Aboriginal Antiquities found at Montreal, 363 



charge of the workmen, for several specimens, as well as for 

 pointing out some of the more interesting spots for explora- 

 tion. 



The additional facts obtained do not induce me in any way to 

 modify the statements of my former paper respecting the cer- 

 tainty of this having been the site of an ancient Indian village, 

 and probably of that mentioned by Cartier under the name of 

 Hochelaga. These conclusions are indeed strengthened by the 

 observations more recentlv made. 



The space in which the remains occur extends from Mansfield 

 Street to a little west of Metcalfe Street in one direction, and in 

 the other from a little south of Burnside Place to within 60 

 yards of Sherbrooke Street. In this limited area, not exceeding 

 two imperial acres, twenty skeletons have been disinterred within 

 twelve months, and the workmen state that many parts of the 

 ground excavated in former years was even more rich in such 

 remains. Hundreds of old fire places, and indications of at least 

 ten or twelve huts or lodges have also been found, and in a few 

 instances these occur over theburial places, as if one generation 

 had built its huts over the graves of another. Where habitations 

 have stood, the ground is in some places to the depth of three 

 feet, a black mass saturated with carbonaceous matter, and full of 

 bones of wild animals, charcoal, pottery, and remains of imple- 

 ments of stone or bone. Farther, in such places the black soil 

 is laminated, as if deposited in successive layers on the more 

 depressed parts of the surface. The length of time during which the 

 site was occupied, is also indicated by the very different states of 

 preservation of the bones and bone implements; some of those 

 in the deeper parts of the deposit being apparently much older 

 than those nearer the surface. Similar testimony is aftorded by 

 the great quantity and various patterns of the pottery, as well as 

 by the abundance of the remains of animals used as food, 

 throuo-hout the area above mentioned. 



All these indications point to a long residence of the abori- 

 gines on this spot, while the almost entire absence of articles of 

 European manufacture in the undisturbed portions of the ground, 

 implies a date coeval with the discovery of the country. The 

 few objects of this kind found in circumstances which prevented 

 the supposition of mere superficial intermixture, are just sufficient 

 to shew that the village existed until the appearance of Europeans 

 on the stage. Other facts bearing on these points will appear in 



