92 The Ottawa Naturalist. [August 



ALGONKIN AND HURON OCCUPATION OF 

 THE OTTAWA VALLEY. 



By T. W. E. vSowter, Ottawa. 



(Continued from page 68) 



Iroquois tradition assigns to Squaw Bay, called also Cache 

 Bay, at Tetreauville, the reputation of having been one of the 

 favorite lurking places of these war-parties. It must have been 

 in those days, an ideal spot for an ambush or concealed camp, as 

 it occupied, for the purposes of river piracy, as unique a position 

 on the old trade route, as does one of our present day toll-gates, 

 for controlling the traffic on a turnpike road. There is no doubt 

 of the place having been used as an Indian camping ground, at 

 least in prehistoric times, as the shores of the bay are littered 

 in all directions with fragments and flakes of worked flint. This 

 is an instance in which tradition is corroborated, to some extent, 

 by archaeology. 



It is also said that Brigham's Creek, called also Brewery 

 Creek, a narrow channel of the Ottawa, was the old Indian 

 portage route for overcoming the rapids of the Chaudiere. It 

 may be seen by glancing at a map of the city of Hull, that parties 

 of Algonkins or Hurons, as the case may have been, upon emerg- 

 ing on the main river at the head of this portage, were liable at 

 any time to receive a warm welcome from some surprise-party of 

 Iroquois visitors at the Squaw Bay camping ground. If descend- 

 ing the rapids of the Little Chaudiere, they faced a far worse 

 predicament, as, unable to escape or defend themselves in the 

 swift current, they would have been caught, like passing flies 

 that are blown into a spider's web. 



It is said that Indian cunning was at length successful in 

 evolving a plan to outwit the military strategy of the Iroquois. 

 As the old portage route had become dangerous it was resolved 

 to have an alternative one. In ascending the Ottawa, this new 

 portage started from the western shore of Brigham's Creek at a 

 point now oc'cupied bv the International Cement Works. It 

 continued thence in a westerly direction, skirting the foot of the 

 moun+ain and passed down Breckenridge's Creek to the outlet of 

 that stream into Lake Deschenes. It was rather a long portage 

 of about a dozen miles, but the Algonkin and Huron had learned 

 in the school of bitter experience, that, in their case, the longest 

 way round was the shortest way home. An aged squaw, who 

 lived in Aylmer many years ago, spoke of a similar forest trail 

 that extended, in the early da3^s, from a point on the Gatineau 



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