RELICS OF THE STONE AGE IN NOVA SCOTIA—PIERS. 27 
LESCARBOT’S ACCOUNT OF THE MICMACS. 
Before entering upon a description of these implements, it 
may be well to consider the habits of our Indians as described 
in the writings of one of the early voyagers. This will help us 
much to understand the subject with which we deal. The first 
exact and extensive account of the Micmacs, and by far the most 
interesting, is to be obtained from the description of New France 
written by the old French advocate, Mark Lescarbot, who in 
1606 accompanied Poutrincourt to Acadie. He dwelt for some 
time at Port Royal, now known as Annapolis, which had been 
founded in the previous year by Pierre du Guast, Comte de 
Monts. From an English version* of Lesearbot’s rare book, in 
the library of the late Dr. Akins, I have made some transcripts 
which follow in the quaint language and spelling of the 
translator. These extracts will be of great interest to any who 
are studying the archeology of Nova Scotia, for Lescarbot wrote 
at the period when iron implements were only beginning to 
supplant those of stone. Dr. J. B. Gilpin has already given us 
much information gathered from this writer, but seldom in the 
latter’s language. 
Speaking of the dress of the Indians, Lescarbot says they wore 
“a skin tied to a latch or girdle of leather, which passing 
between their buttocks joineth the other end of the said latch 
behind ; and for the rest of their garments, they have a cloak on 
their backs made of many skins, whether they be of otters or of 
beavers, and one only skin, whether it be of ellan, or stag’s skin, 
bear, or lucerne, which cloak is tied upward with a leather 
ribband, and they thrust commonly one arm out; but being in 
their cabins they put it off, unless it be cold....As for the 
women, they differ only in one thing, that is, they have a girdle 
over the skin they have on; and do resemble (without compari- 
***Nova Francia: or, the Description Of that Part of New France, Which is one 
Continent with Virginia....[by Mark Lescarbot, advocate]. Translated out of the 
French into English, by P. E [rondelle].”. The Akins copy is bound separately, but it 
originally formed pp. 795-917 of the second volume of Osborne’s Collection of Voyages 
and Travels, compiled from the Curious and Valuable Library of the Earl of Oxford, 
London, 1745-47,2  1s., folio, generally called the Harleian Collection of Voyages. 
