October, 1918] 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



69 



but they had certain routes of travel and definite 

 camping places which were inhabited according to 

 the season, or the kind of game they were hunting. A 

 temporary camping site of this kind was discovered 

 by the writer at the mouth of Brennan creek on 

 Golden lake. At this site a number of old hearths 

 were found on the high sandy ground overlooking 

 the lake, and a few fragments of pottery were found 

 in the wave cut bank. There were also numerous 

 fragments of quartz from pegmatite dikes which the 

 Indians had tried to chip into arrow points. 



As there was no copper or suitable stone for tools 

 and weapons in this region the Indians were depend- 

 ent on trade with outside sources for these necessary 

 supplies. The flint which was so largely used for 

 arrow points, spear hezds, scrapers, and skinning 

 knives, came either from Welland county on Lake 

 Erie or from Flint Ridge, Ohio. The schist or slate 

 used for axes, hammers, or wedges was probably the 

 Huronian slates which occur on the west side of 

 Lake Temiscaming, although Mr. David Boyle, the 

 late Provincial Archeologist, stated that slate suitable 

 for tools was found on the Rideau lakes, but this 

 statement has not been verified to the writer's know- 

 ledge. The copper undoubtedly came from the Lake 

 Superior region, but weapons made from it appear 

 to have been comparatively rare, and only possessed 

 by the chiefs or profiteers of the tribes. 



There were evidently two routes of communication 

 between the Ottawa valley and Lake Huron, one 

 being by way of the Mattawa river. Lake Nipissing 

 and the French river to the Georgian bay, which 

 is recorded in history. The other route followed the 

 Bonnechere river to Round lake, going from thence 

 up the Sherwood river with a short portage to 

 Barry's bay on the Madawaska waters. The York 

 branch of the Madawaska, a comparatively easy 

 canoe route was followed westward to the head 

 waters of the Trent river. From Balsam lake en 

 the Trent waters a portage was made to Lake 

 Simcoe from which the Severn river leads to 

 Georgian bay. The latter route was traced by the 

 aid of archeology alone. 



A considerable diversion was made by the Indians 

 in travelling up the Ottawa in order to avoid the 

 long detour and rough water stretches between Lake 

 des Chats and Allumette lake. This side rcuie 

 followed a chain of small lakes and streams in 

 Renfrew county and was more direct. Practically 

 the same route was followed later by the lumbermen 

 and white settlers, and the village of Cobden at the 

 foot of Madawaska lake is the result of this early 

 travel. 



EARLY SETTLEMENT. 



The first settler into the region we are considering 

 j^was Mr. Philemon Wright, of Woburn, Massachu- 



tts. He explored the St. Lawrence and Ottawa 



valleys between Quebec and Ottawa during the 

 years 1 796 and I 798, and selected the township of 

 Hull as the most desirable location for settlement in 

 the region. He accordingly left Woburn on the 

 second of February, 1800, with 25 men and an 

 outfit of horses, cattle, sleighs, tools and provisions. 

 He reached the foot of the Long Sault Rapids^ on 

 February 13, the end of settlement and roads at 

 that period. From this point the outfit had to break 

 their own roads thrcugh the deep snow so that it 

 took them six days mere to reach the township of 

 Hull. A grist mill and saw mill were built in 1802 

 on the Chaudiere falls which Mr. Wright called 

 Columbia falls. In 181 1 three large well equipped 

 farms had been established, the Columbia, Britannia, 

 and Gatenoe, with areas of 800, 700, and 800 acres 

 respectively. 



The details relating to this settlement are given in 

 a paper by Mr. Wright before the Committee on 

 Crown Lands and published in the Tenth Report, 

 1824. The paper gives the year's events of the 

 growth of the settlement and covers a period of 23 

 years. It is worth while quoting his reasons for 

 selecting the site. After a description of the 

 Chavd ere falls he goes on to say: "The mill sites 

 upon these falls, exceed every thing a person can 

 have an idea of, one hundred mills, might be placed 

 there without the smallest injury to each other with 

 perfect safety. I have two mills at this place, 

 which are doing business for persons who reside near 

 100 miles up and down the river. These falls are 

 composed of remarkably fine limestone. I have no 

 doubt but lime could be mrde here at half the 

 expense required in any other place I generally 

 make large quantities every year, and it will be 

 found to be of the greatest advantage for agricul- 

 tural purposes. No place affords such quantities of 

 valuable building stones as this place, and at the 

 same time so easy to be obtained, as it lies upon the 

 surface of the earth. There is also a remarkably 

 fine bed of iron rock ore within four miles of this 

 place, lying on the height of a declivity and in strata 

 not more than 18 inches under the surface of the 

 earth; and the time is not far distant when this iron 

 ore will become valuable and of the greatest ad- 

 vantage to the interior part of the country, as we 

 have already mrde use of some and find it of the 

 best quality. Finding this place to be the most 

 advantageous for making a place of deposit for my 

 general concerns, owing to the easy access to the 

 water communication up and down the river, and 

 the stoppage by reason of the portage, I thought to 

 expend considerable money in clearing land and 

 building, knowing its local situation could not be 

 rivalled by any, having two large rivers emptying 



*The rapid.s between Grenville and Carillon on the 

 Ottawa river. 



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