66 The Ottawa Naturalist. [July 



Wendigo, he is quite satisfied that, had one of those legendery 

 monsters of the American wilderness loomed suddenly out of 

 the dark shadows of the forest and approached the camp fire, 

 the poor half-breed, who was "spinning the yarn" would have 

 immediately taken to his canoe and left the Wendigo in undis-- 

 puted possession of the island. 



As it is around this same sand mound, the old Wendigo 

 homestead at Big Sand Point, that the scattered bones, already 

 alluded to, are found, it seems strange that the story tellers 

 do not represent them as the remains of the cannibal feasts of its 

 former occupants. These evidences of mortality, however, are 

 accounted for in another tradition, that tells of a war-party of 

 Iroquois who, having taken possession of and intrenched or 

 barricaded the old Wendigo mound, defended themselves to the 

 death against a force of French and Indians, who surprised them 

 in a night-attack and butchered them to a man. 



This story seems to carry us back to that period of conflict 

 which was inaugurated by the onslaught of the Iroquois upon the 

 Huron towns, which was continued with unparalled ferocity 

 and terminated only by the merciless destruction of a once 

 powerful nation and the final dispersion of its fugitive remnants, 

 together with such bands of Algonkins as happened to come 

 within the scope of that campaign of extermination. It is 

 supposed that our tradition has reference to one of the many 

 scenes of bloodshed which reddened the frontiers of Canada, 

 while the Confederates were thtis making elbow-room for them- 

 selves on this continent, and were putting the finishing touches 

 on the tribes to the north of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence. 

 At this time all the carrying-places, on our great highway, were 

 dangerous, for war-parties of the fierce invaders held the savage 

 passes of the Ottawa, hovering like malignant okies amidst the 

 spray of wild cataracts and foaming torrents, where they levied 

 toll with the tomahawk and harvested with the scalping-knife 

 the fatal souvenirs of conquest. 



Sand Bay, at the outlet of Constance Creek, in the township 

 of Torbolton, Carleton Co., Ont., is a deep indentation of the 

 southern shore line of the Ottawa, extending inland about a 

 mile. The entrance, or river front of the bay, is terminated on 

 the west by Big Sand Point, and on the east by Pointe h. la 

 Bataille, the two points being about a mile apart. The latter 

 is now shown on the maps as Lapotties Point, a name of recent 

 origin and doubtless conferred upon it by some ox-witted yokel, 

 who thought it should bear the name of its latest occupant, 

 rather than that which probably commemorated some tragic 

 incident of a bygone age. The French Canadian river-men, 



