138 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. ix» 



pleasant to note the complaints of the superintendent that the 

 schools are very generally poorly appreciated, but a small pro- 

 portion of the children attending with any regularity. 



The remnants of some of the Indian tribes of this part of the 

 Dominion have now drifted far from their original localities. 

 Of the Iroquois, a portion converted by the French — who estab- 

 lished missions among them in 1657 — separated themselves from 

 their native cantons to the south of Lake Ontario, and settled 

 on lands provided for them on the banks of the St. Lawrence, at 

 Caughnawaga, St. R^gis, and the Lake of Two Mountains. 

 Their number at the present time (including some Algonkins 

 living with the Iroquois at the last named place) is 2,961:. The 

 greater part of the Iroquois nation — allies, as we have seen, of 

 the English against the French in early colonial days — were 

 loyal to the Crown during the revolutionary war, and on the 

 establishment of the United States many of them migrated to 

 Ontario, under their great chief Joseph Brandt, 1785. They 

 were accorded a reserve of about 1200 square miles, of which 

 they now possess only a small part. These refugees number, at 

 the present day 4,495, and are living on the Grand River, Bay 

 of Quints, and River Thames. Another considerable band of 

 the Iroquois, chiefly composed of Indians of the Seneca tribe, 

 still inhabit a portion of their original territory in the State of 

 New York, possess a reserve of 66,000 acres, and are good and 

 prosperous farmers. Another party, early in this century settled 

 in Ohio, but were afterward removed to the Indian Territory to 

 the south, and are now stated to number 210. One more small 

 detachment, travelling westward in the service of the fur com- 

 panies, now frequent, or lately did so, the eastern base of the 

 Rocky Mountains, near the head-waters of the Saskatchewan. 



The once powerful nation of Hurons or Wyandots, are now 

 reduced to a mere handful. In 1648, the Iroquois recommenced 

 their war against these people with unwonted fury, and during 

 1649 and 50, they were finally beaten and as a nation destroyed. 

 After the attack of 1648 the remnants of the tribes found refuge 

 for a time among the neighbouring nations, but were shortly 

 afterwards again gathered together, to perish, for the most part, 

 some by renewed attacks of their enemies, othci-s by famine, 

 during the winter of 1649-50. The survivors, about 300 in 

 number, under the guidance of the missionaries who had been 

 labouring among them, migrated eastward, but were apparently 



