THE MI CM ACS. 245 



though unable to find any trace of gold, pronounced it to be 

 gold-bearing quartz. The Kempt Road in the fall is worth 

 a visit by the sportsman, as partridges are very plentiful, 

 and bears are often met with feeding on the blueberries. 



The Micmacs, a branch of the great Iroquois nation, 

 are the aboriginal inhabitants of this country. When 

 Jacques Cartier visited the Baie des Chaleurs in 1634, he 

 was charmed with the friendly conduct, hospitality, and 

 politeness of these people, who says one of the party, " in 

 one of their boats came unto us, and brought us pieces of 

 seals ready sodden, putting them on pieces of wood ; then 

 retiring themselves, they would make signs unto us, that 

 they did give them to us." This tribe being an essentially 

 canoe-going people have always lived near the sea-shore, 

 their villages generally being built on the mouths of large 

 rivers. The network of lakes and rivers which intersects 

 the large tract of country drained by the Restigouche and 

 its tributaries, is peculiarly favourable to their mode of life. 

 As appears from the passage I have quoted, they were never 

 a ferocious people, though undoubtedly valiant warriors. 

 They were perhaps the most formidable of the tribes who 

 contended with the fierce Mohawk. In 1639 there was a 

 great war between the tribes, and a bloody battle was 

 fought about that time at the mouth of the Restigouche. 

 It does not need a strong effort of the imagination to picture 

 one of these combats. The season is summer, the time 

 midnight. The Micmacs are asleep in their village at the 

 Flat Lands. A hundred Mohawk canoes, each one con- 

 taining four warriors, are floating noiseless down the rapid 

 Restigouche. No splash can be heard, no paddle touches 

 the bark, and the gurgling of the stream is the only sound 

 that breaks the stillness of the night. These canoes have 



