116 The Ottawa Naturalist. 



burning on the high rocky shore at Lapote's Point, to deceive their wily 

 enemies, the little band of intrepid Frenchmen traversed the forest to 

 the east of the bay, forded Constance Creek, passed beneath the shadow 

 of the pine groves on the sand hills to the north of the bay and fell 

 suddenly on the Indian camp on Sand Point. The encounter was 

 sharp and terrific and resulted in the utter defeat and route of the 

 Indians. 



Wm . Baillie, of Aylmer, informed the writer that a great many 

 bones are scattered over this point ; and Mr. Montgomery, who recent- 

 ly lived in the vicinity, stated that his two sons discovered, at this place, 

 an almost perfect human skeleton . Mr. Baillie also states that some 

 years ago, on the eastern shore of the bay, a number of copper kettles, 

 of ancient design, were unearthed. These facts would seem to cor- 

 roborate, to some extent, the above tradition and invite a closer 

 investigation of the subject. The weird Indian legends of prolonged 

 conflicts with W'endigoes, supposed to have inhabited the sand dunes of 

 Sand Point, should also be collected before the generation of old men, 

 now retaining them, have passed away. 



The old Indian portage at the Chats should also be a point of great 

 interest to the archaeologist . The remains of old bullets, badly decayed, 

 have been found by the writer in the crevices of the rocks at this place, 

 strongly suggestive of the times when these "carrying places" were 

 disputed, foot by foot, by hostile war parties. An old copper coin 

 and other ancient works of art, found on the lake shore at Aylmer, as 

 well as an iron tomahawk of peculiar design discovered by S . H. Rdey 

 some two miles inland from this place, are matters of interest. 



Finally, I might say that members of the Field Naturalists' 

 Club who wish to make a careful examination of places 

 alluded to in the above will soon be in a position to do so. Capt. 

 Davis will shortly have a steamboat running between Britannia and the 

 Quyon, which will enable us to make any of these places the objective 

 point of an excursion of the club. Traditions and folk-lore stories 

 associated with Fake Deschenes should then be collected and recorded 

 before the hand of time has placed them beyond our reach. 



W. Edwin Sowtkr 

 Aylmer, (Hie., 



July 29th, 1895. ,, 



(LIBRARY) 3D 



