104 The Ottawa Naturalist [August 



similar survival of the use of pottery, among the Iroquois, as 

 follows: "Refuse heaps, by village sites, usually contain a great 

 deal of earthenware, out of which fine or curious fragments are 

 often taken, and these occur also in the ash beds of the old fire- 

 places. This is so on some quite recent sites, for while the richer 

 Iroquois obtained brass kettles quickly from the whites, their 

 poorer friends continued the primitive art till the beginning of 

 the 18th century at least." Another statement by the 

 same writer, is important, as it would exclude the probability 

 of our pottery being referable to the Algonkins. He writes, 

 in the Bulletin referred to, at page 76, as follows: "In fact, 

 the Canadian Indians do not appear to have used earthenware 

 in early days, with the exception of the allied Hurons and Petuns, 

 the Neutrals and the Iroquois of the St. Lawrence, all of these 



being of one family The nomadic tribes, however, 



preferred vessels of bark, easily carried but not easily broken. 

 In these they heated water with hot stones, as the Iroquois mav 

 sometimes have done." 



The above theory, as to the time of Huron occupation, is 

 only a suggestion, unsupported at present by sufficient evidence 

 to prove it. It may turn out, eventually, that the fireplaces of 

 this vanished race grew cold, on the Ottawa, in the dim twilight 

 of a more remote antiquity. Is it possible that, before the 

 coming of the white man, the old Wyandots or Tionnontates, in 

 the course of their traditionary wanderings, so admirably describ- 

 ed by William E. Connelley, may have remained for a time on 

 the Ottawa, and left us only their ashbedsand ossuaries to puzzle 

 over? f\' 



Another question also suggests itself. Where did the Hurons 

 go to after leaving the Ottawa? They appear and disappear on 

 the stage of tribal activities, either standing boldly forth in some 

 historic incident, or dimly silhouetted by the light of tradition, 

 on the dark back-ground of prehistoric time. Did they migrate, 

 finally, to join their kindred in their distant resting places? 

 Did they fade away, by adoption, into other tribes? Or, were 

 they absorbed by the red cloud of massacre, to disappear forever 

 in the darksome shadow of the illimitable wilderness? 



' Note on Megorismus fletcheri. In August, 1908, the 

 Destructive Pea Aphis was present in large numbers in the 

 Ottawa district, field and sweet peas in'gardens being severely 

 injured. From collected material a number of parasites were 

 reared by me, one kind of which proved to be a new species of 

 hymenoptera This was recently described by Mr. J. C. 

 Crawford* as MegorismMs fletcheri. The parasitized plant lice 

 were conspicuous on sweet peas in my garden. Arthur Gibson. 



Canadian Entomologist, March, 1909. \m^ 



;1 



