1909] The Ottawa Naturalist. 67 



however, with much better taste, still retain the name by which 

 it was known to the old voyageurs. 



A great many years ago, so the story goes, a party of French 

 fur-traders, together with a number of friendly Indians, possibly 

 Algonkin and Huron allies, went into camp one evening at Pointe 

 a la Bataille. Fires were lighted, kettles were slung and all 

 preparations made to pass the night in peace and quietness. 

 Soon, however, the lights from other camp fires began to glimmer 

 through the foliage on the opposite shore of the bay, and a 

 reconnaisance presently revealed a large war-party of Iroquois 

 in a barricaded encampment on the Wendigo Mound at Big 

 Sand Point. Well skilled as they were in all the artifices of 

 forest warfare, the French and their Indian companions were 

 satisfied that something would happen before morning. It was 

 inevitable that the coming night would be crowded with such 

 stirring incidents as would leaA^e nothing to be desired, in the 

 way of excitement. There la}^ the Iroquois camp, with its fierce 

 denizens crouched like wolves in their lair, though buried in the 

 heart of the enemy's country, yet self-reliant in the pride of 

 warlike achievements, whose military strategy had rendered 

 them invulnerable as the gloom of the oncoming thxmdercloud, 

 and as inexorable as the fate of the forest monarch that is blasted 

 by a stroke of its lightning. 



Now, the golden rule on the Indian frontier in those strenuous 

 times, was to deal with your neighbor as you might be pretty 

 sure he would deal wjth you, if he got the chance. Of course 

 it was customary, among the Indians to heap coals of fire on the 

 head of an enemy, but as it was the usual practice, before putting 

 on the coals, to bind the enemy to some immovable object, such 

 as a tree or a stout picket, so that he was unable to shake them 

 off, the custom was not productive of much brotherly love. 

 Moreover, when the success of peace overtures could be assured 

 onlv to the party that could bring the greater number of muskets 

 into the negotiations, it will be readily understood why the 

 French, who were in the minority, did not enter into diplomatic 

 relations with the enemy. On the contrary, it was resolved to 

 fight, as soon as the opposing camp was in repose, and attempt a 

 decisive blow from a quarter whence it would be least expected, 

 thus forestalling an attack upon themselves, which might come 

 at any time before the dawn. The French and their allies knew 

 verv well that if their plans miscarried and the attack failed, 

 the'penaltv would be death to most of their party, and that, 

 in the event of capture, they would receive as fiery and painful 

 an introduction to the world of shadows as the leisure or limited 

 means of their captors might warrant. 



Towards midnight, the attacking party left Pomte a In 



