6 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. ciiap. xxi. 



some with a circular stamp on the end, were probably 

 used for ornamenting pottery, others in playing the 

 celebrated Indian ' game of bones,' for which purpose 

 probably were also employed the many 'objects of un- 

 known use formed of bones of the feet of quadrupeds 

 ground flat on one side, and hollowed in a peculiar 

 manner, with a small hole bored in one end.' * 



The aborigines of Montreal were of the Algonkin 

 race.f Cartier evidently represents the languages spoken 

 at Stadacona or Quebec and Hochelaga as identical. Many 

 words which he mentions incidentally are the same, or 

 only shghtly varied, and he gives one vocabulary for the 

 language of both places. This accords perfectly with the 

 direct statement of the Jesuits' memou-s, that the tribe 

 which maintain that their ancestors had inhabited 

 Montreal spoke the Algonkin language both in the time 

 of Cartier and in 1642. These people were also pohti- 

 cally and socially connected with the Algonkins of the 

 Lower St. Lawrence. The people of Hochelaga informed 

 Cartier that the country to the south-west was inhabited 

 by hostile races, formidable to them in war. These must 

 have been the Hurons or Iroquois or botJi. In agree- 

 ment with this, the Jesuits were informed, in 1642, that 



* Notes ou Aborigiual Autiquities recently discovered in the Island of 

 Montreal. 



t In the Relations of the Jesuits, we find the following notices of these 

 ancient inhabitants of Hochelaga : — 



Onontchataronon, Huron name of an Algonkin tribe, which the 

 French called Xation de I'lroquet. The country was situated between the 

 St. Lawrence and the Ottawa. They were among those Algonkin nations 

 who were in the habit of wintering in the neighbourhood of the Hurons. 

 This people, according to the testimony of one of the chiefs, was formerly 

 one of the most flourishing Algonkin tribes. 



