116 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Historic Sites. 



thence northward and eastward much as indicated by the dotted 

 area on D. Thus it appears that it must originally have been of 

 considerable size, and it no doubt occupied a low knoll well above 

 the tide in the Acadian period. Moreover it is the only French burial 

 ground anywhere around the harbour, with a possible exception men- 

 tioned below, of which any record or tradition whatever remains 

 to us, another fact emphasizing its importance. Hence it was in 

 all probability here that the prominent French officials who died at 

 St John, including both La Tour and Governor Villebon, and perhaps 

 earlier Madam La Tour also, were buried. 



It is however barely possible that a French Burial-ground existed 

 also at Portland Point, though the evidence is very scanty. A note 

 in one of Moses Perley's lectures, along with his mention of the 

 French Fort at Portland Point, speaks of skeletons there — (These 

 Trans. 1891, ii, 68) 



Again in the St. John Globe of Sept. 18, 1887, there is an account 

 of the finding of nine swords and two axes in excavations made on 

 the north side of Water Street in Carleton, just below Mr. Uriah 

 Drake's house, and the suggestion is offered that this may be the 

 site of " a part at least of Charles La Tour's fort. " This location 

 however was apparently occupied by a blockhouse in 1763, as shown 

 by the important Map No. 36 later in this paper, thus affording an 

 explanation for the presence of those relics. 



The former presence of the French at Musquash is confirmed by 

 a statement by Chas. Morris in 1762, who says (Archives, 1904, 297), — 

 " Musquash Cove and a River — here lived about a dozen French fam- 

 ilies who existed chiefly by a Trade with the Indians. " 



276. The traditional old fort at Harding's Point mentioned on this page 

 is likely the same as an ancient work, which has recently been discov- 

 ered by Dr. Silas Alward of St. John at Gregorys (Hardings) Point, 

 a commanding bluff opposite the mouth of the Nerepis. Dr. Alward 

 has been kind enough to send me a description of the work, which 

 he is later to study more thoroughly. After speaking of the stra- 

 tegic position of this conspicuous bluff, which commands the Reach 

 above and the River below, he says; — On the side of the hill a short 

 distance from the shore " we came upon a finely constructed ram- 

 part of large rocks or boulders, in TSihich was not to be found a single 

 breach. It was in places four feet in height and about the same 



width on top. It evidently had been constructed with great care 



it is four hundred and fifty feet in length — it was moss covered 



it had apparently been scientifically constructed. How the large 

 boulders had been carried up the steep side of the hill excited our 



surprise. Its site is now marked by a dense growth of trees 



I made enquiry of residents of Woodman's Point and they had never 

 heard of it." It is possible that this represents some military work 

 of the Acadian Period, perhaps an accessory to help Fort Bois- 

 hébert to hold the river, or perhaps it was the battery erected in 1755 

 by Boishébert at the Narrows, as mentioned by Raymond in " The 



