PBE-HIBTOBIC KAN. 1") 



Kennebeckaris River. It is three feet ia length, and is com- 

 posed of a hard conglomerate, occurring in situ in the vicinity 



of the place where it was found. It has the aspect of a first rude 

 attempt at the execution of a sphinx or cherub, and may have been a 

 monumental stone, or the ornament of a gate, or the charm of a 

 medicine-man. It was disinterred in digging a cellar; but as to 

 its age, or whether it is the work of the Malicetes, nothing is 

 known. 



Such was the stone age of three centuries ago in Acadia ; and it 

 is instructive to bear in mind that in a country in the latitude of 

 France, this was not only the stone age, but also the age of the 

 caribou or reindeer, and moose and beaver, — animals now verging 

 toward extinction, and of no more importance to the present inhabi- 

 tants than the park deer are to those of the old world. With the 

 exception of a few of the forest-clad hilly districts, Nova Scotia is 

 now as unsuitable to the existence of the reindeer and moose as 

 France is, and yet three centuries ago these animals were the chief 

 food of its inhabitants. No material change of climate has occurred, 

 but the iron age has introduced a new race, and the forests have been 

 cleared away. 



The monuments of the stone age are few. Piles of shells of oysters 

 and other mollusks, in some parts of the coasts, mark the site of 

 former summer encampments. Numerous stone implements arc found 

 on some old battle-grounds or cemeteries, or on the sites of villages ; 

 and occasional specimens are turned up by the plough. But this 

 is nearly all ; and if the written record of the discovery and coloniza- 

 tion of the country did not prevent, we might, in so far as the 

 monumental history is concerned, believe the close of the stone age 

 to have belonged to a remote antiquity. If the Micmacs had been 

 replaced by a semi-barbarous race, not keeping written records, and 

 destroying the aborigines or incorporating them with themselves, the 

 date of the stone age would already be altogether uncertain. 



I have in my collection a curious specimen illustrative of the 

 transition from the stone to the iron period. It was found at ftferi- 

 gomish Harbour, an old place of residence of one of the eastern Micmac 

 tribes. It consists of a mass of hard ferruginous sandstone, which 

 was found at some depth in the ground, wrapped carefully in bearer 

 skins, the fur of which is still well preserved. The mass, when 

 broken, was found to be full of blades of iron knives or <\. 

 mixed with black and white beads and bugles, among which were 

 traces of basket-work or matting and a cylindrical iron awl or bodkin. 

 The iron instruments had been completely oxidised, and had furnished 



