and grow rapidly in the public mind. 
 
 Reveitiiig to the Georg-ian Ba} and its immediate 
 interests, we find that most of the marketable pine 
 and some of tlic liemlock and spruce along tlie sides 
 of the Bay, and for some distance up its tributary 
 rivers, liave been stripped, but a great supply remains 
 yet, as has been shewn, in tlie interior. Tlie roads, 
 cut through tlie woods, by former lumber men may 
 be found lialf grown over, and are beautiful pathways, 
 from wliicli gliuipses of lakes are seen, and the hunter 
 finds them convenient when seeking liis game. Here 
 and there he couics to a beaver meadow, but the busy 
 colony is gone. 
 
 In some places, as at the mouth of the Musciuash 
 and French rivers, and at the great mills in the North 
 Channel, the round timber is brought to the water's 
 edge, sawed into boards or other lumber, and so pre- 
 pared for the market. But often all that is seen, as 
 the result of the work of an army of axe-men, is the 
 great raft, covering several acres in extent, tugged 
 along to Bay City, Cheboygan, Saginaw or other 
 10 
 
154 
 
 TJte Georcjian Bay. 
 
 Michigan harbours, the logs grinding together and 
 throwing oft' much bark, which sinks, fouls the nets 
 and drives the fish away. 
 
 Among the lumber-men in our northern forests are 
 many citizens of the United States ; some estimate 
 their number as high as four thousand. Their families 
 still reside in that country, whose alien laws debar 
 Canadians from such employment there, unless they 
 foreswear allegiance to Britain. 
 
 The American companies cutting on the Canadian 
 side, bring their plant and supplies with them, and 
 the wages paid go back to the States. Why do these 
 lumber-men tow the logs to Michigan to be there 
 manufactured, instead of erecting and using mills on 
 our shores for tlie purpose ? 
 
 The answer is, Tlie McK'mleij Bill. That Bill fixes 
 an import duty of two dollars per thousand on Nor- 
 way pine, and one dollar on white pine lumber. It 
 also provides, that if any country should impose an 
 export duty on logs of any kind, the import duties 
 «hall remain as under the former law, at two dollars 
 per thousand. The export duties being removed, it 
 leaves the Georgian Bay manufacturer at a disadvan- 
 tage, the logs going to Michigan free, and the lumber 
 paying a duty of two dollais on Norway, two on 
 spruce, and one dollar on white pine. The difference 
 more than pays the cost of towing. 
 
 This discrimination, of one and two dollars per 
 thousand feet, enables the lumbermen to tow and 
 manufacture in Michigan at a profit. 
 
Conclusion. 155 
 
 We found matters of grievance among the fisher- 
 men, who complain of the injury done to their industry 
 by the sinking bark, as also by the sawdust and 
 refuse allowed to fall into the water from mills. 
 They desire the initiation by the Dominion of a 
 Canadian policy, which would compel the lumbermen 
 to manufacture into lumber before removal from the 
 shore. 
 
 It is doubtless of importance that these matters be 
 arranged, through the general and provincial govern- 
 ments, in a manner that will best conserve the large 
 interests involved. 
 
 However interesting such themes may be, it is on 
 other topics that our memories will most kindly dwell 
 as we recall the happy days and nights spenf^^ on the 
 " White S(juall." We will remember the majesty 
 of forests and granite shores. We will hear the 
 scream of gulls and see the flash of great fish strug- 
 gling in the nets. We will see in fancy the jolly 
 fishermen steering merrily among the rocks. We will 
 hear their songs and stories, as each sat, with brown, 
 weather-beaten, friendly face, on a pile of nets or on 
 a box in our camp. There still rises to our ears the 
 gay laugh of the Indian boys about the wigwams. 
 We will not forget the beauty displayed in winding, 
 glassv coves amono- the islands, in flowers and verdure 
 in sunny nooks, the Aurora dancing each clear night 
 in the north, the kindly courtesy of our little company, 
 the chaff* of the camp fires and the songs we sung, of 
 which the following is one, composed 'mong the Isles 
 of the Georgian Bay : 
 
156 
 
 The Georgian Bay, 
 
 'MONG THE ISLES OF THE GEORGIAN BAY. 
 
 Some sing old Ocean's praise 
 Where wild winds the billows raise. 
 And the whale and the porpoise play, 
 Some vaunt famed Biscay's Bay ; 
 And the fair for the South wind sigh. 
 But give to me that shore, 
 Where the North star shines moat clear, 
 And our devious course we steer 
 'Mong the Isles of the Georgian Bay. 
 Chorus — Oh give to me, etc. 
 
 And we think, as the " White Squall " glides, 
 ( )r we rest on their mossy sides, 
 What strange tales could these isles unfold . 
 ( )f the brave red men of old ! 
 The plaintive loon we hear ; 
 The dappled deer appear 
 la the glades, as our merry bark tiies. 
 And our devious course we steer 
 'Mong the Isles of the Georgian Bay. 
 Oh give to me, etc. 
 
 Of the Genoese Captain, (a) in (juest 
 Of new lands in the far sunny West, 
 Of De. Champlain, with iieur-de-lis .spread ; 
 Of the brave Arctic hero, (6) who sped 
 O'er these waters, pray tell us great Pines, 
 Ye whose heads the clouds piercing, arise ; 
 Ye too, surely remember the cries 
 Of the Mohawk and Huron at strife 
 'Mong the Isleo of the Georgian Bay. 
 Oh give to me, etc. 
 
 By the Clematis' fairy bower 
 Blooms the Columbine's purple flower ; 
 While blue bells gay to the golden rod. 
 Wild roses to violets nod. 
 And smile down on the gem-spangled moss, 
 The brown bee hums : " Your joys I hear, 
 " And bring sweets for your evening cheer, 
 "Pure as dew and as amber clear," 
 'Mong the Isles of the Georgian Bay. 
 Oh give to me, etc. 
 
'Mong the Isles. 157 
 
 With shrill scream from the rocks, ' 
 
 Rise the white gulls in flocks, 
 While far down in the deeps, 
 With cold eye, the great sturgeon creeps. 
 In the tangle of vine and dark spruce shade. 
 Is the bed of the black bear made ; 
 From the coiled rattle snake, 
 Manito ! safe us make ! 
 'Mong the Isles of the Georgian Bay, 
 Oh give to me, etc. 
 
 At eve, with sun-set beams. 
 La Cloche's gray rock gleams. 
 With bMght spirits from Algic (c) skies, 
 See, the swift Aurora flies. 
 O'er the pines the pale moon smiles. 
 All enwrapped in the beauty of night. 
 We look on, by the camp-fire's light ; 
 Great Manito seeming near, 
 'Mong the Isles of the Georgian Bay. 
 Oh give to me, etc. 
 
 (a) Columbus. 
 
 (b) Sir John Franklin. 
 
 (c) Algonquin, including Ottawa and Chippewa. 
 
APPENDIX .1 TO CHAPTER V. 
 
 TABLE OF INDIANS OF ONTARIO AND QUEBEC, COM- 
 PILED FROM THE CENSUS. 
 
 ONTARIO. 1867. 185)1. 
 
 Chippewas and Muncoys of the Thames 588 C37 
 
 Moravians of the Thames 254 309 
 
 Chippewas, Pottawatoniies and Ottawas of Wal- 
 
 pole Island 748 852 
 
 Wyandots of Anderdon 71 98 
 
 Chippewas of Snake Ishuid .... 130 127 
 
 Chippewas of Kama 265 226 
 
 Chippewas of Christian Island 186 357 
 
 Missisaugas of Rice, Mud, and Scugog Lakes, . 282 283 
 
 Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte 664 1,120 
 
 Missisaugas of Alnwick 212 243 
 
 Ojibways of Sandy Island 174 .... 
 
 Chippewas of Saugeen 280 579 
 
 Chippewas of Cape Croker 352 396 
 
 Christian Island Band on Manitouliii Island. . . 71 ... 
 
 Six Nations of Grand River 2,779 3,474 
 
 Missisaugas of the Credit 204 253 
 
 Chippewas of Lake Superior. 1,263 2,051 
 
 Chippewas of Lake Huron 1,748 3,177 
 
 Manitoulin Island Indians 1,498 1,915 
 
 Golden Lake Indians 164 367 
 
 Chippewas of Sarnia 479 
 
 Pottawacomies of Sarnia 34 
 
 Oneidas of the Thames 726 
 
 (158) 
 
Appendix to CJuiptev V. 159 
 
 QUEBEC. . 18(i7. 18{)1. 
 
 Iroquois of Caughnawaga l,r)f>r) 1,708 
 
 Iroquois of St. Regis 7!>7 1,218 
 
 Lake of Two Mountain Indians 503 .'{75 
 
 River Desert Indians 317 455 
 
 Abenakis of St. Francis 208 378 
 
 Abonakis of Becancour ()7 <)2 
 
 Hurons of Lorette 27« 301 
 
 Alalacites of Yiger 170 121 
 
 Micmacs of Restigoucho 378 471 
 
 Mictnacs of Mara 113 94 
 
 Montagiiais of liower St. Lawrence 1,031) 1,701 
 
 Scattered Bands 1,810 
 
 " From the foregoing it will be seen that there has been a 
 considerable increase during the past twenty-five years, and 
 the re-arrangement of the bands has been such that it is not 
 always easy to place the proper figure opposite each band." 
 
 A considerable addition should be made to those here classed 
 as Indians in respect of the Metis population in which the red 
 man is often lost in the newer race. Many also of those classed 
 and living as Indians are of mixed blood. The Hurons of 
 Lorette, near Quebec, have less physical trace of the aborigines, 
 as known to Champlain and the Jesuit Fathers, than any other 
 band in Canada. They are shrewd in business, and on a par 
 with the French habitants about them. The half-breed popu- 
 lation of the bay and north shore has been already referred to. 
 
 APPENDIX B SHIKGUACOSE. 
 
 As the Ottawa warrior has been referred to somewhat fully, it 
 seems but right to recall something of the brave and loyal Chip- 
 pewa, whose fame was in all the Lake Superior region, second 
 only to that of his predecessor Waub-Ojeeg. Mr. J. G. Kohl, 
 the German traveller and savant, soon after the decease of 
 Shinguacose, in 1858, visited this Indian region and found him 
 celebrated throughout it. He had, with a large party of Can- 
 
1(»0 Georgian Bay. 
 
 adian Indians, joined tho force which attacked and took the 
 Michigan stronghold, on the seventeenth July, 1812. When 
 the mode of attack was considered, Captain Roberts called 
 on the Ojibway Ciiief, for his advice. He took a night to 
 consider, or as ho said, to dream about it. In the morning 
 Shiuguacoso gave advice which was adopted. The whites, with 
 beating of drums and firing of guuH, attacked in front, while 
 the red allies paddled out in causes, climbed the heights unno- 
 ticed, and made an unexpected attack upon the American rear. 
 This lilled the enemy with terror ; Fort Ffolmes was soon sur- 
 rendered. The event was one of much importance. The post 
 was the Ciibraltar of North-Western Canada. The connnand of 
 the upper lakes and the control of the fur trade was secured to 
 Canada. An attempt was made to retake the place two years 
 later, in which Assikinack was concerned as already stated, but 
 Macinac remained a British post and Canadian soldiers held the 
 fort, until given up when peace was declared. 
 
 Had Shinguacose been a white man, he would have been 
 decorated and knighted. He had well won his spurs, and his 
 loyalty, as also that of Assikinack, were of manifest service to 
 the Empire. As it was he received a cheferie and a grant of 
 land near Sault Ste. Marie as his reward. He was given sev- 
 eral medals for bravery which he never wore, but gave to his 
 young warriors. In the histories of the period, we find the 
 Indian allies massed together, with little regard to individual 
 actions or prowess. The names of minor officers of white blood, 
 are reported for every deed of any note, wliile the red men are 
 treated but as so many dogs of war. 
 
 Shinguacose was son of a Scotch officer by a Chippewa squaw. 
 When a young man, he was taken by his mother to see his 
 father, then serving in the Detroit garrison. The officer gazed 
 with pleasure on the young savage. He was proud of him, and 
 wished to educate and bring him up as a white man. He pro- 
 posed this, and promised to procure his son a commission in the 
 English service. But no ; Shinguacose soon made up his mind ; 
 he would not leave his faithful mother, Indian relatives and 
 
Appendix to Chapter V. 161 
 
 customs. His father disrrnssed him with presents, and retained 
 a paternal interest in him until his death. When the war was 
 over he followed the British and came to (iarden River, where 
 a pine was erected before his hxlge, on which Hew the red 
 Union .lack. He was long a leader of his people, and headed 
 several expeditions into the Sioux country from Lake Superior 
 to the Mississippi. He was then a i)agan, and full of supersti- 
 tion ; in a medicine bag ho carried recijjes for nuigic incantations, 
 which he valued most highly. F(jr these he had, at various 
 times, paid in beaver and other skins, what Avas calculated 
 by Mr. Khol, as amounting to .*'30,000. But, under the ministra- 
 tions of Dr. McMurray, he became a Christian, and settled at 
 the Indian village of Riviere au Desert, highly esteemed by his 
 people and the English. As he lay in his last illness, the red 
 folk prepared and put up a second tlag-stafT before his housc» 
 with a new flag upon it ; but he died, leaving a worthy family, 
 one of whom, Augustin Shingwauk, gave his name to the .Shing- 
 wauk Home. It was found that the old chief had, shortly 
 before his death, destroyed all his papers and birch -barks, 
 painted dreams, songs and dances. ((() 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 Thomas George Anderson. 
 
 Captain Anderson was one of the most noted and useful 
 officers in the early employ of the Canadian Government. He 
 was well versed in Indian languages and customs, and was the 
 friend of the Assikinacks father and son. 
 
 The Ottawa Indian Department states that its records show 
 that Thomas George Anderson was appointed to the position of 
 Indian interpreter, 27th August, ISKj, he being then 25 years 
 of age. He served at Drummond Island, and afterwards had 
 his headquarters at Toronto and Cobourg. He retired on ac- 
 
 (o) Kitchi-Ganii. By J. G. Kriil, cap. 23. The Canadian 
 Indian, p. 153 and 343. 
 
162 
 
 Georgian Bay. 
 
 count of ill-health, in July, 1858, on a good pension. A letter 
 from him, found in the Department, contains the following : — 
 "My Dear Sir, — You wish to know when I was appointed to 
 the Indian Department. Tn the early part of 1814 I raised a 
 corps of volunteers, and after the capture of Fort McKay, <jn 
 tlie Mississippi, I remained in cinnmand of the post for some 
 time. 
 
 "At the close of the war, I returned to Michilliniaciiiac, in the 
 commencement of the year 1815, From this I was sent back to 
 the Mississippi, formally to announce the conclusion to our alii*, s 
 in tliat country. In the meantime my commanding otticer, 
 Lieut. -Colonel, now Major-General McDowall. had recom- 
 mended me for a permanent situation in the Indian Depart- 
 ment, and after my return from this duty to Drummond Island, 
 I received my appointment on the 21th September, 1815, as 
 Captain in the Department, and have remained in it ever since. 
 
 " I am, dear sir 
 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 "T. G. ANDERSON. 
 
 "To George Vakden, Esq." 
 
 The name (;f Anderson appears in Lossing's History of the 
 war more than once. On 28th May, 1813, at Sackett's Harbour, 
 he states that Lieutenant Anderson had forty Caughnawagas, 
 who were landed at Henderson's Bay. and helped to create a 
 dread, which ended in a disorganized retreat. He also appeared 
 at Chrysler's Farm, November 11, 1813, in command of some 
 Indians. 
 
 APPENDIX /). 
 The AssniiNACK.s. 
 
 An American version of the taking of Foit DearlKi-'i is given in Drake's Indians 
 
 o/ JVorth Atnirica, v. 134. 
 
 The signatures of the Indian delegates who presented their 
 case to the Executiv • in 1811, are copied from the original, on 
 fyle at Washington, and kindly given through Mr. R. V. Belt, 
 
Appendix to Chapter V, 163 
 
 Acting Commissioner of Indiai Affairs, Department of the In- 
 terior, who states: " The treaty of Fort Wayne was sent to the 
 United States Senate, December 22, 1809, by President Madison, 
 with explanatory documents. It is impossible now to deter- 
 mine whether any reference was niade in these documents, to 
 the presentation to "Black Partridge " of the medal referred 
 to, as the Capitol and its records were burned and destroyed in 
 1814. I transmit herewith a copy of the talk or petition of 
 Barstow or Kimi-ne-tega-gan, and c f " Black-Bird," or Siginoc, 
 two Ottawa chiefs, signed at Washington, which is the°only 
 paper I am able to find that refers in any way to "Black Par- 
 tridge," or "Black-Bird." The document last referred to ends 
 thus : 
 
 As to Francis Assikinack, the following is part of a commu- 
 nicaticm from the Department of Indian Affairs at Ottawa, 
 including a facsinr'ie of his signature. 
 
 Francis Assikinack entered the Indian Office, at Cobourg, on 
 the 10th August, 1840, as clerk and interpreter, ^N'hich position 
 he continued to hold, both there and in the Indian office, 
 Toronto, up to the date of his death, which occurred on 'he 
 21st of Isovember, 1863. 
 
164 
 
 Georgian Bay. 
 
 The following is an extract from a letter received from Mr. 
 W. R. Bartlett, who was in charge of the Indian office, Toronto, 
 reporting the illness of Assikinack : 
 
 ToKONTO, July Ist, 1863. 
 " I very much fear the poor fellow will never live to come 
 back. I sincerely trust he may recover, for he will be a great 
 loss to the Department, and especially to this branch of it." 
 
 "I attach to this letter an original signature of Francis Assi- 
 kinack, as follows : " 
 
 I have the honor to 6e, sir, 
 
 Your mod obedient humhle servant, 
 
 v^. jls-^uJG^^ ^L 
 
 William Spkaooe, Esq., 
 
 D\j. Snpt. Indian Affairs, Quebec, 
 
Appetidix E. 165 
 
 APPENDIX E, 
 
 INDIAN PROPER NAMES AND DO-DAIMS. 
 
 The nan es applied to places and persons by the Indians are full 
 of meaning and some knowledge of them is necessary to the under- 
 standing of their history. The following, arranged mainly under 
 authority of Mr. J. (' Bailey, C.E., are given as representative, 
 and are mostly found in the narrative or on the accompanying map.* 
 
 It is surprising to see how l)eautifully the language of the Algon- 
 cpiin tiibes is constructed. It has naturally a soft, smooth sound ; 
 the letters F, L, Q, R, V and X not being in the alphabet of the 
 Ottawa, 0-jil)-way or Cree proper. Ideas are expressed in groups 
 and a complicated "word-picture'" is formed. The language has 
 been compared to the (J reek in its sweetness and in its construction. 
 Many dirt'ei'ences of meaning are conveyed by changing or adtling 
 terminations. With a few exceptions, all the words contained in 
 this list are in the 0-jib-M'ay and the kindred dialects of the Algon- 
 quins (0-dush-gwah-gah-meeg), 0-to-wah, Po-ta-wah-tah-mee, Me- 
 no-me-ne. The Algoncpiins occupied mainly the region north of the 
 great lakes from Nova Scotia to the Rocky Mountains, as far as 
 Lake St. John in Quebec and Hiulson Bay in Ontario. 
 
 Ab bi-tib-l)e, the half-way place, so called because midway between 
 lake Nipissing and Moose Factory on James Bay. 
 
 Ah-mik, a beaver, — Ahmik Harl)our is Beaver Harbour. 
 
 Algonquins or Algonkins, also Alinconquins, Algics and Altenkins, 
 so called b}^ the early French, include the Chippewas, Otchip- 
 wais, orOjibways, Ottaw^as, Adirondacs, Missisaugas, Micmacs, 
 Abenakis, Delawares, Mohicans and some extinct nations for- 
 mei'ly in the New England States, also the Pottawatomies, 
 Bla^kfeet, Montagnais du Saguenay (Saguenay Mountaineers) 
 and Ci'ees. 
 
 * See also Indian names of places near the Great Lakes, by D. H. Kelton, 
 Detroit, 1888 ; Meanings of Indian woriU around Sudbury, by Dr. Hell, Geoloi^i- 
 cal Survey, 1891, Appendix IV., and Dr. A. F. Chamberlain's uannuaije of tha 
 Mistiisa\tga& of Scug.oi/. 
 
166 
 
 Georgian Bay. 
 
 Asaikinack, the Black-bird. 
 
 Assiniboine-se-l)e is the Stoney Sioux River and shouhl be As-si-ne- 
 bwauu, Bwaiin being a Sioux and assin a atone. 
 
 Aurora Borealis, Chil)ayag ninii-diwag, the dead are dancing. 
 
 BoV)caygeon shouhl be 0-bol)-ka-je-wun and means a narrow place 
 between rocks where the water comes through. 
 
 Cesebe Lake should be she-sheel), which means a duck, or Duck 
 Lake. In the Cree se-seeb is a duck. 
 
 Chicago means where skunks are ; ahe-kalig being a skunk, ong or 
 ongk being the dative of location, meaning at or to that place. 
 
 Coboconk sluudd be Kah-be-kahnk or Kah-kah-be-kahnk, or Pwah- 
 kah-l)e-kahnk and means fa'ls over a smooth rock where the 
 water falls straight down and not sloping. 
 
 Couchiching is an inlet as at Orillia. Orillia was and is now called 
 by the Indians Me-che-kuh-neeng, which means narrows divid- 
 ing two lakes ; it is also the word for a fence. 
 
 The Credit was called from a trading place or store being there 
 where Indians traded and got credit, hence it was called Mah- 
 ze-nah-e-ga-sebe (se-be ])eing a riv-er), Mah-ze-nah-e-gun being 
 a book wliere their debts were entered. 
 
 Etobicoke should be Wali-do-be-kauug, a ])lace where many alder 
 trees grow ; Wali-dobu is an alder tree, Wah-do-be-ke a forest 
 of alder trees, and the termination — ong or ing — meaning at, to, 
 in or from such a pla je — as ne-l>e, water ; ne-beeng, in the 
 water. 
 
 Hamilton on IJuilington Bay was called I)e o-nah-sa-de-o, a Mohawk 
 word which means a shallow place with a sand bar. 
 
 Iroquois or Six Nations, the most warlike native race of North 
 America, eml)race the Mohawks, Onnndagas, Senecas, Oneidas, 
 Cayugas and Tnscaroi-as. The last named were not in the 
 original confederacy and before they joined it, tlie hund or 
 union was called the Five Nations. In O-jib-way the Moliawks 
 are called Nah-dah-way, or black snakes. 
 
 Joseph, Lake, is Kah-wah-sha-gah-mik, or clear water. 
 
 Kaka-beka, see Coboconk. 
 
 Kaministi(iuia, at Fort William, should be Kah-me-niss-tah-qui-yah 
 (se-be), and means a river with an island in it. 
 
 Keewatin is Ke-way-din, the true pronunciation being nearer the d 
 than the t, and simply means north, both in the Cree and the 
 Ojibway languages. Ke-way-de-ne-nodin is north wind, nodin 
 ia wind. 
 
Appendix E. — Indian Names. 167 
 
 Kingston in Mohawk is Gah-da-o-qui, and Cataraqui is Kah-dah- 
 rock-(jni. 
 
 Mackinac or Michiliniackinack, is derived from Me-zlie-ka, which in 
 0-jil)-wa is a turtle, and the 0-tah-wah Indians wouhl say nie- 
 ke-nang, and in the Cree niees-ke-nauk ; the 0-jih-ways wouUl 
 say for a l)ig turtle nie-she-ne-niah-ke-naunk, and the people 
 wlio live at that place nie she-ne inahke-ne-goog ; the Indian 
 tradition Ijeing that a very large turtle was found there at the 
 time when the Indians were fond of telling these stories around 
 the camp tires to their chiUlren and others who believed in such 
 narratives — (ah-duh-so-kaun). 
 
 Mahgenetewan is mah-gah-net-te-waung, a long open channel. 
 
 Mashquoteh, where the new Upper Canada College is now built, 
 should be Mahsh-ko-da, and means a meadow or a prairie ; 
 also Mash-ko-se-kun, Mali-nahsh-ko-se-waun, etc. ; the accent, 
 as in most of these words, being strong on the last syllable. 
 
 Matawan is a Cree word and is Mah-tah-wawn, and means where a 
 river falls into a lake or some place below. 
 
 Manitoba may mean several things. Mah-ne-to is a spirit, and in 
 *• Ojibway Mah-ne-to-wah-pun or bun means a place where there 
 is something supernatural or Mali-no-to-bi — sitting God, or 
 Mali-ne-to-Nvah-lxih — a spirit in a strait. 
 
 Maskinonge is called no doubt from a fish of that kind, and which 
 in Ojibway is malisli-ke-non-je. Ke-non-je is a common pike, 
 and mahsh is large or sti'ong. 
 
 Matchedash should be Matche-duslik, and means a place where 
 there are rushes and drowned land. 
 
 Michigan means a big lake, the word being contracted ; Saji-gah-e- 
 gun being lake, and Mishi or Ma-tchau being large. This is 
 about the same in Cree. 
 
 Michi-po-coton means a large mushroom. 
 
 Milwaukee should l)e Me-ne-Avah-kee, which means good land — 
 Me-no good, and ah-kee land. 
 
 Mississippi means simply a big river ; see-be being river, nie-sah 
 l)eing large. Hence the ()jil>ways would say, Me-sah-see-beeng, 
 to, or at that river ; hence the name in Cree Mis-si-se-be. 
 
 Missisauga means a river with many mouths. 
 
 Missouri, Mishonisibi, river of the big canoe tribe. 
 
 Muskeeg. This word so nnich used on the C. P. R., should be 
 mush-keeg, and simply means a swamp where trees could 
 grow. Mish-gwuh-si, being a softer kind of beaver meadow ; 
 mahs-kaik in Cree. 
 
168 Geoi'gian Bay. 
 
 Mushquasli should be Mush-kahs, and means a white stone or 
 quartz. 
 
 Nassagaweya should he Na-zhe-sah-ge-way-yong, and means a river 
 with two outlets. 
 
 Nipissing means a small lake — ne-beens being the diminutive and 
 ne-beens-ing — meaning to, at, or from the lake. 
 
 Nottawasaga is Xali-dah-wa-sah-ge, which means the mouth of the 
 Mohawk River. Nah-dah-wa being a Mohawk, and sah gee 
 mouth of a river. Me sah-sali-ge means the large mouth of a 
 river. 
 
 0-me-me means pigeon ; hence 0-me-me-se-be — Pigeon River. 
 
 Owen Sound is still called by the Indians Keche-we-quaid-ong. 
 Ke-che is large and we-(juaid is a bay, and the dative termina- 
 tion ong, as already explained, to, or at that place. 
 
 Parry Sound is called by the Indians Wah-sah-ko-sing, meaning 
 white all around the shore. 
 
 The Sault Ste. Marie is called Pah-wah-teeg, which means falls or 
 rapids. 
 
 Pembina is said to l^e a corruption of the Cree word Ne-pe-me-nah, 
 which means the high bush cranberry. In Ojibway they are 
 called idi-neeb-me-nun. The low bush cranberries growing 
 in the swamps are called mahsh-keeg-me-nun. Nepimina got 
 coirupted into its present shape by Hudson Bay Company em- 
 plo3'ees and coureurs de bois. 
 
 Penage, Lake, is Wash-kah-gah-meeng, meaning Crooked Lake. Pen- 
 age is the French word for a pair of deer's horns. 
 
 Penetanguishene is from two words and means the Rolling Sand. 
 
 Sagiienay is a Cree word and is Sah-ge ne pe, meaning water going 
 out. 
 
 Saugeen means mouth of a I'iver. 
 
 Shing-wauk is a pine tree, the diminutive Shingiia-cose or Shing- 
 wauk-ons, is a snuiU pine. The township Chinguacousy should 
 be Shing-wauk-ons-e-ka — a pinery or where young pines grow. 
 Holland Landing was called this by the Indians. The " Shing- 
 Wauk Home" at the Sault Ste. \ arie being called after the 
 Indian chief of that name who formerly lived at (warden River 
 and who was son of Shingua-cose. 
 
 Severn is Wai-nant-keche-aung, aiul means a river running about 
 in all directions. 
 
 Scugog should be Pi-yaug-wash-kew-gaug and means a shallow 
 muddy lake, 
 
Appendix E. — Indian Names. 169 
 
 Spadiiiii should be Ish-pah-de-iuih and means a high hill or rising 
 ground, Ish-pah being high ; Isli-j)ah-me-gudt, it is high ; 
 Pe-k wall -de nail, it is hilly; Ish-pah-be-kah, a high roek. 
 
 Sheboygan should be Shah-bo-e-gah-neeng, and means the place 
 wliere the water can be used right through by a boat or canoe 
 without making a portage (o-ne-gum). 
 
 Simcoe, Lake, was called by the Indians ah-shoon-ne-yongk, which 
 name, as tradition says, was the name of a dog that continually 
 went about crying out that name, but was never seen. 
 
 Shahwahnegah is a long bay or strait. Shah-wa-yah a long strait 
 or shore. 
 
 Saskatchewan should be Ke-sis-kah-je-wun, both in tlie Ojibway 
 atid ('ree, and means a rapid current ; Pa-meche-wung being a 
 current of water , Ke-se-je-wuu is a swift curi'eiit. Red River 
 M'as called by the Indians Mis-ko-se-be, misktj being red and 
 se-l)e a river. 
 
 Superior, Like, is Kit-che-gumme, or big sea. 
 
 Thessalon, on the (xeorgian Bay, should be Ta-suh-nong, and is 
 derived from Ta-siii, a flat point of land jutting out into the 
 lake. 
 
 Temiscamingue means deep water, from timi or dinii deep, and 
 gum-me lake or water. 
 
 Ta-ma-gamingue — Tamagamimg, means a lake of bays. 
 
 Toronto is a Mohawk word and should be De-on-do, meaning trees 
 in the water. There is some doubt about the meaning of this 
 word, as the language of the various bands composing the 
 Mohawks varies in dialect. 
 
 Wahnapitae should be Wah-iiah-be-da-l>e, and means a row.of teeth 
 in a semi-circular shape. 
 
 The river Wisawasa should be We-sah-gah-inah-seeng, meaning 
 ra})i(ls or water running towards a lake or some other water. 
 
 Wigwam should be we-ge-waum, and is a lodge, bark or otherwise, 
 
 Wah-we-a-yah-te-nong is Lake St. Clair, And means a round lake, 
 as VVali-we-a-yah means round. 
 
 Washago should be Wah-sha gum-me and means clear water. Wa- 
 sha means clear •, wah-sha-yah, bright, and wah-sa-yah, light ; 
 gum-me being an affix meaning water or lake. 
 
 Wawanosh is Wa-wa-naush, and means sailing well. Wa-wa-ne- 
 well and nah-sheeng, sailing. 
 
 Winnipeg is from the (^^-ee ; wiui, dirty, and pek, a swamp ; pi'o- 
 nounced we-ne-paik. 
 
 11 
 
^fjO Georgian Bay. 
 
 Do-i)AiM8.— Each tribe has its crest, totem, or more proi)erly 
 dod^m or do-daiin. Bauds have also sometimes their particular 
 do-daims, beiug rudely carved or paiuted desigus. These uiay be 
 seen on canoes, paddles and other articles. Their most important 
 use was in the execution of documents, such as treaties an<l deeds. 
 
 No trace of the employment of a do-daim by the Assikinacks 
 can be found in the Indian department at Ottawa nor in Washing- 
 ton The other Ottawa chief who signed with Assikinack the 
 document of October 5, 1811, affixe.l his proper crest, a grey siiuir- 
 rel, as has been seen. The following are examples of do-daims 
 used by the tribes or bands mentioned, both Algonquin and Iro- 
 quois ; — 
 
 Algonquins, of Montreal a (ireen oak. 
 
 Nipissings, of Two Mountains a Heron. 
 
 Ottawas, of Ottawa River a Grey squirrel. 
 
 Tabittikis, of Lake Temiscamingue. . an Eagle. 
 
 Iroquois (Six Nat'ns) of U. States and ^^-^^^^^^^^ 
 
 Hurons, of Lake Huron Cord, rock, etc. 
 
 Ojibways, of Lake Superior Loon and bear. 
 
 MissisaugaRiv. Ind. of St. Clair, Quinte, aiid 
 
 formerly also ot io- 
 ronto a Crane. 
 
 Pf.f,iim of Georgian and Huron 
 
 ^ ''^'''''' Peninsula Wolf and stag.