318 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



with the crowded population, explains why that district is the richest 

 archaeological field in Canada, and is one of the richest in all America, 

 north of the Mexican boundary. 



The HiiTons also were fishermen, — the deeply indented inlets of 

 Georgian Bay and the lakes Simcoe and Couchiching affording a plen- 

 tiful supply of fish. At " The I^arrows " near Orillia might still be 

 seen a few years ago some of the stakes of the old fish weir of the 

 Hurons. It was from these fish stakes or hurdles that the old French 

 name Lac La Clie was given to Lake Simcoe. 



The Hurons also were traders for themselves and for the neighbour- 

 ing tribes. They raised the crops that we have mentioned and engaged 

 in barter. From the Neutrals they got furs, from their brethren of the 

 Tobacco Nation they got tobacco, and from the Algonquins they obtained 

 the skins of the beaver, bear, deer and moose. Having a surplus they 

 started in their birch bark canoes for Three Rivers and Quebec to 

 dispose of their packs to the French traders. The ever alert Iroquois 

 guarded the front route by lake and river, hence they were compelled to 

 take the route up the French Eiver, across Lake Nipissing and 

 down the Ottawa. The Iroquois traded with the Dutch by way of the 

 Mohawk and the Hudson. Once start a conflict between these two 

 Indian nations and then bring in two European nations competing for 

 the trade in peltries, and you have good and sufficient ground for tha 

 continuance of the fight to the bitter end. Even in this commercial 

 struggle the Neutral Indians remained neutral and we wonder why. 

 Was it) because they feared! to take out their loads of fars pa^fc thle 

 Iroquois frontier, or was it because the Hurons were skilful in the use 

 of the birch bark canoe? Probably both. The fact is, however, that 

 the Hurons were the fur traders for a large area and through their 

 annual trips to Quebec maintained a direct connection between their 

 home on Georgian Bay and the headquarters of the French at Quebec. 

 There is much in this to explain the story that follows. A people living 

 in fixed fortified towns, producing crops and engaging in trade must 

 impress one as being of a superior type, even if that type is savage. 



What of the house (or home life of the Hurons? The migratory 

 hunters of the plains and the Algonquins of the great pine and spruce 

 forests of the north lived in wigwams of skins and bark, but the fixed 

 Huron-Iroquois Nations lived in what may be described as houses or 

 cabins. Their construction was somewhat as follows: Two parallel 

 rows of tall saplings were planted in the ground, bent together at the 

 top until there was left an open space of a foot or so in width along the 

 ridge, and then lashed together so as to form a sort of arbor or booth 

 about thirty feet in width at the bottom and about twenty feet in height. 

 Other poles were tied securely to these upright poles and then the sides 



