THE OTTAWA HATURALIST. 





^- J^' 



V-f'\- 



Vol. XIII. 



OTTAWA, JANUARY, 1900. 



No. 10 



ARCHAEOLOGY OF LAKE DESCHENES. 



Bv T. W. Edwin Sowter. 



To those who are unacquainted with local topography it may 

 be said that Lake Deschenes is an expansion of the Ottawa River, 

 extendino- from the Chats Falls, in a south-easterly direction, as 

 far as Deschenes Rapids, a distance of about thirty miles, and 

 av'erajsi'ing- from less than one to upwards of three miles in width. 

 This beautiful expanse of water was known to the old " voyag-eurs" 

 as " Lac Chaudi^re," and was so designated at a time as com- 

 paratively recent as that in which the late John Eg-an was mayor 

 of Aylmer, as there is an old by-law, bearing- his sigfnature, in the 

 municipal archives, in which the westerly limit of the Aylmer Road 

 is described as Chaudi^re Lake. 



A similar confusion of place-names, in this connection, is a 

 source of annoyance to the student of natural or ethnic hi'^tory in 

 dealing with matters of local reference. For instance : Chats 

 Island is now known to many as Moore's Island ; Pointe k la 

 Bataille has become Lapottie's Point, and Pointe aux Pins, the 

 site of. the v^ueen's Park, is known to summer visitors as One-tree 

 Point. 



It seems a pity that names given to these places by the 

 pioneers of civilization should be thus lightly set aside for the 

 prosaic nomenclature of modern times. 



As already noted in The Natur.\list, the evidences of Indian 

 occupation of the shores of Lake Deschenes are of frequent occur- 

 rence and of extreme interest to the archaeologist. These consist 

 for the most part, of what may be termed beach workshops, or 

 certain portions of the lake shore where the primitive workman 



