NATURAL HISTORY, TORONTO REGION 



The early history of the Jesuit settlements in 

 Ontario, which might find a Kentuckian parallel in 

 tales of " the dark and bloody ground," lie outside 

 our subject, being dealt with by Professor A. F. 

 Chamberlain, the best authority on the Indians of this 

 region, in a special paper. The geological basis for 

 the history of Toronto has also been made the subject 

 of an article by Professor Coleman. In that article 

 it appears that from far distant ages the neighbour- 

 hood of Toronto was distinguished as the embouchure 

 of a great river from the Northland, discharging the 

 waters of the vast inland seas of that early era into a 

 lake which was much larger than the present Ontario. 

 Had this river remained to our time Toronto might 

 have been already a second Chicago. But the oldest 

 records say that the site was a well-known Indian 

 trading-post and centre of exchange, one of the most 

 popular etymologies for the name being " a place of 

 meeting," and a place of meetings Toronto has cer- 

 tainly been. Two great trails crossed here, one from 

 the north, the other from the west ; and danger and 

 honour have met more than once at the crossing.* 



The first reference to Toronto quoted by Dr. Scad- 

 ding in his delightful volume of "'Collections and 

 Recollections," is found in a Memoir on the state of 

 affairs in Canada, transmitted to France in 1686 by 

 the Governor of -the day, the Marquis de Denonville. 

 Referring to preparations for meeting a hostile ad- 



* " Send danger from the east unto the west, 

 So honour cross it from the north to south, 

 And let them grapple." Shakespeare, I Hen. IV, I: iii. 



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