68 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXII. 



mantle of drift so that over large areas no bed rock 

 at all is exposed. The soils vary according to the 

 underlying drift deposits, which vary from very 

 sandy porous soils to those of the heavy, sticky, 

 stoneless, marine clays which are so retentive of 

 moisture. As a general rule the clay soils occur in 

 the flat plain-like areas and the sandy and gravelly 

 soils m the ridges and rolling country. A typical 

 illustration of this occurs in the farming district west 

 of Arnprior where the flat clay plain is bordered by 

 sand and gravel ridges. All of the level areas, 

 however, are not clay plains but are underlain by 

 flat-lying dolomites with only a thin layer of sandy 

 soil. There are many such areas of thin soils in the 

 southern portion of Lanark and Carleton counties. 



Wherever any large area of forests occur in the 

 Ottawa valley the reason that they are left in timber 

 and not cultivated is either that they are situated on 

 land in which the bed rock is too near the surface, 

 or they are on land which cannot be drained, or 

 on land which is so sandy that it would be practic- 

 ally barren under cultivation. In other words, 

 forested areas exist only on lands which are fit for 

 nothing else. On the other hand it is true that 

 many patches of land where cultivation is attempted 

 is only adapted to timber. 



The stoneless clay areas are the most sought after 

 and are the most productive. The clay occurs in 

 patches at various places in the valley up to about 

 5 miles north of the town of Pembroke, where it is 

 replaced by the sands of the Petewawa area, and 

 the sand and gravels continue up to Mattawa, a 

 distance of 100 miles above Pembroke. It is worth 

 noting that there is neither a town nor a village in 

 the latter portion of the Ottawa valley. 

 INDIAN OCCUPATION. 



The first explorers into the Ottawa valley tell us 

 little or nothing about how the Indian lived and 

 moved and had his being. If it were not for the 

 patient work of the modern archeologists and 

 anthropologists we would still know very little about 

 what kind of clothes they wore, the food they ate, 

 the weapons and tools they used, how the women 

 made their pottery and baskets or the hosts of things 

 we would like to know about a primitive people. 



Among the meagre accounts we learn that there 

 was a village at Hochelaga (Montreal) and another 

 on Allumette island on the Ottawa, but no trace of 

 the latter has been discovered. 



Through the efforts of archeologists we now 

 know of the sites of several prehistoric Iroquoian 

 villages in Grenville and Dundas counties which 

 border on the St. Lawrence river. The best known 

 of these is at Roebuck, near Spencerville, which was 

 explored by Mr. W. J. Wintemberg. These village 

 sites are situated from 2 to 10 miles away from the 

 banks of the St. Lawrence and very often not near 



any large stream. We do not know all the require- 

 ments of the Indians in selecting their village sites 

 but slightly elevated sandy spots with openings in 

 the forest in which to grow grains were among them. 



Possibly they were selected with a view to seclu- 

 sion from the attacks of the more unsettled and 

 hostile tribes who frequented the main waterways. 



There has been very little archeological work 

 done in the Ottawa valley between Ottawa and 

 Pembroke or on the tributary streams and const 

 quently we have much to learn about the Indian 

 occupation, except that they used the main river i.n 

 journeying up or down the valley. It looked ai if 

 the Indians never left the main valley, and indeed 

 why should they, as there was an abundance of 

 game and fish there to supply the wants of the few 

 people that inhabited it. They went into the high- 

 land probably for two reasons, either to escape the 

 attentions of hostile tribes or to hunt beaver. 



We hear a great deal about the importance of 

 fats these days, but consider how little fat the pre- 

 historic Indians in the Ottawa valley were accus- 

 tomed to. For the greater part of the year there is 

 not a particle of fat on any of the deer family or 

 the bears. The beavers are fat when other animals 

 are lean, they are highly prized by the Indians every- 

 where for their flesh and skins, and so they will 

 make extraordinary journeys in pursuit of them if 

 they happen to be scarce in their accustomed hunting 

 grounds. 



Indians never go up rough rivers if they can 

 avoid them, consequently we find little or no trace 

 of them along such rivers as the Gatineau, Mada- 

 waska, Coulonge or Petewawa rivers, but numerous 

 relics have been found along streams which furnish 

 good canoe routes such as the Lievre, Rideau, 

 Mississippi and Bonnechere. 



In the portion or the Ottawa valley we are con- 

 sidering, only one prehistoric indian village is as yet 

 known. It is situated on the north shore of Mud 

 lake, an expansion of the Bonnechere river between 

 Eganville and Golden lake. This site was dis- 

 covered by Mr. Wintemberg, who examined a por- 

 tion of the valley of the Bonnechere during the 

 summer of 1917 at the suggestion of the writer. The 

 village when excavated will probably turn out to be 

 the largest Algonquin site so far known to archeo- 

 logists. 



This site had undoubted advantages for a people 

 who earned their living by hunting and fishing. It 

 was connected to Dore lake to the north by a trail 

 about 4 miles in length and to Clear lake about 8 

 miles to the south. The Bonnechere river is an easy 

 canoe route, and the valley as a whole must have 

 been a great game country in former times. 



It may be, however, that the Indians had few 

 villages or fixed places of residence in this region,/ 



f> 



